Sure, it didn't hurt as much as last time, but it still hurt. I rolled around in pain. I saw that I was laying on some small, green plant. Actually, a large green plant. It covered this entire area. In front of me was a forest and a flower patch. I relaxed a bit. Besides the horrible burns and splitting headache, it was peaceful.
Tell no-one but the Spartans you are here.
I heard the last of the fire burn off me behind me. Solid footsteps and cryptic mumbling approached me from behind. I knew it was too peaceful.
"Hey...hey you okay?" I felt solid hands placed on my back and have me a quick shake.
"Come on, not more Minotaurs,"
"Minotaurs? Where are you from? Was there another out post? What happened?" He rolled me over. He was human, completely human. He had incredibly large muscles and looked like he was wearing military armor "Ubi te dicis erant ex? Which city are you from?"
"What? Arcadia," I said half-heartedly. It is good to see another full human.
"That isn't a Terradisian city, is it?"
"No, it's a part of the Great Human Empire."
"Look, we'll continue this in the house." He picked me up and helped me walk towards yet another stone building. I swear, the only places that Vlast sends me to are ones where they make their homes out of stone. We walked in through the back door, through the kitchen and into the living room where he laid me on the couch. "Who are you?" He asks as he steps away, looking as confused as I was.
"Name's Arin, I am an engineer from Arcadia, who are you?"
"Miles Eremita, how did you get here?"
"Where is here?"
"Ponyville, Equestria. I’m the Grand Captain of the Spartan Regiment. Ubi te dicis erant ex?"
"What?" I gave him the strangest look when he finished talking in tongues.
"Nothing," he quickly acts like nothing happened
"Wait..Spartans? Vlast said something about Spartans..." I tried to think back. I was in my head and we were talking about getting me trained, then he burned me up and then he said something in the weird language. Then he told me to keep it a secret from everyone but Spartans.
"Who is Vlast? Is that the demon inside of you?" How could he have known about that?
"How do you know about that? ...And he isn't really a demon. He is just a being...that possessed me and gave me powers in return for...He isn't a demon!"
"What does he want with the Spartans?" His face changed to one of defensive rage. He flicked his hands and they came alive with white flame. He was on the other side but I could feel the heat from here. Lines began to make their way from his wrist up his arm stopping a few inches below his elbows.
"Calm down, he doesn't want anything from you," The lines began to lower and he began to calm down; but stayed on edge. "He wants me to learn from you. He said that you were the best fighters to have ever walked the universe and if I was to survive, I needed to learn how to fight from you." Ok, I was pulling this out of my ass, but it worked. The flames and lines disappeared from his arms and he stood up straight and tall.
"Well, we are the best." Wow, this guy is full of himself, "...and you want training?"
"Yeah!"
"No,"
"Huh?"
"No."
"..."
"..."
"What?"
"Even though you are human, you need to be a Terridisian to be a Spartan. And if you want to be a Terridisian, you need to follow all the rules. Starting with rule number one, nothing is hidden. You seem to think that there isn’t a Demon within you. So what is it? What are you hiding? What is Arcadia? Tell me everything and I might consider it."
"Vlast is not a demon, he can't be. He only gave me these powers so that I can save his race of people from something. Demons want to destroy and hurt, he only wants to save." Vlast is more than just a demon, he is...an anti-demon?.
“Yeah, and the demon within Damian tried to upturn the Devil, and he defeated him to keep the order. As Damian says, good intentions open the gates of hell... whatever that means.”
"I have no idea what you just said, but he isn't a demon!" I realised how childish we must have sounded. "Ok, Arcadia is the jewel of the Human Empire. A cultural hub filled with science, arts and a natural beauty. What about this Topaz place?”
He looked out the nearby window solemnly, “... not a place with arts and natural beauty.” He turned and began walking back the way we came through. He leant against the walkway and faced away from me, “You wouldn’t happen to be from one of the colonies... would you?”
"I told you, I came from Arcadia. I made a deal with the 'Demon'," I tried to make the idea of him being a demon stupid, "and woke up in Taura before being thrown into a Minotaur Arena."
"That would explain the scars. An arena, nasty business there. You survived down there?"
"Yeah. Some things happened and I ended up being transported to Equestria. I fell asleep the night before, woke up here."
"Stand up," he ordered me like one of his privates. I followed suit because this guy scared me. He began to walk around me and size me up. "I need to think for a bit, wait here," he walked back the way we came. I sat back down and waited. I looked at my clothes. They were still torn and ripped from the fight. My entire stomach area is exposed and only half of my chest is covered. My silk pants looked like a wolf had ripped them up. The only thing that looked half wearable was my heavy, black trench coat. I think I should see if Miles could lend me some clothes. I was about to call out for him when I heard some heavy panting. I look around for where it came from but saw nothing. I stood up and slowly backed up to the wall. From around the couch came two giant wolves with giant, gleaming fangs.
