Shao Yun stared at the raging maelstrom outside, hundreds of people huddled in the dark reception room as the water pounded against the sealed doors and windows. Murky with the occasional bone ringing dully against the glass. Whirling currents of death. Shao Yun was happy, initially anyway, they had found a human city. It had tall skyscrapers and beautiful views, though certain buildings had been broken by monsters. He thought it was american from the looks of it, he had seen one of those food chain restaurants for the first time in his life.
He breathed against the glass, his breath fogging up its surface. He could see the reflection of the sprawled figures across everywhere, so many humans, but among them there were some elves, they had grown friendlier to each other just from pure luck. They traveled together like a caravan of sorts. At first, Shao Yun’s journey into the New World wasn’t particularly great. It was riddled with danger and numerous other perils that lurked around him. He had a sword by his waist, and oddly enough even though he was nothing more than an IT Consultant when he first arrived in the Skirmish. He was afraid and scared of the perils in the forest, he held his need to go to the bathroom for three whole days because of it. But then hell started.
A nest of Leima Bats attacked him, and he found himself deep underground without food or shelter. All he could do was fight and swing his sword, all he could do was eat raw monster flesh to sustain himself. It was hard for him, it was a living hell, and the Guardian? It was a D Grade level 40 monster. He almost killed it, whittling it down with numerous wounds by the end of the Skirmish, but unfortunately he couldn’t get the final blow. Nonetheless, he managed to reach E-Grade at the end. Then he arrived at the New World, exhausted, and the first thing he noticed was the clattering around him, the shuffling of the bushes.
A group of Dire Jackals attacked him, E Grade beasts, he slew them without problem, but they kept coming. Unfortunately, there was no respite that he knew of.
Monsters were attracted to him; it seemed. He had found a free Prophecy to claim, something about parrying. To be honest he didn’t care too much, he just fought and fought and fought, but now he was in yet another conundrum.
He looked at the raging siphons outside, at the water of death and sighed, simply turning around and finding the stairs of the skyscraper. He was among the strongest humans in the group and yet he was totally helpless. He had seen the situation numerous times but even now he definitely wanted to make sure that he wasn’t seeing wrong. He went up the stairs, the impossibly long flight that would’ve taken his breath in the past was now nothing but easy work.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
The proverb rang through his ears as his footsteps echoed in the stairwell. He had taken his numerous first steps, now he was one of the leaders of the group of refugees — one building out of five — he had to hunt and provide for those beneath him, but he didn’t like being some hero, he had no choice. Then again, talk did not cook rice.
Footsteps echoed through the stairwell, and just as he was midway through, he heard a pair of footsteps join him. Shao Yun looked back, only to see a hooded figure walking right behind him.
“Mildred?” He asked.
Mildred, the hooded girl looked at him dangerously. “I know your kind.”
“We are all the same kind under The System.” Shao Yun shook his head. “What do you need this time around?”
However, in spite of his prying gaze the girl just stayed silent.
Shao Yun frowned and repeated from memory: “He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask—”
“Remains a fool forever.” Mildred finished for him. “I know that already, moron. I just find it strange how your lips make the wrong shapes and I still understand it. It doesn’t matter, I came to say that they were just spotted.”
Shao Yun ignored all of the insults and got to the point. “Where were they spotted?”
“Come.” Mildred turned around into one of the emergency doors.
Shao Yun followed after her until eventually they were in a large room, one that took an entire floor. Maintenance wires and paletes littered the place, but Mildred ignored them heading towards the lined windows. Shao Yun followed after her, examining the dust and some of the water damage. He looked at some of the exposed pillars and breathed a small relief. The building sometimes would receive damage, but thankfully it was still in pristine condition it seemed.
Mildred stood by the window, and finally Shao Yun peered. He saw the whirling currents of an ocean at the base of the building. His eyes followed as he observed the surrounding buildings, and in one of the windows he saw another human. The human also noticed Shao Yun and nodded at him before pointing to the east. Shao Yun’s gaze darted, and that’s when he saw it, at the center of the city, there were three gigantic snakes. Each one stronger than the other.
Shao Yun eyed them, once more confirming he wasn’t a match for them. Everyone hoped they would be much further away so they could escape. That was the reason they were regularly watched to begin with.
[Guardian Maker of Currents. Lvl. 125]
[Guardian Caller of Storms. Lvl. 115]
[Guardian Breaker of Winds. Lvl. 120]
He sighed, he definitely stood no chance. At that moment Shao Yun saw a shadow and in an instant it reached him. The glass broke apart as a gigantic bird flew in swooping for his head. Shao Yun grunted and with a flick of his sword, a shining light rang. The bird was thrown against the ceiling and rebounded back.
