Chapter 11 - Endless Conflict (1/2)
”that's one more! ICI how many left!?”
[DETECTING 439 ADDITIONAL CONTACTS]
”F.U.C.K ME!”
how many days had he been fighting? Dax had been tempted to ask ICI a thousand times by now, but he never did ask, because he that knew he wouldn't like the answer. how long time had passed he wondered, while crushing the throat of a toll with a well placed kick.
”UUURRRAA-”
”shut up! f.u.c.k why didn't it die the first time, am i getting tired?”
seeing that his kick was ineffective on the troll, Dax instead ripped its throat with his hand in annoyance
[LIKELY HYPOTHESIS: IT HAS BE-]
”i don't want to know! it's gonna make me even more pissed if you tell me!”
[INPUT CONFIRMED. NEXT CONTACT CLOSING IN]
when Dax had opened his eyes he didn't find himself inside the poorly metal cage at the outer gate of Black Hollow as he had hoped, but in a sea of fire. before he could get his bearings ICI had warned him about a large amount of mana in the air, and a immense explosion had followed, completely obliterating the giant wall behind him and opening it to a hoard of monsters. Dax felt like that had been weeks ago, he had lost track of how many times the white moon in the sky had passed over him already, but one thing hasn't changed in all that time: the monsters never stopped coming.
”F.U.C.K OFF!”
as the next hoard of monsters rushed at him, Dax picked up a dead guards spear and threw it at the biggest troll in the group, the spear instantly found its target, burying itself in the skull of the troll with a wet sound. the small amount of guards that had survived the sudden hellfire had been some of the fist to fall in the following battle, either to the trolls or by trying to flee into the hellfire that had reaped most of the city in moments. the first few hours had been the most mentally draining, screams of arguably unlucky survivors could be heard from time to time and the hardest ones on Dax's mind had been the close ones, even knowing that they couldn't be saved while the monsters where endlessly pushing forward. a few times he had tried to save some by thinning out the hoard rushing in the broken wall with pistol fire and tried to pull survivors out of the hellish fire, but all attempts had failed as there were no one to cover him as he made the rescue. the multiple unsuccessful rescue attempts had however depleted his ammunition, and made the following weeks of endless conflict all the more difficult, a few times when he had pulled back into the rubble of Black Hollow to rest monsters had swarmed him from out of nowhere, succeeding in causing a small amount of damage on Dax. the small amount of damage had mounted over the seemingly endless days and about a week ago the damage to his overall body had caused Dax to make an increasing amount of non lethal punches and kicks, tiring him out even more. his first fatal flaw was against a particular deformed troll, its head had been about one and a half times bigger than the standard troll he had become extremely well acquainted with over the last few weeks and its arms and legs had also been miss matched, probably because of significant inbreeding or some sort of disease. Dax had not given the particular specimen a lot of attention, only kicking it in the throat and destroying its windpipe like he had done endless times to its kin. it was only when a rare and skilled troll wielding a greatsword had appeared that his earlier mistake became apparent, the troll with the greatsword had posed a challenge and Dax had decided to wait and tire it out by staying near the end of its sword reach and pulling back slowly, as luck would have it Dax reatreated near the apparently not so dead deformed troll, and when he had come to close the misshapen troll had leaped forward and bit his leg, allowing the sword wielding troll to get a hit in that destroyed his cybernetic arm. the sword had hit Dax right on his elbow joint, shattering the cybernetic nerves and denting the joint making it useless, in a fit of rage Dax had shattered the rest of his elbow joint himself and used his now detached cybernetic forearm as a javelin, burying it in the head of the sword wielding troll before completely shattering the deformed trolls head with his free foot in a complete case of overkill while spewing a creative range of profanities. losing a limb had become a major disadvantage in combat and Dax had sustained severe injuries, enough to make his auto heal useless, leading to his present desperate situation.
”Yeah how do you like that bitch!”
stabbing a literal bich (female wolf) in the neck with a looted sword and killing it he then kicked the wolf corpse while pulling out the sword, the corpse hit a troll in the face, achieving only to piss it of more than it already was.
”UUURRRAAG!!”
