It had been a few minutes since his sister had disappeared into the forest. One of the aliens had even walked past her as it sprayed the house with fire from its strange weapon. By wounding one of the worm-like creatures, he’d driven the others into a blind rage, and they ignored everything but him.
Now he just had to figure out a way to get out of this alive.
Kassandra popped up and pointed her gun out of the window at an alien charging their position. She snapped off two rounds; the bullets striking dead center in the head of the creature. The first bullet severing a tentacle which waved around frantically spraying dark blood, the second dropping the alien.
She ducked back down and examined her Glock pistol. “I’m out.”
He pulled back the bolt to eject the shell and found out he was out of ammunition as well. “Me too.”
Reaching down, he grabbed the revolver from his waistband. He handed the pistol to Kassandra, wishing he’d grabbed more weapons before they decided to distract the aliens. But hindsight was always 20/20. “It looks like they’re falling back. Take this and I’ll get some more ammunition and guns.”
“Will you go out for dinner with me?”
He stopped, stunned by her question. Was this beautiful woman really asking him out in the middle of a battle? “What did you say?”
She looked up at him with her big, beautiful eyes. “I said will you go out for dinner with me? I... don’t know if either of us will make it out of here alive. And I’ve wanted to ask you out for a long time.”
“It’s a date,” he said, forcing a smile as he turned back to Kassandra. “How about that Thai-German food fusion place you mentioned?”
“Ewww… I don’t even know how that would work,” she said. “Why not pizza like the old days? Do you still like root beer?”
“It’s my favorite,” he replied. “What sort of pizza should we order? Half cheese and meat lover like the past?”
“I’ve become a little more adventurous in my adulthood,” she said, grinning at him. “I eat pepperoni now.”
Warren laughed despite himself. This entire situation felt unreal. His old friend—who had become a gorgeous woman since he’d been gone—had just asked him out while they were under siege from aliens who looked like earthworms.
His laughter trailed off as he glanced out of the window, noting the aliens were regrouping along the tree line. The bodies of three of them twitched on the lawn, while another was slumped over the low wooden fence surrounding the backyard. In the distance, he spotted one with glowing golden armor approaching.
Is that their leader?
He patted her shoulder. “I’ll be right back. Shout out if they make another push.”
Keeping low, he hurried across the kitchen until he reached the living room. He threw open the door to the gun cupboard and pulled out a rifle and another revolver. Then he stuffed his pockets full of as many bullets and magazines as he could carry.
As he turned, he heard the deafening sound of the alien’s beam weapons again. The entire house shifted and dust drifted down from the ceiling like snow. The noise was followed by a thud and a pained cry.
Panic flooded through his veins as he raced back to the kitchen. He stumbled to a stop at the sight of Kassandra lying on the floor, a golden lance piercing her chest. Blood poured out of the wound, and she feebly grasped at the glowing shaft with her one good hand.
He scrambled over to her side and pushed her hand away. “We have to leave it in until we reach the hospital. I need to be able to control the bleeding before we take it out. You’ll be fine once I get you into surgery.” But even as he spoke, his words rang hollow. The location of the lance meant it had almost certainly pierced her heart. Unless he could get her to an ER in the next few minutes, she wouldn’t survive.
“I guess I’m going to miss our date,” she whispered, blood dribbling out of the sides of her mouth. “Order a pizza for me…”
Her words trailed off as her eyes glazed over. Then she slumped back onto the floor and her breath rattled out of her lungs. He’d heard the sound enough times in the hospital to know she was gone.
Kassandra was dead.
“Who the fuck did this!” he roared, rising to his feet and swinging the rifle around. He jammed a magazine into the weapon and raised the butt to his shoulder. “I’ll kill every last one of you fuckers!”
As he stepped forward, he rapidly pulled the trigger, spraying rounds into the line of charging aliens. The bullets stitched bloody holes across the nearest one’s torso. He then changed his fire to the next one. Each shot blew off a tentacle and made the creature screech in agony.
Warren’s vision narrowed as he stepped over the body of his fallen friend. As he did, memories of their time together flashed through his mind. He would make the aliens suffer for harming Kassandra. He would make them regret ever daring to invade his world.
The sound of the front door splintering made him spin around. An alien burst through the entrance, only to eat a face full of bullets. He fired until his magazine ran dry and then ejected it.
He jammed another magazine into the weapon as the house collapsed around him. The black beams lanced through the structure, burning down walls, and tearing gaping holes in the roof.
Another alien clambered through the kitchen window, slicing its disgusting undulating body on the broken glass. He raised his rifle to fire, but as he pulled the trigger, it jammed.
Dropping the weapon to the ground, he grabbed the revolver in his waistband and fired until the cylinder was empty. But the bullets were far less powerful than the rifles and the alien seemed to shrug them off.
He dove to the side as the creature brought up its snub nose beam weapon and swept the room with black fire.
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The alien let out a surprised squeak as he unsheathed the knife he’d found in the kitchen and launched himself forward. With one hand, he grabbed onto the waving mass of tentacles, making it shriek in a high-pitched tone. With his other hand, he plunged the blade into its slippery skin.
He stabbed again and again as they lurched around the kitchen. The alien slammed him against the cupboards, but he refused to let go. He continued to stab in a frenzy until at last the blade found something vital and the creature slumped forward.
