The creature hovered in the air flapping its giant wings. The green eyed girl pressed down against me keeping me from breathing. The thing in the air was watching something move. It’s mouth opened and it grinned a smile of long pointed teeth. The thing it was watching crawled over my hand.

The creature in the air dived down and grabbed the rat.

It held the rat above its mouth by the back of its tail.

The rat stopped squirming and the demon dropped it into its mouth.

It bent over top of us. It’s drool dripping from its mouth was causing the ground by my ear to sizzle.

It started to heave like a cat coughing up a hair ball. I wanted to puke.

It spat out what a rat would look like if it had lost all of its fur, been dyed black, then grew to be the size of a full grown German Shepard.

The rat thing ran away into the darkness. The thing on top of me let out a shrill of a scream then took off into the air and out of sight.

“Clear.” The red head called out from a corner.

“Karen if he is alive grab him and let’s go!” The guy sounded panicked.

The girl got off me and let out a faint smile.

She pulled me up to my feet. There were corpses all around us. We were standing on what used to be a baseball field . What I thought was a corner where the redhead was turned out to be a dugout. The guy was up in the stands behind home plate.

“Fucking noob doesn’t even collect his loot.” He kicked the head of a dead goblin in the stands while muttering.

The redhead caught up with us. “Ignore him, this amount of goblins would have him pissing and crying for his meema”

I didn’t remember her being like this. I looked at her funny. Even the green eyed girl was different. I couldn’t place why but things felt wrong.

The green eyed girl dragged me while the red haired girl brought out a pole that was bigger then her and set the end on fire.

The corridor was pretty straight and I was feeling lost.

Why are we in such a rush, what was that creature, where are we going.

I stopped running as soon as we got outside. The city was in ruins, apartment buildings were leaning against each other, the sky was constantly rippling with colours,

“What the actual fuck is going on?”

The red head ran back to me. “Come with me if you want to live!” Her Arnold impersonation sucked. “No really come we will explain when we get to the others.”

“Also pull out a weapon, even the mighty goblin slayer needs a weapon.” The guy was mad at me for some reason.

I pulled out my phone, the only thing that resembled a weapon was a broken dagger. I pulled it from my inventory. The blade was shattered but the hilt still looked strong.

“Useless.” I kinda agreed but it was the only thing I had. Anything else resembling a weapon would of been under my bed hidden from my land lord.

The green eyed girl pulled out her phone them handed me something I recognized.

“Hey those are my karambits!” They were karambits in name only. The blade was longer then my forearm but the grip was still right for it.

The only problem was this was a metallic cosplay item. There was no tang to the blade at all.

I felt the blade. I hade used these blades for years, but now with the weapon mastery skill they felt like they were an extension of my body.

“If you are done dancing we have to go.” The red head and the blonde were watching me with wide eyes. The guy was still trying to rush us along.

I never got around to making proper sheaths for my karambits so I just held them in my hands with the ring around my index fingers and the actual blade pressed against the inside of my arms.

The broken dagger faded in a glow as it fell back into my inventory. I couldn’t stand the thought of throwing it away.

They sprinted through the parking lot. My legs must of been longer, I jogged and kept pace with the red head.

They were out of breath before we reached the end of the parking lot. They were all trying to keep focus on everything around them at once. I shook my head. Had they never seen that ninja anime where they explained proper squad focus?

I started to play while following them changing my running style like I was still in a game world.

Ninja style was my favourite.

The redhead glanced over at me, she smiled and rolled her eyes.

I smiled back. She shook her head and looked away.

“You know the world has ended right?” We were in an alleyway catching our breath when the redhead scolded me.

“Meh.” I shrugged.

The guy slammed my back against the wall behind me. “What the fuck is your problem! That demon could of killed us all with just a thought, sure you might be the goblin slayer but the rest of us are scared shitless every waking second! You see that leaning building!” The guy was spitting in my face while yelling. I followed his finger to the building. “An ogre did that just by leaning on it!”

He backed off and sat on his heals pulling on his hair.

I glanced at the green eyed girl. She seemed amused with the whole situation. “You really are no different then the stories.”

I shrugged, I didn’t know what she heard about me or from whom she heard it from.

“So where are we going?” I was getting bored of standing around.

