Drake Chronicles: Act 1 - A Champion In Exile

[Amity Drake]

Scene 1: Sent Away

Amity trekked his way through the forest with a certain dread hanging on his shoulders. Mir had called him out here with no explanation out of the blue after nearly a year of no contact. Thoughts clouded Amity’s mind just like the thick forest canopy that stretched out above him. Dark thoughts all but choked out what few light that dared to shine on him. Amity’s son was about to turn four next week, the hefty payment for the last job he was coming in, and the party was all planned out. Amity should be happy, but he couldn’t help but wonder when it came to Mir. Did Mir have a new challenger to her position? Was there something she found out about his father? Did she want to reconsider their relationship? There was no telling and it tore Amity apart.

The journey through the forest took about an hour in total, but the weight of the Dragon Slayer’s thoughts made it feel like an entire day. Emotionally, he was fatigued by the time he reached the foot of the mountain that Mir claimed as her holy place. She would be waiting for Amity at the crude little temple he constructed at the summit. Now, Amity could’ve taken the normal way up, a trail that took a whole day to climb, but he could not wait any longer. This was an urgent meeting that could not be delayed by taking the scenic route.

Shrugging his shoulders, ice began to roll off of his shoulders and flow into the shape of two long, jagged, crystal appendages. As more icy particles flowed, they took life and stretched themselves out like arms as three thinner appendages sprouted from where the larger one bent. The ice coming from Amity’s back was starting to like a pair of proper wings as a mesh of frozen strands stretched itself between each of the appendages like spider webs. In the end, the mesh melded with itself as turned translucent, like blue stained glass.

With his wings built, Amity took flight up the snow-capped mountain, ascending the height of the mountain with the fervor of an almost maddened man. The clouds were nothing but a slight visual obstruction and the frigid air was laughable as a hindrance as Amity approached the snowy summit. When he reached the peak, his icy wings dissolved into glistening particles, dropping him into the snow. From there, Amity trudged along until he reached a small wooden hut standing defiantly against the frost.

Using a little bit of effort, Amity threw the door open and was greeted by a rather plain, carpeted room. Inside, there was only a stove, a generous pile of firewood, and a sleeping mat. Mir was Closing the door, Amity started a fire and laid down on the mat, clutching the ring he was given by Mir. If this worked, then he would see his beloved in his dreams… and confront whatever she had to tell him. As the stove heated up the small hut, the warmth brought about a stupor of drowsiness that eventually put Amity to sleep.

Waking up in his Soulscape was usually a time to look forward to, a time where he was welcomed with open arms by Mir. However, this time, everything was foreign. Instead of the cosy log cabin they usual met in, it was a blindingly white room, reminiscent of how Mir first appeared to him. Fear spiked through Amity. Something must have happened for Mir to have thrown away all semblance of comfort and memories. What else could a husband think if his wife had erased their home from existence. A shiver ran down the Dragon Slayer from the coldness that radiated from the stark white that surrounded him, a coldness that not even his skin could repel.


Then, for a moment, all of that was forgotten when he caught sight of the woman he loved, Mir’eyel Yvvanix, the Angel of Strength. Amity’s eyes lit up as she appeared before him with her flowing red hair, delicate features, and ethereal appearance. It was as if she was barely there, but that was more than enough for him. Amity immediately went in for a hug, and the angel gladly met his embrace. In that moment, Amity almost forgot about all the worries he had, but he couldn’t help but ask, “Mir… why did you call me here? Couldn’t you have just visited me like normal?”

Mir eased out of the embrace and gave Amity a pensive look. That look immediately brought down any hope of the situation being okay. The angel’s words and tone did not offer any comfort either, as they were filled with authority and seriousness. “Amity Drake…my Champion… It is with a heavy heart that I must rescind my blessing upon you. I am sorry, Amity, you are no longer my ch-”

All of Mir’s properness fell away when she choked on her words and looked away from Amity as he stood with his mouth agape and in utter shock. Mir was taking away his blessing? WHY? HOW? WHAT HAPPENED??? As Amity tried to look his beloved in the eye, she kept turning away, “Mir! Please tell me what’s going on! Why are you like this? What happened? Please, baby, you’re scaring me...”

Those words hung in silence for several, dreadful seconds before Mir’eyel spoke again, “I’m so sorry, Amity… I can’t be your patron anymore, I can’t be your guardian angel anymore, I can’t be your lover anymore… They… they caught wind of our relationship...and they told me, either I kill you, or the both of us will die at their hands.”

“Oh God...” Amity fell to his knees. He knew full well who “they” were, and he had expected this since he professed his love for Mir. At some point, all the other angels would’ve caught wind that the two of them were in a romantic relationship and had borne a son. Amity just never expected for it to come crashing down so soon; he’d hoped that he’d be old and grey, and his son all grown up and able to defend himself, but that was just wishful thinking. “Do they know everything? Do they know about Charity?”

