The Big Dog

“You have two options… You can stay here and fight me, or you can live.”

The girl in the black hood makes a frightful declaration. Floating in front of her is a brightly colored series of lines and geometric shapes. It was a complex diagram drawn straight into the air as if the air itself was just a piece of paper. Just a few inches in front of the magic circle, arrowheads and the blades of knives were completely halted by the power of the magical circle wielded by this girl.

“Too bad it doesn’t seem like you can understand my words.”

With a disappointed sigh, the girl looks pitifully on the creatures in front of her. The green goblins look at her in confusion, making unintelligible sounds. They stand at a little over three feet tall, dressed in rags and carrying foot-long knives. Their vibrant green skin, large eyes, and crooked teeth made them disgusting to look at normally. I could only understand the dark mage’s pity when dozens of darkly colored magical circles, smaller than the one currently blocking ten simultaneous attacks from the goblin bandits, appeared several feet above the goblins’ heads.

The goblins squealed and tried to make some sort of escape. The ones in melee range, struggled in vain to free their blades from the invisible force which held it in place. Without the mage saying another word, blades of dark shadow silently appeared in the center of these circles and plunged down at the speed of an arrow. The goblins’ bodies were pierced and brutally thrown around by several blades each hitting them with more force than their small body was ever meant to endure. Even the archers, almost a hundred feet away, were mowed down by this rain of dark magic.

With a sigh, the girl stared at the destruction she just caused. She, like me, was a human from Earth summoned here to save this kingdom from monsters. I wish she would take this seriously and stop acting all brooding. This kind of setting, one where a kingdom of humans is assailed on all sides by inhuman threats, is pretty common in fiction. We are the only hope of humanity, but she spends half of her time just moping!

“That’s enough for today, right?”

She turns away from the carnage, and asking approval from a knight dressed decoratively behind us. Her face is a neutral mask that made it look like she wasn’t even slightly bothered by the sudden violent attacks from the snarling creatures! Our convoy had been ambushed by goblins during the last leg of our journey to receive the king’s orders. This territory was supposed to be safe! How is she not freaking out about goblins sneaking into the kingdom, specifically to hunt us down!?

“Not yet,”

The hard-faced knight, Wright, answers. Technically, I guess he would be more of a captain than a regular knight, but he really looks just how I imagined a knight would! With a disciplined energy, bright silver armor and gold ornamentation on his shoulders and the top of his helmet, he gives a much stronger impression of knight than the other two dozen men meant to guard us. From what I gather, Wright is basically the most trusted subordinate of the leader of the kingdom’s military—and he’s spending his time on us! That shows just how valuable we are to the kingdom!

“Your job isn’t over until you take out the mages.”

He states firmly, his lip curling slightly.

“I can’t.”

“Do it now.”

“I can’t do it, I said! The mages are too far away, and they ran the moment they saw my spell!”

The mage and the high-ranking knight argued back and forth. I was surprised, since I didn’t even know the enemy mages were a part of this battle. I didn’t notice any with my detection skill or see any sign of magic since the battle wrapped up so quickly, but if the two of them agreed that there were enemy mages, then it was definitely true.

“The main role of mages is to take out enemy mages. You should have left the footsoldiers to us and taken out the mages while they were still in range.”

“I’m still a novice and I don’t know any ranged spells that are still accurate at over 500 feet away. I could target a wide area, but I’m more likely to burn this whole forest than get through a shield spell.”

“They started casting a joint spell. Hit them now before they get away.”

The mage cursed loudly and stomped her foot. For the first time in the conversation, I felt like I was on the same page as the other two. They were both using magic to monitor enemies and making plans based on that knowledge, but I didn’t need magic to understand what was happening. The most basic rule of magic combat in this world is “protect the mages”. My role as a knight on that frontline is basically to give this emo mage the breathing room that she needs to wipe the enemy off the face of the planet, and to not allow any enemy mages comfortably cast powerful magic.