“We would of been long out of town if they didn’t all insist on finding you first.” The guy was grumbling. “Kevin this, Kevin that, for four fucken days,”

The girls pursed their lips and started walking. This was more my pace. There were more places to hide due to the buildings being closer together.

We were heading towards an area of town that I knew well. I felt my pocket, I had keys to almost every shop down this road. The Mart might of been my actual job, but Mr. Chen lived above his store so he lent me out to other places when they were short staffed.

I stopped and pulled out my keys in front of the craft store.

“What are you doing?” This guy was getting on my nerves.

The girls followed me inside as I went over to the mannequin in the back corner.

There stood my favourite cosplay outfit. Most of it was made of foam but the boots, and weapon sheaths were real leather and the clothing was comfortable to wear.

I took the whole outfit. The blonde was taking rolls of fabric and sewing stuff. The red head was hoarding all the glass and metal marbles.

I checked over the weapon harness the multiple D rings on it would allow me to adjust my scabbards or change weapons.

The guy was gone when I came outside.

I changed my old ripped sneakers for the leather boots then put on the harness.

I sighed when I had seen all the empty throwing dagger sheaths on my chest.

“It just looks like its funny looking suspenders without any weapons.” I was grumbling towards my self as I did up all the buckles on the harness and boots.

"I think the boots at least look cool." The redhead was standing beside me. I didn't know when she came beside me.

"Thanks, I think." She was looking at me like I was some hard question on an exam.

"I have to know," She paused, like she was trying to find the right words to ask a question with out it sounding stupid or condescending. "Why does Stormshadow say to put our faith in you?"

I looked back at her, How did she know Tyler? "What do you mean?"

"Well, He said that if one person would find a way to go through this it would be you." She was rubbing her hands together nervously like she was meeting her idol for the first time. "He made you sound like you are a god, the lone drop of dish soap in a sea of oil, the one true hero he has ever met."

"I met Tyler in a video game." I raised my eyebrow. "The only times we have ever met in person was for cons that we were invited to."

"Still the stories he sent us." She was looking up into my eyes. "Are they true?"

"Like what?" The blonde was leaving the store after finishing collecting all of her fabrics.

"Well, how about the one with the little girl at the bar." She looked at Karen for confirmation as to if it was the right one. "Where the Seven heroes were formed?"

"Seven Heroes?" This was the first I have ever heard this name, Sure I was dragged into a guild by Tyler but I have never heard us be called heroes before. "Are you talking about the day I joined Tyler's guild?"

"Is he the Ice Mage?" I nodded towards the blonde, "Then yes that is the story we need to hear right now."

"OK, so what part do you want me to start off at?"

"The girl, she ran into the tavern and was screaming for help." The two girls looked at each other before the redhead continued. "I think its best to start with there."

"The girl who was trying to take advantage of guys and lead them into a trap. If you heard it from Tyler he probably was going off about how the girl was crying because she had all her stuff taken from her. How the so called bandits used her and abused her. How one man in the bar made the girl go quiet and then how he and his friends ended up chasing after and found all the bandits dead when they got there."

"That is the just of it." The blonde nodded.

"That is utter bullshit." I stood up and looked at the rift in the sky. "What happened was the girl who was crying wolf heard me say something, what she intended to do failed. I had seen her act before in a different tavern and followed the ones that went with her to the bandit camp. The player killers over there activated a trap that made it so that you couldn't warp away from the area, I was on my alt character at the time trying out a different build. The words I said to her to make her shut up was just my characters name and the promise I gave to her as that character died."

"It was just a game tho, why would you care so much?"

"When our characters died in game that was it for them. You needed to start a new character, the only thing you kept was your characters bank." My eyes closed as I remembered the death. "I warned them all that if I had found them doing the same thing again I would be back and not one of them would live to tell the tale. So I just happened to be in the Tavern on my main character at the time that she came in. I placed a spare cloak on her that was too heavy for her character to move in and that she wouldn't be able to take off. When the bandits saw me coming they activated their trap thinking that she was bringing in another whole tavern of people."

My words stopped. I could still picture the battle in my mind, the three thousand man bandit army and the game master who tried to ban my account.

