History Repeats Itself (2)
In front of officer Reynold, a ripple in space formed. Soon, it turned to a crack, then finally, a tear in space itself formed. Out of it stepped the General of the World-bloody-Military, Henry Cain himself. Just as he did this, the portal began to pulse with energy. "The horde…" the technician muttered.
Inside the portal was chaotic. Just a few minutes prior, the group found a great vein of relatively high quality crystals, leading to the two porter's packs filling up completely.
"Great work!" Yarn said with a sleazy smile. "It seems like we'll be able to return with time to spare! Drinks're on me, boys!"
"""Hurrah!""" the other raiders cheered, excited at how efficient this raid had been.
However, as the planet itself had planned it, the ground started to rumble. "Huh?"
Everyone turned towards the source of the vibrations, but saw nothing. Currently, they were in a valley of sorts, thus on either side they were surrounded by hills. The only person who had realized what was happening was the resident nerd, Leon.
'Horde,' he immediately thought. Lord only knows what would have happened if he didn't do what he was about to do right now. Still, it's silly to dwell on the past.
Thud– He dropped his pack.
The raiders looked over to him. "Gotta piss, kid?" one of the miners joked. His smile was wiped off his face when he saw that Leon was absolutely booking it west of their position. "What the-"
"Leave him!" Yarn said, running over to the pack himself, swooping it up in one quick motion. "FUCKING RUN!!!" he yelled with none of his previous sleaziness or charisma.
"Why?" one man asked. "We still have six-ish hours left in this portal?"
Yarn didn't respond to this question. He was a rat of a man– no, a cockroach. He wasn't the brightest, wasn't the strongest, heaviest, tallest, most handsome (though he liked to think he was)... but he was something. Clever. Hard to kill. Decisive. On top of all of that, he had been in quite a few raids, so tack on experienced.
Never had he ever felt a feeling like he did when he saw Leon sprinting away, but when faced with trusting his instincts or not, he always chose the former.
Shrugging their shoulders, the group followed suit half-assedly. However-
"KKKKRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"
"""!!!"""
Everyone except Leon turned their heads to look, and a bit of wee definitely shot out of each their privates. A horde, so large the eye couldn't see the end of it, came barreling over the hill. Those same quadrupeds they had been decimating before were coming towards them with enough numbers that they literally shook the ground they stood on.
"RUUUNNNN!"
Adrenaline pumped through each of their greasy veins, spurring every individual after their leader– nobody bothering to look at the kid who was running parallel with them, away from the portal.
Their strategy was simple; run to the portal. Leon's was, however, backed by science: Hordes were fundamentally clunky entities. They are dangerous to anything and everything in front of them, but beside them? Practically harmless. In an instant, Leon had determined that the distance they had covered since entering the portal was too great for him to make it back as an unawakened individual, thus he had to gamble on the risky strategy: run farther into the planet- farther into the ravine.
If he managed to escape the horde's radius, he still would have to find a way back to the portal before they closed it. Even if he got there, what's to say the horde won't surround it, making it impossible despite any effort he puts forth?
Hesitation and feelings of doubt were irrelevant as Leon ran the skin off his feet. Every fiber of his being was numb and riddled with lactic acid. Each breath felt more and more labored, and his mouth had long ago run dry. After nine minutes of all-out sprinting, he finally looked to his left, only to feel all the blood in his body run cold.
'Oh god…'
He had escaped the horde's radius due to his quick thinking… but…
The horde weren't the only monsters on the planet.
For a moment, both him and a group of five monsters looked at each other. He was frozen in exhaustion and dread, while they were eying him up (with their mono-eyes).
(a/n: evil Mike Wazowski-ahh creatures)
It didn't take long for each and every one of them to salivate. Leon was a fat chicken in a den of coked out foxes– so to speak: Dead meat.
Wasting no more time, he pushed his body further past its limits and sprinted on. By pure human standards, Leon was a fit kid. The fact that his body was even capable of what it had done so far is almost unbelievable, but it isn't enough.
'Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease-'
Leon begged any and all real-or-not higher power he could, and his "prayers" were somewhat answered. A hole, off in the distance. 'It's something!'
Thus, he did all he could: Tuck tail and run. Not once did he look back, but he could literally smell them getting closer. It was like those little devils were enjoying him running for his life, but quickly, his feelings of hope turned to more dread.
The hole wasn't some magical exit or safe haven, it looked like a bottomless pit, and it was far too big and dark to be a simple sinkhole. Weighing his options between being mauled to death and pancaking? He… he didn't know.
