‘Stop’

Sam brings his sword out, a light shimmer approaches him from the creature’s body.

*ROAR*

It roars out and swipes at him.

‘Devour!’

Sam dodges backwards and points at the creature, he’s not its match.

The panther’s body disappears into nothing, a burst of dust appears where it once was before that too disappears. The light, illusory figure disappears once the panther disappears.

“Damnit. I wanted to avoid using this too much, but the situation is just too dangerous. Fuck, this worm better not get too strong as I bet these things are filled with energy.”

The ancient devourer beast will gain power each time it’s fed and Sam has to reach stage 2 before it does, yet he has no information on when it will change.

Sam stands up and looks around, he has a moment of respite allowing him to see if there’s anyone around.

Looking through the trees, Sam is able to spot a soldier wearing an emblem under attack by two creatures. One creature is circling the soldier while the other is attacking. The soldier wearing full plate armour can hold off the creature yet he’s visibly wounded.

Sam runs over there and looks around, there’s not much to use but he can do something. He grabs a log and some branches before placing some knives in the usual spot. He then hides himself so that he can watch what happens.

‘Stop Stop’

Everything comes into motion, the man is holding his sword out, intercepting a panther’s swipe when the animal suddenly finds its feet amongst a bunch of debris. That’s not all, as both of them cough up blood.

The man doesn’t waste the chance as he strikes out at the creature that is distracted, his sword pierces through the creature's neck causing it to bleed heavily as it retreats.

The one that was circling around has recovered its steps, but it has turned and retreated.

Sam only has a single chance at this, the beast is distracted and wounded already.

He positions himself along the creature's path.

It approaches his position, unaware of him.

Sam pulls out a dagger, he’ll only have one chance.

The creature is only a few steps away; he settles his mind.

The creature is only a single step away.

Sam leaps out from the bushes, he immediately stabs down.

The panther takes a swipe at him, Sam takes the hit on his leg as he clings onto the creature.

It’s a desperate struggle as his hand gets slippery from all the blood, the creature is squirming trying to get him off but it’s unable to reach him and with Sam pressing the dagger into its throat it’s in a panic.

Sam holds back the pain as he holds steady, he’s had many experiences over the last few years and this is nothing. The beast tosses and turns, it’s back foot catches onto his clothing and digs into his flesh.

*RIIP*

Sam hisses in pain, but after a few more kicks like that, the panther stops moving.

Sam twists the dagger a few times before pulling it out.

*SHHING*

A weird sound comes from his neck, it’s loud and alerts everyone in the surroundings to his presence.

Sam stands up to walk away, but he hears a voice not too far away, “HEY!”, he turns around and faces the voice. It’s the man that he just helped. He was hoping to meet him later.

“Hi” Sam waves at the person walking up to him, their full plate armour disguising their appearance but their voice is clear.

“Were you dropped off by the transport craft? I was told that they were being dropped off at the central gathering point. This is the eastern reaches…” A deep male voice, he sounds about mid 20s, he stops by Sam and looks at the beast.

“So you know about it? What was it about? I was kinda just shoved around...”

The man turns to look at Sam, “Did you kill this? Did you do that stuff to help me?,” he says, standing before the dead bodies.

Sam scratches his neck, “I need directions,” he points to his neck, “I have little choice.”

“Ah. I don’t have authorisation for that. You’ll need someone that’s an officer.”

“Yeah, about that…”

“True. It’s a bit hard to find an officer out here.”

The two of them stand in silence as the sounds of a vicious battlefield surround them.

“Is there a secondary defence point? Somewhere to retreat to after this line collapses?”

“No. This operation was just to assault the super-lair. Each individual commander was left at their own discretion, I heard the operation was planned by someone new but they do not share much information with us.”

“That’s stupid. Why would they invest such huge numbers into something so stupid?”

“The cause is worthy, I just believe the commanders over-estimated their capabilities and under-estimated the enemy's. This is a super-lair that has repelled several attacks already, it has become a matter of pride for some commanders to take it out.”

Sam reaches down and applies some healing items onto his wounds, they heal at a visible rate, “Well don’t you have some way to contact someone up the chain? Can’t you find out where they’re gathering? You can’t just be out here alone.”

“Well…”

“What?”