“I don’t know how much they know, but for sure, they are unaware of Charity. To them, it shouldn’t even be possible for me to bear a child. But it isn’t as if what I have to do will be any kinder to him than death. His mother could never meet him, and his father will be dead...”

“So this is how it ends? I just...die? I don’t get a chance to fight back and defend our love?”

“Amity, you are strong, but you are not strong enough to stand against all the other Soulbound Champions, even with my help… but you don’t necessarily have to die...”

“What are you talking about? I’ve been sentenced to death by the Soulbound Courts and you’re saying that there is a way out of it? Why didn’t you say that first?”

“It’s… as good as death. I’ve come across a tear in the fabric of the universe that leads to...elsewhere. I don’t know where it leads, but I know that the influence from the Soulbound does not reach that far. You’ll be safe from their influence, but I don’t know what dangers may await you on the other side.”

“Okay...so I can either go to this new world that will probably kill me or I can stay and die? What about Charity, what’s going to happen to him?”

“You’ve left him in the care of Hunter and Ophelia, correct? They will be his new parents, and he will be able to live out his life free from what haunts us. I know it sounds cruel and unreasonable, but this is the only way, Amity.”

“Why not? If there’s a new life that awaits me through the ‘tear in the universe’, why can’t my son come with me? Why do I have to be alone?”

“Because Charity won’t survive the journey… to travel through that tear… I can already feel just how painful of a journey it would be. You would barely survive as it is, with most of your powers being stripped from you, but Charity...he doesn’t have such power to protect him… Please, take my offer… I don’t want to have to kill you… In this new universe, you can forget all about the conflicts between the Councils and start again. Maybe you can even find yourself an actual woman to lov-”

“No! ...I mean…no… I don’t want to forget about this life, about you. I don’t want to find someone else. I just want you... ” Amity stood up, having pondered his love’s words quickly and perhaps not quite thoroughly. He didn’t want to leave his family behind, but what else was he going to do? Stand his ground and risk Charity getting hurt over a mistake that he made? No. “Mir, I don’t want to do this, but I’m going to do it anyways. If it means that you and Charity can be safe, I’ll do anything. Just… make me one promise.”[/b][/color]

Intrigue filled Mir’eyel’s face as she asked, “What is it?”

“Promise that you won’t have another champion...at least, not until you know I’ve died. I know it sounds selfish, but I want to know that you’re going to be loyal to me. Even in exile, I will remain your beloved, I just ask that you remain mine.”[/b][/color] Amity looked earnestly into his lover’s eyes and made his plea. He couldn’t bring himself to love anyone else, and he knew that Mir couldn’t either. However, by convention, Mir would have to have a champion to be her agent, another man or woman who would share a relationship with Mir like he did. Amity couldn’t even bring himself to imagine it, and he supposed that it was worth a shot asking Mir for this favor.

“I...Of course. Anything I can do, I will. In exchange, will you do one thing for me as well?”

“Consider it done.”

“Please don’t die until we’ve met again, Amity. I don’t want another champion or another lover, so even if you grow old and frail, hold on until we’ve had one last word together...”

“Now that’s quite a promise.” The two of them shared a chuckle, but Amity took Mir’s request with all seriousness. He wouldn’t die until he met her once more. Was it a fool’s errand? Absolutely, but love makes a man go mad, and Amity had never loved someone like he loved Mir. “But I promise, Mir. I’ll survive and I grow strong enough to come back and meet you and Charity again, however long it takes. When I come back, I will be strong enough that no council will dare to separate us again.”

“Amity...you’re a man that keeps his promises, so I will trust you to make good on your vow, just as I will.” With a wave of her hand, Mir allowed an egregious tear in reality to appear within the Soulscape. The rip hurt to look at, with its incomprehensible appearance, but Mir didn’t seem to be bothered. “One last thing, Amity… I love you...”

The Champion of the Soulbound Angel of Strength teared up as he heard those words, but instead of crying, he pulled Mir’eyel Yvvanix into a tight, loving embrace. Neither of them wanted to leave this moment, but Amity knew he had to leave, so he kissed her once last time before responding with his own, “I love you too… Goodbye, Mir.”

With his final goodbye, Amity Drake stepped through the tear.
Scene End

 

[Amity Drake]

Scene 2: Clinging On
What came afterwards was perhaps the most pain that Amity had ever experienced. Every fiber of his being felt like it was trying to tear itself away from him as a splitting headache and nausea filled his mind. It kinda felt as if every nerve of his body was being set on fire, put out with liquid nitrogen, and then doused in boiling hot alcohol. He could see himself flailing around, but he couldn’t recall moving his limbs as they bent themselves in impossible angles, only to reset themselves for another round. Amity wasn’t sure how else to describe it except absolute agony.
It didn’t take much longer for him to pass out. Whether it was the pain or an actual side effect from the tear was unclean, but it did offer some reprieve from the ordeal.