Shao Yun smiled and stuck his sword forward, with a shining red blade it hit the bird and it sizzled. The bird exploded into a cloud of fire, Shao Yun smirked, jumped and activated his best skill.
The Sixth Slash of Light.
He swooped down, doing a full spin mid air cutting in a full degree of motion. The ceiling, the ground, the window, they were all split in half along with the bird. Mighty crashing sounds along with thunder resounded as the rain poured. Meanwhile Shao Yun grunted, he had forgotten to take a look at the bird’s level.
[You have killed: (D) Fel Talloneer. Lvl. 89]
[Level up: You have achieved level 82. Prophecy Bonus: +1 STR +1 AGI]
He smiled a bit, but unfortunately no matter how strong he was he had tried to fight one of the Guardians. But ignoring the endless ocean that was there, it was also just hopeless. They overpowered him, and even though he managed to maim deeply into one, the other two just made an attempt to instantly kill him.
Mildred whistled. “Shao Yun, the Unbreakable Blade, or so they call you. All I see is Human when inquiring.” She shrugged. “Who would’ve thought I’d be stuck in a Super-Nest with you.”
He shook his head. “It was unfortunate really.”
She scoffed. “Of course it's unfortunate, who would’ve thought the ocean that was a kilometer away would just instantly engulf the city as soon as we were in it. We are lucky some of the people had Prophecies to waterproof the base of our building. I hear in some of the buildings the first floors are unusable.”
He slowly nodded. “Now we are just biding our time, and yes we are lucky…”
“Waiting to die, you mean.”
He snorted and looked towards the three Guardians, only to see one of them looking at him. His mind whirred and then, the Guardian came their way.
“Oh shit!” Shao Yun panicked and grabbed the pieces of the bird. He couldn’t exactly let food be.
“What’s wrong?” Mildred asked, with some apparent panic seeing his reaction.
Shao Yun ran towards the stairwell. “We must leave this room!”
Mildred ran and became nothing but a shadow, Shao Yun felt a moment of weightlessness as he stood within the stairwell. Mildred next to him, spun and slammed the door shut, and at that moment— the entire building shook, the door rattled as the two heard a loud explosion threatening to rip the entire place apart.
“Please, please, please…” Mildred pleaded.
Shao Yun closed his eyes and prayed in his mind.
Eventually the shaking went away. And the both of them looked at each other, Mildred simply frowned. She was a woman of black short hair, with average appearance, her cover had been blown off.
“You fucking, moron, we could’ve—”
“Let's check if anyone died!” Shao Yun bellowed, making Mildred instantly stop.
She bit her lip. “Right.”
Mildred reached his arm and held it, in an instant everything became shadows as they appeared in the lobby. Shao Yun frowned, he was going to complain about being thrown on the first floor, but thankfully it was still water-proofed. Most of the people were huddled together and quivering, a woman huddled in the corner saw him and ran up to him.
“Leader, what happened?”
“Nothing, a Guardian attacked the building due to a monster.” He closed his eyes, deciding to keep the truth away. Mildred just snorted from behind.
The woman nodded hurriedly in a panic. “How do we evacuate?”
“We don’t.” Mildred scowled. “We just hope the fucker doesn’t attack again.”
“R-Right.” The woman shrinked. “Thank you for your help, Shao Yun.”
He waved her away as he looked at Mildred with a frown, but she just crossed her arms. Shao Yun looked at the glass in the first floor, cracks ran through it and he realized that the status quo that had been maintained so far couldn’t stay that way. Something had to change, but in the end all he did was sigh and go up the flight of stairs again.
Mildred followed after him with displeasure but said nothing. The footsteps echoed through the stairwell as time passed. Soon they made it where the monster had attacked, finding the door loose and with water flowing down. They ignored and marched up, eventually making it to the top floor.
Shao Yun peered the door open, the day was cloudy and overcast. He walked outside with Mildred simply standing in the doorway. With a thunderous boom, rain began to petter down before turning into a heavy rainfall. Shao Yun took it all in with closed eyes as he heard the whirling currents beneath him.
“So what do you do?” Mildred asked with a venomous tongue. “Just stay there and do nothing?”
With closed eyes he basked under the heavy rain. With closed eyes he thought. His body and muscles grew cold, but his spirit flared and raged within him as he spoke.
“We wait for salvation… I am sure it will come.”
