Sarah helps sit me up as I rub the sleep out of my eyes. I couldn't help but fall asleep. Hollis is projecting some kind of warmth spell that makes me feel so cozy, it even blocks the wind. The fluffy vess is quickly becoming one of my favorite people.

Belatedly, I notice that someone is approaching us and is getting quite close. The newcomer is a human man, looks pretty young, short brown hair and hazel eyes. He's not bad looking, but my vess instincts are tellingly quiet on this one, he must not be all that strong or impressive.

"Yo!" The man calls out, "You the hero who left the message?" As he dismounts his horse, he quickly slips his hands into his pockets, his posture is very relaxed, and he has a lazy smile on his face.

"Yeah, I'm Sarah. 'Josh' seemed like an odd name for a lord, so I took a gamble." The Hero fixes my cloak around me before standing up to address Josh. "I got summoned over in Lotheris to help against Karnaka. This is Ren," She gestures to me, "She is also from Earth, although she was reincarnated, not summoned."

Josh's eyebrows shoot up, "Reincarnated? Damn, that's so cool! I wish I could have gone that route, you even got a new race!"

I fidget a little, unsure on how I want to respond. Sarah takes the lead for me, "So, I'm trying not to judge the fact you are in a kingdom that allows slavery, I'm sure you can't help that. How are things for you here?"

The Lord winces and rubs the back of his head, "Ahhhh yeaahhhh, the slavery is a real bummer. I tried to do something about it but," He shrugs, "Anyway, things are alright, got the lord class, got a castle and a bunch of soldiers. The war is a real pain though, the king is really pushing us to conquer the south as soon as possible, something about the winters getting worse and some existential threat lurking in the far north."

"We know that much." Sarah nods.

"Hey, I got an idea. You all should come back to my castle, we could hang, it would be so great to talk to someone from Earth again!" Josh looks genuinely excited by the idea.

Sarah hesitantly responds, "...We just invaded your camp and took your prisoners."

Josh waves her worry away, "Don't worry about it, water under the bridge. I really wasn't looking forward to sacrificing those people anyway."

The Hero's hand subtly finds the hilt of her sword, "You were planning on going through with the ritual?"

The earlier friendly attitude is cooling off a bit now as Josh lowers his hands in a placating gesture, "Hey, I didn't want to. What was I supposed to do? Commit treason against the king? You don't get what it's like in Tarenbaum, freakin' fascist state if I ever saw one."

Sarah blows out a cooling breath, "Right, sorry. I was forced to do some shit I didn't like back in Lotheris too. I guess you have it worse here, sorry."

Josh grins, returning to his earlier attitude, "You could make it up to me by staying for a few in my castle." He rests his arms behind his head, trying to look completely carefree. "It might be medieval, but it's pretty sweet. I got a bunch of servants who take care of all the cooking and cleaning, the cooks are even pretty decent, but I would kiiiiill for a pizza. Honestly, you might want to stay for the winter, it gets wicked cold without any insulation." He takes a step forward.

Sarah takes a step back, putting her hands up, "Woah, woah, easy. I'm not really the kind of girl who goes back to a guy's place after the first date. Let's slow down."

"Ahh, c'mon!" Josh takes a few steps closer, "It's not that I'm trying to hit on you, I mean, you are hot. But I genuinely just want to connect with someone from Earth! You have no idea how crazy it is being surrounded by a bunch of actual medieval peasants who don't even know what electricity is."

The Hero crosses her arms and holds her ground, "I understand, but you are being too pushy. Back off."

Josh stops in his tracks and laughs nervously, eyes darting to me and briefly to Hollis before returning to Sarah. Sarah, for her part, just looks pissed and stares him down.

My memories of this kind of stuff are hazy. On one hand, it is pretty scummy behavior. On the other hand, everyone just wants to be loved, and some people desperately reach for it. Of course, if all he wants is to get his prick wet, all of my sympathy for him goes out the window. I can't decide if I want to intervene or not. Should I have Enna throw him in the lake so he can cool off?

Enna herself makes the decision for me, silently rising from the shadows behind Josh. In one swift motion, her claws wrap around his throat, and he is thrown to the ground, his body pinned under the much larger form of my caretaker. Hollis immediately jumps into action, a quick spell flies from their lips and wraps around the Lord, binding him in place with magical chains.