Amity was woken by the sounds of whirring and machinery, gently droning on in the background. Where was he? Some kind of factory? He groggily sat up with a grunt, his head still spinning from traveling through the tear. He groaned as he felt his entire body ache and just be… weak. There was no mistaking it, Amity was weaker than before. He could feel his Ice-Alignment greatly weakened and his Soulbound-Alignment just as tattered. Maybe it was Mir rescinding his blessing or maybe it was the tear, or maybe it was both. Regardless, Amity felt like he was an adult with the musculature of an infant.

There wasn’t time to recover, as the whirring and now some stomps began to approach him. He reluctantly opened his eyes, greeted by some kind of concrete room filled with vines and shrubs, as if it was abandoned years ago, allowing the plant life to take over with no resistance. That was strange, because the building was strangely modern. The closest comparison he could draw were to images of overgrown Soviet factories he’d seen in history class. Amity pushed himself up against the nearby wall, trying to stand up despite his limbs complaining.

As Amity attempted to get moving, the noise only grew closer until a silhouette emerged from the doorway at the far end of the room. The Dragon Slayer paused as he stared at it. Its form looked like a hyena, there was something deeply wrong about it. For one, even in the dark, Amity could see that its form was too sharp to be made of flesh, and its maw didn’t resemble any creature he’d seen before. To top it off, its eyes appeared to glow in the dark. He hesitated, but he chose to concentrate and look for nearby souls… only to find none. Whatever it was that stood in front of him… it wasn’t alive.

Immediately, the Spiritual Champion drew his sword as he used the wall to balance himself. He hoped that this creature wasn’t hostile, even as wrong as it was, but he had no such luck. The beast’s eyes turned into an aggressive red as it leapt into the light and let loose a tinny, artificial roar. In the dim rays that managed to slip past the foliage-shrouded windows, Amity got a good look at the foe he was facing. It was no beast, but rather, something out of a sci-fi movie: a quadruped robot covered in strangely clean metal plates of white and greys and oranges. Instead of teeth, there was a set of wicked looking grinders that were already spinning up with a terrible whirr.

For a moment, Amity stood in shock, but the approach of the machine quickly snapped him out of his daze. The Dragon Slayer pushed himself to the left just in time for the grinding maw of the mechanical beast to miss his head. He fell to the ground with a pained grunt, but he took the brief opportunity to point the tip of his sword towards the head of the beast. With a thought, he triggered the spell on the blade and extended outwards as fast as a bullet, piercing the steel, motors, and lenses that made up its head. The attack was enough to cause the machine to collapse to the ground, lifeless as it should’ve been.

A small breath of relief escaped Amity’s lips, but it was drowned out by the sound of several more thumps and aggressive whirring. If Amity had to guess, there were about four more of the same beast fast approaching. Judging by how easily the first went down, Amity was sure the others couldn’t be much stronger...the only issue was numbers. Killing an individual beast was a negligible threat, but a whole pack? If they had half a brain, they would be taking advantage of a split focus to draw out openings and attack from blindspots. If Amity was at full strength, he would have no problem, but being hardly able to stand meant that he was at a great disadvantage. “Goddammit… Mir...keeping that promise of yours might be harder than I thought.”

Grinding his teeth, the Slayer staggered to his feet and brought his sword up and pointed it towards the doorway. He could get two or three beasts with his blade, but from there… he would have to improvise. He closed his eyes and drew in several deep breaths, calming himself before the storm.

The dark hallway outside the doorway was lit up in an ominous red glow as the pounding of steel against concrete fast approached. The first beast sprang into view and dashed straight through the door. Amity took a chance and waited just a few more moments for the next machine to come into view. His gamble paid off, as another beast appeared in the doorway, charging up some kind of attack in its maw. The Slayer wasted no more time and triggered the spell on his sword. The tip of the Singing Steel blade tore through the middle of the first beast’s chest and skewered the second along where its spine was supposed to be. Three down.

Amity let go of his sword as the fourth one bounded onto the room, grinders exposed with some kind of energy building up behind them. The Slayer had fought enough dragons and played enough video games to have an idea of what was coming. He pushed off from the wall and made a dash towards the beast. Amity shifted his weight forward and twisted his hips counterclockwise as he threw his right arm out in a punch wreathed in ice. Ice met steel with a crunch, and Amity's fist came out on top. Ice and steel shattered, leaving the body of the mechanical beast in pieces before it could let loose whatever it had in store. Four down.

Was that all of them? Of course not. In a moment of false security, Amity placed his hand on the door frame to steady himself. He realized that a fifth machine awaited far too late, as it slashed at his chest. The attack missed, but the surprise was enough to send the Slayer stumbling backwards and granted the beast the opportunity to stand above Amity with its grinders revving up. Instinctually, Amity’s hands shot up to fight the spinning teeth that threatened to tear his face apart, holding the beast’s neck away from his own.

