Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Every breath of cold air cut deep into her lungs. She couldn’t control her heavy breathing as she ran alone into the old monastery. This place should be safe, the walls were thick. It was a risk to leave the perimeter, but she had to see him. It might be her last chance.

The cold she was not used to was biting through her leather armor. It wasn’t much warmer inside than it was outside. She took some turns and walked down a hallway lined with doors.

“How is he?” she asked, meeting the old priest on the way.

“Come see for yourself..” the priests said reserved and led her further down the hallway and past the row of cells. Big dark shadows could be seen through small bared windows in the doors and their aura kept pressuring her. She could feel her fear rising in their presence.

They came to a halt before a cell at the end of the hallway. Tears burst from her eyes, seeing the tall figure inside. It was a huge creature covered in thick fur and a canine face.

“Annelise…” the creature wheezed with much trouble forming words. No mist formed before its face, as if its breath was as cold as the winter.

“Oh, No! Anton!” she exclaimed, seeing that he had already transformed so far.

“The medicine won’t work anymore. It’s a full moon today. Use your last chance to say farewell.” the old man mumbled in a deep, sorrowful voice. He had seen these scenes too often.

Sorrow, fear, and despair mixed in her heart but she nodded grimly. Annelise stepped up to the cell, her fingers insecurely touching Anton’s fur. Just two weeks ago, he had been her handsome fiance. The man she wanted to spend her life with.

But her heart was scarred over. She had the last two weeks to face the possibility of this end. If only she was not so powerless. She breathed in to say her last goodbyes when the silence of the night was broken by an ear-shattering howling.

“It’s a raid… you have to run, girl.” The priest suddenly exclaimed, pulling her out of the cell. Just in time for her to evade the claws of her mindless boyfriend. They pierced the priest’s shoulder and pulled him into the darkness of the cell.

She was barely able to register what was going on when a bloodied hand managed to reach out of the darkness and close the cell door at the last moment. The mauled priest was clinking on the barred window and locked the door from inside.

“Run already, they are coming!” he shouted at her, spiting blood that seeped into his dirty gray beard.

It took her a moment to accept the man’s sacrifice before she started running. The cold night was filled with howls and the creatures locked in the cells joined, filling the old monastery with a cacophony of feral cries. She could barely hear her own ragged breath.

The thick walls she trusted in, were coming apart behind her. Now, they were only a cage, a labyrinth guiding her path to freedom. She was a thief, she was fast. With her fleet feet, she might get away. That was if she managed to get out of the monastery and wasn’t killed by a beast emerging from the crumbling walls around her beforehand.

They weren’t supposed to be able to break through he walls, they weren’t supposed to- Why did everything change so quickly. Things were fine, they were managing! Why…was she now forced to run for her life all the time? Why did Anton have to…

She got out into the night, illuminated by one of Urth’s two moons. Hearing the beasts in the night, she didn’t slow her steps as she crossed the snowy thicket, running towards the empty city. There were no safe places here, only temporary hiding spots. With the monastery, the last “safe” place out here had fallen.

Her feet kicked up the snow as she ran through the streets, trying to flee. But nothing helped. Where ever she went, she faced the beasts hungry for blood. She was forced to continue running. Tears filled her eyes and a metallic taste filled her mouth.

Warmth was leaving her body, Mana was running dry but she didn’t dare to deactivate any of her skills. She wanted to stop and hide, but her pursuers were right behind her.

It was hopeless, she could only run. They were everywhere and there was nobody that could help her. There never was. Why wasn’t there anyone that could help? As her hope waned, her feet slowed and she started stumbling on the frozen streets.

“Oh, Anton…” she sighed, thinking of her lost love.

She wanted to come to terms with the situation, but she couldn’t.

Even when she didn’t have the energy to run anymore. When all that was left were her own thoughts throwing back and forth between lamenting the unfairness of the situation, her loss, and the hopeless plea for someone to help.

“Get a grip, girl!” someone told her and the beast behind her suddenly slumped to the ground.

Splatters colored the dirty snow red as its head rolled over the broken asphalt street. A person lifted her off the road, cast a spell, and dragged her into a desolate building as the beast rand past them as if they didn’t exist.

…

Maybe it had been a bad decision to follow the princess, after all, she lamented.

Leana had somehow found out about her class but accepted it and even helped her find fitting items from the treasury. The princess had gone as far as to tell her about two items beforehand.

The Olm’s Necklace and the Rune Knight’s Gauntlets

The first was a legendary item that enabled the wearer to forgo the need to eat for a decade at a time. This solved Cade’s problem with her class, as this also included her need to eat human meat. Now she would only need to eat it once every 10 years.

The gauntlet was a legacy item that allowed her to choose the rare class of a Rune Warrior as her second class. It allowed her to choose between rune trees with different effects and improve them over time. The runes allowed her to strengthen many or very specific elements of her primary class.

Rakshasa was already a class with very varied skills, so she appreciate a very adjustable second class that allowed her to strengthen what she had focused on.

Based on what Leana had done for her, she felt quite thankful to her at the time. Since she didn’t really have any other plans Cade had agreed to stay with the princess. Now she was stuck in this place and doubted her decision-making.

She was originally sent with a group of imperial scouts to look for the first group that had vanished during their mission to inspect the north of Urth.

The rakshasa girl was unsure whether Leana’s foresight was good to send her or if she was just lucky. Despite being probably the weakest in the group, her class allowed her to be the last one to be alive and the same at this point in time.

It was when they were getting close to where they presumed the location of Sigma. One morning it seemed like they were struck with sudden lethargy. When they tried to get in contact with Delta using the communication crystals, the small spheres simply darkened and broke the moment they were brought out.

There was also no phone signal.

Facing the decision of either continuing or returning, their party leader decided to continue ignoring her objections. Cade, at the time, was the least encumbered by this effect and unlike the others, her symptoms grew weaker over time.

The other members on the other hand grew… weird. The end of the matter was that they were ambushed by these werewolf-like beasts. This was the end of the party, as the wounded instantly started turning into similar creatures. Only 3 members, including her, were immune to the contagious effects of the wounds.

With the strong members of the party turning and under the constant siege of the beasts, Cade was forced to run away using her illusion skills. Although most of the beasts were not strong, their power varied a lot and even she was unable to compete with the strongest, making it necessary to hide.

That had been the point when she was ready to throw the mission and return to Delta, only to realize that Home Call was not working. When she tried to use the system privilege to return home, only a notification greeted her.

She almost threw a hissy fit when she heard the emotionless notification. Wasn’t the provider the system?! How would she contact them? It had taken her a good while to calm down and analyze. There was something blocking Home call. All she could do was either get back on foot or further explore and find out what was going on.

“Just what happened here?” she asked the crying girl she had saved from the street.

She had been wandering the ruined outskirts of sigma for quite some time, but this girl was the first living human she finally came across. However, the girl had a hard time calming down and kept crying, hugging her knees.

“Hey, it’s okay now. You are safe an-“

“Nothing is okay! Anton is gone! Everyone is gone! Everything went to shit!” she lashed out, leaving Cade speechless. Te anger filling her eyes almost scared the rakshasa.

It wasn’t like Cade couldn’t understand her, after all, she had also lost everyone she knew and had to deal with it. But that did not really mean that she knew how to approach someone who experienced something like this…