Like You Even Know

"You look great."

"Shouldn't you be somewhere doing something important?" My patience for Trezlan was at its lowest. Especially knowing I'd be waiting in a dead colony that reeked for at least a week (because I had planned like an idiot).

"I knew I smelled Hanlon earlier, but I wondered if that was just eyerocks."

"He said your..."

"He says a lot of shit remember that," Trezlan looked around like a criminal making sure no one was looking, "If you see Hanlon again tell him to kiss my ass ok." And with that Trezlan was gone. I should have been sad that the last humanish interaction I had was gone, but honestly Trezlan was worse than being by myself. I didn't transcribe so many dumb things he discussed I'd rather have just left that where it belongs in the garbage!

So I found time to just do anything but think of how alone I was on the planet. This mostly involved sharpening blades and setting things on fire. I admit probably not the best use of my time, but its not like I was on the clock or anything. At least I don't think I was, but I didn't exactly ask about the terms of my current service other than just "go here do this thing."

At least in time someone did come to get me, or I should say something. Because of course, nothing in this world is easy. I swear Trezlan infected me with his bullshit back when I helped him all those years ago.

Eyerock, No You Rock

Covered in the guts of my enemies I felt for a brief moment I'd never get the smell off my body. I wasn't even halfway done! The creatures were fairly easy to deal with, making me wonder how they got the colonists in the first place. But I have to remember not everyone is as crazy and vicious like I am. Or maybe the smell put them down? I dunno it seemed to make me feel awful so maybe I was coming up with excuses for what happened to the colonists.

Speaking of those poor bastards. I came across a chamber of them, or what was left of them. Apparently the Eyerocks had discovered human blood was good for them, I don't want to know how. But they had eaten all but the heads off of half the colonists and left their mangled bodies to produce blood until death. It was horrific to come across, just a bunch of headed bodies wailing to be put to death. I did them that, a final favor.

So when I came across the rest of the Eyerocks sucking on the blood I finished them off too, putting and end to their crap. It was one of those days I felt bad about my new life. At least fighting the machines in a futile bloody war was directed. Right now I feel lost, jumping from job to job waiting for something good to happen. Of course by blood I know nothing good will happen. Emerging from down below to the clapping of Trezlan solified this to me. I had been born to lose.

"See that was fu..."

"THEY WERE LITERAL MONSTERS!"

"Fun!"

In The Lair of the Eyerocks

I had found a rebreather to help with the smell, it wasn't helping. I didn't know how that was possible, but it was and I hated it. I had gone against my better wishes and decided to take the problem head on. I was slowly creeping my way in when I ran across another god. I swear to the gods, prior to the machine war being over I never saw any gods, now I run into them every gods damned place I go. It was Hanlon, the death god, I remembered him from my brief meeting before.

"All the power in the universe and Trezlan comes here with you, some people just aren't meant to be gods."

"Keep your voice down." Hanlon looked at me with a mixture of pity and apathy.

"These creatures do not have ears."

"Oh well now I feel stupid."

"Trezlan didn't know that because like every other thing he's blundered into he doesn't understand anything." One of the creatures did see Hanlon, I ducked down next to a rock while it approached, tried to take a bite and then died straight out. He sighed.

"So what do you want?"

"A lot of things, but more importantly Trezlan needs to return to discuss moving forward."

"Return where?" Other Eyerocks had seen the corpse of their friend and had come to investigate, I was worried they would find me.

"He knows." And then he was gone. Leaving me to deal with the now gathered group of Eyerocks. Because all gods in this universe are assholes even the ones I'm related to, especially the ones I'm related to.

Trezlan Lorentino, Master of Creatures

"So I the eyerocks."

"You said you called them eye guys."

"I like eyerocks better."

"Ok I feel stupid for asking, continue."

"Anyway the eyerocks are the original inhabitants of this sweltering awful place, they live underground."

"What do they normally eat?"

