As the claw was yanked back it also took the roof of the carriage off with it, the two ladies across from Lucas screamed and fear and covered their heads as bits of wood and metal flew through the air. Surprisingly, the carriage wobbled but neither stopped nor collapsed.

Without the roof, Lucas caught a glimpse of a horrible monster standing nearly six meters (20ft) tall. It appeared to him as some kind of horrible cross between a praying mantis and a shark, with two appendages ending in spikes like a mantis but the head and rows of teeth like a shark. The carriage sped away, leaving the ferocious monster behind them.

Lucas blood was now forming a puddle on the floor, and judging by the pain the claw had shattered a bone or two in his shoulder. But he couldn’t do anything about it with his hands bound behind him.

“One of you get something to cover this!” He shouted, even as he tried to remind himself to calm down. The more scared he became, the more his heart would beat and the faster he would bleed out. In many respects, Lucas felt it was happening to someone else, as if he was separated from his body and just watching it from the side. What a curious phenomena, he thought to himself, it certainly made it easier to control himself but probably also meant he had been so badly injured he was approaching a state of shock.

“But we don’t have any-” The one called Versi began to stutter, clearly terrified by the scene in front of her.

“For fucks sake,” Lucas had never really been the most polite person, and right now there wasn’t time. “Tear the hem off your dress and press it into the wound firmly. Do it now!”

His sudden order broke through her hesitation, and Versi stumbled towards him and managed to rip a piece off the bottom of her dress. Realizing that Lucas had two holes in his body, Terrasin helped lift him up to do the same for his back.

“Shit.” Lucas swore as he felt the sting. He wasn’t a medical expert, but as a geneticist and biologist he had a broad understanding of how living organisms functioned. Properly treated, he could probably survive this, but if Lucas accepted this world as real it would mean he had somehow been transported to a world with pre-industrial technology. Granted that could mean anything from villages with mud huts and grass roofs to something like the Roman Empire, but it was doubtful they had any real medical care.

“Milady, are you alright?” It seemed the carriage driver was shouting back to them.

“The Hero has been injured,” Terrasin shouted back over the wind, “How long until we reach the camp?”

“I can see the banners,” the reply was tinged with relief. “We should be there soon!”

“We have a surgeon back at camp,” Versi said reassuringly. “Just please hold on, Lord Hero.”

Frankly, Lucas would not trust a surgeon from a world with this level of technology even if they were trying to save his life, he’d probably just end up dying an in even more horrible way from infection. But he ignored that for now, Lucas would just direct his treatment himself. He was a certified first responder, or at least he was for several years until he decided not to keep up the training for it… Too late for regret, he supposed.

“Why do you keep calling me ‘Hero?’” He asked instead. “And how did I even get here?”

Where this was could wait until after he wasn’t bleeding out, but Lucas felt he had to have the answer to those two questions.

Terrasin answered immediately, clearly wanting to answer these two questions.

“We summoned you to this world with the Millennial Summoning ritual,” she spoke earnestly, and the expression made her already pretty face seem to shine. “As you are the Summoned Hero who will save this world from demons.”

Lucas just started laughing, not a good thing to do with broken bones and blood soaking into the expensive pieces of fabric the two ladies were using to staunch his bleeding. But really, how else could he respond to something so ludicrous?