Chapter 2: The day I decided to die... again... for like the second time

Ultimately during those long, long months, I had no one left who I once knew, I was utterly alone. I stopped attending the classes pretty early on, I couldn't take sitting there and being insulted by the teachers and student teachers any more. I began to always walk around with my hood up, so no one would be able to see who it was walking around. It was my favorite hoodie which I wore, my N7 hoodie that my dad had got for me for my eighteenth birthday, it was the only thing I had left of my home. My friends had been taken from me, they had forgotten me, I was all alone. All I was able to do, for 3 hellish years, was wallow in my own loneliness, studying on my own, learning on my own. It was then, on the 4 year anniversary of our arrival on this hellish rock of a planet, that the school came under attack from the Wraiths, and it was, the day that I truly was going to die.

Okay, so maybe, just maybe, I was still so low at this point I was doing such stupid shit as this. Well to be more accurate as to what I was doing here, I tried to let myself be killed this time. But I mean obviously I didn't die, or else I wouldn't be here recording this shit would I. But in that moment, when the Wraiths arrived to bring all hell, I saw an opportunity to end all the pain. Oh and not go out like some bitch by letting myself get killed by the first Wraith to attack me, no I mean to die like a fucking badass, or at least as close as I could get for a powerless muppet. 

Things were bad for me, the bullying and isolation got even worse somehow after my first escape attempt, and I had nowhere I could turn to get away from all this. I became fixed on the idea that dying was the only hope for me, as in a way, I would be able to see my family again. Hellfire I know that's pretty dark and honestly I'm pretty sorry for putting you through all this but I want this to be known, what I thought at this time, how I felt. The stupid stories of my beginnings that some of the idiot writers came up with were just absurd, saying I was born in a small town on earth with my powers growing quickly as soon as I got to fracture blah blah blah. 

Horseshit, all of it, this is how I really began, a suicidal little shit who just wanted his misery to end. I know that some of you probably don't want to hear any of this, especially those that have gone through something similar, about this horrendously shitty opening to the recount of my life that you just can't imagine will get any better. There's a quote that I remember a while back that fits here rather splendidly 'Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but it does not make you who you are, it is the rest of your story, who you choose to be'. 

As for the battle, it began with various small skirmishes between the first forces to arrive on the field, lightning raining down from above from a golden spear, wielded by a man with crow wings, is one such example. Yet all the students had no idea how to deal with the entirely new threat they faced. It was gigantic, and fucking disgusting. 

"Wraith Spawner" I said aloud to air around me, as I watched from above, atop a roof on one of the buildings surrounding the western courtyard where the battle raged. The Wraith Spawner was almost eye level with me as it clambered over the cliff edge, and I was about three or four stories up. It looked like something from a nightmare really. It walked on four massive legs that curve to points, its base was large, had a thin mid region, but its head was its most striking feature. The top of its head was a massive curved, dome shaped piece of armour, in which there were large craters. 

Every once in a while, the craters would fill with black water, and once the water formed a bubble, It would roll out of the crater, off the armour, and fall down onto the ground, from which a Wraith would crawl out of. That is why I called it the Spawner, and I knew exactly how to kill it too.

Remember when I said that I was all alone, and how I studied all alone, well, it wasn't entirely bad. Being alone like that, allowed me to learn a great deal. Being forgotten and avoided does have its benefits, like being able to sneak into areas you're not really supposed to, find ancient text's shelved in forgotten corners of the library, such as a whole bunch of different Wraith forms that have long since been seen on a battlefield, one of which being, the Spawner. 

This Wraith type hadn't been seen in centuries, so the original name was long faded in the book I read, but I mean, one simple look at the damn thing, and its function, the name fits is all I need to say. I'm sure other people made the same connection upon seeing it, but I said it first so dibs. I learned a whole bunch of other stuff too, long forgotten stuff, such as how to kill these things, how they work, and a whole bunch of other forgotten lore that I'm sure only a few people know about. 

There I was sitting atop the roof, preparing for the end, for my final battle. I honestly lost track of the original plan as I sat up there, the adrenaline pumping through my body was just boiling for a fight at this point. 

"Well, this isn't going to end if I just sit here", and so I rose to my feet, and began to walk along the roof, parallel to fight, in the direction of the Reapers, my broken sword at my waist, and a cheap, crappy practice sword on my back. "Let's get started shall we?" I said with a hollow smile. 

In the many failed tellings of my story, they all agree that this is pretty much the first point at which I began to resemble my future self, which makes me groan if well, they weren't so right, but that's beside the point. Now, my entrance went a little something like this. As I said, it was the day of the 4 year anniversary of the Earthborns arrival and as such the school was throwing a celebration, in recognition for everyone's achievements and contribution to the school and city. As such, those that had decided to dive into their studies and training were all being awarded the title of Reapers, one year ahead of schedule. Well, all but one. Thus, there were large banners, ribbons and decorations all around the school, which made traversal much easier. I was taking the roads less travelled now, jumping across roofs, climbing trees, jumping in and out of windows, which I would use to annoy the student teacher knobs that forced me to live like this, karma's a bitch. 

Back to the battle, I was steadily approaching one such banner which was spread from one of the decorative columns in the courtyard, to the building. As a sudden lull set in, both sides moved back from one another to get their bearings, I saw my chance begin to form before me. From what I was able to research and study, the Wraith's would regroup and attack much faster than the Reapers, and so all I had to do was wait. 

