Where...Where was I?

I found myself floating, adrift in a black expanse with not a thing visible to me. It felt like I was underwater, but I didn’t feel like I was drowning... I looked over myself and found that I was...Human? I was myself again, no longer bearing the form I had gained when I had been Displaced. I was wearing the mossy green hoodie I used to wear back on Earth, with an emblem of Cthulhu on the front. On my belt I noticed that I still seemed to have the ECHO and shield I had gotten from Jack along with my sword, which was much longer now that I wasn’t eight feet tall and rather was a bit below six. I looked down and froze as I beheld a pair of burning red eyes looking to me with pure, baleful hatred. I flailed my arms, trying to swim away from whatever it was as it surged forward and pursued me, gaining on me with great speed. I felt something like a tentacle seize my ankle and drag me down to it. I silently screamed, and suddenly found myself in dire need of air as it approached me. I drew my sword in an attempt to cut loose, only to freeze as the thing itself drew itself to the same level as I was. We both hung there for a moment, complete silence reigning as I slowly ran out of air. I clicked onto my ECHO to turn it on to shed some light, and froze as I finally glimpsed it.

It was… me. At least… me after getting Displaced. I/it glared and let out a roar which reverberated throughout my very being as it lunged for me. I drew my sword in an attempt to defend myself and sank it into It's chest, my eyes sealed shut.

I finally opened my eyes after a moment, taking stock as confusion went over me. I was back in my Displaced form, my hand on my sword from where I had sunk it into… Jen?

I stumbled back in horror as she looked at me with blank eyes, tears going down her face as she looked at me with pleading look.

“No...NononononononoNO!”

I let go of the sword and Jen dropped to her knees, collapsing to the ground. I ran up to her and grabbed her, holding her.

“J-Jen, don’t worry you’ll be alright, you’ll be fine! I-I’ll just get help and then-”

Her eyes locked with mine and I froze. The whites of her eyes were a pale, glowing yellow and her irises were a burning green. Her pupils shifted into white slits as she gave me a grin filled with jagged fangs. She spoke in a sultry voice that wasn’t Jen’s.

“I think that I have all the help I need right here…”

She closed the distance between us before I could react, and I flailed my arms in an attempt to get away from whoever this doppleganger was. I felt a wave of pain as something tore into my chest as she released me. I looked down and saw my sword had been rammed into my chest as I collapsed, coughing up blood. I looked up at the doppelganger as she gave me a grin, placing a hand on the side of my face as both of my hands were on the hilt of my sword. She whispered in my ear as darkness washed over me.

“Won’t be long now….”

I jerked awake, pain going across my chest as I started trying to sit up and figure out where I was, only for a mechanical hand to push me back down, with a medical looking claptrap nurse giving me a frowning look.  

“You need to lay down for a few more minutes to let the emergency treatment fluids replenish what vitality YOU lost.  Add onto that the strain on your musculature and bone fracture from a high level magic use yet to be identified.”  

She intoned with a frown while a more excited male claptrap let out a oddly comedic ‘SHE LIVES!’ Before a familiar jerk upright form of Jen sending a claptrap flying into a couch. She raised a hand and waved to me. I spoke in a rough voice the instant I saw her.

“Holy shit, Jen are you okay?!”

She silently nodded, and then put a hand to her throat and shook her head. I looked and saw her neck and jaw covered in a scattered of cracks.

“You.. Can’t talk?”

Neck damaged. Just mute until fully fixed up.

I nodded slowly. She pointed to my chest, which was covered in bandages and the like and I waved her off.

“I-I’m fine. I’m just worried about you after… whatever those guys were doing.”

She blinked and looked away, seeming to shudder from thinking about it. I looked down at my chest and to the medical claptrap, and ground my teeth as I hopped up and walked over, sitting next to Jen. She looked back at me and shook her head and pointed to where I had been laying. I shrugged and patted her shoulder and she gave me a small smile.

“So… Where are we exactly?”

Looking around, I found that we were in a white, surgically cleaned room. Above the door to the room was some sort of observation window, the sort that would be used to show somehow a surgery in progress, and scattered around the room were holograms of various mechanical and biological components with diagnostics of sorts. A hologram of Jen was across from her, showing damaged areas in black, and one of me across from where I had been laying, showing parts of me in yellow and red. My hologram was blurry though, as if it was done from sight alone with large swaths of it being nothing more than a three dimensional outline of my form. Jen entered a response to my question.