"Do you always interrupt when people talk?"

"Just you." Trezlan looked at me with perturbance, I mean I did ask for his help, but he was taking so long to get to the point of the issue! The man lives to ramble, and make shit up, and then ramble about the shit he just made up. I seriously wanted to edit a lot of his religious material with the actual Trezlan, but I'm pretty sure no one would believe how annoying the real one is.

"So anyway eyerocks have taken all of the people here, they have a settlement not too far from here, underground of course, where the people are, or should be."

"And you had to wait until one almost ate me because?"

"Theater my dear, theater."

"Trezlan you are the worst."

"Oh take pictures, to show people when you inevitably annihilate every living thing down there and no one has any clue what you did other than you."

"Hate you so much."

Beware the Green Mist

The mist showed up before the creatures. I noticed the smell got stronger and then the entire colony was coated in the mist. Trezlan also disappeared as I knew he would, he'd rather annoy than assist. The first of them was a small shuffling thing, it looked like a rock with an eyeball and feet. I had my hand on my sword and then relaxed, thinking maybe these creatures just needed to talk, and that maybe the colonists had been taken for a diplomatic meeting. The creature approached me, staring at first, and then the rock part opened up into teeth and it tried to bite me. I cut the little sucker in two.

As it died it made a horrible howling noise and larger rock eyes showed up. They didn't run, they shambled, but their size and numbers meant I had to fall back to the spaceport. Thankfully they didn't follow. It was weird, they were pursuing me up until I got to the port and then they just stayed at the edges as if held in check by something. I figured it couldn't be Trezlan since he just got there and they wouldn't know he was something they wanted to leave alone, and it partially explained why the port was mostly untouched. Well sort of it made no sense why the eye creatures couldn't get to the spaceport.

"So you saw the eye guys." Trezlan of course was waiting with baited breath.

"Is that what they are called?"

"It's what I call them."

"So there probably hundre..."

"Thousands of them, under the ground, its kind of glorious in their awful."

"And it smells worse down there I bet."

"So much worse."

"Even though this isn't your fault I want to blame you."

I Smell Something Awful

The smell was apparent when I stepped outside, it was like roasted garbage. Trezlan said he couldn't smell it since he can turn that off at will. Which told me he knew about the smell prior to stepping outside and didn't bother to tell me like a dick. I thought maybe at first it was roasting garbage, the colony was a very hot planet, and if everyone just disappeared no one would take out the trash and it would just sit and swelter, but I could not find any. I couldn't find any proof people had been there aside from the buildings themselves.

Just the damn smell, it was overwhelming and everywhere. It permeated everything that wasn't the space port. Which made me wonder how the space port managed to not smell (and also explained again why Trezlan said I should set up there). I was kind of at a loss as to what I was expected to do there. Like I'm not an investigator, I can't find people for shit and I don't know anything about biological agents.

"You'll be so surprised when you see." Trezlan was sipping tea, I don't know if he manifested or made it, but he was sipping it.

"This is like the worst birthday surprise ever."

"I never had traditional birthdays, so I guess in a way this is like your gift to me, I can't wait till they come."

"They?"

"Well I believe they refer to themselves collectively, its not He or she, its they."

"So cryptic." I admit I was more than a little terrified, and when "they" came, it was clear I should have been. Damnable gods giving vague hints.

So Who Did You Piss Off

"This is your stop crazy lady, please find a different way home." The transport was not pleasant to me, and I was sad. I mean sure I was what seemed like to everyone else talking to myself, but couldn't they have been slightly nicer to me? I mean I'm not actually crazy, I told them that several times which seemed to solidify their opinion I was.

"What a bunch of rude people." Trezlan ever the madness made manifest.

"Please just tell me you are real and I'm not like losing my mind due to some small dose of that neuro drug."

"You know years ago Hanlon used to screw with me by making it seem like he was a manifestation of mine, but I'm real," Trezlan then smiled, "Probably."