For a few seconds, there was stalemate, but it was broken by the glowing at the beast’s throat. At this close, Amity couldn’t overwhelm the power of the machine’s servos with his own strength and redirect the mouth; holding on was a death sentence. In another gamble, he loosened his fingers and pushed himself leg first through the legs of the beast above him. Though he was unable to clear the beast, Amity was still in a better position, as he wrapped his arms and legs around the abdomen of this death machine, pulling himself up like he was hanging off of rope. Before his foe knew what was happening, Amity had climbed onto the back of the beast and began to rip out anything that looked remotely loose. Some sort of radar device on its spine? Gone. Important looking wires? Gone. A big orange tank of who-knows-what? Gone. Piece by piece, Amity tore the beast apart, but he didn’t get far before electricity began to arc and the thrashing began.

Knowing that electricity was never a good sign, Amity allowed himself to be thrown off and across the room like a ragdoll as sparks made contact with fuel and set the beast ablaze. Seconds later, the fifth foe was down for the count, and Amity was… well, Amity was quite a bit worse for the wear. Nothing was broken, but he was absolutely certain he got a few new bruises with his dear friends: Second Degree Burns. “What the hell is up with the robot dogs? Is this Terminator???”

The presence of these robotic beasts sent dozens of thoughts racing through Amity’s mind. Who had the technology to make these kinds of things? Why would they make murder bots and send them out in to some kind of overgrown ruins? How many of these were out there? Where were they coming from? Are there any bigger ones? Many of Amity’s questions had no answer, but the last one… that one was unfortunately answered, as earthshaking stomps rang out from outside the building.

Amity stumbled to the window for a peak, only to regret it soon afterwards. A massive mechanical dinosaur...thing stomped on past, plated with the same pristine white metal as the smaller beasts that just assaulted Amity. That alone would be scary enough, but this beast of a machine also just so happened to be armed to the teeth with what looked to be head-mounted machine guns and hip-mounted rocket launchers. Yep… Amity was not going to touch that, not when he was dazed and hurt like this.

The entire time he could hear its footsteps, Amity held his breath and kept himself pressed against the wall. It wasn’t as if sticking to the wall was a particularly difficult task given the Amity’s current state. The concrete and foliage that made up the walls thankfully acted as sufficient cover from whatever sensors that monstrosity possessed. Amity waited an agonizing ten minutes, but on the bright side, the pain and bone-deep aching subsided in the meanwhile. By the time mecha T-Rex left, the Dragon Slayer could actually move like a normal person… somewhat.

After retrieving his sword from the scraped corpses of the robots, Amity limped his way out of the door and into the dark, crumbling concrete hallway. Vines and roots covered the walls, coming out of cracks in the concrete like they were asserting their dominance over the creation of man now that man was gone. Chunks of broken concrete and rusted scrap metal littered the floor, evidence of what those machines were hunting for perhaps… aside from him, that was.

He wondered what kind of place this was, that there were these robots that could imitate beasts like that. This was definitely a different world from what he was used to, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. His Soul Vision wasn’t very helpful against Soulless machines, which in it of itself was unnerving and deeply wrong. However, the lack of souls in machines mimicking life wasn’t the worst of it, and not even the hostility. Amity could understand hostility for trespassing or for their sake of their hunt. The problem was how heavily armed these beasts were; it was as if their creators had anticipated them to encounter and destroy resistance. A shiver went down his spine as he considered the possibility that the lack of civilization may be due to these mechanical beasts turning on their makers. It seemed as if Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics were never implemented in these bots.

Eventually, as Amity navigated the simplistic concrete structure with its hallways and stairways, he reached the ground floor exit. He didn’t know what to expect, but he still stepped through the vine-covered threshold with fearful caution and morbid curiosity into the world outside. “Well… no point in staying here. Let’s see what this world has in store...”
Scene End

 

[Amity Drake]

Scene 3: Into the Concrete Jungle
Stepping out from the dark, mossy hallway, Amity was greeted by a sight that he did not expect. From the room he woke up in, he was certain that he was only the abandoned sector of a town or small city; something that could’ve easily fallen to a couple dozen robotic dogs. Oh, how wrong the Dragon Slayer was. What awaited Amity was an entire metropolis.

His eyes were immediately drawn to the teetering skyscrapers overtaken by the local flora. The massive towers easily contained hundreds of floors each, and there were enough of them to cover the horizon from where Amity stood. He imagined that at one point in the past, these buildings would’ve stood tall and proud, attesting to the great civilization’s achievements… but now, they were just husks, reclaimed by nature and conquered by beasts. These skyscrapers were just the beginning. An urban cityscape sprawled out from the towers’ roots and blanketed countless miles of land with concrete and asphalt, only to be smothered by untamed plants. From the outside, one could see that the foundations of apartment sky rises and office buildings were no longer held by steel and cement; but rather, powerful roots and vines that only kept these husks from disintegrating out of self interest.

Overwhelming was one word to describe the scene, but haunting, beautiful, and serene fit the image just as well. There was a sense that attempting to traverse into the dead cityscape was to trample on the corpses of a long dead civilization that had died despite all that they have created. Amity entertained the idea that the destruction must have been some sort of divine punishment for attempting to bring progress too far. Were the soulless war beasts the line that was never meant to be crossed, or was there another, more egregious sin that brought about the downfall? Or perhaps there was no sin, and it was all just an accident. The Soulbound Champion was unsure which possibility was more unsettling, and the question gnawed at him as he stood on the cracked asphalt in front of his location of arrival.

