“Good luck,” Line’s voice came from behind him as Shane stepped off the boat onto the wooden dock. In charge of logistical and operational aspects of the jobs that Rune Knight undertake, this was not the first time that Line had been in charge of sending Shane to his mission location. And like the first time, this had involved travelling via boat as well. The island he had just landed on belonged to an organization, a weapons manufacturer to be more exact. It was rumoured that the top management of the organization had some ties with one of the members of the Magic Council, hence ensuring a long-term contract between the country of Fiore and this international organization. However those had always been rumours and no proof had ever been unearthed to support it.
The job had come to the Rune Knights, and Shane had coincidentally been the one to pick it up. The mission details were rather brief. The organization called Bezoar Defense has a private island somewhere off the coast of Cedar, located in the Cloud Sea. They had a manufacturing plant on this island and recently the island had been plagued by a monstrous being, forcing the company to stop their operations and evacuate all of their employees to the workers city, a specially built town with all the facilities and services that they would need. The situation was made even worse by a monsoon season that arrived too early, kicked off by rough seas around the island, preventing the company from bringing their employees to the mainland.
Five other men stepped down from the ship as well, falling into place behind Shane. They were well-protected, wearing the company’s latest in defensive equipment. Offense-wise, all of them were equipped with a tomahawk, a hunting knife, a rapid-fire crossbow strapped to their back and a shotgun in all of their hands. When they were all prepared, Shane led the five man down the docks and quickly found a smooth, paved road that led further into the island. Several trucks were parked by the side of the docks and one of the man climbed up into the driver’s seat while the rest of them including Shane climbed into the back of the vehicle.
As he sat facing the back, Shane watched the ship slowly become smaller in size as they drove off. The trip to the workers city was rather uneventful, but for some reason, Shane felt tense. The forests on each side of the road gave off a very ominous and foreboding atmosphere, and try as he might, the silver-haired Rune Knight didn’t seem to be able to shake it off. He glanced at the other four men seated in the back of the truck with him, and they felt it as well. All of them were gripping their crossbows so tightly that their knuckles were white. Every once in a while, an earth-shattering roar could be heard.
The truck finally arrived at the perimeter of the workers city. Barricades made of sharp iron bars were placed along the road, forcing the truck to stop as it couldn’t go any further. Beyond the barricades was a long wall that encircled the entire workers complex, a combination of living areas and a small town that would allow the workers to have access to whatever they need during the six-month work cycle they were stuck here. Bezoar Defense would then allow their workers to return to their families for three months before they would then be sent back to the island to resume work. This was related to the three-month monsoon period that hit the island, hampering the facility’s production rate and so the company had decided they might as well completely stop the whole thing, leaving a skeleton security crew to protect the facility from the wildlife during that period of time.
The truck finally stopped and all of them got down from the vehicle, with Shane taking the rear position. The five men navigated through the iron barricades with Shane following closely behind them. The moment they disembarked, all of the men were already holding onto their shotguns tightly, heads turning left, right and predominantly behind them, as they proceeded towards the gates. He had asked the reason for choosing this island during the journey on the sea, and the men had replied that there was a silver mine here.
The group of men finally stopped in front of the gates, easily twenty feet tall. There was some conversation being exchanged between the men leading the six of them and the guards on the top of the wall, but Shane’s attention was firmly grasped by the dent marks in the heavy iron gates. One of the men saw Shane’s attention, and he walked up to the Rune Knight.
“The workers here refer to it as the King,” the man offered, as he allowed himself to take in the sight as well. Shane walked up to one of the dent marks, the depth and shape of the indentations resembling that of a close-fisted punch. All of the marks were at the six feet height but there was one particularly low. And when he put his own fist in as a comparison, the contrast in size, the mark easily three times bigger than his fist, put the amazement into perspective.
“King of what?” Shane asked absentmindedly, raising his head to look at the others dents that were consistently at the six feet height.