F.A.U.S.T./Jack’s world.

I let out a sigh. So my attempt to get the beacon up and running had worked. It was around that moment when a light tapping came from the speakers in the room, a male voice I recognized calling out to us in the room while the male claptrap fussed over Jen’s connections.  

“Well it’s you again Kyth, and Jen your girlfriend or is it something else now? Anyways, I’d welcome you kiddos to my world if it was under ‘better’ circumstances but we three know that won’t be happening this time.  Also look up and tell me if you can see my hand from there.”  He waved his hand at us from a seat he was sitting in, with a tall anthro robot Alicorn standing beside him in a sort of business suit with a miniskirt and heels. Jen waved to her, and it clicked in my head that this was ‘F.A.U.S.T.’. I waved uncertainly myself, my memory of meeting Jack before the bachelor party returned to me.

Though in a lighter tone of question aimed my way Jack asked.  “So are you still eating weird shit or birds?”

I shook my head. “No. Definitely not. Dunno why that ever seemed like a good idea, and I don’t even remember doing that…”

Jen brought up a text box to question me.

...bachelor party?

I nodded and shuddered. Whatever I had eaten over that night hadn’t sat well with me the morning after… I shook my head and looked back to Jack and F.A.U.S.T.

“Hey, uh. Thanks for the save.”

Jack nodded as he silently spoke to someone else in  the room before continuing to talk with us.  

“It isn’t an issue, though never thought that we’d get an Emergency Response call.  So you two are technically ‘3’ and ‘4’ displaced who have ‘graced’ my medical ward, though first two for combat related damage, before you guys it was a pregnancy birth and the first was for cybernetic operation to fix himself up after losing an arm.”

He tapped his chin for a moment until F.A.U.S.T. laid a hand on his shoulder, gesturing to Jen.

“Right, that magic ‘battery’ thing you had inside you.  Seems whatever or whoever gave it to you lost ‘something’ and it outright affected what was given to you, so you may want to check on that when you can. Because shit that fails due to being a source from another power means one of two things, they died.”  Pausing for a moment to relay what FAUST was saying.  “He ‘fell from grace’ or lost what made him ‘special’ that kept your battery always charged at full tilt, but the good news is you need a magic user to jump charge it maybe every month.” He explained showing Jen the holographic view explaining details while I could only see some of it.

“But if you want, we can put in a type of power conversion core into your frame.  Depending how much you want invested in type or the best we can make, will affect how you’ll likely be fueled from here on while that battery thing can act as your ‘emergency’ backup.”  He finished before turning more towards me, getting a look on his face that seemed to be trying at calming.  “As for you Kyth, I’d say you have something of an ‘elder god’ aspect to your body. Being Cthulhu and shit is beyond my current understanding, but from what we COULD understand.  Whatever YOU did, or didn’t do triggered it in your weakened state, like a next-to-last resort. It gave you a period of access to a higher level of power than your body could currently take for a short while to help you survive or escape but then left you even further burnt out than when it started.”

I nodded slowly. Was that a part of my blackouts? “Huh… I didn’t know that I had that…”

Jen gave me a concerned look and patted my shoulder. I gave a small smile to try and comfort her before turning back to Jack.

“So aside from all that, you two kiddos get to undergo medical leave while you are here.  As for your world’s contacts, well they were invited over after much ‘nagging’ and ‘questions to be had.  Though don’t be too surprised by how they look…” He said pointing downwards at the only door to the room, as F.A.U.S.T. with him gave a slight frown.

I blinked and deadpanned as I heard approaching foot(hoof?)steps, and at the door I saw a now anthro Twilight, Spike, and Sombra walking uncertainly into the room, clearly still learning how to operate their forms, followed by a pair of Angel Loaders. All of them were dressed in various bits of basic ‘Hyperion’ logoed clothing, seeming unused to them. Spike and Sombra lit up when they saw us, charging forward and ramming into me in a hug. I grit my teeth as I coughed up a small amount of blood in my mouth and swallowed it down, patting them both on the head with gritting teeth.

“H-hey guys… What’s up?”

Sombra locked eyes with me and I flinched back as he socked me dead in the schnoz. I put a hand to my face as he yelled at me.

“You nearly destroy yourselves and all you say is ‘What is up’!? IDIOT! THOUS HAD US SCARED FOR THINE LIVES!”

“Sorry guys, just sorta… Still adjusting.”