Now, the Champion had to make a choice, and soon. The sun that hung above the apocalyptic landscape was gradually slipping down towards the horizon, and who knows what the night might bring? Amity could choose to traverse deeper into the city in hopes of finding supplies and shelter, but the likelihood of more hostile automatons just seemed too great, and he doubted that there would be anything edible. The second option was to move away from the city and try his luck at the wilderness, where the machines would hopefully avoid. Staying where he was definitely wasn’t an option; if the machines possessed any semblance of intelligence, they would probably send more heavily equipped models to hunt down the person who managed to destroy a whole pack of grunts.

While moving into the city was the gut feeling of Amity, the only thing that kept him from fully committing to the decision were the robots. If there was anywhere where they would set up factories, storehouses, and other important facilities, it would be the inner city, where they would’ve had plenty of time to fortify and prepare for intruders. On the off chance that there were still people living in this shell of a city, Amity would be willing to bet that they would be just as dug in as he expected the machines to be. He couldn’t help but express his frustration audibly, “Do I want to die by robot, a poisonous snake, or a jumpy scavenger today? ....Hell, I’m assuming that the robots haven’t killed the other two off for the choice to matter...”

In the end, Amity decided the city would be the place to go. While there were more places for any enemies to hold down a position, there were also plenty of places for Amity to hide. Besides, maybe Amity could salvage something usable even after countless years of just sitting there, like clothes, weapons, and processed materials. So, for the latter part of the afternoon, Amity spent his time along the cracked remnants of what must have been a highway before it was completely overtaken by plants.

As the Soulbound Champion traveled, he stuck to the edge of the road, close to the ditches, where he could easily hide if he spotted approaching monstrosities. However, strangely enough, he encountered no aggressive automatons for the journey. There were a few small robots that resembled boxy mouses skirting around, but they only scuttled away when Amity got close. The first couple of times, he had desperately leapt into the bushes in anticipation of a pack of metal-plated hounds to come for his flesh. By the umpteenth time, seeing these mouse bots, Amity had learned that they posed no immediate threat, and that was perfectly fine with him. He preferred to stay out of fights while he was so weak and battered.

The sun had dipped beneath the horizon of the buildings when Amity heard the gunshots. Sharp, echoing cracks and artificial roars cut through the shadow-shrouded urban landscape ahead of him. Amity immediately went on alert and darted into a nearby derelict building, concealing himself behind an old counter. He awkwardly drew his sword from his crouched position as he peaked over the stone countertop. Just a block away, he could see blue plasma bolts streaking through the air as over a dozen mechanical hyenas followed. Though the assault seemed fierce from where Amity hid, the beasts were no match for the precise shots that shattered their ominous glowing optics. Still, the horde was unrelenting, and Amity could see larger beasts in the advance.

Going against any regard for his safety, the Soulbound Champion vaulted out of the ruins in which he hid and ran towards the action. As he ran, he brought up his sword and flicked it outwards, sending a blade through the torso of one mechanical hound. No sooner than when the first one fell, did the others take notice of the new threat approaching from their flank. A detachment of four split off from the main assault and set their glowing mandibles on Amity, letting loose bursts of plasma bolts.

Amity dove to the side, narrowly dodging the first volley as his blade shot out and all but decapitated one. Undeterred, the three remaining machines charged up for another burst, giving Amity the opportunity to run into a building, taking advantage of the protection to get in close. Still, the bolts came flying, even though there was a wall breaking line of sight. Clouds of dust, concrete, and drywall filled Amity’s vision as he ran. Occasionally, a few bolts would make it past the walls, and one bolt was lucky enough to manage a graze on his shoulder.

Again, there was a brief respite where the shots had to be recharged or the blaster had to cool down. Whatever it was, Amity took advantage of the lull to send two rapid thrusts towards a bot, severing head and leg. He even had the time to cripple the leg of another beast, but before he could properly take them out, the crude formation let loose another burst of energy bolts, destroying what remained of the wall that Amity used as cover. By now, the distance between Amity and the machines was small enough that true melee was possible.

The Dragon Slayer lunged towards the nearest foe and thrust his blade forward, shearing off several darkened armor plates and sending sparks flying into the darkening streets. Amity scowled a little bit at the glancing strike; he was getting rusty. Without missing a beat, the sword was pulled back and sent forward into another thrust. This time, however, he didn’t even get to land a hit.

The second beast pounced and dug its grinders into Amity’s arm. Thank God for the bracer that he wore, otherwise, his arm would’ve been turned into a bloody mess by now. The boiled leather took the brunt of the damage, giving Amity just enough time to use the pommel of his sword to bash in the head of the machine on his arm. The first strike dented a metal plate, the second shattered an evil red eye, third stopped the grinders’ spin, and the fourth freed him from the beast’s grip entirely. With a kick, he knocked the monster off its feet, leaving it open to a finishing blow straight to the heart… or whatever was in the place of a heart.

