AN: the start of a story is always the easiest part, written quite fast

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Within a few minutes, Marc reached the garage, found with mild difficulty the lamp. Before turning on the generator he checked the fuses. Once that was done, he started the generator. He went back into the house, the lights of the entry hall, living room and kitchen were on. He checked the time on the clock of the living room. It read a little past 2 am.

“The heck! I've been unconscious for more than 4 hours? Just what could have happened to knock me down like that? What were those 2 loud explosions? Was there something nearby that I wasn't aware of? Maybe there was a battle? I don't like it. I don't like it at all!!”

Marc turned of the lights, rushed back to the garage with his lamp and opened the trap door leading to the basement. He firmly locked it and went to a certain cabinet at a corner of the room. Inside, there were 3 firearms. A pump action shotgun made by Benelli, a french semi-automatic rifle from the previous century, and a beretta 92. All with a fair bit of ammnutions.

“... I'm still wondering how uncle got all of that... Not that I mind, in fact I'm thankful.”

When Marc discovered these weapons, he took them out with their manuals, and tried them. Shooting a gun for the first time was an exciting experience. Also a painful one. He hurt his shoulder with the shotgun and his wrist with the pistol. He would shoot only a few rounds once per month. The ammos were limited, and he didn't have any kind of license to by some. He definitly didn't want to get involved with black market.

He took the shotgun and the revolver, and left the rifle. He put some amnutions in a small bag made for it. Marc was familiar enough with the area around his house. He couldn't think of anything there that could make such loud explosive noise, so he though something or someone must have come with something powerful, or something dangerous was uncovered by the earthquake. Worse, it couldn't have been that far from his place.

“... I hope I'm worrying over nothing... Wait, maybe it was the mysterious thing that made me strong that blew up or something? … Now I'm really curious...”

As he though of that, Marc remembered the weird haze he had noticed when he woke up. He realised that it was still visible. In fact, there seemed to be more of it in the basement than in the kitchen.

“... Maybe I should have a quick look outside? … I've got weapons anyway, and I know how to use them... I think I'll take the machete a well.”

And he did as he said. After readying himself, with the machete, the shotgun in hand and the hand gun at his waist, he left the house by the front door. He almost fell to the ground as he got a good view of the outside.

“Holy hell... Just what the fuck is this?”

In the starry sky, there were 2 moons instead of the regular one. First, the regular one should be in its crescent phase. Second, the regular one was neither light pink nor light cyan. And most importantly, the second moon in the sky was big, 3 times bigger than his little sister. Also, unlike his sister, there were no craters visible. The surface was incredibly smooth, it looked like it would feel good to touch it.

“... No no. No, no, no! Nope! It can't be happening. It. Can't. Be. Happening... Ouch!” he said after pinching his cheek. “... Pain... Let's try again. Ouch! Aww!! Cough!!”

He pinched himself a second time with enough strenght to draw blood. Then he slapped his other cheek. Then he punched himself in the gut. Always with the same result. Pain.

“ … Ok... Shit... It isn't a dream... This sin't a dream” he repeated himself, as his heartbeat and breathing rhythm increased and his vision grew dim.

Then he threw up. Once. Twice. And then a third time again. He choked a bit, and his breathing went back to normal. Almost. As his vision cleared, he realised that there was more of the weird glowing thin mist outside of the house. And then he got a good look at his surroundings. There used to be a lot of trees around his property, but now it was uncomparable.

There was a dense forest surrounding his property on all sides. And toward what should be the east, there was an imposing mountain range with sharp pics. Then he noticed another peculiar thing about the weird mist in the air.

“... It isn't moving with the wind... Instead, it's... It's revolving? Revolving around my house? Just what is that thing? I hope it's not dangerous, it's everywhere after all. If it's dangerous then I'm screwed... Wait, even if it wasn't, aren't I already in danger? I'm in another in the middle of an fuckin intimidating forest. Isn't that what the japs call a flag?”

He started to have cold sweat, and hurried back in the house. Or at least he tried to, when a loud roar resounded in the area. Marc froze where he was. Only his head moved, turning toward the direction where the roar came from. In the night sky, what could only be called a dragon was moving at a quick pace straight toward him. Marc almost had a cardiac arrest, and almost lost control of his bladder.

Once it got close, the dragon finally noticed him. It hovered in place for a little while, its eyes staring straight at Marc. Marc was also starring back at the dragon. He was firmly gripping the shotgun, which started to dimly glow without him noticing. He also didn't realise that the weird glowing mist was gathering around him.

The dragon, on the other hand, jerked back in surprise, then dived toward Marc. Marc didn't have much time to think about what to do. He aimed the shotgun at the big lizard that was reducing the distance with him at an alarming rate, and opened fire.

The shotgun glowed brighter, as several miniature shooting stars sped toward the dragon. It didn't have time to react. Each of the miniature shooting stars exploded on its head, neck, torso and wings. The detonation surprised Marc, and he unconsciously jumped back, staying in the air several seconds before landing heavily on the ground, but still on his 2 feet.

The dragon was instantly stopped by the power of the attack. The explosions destroyed its scales where it was hit, and it was bleeding a lot. It then fell straight to the ground and trashed in pain, growling and groaning. Marc, on the other hand, went from scared to confused and dumbfounded. He was starring at his glowing shotgun... And his faintly glowing arm.

“... Did I just do that?”

He was familiar with enough fictional works to understand that he had charged his shotgun with a strange power, and this strange power raised the power of the shot and the amnutions several folds. He also realised that his physical ability reached new height, as he had jumped back more than 15m without momentum.

“... Everything is tied to the weird mist” he said, as he noticed the increase in its concentration around him. “This weird thing had been leaking from this world to Earth, right where the house was. And it must be that weird thing that transported my house here. It's also that weird thing that had strenghtened me back then, and also helped my uncle survive longer... And with a dragon here, I guess this weird mist is in fact mana particles...”

Now that he had a good idea about what had happened, and about his own ability, Marc had regained his confidence. He walked toward the wounded dragon that was still recovering from the attack. It sensed his approach and looked at him. Marc could see the fear in its eyes. The dragon was afraid of him, and made a lot of efforts to distance itself from him.

“In fantasy games, dragon's part are very usefull, and worth a lot of money.”

Marc's mindset turned from that of a prey to that of a hunter. And the dragon felt that it turned from a predator to a prey.

“You dared to attack me on my own home? What if you had damaged the house, you big bastard.”

Finally, his anger from being attacked surfaced. Because some people had caused trouble for him in the past, Marc would easily get angry at people who disturbed his life style. A dragon attacking him was definitly an irritating event. He didn't realise it, but because of the change in his body, he was releasing an incredible pressure, a pressure only the strongests creatures could release. And it increased with each steps he took toward the frightened dragon.

“You can only blame yourself for your predicament” he said as he aimed his shotgun at the dragon. “Die.”

The shotgun glowed, an the deadly miniatures shooting stars were released once more.

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AN: ---