"WOLF ATTACK!" I shouted out to Miles. Before I could run or defend myself, they pounced on me. They tackled me to the ground and pinned me there. "Help me miles!" I couldn't fight their gorey and ticklish licks at my exposed skins, one was even nuzzling my chest.
Miles walked back into the room. "Lupus, Haiti, get off of him," he said as if this happens every second day to him. They got off me but keep tasting me. I clambered behind Miles and held him in front of me. "I was going to let you train with us, but if you’re this much of a pussy..."
"Not fair! They were trying to eat me!"
"Do you see how fluffy they are? Do they look like they could hurt a fly?" I peak around and look at the little monsters. They are both staring at me with their blood thirsty eyes, their tongues dangling out their mouths, trying to taste my flesh while I protect myself. Miles reached down and patted each on the head.
"They are very small for wolves," I said from my thoughts
"They’re fully grown."
"Wolves mustn't be as big here. Where I am from, wolves would stand another head over you,"
"Is that so?" Miles turned around and walked back out of the room, the little devils followed him."I need to show you something." I followed them back the way I came in, checking all the corners to make sure the bitches weren't going to jump me. Miles was waiting for me at the back door. He turned to the two evil beasts rolling around on the ground. "Go get Luna."
They rolled on to their paws and ran into a shed. A bright flash from the doorway nearly blinded me. "Wait, will I need weapons for what you're showing me?"
"It would help." said before walking into his shed.
I'm on it
I followed him down the stairs. I hear some clunking from all around me. Four machines jumped out wielding some kind of short, hollow piece of metal. "What the fuck did I do this time?" Miles walked over to a bench and throws a small hexagun at my feet.
"Defend yourself!" All the guards raised their small tubes at me. I guess it is some kind of weapon. I could feel the air heat up rapidly just in front of me. I looked down at the puny weapon at me feet before looking back at Miles. I kicked the small gun away from me. The heat was near unbearable now, but I showed no pain.
"No thanks, I brought my own," just as I finish talking, the air in front of me burst into flame. I could see the slight shape of a handle, so I grabbed for it. I pointed the far end at the closest machine's head before pulling (hopefully) the trigger. It's head shattered into a million little parts. I began to spin and slowly lower myself at the same time. I lined the shot up with the next one quickly and pulled the trigger again. I disposed of the other two in a similar manner. When I had finished my twist, I was facing Miles again. I was crouching near the floor with my left leg out to keep balance. By now the flames around my hexagun has died down and shown my weapon in all of it's glory. I noticed my shredded backpack, my dagger and my sword all appeared next to me on the ground.
"Impressive," he muses. I picked my bag and weapons up and reattached them all in their right place. I also loaded my hexagun again, displacing the 4 used cartridges and dropping the empty ones on the floor. "One last test," Miles says as he turns and walks towards the far side of the room.
'What happened to my axes?'
They are still where you left them. Not even my power can get them out.
'God damn it!' A blinding flash stunned me and my vision was blurred white. After stumbling around for a while, my vision returned and Miles was gone. "Miles, you there?" Nothing called back. I kept walking around, looking for where Miles had disappeared to. I notice a few strange markings on the floor and some cupboards and shelves nearby. On my way over to the cupboards to see if he is playing some childish game, I stepped on the gun and it slipped out from underneath me. I Flailed around for a bit before falling flat on my face on top of one of the strange symbols. My vision flashed a blinding white. I couldn't see anything, I curled up into a ball in case anything tried to kill me. Yeah, that seems like a legitimate excuse.
"Get up bitch." I hear Miles groan from somewhere nearby. He yanks me to standing position and drags me to a large metal door. "You want Spartan Training? I have seen in your head already and seen that you are good at heart, but it is going to take more than heart," He said as the door opened. "You see that building there, in the centre?" he says as he points to a large skyscraper in the centre of a stone city. The city itself lays inside a massive dome, being several miles high. The buildings near the walls only stand a few stories high and get taller the closer they get to the centre. The skyscraper in the centre seems to nearly hit the top of the dome as it comes to a point.
“Your mission is to make it there alive. Make it there, you get spartan training, die and you save me the resources." I walk carefully into the city and begin to look around. The sound of light laughter resounded behind me followed by a sharp clunk of metal falling into place.
I turned around to see the massive door shut tight and Miles nowhere to be seen. I turned back around to the sight of large hexaguns being pointed at me. Well, these ones only have one barrel, so....monogun? Just gun works I guess. Anyway, they were being held by metal men who had surrounded me entirely. I gave a half-hearted smile before making a mad dash between two of the men-things towards a nearby building. I hear some bullets being fired and whizzing past me. I barged in through the door and dived behind a counter for cover. Everything went eerily quiet. I slung my gun onto my back before pulling out my dagger. I pushed my energy towards my fingertips and watched as the dagger's blade began burning.