My patience was rewarded, as no more than a few seconds later, the Wraith's pressed onwards, which caught a few of the newer Reapers off guard. I cut the rope attaching the banner to the roof with the practice sword, and held the rope in my left hand. I waited for the right moment, the moment when the Wraith Spawner would draw close to the columns of the Pavilion

As I saw this moment draw ever closer, I took a few steps back, muttered "Who the fuck needs powers" under my breath, and sprinted towards the edge of the roof, only to then leap off. Using the banner, I swung down, right into the middle of the horde, just in front of the Spawner. Despite the position, it was actually a more empty spot on the battlefield, as a space was left for the Spawner to advance and its Spawn to land. It was there I was able to continuously cut down Wraith after Wraith, feeling a trance-like feeling take over me, similar to the one I felt back on earth when I first fought the Wraiths.

I fought there, alone in this little gap, for a good minute or so. Jumping over attacks, severing arms, jumping from one wraith to the next, attracting many toward me and away from the Reapers. I saw many of the other Reapers on the flanks fighting, keeping the sides of the horde held back. It wasn't until four Wraith behemoths attacked me all at once, that I was driven back. But this was also part of the plan. I needed them to get at that damn Spawner. I then drew what remained of the sword I wielded on Earth, to kill the Wraiths one last time. 

Forcing all else from my mind, I drew my blade up to my chest, spoke a quote for what might be my final moments if this went horribly wrong, "Forward unto Dawn" and went to kill me a Spawner. My goal wasn't to kill all of them, then off myself at the end under a mountain of corpses, that's fucking stupid. No, I was going to get them to all pay attention to me, the only things to do in 4 years. 

I sprinted across the open space, using one of the four Behemoths as a springboard, I was able to throw myself halfway up the side of the giant tree like a monster, and stab in my blades so I stayed in place. I then began to cut, saw, grind, sear my way through the flesh until I was able to pull out what I had been after since the very beginning. It was a large, egg-like ball covered in a green slime. I jumped free from the side of the Spawner, falling and then landing on a Behemoth, sword first.

Standing atop its corpse, I cut open the flesh sack in my hand, and more of the green slime poured out. I held the sack high, causing the slime to run down my arm. Every single Wraith stopped dead in its tracks, turned its head, and looked straight at me. What happened next can only be described as a fuster cluck. 

Half of the Wraiths began to devour the Spawner, while the other half all charged at me. I then, running through a now frenzied army of Wraiths, made my way towards the live training grounds. You're asking yourself now, don't lie, you are, "Ardit, what the hell is that flesh, egg like ball". An eggcellent question, for you see, what I just ripped out, is a pheromone sack. The Spawner's secrete small amounts of the stuff from these sacks, which attracts other Wraiths, which it then kills. It uses the Wraiths it consumes as fuel to allow itself to be able to spawn more Wraiths. 

If too much is secreted at once however, it overwhelms the senses, causing any Wraiths nearby, to go into a frenzy, all in an attempt to kill whatever secreted the pheromones. Since that slime is now pouring out of the Spawner, and out of the sack in my hand, I'll let you guess what the hell these assholes wanted to kill next. Running as fast as I was able, I headed straight toward the live training grounds, where I would leave the school forever, or so I thought.

Torch sits atop a cliff, overlooking Shroud, which is separated from the cliff by the ocean as well. The training grounds are to the west of the school, with the city to the east. There's really just a huge forest that stretches far to the west, called the Dark Wood, which Wraiths inhabit. There are limited settlements extremely close to Shroud and to the edges of the woods to the north and south. The school, as training, will launch students into the forest, not letting them go too far west of course, and see how their combat abilities are against wraiths. I planned to launch myself into said forest, run as far as I was able, drawing the Wraiths as far as I could away, and then die, thus saving the school and the city. Boom, total badass.

As I saw the launch pads slowly pop into my vision, I turned to see the Spawner had been fully devoured, and now all the Wraiths were after a single target, me. You need to have a certain clearance level to be able to use the launch pads freely, which is contained on our tombs. It's like a universal remote, except a phone, it's super cool shit getting off topic. Since I didn't have said clearance, I had to hotwire the pad, and by hotwire, I mean I threw what remained of my sword at the closest pad, the blade dug right into the spring mechanism, which meant I had three seconds before it would activate, I had a lot of practice at this. 

Three seconds later I was flying through the air over the forest, the school falling away behind me, my treasured blade now jammed in the mechanism as the Wraiths pored over the cliff and into the forest, in pursuit of the boy, whose right eye, flashed white for just a brief second.

Landing, wasn't fun, running, wasn't fun, fuck this whole plan of mine wasn't fun, but it was almost over, and soon the pain would be all gone. As I reached a clearing in the forest, I was forced to stop as a large horde of Wraiths had gathered before me, which I had no way of getting past. As the army behind me was about to catch up, I realised that this was as good a place as any. 

I dropped the sack to the ground, stood up strong and tall as best I could and yelled at the top of my lungs, "If you lot are gonna fucking kill me, quit wasting my time and get on with it already". As my taunt was finally processed in their tiny brains, they roared with rage and all charged me at once. In my final moments, my thoughts drifted back to my friends, and their smiling faces in the times before I was forgotten.

"See you bitches later" I said, as I prepared to fade from this life, only to see the closet Wraith to me, fall into a pile of gibs. I saw an insanely fast streak of red and black dart between every single monster in the clearing, killing them all in only a matter of seconds. When the streak stopped just in front of me, I saw it was nothing more than a girl, with stunning red hair, she wielded nothing more than a plain black knife, yet she had killed all those demons in a matter of seconds. 

She turned to look at me, and then started running towards me, as my vision suddenly started going sideways, and down, parallel to the ground, before fading to black.