Where I had been dropped off was empty. Which made sense they said the colony was mysteriously empty and I didn't push the issue like an idiot. Trezlan who had manifested a bag plopped it down on one of the seats in the lobby clearly not intending on going further.

"So this is as far as you go?"

"Set up home base here, and then explore out, find out what killed these people."

"Or you could just tell me?"

"And spoil the fun? No, I recommend using this as a command center, plenty of food, shelter, you can reinforce sections... just in case mind you, I mean it could have been a space plague that dissolved the bodies."

"Was it a space plague." He laughed.

"I'm not that easy you'll have to try harder."

"God I'm just going to hate every minute of this aren't I?"

Trezlan frowned, "Well I am going to enjoy this, its like a game between grandfather and grand daughter."

"That can kill me."

"All the best games can." Which made me wonder exactly what kind of childhood Trezlan had, if he had one at all.

Crimes of Stupidity

"So what are you in for?" It was a prison transport. Of course it would be, I felt like someone in command didn't like me, which was probably true of multiple things. The prisoner asking me had a lot of facial tattoos I'd call unfortunate. I was the only non prisoner on the ship and even then I felt like maybe I was the only not shackled prisoner on board.

"Stupidity."

"Shit they are arresting people for that now?" He seemed genuine and for that I kind of felt sorry for him, if not for all the tattoos and clear scarring that spoke to a life of bad moves. Like we'd hardly been out of the machines danger and people were out committing crimes enough to get locked up? Didn't speak well for humanity.

"Just me I'm a special case of not learning to not respect authority."

"She's right charles, she never listens to anyone." Trezlan of course my constant bad advice giver had shown up. Charles looked at the sudden appearance of him as fairly routine.

"What are you supposed to be."

"Someone that won't die with his insides on the outside."

"What does that mean?" I put my arm on Trezlan's his flesh felt oddly hot.

"It means he's kidding enjoy the ride Charles."

"You're lucky Charles, do not interrupt other peoples conversations." Charles just leaned back in his harness and said whatever.

"So you are just going to bother me anytime I'm doing anything?"

"I like to believe I'm your spirit guide! Clearly you need someone around and I'll fill in the role for you." I was almost in a state of disbelief.

"So you have nothing more important to do?"

"Nope, and besides more time with my granddaughter." One of the guards turned to look at Trezlan, but he was gone. I have to admit if not for Charles saying something I was beginning to suspect Trezlan was in my head. I'd come to later wish he was.

Mission Accomplishedish

"So you released a deadly biological agent underground without caution to what that could cause long term."

"But I killed your terrorists."

"Before you knew if there were more of them or if they were getting help on the inside." I frowned, they didn't like my solution and here I thought I was the one sad people would die. I figured with my failure to produce a tenable solution my time with the government was over. I was wrong.

"Well since you like killing so much."

"I actually don't like..." They threw another file at me, this time it was all in that print plastic shit people love now.

"Colony went missing, we think, no word, we don't suspect giant worms but since you're a killer of those kind of creatures we figure if that's the issue you can handle it."

"But I don't..."

"Shuttle leaves in an hour, nice to see you Captain." He said it in a way that just stuck the knife deeper. I guess I could have said no, could have told them it interrupted my drinking, but honestly as stupid as it sounds, I enjoyed having something to do. Even if I didn't like it. That's what my life had become, so directionless I accepted doing something I didn't want to do just to do something.

Pretty sad right?

I Would Not Go In There

I knew right away something bad had happened. The door had become pressure sealed, I literally could not get inside if I wanted to, and I only kind of wanted to in the first place. I was wondering if they had put it in lockdown or something thinking they were under attack when Trezlan showed up with a huge smile on his face.

"Don't try the door."

"They set the gas off." He gave me a light clap, like pity.