"What the hell?!" Sarah jumps, looking at me with alarm, "I get he was acting douchey, but you didn't have to go that far!"

With Josh now bound, Enna gracefully rises and bows to the Hero, "My apologies for the surprise. However, he has been compromised and cannot be trusted. I assumed you would want to help him, rather than dispose of him."

"Compromised?" Sarah asks sharply.

"I'm afraid so…" Hollis' soft voice is full of concern as they step closer to Sarah and look up at her, "He is bound by a powerful spell. Too powerful for me to break, I'm afraid."

Sarah turns to me, a resolute look in her eye, "Ren, I want to help him. Earth rules."

"Earth rules!" Hollis cheers.

I smile up at the Hero, "Okay! What do we do?"

Sarah marches over to the bound man and flips him over so he is laying on his back. She kneels next to him and slaps him once, "That's for being too pushy."

"Fair." Josh groans.

"Now." Sarah continues, "Who cast the spell on you? What is going on? I want to help, but I can't if you don't tell me what's going on."

"Can't. Say." The Lord grits out.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Hollis approaches and kneels next to Josh, laying a hand on his face, their face scrunching up into an adorable version of concentration, "Um, the magic is definitely draconic in nature." The fluffy vess stands up, folds their arms behind their back and starts to pace, "Anyone can cast draconic magic, technically. The amount of magic used here, suggests someone who is a master at it, someone who is immensely powerful. That rules out demons and celestials, they only have access to their specific domains of magic. Humans are generally too weak and short lived to accrue this level of mastery, so we can rule them out. Orcs struggle massively with magic in general, same with the dwarves. Elementals only use elemental magic. That leaves either a genuine dragon or dragon-kin as the caster or an elf."

"What about the vess?" Sarah asks.

The Magi beams out Sarah, "I'm flattered, but I'm really not capable of such a spell, and we are the only group of vess in existence."

"Right, just wanted to make sure." She mutters. Sarah gives Hollis a big hug, ruffling their fluffy hair, "Good job, fluffball. So, we are either looking for a dragon or an elf."

"C-correct." Hollis blushes, "Actually tracing the chains that bind your human friend wouldn't be that hard, but it might alert the caster to our presence."

"Do we have much of a choice?" I speak up.

"Apologies, fair lady." Hollis looks slightly ashamed, "I don't have the power to do much else but clumsily shake the bindings to see where they lead."

"It's okay," Sarah reassures with another head pat, "Without you, we would be completely lost. Maybe we can wait for the Matron to come back, see what she thinks, then go from there."

A long drawn out groan ends in a wet sounding cough from Josh as he struggles against his chains, "Can't get it out of my head. I need to get you back into my castle, it knows, it knows." The poor guy has started sweating profusely and his breathes are coming out harder and faster.

Hollis hovers a hand over our prisoner's head for a moment, "Ah, it seems the caster is exercising its control, we may need to act now if we want to save him, his body is straining under the magical weight of whatever is controlling him."

"Damn it!" Sarah pounds her fist into her hand, "Do it Hollis, trace the magic."

"Um, maybe we shouldn't-" My words are cut off by an unbelievably loud tearing sound. A single crack forms in the ground beneath us, worming and splitting quickly until it covers a huge area, spreading even into the lake, the water cracking unnaturally.

My new fluffy vess is suddenly by my side and hugging me tightly. Looking over their shoulder, I struggle to make sense of what I am seeing as the cracks expand, break, and the world literally seems to fall apart. Everything is fractals and I am overcome with the sensation of falling. My ears ring until the ringing reaches a crescendo and everything goes silent. The world is an incomprehensible mess of silent shapes and colors, nothing my brain can make sense of. The only thing I really am aware of is that I seem to be plummeting, although even that doesn't make sense.

Until it all stops.

I'm no longer at the lake. Huge towering skyscrapers of broken glass and steel tower above me, broken concrete provides poor footing, and flickering streetlights provide the only light in this world. Even my darkvision is pushed to its limits, I can't seem to see anything past the nearest building.