Just as the tip of his sword pierced the steel carapace of the downed machine, the last automaton dug its claws into Amity’s back, tearing through his overcoat and meeting his skin. Luckily for him, it seemed as if he had recovered more of his prior durability since he came to this world, with the claws failing to pierce his skin. That said, it wasn’t as if it didn’t hurt. Amity let out a growl of pain as he left the blade in the wreckage of the prior beast and turned his attention to the final aggressor.

He spun around and grabbed the leg of the beast, holding it in place as he threw a right cross straight into its face. As he threw his body’s weight into the punch, he also encased his fist in a shell of ice that acted as a weighted gauntlet and force multiplier. When the punch connected, the result was far more violent than what had occurred just hours before. Ice spread through the steel chassis and whatever liquid ran through the veins of the mechanical beast, turning everything brittle enough to crack under its own weight. The force of his fist was the final push needed to shatter the beast into pieces.

Heaving, Amity turned to find that the assault was waning; most of the smaller grunts were just nothing more than scrap metal, and the final ones were being shot at already. However, the assault still wasn’t finished, as two massive four-legged robots were laying down continuous streams of plasma. Each of them was easily just as tall as a person on all fours and plated like an armored car. These beasts, however, were not as pristine as the ones Amity had encountered earlier. Dark vines snaked across their bodies and tainted bits of the once white armor with its vile overgrowth. Their roars were also different, deeper, and more organic than they should’ve been.

Before Amity decided on a move, a man wielding nothing but two crude stone hammers charged at the first beast, screaming with what Amity could most accurately describe as excitement. This man looked oddly barbaric to be fighting machines, but it seemed as if his powers were great enough to stand on his own. The barbarian leapt into the air and came back down with an earth shattering slam and caused spikes to shoot out from the ground, causing his target to stumble as he swung his hammers in the air. Out of the stone came orbs of energy that exploded against the steel skin of the monster, sending several armor plates flying into the air. Wherever that warrior got his powers, it sure was effective at keeping the machine distracted as bullets came flying towards the exposed innards.

For a moment, the Dragon Slayer dared to look back at where the bullets came from, and there, he saw only two more men standing against the onslaught. The first was adorned like the barbarian, except he had a bow as a weapon. The second man, however, was much more modern, wearing military gear and wielding an assault rifle. The two took advantage of the distraction the hammer wielding warrior made to attack.

Bullets tore at the unarmored electronics while the archer began to launch a volley of flaming arrows. Amity wondered why fire would even be remotely effective against machines, but his doubts were put to rest once the flaming payload was delivered to the monster. The burst of flames seemed unimpressive at first, but then, a second explosion occurred that set the entire mechanical creature ablaze and thrashing. Before long, it collapsed to the ground the archer must have known that he could exploit the fuel these things were running on!

With one of the hulking quadruped tanks dispatched, the hammer warrior immediately tried to assault the second. However, before he could swing his hammer, the second monster went in with a vicious bite, catching the hammer man in its mechanical teeth. It thrashed the man around while its jaws cackled with electricity, before discarding the man to the side like a doll. Immediately afterwards, it made a charge towards the archer and rifleman, roaring as zigzagged down the street.

Seeing the erratic behavior of this beast, the archer dropped his bow and pulled out some kind of crude gun, firing a spike attached to a wire at one side of the street, and a second spike across the street, creating some kind of tripwire. The Dragon Slayer watched as the beast ran straight into the wire, triggering an explosion of electricity that stunned it for a moment. The rifleman capitalized on the lack of movement and lobbed a glass bottle with a burning cloth sticking out the top: a molotov cocktail. The incendiary device shattered, and the liquid inside caught on fire, covering the robot in flames. This machine did not go down as easily as the first, seeing as it soon resumed its charge, only more erratic than usual.

When the archer and rifleman saw that their efforts weren’t enough to stop the beast, they took the only sensible option left: get out of the way. The two men split up and ran into nearby buildings for cover as the charging colossus approached. Though the men took cover, their attacker did not relent, choosing to go after the archer by ramming straight into the archer’s building of choice. Long, bursts of gunfire from the rifleman was an attempt to kill the mechanical fiend, but they only had a negligible effect. The archer was trapped, and if nothing was done soon, he would die.

Amity had been observing long enough; it was time for action. The Dragon Slayer couldn’t leave a man to die at the hands of a savage machine, especially when the very job of a Slayer was to protect the innocent. He didn’t even bother to retrieve his sword as he sprinted towards the colossal automaton. As he approached, the rifleman took notice, stopped firing, and began to shout at Amity in a language he didn’t recognize. While the words didn’t make sense, he understood the tone perfectly well: the man was warning Amity to stay away. The Dragon Slayer paid no heed as he wreathed his fists in ice; he was going to do the only thing he can do in his weakened state: punch the crud out of the colossus.