"The battle was one that I couldn't loose. My character was almost like a cheat in the system, I used every method I could to make my character seam like he was everywhere at once. The first hundred to attack me didn't even see my attack. the last thousand of them were too busy trying to save them selves. Then the message came across my screen that my character was under suspicion of hacking and I was locked in place unable to move from the spot. The leader of the bandit group was a game administrator. He was locking my character in place so that the remaining people could finish me off."

It was starting to rain, I couldn't see where the rain was coming from as the rifts were lower then the cloud level and blocked the sky out completely.

"I contacted the game company and had them look into the issue while I was on the phone with them. the group was attacking my character at once. I couldn't do anything while I watched my health fall. The admin that I was on the phone with was now looking at my character along with the boss of the bandits. He asked me if he wanted him to move my character to a safe zone while he does the inspection. I just told him to release my character from being frozen and record the footage as proof of me not cheating. The world slowed down for me the second he said that he was recording. The remaining thousand people who were attacking me stopped as soon as I changed weapons." I held the weapon that the blonde gave me in my hand.

"With just two blades I danced around them all ending my dance with my blade against their leaders throat. You can't kill a game administrator."

"The dance is where the other six heroes came in right?"

"We are not heroes, I don't know why you keep calling us that."

The guy was standing on the edge of the sign of the mart up at Mr Chen's small one bedroom house was located. I started walking towards the mart and the girls followed suit.

"But the stories are all true then?"

"Probably with some embellishments to make it a better story, Tyler liked to tell his tales as we sat around the camp fire."

The girls went up a rope ladder that was attached to the side of the mart. I scratched my head and wondered why they would go through the effort of using a rope ladder when their was a perfectly good entrance to the place from inside the store.

I climbed the wall after them and had something attach to my leg as before I could finish going over the edge.

"Mia, It's dangerous out here go back inside!" The pressure against my leg loosened and I finished climbing over the wall, the guy was walking towards me. "You don't look all that special, why did we have to stay here just to see you?"

"Well, the last I remember there was still a few days left until the countdown ended." I pulled out my phone, the page that had a countdown on it now showed the a rotating map of the world where red was spreading over it from the green map. We were smack dead in the center of one of the red zones. There were six spots where the world was blue instead of green and the red zone went around them.

"The world has ended, and for some reason all the girls think you can save it."

The guy gestured towards all the girls on the deck before shaking his head and going back to the corner where I saw him behind the mart sign.

"So Mr. Hero, how are you going to save the world?"

That is a lot of pressure for one guy, even I wouldn't know where to begin.

"Stormshadow said to have you look at our skills lists and you would be able to do something."

I shook my head and went to sit down on the couch. Why me? What made me the one that everyone looked at for hope.

"You said Tyler had sent you stories, can I read them?"

A black haired girl brought out a large binder. The cover of it just had an outline of what looked like a rough drawing of my game character and my friends, the inside were filled with pages that were laminated to protect them. The binder was heavy and when I started to read it, it felt more like I was reading a bible.

"What the hell is this?"

"That is the bible of the Seven Faith Heroes," The black haired girl went and sat beside me studied my reaction to the stories as I skimmed through them. "It is a new religion that has been founded and accepted by the system, Each of the seven are like gods who descended to save the world."

"You might not know it but, I think you need to join the religion." The blonde looked hopeful as she was pressing her phone against her chest. She kept looking down at it like she was hoping something would change.

"I don't believe in any religion, Gods are no worse then Devils who punish you for thinking the wrong thing."

The girls all started to look disappointed in me. I am not a hero. I am not a god. I am just a person.

"Another Sanctuary has been established under the seven" The oldest looking girl of the group was excited when she stated this.

Everybody ran towards her and looked down at her phone.

"This one is close by, just over the mountains." The guy was excited. He started packing up things and putting them into his inventory.

"The mountains," The blonde was looking at the redhead and the blackhead girls in turn. "Mom was heading that way."

"You wont make it."

I broke the groups enthusiasm. Somebody had to think rational here.

"We can if we try!" The black haired girl was missing the fact that the season were going to be changing soon, The mountains in winter are deadly.

"Nope, If you go the first to die will be the little girl." The guy attacked me. He gripped both sides of my weapon harness and forced me through the couch.

"My sister will not die if I have a say in it." The little girl was crying in the corner. The blonde hugged her to stop her from coming near us.