Now that their frontline has collapsed, the mages were taking the most logical next step according to the military strategy we were taught. They were immediately using their magic to create a powerful teleportation spell to escape from the battlefield so that they can fight another day. But a teleportation spell should take about two minutes to cast, and if they were only about 500 feet away, then—

“I can do it!”

Surprising everyone, I focus my body’s magic into my legs and the bottoms of my feet. The toes of my boots sink into the earth as I push off in a sudden burst. In one stride, I have crossed 30 feet to enter the woods. There is an incline, but I am able to quickly bound up it. When Wright and the mage were talking about the enemy mages, they kept on looking in the same direction. It was also the direction that the goblins had come from!

While I might not know exactly where I’m going, once I get close, my detection skill should easily be able to lead me to a bunch of mages casting a giant spell… Bingo! With a smirk, I firmly grasp my sword at my hip and its scabbard. Just a few more steps.

“There’s seven of them… And two of them noticed me.”

I think of detection magic a bit like having heat measuring goggles, but for magic. Everything living has magic, but the difference between a rabbit jumping and a mage casting a spell is the difference between a bright beacon waving everywhere and a flickering tea-light. In the same way, I’m sure that’s how the enemy mages noticed me approaching them with magic. But—

“But it’s too late!”

With a roar, I slashed with my sword imbued with magic as I leaped towards the mouth of a great cave. A fiery arc emitted from it and collided with a brightly glowing magical shield, much like the one that had protected our convoy from goblins just two minutes before. My arms shook from the collision, as the air itself seemed to shatter in front of me as I broke through two layers of their magic shield.

Seven mages stood in front of me, five still working to cast the giant spell, while the other two would focus on buying time and protecting. They were an assorted crew of dark elves, lycanthropes, and goblins. If I could take out even one of the five joint casters, it would probably cause enough of a disruption to call it a win for humanity. But if I focused on attacking the joint casters, then I could be struck from behind by their defenders. If I attacked the defenders, however…

“Not a very fair fight?”

I snarled, filled with energy as I swung through the first defender’s shield in on stroke, slicing diagonally across his chest. The dark elf with silver hair looked at me in horror as blood spurted from the wound and strength left his body. I could feel the second defensive mage setting two spells on either side of where I landed. Instead of waiting to see what either of them would do, I leaped again, swinging my sword in a wild arc. As I was midair, something caught me by my legs, and tossed me to the ground.

The spells at my feet had been binding spells, and the vines that shot from it had wrapped around my feet. I growled as I snapped the vines with my sword and rolled away from the lightning that shot from the next magic circle created by the mage. The enemies were shouting at each other by this point. I was sure their foreign words had some meaning I couldn’t understand, but fear and desperation have never needed words or exact meanings to be understood.

They were my enemies, and I was theirs. This world is not kind like Earth. This world is dog eat dog, and today I am the bigger dog. I must kill them or else they would kill me, it’s as simple as that. I feel the mage prepare three spells this time. Two at my feet, and one attack in front of me. I jump backwards, slashing away the binding vines that grabbed at me from below.

“I’ve already seen that trick!”

I scream as I dash forward, swiping away their offensive lightning with my large sword. The mage was so focused on offense, that it was as easy as breathing for me to break through their paltry shield with a backhanded swipe. Their body crumpled against my sword, their shield having held back my slicing power, but still leaving enough that I send them flying through sheer weight. The mage tries to rise, but coughs blood as they stare at me in hatred.

Despite all that pain, they summon two more attacking magic circles. I weave through their attack and punch them squarely in the jaw, with my sword-wielding hand. I feel their teeth crunch as they are launched again. I don’t know if I’m more impressed or frustrated that even when they can’t rise from the ground, the mage still continues to send desperate attacks at me. I tried not killing him, but I reluctantly have to end his life, when he refuses to just fall unconscious after probably breaking a half dozen bones from repeated blunt impacts.

Some people are too tenacious for their own good.