His mind went blank as his legs lost power. His mind was terribly starved of oxygen from the all-out sprint he had done for longer than he could think. 'Damn it all!'
"Ghhaaah!"
A gash on his back formed, four centimeters wide and equally deep. The time was now.
"Haap!"
He jumped.
"""KREEE!!"""
The group of monsters screamed after him, not following the suicidal maniac into the bottomless pit of certain death.
In this moment of respite, Leon's life flashed before his eyes. All the sleepless nights grueling over academics he was never again going to use, all the countless beatings he had received from his peers for being "better" than them, for "not knowing his place". All the time and youth his Aunt had wasted away taking care of him…
'I can't die here!'
He snapped out of it. With the last remnants of his strength, Leon braced for impact. If he was to survive the fall, at least on impact, he had to somehow slow his descent and land on his lower half. It may eviscerate his legs, shatter his spine, and destroy most of this organs, he had to try.
Drifting over to the walls of the hole, Leon stuck his arm out-
"GHHHHAAAAAAAKKK!!!"
Almost instantly, his arm was brutalized– ripped from its socket. Still, sacrificing it had slowed him down a little bit, and just in time.
'Ground!'
He stuck his legs out. At these speeds, all he could do was pencil towards the floor, sacrificing his lower body. He didn't have the strength or coordination left in him to roll, not to mention he was still moving at a dangerous speed.
'3… 2…' the world seemingly slowed down. Leon caught a glimpse of red and green light at the bottom of the pit, '...1…'
SPLAT~
The impact was severe and horrible. Leon's legs were irreparable, as was most of his lower half. He had turned into a smoothie-man, half sludge half something resembling a human. He was practically dead, but his brain still was working overtime. Time had seemingly slowed to a crawl, one slower than even him.
…
At this point, he had stopped breathing, his heart had stopped beating, and his vision was darkening.
'...ble…'
"?"
'...touch…marble…'
'.wh…a…t…?'
| 'TOUCH THE MARBLE!!!!' |
A sudden burst of life flowed through the pieces of Leon that were still functional, all responding to the message they had received.
Touch the marble.
It was there! The whole time, he was focused on the fact that he was dying, or was he already dead? Leon had no feeling, no thoughts left outside of… touch the marble.
It was beautiful and bright. So smooth. So green, yet so red. It was mesmerizing.
He crawled with his remaining arm– more like inched– towards it. It was only a few centimeters away, yet that distance seemed to grow every nanosecond. His time was running out, but just as everything faded to black, his finger brushed against the marble.
'DO YOU ACCEPT-'
'Yes.'
.
.
.
The raid group had been reduced to just 1/3rd of its original size. The slower ones had been ruthlessly devoured by the horde. It wasn't really their fault, though.
This planet was an anomaly among anomalies. The majority of it was completely uninhabitable, without an atmosphere, even– yet there were monsters here?
How was the gate an E-rank?
If someone had a satellite's view of the planet, they would understand every question, yet a hundred more would come after.
A small 200km radius around a point was habited by a single organism; that freaky quadrupedal monster, and there was an E-rank planet's worth of them in that small zone. That's why the horde was so daunting. That 200km radius was also the only place with an atmosphere, breathable air, and mana crystals.
Again, why?
The answer was in the hole Leon had fallen into.
None of the remaining raid team could care less about the "why?" or "how?".
Yarn was escaping with all his might, and despite it being what he was best at, he was about to fail. The horde was closing in at a pace quicker than he was arriving at the gate even though he was moving faster than he had ever done in his life. He had even dropped loot! If one knew him, this would make your jaw drop off its hinges.
Yarn, leaving loot behind? Yeah. Fucking. Right.
But he had!
'Heavenly houses! Lord General! I promise I'll turn over a new leaf! Someone, just fucking bail me out-'
Snap
The world stopped… or it felt like it. All space as far as the eye could see was completely and utterly paused in place. Creatures, humans, dust particles, sweat droplets and all.
Step~ Step~ Step~
Calmly, an extremely well dressed man walked out of the gate and toward the horde that had sent the raid team running like pussies as if it wasn't even there.
Was it? Who knew, not Yarn at least. He literally couldn't move, let alone turn around to see who the man was. Space had been placed under the General of mankind's grasp.
Leisurely, the General strutted up to each of the surviving humans, inspecting their person. "...no…not here…no…"
"Sigh"
He pinched his nose.
begone
And… that was it. The horde? Completely disappeared. Deleted from existence. Just like that.
That was the power of the SSS-rank Strand called "God of Space".
Godly.