He leapt into the air and wrapped his right hand around his left first, forming a single chunk of ice that he brought down on the side of the colossus. Against the sheer force of the strike, metal crumpled and easily gave way to Amity’s hands. As his hands sunk into the abdomen of his foe, ice spread across the machine’s internal mechanisms. Motors slowed down, batteries leaked powers, fuel grew viscous, and synthetic muscle began to freeze. Amity had dealt a devastating strike, but it wasn’t enough.

A pained roar escaped the colossus, a strange reaction, as it presumed that it could even feel pain. It sluggishly looked at Amity with its red eyes, giving off the impression that it was enraged. For a moment, Amity met its gaze, but immediately afterwards, it turned around with surprising agility, ignoring the ice that had spread through its internals and smashing concrete pillars to get out of the building it was previously stuck in. The speed at which it moved was greater than what Amity could keep up with, and before he knew it, he was in between the jaws of the monster. The Champion could feel the metal teeth pierce his skin and electricity begin to cackle, so in desperation, he began to punch at anything he could reach: the eyes, the neck, the jaw, they were all targets of his icy fists.

The first several strikes were all but ineffective, as they lacked any leverage and only glanced off of the colossus’s armor. Between the pain and the mechanical roaring, Amity could hardly hear the shouting of the archer and the rifleman, but he certainly felt the effects of their actions. He could practically feel the bullets narrowly missing him by inches as the rifleman tried to gun down the monster holding Amity. Somewhere along the way, Amity was sure he shouted, “Goddammit! Don’t just shoot at me!”

Several more punches were delivered to the head of Amity’s restrainer by Amity himself. This time, he managed a few solid hits that must have rendered most of the automaton’s sensors to scrap. However, it wasn’t enough, and he could feel himself begin to pass out thanks to the razor-sharp metal teeth in his torso and the electrical current that came from said teeth. The archer appeared to deploy a final trick. It was some kind of arrow that released high pressure jets of air that stripped the armor from the beast, exposing it to the rifleman’s gunfire.

The military man saw the opportunity present itself and pulled out a double-barrelled shotgun, emptying both barrels straight into the beast’s side. It took a reload and another volley before the steel monstrosity collapsed, loosening its grip on Amity. However, by that time, the Dragon Slayer’s body was no longer responsive thanks to his injuries. Despite the archer scrambling to Amity’s aid and shouting at him to stay awake, Amity ultimately passed out.
Scene End

 

[Amity Drake]

Scene 4: Three Hunters
Amity woke to the sound of a crackling fire, a dark sky, and low talking among several men. He stirred, reaching for his abdomen, expecting to feel blood and holes in his body. Much to his pleasant surprise, there were no holes, only several trauma bandages where the holes should’ve been. Of course, it didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt; getting chewed on was always going to be painful, no matter what. He tried his best to get up from the little makeshift sleeping mat that was his overcoat. With Amity’s grunts and shifting, the men’s attention was turned to him, with the rifleman helping Amity lean against a nearby wall and the archer pulling out a vial from his pouch.

The archer uncorked the vial and offered it to Amity insistently, his voice low and almost fatherly, “Here, drink this. It will help with the pain and the healing process.”

The Soulbound Champion took the vial and down the liquid inside. He gagged at the taste and texture, but managed to force it down once offered a drink from a canteen of water. This was not like the healing tonics he’d often use. Those had the consistency of water and tasted like cherry, while this... this was almost slimy and tasted like raw meat… kind of like lard. Though it was undoubtedly nasty, he could feel the effects almost instantaneously, with the sharp, piercing pain in his abdomen quickly subsiding and being replaced by a mild burning sensation. “Wow... That was...”

“Disgusting? Repulsive? Foul? I agree. I’ve been telling the old man to improve his recipe since we met.” The soldier spoke up, his gravelly voice thick with a Russian accent. Now that the pain wasn’t blurring his vision, he got a good look at his saviors. The man was definitely a soldier, judging by the urban camouflage, the modern body armor, the night vision goggles, the weapons, and the extremely practical usage of the MOLLE straps on his vest, which carried grenades, throwing knives, a radio, and shotgun shells. If that wasn’t enough, the clean shaven face and the jaded, no-nonsense voice were sure indicators.

“Don’t mind the taste, it can’t be helped. Are you feeling better?” The archer was an older man, contrasting the clean shaven soldier with greying red hair in dreadlocks pulled into a mohawk and a beard braided like a viking reaching dangling down to his chest. The archer was dressed like a futuristic barbarian, with his clothing being made of furs, leather, and roughly woven cloth, and his armor made from pristine white metal, like that found on the machines they fought earlier.

“Yeah… that gross potion is definitely helping.”