With a sigh, I turn back to the mages who have almost finished their spell. The defensive mages managed to stubbornly stall me for long enough that even if I took out one, the spell would still probably activate. The downside of being a melee combatant is that if I were to try and attack now, I could be drawn up in their teleportation spell. Being teleported to the middle of an enemy camp while already extremely winded from sprinting and fighting at full strength would be a death sentence for any warrior. Therefore—as frustrating as it is, I had to recognize my own defeat and let the mages teleport away.

But after a brief moment of catching my breath, I realized two things. The first was that teleportation was already underway, and the second was that something was wrong. Instead of feeling the presence of the mages being pulled away to another place, a blinding amount of magic began to pour from the circle they constructed underneath them. I shielded my eyes and turned away as the air got heavier with the dense feeling of hostile magic energy.

Bathed in red light, a large reflective arm reached upwards from inside the circle. The hand itself was the size of a person. And then a second arm reached from the circle. Soon, a full body made completely from stone pulled itself up from the glowing red pillar of light that the circle had become. It had a rounded head with tiny red lights, and a large pointed red crystal in its center.

This thing was no human. It pointed its arm towards me, and I could see that its palms also had a red crystal. That crystal began to glow, and I knew that it was readying an attack. But I could barely move. The waves of mana that came from the teleportation spell made the air feel dense like gelatin. I raised my arms, but instead of doing anything useful, I just further shielded myself. When push came to shove, I panicked.

In front of this stone monster, I was clearly the smaller dog. Standing in front of this thing reminded me of the one time that the army asked me to spar against her. The differences between our side’s emo mage and this giant stone humanoid felt obvious, but the same oppressive feeling they gave was unmistakable. Closing my eyes, I vividly remembered her figure standing there, surrounded by dozens of flaming orbs.

“Let this be a lesson to never fight a mage that’s ready for you.”

She had said the words quietly, yet I feel like I somehow distinctly heard the words despite the roaring sound of her fireballs. I had tried to muster up some courage to stand, but then I noticed that the fire did not end as a wall around her. The fireballs had been created all around us, forming a giant sphere of death where even one ball of flame could incinerate a person to their bones. The pressure in that moment was enough to drive a person mad.

So, in that respect at least, this magic golem is not quite as bad as our resident dark mage.

With a grim smile, I faced my imminent death.

“That’s enough.”

It was a simple statement, but the force behind it was undeniable. Faster than anyone had realized, a man in bright silver and gold armor that looked as if it never knew dirt or grime appeared underneath the glowing arm of the golem. With superhuman strength he used his shield to push the golem’s arm upwards, causing the bright red beam it emitted to pass high above my head. While I hadn’t expected it, it wasn’t surprising for a man like Captain Wright to be able to catch up with his speed. I had hoped that my training would have let me surpass him by now…

But seeing him block the golem’s follow-up punch, the massive golem being the one to be pushed back by the force of its own punch, showed the stark difference in our capabilities. I felt the mages began acting at this point, beginning to cast a multitude of spells to attack the captain. But if the captain was here, then it was only a matter of time before—

A massive, hurricane-force wind buffeted the battlefield. Unprepared for any direct attack, the mages were knocked to their feet and their spells were disrupted. At the same time, familiar magical circles appeared above their heads. The mages screamed in recognition, throwing their years of devotion to the study of magic into forming the strongest shields they could on such short notice—but none of that mattered in the face of the sheer speed of the dark mage’s assault.

“Perish.”

Black spears of malice rained down on the enemies. Their magical shields shattering into twinkling dust, as their cries were only met by greater violence. And then, silence. The battlefield now only contained me, and a stranded golem that is still locked in a battle of strength with the commander. Its punch seemed horribly slow compared to the swift violence of an elite mage.