”yeah d.i.c.k move i know, here accept my apology!”
tossing his increasingly dull sword at the troll, and hitting it in the throat, Dax scanned the corpse filled battlefield for a new weapon
”this seems nostalgic somehow…”
after losing his cybernetic arm an unknown amounts of days ago, Dax started to remember bits and pieces of his lost memory, battlefields filled with debris soaked in mud, blood and corpses - cybernetic and organic. in the mommories Dax killed, he killed in creative ways, in brutal ways and in the ways he had been trained. when his rifle had been depleted he used it as a bat, and when that broke he used his pistol, and then his knife, and then his fists. as his fist(s) and uniform became increasingly blood and mud soaked he started to feel more and more at home, at ease and he started to revel in it he felt a home on the battlefield more so than when he was off duty and he still did even when surrounded by monsters.
”i f.u.c.k.i.n.g love war!”
[BROKEN MEMORY SEGMENTS RECOVERED. SUSPENDING FAIL STATE SIMULATION.
FINAL SCORE:
6048 HOURS ELAPSED
785.412 PERFECT KILLS CONFIRMED
528 IMPERFECT KILLS CONFIRMED
99.9998% ACCURACY
FINAL GRADE: C]
”ARE YOU F.U.C.K.I.N.G KIDDING ME!”
finding himself in a completely white room with no walls floor or ceiling, Dax was apparently pretty damn upset.
[A ENDLESS SIMULATION WITH NO WIN CONDITION OR ICI ASSISTANCE WAS NECESSARY TO RECOVER LOST MEM-]
”yeah yeah i know that. but a C rating? really?”
[RATINGS ARE FINAL. GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK COMMANDER, OR AT LEAST PART OF YOU.]
”nice to meet you again ICI, suspend animation.”
as Dax once again opened his eyes he found himself in the same fragile metal cage he Incarcerated himself in. it seemed to be morning and lots of people were going about their daily life, the people of Black Hollow wore simple leather and cloth clothing with simple colors, or at least the ones having business near the outer wall. they were mostly humans but a few had longer ears or animal like ears and higher bone density, according to ICI that Dax had felt was even more a part of him. the guards didn't appear to want to try and kill him anymore, in fact they didn't even seem to mind his entire existence, and Dax wondered if he could just open the cage and walk out.
”haloo”
well someone did mind him, standing in front of the cage Dax was in stod a child about 4 years old. she wore a simple one piece dress and her short white hair and large green eyes gave her a overall innocent look
”hi, can i help you with anything?”
”are you a demonkin?”
”no i'm a qiton”
”what's a qyiton?”
”a kind of knights of honor and justice”
”WOOW! but what is that?”
”we stop evil people and help the weak”
”that's amazing! you're just like my dad!”
jumping around excitedly shouting 'amazing' for a bit, attracting quite a bit of attention from the morning commuters, before stopping after a bit and staring at Dax with big and curious eyes
”but then why are you in there?”
”because some people are afraid of me, so i locked myself in here so they feel safe”
”afraid? why?”
”are you not afraid of me?”
”nooope! my mom told me not to fear people because they are different”
”well ain't you just a whole bundle of joy and innocence, can i pat your head?”
”um! sure!”
”ara! so that were you went Claire. oh so you are awake now mister demonkin”
standing behind the child was a woman about 30 years old with the same hair and eye color as her.
”she's lovely and she has your eyes, how old is she?”
”Claire is 4 she's gonna be 5 next spring”
”you don't seem afraid of me either”
”i grew up in a demonkin trade city so i'm used to your kind, most are harmless, like you. my husband saw how you locked yourself in that cage and started to meditate 2 days ago”
”that was 2 days ago?”
”yeah it was, i saw you when i walked by yesterday morning about 6 guards was trying to stab you to death with spears but you didn't seem to mind, when i came by in the evening the guards seem like they were a bit exhausted, my husband told me later the evening that they spent most of the day trying to kill you without effeckt, that was hilarious”
”is that so? can i ask something else?”
”yes what is it?”
”can i please pat the head of this lovely and adorable creature that is your daughter?”
”ara, please go right ahead”
----
”good news Alice, i finally got permission from the lord to let Dax out, let's go pick him up”
”that's great! let's go”
Russell and Alice made there way from the the ranger barracks behind the inner wall through the one of the larger markes in Black Hollow filled with fruits, vegetables and meats from farms around the city.
”that reminds me, i haven't ever seen Dax eat, i wonder if he even eats?”
”well even if he's immortal as you say he at least have to eat at some point so let's get him some good food later”
”look Russell i know that you want to play the long game by buttering up to Dax, but please let me talk to him first and appolygize for having him put in a cage, then you can do whatever you want after”
as they arrived at the cages Alice and Russell saw a large mob of middle aged men standing around Dax's cage, some were laughing, others just looked on silendly.
”HEY what are you people doing!?”