Short Story: Craig POV of chapters 7-8, 22-30

This short story was requested by Eric Wharton as part of the special offer!

Being a Fighter really wasn’t all it was hyped up to be.

For many people, the job had taken on some of the grandeur and power that the military or police force used to hold. After all, these people were almost like heroes, bravely fighting monsters and Otherworlders and saving people left and right!

Craig had thought so at first, too. And then he was convinced on a dare to try out one of these so-called Messiah’s Fruits. He had been 16 and the portals had only been open for a year or so. Suffice it to say, he hadn’t exactly expected his fate to lie in fighting monsters.

But that’s what happened, and he loved it.

After all, why shouldn’t he? He’d never been a rowdy kid or anything, but isn’t it every man’s greatest dream to fight monsters and grow stronger? Sure, some parts weren’t quite the same as in the stories and movies. For one, a stronger monster usually meant a lot more casualties. Even worse, Craig couldn’t recall ever seeing a movie focusing on just how boring it was to be the team standing outside the portal, waiting for the team inside to finish up.

But he could take it all because, with his hunger for fighting, he was quickly given more and more opportunities to prove his ability. And the crowds adored him. Everyone did, really. And if they didn’t, then his assuredness and confidence could convince anyone that he wasn’t about to lose.

If Craig was made for anything in this world, it was to fight.

“I’ll be doing what now?”

General Thunderhammer glanced up at him from the other side of the heavy wooden desk, his fingers still pinching the paper slip holding his orders. “This really isn’t something you can refuse, Fighter. As is, we are on a tight schedule. The helicopter is waiting and should you decide not to go aboard it, I can assure you that your only future work will be as monster bait.”

Craig gulped. “Uh… Yessir.”

Walking to the helicopter took pretty much no time at all, and yet his mind continued swirling with questions. A what has appeared in which city? Not even when he sat down in the helicopter could he quite pull himself together. So, to distract himself, he turned to the girl sitting next to him. She was maybe three years or so younger than him, wearing a hooded robe. It wasn’t easy to see, but Craig knew very well that beneath that robe hung rows upon rows of poisoned throwing knives. Though, in reality, she really was a mage.

“Guess it’s just you and me, eh, Magdalena?” Craig began, shooting her one of his trademarked Cocky Grins. She glanced at him anxiously. “You aren’t scared, are ya? It’s just a-, like, a guy! They said he was a guy, right? All I ever heard was something like Humanoid of unknown level, but when have those guys ever given us a correct description of anything? Just a month back, I remember going out to the countryside to deal with an anomalous portal, only to find a purple chicken-coop that freaked out some neighbours!”

Magdalena looked him up and down before finally saying, in a quiet voice, “You’re nervous, aren’t you?”

Craig froze. “Heh… Bwahaha! Me? I-, well, no. We’ve dealt with these sorts of situations a million times, Maggie! If it’s a human, all you’ve gotta do is sweet-talk ‘em, right? I mean, why else would they send me? I ain’t a talker, I’m a-, a fighter! Yeah, yeah. Or maybe they were just interested in my brawny complexion?”

She smiled slightly at him, though Craig couldn’t tell if it was due to a dawning romance or because she found him stupid as fuck. It could really be either one. “I don’t think we’ll be doing any fighting,” she said cryptically. Always such a mysterious girl.

And then they arrived and Craig enthusiastically greeted the biggest man he had ever seen in his life.

-Divine Human, Lv. ???-

Alright. So it wasn’t even a human? Well, it was a Divine Human, so there must be some humanity in him. Considering the question marks, his level had to be over 800. If that really was the case, it was a wonder they had only sent Craig and Magdalene. Though, of course, it was quite possible that most other people couldn’t arrive on such short notice. Craig had only been on the nearby base as a matter of formality.

But, somehow, looking at the immense man standing before him, Craig couldn’t help but feel somewhat strange. There was something off about his all-white eyes. He almost looked blind, but nothing in the reports mentioned anything about that. It might be an effect of his non-human status, though Craig couldn’t tell.

At least the man was obedient enough, if a bit quiet.

The Sargeant on duty gave Craig a quick run-down of the situation before Craig had to escort the man away.

The man whose name was Kreig. Really? Craig and Kreig?

Did General Thunderhammer know this? Did he decide to go with Craig for this specific reason?

Craig couldn’t know. Maybe he never would, but the fact that he shared a name with the lumbering beast at least gave him an ice breaker for the conversation.

Oh, yes, he was going to talk to Kreig. Of course he was! Maybe some others might think it would be a bad idea, or that he might upset him, but come on. Was nobody going to try treating the man like an actual human?

