All of us, the foreigners look at each other, we know very well we are the cause of what is going to tear apart not only us, but the village itself.

  “Roland! Tell your people to hide, this is going to be rough!” Harald orders the sweaty blacksmith. The buffed warrior Brinn raises his chin up as he observes the old man's peculiar actions; he fidgets his fingers in front of his chest and a sniper rifle materializes out of the thin air, starting with the barrel.

  It’s a mere blink and a heavy black plastic grip lands in his right and accessory rail part in his left.

  *Metal clangs* as Brinn grips his heavy war axe.

  “The time has finally come!” He mutters through his teeth, barely visible because of the massive thick beard. His eyes are on fire!

  He might be a skilled warrior, but I believe we’ve encountered such deadly beasts so far, an army of people without a system has zero chance.

  “No Brinn! It’s not the time yet! We can’t risk blowing such an opportunity!” Roland yells at Brinn and turns to the settlement.

  “Wait for Isolda to speak first! It will be one of them!” He talks determinedly.

  “You fool.”

  “Yeah, one of them, of course. It’s always one of them. Just like Peter and those damn twins, right?” Brinn complaints.

  “Peter and twins.” I whisper to Astrid.

  “So there were others like us, I’m worried what happened to them.” She answers quietly to me.

  The people are more than aware that a danger is coming.

  The cart filled with vegetables is left in the middle of the road, the inn windows and doors are shut down. Everyone disappears from the streets and suddenly the only sound we hear is the forest getting torn to pieces as the massive white gorilla slams its path.

  “Hide!” Harald waves at Brinn and Roland, while he adjusts the rifle. One eye closed and he aimed through the binocular towards the path the enemy was expecting.

  “Listen to me! Now!”

  Blacksmith gets angry at such a level a massive triangular veins are protruding on his forehead.

  “Inside the basement! Now! God dammit!” He orders us with a mighty deep voice.

  “Are you even aware wh..” Harald looks at him angrily and is immediately interrupted.

  “Of course! Everyone knows!” The blacksmith answers.

  I don’t hesitate, holding Astrid in my arms, and start walking towards the notional entry.

  Mike and Nathalie copy us, but Harald refuses. He stands there aiming for the ape.

  “Are you deaf?!” Brinn steps in.

  “Weren’t you determined to fight alongside like a moment ago?!” Harald frowns.

  “Yes, but your weird weapon looks like complete shit!” He yells back at him.

  “What?!” Harald frowns even more.

  *Bang*

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  A bullet tears through the wooden pole at the settlement entrance and shatters the point of impact to pieces; pole tips and falls over with a crack.

  “Ehm.” Brinn stays speechless.

  “Harald! Listen to them, we better prepare!” I stop and turn to him quickly, that Astrid's hair almost coils around my arm.

  He looks at me, thinks for a second.

  The sniper rifle shrinks into the void and disappears.

  “Good.” He answers meekly.

  Middle-aged rather bulky woman with a massive fair braid opens the door of the inn at the last moment.

  “Move, quickly, inside.” She orders us with a slightly lowered voice, almost whispering.

  She holds the door open for us with her muscular and a bit hairy arm.

  Brinn and Roland meanwhile sit on the patio in front of the inn, Brinn grabs his unfinished mead and acts like nothing is happening.

  Mike and Harald let me go first as I still carry Astrid, I carefully slide in without hurting her.

  Nat follows, Mike afterwards and the old man barely slips in, as he keeps checking the perimeter.

  *Ring, ring*

  The bulky woman, I suppose the innkeeper rings a medium sized cowbell she has on the top shelf by the door.

  “It’s not the time?! What does it want from us!” One of the guests shakes their head.

  “This is getting worse and worse.” He mutters.

  Lighted by the candles only, I check the other people inside the inn, first the fat balding greasy man with a moustache.

  My trust issue kicks in again and I start to question reality.