"Kudos to you, brilliant strategy, didn't want to do it yourself, so you had them do it to themselves." I shot back from the door, which caused Trezlan to chuckle. "You don't have to worry the shelter already locked down and vacuum sealed the whole thing, I guess at the first sign of the contagion it kicked on some kind of secure procedure. So congrats job well done."

"So many dead men."

"That you were going to kill anyway."

"Not the point Trezlan."

"You're no fun, speaking of no fun looks like the people who wanted your help are on the way, I better go back to my gambling." And with that he was gone, and I was left outside the door with the authorities pulling up.

"Ok so not Giant worms this time." Needless to say they were less than enthused with what had happened.

Ok So Talk?

Armed men approaching me was new, I mean I was used to robots and other things, but people approaching with ill intent? I wasn't exactly used to that, takes some time to get used to. I guess that was something that upset me about these terrorists, we used to watch over each other against the machines, now that they are gone though we are back to killing each other and fucking each other over. It made me sad.

"Who are you talking to?" I wondered if Trezlan chose not to show up, or he just doesn't show up on cameras now.

"Myself, I like to talk things out, something I picked up in combat."

"You were talking about killing everyone inside." I noticed the men with rifles had them pointed at me, which made me wonder why the talking and not the shooting, then I figured out they suspected I had back up.

"Well you know how things go at a new job, first you love everyone, then you want to kill everyone..." I don't believe they thought that was how things went at a new job. The gun fire was a big "yeah that's not real." I ducked down as the bullets hit around me, I did take solace in that because guns were useless in the war most people now using them were terrible at shooting.

"Ok idiots before you keep trying to kill me know that I've got a detonator on the gas down stairs, and I've just dead man switched it on." I did not in fact have a detonator on anything, when I held something up to show them it was actually just my wallet.

"You're bluffing."

"Do you really want to risk yourselves with that?" There wasn't an answer either verbally or with rifle fire. I wondered if they were taking up a better position on me and so I waited for a while and when nothing happened figured they left. And they had! They even went back inside and locked the door on me, which kind of sucked. I mean how could I start killing everyone if I'm locked outside? The nerve of some people!

Trezlan The Moderate

"I'd just release the gas, it would be humane to kill them as they want to kill others." Trezlan showing that moderate nature I'd read about. Which is weird to say that you have read about your currently somewhat alive god relative? Like people had written "histories" of him since he ascended to god hood, and I suspect they were all basically written by him based on how positively they portray him.

"Gas could get out hurt other people, its extremely toxic and spreads."

"Safest way really, or you could do it individually, twenty five men, doable if you go a little crazy."

"What are you the god of again?" He smiled, I think he just liked being reminded he was a god.

"Luck, though I tried to lobby for planning, sadly the other gods voted that one down."

"Is that how it works you're just voted into being a god of something." I was amused by this conversation, if only because Trezlan showed up to inexplicably help me, but as usual ended up speaking of himself.

"Not really, I believe your godhood has to be something you personally contributed to."

"So plans would just be way out of your wheel house."

"Rude, shouldn't you be worried about the three men coming your way?"

"The who in the what?" But he was gone, and the men with the rifles were there.

"Problem fellas?" Yeah we had problems, real big ones.

Everyone Dies No Exception

To say the organization had no structure would be being generous. There wasn’t even an organization. It was a loose group of people who didn’t like government together bonded by having served in the military. It made sense because this was how things were in the forces of life against the machines, which is why I never was fond of whatever fake rank I may have achieved in the service. It had no meaning we didn’t really do things as a group, we just opposed.

I almost wanted to report back to the authorities that had sent me it wasn’t worth wiping these guys out, they’d eventually do themselves in through petty arguments, up until I saw the nerve gas. It had been “liberated” from the machines they claimed, but I guessed it was more likely stolen from secure lock up as post war the AI’s had turned over their biological killers. This one I had seen in action, it was an acid base, once it hit atmosphere it spread and was lethal to just about anything with a respiratory system. In the war we called it breathless, as seeing the destruction it caused took your breath away.

