Day 1

Ethan walked through the first floor like a clown that sneezed fireballs. It felt as if every room held a goblin laying in wait. A scavenger picking up pieces of a corpse, they seemed to be tearing this place apart and building things. His first major surprise happened when he opened a door and got a baseball bat to the face.

It hit him like...well a baseball bat to the face. His ears rang, and his vision spun as the world shifted under his feet. Ethan may have ironlike skin, but his brain wasn’t protected at all. As his vision flickered his head screamed in pain, and so did he. He stumbled and reached for a wall as he was hit again! This blow sent him staggering once again, unable to see his attacker and hardly able to think his body did the one thing it could do to survive.

It released all the power of the Sun’s Heart at once. The entire lobby roared with flames in a split second, the red flames leapt up at Ethan and he knew he had to get out. He stumbled and dragged himself to the door, his ears ringing and vision still swimming. He turned back to look at the building. His body felt cold...so terribly cold as if he had a thin layer of ice all over his body. The first floor was on fire, and it was beginning to creep up the sides. He could see goblins running around inside.

A few even broke windows and jumped down. They broke their tiny legs on the asphalt and laid there, tears and broken sobs echoing in the crackling flames. Still more attempted to simply run through it, their screams of agony only made Ethan clutch his head in pain. He was getting better though, it was miraculous that he could even stand right now, those two blows to the head would’ve likely killed him without Regeneration. As he slowly stood and looked on as the flames climbed higher up the building. When they nearly reached the top he saw a figure standing on the edge.

It looked like a goblin from down on the street, and when it jumped Ethan thought it was going to splat onto the pavement like an egg. It didn’t. It landed like an anvil. Asphalt cracked and the dust it kicked up was like a smokescreen. The dust wasn’t even cleared yet as he turned to run, anything that could make that big of a jump and land like that was big trouble. A good thing he started running too, because the next second a sword sliced through the area where he had been not a second later. The cloud actually dispersed with the strike, revealing a much much larger version of a goblin.

It stood at close to six feet, and wore metal boots that glowed with bright blue runes, a leather cuirass wrapped around its chest, and what looked like pants around its legs. Its skin was still a putrid shade of green, with sores on its head that oozed green blood onto the ground steadily. It held a sword loosely by its side as if it hadn’t just jumped off a ten story building. It looked at him and grinned.

“I did not expect a human to come for us so soon. Was that you who killed the first of our tribe to come through?” It spoke, nearly scaring Ethan to death, its mouth was full of fangs. As if it was never meant to make human sounds...and yet it did. “We received several demerits for that, you will pay for it with your blood.” It grinned, eyes twinkling in the midday sun. “You use mana no? Where are your contraptions wizard?” It sneered and spat on the ground. “I am Gorbnap the First Commander, and you will die this day.” It said and shot forwards towards Ethan like a cannonball.

The only thing that saved his life that day was knowing which hand held the sword. As he rolled to the left to avoid the charge and the slash. Coming up on his feet he saw it twist and suddenly a line of firey pain erupted across his forearm. Blood dripped down onto the asphalt as the goblin commander stared at him. “You...you have no constructs or wands.” it said and tilted its head to the side. “Why do you not...ah the Fire of the Red Sea.” it nodded and looked at his arm. “You are no wizard. I respect that but you still die here.” and with that surged forwards again.

This time Ethan was ready, and punched with all his strength at where we thought Gorbnap was coming from. Only to miss as another burning line of pain drew itself across his chest. His breath hitched, as the pain wracked his body. Ethan looked down at the dusty asphalt. This was it, death by some unknown invader from across the universe. He looked up at his opponent. Standing tall against the background of the still burning building it laughed.

“You have nothing left do you?” it walked forwards slowly. “Do you hear that?” it asked, looking back at the building. “That is my people you tortured, burning alive in that wretched building or falling to their death.”

Ethan fell to his knees, and looked up at the approaching goblin. It’s sword rested on its shoulders. The shadow of death fell over his kneeling body. He would’ve liked to say that he didn’t flinch, that he stared up into it unafraid. That would be a lie. He was terrified, nothing in his life had ever prepared him for this moment.

When the sword whistled through the air, he attempted one last desperate roll, might buy him enough time. He could feel regeneration working overtime on his Sun’s Heart, his other wounds still bleeding was proof of this in his mind.

The slash hit his leg as he rolled to the side, a scream ripped its way out of his lungs and into the hot air. Wait, there was already fire here. Fire he had created with the Sun’s Heart only minutes ago. He began to crawl desperately for the burning building.

The goblin grumbled but did not swing again. Instead Ethan felt his hair being grabbed by strong fingers. He screamed again as he was dragged over to the building. “Look at what you did human” Gorbnap said and thrust his face closer, to see the broken bodies on the ground and the charred bones inside the building. “You did this, you killed my people.” it said with a crack in its voice.

Ethan reached out for the flames, calling to them with everything he had. Nothing. He couldn’t draw them in, or control them. He was dead. At least he would never have to look into the blade as it cut through his entire body. He felt the grip on his hair loosen as he was dropped to the ground. As he hit the ground he felt it. A tiny spark inside his chest. That spark grew slowly, even as he could hear the blade being drawn back to strike he had to try.

He spun around and saw the goblin reared back to execute him. He raised his hand and pushed at that little spark with everything he had. Ethans eyes saw only a flash of white light, and then pain. Intense pain wracked his body as if lightning coursed through his veins. Screams, someone was screaming. He blinked his eyes rapidly to clear his vision.

When his eyes cleared he saw the bright words of the relay.

Congratulations! You are the first person on Earth to be afflicted with Mana Burn, we recommend not using any mana based organic tech or runic tech anytime soon!

Congratulations you are now level 3! You are the fiftieth person on Earth to kill an Invader Commander! You have 5,000 contribution points and the title “Talented” please get to a Safe Zone to hear more about your rewards!

When the words cleared from his vision he saw the goblin commanders' charred body. It looked as if his arm had been blown off. The sword was nowhere in sight and he really had to get out of here. The other monsters that roamed the city might be drawn to this battle. With that final thought he crawled across the street, and into an alleyway. All he had to do was get back to the safe zone. Easy.