In the same way that the enemy mages summoned a powerful golem to turn the tides of our battle, the dark hooded mage Lena was a trump card that could surpass any other trump cards. We were summoned at the same time because of our extreme latent talents, me for being a warrior and her for being a mage, but isn’t she just too talented? If Lena put her heart into it, I’m sure that we could end this war in a flash without me even needing to do much…

But here Lena comes with that sad look again. Well, she was told that she can’t look sad, so her face just looks unexpressive as usual. But I can still see it, obviously. She has that same sadness behind her eyes as the first time they made her kill a goblin. Even though we’ve been in this world for 10 months already, in a lot of ways she still hasn’t grown up or accepted the kind of world this is…

“Hey! Are you just going to make me hold this golem back until my legs give out?”

Captain Wright grunted as he held back the mighty golem. I would normally help him out, but my adrenaline collapsed on me all at once and the fatigue was hitting hard. All of my body from the neck down felt sore and shaky, and it was taking most of my regular body strength to keep upright. I used up energy way faster going at 100% than I did in training!

“Your job isn’t over until you take out the golem,”

The dark mage said with a slight edge of vindictiveness.

“Huh!?”

“You said, and I quote, leave the golem to me! Now what are you doing? Asking me for help when you explicitly said that you would take care of it? Isn’t it a knight’s duty to win fights on the frontline? You said that you would show us an example of how real fighting works—is this what you meant? Acting tough before leaving all the hard work to the rest of the team?”

Lena launched into one of her characteristic rants, throwing the captain’s previous words back at him. With each sentence, another bead of sweat seemed to appear on the man’s face. Wright seemed to think that silence would let her wear out her anger faster, but Lena’s barrage only continued to increase in its pettiness.

“What did you even add to this battle? You took out one goblin that can barely reach your stomach and blocked two hits from a golem? Chris took out twice that number of goblins and then two mages! You’re supposed to be one of the strongest knights in the kingdom, entrusted with gently raising its future heroes… so what are you doing leaving Chris to fight a golem that even you can’t beat on your own? Isn’t that irresponsible?”

“Aahhh! Shut up!”

With a thunderous roar and a beet-red face, the knight commander threw up his arms, completely overpowering the golem. While it was off-center, Wright reeled back his shield arm, tightening all the muscles of his body as if he were one large, taut bowstring. The red gem placed in the center of the shield glowed with a bright light as the shield shot forward and the tipped base of the shield contacted with the gem jutting from the golem’s chest.

“Watch out Captain!”

I called out in panic as the golem’s hands, now free and facing down at the captain, began to glow again.

“Not yet!”

The captain yelled as he was able to use his momentum to finally topple the golem, knocking it onto its back. He was able to block both beams with his shield, before mounting the golem and repeatedly pounding at the crystal. In contrast to all the work he put into maintaining a dignified aura and clean armor, Wright was a force of savage ferocity in battle. His face was red, his helmet had fallen off, and his silver hair was darkened and slicked back by sweat.

Lena probably found this all quite amusing. And while I laughed with her, I couldn’t deny my awareness of the situation. The ultimate purpose of Wright’s job is to prepare us for a war that we can’t avoid. We have a lot of power as heroes, but we do not have the ability to say no to the military ambitions of the kingdom. Lena complained a lot about that, but I can’t imagine Wright had much power to decide a much different fate for himself in a world like this…

War or death. Dog eat dog. Eat or be eaten. Kill or be killed.

The only reason that Lena can pretend otherwise and the only reason I can laugh at this captain having to fight a golem by himself, is because of Lena’s pure strength. This dark mage who jokes, and sulks, and broods, and says emo things when she doesn’t think anyone will notice—she’s the biggest dog in the room.

I felt lucky that she was on my side, and on humanity’s side. I can only hope that she never knows real hunger, and that she can keep some of the humanity that she hides away where the knights can’t see it. Not just because I’m her friend, but because I don’t want to see what would happen if she were to become the heartless weapon for humanity that the kingdom wants from her.

But that too may already have been decided for us from the moment of our arrival in this cruel world.

End of Prologue:

The Big Dog