I blinked as I remembered to see what Jack knew about our attackers.

“Hey Jack, your world has Borderlands stuff, right?”

Jack took this moment to respond over the speakers in the room causing the others ears/fins to move trying to locate him.  

“Sure it does, though the lovely Mare next to me has caused many things herself while i was imprisoned, the only oddities are the Vault Hunters from Pandora show up. Though their timing can be perfectly bad at times or often…”  

He growled out with a scowling expression visible from the observation room as F.A.U.S.T. looked to have been injecting something into his neck, visibly relaxing a bit rubbing his face.  “Lets just say there’s one who is at the top of my list for the pain I feel often…  If you haven’t noticed my face.”

I looked at Jen and then back to Jack. “Those Vault Hunters you mentioned… They look like the character from the game but with glow-y purple eyes?” His reaction was a Thumb’s up through tapped the glass so they could see where he was, with a Alicorn robot next to him.

“Then… We were attacked by a couple of them. They’re the ones who got us all jacked up!”

Jack raised an eyebrow at that, he moved closer to the window only to look like he’s in a wheelie computer chair.  “Is your girlfriend willing to share her memories of the fight from first seeing them to it’s end?  Could be rather useful to look over, though if not she can go into detail later whenever.”  

He made a tapping motion on his wrist as a holographic menu appeared in front of Jen showing a listing of power converting Reactors. She nodded and scanned over the menu, eventually choosing an Eridium Reactor, giving a high output of power which could be used or stored by Jen and her systems. The only downsides to it were that the current bar of eridium in use would be converted to slag over time as it was used and a new one would need to be swapped out for it. Of course the slag Jen would probably find a use for and the eridium we could find some way to pay for when the time came. Jen rubbed her jaw as the repair units managed to give her a temporary patch-job and spoke in a raspy-static filtered voice.

“I’ll t-take this one. But uh… How much is it?”

Jack displayed the price for it in bits, the number floating over it was close to a hundred thousand bits due to the modification efficency and power output per bar.

 “How’s your bit purse cupcake?”

Jen shrugged and made a ‘so-so’ hand gesture. “We make a decent, albeit not huge salary from protecting the town part-time. Though Kyth can just magic up some more bits with the Inspiration Manifestation tome when it’s safe for him to use magic again.”

Jack just frowned at the answer, folding his arms looking at me and Jen.  “So how are either of you going to ‘legit pay’ for the medical/mechanical treatments and part?  Because what you are doing is a shifty sort of ‘forgery’ of your world’s currency, there is likely some sort of law against that.”

I blinked. “Uh… I actually never thought about that. Well we do make some bits and stuff but... “

I grinned as I got an idea.

        “Well is my weird demon-whatever blood worth anything? The stuff has some odd properties to it from what I saw during our fight with those Vault jerks. Plus my weird un-scannability whatever, maybe my blood could be studied to try and figure that out.”

Jen chipped in. “On another note, our world does have some seem to have some small amounts of Orichalcum in it, so that’s probably worth something. And the same disruption to scanners is present in certain areas around our world, so we could see if we could trade intel on that.”

Twilight’s ear twitched at this. “What’re you talking about? What’s orichalcum? And what do you mean about Kyth’s blood being unscannable?”

Spike spoke up at this point. “And what’s an ‘eridium reactor’?”

Sombra followed suit. “And why should we care?”

Jen decided to try and explain some of that before anything else.

“Well, Orichalcum is a metal/alloy something that nullifies all magic which comes into contact with it. We don’t know much about it other than that. I actually found a couple of bucklers made of the stuff, if you want an example. Hey, where are those? I had them on me when I got taken out…”

Twilight held a numb expression for a moment after hearing that before responding. “What!? How could something like that exist!? Magic is present in everything, something like that should be impossible, and if not then surely Princess Celestia would’ve made sure to get rid of it all!”

Spike blinked and walked over to her, handing a paper bag to Twilight, seeming to want her to calm down.

“Deep breaths Twilight, deep breaths…”

While she hyperventilated into the bag, Sombra seemed to ponder all of this.

“Or-i-chal-cum…. Hmm. I have heard of it in rumors and legend around the empire. It was believed to have been a metal capable of making even the gods themselves bleed, and as such any amount of it was revered and widely sought… To have found any of it at all is impressive. I myself had looked into it, but found no results other than further rumor…”

Jack cut in by bluntly stating what he knew.  “Well so far I have enough being sampled currently to make a Dagger from, but when I received it from Avarice.  The arrow heads turned into the front ends to BULLETS, just without the casing.  But as for your pieces, they are held in a gravity locker until you can retrieve it.  That is unless you wish to trade one in return for your medical bills, the reactor and 30 bars of Eridium.”  