“I’m separated from my squad, we’re here from the southern sectors. I have been trying to find them. You are the first person I have seen… alive, for some time.”

“Don’t you have some way to find them?”

“No.”

“What? That’s beyond idiotic, who the hell deployed you with something like that?”

“This operation was rather rushed, they needed to fill out the numbers. My platoon was in the area and reassigned instead of returning home.”

“Well, thanks for the information. I’m going to go towards the bright light in the sky and work out what’s going on.”

The person in armour angles their body upward and looks at it, a bright orange glare in the sky far in the distance. They awkwardly angle back towards who is just about ready to leave this person behind.

“I’ll join with you for now…”

“No thanks, I was managing fine by myself.”

Sam walks away, but the person walks after him, “You won’t be treated well by other people, with that collar. You should stick with me.”

Sam pauses as the man in armour catches up, “Do you know how to remove it?”

“I don’t know, but someone in my squad could probably use their ability to take it off. They’ve helped with something similar in the past. Slave trading is a big thing that we have to resolve.”

“Ok well just uhh, I hope you don’t slow me down. What’s your name? I’m Sam.”

“Hanzel.”

Sam raises an eyebrow at the name, “So Hanzel do you have a monster?”

“I do…”

The two of them talk to get a baseline idea of the others’ abilities, Sam doesn’t have much to note apart from his secret ability while Hanzel has a stone creature. A large rock armoured, armadillo looking creature with large claws.

It provides him with an increase in defence, but that’s about it. The creature itself can’t use its claws for anything useful until it reaches a later stage and survival comes first, resulting in a creature that does well on soft ground yet terrible everywhere else.

The two’s journey is relatively safe, only a few creatures actually come across their path where Sam can dispatch them early or the two of them join to take down larger things if he’s unable to finish it solo.

Either way, there is little effort involved as they do not come across any powerful creatures. Oddly enough, only the weaker creatures stage 1 and below have appeared since that initial wave, nor has anyone used their beast.

Sam wants to ask about it when Hanzel pauses his feet.

“What?” Sam asks.

“I’m receiving a notification from the central command.”

“You have spent the last… couple hours saying you have no contact with anything. What’s with the sudden change? What sort of contact?”

“It’s a point not too far from here. I think… it’s actually the way we’re going.”

“You don’t know?”

“The information is coming in fragments and the signal isn’t very good. It might come in later…”

“How far away?”

“About 8 kilometres?”

Sam takes a deep breath, “Alright. They’ll be able to help with the collar?”

“Yes.”

“Ok. Let’s go.”

A silent journey occurs as the two of them hurry along the path they have already laid out, the beasts don’t let up yet their levels remain the same. Hanzel has seemingly let Sam take control of the two of them, he refers to Sam’s command when they encounter beasts.

The two of them quietly approach a clearing, large metal buildings stand tall on the plains surrounded by a large group of people holding out shields and blocking strikes, yet there’s also a strange glimmer around the encampment.

Sam can feel something strange about the area but Hanzel is holding his weapon wanting to charge forward. Sam holds him back with a slight struggle.

“Settle down, we don’t know the situation.”

“I can recognise the squad, we need to ensure their safety.”

“Relax, they're fine. Look, they’re holding out ok for now, you will not help anyone by rushing out there.”

Hanzel takes a swipe at Sam, he dodges it, allowing the armoured man to rush into the crowd of beasts.

“I’m here to help!” Hanzel yells as he rushes in.

Sam is stunned at this display of stupidity.

Many beasts have noticed the intruder, they’re now pouncing towards him, baring their fangs and claws.

Hanzel pulls out his sword and intercepts many of them, but finds himself quickly overrun. His armour able to withstand the blows. Sam hides himself within the bushes ensuring that he won't be seen or associated with the armoured idiotic man.

The people on the other side seemingly aware of Hanzel have redirected their weapons in this direction, many arrows and ranged shots fly in his direction luckily all missing him yet also missing most of the animals.

Sam doesn’t stop watching the scene unfolding, but many of the arrows are landing near him, many of them that are on fire.

A small blaze starts in the bushes near Sam, he notices the smoke but so do other beasts as two of them approach where he is.

Sam’s eyes go wide as he can hear the beasts get closer, he can smell them yet he cannot spot them through the thick brush.