Warren released the tentacles and stepped back. He was drenched in purple blood and he could see the other aliens would be on top of him long before he could reload. He glanced over his shoulder at the shattered front door, and saw a group of aliens massing in the front yard.
I guess this is how it ends for me.
He took a deep breath and dropped into a fighting stance with the knife held in front of him. At least he could comfort himself with the thought he should have bought enough time for his sister to escape.
Maybe I can take down a few more of these bastards before they vaporize me.
Then his gaze fell on a magazine sitting on the kitchen counter. In the chaos of the fighting, he’d forgotten his sister had grabbed a second one for the anti-tank rifle.
Maybe he wasn’t done fighting yet.
Racing forward, he grabbed the massive gun and popped out the spent magazine. He then slammed in the new one. With a grunt, he lifted the weapon and chambered a round. He glanced down the iron sights and watched as the alien with golden armor emerged from the forest.
It was holding a lance just like the one that had killed Kassandra.
That was the bastard that had killed his friend. He lined up the shot perfectly before he squeezed the trigger. The boom was louder than he expected, and the recoil nearly knocked him from his feet.
The bullet stopped short of the alien and bounced off what looked like a shimmering bubble around the creature. He grimaced as he ejected the cartridge and chambered another round. Did it have some kind of shield?
At the sound of the gunfire, every alien in range charged blindly in his direction. Apparently, shooting at the one in the golden armor really pissed them off. None of them even bothered to use their weapons as they ran. It was like all rational thoughts had left them except for the urge to protect the alien in fancy armor.
He waited until he had a clear shot before he fired again. This time, the shield shimmered around the alien before bursting into shards of light. The alien’s movements were jerky as it turned to flee.
Warren reloaded as he tried to ignore the horde of aliens growing ever closer. This was the last shot he was going to get off before they overran him.
He needed to make it count.
Squeezing the trigger, he winced as the butt slammed into his bruised shoulder. The bang rattled the kitchen cupboards, and the shot sped toward the alien. It hit the dead center of its strange head and the flesh exploded like an overripe melon. A mix of blood, flesh, and what looked like brain matter splattered over the nearby trees.
There was no time to fire again—the aliens had reached the kitchen window. He released the rifle and picked up the knife again. But as he prepared himself to meet his fate, the aliens froze in place.
Then they began to dissolve.
He could only watch in shock as the aliens closest to him disintegrated into tiny particles of light as they drifted away. Within a few seconds, he stood alone with the body of his friend in the kitchen.
Warren turned around and noted the aliens still remained in the front yard. But they looked lost without their leader. They milled about for a few seconds before retreating back into the forest.
Somehow, he had won. But at a terrible cost.
Warren walked over to Kassandra and knelt at her side. Her pale face looked almost serene in death. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought she was just resting.
Words appearing in his vision interrupted his thoughts.
The Eternal Emperor sends his praise, peasant. Through determination and bravery, you have defeated a squire of the Slaviigolaris Hive Faction. In honor of your victory, you have been granted the rank of squire in the Godaurian Empire. As the first of your faction to obtain a rank, a rare reward box has been granted to you.
After everything that had happened to him today, his brain barely registered the notification. He tried to dismiss it, but nothing happened.
A moment later, his wristband buzzed and when he looked down, his description had changed.
Immediately, new words flashed through his vision.
Please select a combat deck based on your faction’s mythology
- Superhumans
- Undead Horde
- Space Opera Heroes
- Fantasy Heroes
- Fey Creatures
Warren furrowed his brow as he read over the options. He tried to dismiss the menu—the last thing he wanted to deal with right now was choosing a combat deck—whatever that meant. But the notification persisted. Finally, he selected ‘Superhumans’ as he felt he had the most familiarity with it.
Another notification followed:
Harvesting souls commencing.
He frowned at the notification. The thought of harvesting someone's soul was vaguely horrifying. For most of his life, he’d been agnostic, and the revelation that souls existed hit him like a truck. But if they existed, he certainly didn't want to harvest them for unknown reasons.
Warren watched with growing alarm as a storm of light swirled around Kassandra. His wristband was harvesting his friend’s soul. Was it to power his combat deck?
“Stop!” he shouted, banging on his wristband. “Don’t you dare take her!”
But his strikes only managed to make his wrist ache and didn’t leave a single mark on the band. Within the blink of an eye, his friend was gone. He slumped to the floor and ran a hand through his hair. What the hell was going on?
Then a picture with Kassandra’s face appeared floating in the air in front of him. No, not a picture, he corrected himself; it was a stylized drawing. As more of the image took shape, he realized it was a collectible card. It had borders the color of burnished steel, along with stats in a box at the bottom.
The card showed Kassandra as some sort of assassin, though her name was different. She was wearing a tight latex catsuit that showed off every impressive curve and left nothing to the imagination. Her dark hair was drawn up in a bun, and she was seated on a chunk of concrete with a slain alien at her feet. In her hand, she was balancing a wicked looking curved dagger on the tip of her finger.
The card read:
After a second, the card faded away, leaving him alone in the kitchen. The only sound was the creaking of the roof, and the steady drip of water from the damaged kitchen faucet.
More than anything, he wanted to give himself some time to absorb everything that had just happened. But his sister was out there, and she needed him.
So, he pushed himself back to his feet and headed to the gun cupboard. Once he was armed and had salvaged some supplies, then he would set out over the mountain.
He’d already lost one friend today; he wasn’t going to lose his sister.