“King of monsters, sir,” the man replied, almost reverently. And just as he said it, an extremely loud roar rocked the trees around them. It had been loud because it was near. Shane whipped around almost instantly, as did four of the five men. The remaining one who had been talking to the guard at the top of the walls was now frenzied, shouting for them to open. Shane could hear equally frenzied shouts and screams from inside the gates, and within seconds, the gates opened. The Rune Knight waited, eyes still fixed at the path where they had come in from. The ground was rumbling in small intervals.
The five men were barely within the walls, standing at the gates, shouting for him to retreat with them but Shane was transfixed. He ignored them. A flash of green and black appeared out of nowhere and within seconds, the pickup that they had been in just now was thrown in Shane’s direction. The rest of the men began to scream, and it wasn’t until the one who had spoken to Shane earlier ran out, grabbed him and pulled him back in did they finally close the gates. The truck had flown through the air, crashing into exactly where Shane was standing earlier and then rolled on its side before slamming into the now-closed gates.
Another roar thundered over the whole island and Shane felt a chill down his spine. At what he saw and at the onslaught of returning memories.
“Castle Killer!” Shane uttered in shock, standing fixed to the spot while his arms hang limp at his sides. Although it had moved quickly, Shane had seen the monster for what it was. It was a grotesque chimera of human and beast. It was a monster proper. The Castle Killer was once a biological-enhanced soldier that had threatened the town of Rose Garden, a massive hulk of a man with the power to tear down castles with pure strength alone. He had thought it be only one man, but Shane was proven wrong. The Castle Killer was a name, a name given to a breed of biologically-modified soldiers, where variations to their modifications could be made depending on their purpose.
Shane had encountered a few more of them in another incident where the man behind the monsters had sent out the monsters and normal soldiers to massacre an innocent village, just to test out their creations. They had even purposely sent Shane a message to try and stop them, a challenge for their creations on top of carrying out the test. In the end, he had managed to completely kill all of the monsters but failed to prevent the slaughter of the village.
The Castle Killer this time was slightly different from the ones he had encountered. It still had the same black skin, but this was obviously built for pure combat. If it had approached and stood in front of him, it would tower over Shane, standing at eight feet all, with limbs the size of tree trunks. The fists were gigantic and it was no wonder it could punch the metal doors earlier. And then it dawned on Shane. This wasn’t an accident. The mastermind behind all this, he who called himself the Lord of Anarchy had put this monster on this island. A test but to test what? One thought lead to another and it almost floored Shane. To test it against mages. And the final question that crept into his mind.
Had he been purposely selected for the mission, the timing caught just right where he would be the only person available to accept the job? His All Might magic was a perfect fit for the monster to test out its strength, Shane believing he could go blow for blow with the monsters as how he had done in Rose Garden. Shane’s glazed over eyes suddenly burned with a ferociousness matched only by the Castle Killer outside the walls, anger feeding him as the relentless pounding continued outside. The beast was hammering into the walls with his fists, and what that had held for days was finally seeing weakness with the doors suddenly screeching and creaking, trying their best to hold against the barrage.
The other workers had appeared from their houses, and slowly approached the main gate, but still keeping some distance. Shane was the nearest one. It was obvious the gates were going to fall apart if this continued. The silver-haired Rune Knight looked behind him, of the frightened and horrified workers as well as the five men who had joined him. Most of them were already praying to whatever deity or god they believed in, pleading for divine help.
And Shane did the rashest action he could take. What looked like a light step forward ended up with Shane appearing at the top of the walls, landing softly in a crouch with one hand on the wall to stabilize himself before standing up. The Castle Killer didn’t even take notice of him. But that wasn’t going to last long. Summoning Bloody Mary, his most powerful firearm right now, the Rune Knight aimed his sights on the beast and fired three times. Three explosive grenades hit the monster’s side, the combined firepower completely throwing the monster off its feet and tumbling onto its side.
When the smoke finally cleared, Shane could see the Castle Killer already back on its feet, blood around its feet as it bled from the side. Purple blood. The monster roared, the wound seemingly not affecting it as it began to run. The Rune Knight doubted the monster could hurl himself over the wall with a jumping leap, but he still kept his grenade launcher prepared. But the Castle Killer wasn’t all that dumb. As it ran, the monster stepped onto the turned over truck and used it as a stepping stone to jump higher than it ever could!