"And how would you stop her from freezing as you walked through the mountains?" The guys grip loosened and he looked up. What was light rain drops were slowly changing forms. The small flakes were not enough to stick to the ground but it was enough to show the change.

The rifts blocking the sun had made the area already cooler. The seasons would be changing faster then normal.

Everyone on the deck froze at the realization of this. I got up and was looking at the destroyed couch. I had a lot of memories with this couch. Me and Mr. Chen's niece spent a few summer nights out here enjoying the sounds of the city in the summertime.

I took the redheads phone from her being careful not to inject my own mana into it.

She was still in a daze and didn't notice the item missing from her hands.

"I can't read your stats or skills, says I need to be your friend first." I put the phone back in her hands and the group slowly came out of their shock.

"We need to head south then." The oldest girl was looking at her phone desperately. "There has to be one."

"Bring out your phone," The redhead shook her head as she thought of what needed to be done. "My name is Evelyn Rose, and you are Kevin."

She touched our phones together and a message appeared on mine asking me if I would like to become friends with Evelyn.

I touched yes and the phone glowed bright white.

when the glow died down the next message popped up

[ Would you like to join the hero network? ]

"Please say yes, I want to see what the system has named you." The girls all gathered around my phone as I pressed yes.

[ Welcome to the Hero Network, This is a communication area for people who have networked under the guise of fighting off the demons. ]

"Okay, What now?"

"Say something in the group chat."

I did.

[ ShadowHeart - Something ]

Evelyn started to grin wide.

Messages started streaming across the screen too fast for me to read them. The blonde started jumping up and down while holding the black haired girls hands.

"Why are you so excited over this?"

"The network has been down for the four days." The guy was finally calming down. "But even with this we still need to move from here. Night is coming so the big ones will be out soon. In the morning we leave."

The girls all nodded and the area started to quiet down. The girls were each putting their phones to mine and telling me their names and asking me to be their friend.

Evelyn, Karen, Jenny, Vicky, Cassandra, Mia, Missy, Zoey, and Amanda. The guy refused tap his phone to me but still introduced him self as Micheal.

All eleven of our phones were laid out on the table with the owner being the last to touch it. Micheal refused to do this saying he was already building him self a good enough skill set.

Most of the girls had mage skills that they picked at random when the system had activated. When I asked them to show me their skills Karen, Vicky and Mia were at a loss saying that they couldn't.

Mia was understandable when I saw her skills. She had one skill point used up and was at level zero. I figured that she was too young for the system to register her.

Karen was a different matter, Her skill was Protection costing five points with a free skill point in leadership. I checked what the leadership skill did through my own phone.

[ Leadership - Holds respect from followers, Ability to create parties - Points needed to purchase - - ]

The same thing came up on all the girls phones when I had them check it.

Each and every one of them had purchased the free skill now. They all had at least two free skill points except for Mia. I had them each buy the skills Health Regen and Mana Regen. These skills are key.

Vicky was the only one who I suggested stamina Regen to instead. Her skill was one that required stamina over mana. She couldn't use it because she didn't have a shield.

Evelyn could create a fire ball with her skill Firebolt. She used a staff that looked like something of my cosplay items as a focus and the balls of fire formed on the ends of it.

Missy was able to form a snowball with her skill Frost Bolt, It was the same skill that Tyler had picked up. but Tyler had said that his skill was more like Ice spears last time I talked to him.

Zoey made sparks jump between her two fingers. This action made her tired as it was a high mana skill. The sparks lasted for only a few seconds but she was proud of her storm bolt skill.

Cassandra and Jenny both had the skill earth bolt. But even so their skills differed, Cassandra made a little bit of earth from a pot lift up while Jenny formed a stone that hung in mid air.

I had each of them play with their skills until they were too tired to do anything else.

I looked down at my phone.

[ Kevin ShadowHeart - Level 2 ( 20 ) ]

Why did my phone show the brackets while others only showed that they were level three to five.

I was the lowest level of the group.

My skills were strange as well

[ Health Regen, Mana Regen, Stamina Regen, Weapon Mastery, Shadow Weapon, Erase Presence, ( Shadow Storm ), ( Shadow Walk ), ( Shadow Mastery ), Leadership ]

I couldn't check on the skills in brackets, but I don't remember buying Shadow Weapon.