“Hey there. Big fella. Big guy,” Craig said, scooching closer to the man whose torso was about as broad as the fender of a truck. “Fella down there told me your name was Kreig?”

No response. But Craig didn’t need a response to play around a bit. He was perfectly capable of entertaining himself on his own.

That was until he might have said something wrong about Kreig’s armour and the man began to exude the most choking, oppressive killing intent Craig had ever felt.

Craig was not a man unfamiliar with death. He brushed with it on many occasions as part of his occupation, often arriving at death’s door following any particularly dangerous fight. But he had never feared it. It was just a risk of his work, an occupational hazard to be mostly ignored. Even more so, it gave him a certain thrill. Knowing that everything he had was on the line, he could truly fight.

But not here. Not now.

As the murderous desires of that man, that creature, exploded onto the helicopter, crushing everyone inside with the firm realization that they were inches from death, Craig decided that he did not want to die. The nearby soldiers - each the most capable to be found - froze in place, their fingers moving towards the trigger. Magdalene began trembling uncontrollably.

He felt sick and woozey. Even just sitting felt too much, and he feared that he might pass out at any time. Frantically, he began working his mouth. Only a moment had passed, but it had felt like an eternity. “N-, not that they’ll actually do it! They’re just considering it! Relax, dude!”

The atmosphere of certain death slowly dissipated as Kreig visibly relaxed. Craig breathed a sigh of relief.

From here on out, he had to be more careful. Though not careful to the point of stopping his rambling mouth.

This Kreig guy… As silent as he was, if Craig just squinted a little, he could be read as easily as any other person. Maybe even more so.

Craig had always been good at reading people, and for this situation, he used it to his best extent. In the back of his mind, he repeated a little mantra, If he knows who I am, he won’t kill me. If he knows my name, he might spare me.

They arrived at the other island. Craig didn’t like the place. Much too oppressive, far too much etiquette for his tastes. Apparently, the guys up top also wanted him to escort the guy down to his cell. In all honesty, Craig just wanted to go home to his girl.

They went down, he opened a few doors, the general’s secretary who covertly joined them a few paces back opened the final few doors, and then they dumped off the guy. Craig thought that would be the end of it and he could go back to fighting actual monsters, but then he was called up to the general’s office and told he’d be stationed there for the foreseeable future.

That was… Not fun.

Furthermore, his main task would be moving Kreig here and there, alongside just having basic conversations with him. According to the guys up top, talking to Kreig was a good idea, though needlessly teasing him was not. As a matter of fact, doing it too much in the future could easily lead to his removal.

Well, alright.

During Kreig’s stay, Craig did just as he was told. Things were going alright.

And then they brought his siblings down there. It had gone alright at first. The sister was clearly in the fighting business, though it was a bit surprising that she didn’t know his name. Maybe he wasn’t famous enough? If that was the case, then it had to be because he’d been cooped up on the Other Island for weeks, only able to leave every other week to visit his girl.

But he should have realized what would happen the second he saw only the two siblings coming. No one else.

But he did his duty well, taking them where they were going.

Things were going pretty well at the start, all things considered. Craig hung at the back, pretty assured that whatever happened, Frank would be able to deal with it. And if he couldn’t, then all Craig himself could do was to, well, throw himself between Kraig and everyone else and hope he might hesitate long enough for someone with a higher level to arrive. If there was one thing that Craig had learned during these past weeks, it was that Kreig was, all things considered, human.

He ate, he slept, and he created art. He wouldn’t kill for no reason.

But he almost did.

The wall, enhanced with the strongest metals to be found in the Otherworld, crumbled before him. The air hummed with pressure. Faced with something like that, Craig froze. Like a rabbit facing a wolf, he just stood there as the man - the beast with peerless strength - simply lifted Frank by the neck. And then the man just went limp. Craig was assured that he had died. He had to have. Such a level difference couldn’t leave anyone alive.

Craig, who had accepted that his role here was only to stall for time, found himself glued to the floor, watching with trembling eyes as Dr Darius and the two siblings tried futilely to calm him down.

And, somehow, it worked. Craig could only thank God that he had calmed down.

He fell to his knees and began to pray. It was such a strange sight. Although Kreig had had the title of being a paladin of some sort, Craig had never seen him acting religious to any real extent. He didn’t pray and he didn’t thank any god before eating.

But here, he prayed.

There was a great rumbling. Craig felt so tired of strange things happening. When the roof then caved in and bathed Kreig in a gentle, divine light, Craig really couldn’t believe his eyes. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want to. No skill could do what Kreig was doing. No skill should be able to do that.