Shane narrowed his eyes at that sight. The Castle Killers he had fought had always shown remarkable battle instincts but were lower on the intelligence side but it seemed that this one was an improved version. But it still wasn’t good enough. Without batting an eyelid, the Rune Knight leapt into the air as the twin fists of the Castle Killer smashed the top of the walls where he had stood. Shane drew an arc in the air above the monster and unsummoned his grenade launcher. Instead, the Rune Knight held both fists above his head and hammered it downwards on the Castle Killer’s head, instantly pummelling the monster down into the ground.
Shane landed lightly on his feet, and before the Castle Killer could get off the ground, the silver-haired mage was already up close, throwing out a barrage of kicks and punches into the enormous body, slowly but definitely pushing the monster away from the walls. Despite the onslaught of attacks, the monster with its increased durability managed to overcome the pain and brought one of its hand down on Shane’s head, grabbing it roughly.
But the mage never stopped. The moment he knew his head was grabbed, but still loosely, Shane spun himself and threw out an enhanced powerhouse kick right into the monster’s ribs from the right, the force cracking a few ribs as the monster flew off towards one of the iron barricades, its back plunging into the many steel spikes. An earsplitting roar shook the island, stopping the Rune Knight as he was forced to cover his ears.
The monster stood back, plucked the iron spikes away from its back and threw the entire thing in Shane’s direction. He barely flinched, pulling out his grenade launcher and blasting the entire thing out of the air before swapping it out for Knight, his black handgun in his left hand. Charging forward, Shane use the momentum of his charge throw a leaping uppercut, smashing into the Castle Killer’s lower jaw with enhanced strength and jerking his head back. His left hand followed, raising the gun and fired multiple magic bullets at the monster’s exposed throat. The bullets managed to pierce into the tough flesh but wasn’t enough to kill it.
His right hand then pulled out his grenade launcher, and fired off a single grenade into the monster’s chest within close range, resulting in an explosion that rocked the monster’s body and threw Shane back, diffusing the throwback with a flip before landing on the ground. And still it wasn’t enough. The moment he stepped on the ground, Shane was off in another lunge. Bloody Mary was gone, having summoned the complete set of his handguns, Huntsman and Knight. While the Castle Killer was still reeling from the blow, head still thrown back, mouth open, Shane leapt high up into the air, propelled by his superhuman leg strength.
His leap put him above the monster’s head and its open mouth, allowing Shane to fire off another series of shots right where the monster was confirmed to be most vulnerable. Having replaced his bullets with incendiary rounds, every bullet bursting into flames upon contact it descended into the monster’s throat, causing it to burn from the inside. Shane landed behind it at the end of his jump, watching as the monster squirmed and trembled, its insides consumed in fire. Which the Rune Knight though was the only way this monster should die. To be completely burnt into ashes, where not even its corpses would be allowed to exist anywhere in Fiore.
The Castle Killer dropped to its knees, fingers clawing at its throat and its chest and finally collapsed to the ground with a loud boom, kicking up a cloud of dust around it. But Shane knew better. Over the few encounters he had, there had been a few with rapid regenerative abilities and he wasn’t going to risk it. He pointed Huntsman at the monster’s head and released five shots into where the brain was, the bullets exploding as it pierced through scalp, turning brain matter to mush. Purple blood seeped out from its orifices.
A loud screech ripped through the air as the misaligned steel doors opened, the workers led by the five men that had accompanied Shane. The five of them had seen the entire fight from the top of the walls after Shane had pushed it away. With the monster finally dead, they brought out a few tanks of lighter fluid.
“Burn it,” Shane instructed as they emptied the contents of several tanks of kerosene on the dead monster before lighting it on fire. The entire crowd watched the corpse burn, wrinkling their noses at the horrible smell. The smell of chemicals that ran in every part of the monster. Over time, most of the crowd finally withdrew back into their homes, with the five men being last to leave. They had gladly acquiesced when Shane requested for them to bring out the biggest body bag they had. But Shane stood there, watching until the fire turned the corpse completely black, charred. When he had finally confirmed that there would be no chance of the monster coming back alive, despite its current state, Shane had the five men zip it up in the body bag and toss it into the sea, off the sheerest cliff they could find.