Shao Yun stared at the raging maelstrom outside, hundreds of people huddled in the dark reception room as the water pounded against the sealed doors and windows. Murky with the occasional bone ringing dully against the glass. Whirling currents of death. Shao Yun was happy, initially anyway, they had found a human city. It had tall skyscrapers and beautiful views, though certain buildings had been broken by monsters. He thought it was american from the looks of it, he had seen one of those food chain restaurants for the first time in his life.
He breathed against the glass, his breath fogging up its surface. He could see the reflection of the sprawled figures across everywhere, so many humans, but among them there were some elves, they had grown friendlier to each other just from pure luck. They traveled together like a caravan of sorts. At first, Shao Yun’s journey into the New World wasn’t particularly great. It was riddled with danger and numerous other perils that lurked around him. He had a sword by his waist, and oddly enough even though he was nothing more than an IT Consultant when he first arrived in the Skirmish. He was afraid and scared of the perils in the forest, he held his need to go to the bathroom for three whole days because of it. But then hell started.
A nest of Leima Bats attacked him, and he found himself deep underground without food or shelter. All he could do was fight and swing his sword, all he could do was eat raw monster flesh to sustain himself. It was hard for him, it was a living hell, and the Guardian? It was a D Grade level 40 monster. He almost killed it, whittling it down with numerous wounds by the end of the Skirmish, but unfortunately he couldn’t get the final blow. Nonetheless, he managed to reach E-Grade at the end. Then he arrived at the New World, exhausted, and the first thing he noticed was the clattering around him, the shuffling of the bushes.
A group of Dire Jackals attacked him, E Grade beasts, he slew them without problem, but they kept coming. Unfortunately, there was no respite that he knew of.
Monsters were attracted to him; it seemed. He had found a free Prophecy to claim, something about parrying. To be honest he didn’t care too much, he just fought and fought and fought, but now he was in yet another conundrum.
He looked at the raging siphons outside, at the water of death and sighed, simply turning around and finding the stairs of the skyscraper. He was among the strongest humans in the group and yet he was totally helpless. He had seen the situation numerous times but even now he definitely wanted to make sure that he wasn’t seeing wrong. He went up the stairs, the impossibly long flight that would’ve taken his breath in the past was now nothing but easy work.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
The proverb rang through his ears as his footsteps echoed in the stairwell. He had taken his numerous first steps, now he was one of the leaders of the group of refugees — one building out of five — he had to hunt and provide for those beneath him, but he didn’t like being some hero, he had no choice. Then again, talk did not cook rice.
Footsteps echoed through the stairwell, and just as he was midway through, he heard a pair of footsteps join him. Shao Yun looked back, only to see a hooded figure walking right behind him.
“Mildred?” He asked.
Mildred, the hooded girl looked at him dangerously. “I know your kind.”
“We are all the same kind under The System.” Shao Yun shook his head. “What do you need this time around?”
However, in spite of his prying gaze the girl just stayed silent.
Shao Yun frowned and repeated from memory: “He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask—”
“Remains a fool forever.” Mildred finished for him. “I know that already, moron. I just find it strange how your lips make the wrong shapes and I still understand it. It doesn’t matter, I came to say that they were just spotted.”
Shao Yun ignored all of the insults and got to the point. “Where were they spotted?”
“Come.” Mildred turned around into one of the emergency doors.
Shao Yun followed after her until eventually they were in a large room, one that took an entire floor. Maintenance wires and paletes littered the place, but Mildred ignored them heading towards the lined windows. Shao Yun followed after her, examining the dust and some of the water damage. He looked at some of the exposed pillars and breathed a small relief. The building sometimes would receive damage, but thankfully it was still in pristine condition it seemed.
Mildred stood by the window, and finally Shao Yun peered. He saw the whirling currents of an ocean at the base of the building. His eyes followed as he observed the surrounding buildings, and in one of the windows he saw another human. The human also noticed Shao Yun and nodded at him before pointing to the east. Shao Yun’s gaze darted, and that’s when he saw it, at the center of the city, there were three gigantic snakes. Each one stronger than the other.
Shao Yun eyed them, once more confirming he wasn’t a match for them. Everyone hoped they would be much further away so they could escape. That was the reason they were regularly watched to begin with.
[Guardian Maker of Currents. Lvl. 125]
[Guardian Caller of Storms. Lvl. 115]
[Guardian Breaker of Winds. Lvl. 120]
He sighed, he definitely stood no chance. At that moment Shao Yun saw a shadow and in an instant it reached him. The glass broke apart as a gigantic bird flew in swooping for his head. Shao Yun grunted and with a flick of his sword, a shining light rang. The bird was thrown against the ceiling and rebounded back.
