Chapter 23

Planning wasn’t my strongest suit. If it were, I probably wouldn’t have ended up working a shitty job in Sunderland of all places. That being said, I recognized the need for it. I also recognized that my current state – suffering from a concussion, slashed, pierced and burned, with a mental state that could best be described as ‘primed for explosion’ – was not likely to result in any failsafe long-term plans.

Still, concussion or not, not planning would eventually see me even deeper in the shit.

At first, I took stock of my inventory. That took a lot less time than I’d have preferred. If I’d had an inkling of where I’d wind up, I’d have joined the bastards rummaging through the camps, stealing food and equipment like there was no tomorrow.

Instead, I was left with the sorry leftovers from the rations pack I hadn’t fully devoured – maybe a third of a meal, generously speaking – a water pack, half-filled, a smattering of equipment in the ‘might become useful’ category, including a fire-starting kit, a tarp made from an unknown animal skin and a handful of simple tools. Not much to start with for somebody who never watched any of those wilderness shows in the first place.

My armor and shield weren’t doing much better. The leather of my skullcap had been slightly deformed near my left ear – likely from when that Higher Skreeling gave me a concussion. The rest of my armor was… hanging in there. On the right side of my stomach, literally hanging, ready to be ripped off. What that weird-ass Core Leecher had initially lacerated had taken a few extra cuts along the way, leaving the tatters of my formerly white garment below exposed and equally sliced. The rest of the armor was doing a good deal better. Deformed, burned, slashed and punctured, sure. On my upper back, it also sported a sooty depression in the material and a lingering rank stench that made me think of industrial strength cleaners. Yet, it still held strong. For now.

My shield had seen better days. The leather covering that used to be attached to the bone material was, by now, a pleasant memory and not much else. The bone was burned in places, and a few spots sported places where the bone had taken blows and looked brittle, ready to succumb to the next proper blow. Still, as long as I didn’t go up against some asshole with a sledgehammer, or another rhino-sized Higher Skreeling, it should last me a while longer.

The swordbreaker was still holding up. A few scratches marred the material, but it still worked as intended. Unfortunately, I’d learned the hard way that the spindly thing was relatively useless for bestial opponents. Sure, it might deflect a rapier or some shit weighing in at half a pound, but the paw of a meth-bear or whatever this damn place was ready to fling at me next was more likely to just crack the swordbreaker.

I scouted the horizon in front of me one more time. Then I got up and stretched, hissing at the series of pops cracking down my spine. I winced, as one of my myriad cuts sent a pang of mind my way as a reminder.

I was in deep shit. My health was at a third, and the two debuffs were still active. That led me to the first conclusion of the day. There was no going back. Not yet, at the very least. Yesterday had been… a teachable moment. Not a pleasant one, but educational nonetheless. Any superhero aspirations I might have entertained that included me taking on the bestial horde on my lonesome were pushed well away where they belonged.

We should have seen it coming. Florida had been invaded by intelligent monsters. Monsters with classes, but arriving without any fancy magical gear. But, for some goddamn reason our inflated egos kept us from thinking further, connecting the dots, and reaching the inevitable conclusion.

Back in Florida, we’d been able to beat them back with surprising ease, due to our technological advantage, and because the invaders were left to face us without whatever diabolical magical items they owned here on Ademia. Yet, we hadn’t turned the situation around and realized how it applied to us as well.

Invading Ademia? That put us in an even worse situation than the Ademians invading Earth. Because Ademians, at the very least, had levels on their side. Levels, skills and talents. They arrived with boosted attributes and magic. Arriving to this place? We had jack shit. Sure, in theory, we had a surplus of technology, knowledge and tactics on our side that we’d be able to use to eventually build ourselves an unassailable foothold.

Except, the keyword here was ‘eventually.’ From the get go, we’d be weak. Weaker than our local counterparts, who’d spent their entire lives growing, leveling, earning skills that they’d be able to lever against us.

Also, we’d made one simple rookie mistake. The first week of humanity’s stay on Ademia had been met by nothing but mindless monsters. Somehow, that translated to everybody internalizing that, of course, that was exactly how things would continue.

That… was unforgivable. We’d already known going in that there was at least one additional sapient species in this world. And yesterday, we’d received undeniable confirmation that there were, at the very least, three more.

Sure, the majority of the beasts attacking us had been, for lack of a better word, bestial. However, either the leaders or whomever directed the leaders proved that they were more than that. The way they’d assailed Ever Steady from all sides, how they’d adjusted to our defenses and placed a perimeter of guards and hunters to round up any stragglers? That all attested to intelligence; to a solid sense of strategy and forward thinking.

Stolen novel; please report.

That, above all else, cemented it for me. I wasn’t going back to the Ever Steady. Not yet. For now, the place was a death sentence, and I wasn’t going to test it until I was a lot stronger.

It wasn’t an easy decision. Not only did it leave me entirely alone in this place. It also required me to accept the fact that humanity was screwed. Not just the suckers like me who’d tried to defend Ever Steady. But also any poor fucker arriving through Portal Home in the coming time – unless of course somebody fled back through the portal to tell Earth what was happening. Hopefully, they had, or it would be diner transportable for the beast armies for the foreseeable future, as humans walked blindly through the portal, only to be scooped up.