I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be summoned to another world. To be able to embark on grand quests and perform logic-defying feats or to be placed in the shoes of a protagonist in a world where everything revolves around him. Of course, this was all just the wild imagination of a boy with nothing better to do.

Well, that's what I thought anyway...

"@$%#$(@$*!" a fatigued voice of an old man cried out in joy.

Here I am currently in a situation I’ve fantasized about many times; the cliché hero summoning. However, something was very off. According to standard fantasy novel protocol, heroes are generally summoned inside the castle of a kingdom and treated lavishly. Not to a room on the verge of collapse in the middle of a warzone.

Numerous explosions roared throughout the area urging me to cover my ears. As the room violently shook, I carefully stepped towards a hole in the wall and peered outside only to be greeted by the sight of a medieval city engulfed in raging flames.

If I had to describe what I was viewing in one word, it would be chaos. Total fucking chaos. Just where the hell was I summoned to?

“@#$%)#$(%)@)!” the old man frantically yelled again.

My body flinched and I turned to the left, “I do not understand what you are saying.”

The old man was covered in numerous cuts and gashes accompanied by blackened patches of clothing and singed hair. He quickly leapt towards me and whispered some incomprehensible words, “@#$#@#$@$!”

Suddenly, a blue translucent window manifested in front of my very eyes. 

[Initiating Synchronization!]

[Activating Language Comprehension…]

[Language Comprehension Has Been Activated!]

As I skimmed the text, unbearable pain pierced my skull and the words that once held no meaning, now conveniently made total sense, “Hurry! You need to get out of this area and use the teleportation circle to get to the capital!” 

Confused by his frantic rambling, I asked, “What the hell is even happening am I dreaming or something?”

“I have no time to explain! Just leave while you-” a deafening explosion suddenly detonated outside the building.

The violent tremor produced by the explosion shook the very core of the building and forced my body to the ground. Bathed in layers of dust, my breathing grew rougher by the second as a cruel realization dawned on me. 

This isn’t just a dream, is it? 

“I told you to get moving!” the old man forcefully lifted me from the ground. “GO NOW!” 

Without a second thought, I dashed out the door and entered a world of nightmares. The saying ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ would best suit the current situation that was unfolding. The overwhelming scent of burnt flesh invaded my nostrils the instant I stepped foot outside along with the horrifying sight of charred corpses. 

“Jesus...fucking Christ.” I gagged, almost vomiting. 

Just a few minutes prior, I was walking home after an arduous day of school and now I’m somehow in a medieval massacre. While I stared in horror the only thought going through my shocked mind was, I need to get out of here. As a result, my heartrate hastened and adrenaline coursed through my blood vessels invoking my fight-or-flight response system. I obviously chose the latter.

I speedily navigated through the fiery streets of rubble and corpses. Unaware at the time, my whole body was trembling. Ting! The sound of metal clashing abruptly hit my ears.

“DIE YOU HUMAN SCUM!” a voice aggressively snarled.

Instinctively hiding behind the rubble of a destroyed building, I peeked over and saw two opposing squads of medieval soldiers interlocked in fierce combat. One was equipped with ebony-coloured plate armour and a black cape while the other wore uncoloured armour with brown capes.

“You bastards just never know when to quit.” a man I presumed to be the leader of the ebony armoured soldiers taunted.

Clang Clang Clang! Their blades intensely clashed at almost inhuman speeds forming cracks on the ground. The soldiers calculated each swing and parry as in a life or death battle, one wrong move could very well be the end of you.

“God freaking dammit.” I cursed under my breath and hid behind the rubble.

Jiu-Jitsu stood no chance against trained soldiers with sharp longswords. If I were to be spotted, my death would only take a matter of seconds. 

“Gaaah!” one of the soldiers suddenly groaned in agony.

I peeked from beside the rubble and spotted a man with a brown cape being impaled through his stomach and then slashed horizontally. Blood followed by intestines burst out of his shattered plate armour. 

He coughed out blood, “Human trash…” and then collapsed into a pool of his own entrails. 

The soldier, whom he was fighting against, removed the sword from his opponent and returned it to his sheath. I then realized that the rest of the opposing squad of brown caped soldiers had been completely wiped out. 

“I know you’re hiding there.” the assumed leader of the ebony armoured men called out. 

Chills ran down my spine the moment his voice entered my ears. Fuck that. I swiftly retreated in the opposite direction of the soldiers. I didn’t make it far before I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“What is some noble brat doing all the way out here?” a voice mocked me from behind.

My heart sank all the way down to my stomach and my arm reflexively moved to counter the threat. In one fluid motion, my hand pulled his arm forward and the rest of my body attempted to throw him over my shoulder. 