[ Shadow Weapon - Encase your weapon with mana to enable it to hit formless creatures. ]

I pulled out my karambit and tried to think of how the skill worked.

I was focusing my mana like how I powered my house, The karambit's blade started to grow darker. I moved it in the air and the darkness trailed after the it. I checked my watch to see how much my mana drained from this skill.

"Interesting"

The girls all started to watch me as I moved. Both karambits were drawn and I encased both in shadows. My movements left a trail as I danced around the deck. The faster I moved the longer the trail was.

I smiled.

I opened up my stat page, I had to test something

I placed two point into Agility and Dexterity.

I did my blade dance again. I felt the sharpness of the shadows had increased. I wanted to test it out.

"How long until night fall?"

"Two hours, if you go out now you wont make it back before dark." Micheal was smiling like he knew what I was planning on doing.

"I am going too." The redhead stood beside me holding her weapon in her hand. I grabbed it and removed the cracked marbles.

"Not with these cracked, that is your focus point. give me two of the larger metal balls you collected."

She brought out two and I slid them into the wire wrapping that the marbles had been in. The glass marbles were for Dee's character that used lightning, holding the electricity inside of glass before releasing it made the most sense.

I nodded to Micheal. "Be back by morning then."

"You better." Evelyn hugged Karen and Jenny before climbing down the ladder.

"Do something for me." The little one Mia had stopped me before I got to climb over on wall.

"Whats up?"

"Sit on the wall."

I sat on the ledge for her.

"No like this." She went and sat on her heals with her hand down on the ground between her legs and the other on her knee.

"Ahh," I lifted my self up with my hands and brought my feet under me, holding onto the ledge with my one hand for stability. "Like this?"

"Now look into the wind"

I did.

"See my boyfriend is pretty."

The girls all laughed and I smiled before waving and saying my goodbyes.

"Where are we going?" I was carrying the redhead on my back to save her stamina, and this was faster for me.

"Ding! you have received a new quest to go kill ten giant rats that are pestering the city's townspeople!" I was smiling, This was like every first quest I have ever been on in a game. "You must kill as many as possible before morning will you accept the quest?"

"Too late now to say I am scared of rats?"

I laughed, If this was a game there would be no danger at all getting to the place the rats were. But this is real life, The redhead constantly watched out for stuff while I ran. My stamina never dropped once. All that walking to increase my stamina recovery rate must of paid off.

We were nearing the location where I thought they would be. This was a garbage transfer sight where the cities garbage was brought before it was shipped out to the landfills. I had remembered that the news had stated that animal activists were protesting a few months ago that the city was trying to poison off the rats that lived off the garbage.

"Okay explain what you are so happy about?"

"The rats were where I thought they would be."

There was about forty giant rats like the one I had seen earlier. Each of them was rummaging through the garbage minding their own business.

"Okay so how much do you know about your skill fireball?"

"Only that I can use it up to eight times right now with the staff but only three times with out it."

I frowned. This could be harder then I thought it would be.

I grabbed two pallets that were laying on the ground and brought them back to where she was. The rats didn't pay attention to me at all.

I lit a fire on one of them.

"Okay light the pallet in front of you on fire."

She used the staff and formed a fireball before gently tossing it out at the pallet.

"Okay what now?"

Both pallets were on fire.

"What is the difference between the two flames?"

She looked at them hard.

"I don't see any."

I nodded. Tyler would of done something like this too I think.

"Correct!"

"I don't understand" Evelyn looked at me confused.

"You are looking at two fires, Both are exactly the same."

"Yeah and?"

I scratched my head while trying to think of how to make her understand.

"What are the parts of fire?"

"Fuel, heat, oxygen."

"Okay now what is the fuel for when you are casting your skill?"

She thought about it for a while.

"You are the fuel." I gave her the answer. "Your mana fuels the fire."

She still looked confused.

"It was you who talked with Tyler right?"

she nodded.

"Okay so you have at least basic knowledge of how to move your mana. Think of it this way. Try to use your skill again but hold the mana and form a spear head on the end of your staff instead of just a ball of fire."

She had to concentrate but she eventually got it to be there.

"Good now hold that image in your head and poke this tire."