Jack made his offer at the end watching our reaction, also our friends. Jen put a hand to her jaw in thought.

“Hmm. That would be useful, but then again the bucklers could seriously come in handy… Could I have some time to consider?”

Twilight seemed a bit calmed down by this point and spoke up. “A-actually I may have  a deal for you… Um, Princess Celestia gives me a monthly stipend for the various subjects of magic which I research in Ponyville. If you’re willing to maybe let me study those bucklers myself then I could most likely pay off most of those expenses.”

Jen nodded. “That’d be alright, as long as I still keep the bucklers. Jack sir that sound alright?”

His business gaze shifted over to Twilight as a Hologram menu appeared in front of her.  

“This would be the total cost for their treatment, the individual purchases of what Jen wishes and needs are there.  Also the minor cheap cost of those ‘duds’ you three are wearing upon coming here.”  

What the total value showed Kyth’s medical treatment was less than Jen’s repairs due to mechanical parts and adjustments to her frame to be as it was before the fight. Twilight considered it for a moment before nodding.

“Th-that’s pretty high… But then again, my stipend should allow for most of that, and I can dip slightly into savings for the rest.”

Jen shook her head at this. “Twilight we can’t just let you spend up your savings on us!”

“Jen it’s perfectly alright. The knowledge I could gain from those bucklers, not to mention from the two of you, is more than worth simple bits! Not to mention what I’ve seen here… Besides, I have enough saved that it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Jen hesitatingly nodded and Twilight signed off for the costs. “Of course I will need to stop off back home to collect the money, would that be alright?”

Jack nodded though an Anthro Unicorn Claptrap with a grey tone paint in an equally dull business suit with fashionable glasses with symbols moving across it entered the room to walk up to her offering a greeting before a business card with the name ‘H.O.M.A.G.E.’ written on it.  “Homage here will accompany you until the payment been received and return, late payments have penalties if not done on a timely manner IF you decided to do it in monthly transactions. The token these two have in your world would accept it.”

        Twilight nodded with this and gave us an uncertain look. “I’m assuming that you two WILL explain all of this later?”

We both nodded and she nodded back to Jack. He just smiled at her while F.A.U.S.T. still had her hand on his shoulder in what seemed to be closeness. While the order for it all was processed, we started giving Twilight, Spike, and Sombra the truth about us and the Displaced. This also included the fact that Jack’s world seemed to convert any Equestrains that came into it to ‘anthro’ form. She was understandably blown away, but surprisingly understood our reasoning for not telling anyone.

“Something like that… This could change all of Equestria if it gets loose…”

Her eyes lit up with a slightly manic glow.

“Just think of all the possibilities for new magic, science, everything from other worlds… So much to gain. Hmm… Though I already ponder theoretics about this sort of thing, having it confirmed is amazing! But… Most ponies wouldn’t be able to handle all of this. It hurts that you didn’t trust us with this, but then again… I can see why.”

Sombra raised a hand. “Question! Is this ‘eridium’ an edible sort of gem by dragon standards?”

Jack responded by smiling more at that, a trademark smirk from the game plastered on his face.

“Yes dragons can eat it, Unicorns can absorb it’s magic strengthening properties temporarily and YES it could be smashed to absorb said bar’s energies.  But depending on the addictive disadvantages from continuous use, would result a drug like addiction to it with a minor case of DEATH without it in the situation for Sirens.”  

His eyes bore into Sombra during that entire point, likely having a meaning at that when he emphasized death. Sombra nodded at this and seemed to consider it. Twilight seemed worried by the idea of the negative effects of it.

“Is it safe for Jen to be using so much of it then if it could harm someone like that?”

Spike seemed worried by different reasons.

“So… There’s gems out there that can actually harm me even though they’re delicious!?”

Jack had a deadpan expression on his face before stating his response.  “Really?  She’s not technically flesh and blood as you are Twilight, so YES she is safe using it.  Though the Slag may become an issue due to it technically being ‘Magical Fallout’ by studies done by my Equestria. But if enough were collected and turned in we can recycle that into a bar every three used, but remember Jen think of it as something that lasts half as long as a normal bar.”