The man who had tried to kill me was a man by the name of Jenks, he was one of the “leaders of the group” he also seemingly controlled the breathless, which told me he was the one I’d have to kill first. Gone was my desire to keep them alive, or make sure they’d just disperse. Using one of the machines weapons against your own people because you weren’t getting your way was just a disgusting abuse of what power they could have.

“What are you doing Lorentino?” Jenks was technically my boss since he brought me on. He had his foot all bandaged up from where I burned it. I was currently sitting alone to my thoughts trying to figure out a way to do something without it turning into some horrific blood bath.

“Thinking Jenks, might want to try it sometime.” Being an asshole seemed to be the default communication technique of this branch of terrorists.

“Well can you think somewhere else, I get shit to do where you are at.” I was near the nerve gas, I could only imagine what stuff he had to do. I decided I need a moment to breathe outside. The compound was some emergency shelter that had been left uninhabited post conflict. It was mostly disguised as part of a bombed out office building, no one lived in the surrounding area. It was a perfect disguise for a group of idiots.

“So you going to kill all of them?” Trezlan of course had showed up, he made me worry for a brief minute someone would see him, but I was alone outside, everyone else too wrapped up with what they were doing inside.

“Probably.”

“Ooh I love these little moments, the calm before the stupid.”

I'm Totally Not Lying

The round was chambered, I heard him hit the hammer back when he put it to my head. We were alone in a field, it was just me and the trigger happy man. He'd picked me up a couple hours earlier at a coffee shop after I responded to one of their ads asking for "like minded individuals to join the cause". I felt screaming at me to prove my loyalty was a bit strong after I'd met the men recently, but that's now how he felt. I mean he wasn't wrong I was totally a liar and trying to destroy his organization for the government, but he couldn't possibly have known that!

"So do you have anything to say traitor?" I felt it weird he called me a traitor when I hadn't even agreed to his cause, it was one of those weird situations I found myself in post the war ending and humanity returning to the root asshole existence.

"Look you're ad said."

"SHUT UP!" The blow hit my neck, it made my eyes water with the pain of it. I was through with his bullshit. I roasted his foot with my magic and when he yelped I sprung up and grabbed his gun turning it on him.

"Look you balded malcontent asshole, if you want my help its there, but I'm not going to prove a loyalty test to you because you doubt my service or that I am upset at the government." I handed the pistol back to him. "You point this at me again it'll be the last fucking thing you do."

"Ok you can join us." Yep just like that burn a man's foot almost off, threaten to kill him, and then they'll do whatever you want. In fact I think Trezlan wrote a self help guide just like that.

I'm a Disgruntled Militant

"They call themselves the Blade of Life, its a cute name for disgruntled terrorists, but they are very much terrorists." Dossiers were scattered around on the display screen in front of me. I don't know why, I'm not a computer I couldn't possibly remember all of these names and faces, and its not like they wouldn't give me the info to take back, it just seemed like they were showing off.

"And why do you think I can do anything about them?"

"They are former military, you're former military, they'll accept you into their arms and you can destroy them from within." I looked at both men and shook my head.

"Gods this just seems like the worst idea."

"Do you want to not be in prison or not Lorentino." I wanted to just burn the man down and leave, but he had a point and killing someone else would only get me in more trouble.

"I just don't know if I can turn on fellow soldiers like this, I mean I'm not very far from where they are."

"Oh you bomb shopping malls in your spare time? Spare me the bullshit concern for soldiers, these people are dangerous and need to be dealt with, you do it your way maybe you can save some, otherwise its a kill squad and no one comes out alive." I wanted to be mad, but it was right, what he was saying made sense and if I cared about these people I should do something to stop them without hopefully killing any of them.

So this was how I wound up in the middle of a field with a man screaming at me to prove my loyalty. It was a rough week I tell you.