As with all the Rune Knights, recognition from the Magic Council was imperative in their promotion through the ranks. But with the success of this job, Shane Stern was definitely on the Magic Council’s radar, but for completely different reasons.
[2837 words]
The job had come to the Rune Knights, and Shane had coincidentally been the one to pick it up. The mission details were rather brief. The organization called Bezoar Defense has a private island somewhere off the coast of Cedar, located in the Cloud Sea. They had a manufacturing plant on this island and recently the island had been plagued by a monstrous being, forcing the company to stop their operations and evacuate all of their employees to the workers city, a specially built town with all the facilities and services that they would need. The situation was made even worse by a monsoon season that arrived too early, kicked off by rough seas around the island, preventing the company from bringing their employees to the mainland.
Five other men stepped down from the ship as well, falling into place behind Shane. They were well-protected, wearing the company’s latest in defensive equipment. Offense-wise, all of them were equipped with a tomahawk, a hunting knife, a rapid-fire crossbow strapped to their back and a shotgun in all of their hands. When they were all prepared, Shane led the five man down the docks and quickly found a smooth, paved road that led further into the island. Several trucks were parked by the side of the docks and one of the man climbed up into the driver’s seat while the rest of them including Shane climbed into the back of the vehicle.
As he sat facing the back, Shane watched the ship slowly become smaller in size as they drove off. The trip to the workers city was rather uneventful, but for some reason, Shane felt tense. The forests on each side of the road gave off a very ominous and foreboding atmosphere, and try as he might, the silver-haired Rune Knight didn’t seem to be able to shake it off. He glanced at the other four men seated in the back of the truck with him, and they felt it as well. All of them were gripping their crossbows so tightly that their knuckles were white. Every once in a while, an earth-shattering roar could be heard.
The truck finally arrived at the perimeter of the workers city. Barricades made of sharp iron bars were placed along the road, forcing the truck to stop as it couldn’t go any further. Beyond the barricades was a long wall that encircled the entire workers complex, a combination of living areas and a small town that would allow the workers to have access to whatever they need during the six-month work cycle they were stuck here. Bezoar Defense would then allow their workers to return to their families for three months before they would then be sent back to the island to resume work. This was related to the three-month monsoon period that hit the island, hampering the facility’s production rate and so the company had decided they might as well completely stop the whole thing, leaving a skeleton security crew to protect the facility from the wildlife during that period of time.
The truck finally stopped and all of them got down from the vehicle, with Shane taking the rear position. The five men navigated through the iron barricades with Shane following closely behind them. The moment they disembarked, all of the men were already holding onto their shotguns tightly, heads turning left, right and predominantly behind them, as they proceeded towards the gates. He had asked the reason for choosing this island during the journey on the sea, and the men had replied that there was a silver mine here.
The group of men finally stopped in front of the gates, easily twenty feet tall. There was some conversation being exchanged between the men leading the six of them and the guards on the top of the wall, but Shane’s attention was firmly grasped by the dent marks in the heavy iron gates. One of the men saw Shane’s attention, and he walked up to the Rune Knight.
“The workers here refer to it as the King,” the man offered, as he allowed himself to take in the sight as well. Shane walked up to one of the dent marks, the depth and shape of the indentations resembling that of a close-fisted punch. All of the marks were at the six feet height but there was one particularly low. And when he put his own fist in as a comparison, the contrast in size, the mark easily three times bigger than his fist, put the amazement into perspective.
“King of what?” Shane asked absentmindedly, raising his head to look at the others dents that were consistently at the six feet height.
“King of monsters, sir,” the man replied, almost reverently. And just as he said it, an extremely loud roar rocked the trees around them. It had been loud because it was near. Shane whipped around almost instantly, as did four of the five men. The remaining one who had been talking to the guard at the top of the walls was now frenzied, shouting for them to open. Shane could hear equally frenzied shouts and screams from inside the gates, and within seconds, the gates opened. The Rune Knight waited, eyes still fixed at the path where they had come in from. The ground was rumbling in small intervals.