Fighters were only human. Having a system didn’t make you into a demi-god.

But that seemed to be just what had happened to Kreig.

The clean-up work following that incident had taken almost a month to complete. If this hadn’t been one of the most internationally valued facilities in the world, it would probably have taken several months, if not years. To Craig, this all took place as a backdrop to something he found much more alarming.

A wyrm had appeared. Its level was valued at around 700. This was beyond the capabilities of even Frank, who had yet to fully mentally recover from his encounter with Kreig.

Such a situation would typically call for a variety of different responses. One was to send in as many Fighters as you could get your hands on. This was ineffective and expensive as most of the lower-level Fighters would either die or be relegated to the sidelines. Another was to simply nuke the bitch. This was also extremely costly as it reduced an entire city to cinders and left the nearby regions to deal with immense radioactive fallout.

In short, there were few ways for IOCRO to handle such situations.

But now, they had an option. One that had been advised not to use, but an option regardless.

Kreig Wiedermann. Level 999+. The strongest being, human or monster, ever encountered. If they could just borrow his power, even the most powerful creatures would pose no immediate threat.

The problem was that most people with any say in the matter did not recommend forcing Kreig into any such situation. But with so many lives on the line, the guys up top chose to take a risk.

They made the decision, and Craig had no part in it. He was just along for the ride.

They went and got Kreig. Silent as usual, he didn’t seem too conflicted about it. But Craig had expected that. The man had, after all, fought monsters for over a hundred years. He had no reason to fear them, even if he should in this situation.

They walked silently to the helicopter that would bring him to the site. All the way there, Craig had to feverishly battle his need to talk. It only got worse when he began to grow aware of how uncomfortable Kreig seemed to be in the silence. It wasn’t that Kreig liked talking, but he seemed to enjoy the feeling of being a part of a conversation. That was why it was so damn obvious he couldn’t stand the silence.

Nevertheless, they brought him to the courtyard, where the helicopter and the other prisoner awaited.

Oh, they hadn’t told him that they would be bringing his friend, either. The friend in question was a young kid recovered from the portals alongside Kreig. According to his testimony, he hadn’t actually been with Kreig, more so that they just happened to go into the portal at the same time. Alongside a company of soldiers. The fact that this kid was alive while the rest were dead was a complete coincidence.

The fact that the kid could still find it in him to be friends with Kreig was nothing less than a modern miracle.

And that’s why they brought him. As a last resort of sorts if Kreig went ballistic. He was only human, after all, so if he had a friend there, he could have an anchor of some sor-,

“Call it emotional blackmail if you’d like, but if we see one wrong move, we won’t hesitate to pull the trigger on this guy,” General Thunderhammer deadpanned.

Craig looked at him and felt his jaw drop open. They’ll what…?

Surprisingly, Kreig didn’t seem to react too strongly to the hostage situation. The kid in question seemed upset. Craig was trying to figure out if this was actually what they were going to do. It wasn’t a joke? They actually brought him as a hostage?

Craig was so stunned that he just sort of followed along with it.

Even when they got to the city and touched down and the wyrm was in sight, he couldn’t really digest what the general was trying to do with this. They hadn’t even given Kreig his weapons. Of course, practically speaking, the armour and weapons he had arrived with were physically too heavy to lift and remained where he had placed them, so they were out of the question, but they couldn’t even give him a sword or something? Hell, they hadn’t even removed his cuffs!

As it was, Craig found himself genuinely doubting Kreig, despite everything. Could he really handle this creature on his own?

At least they brought Frank. He wouldn’t be able to handle the creature on his lonesome, but he would at least be able to deal some damage or help Kreig, should the situation require it.

Craig reared his spear as the wyrm approached. Kreig stood at the front of their little group, exuding absolutely nothing. No killing intent, no desires… Craig just couldn’t read him.

The wyrm stopped a few paces off. Craig couldn’t bring himself to feel afraid, not when he’d felt so much worse from Kreig. Somehow, it seemed as though its blank, white eyes were focused not on their group as a whole, but only Kreig alone.

Then, it turned and left. Craig blinked at it. That was… odd. Monsters seldom fled Fighters. But, then again, Kreig could hardly be called something so mundane as a monster.

The general barked an order at Kreig, demanding that he follow the wyrm. Kreig gave no response, but it was clear what he was thinking. “You’re gonna look at me and tell me you can’t get out of those yourself?” Prompted by those words, Kreig carefully, gently removed the metal gloves and handed them to Craig. There were deep dents and tears where Kreig had touched them.

Right. Of course, that was only obvious. Craig, in turn, handed the scrap-metal gloves to another soldier.