Ruined cars line the highway, all broken and dark. Most of their doors are ripped off and the seats have all been torn out. The sidewalk is littered with junk, discarded coffee mugs, faded traffic cones, broken umbrellas, and the occasional shoe. Most surfaces are either covered in dust, rust, or both.

It is dead silent, and the sky is black. No stars, no moon, nothing. My steps seem to echo as I begin to wander around, carefully picking my way over all the trash and debris.

Nervously, I reach out with my senses. No vess. Not a single one. For the first time since I was reborn, I am alone. My mana is low too; I emptied it before traveling to the lake. I guess I could summon a scout or something…

Reaching out, the shadows seem reluctant to respond to my touch. It takes twice the mana than it should, but I manage to summon a dozen scouts and a hunter. The scouts scatter in all directions to try to make sense of where I am, while the hunter starts to sniff around, growling occasionally.

I lean against my hunter, taking comfort in the familiar vess. It feels much better having other vess around to connect to, some of the unease starts to melt away.

Until a scout goes dark. Then another disappears. Then another. One by one, all of my scouts vanish from my connection, leaving no clue as to what is killing them.

Swallowing heavily, I enter one of the buildings. It's probably better than just standing around on the street, waiting for whatever is out there to find me. This particular building seems to be office themed. A half collapsed front desk greets me as I gingerly step over the gross half rotten carpet. I curiously open and look inside of a briefcase, only to be met with the disappointment of a pile of soggy papers. Sniffing the contents of an old coffee cup, I easily decide against drinking it, pouring out the pitch black liquid instead.

Behind the desk, old moldy hallways twist and turn into a maze of cubicles and water coolers. Rather than an actual office, this almost seems like a funhouse version, or maybe what a workplace might look like in a dream. A comically large whiteboard takes up an entire wall with the words 'team spirit' smeared across it, there is a small mountain of staplers, and a poor copier looks like it was beaten to death with a bat.

Something falls and breaks across the office, freezing me in place. My hunter adopts a low stance, growling menacingly.

My heart beats in my ears as I wait for something, anything, to happen. Nothing does, and slowly my hunter relaxes. Letting out a slow, steadying breath, I take another step only to freeze as something walks around the corner.

It looks like a grey, hairless ape. Just a little shorter than me, it stares back at me with four beady black eyes, its jaw slowly working into a snarl. Before I can blink, it launches itself at me, only to be intercepted by my hunter who plucks it out of the air by its neck. There is a sickening snapping noise and the ape falls to the ground with a broken neck.

+50 XP

"Good boy." I praise my hunter, still trying to get my breathing under control.

My hunter pushes me back with its body, snarling towards the whiteboard, as a pack of apes tears around the corner. I let out a scream and follow the urging of my hunter, turning and running as fast as I can.

The sounds of fighting spurs me onward as I try my best not to trip over all the clutter in the office. My hunter holds them off for a few precious seconds before I feel my connection to it go dark.

Scrambling over an overturned watercooler, I go as fast as my low agility and short legs lets me, which is pathetically slow. The apes might be around as strong as a goblin, maybe, so I might be able to outrun them with my head start. Is this really what everyone else has to go through? Fighting for your life in unfair situations? My sympathy for other people trying to level up will reach newfound heights if I survive.

Kicking a binder out of my way, I turn the corner and flee back out into the lobby. Looking over my shoulder, I can see the apes are uncomfortably close behind me, chasing me in dead silence.

I sprint out of the building and throw myself into one of the ruined cars, ducking down in the back seat.

The apes trip over each other as they scramble out of the building. The first one stops, only for the next one to slam into its back and send them both tumbling into a pile. A third one trips on said pile until the apes are all writhing around on the ground, biting and scratching each other, their chase seemingly forgotten.

Holding my breath, I watch from the back seat until the creatures eventually get tired of fighting and pick themselves up, before ambling back into the building. Slowly, I slink out of the car, keeping close to the ground and carefully watching my step. It isn't until I am two blocks away that I straighten up and allow myself to breathe.

A huge monster made of twisted metal steps out of one of the nearby buildings and peers at me, the glowing yellow light of its vision locks onto me before turning into an angry red. It roars a distorted klaxon sounding battle cry before charging towards me.

I dumbly take a step back, trip, and fall on my butt.

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