ARC 1 : Chapter 3

Australia that had not seen any invasion, had been in the midst of building the largest fortress ever seen and it had been acting as a reserve of our forces and training ground for new-blood. For the previous four years we had been continuing our defence from Australia and New Zealand. I was 9 when all this started. I was lucky enough to survive as my Father was a 3-Star General of the United Nation Forces, and when the Human Martial Forces was established in 2024 , I was selected in the Beta squad under Sensei Hasashi and Master Chen, when I was 13.

Today is 28 June, 2041

I looked at the camo coloured uniform lying at the table beside my bed it had the name tag 'Paul Wright', with a Sergeant designation. Yes, that's my name. The uniform still takes on a drive through memory lane, it always had been my dream to fill in my dad's shoes and now I'm 1 step closer. "Hey, bro you done packing your stuff it's 10 mins until take off , let's get going or the Major is gonna take our ass", said a dark, medium built man, staring at me. "Almost done , Jamie , although I highly doubt the Major has such fetishes , but still we should go in time", I said cracking up a smile. Jamie burst out laughing. Jamie Finch , he is also a Sergeant and my buddy, we were in many deployments together and we also got promoted at the same time. After a short briefing we were sent out to the hangar where we were deployed at the Western Deserts of Australia. Currently there was an army of 150,000 Gargoyles and nightmare bats , along with a shipment of 5000 demon soldiers. The Demons and Fiends are classified into 4 ranks, namely : Soldiers, Generals, Commanders and Kings. Soldiers were clearly the weakest and the kings were the strongest , that we had ever seen. There was only one King that we had seen and he made us leave the Asian continent, finally it took the sacrifice of 5 Sages and 3 ICBM nukes to kill him.

After our landing we spotted the demons 2 Km away from us and we engaged them. It should be said that our Weapons were no longer the guns and heavy machinery but Swords, Spears, Shields, and Maces like the Medieval ages. My weapon of choosing was the Katana, the noblest of all blades. It has to attributed to my Sensei that I had taken up the Katana. And my cultivation of the Qi was from Master Chen, though Earth originally had no Qi, the invasion of the otherworldly forces reversed the natural laws and earth veins started forming and Qi was formed gradually, but this Qi on contact with the Vile and Corrupt Qi of the demons was corrupted. From this we found out their motive was to devour everything and change the very composition of our World to suit them. Anyways, in the Army we were taught to use the Qi and course it through our meridians and arteries to bathe our viscera and bones in the spiritual qi. With every 361 successful circulations the power of the cultivator increases exponentially.

*CLACK* *CLANG* *SHIIING*

I unsheathed my katana, that I was carrying in my left hand, with my thumb. I grabbed the handle and stabbed the blade straight at the junction of the lower jaw and throat of a gargoyle that was flying at me from above *jiiijijji* the blade penetrated the throat of the creature and drew out every bit of life from it. Every thing has a weak-point, the gargoyle's being its joints and throat. I twisted my wrist and used the katana to shield my back , a nightmare bat had sneaked up on me during this moment *CLANG*, its claws met my blade, the momentary impact stunned the creature and I used this time to side-step the bat, take out the Tanto knife I was carrying on my hip and stab it straight at the eye of the nightmare bat, it is prime-time to say that the head of the bat was as large as a basin and it was an easy task to stab it in the eye and one-shot it.*SPLACH* I pulled out my knife, picked up my katana's sheath and looked at the battleground, it was not a difficult battle and after so many wars were accustomed to the way of combat.

And with a force of 200,000 , we clearly out-numbered them. Turning around , I saw Jamie being ganged upon by two gargoyles and a nightmare bat. I threw my sheath imbued with inner qi towards the nightmare bat, with a loud bang one of its wings were crippled. I was already near an gargoyle and threw a punch circulating my qi according 'The Monolith Palm' incantation, at the elbow of the gargoyle breaking his arm, my interference had already took off the pressure from Jamie and he thrust his hammer towards the head of the other gargoyle, breaking it. *UHHH*, the crippled bat and gargoyle duo lay on the ground groaning in pain and we quite happily relieved them of their misery. When, we had nearly cleared out the battlefield of the monsters, the demon soldiers finally took the initiative to attack. These soldiers had good defenses, their only weak point was their horns, notwithstanding the fact that they can be defeated with overwhelming physical force too. So, killing demons 101: I launched myself at one of them, nearing him I jumped and threw a punch at him, unfortunately he ducked and thrust his club at my abdomen, I twisted my wrist, used my sheathed katana to bear the brunt of the attack and used that force to spin in mid-air and landed behind him, wasting no time I took out my sword and slashed at his back *SHUANG* , a deep cut appeared on his back with a spray of purplish blood. *GRRRR* *RAAAA*, uhhh-ohh, it's angry, "Crikey!!" I exclaimed and started exchanging blows with it, I flicked my sword to deflect the punch it sent towards my chest and another diagonal slash, it resulted in the appearance of another gruesome, bloody wound on it's face and chest and the sheer force of the attack sent it flying 10 steps backwards. The Sword move I used was The 'Quiet Meteor Shower', and it can be guessed that it's attributes were silence and explosive power. Even this high tier move was unable to kill off these bothersome creatures, well I never expected to one-shot it, I got near the demon, before it could react I had already taken hold of it's horns and pulled them off, red and greyish brain-matters flowed from the two gaping holes in it's skull. The Battle was already nearing it's end.

But before we could celebrate, we saw more than 20 towering figures along the horizon, Demon Generals!!!. "Shit, Retreat!" , I shouted.