His heartbeat quickens, but that must be like a signal to the animals, *ROOOAR*, comes from several of them.

A large figure pounces through the brush, it’s only metres from him.

Sam is about to yell ‘stop’ when a large object from the distance slams into the creature, it slams into the second one and impales them both on a tree. He’s left stunned, but a shout from the distance breaks him out of his stupor.

“IDIOT, RUN!”

Sam isn’t sure who spoke, but he knows that he only has this chance to run. All the beasts are aware of him now as he stands exposed by the two impaled creatures. His feet are running, yet the beasts snap out of it and chase after him.

Over 10 beasts, large cats and wolves are chasing him while many more pigs are following those creating a large chain that begins with Sam.

He runs towards the group of people standing before him, passing by Hanzel who notices him.

*BAAANG*

Hanzel’s armoured body glows brightly for a moment before exploding all the creatures that are gnawing at it. He catches up with Sam as the two now run away together from the huge crowd of beasts chasing them.

Ranged projectile weapons fly by the two of them as the group of people hold their line, yet a gap in the shield wall has been made to allow the two of them through.

They rush through the gap just before the beasts catch up to them.

*BOOM*

A large amount of light fills the area as the group of beasts contacts the shield wall.

*BANG*

*BANG*

The beasts don’t let up as more of them pounce at the shield wall, bounced off each time through a display of shield expertise and a strange barrier that is floating in the atmosphere, Sam looks in marvel at the effects going on.

*BOOOOOM* *RUMBLE* *CRACK*

A small section of shield-bearers are blown backwards yet their line holds as they return, Sam looks up at the barrier in the sky and spots that it has cracked.

Squealing, screeching, roars and gurgling is sound as hundreds of creatures are sliced down, mostly wild pigs or boars that are huge in number yet small in size.

“AHHH!”

A group of sword-wielding soldiers yells next to Sam, he looks at them wearing similar armour to Hanzel and has an idea of what they’re about to do.

The shield-bearers create a gap, allowing the swordsmen to run out, their swords dancing through the air and slaughtering all these animals with ease.

Sam is given a moment to catch his breath before someone walks up to him and Hanzel, someone wearing a suit of armour like Hanzel, but Sam spots an undeniable golden stripe around the arm. They’re flanked by two other people that lack the golden stripes.

“Hanzel. You’ve decided to show up again… and with this… person.”

A middle-aged man’s voice comes out and instantly Sam doesn’t have a good impression of him, he’s clearly relying on his status to demand authority rather than earning it himself. He doesn’t even look at Sam while acting with disgust when referring to Sam as a person.

“Sir, I came across this soldier when trying to find this unit. He assisted me in several life and death situations. I would like to request he join our unit until he’s able to make contact with some of the other forces. Sir.”

“Are you making a request of me?”

Hanzel takes a half step back upon hearing the man’s tone, “Sir, no, sir. I am only thinking about what’s best for the unit, an extra hand from someone able to survive in this landscape will only be a benefit to our overall capabilities. Sir.”

“Do you see that thing around his neck? We have no access to it, that means that we cannot control him and he does not need us. He has done something to be in that position and I’m not prepared to risk our lives.”

“Sir, I strongly feel that it would be best if we allow him to join our unit until we make contact with the other forces.”

“Are you disrespecting my authority?”

“No sir, I just feel strongly enough on this subject to speak out.”

The creatures are quickly dying and thinning out, the sounds of the clashing against the shields has stopped allowing everyone to hear this conversation quite clearly. Sam cannot tell what everyone is thinking because of their armour, but no one is speaking up.

“You do not know what’s best for this unit, I am in charge of this unit and I will be the one that decides everything for it. You cannot possibly know the background of this individual, if you are willing to risk the lives of everyone here, then just say it.”

“Sir… I…” Hanzel stammers his speech.

The golden-striped man calls out a sword, it’s very quick before it’s placed before Hanzel’s face plate and rests there.

Sam smirks at the weapon, it’s a great sword.

“You were once declared missing. We do not know what happened to you. Hanzel Depompf, I suspect you might have been replaced by a spy or are under mind control effects. I will now hand down the justice as decreed by the authority granted to me by the high council.”

The golden-striped man pulls back his sword and swings it down,