Jen nodded. “Yeah, though I do have one question. Would the slag produced by the core work like slag from the games? Like reacting to make stuff more susceptible to damage?”

Jack nodded at this as he gave a grin.  “Of course, though how good is your aim with what is essentially sludge?”

“Eh, my systems have some functions that could aim stuff like water which could be used for that sort of purpose. But just a well, I could probably find something to use it for in some of my own studies, and in Twilights.”

Twilight nodded to this and I spoke up to Twilight. “Uh… So, are you gonna spill the secret about us to everyone back in our Equestria?”

She pondered this with a troubled look. “Well… I don’t like the idea of lying to my friends, let alone the Princesses… But I suppose I could put off telling them about all of… this until it becomes important for them to know.”

I let out a breath I’d been holding and gave Twilight a tired smile. “Thanks Twilight. We owe you one.”

She snickered. “Well I’d say you owe me more than one, but I’d say giving me all of these research opportunities is a decent enough payment.”

Jack took a moment to add in another deal for us.

 “If you are willing to offer your Blood or artifacts of verified value that can earn you a commission worth in bits, depending on what you bring. Admittedly Blood will be lower payouts, it’s not like this is an earth genetics lab or a sperm bank.”  He added with a look before shaking his head from a possible memory.

 “Short story is, you get paid for a haggled low but decent price for any blood but artifacts can be talked about when it happens.  Unless your Twilight desires to become the first ‘choice’ at what you get.”  Jack grinned softly at Twilight while the Alicorn robot next to him chuckled softly.

Twilight gave a sheepish grin at this and I gave a thumbs up.

“Good to know! Though the blood’ll probably be a last resort for us since with Twi paying for all of this we’re less severely needing aid. As for the artifacts we’ll probably go on a case by case basis in how we deal with those as well.”

Twilight gave me a curious look. “Where or what is ‘earth’?”

A bit of my cheeriness faded. “...Home. We’ll uh… We’ll tell ya later.”

She seemed to understand that I didn’t want to talk about it and nodded.

Jack took a pondering sit looking down at us.  

“Let us talk again and exchange ‘notes’ about Earths, but someone has to go pay.”

Twilight nodded. “I’m assuming that we can reach you with that odd device that brought us here?”

I chipped in. “She means the Acquisition Beacon.”

Nodding his head, Jack spoke again as the male claptrap next to Jen started to install the Eridium Reactor inside her chest.  

“Yes, it is referred to as a Token by most. Met some who use other words but most just do that.”  

As after that was said the Robotic Alicorn offered him a pad, as he looked it over before signing for something, as a black smoke formed behind him giving a hug from behind with slitted teal eyes looking down at us with a visible snarl speaking up with disdain mostly leveled at Twilight and Sombra.  

“You bring the ‘strangest’ of guests to our moon…”

I wasn’t sure what to make of the newcomer so I simply braced myself for if any sort of action was needed. Twilight's eyes widened for a moment before she took a slow breath and spoke to the shadowy figure.

“I’m going to assume that you are ‘this’ Equestria’s Nightmare Moon?”

Her response is a dark chuckle before showing her fanged teeth with pride.  

“We would be, though know we won’t relinquish our claim on this one as our mate!”  Jack’s expression when she said that drew onto a deadpan before he mumbled something that wasn’t heard, likely refusing the fact before bringing up ‘why’ she would say that as Twilight gained a confused expression.

“Short answer is that she’s into me because of my nature and how my personality is like, despite not being able to use magic.  From the studies I’ve done and simply prodding for answers, ‘I’ am able to impregnate an alicorn because of my ‘severe lacking of magic’ while a normal one with their high ‘power level’ only makes it more difficult to get knocked up. But put me into that mathematical equation and you get lucky every time…”

Twiight slowly nodded, seeming to accept the logic of that before responding.

“Okay… So why did she think I would object to you being her….’mate’?”

Jack’s response was to shift the topic to something else, ignoring her question rather suddenly.  

“So, how are the Wonderbolts for your Universe?”  

Nightmare was still staring at twilight before nodding as she nuzzled the side of his head before licking Jack’s neck resulting in him pushing her muzzle away giving a pointed look. Twilight shrugged, seeming to understand his intent.

“W-well I’ve never been one for sports all that much, though my friend Rainbow Dash is a huge fan of theirs.”

Jen spoke up in an attempt to help with this. “Well maybe we can go see a show of theirs sometime!”