The five men were barely within the walls, standing at the gates, shouting for him to retreat with them but Shane was transfixed. He ignored them. A flash of green and black appeared out of nowhere and within seconds, the pickup that they had been in just now was thrown in Shane’s direction. The rest of the men began to scream, and it wasn’t until the one who had spoken to Shane earlier ran out, grabbed him and pulled him back in did they finally close the gates. The truck had flown through the air, crashing into exactly where Shane was standing earlier and then rolled on its side before slamming into the now-closed gates.
Another roar thundered over the whole island and Shane felt a chill down his spine. At what he saw and at the onslaught of returning memories.
“Castle Killer!” Shane uttered in shock, standing fixed to the spot while his arms hang limp at his sides. Although it had moved quickly, Shane had seen the monster for what it was. It was a grotesque chimera of human and beast. It was a monster proper. The Castle Killer was once a biological-enhanced soldier that had threatened the town of Rose Garden, a massive hulk of a man with the power to tear down castles with pure strength alone. He had thought it be only one man, but Shane was proven wrong. The Castle Killer was a name, a name given to a breed of biologically-modified soldiers, where variations to their modifications could be made depending on their purpose.
Shane had encountered a few more of them in another incident where the man behind the monsters had sent out the monsters and normal soldiers to massacre an innocent village, just to test out their creations. They had even purposely sent Shane a message to try and stop them, a challenge for their creations on top of carrying out the test. In the end, he had managed to completely kill all of the monsters but failed to prevent the slaughter of the village.
The Castle Killer this time was slightly different from the ones he had encountered. It still had the same black skin, but this was obviously built for pure combat. If it had approached and stood in front of him, it would tower over Shane, standing at eight feet all, with limbs the size of tree trunks. The fists were gigantic and it was no wonder it could punch the metal doors earlier. And then it dawned on Shane. This wasn’t an accident. The mastermind behind all this, he who called himself the Lord of Anarchy had put this monster on this island. A test but to test what? One thought lead to another and it almost floored Shane. To test it against mages. And the final question that crept into his mind.
Had he been purposely selected for the mission, the timing caught just right where he would be the only person available to accept the job? His All Might magic was a perfect fit for the monster to test out its strength, Shane believing he could go blow for blow with the monsters as how he had done in Rose Garden. Shane’s glazed over eyes suddenly burned with a ferociousness matched only by the Castle Killer outside the walls, anger feeding him as the relentless pounding continued outside. The beast was hammering into the walls with his fists, and what that had held for days was finally seeing weakness with the doors suddenly screeching and creaking, trying their best to hold against the barrage.
The other workers had appeared from their houses, and slowly approached the main gate, but still keeping some distance. Shane was the nearest one. It was obvious the gates were going to fall apart if this continued. The silver-haired Rune Knight looked behind him, of the frightened and horrified workers as well as the five men who had joined him. Most of them were already praying to whatever deity or god they believed in, pleading for divine help.
And Shane did the rashest action he could take. What looked like a light step forward ended up with Shane appearing at the top of the walls, landing softly in a crouch with one hand on the wall to stabilize himself before standing up. The Castle Killer didn’t even take notice of him. But that wasn’t going to last long. Summoning Bloody Mary, his most powerful firearm right now, the Rune Knight aimed his sights on the beast and fired three times. Three explosive grenades hit the monster’s side, the combined firepower completely throwing the monster off its feet and tumbling onto its side.
When the smoke finally cleared, Shane could see the Castle Killer already back on its feet, blood around its feet as it bled from the side. Purple blood. The monster roared, the wound seemingly not affecting it as it began to run. The Rune Knight doubted the monster could hurl himself over the wall with a jumping leap, but he still kept his grenade launcher prepared. But the Castle Killer wasn’t all that dumb. As it ran, the monster stepped onto the turned over truck and used it as a stepping stone to jump higher than it ever could!
Shane narrowed his eyes at that sight. The Castle Killers he had fought had always shown remarkable battle instincts but were lower on the intelligence side but it seemed that this one was an improved version. But it still wasn’t good enough. Without batting an eyelid, the Rune Knight leapt into the air as the twin fists of the Castle Killer smashed the top of the walls where he had stood. Shane drew an arc in the air above the monster and unsummoned his grenade launcher. Instead, the Rune Knight held both fists above his head and hammered it downwards on the Castle Killer’s head, instantly pummelling the monster down into the ground.