“Hahaha! It may not taste the best, but it is still good kife!” The last man cheerfully exclaimed as he downed a vial of his own. Out of the three this man was definitely the most primal looking, wearing a leather vest lined generously with fur and various necklaces and armbands decorated with teeth and bones. On his back, he wore a large set of antlers that acted as a backpack, carrying a spear and several other supplies. The hammer man’s black hair and beard were untamed and only swept to the side like an afterthought. The effects of battle earlier were obvious, with the man’s torso being covered in trauma bandages, just like Amity.

“Eista is right, it’s good for you.” The archer took the empty vials from the two injured men and put them back into his pouch. He took out a hand full of metal scrap and a pair of small bolt cutters, using them to cut the scrap into little triangles...arrowheads. “Anyways, we should introduce ourselves; I am Rost, a Nora Outcast and machine hunter.”

“I am Hunter, Ranger of the Spartan Order in Moscow. If the term ‘Spetsnaz’ has any meaning to you, the Rangers are the closest thing you can get in a post apocalyptic world like this.”

“And I am Eista, the greatest hunter in the galaxy!”

“Nice to meet you guys. I’m Amity Drake, Dragon Slayer and Champion of Mir’eyel, Angel of Strength.”

“Well aren’t you Prince Charming? Shouldn’t you be rescuing a princess instead of wandering through a dead city?” Hunter rolled his eyes as he began to disassemble his weapon and clean its internal parts.

“Don’t mind Hunter too much. He can be a bit of a downer. We’re all just a bit tired and weary lately. The Machines have been getting more aggressive as of late, making it rather difficult to hunt them without drawing an entire horde like today.”

“I see no problem! I welcome the challenge. Was not the slass we had earlier truly amazing? Here, have some kife to grow strong! When we recover, I look forward to having a brilliant slass with you, Gai-do!” Eista pulled a skewer of questionable looking meat grilling on the fire and handed it to Amity.

The Dragon Slayer took the meat and took a big bite out of it, not really caring about its origins. He was damn hungry after all the fighting, and it wasn’t as if he wasn’t used to eating strange animals for food. “Slass?”

“It means fight. Eista is very passionate about fighting...may be a bit too passionate, but he’s right. Your help today was very much appreciated. That Ravager almost got me, and Hunter wasn’t carrying the firepower to hunt one of those things. I’ve never seen one so aggressive and alert before. Usually, we would be able to sneak past it, but that time, it immediately sensed us and called a whole pack of Scrappers!”

“Most of the dogs we killed today didn’t even have the valuable parts salvageable. There’s something that’s pushing them to push past their operational limits while gunking up their internals at the same time. We only got about two days worth of pay from a horde worth a week. блядь...”

“Yeah, and most of the salvage teams are squeamish coming this far out to collect cheap scrap, which means we probably won’t even get all two days’ worth. That is…” Rost looks at Amity with interest and expectation. “...unless someone helps us out.”

“What are you thinking about? I’m not exactly in shape to drag a couple hundred pounds of steel to who-knows-where...wait...are you saying that there’s more people out here?”

“Of course! Markov is the only city left on this planet, but it is quite an impressive city. It’s not in my blood to stay in a city though, so I come out here to hunt!”

“Don’t worry about dragging anything; we have a truck for that. The only problem is that with the amount of scrap we have, only the driver will be able to ride, so the rest of us have to walk, slowing us down considerably.”

“Two people are not enough for an escort. Rost is supposed to act as scout, Eista watches the flank, and I drive. Where’s the rearguard? We couldn’t afford any mercenaries willing to go past 5 miles of Markov. Cowards, the lot of them! But you...” Hunter pointed at Amity almost accusingly, “You can handle yourself and you’re not afraid of a few machines! Help us out and we’ll buy you a nice hot meal and a few drinks afterwards!”

“You guys aren’t going to pay me for the work I’m doing?”

“Are you daft? With the money we’re getting from this job, a hot meal and a few drinks are all we can afford! You’re lucky we even made you an offer!”

“Look, Amity, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but we can’t spare much. All we can promise you is that we can bring you back to Markov. You don’t seem like you’re from around here, and let me tell you from experience, not having your bearings on Cevanti can get you killed or pretty damn close to it.”

Amity wasn’t really concerned about the money, but he was a little bit cautious just walking into a city while blindly following three strangers. Sure, they saved him from getting killed by a wild machine, but there were fates worse than death. The Dragon Slayer looked into the eyes of Rost for a few moments before determining that he was a genuine man. He took a moment to look at Eista and just saw pure passion for the hunt. Hunter, however… was a little bit more questionable, but with Rost and Eista, Amity had enough to trust. “Alright. I’ll help you out. Just promise me you guys won’t just dump me in the middle of the city to fend for myself.”

“Don’t worry about it! If anything, we will drag you back out for another hunt, Gai-do!”

“It’s settled. We’ll load up the buggy and head back to Markov in the morning. Eista...Amity… Get your rest; you’ll need to recover. Hunter and I will take turns on watch.”

If the Dragon Slayer wasn’t so damn tired, he would’ve protested leaving the watch to just two people, but sleep calls. He shuffled over and laid back down on his jacket, with sleep quickly overtaking him.
Scene End