Hate the Day You're On.

I sat across the table from men in uniforms. They uniforms looked nice, dark blue, had name badges and some kind kind of partial body armor. During my time in the service we never had real uniforms, then again we weren't an organized anything, since the war ended the natural desire of rules makers to uniform up was too strong. I was of course shackled and disarmed it was mildly off putting, like being a caged animal facing hunters.

"Worms? Huge man eating worms?" They didn't like my story despite the bodies.

"I don't know where they come from, I just killed them."

"And everyone else on the outpost." I shrugged.

"They were all kind of dicks?"

"Captain do you understand what kind of trouble you're in right now?"

"I'm not a captain, I'm not an anything, I keep my patches because its a part of me, but I didn't join your bullshit so I'd be pleased if you didn't ascribe a rank to my person." I specifically never liked the idea of a rank in army when my father ran it, it seemed unearned when the only reason you ranked up was the person above you died.

"All right Lorentino, this looks bad for you, if you weren't who you are you'd be facing some serious charges." Only one of the men talked, Bridges, the other Lambert just sat there and said nothing. Must have been an intimidation technique.

"But since I am who I am I'm not, thanks for wasting my time, where can I get my stuff?" I got up to leave, but the shackles had me chained to the table so I didn't get very far.

"Why do you assume you can just go?"

"Because you said I'm not being charged."

"And you won't be."

"If I agree to do something for you guys."

"If you agree to do something for us, you scratch our backs, we scratch yours."

"I hate today already." I really did hate the day and it was just getting started.

Ok So This Might Slightly Be My Issue

When I emerged (spiders dealt with, something for another entry) from the worm it was to a sight of utter destruction. The town was gone, townsfolk laid crushed or otherwise killed. The beast itself was barely alive. My combination of sword strikes and magic to its insides making them outside must have done it in. Or the limited weaponry the towns folk had killed the creature. Either way it was dying/dead, as was everyone else, along with everything else on the small outpost. I didn't even get paid, it was the worst.

"I don't even know where to begin." Trezlan of course showed up, I hadn't seen him since he "fixed" the world. He appeared in a chest open robe with a bald head and a flamboyant red beard. He looked better than when I last saw him, but I imagine not being locked in an underworld fighting a never ending battle would do that.

"Begin with what? My glorious victory over the worms."

"Right sure, no one is alive, and nothing is standing, if there wasn't a transport coming in a couple days you'd be dead."

"Well you're here, right? That has to account for something."

"The absurdity of it, really I'm here for the amusement of all things."

"I feel so blessed a relation of mine is a god and this is the best he offers me." Trezlan offered me a smile.

"You wouldn't be a Lorentino without a god coming to tell you how much you screwed up."

"I don't see how this is..."

"You caused the giant worm to attack the town when you attacked its insides, it thought in its final moments that you were a weapon they unleashed on it."

"Ok that might be..."

"In fact you attacking the first worm that grabbed you caused this whole thing, they were content to eat farm creatures and the occaisional person, you made them think differently."

"So I just escalated an issue that would get bad soon anyway." He smiled again, I was beginning to dislike it.

"It's like listening to me." He disappeared, At least he told me a transport was coming. So I got to sit there among the rubble and come up with a suitable story for whatever happened to everyone there. I admit I shouldn't have been surprised I got arrested.

Problems of the Insides

It was surprising the amount of things you find in a giant beasts stomach. I mean other than me completely alive. There was various pieces of construction machinery (I guess to try and see if it was food) body parts of animals I don't ever recall seeing, and a large boulder. I assumed the boulder was some kind of traversal thing? But maybe it just liked to eat rocks. The stomach of course was also full of acid, extremely dangerous and acrid acid. The smell was also overwhelmingly awful. Just really a poor experience all around I would not want to be eaten again.