Shao Yun smiled and stuck his sword forward, with a shining red blade it hit the bird and it sizzled. The bird exploded into a cloud of fire, Shao Yun smirked, jumped and activated his best skill.
The Sixth Slash of Light.
He swooped down, doing a full spin mid air cutting in a full degree of motion. The ceiling, the ground, the window, they were all split in half along with the bird. Mighty crashing sounds along with thunder resounded as the rain poured. Meanwhile Shao Yun grunted, he had forgotten to take a look at the bird’s level.
[You have killed: (D) Fel Talloneer. Lvl. 89]
[Level up: You have achieved level 82. Prophecy Bonus: +1 STR +1 AGI]
He smiled a bit, but unfortunately no matter how strong he was he had tried to fight one of the Guardians. But ignoring the endless ocean that was there, it was also just hopeless. They overpowered him, and even though he managed to maim deeply into one, the other two just made an attempt to instantly kill him.
Mildred whistled. “Shao Yun, the Unbreakable Blade, or so they call you. All I see is Human when inquiring.” She shrugged. “Who would’ve thought I’d be stuck in a Super-Nest with you.”
He shook his head. “It was unfortunate really.”
She scoffed. “Of course it's unfortunate, who would’ve thought the ocean that was a kilometer away would just instantly engulf the city as soon as we were in it. We are lucky some of the people had Prophecies to waterproof the base of our building. I hear in some of the buildings the first floors are unusable.”
He slowly nodded. “Now we are just biding our time, and yes we are lucky…”
“Waiting to die, you mean.”
He snorted and looked towards the three Guardians, only to see one of them looking at him. His mind whirred and then, the Guardian came their way.
“Oh shit!” Shao Yun panicked and grabbed the pieces of the bird. He couldn’t exactly let food be.
“What’s wrong?” Mildred asked, with some apparent panic seeing his reaction.
Shao Yun ran towards the stairwell. “We must leave this room!”
Mildred ran and became nothing but a shadow, Shao Yun felt a moment of weightlessness as he stood within the stairwell. Mildred next to him, spun and slammed the door shut, and at that moment— the entire building shook, the door rattled as the two heard a loud explosion threatening to rip the entire place apart.
“Please, please, please…” Mildred pleaded.
Shao Yun closed his eyes and prayed in his mind.
Eventually the shaking went away. And the both of them looked at each other, Mildred simply frowned. She was a woman of black short hair, with average appearance, her cover had been blown off.
“You fucking, moron, we could’ve—”
“Let's check if anyone died!” Shao Yun bellowed, making Mildred instantly stop.
She bit her lip. “Right.”
Mildred reached his arm and held it, in an instant everything became shadows as they appeared in the lobby. Shao Yun frowned, he was going to complain about being thrown on the first floor, but thankfully it was still water-proofed. Most of the people were huddled together and quivering, a woman huddled in the corner saw him and ran up to him.
“Leader, what happened?”
“Nothing, a Guardian attacked the building due to a monster.” He closed his eyes, deciding to keep the truth away. Mildred just snorted from behind.
The woman nodded hurriedly in a panic. “How do we evacuate?”
“We don’t.” Mildred scowled. “We just hope the fucker doesn’t attack again.”
“R-Right.” The woman shrinked. “Thank you for your help, Shao Yun.”
He waved her away as he looked at Mildred with a frown, but she just crossed her arms. Shao Yun looked at the glass in the first floor, cracks ran through it and he realized that the status quo that had been maintained so far couldn’t stay that way. Something had to change, but in the end all he did was sigh and go up the flight of stairs again.
Mildred followed after him with displeasure but said nothing. The footsteps echoed through the stairwell as time passed. Soon they made it where the monster had attacked, finding the door loose and with water flowing down. They ignored and marched up, eventually making it to the top floor.
Shao Yun peered the door open, the day was cloudy and overcast. He walked outside with Mildred simply standing in the doorway. With a thunderous boom, rain began to petter down before turning into a heavy rainfall. Shao Yun took it all in with closed eyes as he heard the whirling currents beneath him.
“So what do you do?” Mildred asked with a venomous tongue. “Just stay there and do nothing?”
With closed eyes he basked under the heavy rain. With closed eyes he thought. His body and muscles grew cold, but his spirit flared and raged within him as he spoke.
“We wait for salvation… I am sure it will come.”