As Kreig left in pursuit of the wyrm, the general snapped at Craig and Frank to follow him. He did as told, even though he was pretty sure he had little to give to this fight.

Sure, he loved to fight and all, but he wasn’t about to jump in between Kreig and his prey. It was clear Kreig had made up his mind in this situation, and Craig had no interest in actively making himself into his enemy.

They found the wyrm wrapped around a gas station. And then it all began.

The wyrm raised its massive head, opening its jaws wide. Craig, in turn, tried to prepare himself for a defensive battle. His job was just to keep Kreig in line and to defend his own life. But he couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong. Kreig was wrong. It was as though in the few seconds between finding the wyrm and the battle beginning, all humanity that he had built up had drained out of him, leaving only a creature rearing for battle. It felt like ants were crawling across Craig’s skin.

Kraig crossed his arms before him, clearly using some form of skill. A stream of black liquid sprayed out of the wyrm’s gullet, crashing into Kreig. No, not into him, but into an invisible barrier before him. The liquid splashed everywhere like water hitting a spoon. Craig jumped back and away from the liquid, noticing how Frank was only barely able to block it with one of his spells. The sprayed liquid hissed and bubbled as it melted holes in the pavement.

“Hey, don’t get us killed here!” Craig shouted in a vague attempt to get Kreig to protect them as well, but it was obvious that Kreig couldn’t hear him. If he did, then he no longer cared.

Then, as the stream finally let up fully, Kreig disappeared. No, he didn’t quite disappear, he just… One second he stood before them, and the next he was right in front of the startled wyrm. Looking over at Frank, he found an equally bewildered gaze meeting him. Not even he could see how fast he was moving. Returning their stunned gazes to where Kreig was, they found him piercing his hands into its snout.

In one jark, he tore the skull in two. Killed as easily as one kills a fly.

The inside did not bleed. It was a massive root system of white. Craig recognized them as the organ that gives strength to Fighters. It had some long scientific name, but most fighters just called them white veins. Seeing a creature filled with them to the extent that it almost fully replaced the flesh and blood felt strange and wrong.

Craig moved closer slowly, seeing how Kreig apparently summoned an ethereal knife out of nowhere. Using it, he slit an incision in his forearm. Inside, Craig saw more white veins than he had ever seen in anyone. Not even Frank should have that many with that thickness.

The wound quickly closed itself and Kreig destroyed the ethereal knife with a flex of his hand.

“Hey, Kreig!” Craig called out, confident in approaching now that the wyrm was dead and everything was alright. “Good work there, heh, guess we didn’t need to use that hostage guy? Kind of a weird situation, but I’m sure those guys up top know what they’re doing. They usually do.” Kreig didn’t respond. But not in the normal way where he was simply quiet, no, somehow, Craig could tell that Kreig couldn’t tell he was there at all. “Kreig?”

Again not responding, Kreig simply lifted his foot and pressed it into the brain of the wyrm, crushing it with a stomp that resounded massively. Craig took a step back. Then, Kreig raised his hand towards the corpse, and in a brilliant flash of fire, the body was reduced to white snow.

“Heh, that’s…” Craig swallowed. Frank was approaching from behind, clearly uncertain. “Kreig, you alright there?” Again, it was clear that Kreig couldn’t see him. As though he was somewhere else entirely. But Craig could help him with that, right? They knew each other. He wouldn’t hurt him. He could help. “Kreig, are you-,”

He placed his hand on Kreig’s shoulder and was instantly blown back. He flew a hundred yards through the air, crashing into a building and bouncing down to smash to the ground. Pain was shooting through his body in great clusters blossoming over his body, centring on his right arm. He looked down at it. It was mangled and wrong. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been hurt like this.

Tearing his eyes off of the damage, he found his gaze drawn to Kreig again. He was moving slowly as though wading through mud, his white eyes darting over the city like he was looking for something. His chest heaved up and down. Frank was obviously trying to suppress him by using spells and skills, but nothing had any effect.

And at that moment, Craig was sure that this would be the end of it all. Nobody could stop that creature. They had been wrong to bring him. They should have just nuked the damn place.

“Kreig?”

But then the kid was there. He was surrounded on all sides by soldiers, but it seemed that Kreig could only see him.

Thinking that this might be the end, that this might save them, Craig instinctually relaxed. Medics were approaching him, dragging him to his feet.

For a few minutes, Gerald tried his best to calm down Kreig, who seemed like such a different person that Craig felt betrayed.

But eventually, after much too long time, they were able to calm him down.

Nevertheless, from there on out, Craig would never again make the mistake of trusting Kreig too readily.