However, this attempt proved to be futile as the sheer weight of his plate armour greatly inhibited my ability to even budge him.

“Kid’s got some spunk.” he giggled at my weakness.

A woman with brown hair then interrupted his snickering, “Sir, we don’t have any more time to waste, we only have twenty-five minutes before our guys destroy the teleportation circle.” 

Do they mean the teleportation circle to the capital that the old man mentioned? 

“Alright, let’s get moving” he then faced me, “I don’t know what a noble kid like you doing all the way out here when this area has already been evacuated, just follow us if you want to live.” 

He probably thought I was noble thanks to my private school uniform. Brushing that thought aside, my body followed them without hesitation while my mind was still cluttered with various thoughts after witnessing the total carnage unfolding in the city. 

“Cheer up kid, the stuff you’re seeing right now only scratches the surface of their cruelty.” one of the soldiers patted my back.

If this was only the surface then—what lied at the bottom of the abyss? My body shivered at just the thought of it. 

We soon reached an intersection with a decapitated statue positioned in the middle of it. Encompassing the rest of the area were demolished market stalls which occasionally had items in them and directly next to the statue were various pools of a black viscous liquid that infrequently bubbled.

“I told you before, the stuff you saw before only scratched the surface.” the soldier tossed an apple into the black liquid and instantly dissolved. “Those fucking bastards dared to line people up and test acid spells on them.” 

The knowledge of those black puddles supposedly being human was too repulsive for me to handle. My body jerked and spewed the contents of my stomach onto the ground until nothing but bile came out. 

“We can’t stay here, a hostile platoon is moving towards our position.” the lady with brown hair warned. “Let’s get going, kid.” 

I continued to tag along with the soldiers at full speed. As we ran through the streets a question arose as to how they could maintain an Olympic level dash while wearing encumbering plate armour.

“EVERYONE DUCK!” the leader shouted as I was distracted in thought.

I immediately ducked and covered my ears before a volley of brutal fireballs showered from overhead. With eardrum rupturing booms, the area exploded to high heaven and amidst the chaos faint screaming of soldiers in distress could be heard.

When the explosions ceased, I hesitantly opened my eyes and what I witnessed made me want to puke even more than the acid puddles. The soldier to the left of me was missing the upper half of his body. It wasn’t even cleanly sliced off—instead, it was like something tore him in half and then disintegrated the top part.

The smoke slowly began to clear and exposed the now decimated squad of soldiers struggling to get back on their feet. 

The leader was seething with rage, “Shit, we lost too many from that attack.”

A flurry of footsteps suddenly began to approach us, “Hey kid what class level are you?” one of the surviving soldiers asked.

“Class level?” I replied with a perplexed expression.

“I’m talking about your status class level! You know...that blue window.” he then unsheathed his blade, “Well shit, too late for any more questions. Just grab a sword and hope for the best.” 

I plundered a longsword from one of the departed soldiers and held it with both of my hands. As soon as I got into a stance mimicked from TubeYou the platoon of men emerged from the smoke and engaged us in combat. 

“LEAVE NO SURVIVORS!” the enemy platoon leader commanded.

The two sides clashed and commenced an intense life or death struggle. Outnumbered two-to-one, our side skillfully disposed of some of the enemy combatants while also suffering casualties as well. 

The enemy soldiers standing at the rear then gestured for their men to retreat and began to arrange offensive spells. One by one, fireballs that were smaller than before flew in our direction and detonated near us producing sharp bangs. The squad leader hastily took the initiative to cast a defensive spell to prevent any more casualties and due to this, the remaining fireballs were swiftly extinguished—by a transparent yellow barrier—before they could detonate.

“Sir we can’t hold out much long-” before he could finish his sentence a sword impaled the soldier's heart.

“Damn it, everyone stand back.” the squad leader ordered.

The squad leader adopted a different sword stance than before and started to gather mana into his blade producing a light blue glow. The air began to ripple from the intense power channeling into his sword and the fires near us were fanned out. As the violent waves of wind hit my face, I winced and quickly understood that the attack about to be unleashed was on a whole different scale than the artillery-like fireball spells that hit us before. 

Quickly reaching the peak of his attack in just seconds, the squad leader swung vertically unleashing all the stored up mana and cracking the ground beneath him. The mana rushed out faster than my eye could perceive and formed a light blue arc ready to slice everything in its path. 

The arc sped onward and bisected the enemy soldiers and their surroundings before they could even react. If this was a movie I would probably be staring in awe, but that was not the case for this is reality.

After unleashing his attack the squad leader staggered forward and planted his sword into the ground, “Not bad.” he smirked.