Shane landed lightly on his feet, and before the Castle Killer could get off the ground, the silver-haired mage was already up close, throwing out a barrage of kicks and punches into the enormous body, slowly but definitely pushing the monster away from the walls. Despite the onslaught of attacks, the monster with its increased durability managed to overcome the pain and brought one of its hand down on Shane’s head, grabbing it roughly.
But the mage never stopped. The moment he knew his head was grabbed, but still loosely, Shane spun himself and threw out an enhanced powerhouse kick right into the monster’s ribs from the right, the force cracking a few ribs as the monster flew off towards one of the iron barricades, its back plunging into the many steel spikes. An earsplitting roar shook the island, stopping the Rune Knight as he was forced to cover his ears.
The monster stood back, plucked the iron spikes away from its back and threw the entire thing in Shane’s direction. He barely flinched, pulling out his grenade launcher and blasting the entire thing out of the air before swapping it out for Knight, his black handgun in his left hand. Charging forward, Shane use the momentum of his charge throw a leaping uppercut, smashing into the Castle Killer’s lower jaw with enhanced strength and jerking his head back. His left hand followed, raising the gun and fired multiple magic bullets at the monster’s exposed throat. The bullets managed to pierce into the tough flesh but wasn’t enough to kill it.
His right hand then pulled out his grenade launcher, and fired off a single grenade into the monster’s chest within close range, resulting in an explosion that rocked the monster’s body and threw Shane back, diffusing the throwback with a flip before landing on the ground. And still it wasn’t enough. The moment he stepped on the ground, Shane was off in another lunge. Bloody Mary was gone, having summoned the complete set of his handguns, Huntsman and Knight. While the Castle Killer was still reeling from the blow, head still thrown back, mouth open, Shane leapt high up into the air, propelled by his superhuman leg strength.
His leap put him above the monster’s head and its open mouth, allowing Shane to fire off another series of shots right where the monster was confirmed to be most vulnerable. Having replaced his bullets with incendiary rounds, every bullet bursting into flames upon contact it descended into the monster’s throat, causing it to burn from the inside. Shane landed behind it at the end of his jump, watching as the monster squirmed and trembled, its insides consumed in fire. Which the Rune Knight though was the only way this monster should die. To be completely burnt into ashes, where not even its corpses would be allowed to exist anywhere in Fiore.
The Castle Killer dropped to its knees, fingers clawing at its throat and its chest and finally collapsed to the ground with a loud boom, kicking up a cloud of dust around it. But Shane knew better. Over the few encounters he had, there had been a few with rapid regenerative abilities and he wasn’t going to risk it. He pointed Huntsman at the monster’s head and released five shots into where the brain was, the bullets exploding as it pierced through scalp, turning brain matter to mush. Purple blood seeped out from its orifices.
A loud screech ripped through the air as the misaligned steel doors opened, the workers led by the five men that had accompanied Shane. The five of them had seen the entire fight from the top of the walls after Shane had pushed it away. With the monster finally dead, they brought out a few tanks of lighter fluid.
“Burn it,” Shane instructed as they emptied the contents of several tanks of kerosene on the dead monster before lighting it on fire. The entire crowd watched the corpse burn, wrinkling their noses at the horrible smell. The smell of chemicals that ran in every part of the monster. Over time, most of the crowd finally withdrew back into their homes, with the five men being last to leave. They had gladly acquiesced when Shane requested for them to bring out the biggest body bag they had. But Shane stood there, watching until the fire turned the corpse completely black, charred. When he had finally confirmed that there would be no chance of the monster coming back alive, despite its current state, Shane had the five men zip it up in the body bag and toss it into the sea, off the sheerest cliff they could find.
As with all the Rune Knights, recognition from the Magic Council was imperative in their promotion through the ranks. But with the success of this job, Shane Stern was definitely on the Magic Council’s radar, but for completely different reasons.
[2837 words]