Three metal men with swords for wrists barged in and ran towards me, jumping over any furniture in the way. Bullets start flying into the room from outside as the other metal men form a perimeter outside. I stab one of the bots in the face, making his head explode into a shower of nuts and bolts. Another bot narrowly missed me with a wide swing. I ran to the back of the shop and burst through the back of the shop into a long alley.
My target loomed over the other buildings, but even then other buildings still dwafed me. I began running through the alley towards the centre building. After a short run I heard the bots break through the door behind me and knew that they would start shooting again. I don’t think my luck will save me this time. A loud thud breaks my train of thought. Whatever it was, it was big enough to shake the buildings beside me. I begin to run faster, trying to escape whatever behemoth could make such a thunderous sound without being seen. I reach the end of the alley and turn onto the main street. Before me stands a giant, and I mean GIANT bot-man-thing with a giant hexagun who's barrel was easily the size of my fists.
"Oh fuck that..." I turned around and ran back into the alley. I found myself caught between what appears to be an unending wall of smaller bots and the giant one behind me. So, naturally, I take the hero's choice. I ran in the closest building and began scrambling towards the front of the house. I barely made it past the front door before I heard the wall behind me crumble.
"One block?"
"You never told me about the machines, or the guns, or the machines with guns!" I shouted at him, my limp body hanging from my ankle being held by the giant gun thing-y that grabbed me.
"Will the enemy tell you what you’re going to face? As a Spartan you have to be ready for anything, and I mean anything. It will be your obligation to face those things and to charge at them, not run like a coward."
"I would love to continue this conversation, but my head is filling up with blood, making talking harder and harder," He motions to the giant thing and it drops me flat on my face. I pick myself up and turn back to Miles. “I also take it, that in the Spartans, you wouldn't just push someone into the middle of a giant city filled with things that want to kill him, BY HIMSELF!”
"You would be surprised..." He chuckled to himself. "Now the question is, do you think you can survive a life in which YOU are expected to charge down the middle, protect what’s right because its right?”
“I don’t know, but I would sure as hell try to...”
“Hmm... we’ll see about that. Congrats, you’ve been accepted into training. Don’t thank me though. It was Damians idea... well, he just wants to question you really. But be warned, we will try to kill you during all of this. The best way to survive is to find a cause worth living for. We actually begin in a few days, meet me in my backyard in two days for orientation.” Miles lead me back out the city.
“The thing is, I have nowhere to go. I’m not allowed to let anyone see me except the Spartans.”
“Hmm... another human would make things difficult. You can stay in the city then. There isn’t anyone here beside the bots, so you’ll be hidden. As for food, we have a stockpile at the P.C.H... the big building you failed to get to, on the 82nd floor. Feel free to explore the rest of the city as well. Easy will guide you so you don’t get lost.”
“So you think that you can ditch in the place you just tried to KILL me?! No thanks, I’ll just go sleep in the forest.”
“No can do, the forest is where the training will take place. Plus I’ve sent a few non spartans out there to make repairs on the course. If you want to stay hidden, Topaz is your best bet.”
“Alright. A quick question though?”
“Yeah?”
“Luna, is she a spartan?”
“.... how do you know my wife?” he asks as he clenches his fists.
“She was at the arena...wait, you married an Equestrian? Aren’t you two different races?”
“Does love care about things like that? Plus... lets just say I’ve got everything under control. Why do you want to see her?”
“I was just wondering if I could see a familiar face, we didn’t really talk but it would be good to see someone I have before.”
“Well... this may be a little harsh, but I’d suggest against that. From what you say, I think you’re talking about a different Luna, if so, don’t mix the two up. Things... wouldn’t end well.”
“I just want to talk to her, nothing will happen...”
“Yes, something will happen. Even if its minor, something will happen. Do not grow feelings for someone you will not see again, especially if they are taken. But, if you get the chance, talk to the other Luna as quickly as possible. I can see it already, don’t miss your chance.” Miles turns to leave the city.
"Wait, what?" I ask as I follow him past the bulkhead, but he ignores me. He steps on the strange symbol thing and disappeared in a flash of light. I was going to follow, but my less manly side decided against it. I start a slow jog towards the... tall centre building thing that I forgot the name of.
I arrive at the building and walk inside. I check the first room and find a whole lot of platforms with the symbols from before. I decide not to test my luck and curled up into a ball against a corner, using what was left of my clothes as a sheet as I try to get some sleep.
"Can I get your autograph?" I hear a bot ask me.
"Ugh.....sure?" The bot froze for a moment, almost as if it has no idea what to do. It then turned around and sped away. I decided to just roll over and close my eyes.
"Can I get your autograph?" The bot woke me.
"Yeah, sure..." I took the tablet and found a picture of Miles on the screen. He’s in a weird pose. As if he’s in the middle of showering..."OH MY-WHAT THE FUCK?!?"
Это меня беспокоит