  Are they real beings? Holograms, NPCs or the backdrops? I start wondering.

  “Mark?” Astrid whispers to me as I keep scanning poor folks.

  I’m quickly awakened as the balding old fat man gives me the weird looks for staring at him, checking him out. He raises an eyebrow, angry for my staring, almost like he read from my sight that I’m checking him like he was a livestock.

  Looking away immediately I blink and try to play it cool, but it’s already too late.

  The inn has about ten people in total, enjoying their meals and drinks.

  “Pardon my lady, what is going on?” Harald asks the innkeeper.

  “Did you spot a gigantic white monkey on your way in here or not?” She asks quietly, yet aggressively.

  “Err..” The old man looks at me with a side of his eye, awaiting my response. He breathes in with concern and through his hole in the cheek; it almost whistles as the hole is about the third of its size it was two days ago.

  Obviously he is thinking if to reveal the truth or not as we all know from this brief encounter that first, the villagers are way more than aware of the three-hundred level behemoth and second, they seem to be fairly used to this thing giving them a visit.

  “Eh…” Harald stutters and fails to answer.

  “Of course you’ve seen it.” She shakes her head in disbelief, bursting with an angry tone.

  The bulky lady rolls up her sleeves afterwards.

  I can imagine her slapping Harald into oblivion, even if he was wearing my full plate armor from Frans. Or at least I think this is what the old married couple Brinn and Roland were talking about.

  “We can deal with..” Harald finally talks, but he hushes right away.

  “Listen here, you shites! You will now shut up and roll down the vine cellar quickly and I double dare you to interfere.” She points at the opened small door behind the counter.

  The old man gulps.

  I’m surprised that I can finally see him being afraid of anything. I look at Astrid and she chuckles, as do I. Somehow I am not afraid at all.

  Harald wields a sniper rifle, I have my new powers from the well, yet not explored. Astrid wishes to finally die and walk on her own, Nathalie is god knows what capable of and Mike has some secrets in his sleeve he will showcase if needed. And to be not enough, we have acid and we are partially immortal; I’m not afraid. Not afraid at all.

  Willingly with ease I slide into the vine cellar, hoping for the window.

  A few narrow stone steps and the first thing I do is search for the best place to put Astrid down, as the cellar window is perfectly aligned with the outside patio, where Brinn and Roland are sitting. I want to watch and listen.

  Moist and smelling like a hundred year old wooden church I enjoy every bit of it.

  I carefully put Astrid down on one of the wide standing barrels with a sigh of relief.

  She does not protest at all as she lets me catch a bit of breath and let my Focus retract.

  *Slam*

  *Slow thudding and rumbling*

  The rest of the party is barely in and the bulky lady slams the door behind us.

  —

  “Is it the ape?” Astrid whispers.

  “Sssh.” Harald hushes her. I raise a corner of my mouth as I imagine a scenario where Harald is afraid of the big lady, for the party not behaving.

  I can barely see through the dirty windows covered in spiderwebs, but the slow thudding stops.

  A giant black foot the size of a small dining table gently stops in front of the inn.

  Guessing by the size a shiver runs down my back as I imagine the beast might or is taller than the tow story inn itself.

  Nat stands by the barrel with Astrid and Harald and Mike join me.

  Mike is sharp as always but the sweat behind his ear tells the truth. Haralds heart is loud as a bell, racing with adrenaline.

  A brief look at Astrid and I notice she’s calm as well and so does Nat.

  She steps a bit closer and grabs all the spider webs with her hand.

  Her brown shiny eyes with lashes so dense she looks like having an eyeliner briefly checks the behemoth beast. She does not even flick a hair, as like the size of it doesn't matter at all.

  “Goro. Welcome!” Roland yells out aloud. His voice is more fake than ever.

  “What brought you here so soon? We don’t have the next batch ready yet.” He continues.

  *Bang*

  A dust starts to fall on our heads and our reflexes cover our domes.