The spear head lit the tire on fire on the side she was poking the new formed spear head into it. I grabbed the other end of it and tossed it towards a rat.

"Now use that spear to fight!"

the spear vanished.

"WHAT!" she screamed and I laughed. Learning by doing was the best way to do things.

I pulled out my karambits and charged at the rats who were coming for us. I turned and smiled as I saw her trying to form a new spear head.

My karambits glowed a purple shade as I pulled darkness from the shadows her flames were casting towards them. I wanted to test this my self. My shadow skill was the same as her flame, I could take existing shadows and use them instead of expending my own mana.

My phone started to buzz after two rats had their heads decapitated from them. Evelyn was still panicking but she had ended up with a ball of fire on the end of her staff that she was beating the rats that came near her away with.

The rats were rushing towards her instead of me.

I pulled out my phone quick and checked what the notifications were.

[ Your party member has killed a Demon Rat - 10% exp bonus for being in a party ]

I smiled and dove towards the rats.

The moon glowed through the rift as the last of the rats had died.

I don't know when the rain stopped but the ground was dry around us due to the heat from Evelyn's flames.

She was laying down looking up.

"Quest Complete!"

She was grinning. I stood over her and offered her my hand to help her up.

She backed away.

"Sorry, a few days ago something happened." She wouldn't look at me.

"Well, I can listen, I don't think we should leave until almost dawn now them footsteps sound kinda big."

She nodded and curled up into a ball.

"I don't trust guys any more. Two days before the world ended goblins caught me and Karen." She was shivering. "The goblins were not what touched us, people I grew up with did. They were in control of the goblins and they hurt me in ways I don't think I will ever be able to be free of."

I leaned against the fence gate and listened. She was raped and she was awake for it all.

"The worse part was that every time they were finished I healed, I went back to being a virgin and the pain was fresh each time." The fire between us grew the more she thought about it. She was adding fuel to the fire with out being conscious of it.

The flames were beautiful, I had never seen natural fire behave this way.

"I don't think I will ever be able to enjoy sex."

I shook my head. I realized I was only paying attention to bits that I thought were interesting.

"If you don't mind me asking, How old are you?"

She turned her head and looked at me. The fire went back to normal.

"Just hit my Sixteenth birthday before getting my skill."

It hurt me. I didn't realize that she was so young. I thought that the Health regeneration skill did the same thing it had done on me to her.

"How old do you think I am?"

"I donno, maybe twenty?"

"I am twice your age."

The fire went out.

She was looking at me in the light of the rift. I no longer showed my age on the outside as this was the age the system had made me appear.

"How?"

"My first skill I bought was the Health Regeneration skill you got, with it my scars and age lines faded away and new fresh skin formed." I didn't know if I would ever age again but this is my life now.

"Oh god, I am going to be a teenager forever then!" she rolled onto her back and her phone slipped from her hand and landed on a burnt corpse of a rat.

the phone lit up.

"Killed by Evelyn - Do you want to collect the loot?" I read the phone out loud and we both went and looked at it.

Evelyn tapped the phone and the screen changed to be the contents of the rats inventory.

There was trash, a copper coin, and a ring.

She tapped the copper coin and the ring. the items glowed and appeared above her hand. The copper coin had a square cut out from the center of it making me wonder if it was for easy identification of coin type.

The ring looked like a small gold male wedding band with carvings on all around it.

"One ring to rule them all." I whispered and she shot me a weird look.

"What?"

"You never watched or read about the epic tale of the group of people going to destroy a ring to save the world?"

"No"

"You never read the memes about how one does not just simply walk into something?"

"Yeah I have seen them."

The world had ended before the end of the world.

I shook my head.

"You should of read more in high school," I took her staff from the ground beside her. "Then you would of been standing there with the rats all coming your way yelling out that they shall not pass!"

I slammed the staff into the ground and sparks went off from where the steel balls hit the ground.

"Nobody would ever really yell that!"

"The grey wizard did before he went off to gain all the experience and level up into a white wizard." I handed her back the staff then went around and found some of the decapitated rats.

My loot was not as pretty as hers. Mostly rusty knives and a few copper coins.

She had even gotten a pair of boots and gloves from the rats that were in good condition.

How does this system even work?

We sat there comparing our loot until the rift started to glow,

Something large started to fall from the sky.