Twilight nodded. “S-sure thing! That sounds like fun eheheh…”

The male Claptrap at Jen’s bed input a glowing ingot of Eridium into Jen’s new reactor, activating it before closing up quietly likely asking in computer for her to test her mobility and such medical things. She nodded and stood up, testng her joints a bit before testing out a few low-key transformations and the like. She gave a thumbs up, and the claptrap which had helped her install the new core handed her old Dox battery back to her, and she placed it into a storage compartment. Another claptrap walked in and held out Jen’s bucklers, both of which were wrapped up in a cloth for safe keeping. After she returned Jen’s bucklers she walked over to me, holding out my sword in its sheath which I gladly returned to my belt. I looked back up to Jack as I slowly stood up, having to be careful from my injuries. Jen walked over and I leaned into her as I looked up to Jack.

“Well I think we’re all done here then, other than payments.”

The H.O.M.A.G.E. unit walked over and held out a contract for Twilight, who lit up her horn to sign with her magic. The Contract glowed before vanishing into F.A.U.S.T.’s grasp magically, as the aura on it matched what washed over Twilight as Jack explained.  

“What just happened was a bit of Contract magic, failure to follow through results in bad things.  Or Faust here will collect in her own ways for payment.”  

There was a barely eye blink moment where said Alicorn’s eyes turned to black pits with a white pinprick at the center leveled at us, sending a shiver to down all of our spines. Twilight nervously nodded as did Jen and I. I spoke up, still a bit nervous.

“W-well alright. We’ll make sure the payment goes in through the beacon. Thanks again for the help Jack, is there anything else you need before we head back?”

“Just watch out for life threatening situations, or to avoid nearly dieing at my Token’s base needing help.  Because the least you could do is to come if near or halfway near such a state.”  He plainly said with a flat look, putting one hand on his chin as the elbow rested on his knee.  “Oh and Twilight if you want some ‘cheap and easy’ medical knowledge you can buy that.”

Twilight gave him a nod and I shrugged. “Eh, your beacon was honestly the best bet I had at the time. The only tokens we have are yours, Dox’s, a Bill Cipher’s, and a Pitch Blacks. The only ones of those that could offer medical help in that situation as far as I know about them all would be you or Dox, and Dox would most likely lack the technology to fix Jen. But just as well, hopefully we won’t get to that state again. Well, see you later Jack and F.A.U.S.T.!”

I waved along with Jen and the others, and we headed for the portal home as we were directed to it. The portal itself was a circular machine, surrounded by symbols of an unknown sort as it lit up and a rift formed in it. We all entered in and found ourselves standing in front of the Acquisition Beacon back home. Jen stretched her arm out to catch Spike, Sombra and Twilight as they all fell over, suddenly returned to being quadrupeds rather than bipeds. Twilight's eyes lit up as she considered everything she had seen.

“Okay, I’m going to get the payment for everything after the work for repairing the town is done, and then get straight to researching!”

I spoke hesitantly at this. “Uh… repairing?”

It was at this point I looked up and saw how trashed the front of our house was, as well as a small glimpse to the rest of the town. Jeez… Those Vault Dwellers did a number on the place. I locked eyes with Jen and we both looked back at the town. Twilight continued speaking at this.

“Yeah, those ‘Vault Hunter’s’ did a number on the town. Thankfully the only repercussions of them is a few damaged buildings and some small injuries, but a while back I found out the town’s prepared for that sort of thing. There’s a lot of bad stuff that seems to attract to Ponyville, so there’s a town fund in place to help for damages from random attacks. Everyone’s pretty close in town, so no one minds chipping in to help each other out. It’ll take a little while to fix up everything but overall the only thing lost will be time.”

I nodded and made a silent vow to myself. We were lucky no one was killed with the way that they had fought us… God, we nearly got killed because I wasn’t strong enough to fight on my own, not to mention the fact that in a life-or-death battle I blacked out… The only reason I had made it this far was the fact that I could use my sword’s specialized strikes by instinct, but other than that I was swinging the thing clumsily with no real skill. I needed someone to teach me how to actually use a sword with real skill.

I couldn’t let us fall into that situation again. I had to become stronger, to defend not only the town but… I couldn’t let Jen get that hurt again.

I wouldn’t allow it. Next Chapter: Chapter Twenty One: Sun, Moon, and Star Estimated time remaining: 51 Minutes