I had managed to keep myself from the acid death by using my swords as a kind of hand hold above it. Which tended to upset the creature from all the wailing and thrashing it was doing. Or it was engaging in something else I couldn't be sure I was inside. I did worry my solution was at best temporary, especially as I stayed there the acid rose up from the depths probably in response to my presence.

I being the educated killer decided the best solution was to just hack and use magic to free myself. It seemed like a reasonable solution that in no way shape or form could cause and issue. Nope nothing at all...

Look I'm trying not to spoil what actually happened. I'd write more, but I'm currently in a cave overlooking a group of spiders that are planning on killing an entire community later and I need to keep my cover. Oh shit one of the spi

Mega Worm, The Worm of Worms

The nice thing about the worms is they had convenient land marks back to their den. That being the discarded bodies of various animals and people. I was alone in following it because those who had survived the attack seemed ok with not finding out what started this bullshit. That's not me though, I like to know, even if it was a bad idea to find out, I have to know. This all lead to a construction site that looked less like construction and more like nightmare of bodies.

It made sense of course, the creatures hadn't been bothered until we bothered them, they might have been deep under ground happy eating gods know what and then boom we explode something near by and they find a new food source. I mean it didn't answer all the questions, but I was satisfied with the ones it did answer, and was perfectly fine to just let that be the end of it. Up until the Mega Worm showed up. Yeah I'm sure it had a better name then mega worm, but not knowing it I obviously didn't have a better one to give it.

I had just gotten done looking into the pit of gore when the ground shaked a little bit. I wondered briefly if the planet had some kind of natural instability up until the Mega Worm ate me. Basically a hole opened up underneath my feet and I feel into its gaping maw. To be fair being eaten wasn't as bad as I assumed. I mean sure it was disgusting and slightly off putting to now be in the stomach of a large creature as I assumed it was now going on a rampage, but it didn't really inconvenience me, and that was a benefit.

I also now have a respect for creatures enough to not eat them alive, its rude, and having been that creature and hacked my way out of the creature I certainly never want that happening to me... Oh shit spoilers.

Bad Shit Comes to Worm Town

There were five of them, or at least looked like five of them coming at me. I can admit here, safe and sound and not currently facing imminent death (other than bad food that I ate recently, the farts they are so awful). I was afraid, I was fearful I had done something beyond stupid I couldn't just luck my way out of. The rest of the town was watching me. I had moved to the center of town to try and I dunno force the creatures to come one direction? I couldn't exactly explain my thought process here.

"So are any of you going to help." The worms were moving slow enough that I could see them coming, but I could make a plea for assistance.

"Sure we'll let your next of kin know you died." I would have quipped this wasn't helpful, but the first worm got to me. It actually overshot me and came from behind (so it reminded me of a few failed dates I'd had). This one was fairly large, like the size of a small car, or at least the "head" of it was, I say head in quotes because its a freaking worm, learn some biology! Thankfully for me the machines also tended to use a zip by you and strike move, so I anticipated it, side stepped and slashed the head like so much bloody worm death. I sensed the rest of the creatures would make a strike at me with my back turned, so I quickly spun around and enhanced the slash with some of my cold fire arcing in front of me. The luck of Trezlan was with me as they lept up into my fire blade and all died the same.

Not wanting of course to hide my moment of bad assery I turned my back to their twitching corpses and slid the blades back into their sheaths. No one applauded the jerks. No one ever applauds. Sure they'll criticize you when things go badly, but you do something awesome and no one gives you a hand.

"Well why didn't you do that the whole time?" I wanted to kill the asshole down talking me, but really it was a good question. I guess ever since the war ended I hadn't really trusted my abilities anymore. I started to worry I survived on luck and not skill, even here it didn't feel like something I had planned, and felt more like I did in reaction. But the one thing I wondered was where these creatures had come from. The rest of the town seemed fine with them being dead, but I knew, I knew this wasn't the last of this and I had to figure it out.

Well that and I really had to pee and I didn't want to do it around those jerk town folks.