Toy Soldier

//Support me as I get into the writing groove.

2 chapters will be posted on Patre0n tomorrow. You can get them (and 3 others) for as little as $3.

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BAM!! BAM!! CRASH!!

"Hehe. Soldiers got a little give to him today. I think I almost killed him with that last one."

"Yeah, cool story. However, try not to knock him around near the edge of the roof. If he really kicks the bucket, then we'll all go down with you. Don't be a dumbass."

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, Vorago. Get your bitch ass off the floor!! We ain't done."

Grimy fingers curled through Tenebra's fluffy black hair, gripping it tight before pulling the youths head back, trying to yank him onto his feet. A wave of pain washed through the individual as he was forced upwards, grabbed by the scruff of his school uniform, and hoisted off the flat concrete roof. Blood dripped from his nose and his busted up lip, one of his eyes near swollen shut, ensuring that not even the assailants could see the color of Tenebra's eye. Bruises lined the visible parts of the boys body, old and fading mixed with fresh ones that had only just begun to bloom. All in all, paired with a tattered black button-down and worn-out cargo shorts, Tenebra could easily be mistaken for homeless or a hospital patient.

Even when the beefy high-school teen had pried the boys' body from the ground and into a standing position, Tenebra nearly stumbled over once again.

"I barely got started. Don't tell me you're nearly done already." The assailant scowled as he watched the youth attempt to fully righted himself. "Maybe if you weren't such a pûssy áss little bitçh, you'd have a family who loves you. Who appreciates you. Heck, even your dear old daddy-"

For the briefest of moments, a spark of life erupted in Tenebra's eyes, a look of intense anger that fixed onto the blabbering individual. Taking a step forward, the youth summoned the last vestiges of strength left in his body and jabbed towards the tip of his assailants chin. The clenched fist made contact, snapping the bullys head backward before sending him tumbling to the ground, eyes rolling back into his head. Groaning, he didn't get back up. At the same time, Tenebra also crumbled to the ground, falling onto his knees as his stamina hit rock bottom, body completely giving out.

"That's what you get for playing with your food," the other bully said, slowly closing the book he was reading. "Even the weak can lay out the unsuspecting."

The bystander in question rose up from his seat, standing up to his full 182cm, bright red eyes staring down Tenebra, like a lion staring down a newborn wolf cub. He was nothing like the one that had just been knocked down, easily making the black haired youth himself seem like a toddler in comparison. Toned muscles could be seen even under the loose school uniform, and the way he moved held a sort of confidence, as if he could take on the whole world with nothing but the clothes on his back. Tenebra was admittedly quite familiar with this brute of a human being, much more than he would've liked to be. Getting beaten by him and his cronies once every few days tended to do that to one's memory, the feeling of pain being carved deep into the youths consciousness. This was Archard Numo, chief enemy to most freshmen attending the same high school as him.

"So, the plaything can fight back, huh?" Archard reached into his pocket and pulled out a small green box as well as a white lighter. Sparking up a cigarette, the teen let out a puff of smoke. "You never raised a hand against us for the entire time I've known you. If I had known you had some life left in you, I would've pushed you harder. However, no matter what you have left, you're merely a Toy Soldier. Nothing more. And toys aren't meant to defy their owners."

Archard walked up to Tenebra with slow steps, taking his time. Pausing in front of the kneeling individual, he raised his leg. Without a sound, he slammed his heel into the jaw of his prey, forcing him onto the floor.

"Now, how should I deal with this rebellion?" Archard squatted down and grabbed Tenebra by the collar.

BAM!!

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BAM!!

The red carnivorous beast was easily put into the dirt, with almost no effort on the part of the attacker, an older individual with wolf ears and a tail. Tenebra didn't even fully see what had happened, just a blur of grey followed by an overturned monster that Tsubaki had called a "Bloodsaurus", a creature that had immediately begun dissolving into mixtures of black smoke and dust.

Based on what he had seen thus far, most beasts the group had run into had always met the same fate, dissolving or erupting into nothingness whilst leaving behind swirling crystals of various sizes. The stones themselves seemed to hold some sort of inherent value, seeing as each and every one was either pulled from the corpses of the deceased monsters or picked up after the body had disappeared. As questionable as the area Tenebra was in, the youth highly doubted that armed individuals would take the time to pick up pieces of junk, especially given the hostile environment and the need to remain vigilante at all times. More than likely, the rocks could be traded in for money, or maybe melted down to make something. Tenebra had read countless books regarding the uses of stones for metallurgy and even its value as a currency.

Setting that aside, Tenebra was still trying to figure out where he even was, let alone what the rocks were. If he lived long enough, he could always figure out the swirling stones another time.

Around an hour had passed since Tsubaki and Ais had first found the black-haired individual, and not a lot of things had transpired within that timeframe. The group had continued to wander the dense underground forest of monsters, dispatching unwelcome guests and chatting amongst themselves. However, while only a tidbit of action was witnessed, a whole storm of information was hurled in Tenebra's direction solely from the ongoing back and forth conversations as well as what Tsubaki tried teaching him.

Admittedly, most of it flew over his head. The puzzle pieces weren't matching together for him very well.

The Dungeon. Monster Feria. Orario. Levels. Loki Familia. Hephaestus Familia. Floors. Adventurers.

A whirlwind of knowledge was overheard, but none of it was processed. It didn't fit in with any of the things that Tenebra knew about the world, a testament to how out of place he was and how little it all matched up. There was definitely logic and reasoning in regards to his environment, but he wasn't at the point where he could freely shove it all together to form a picture. All he could do was continue to listen and gather Intel until he had a definitive grasp on the ongoings of the world and its inhabitants.

"So, does that help?" Tsubaki asked, snapping Tenebra back to the present. The youth was still positioned on the woman's back, still unable to walk properly on his own. "Did you get all of that?"

Tenebra didn't reply at first, emotionless hues staring at the back of the one-eyed woman's head. He had listened to everything she said, but it was still difficult to digest it all, given the youths current mindset. Essentially, she had explained things about the Dungeon since everyone there had formulated the assumption that he had memory loss. It was a reasonable conclusion to make, but it wasn't one that the youth would confirm if actually asked about it. He obviously hadn't lost any sort of his own abysmal past, as much as he would've liked to.

The Dungeon was a place where monsters spawned, though that was something Tenebra could have figured out himself. Within the walls and ceilings of this "Dungeon", beasts were formed and spat out with the sole purpose of ripping other beings into shreds. Adventurers dove into the Dungeon to combat these creatures, traveling downwards into the depths to fight stronger and stronger monsters. It was a pretty straightforward explanation, but it was also one that raised a bunch of questions for the black-haired individual.

Why would Adventurers want to dive into the Dungeon and put their lives at risk? For exploration sake? For the Stones? If so, were the stones alone worth risking ones life? Or was it deeper than that? Maybe it gave them a sense of purpose? A way of life? The deeper you went, the stronger the monsters. Did the value of the gems go up as well? Enough to constitute the risk of one's very breath?

These were only the very tip of the mountain of questions the black-haired youth was currently faced with, a never-ending pile of unknowns that only grew the further the group went.

"The Dungeon.....," Tenebra almost choked with how much it hurt to talk, but he continued anyways. "How far does it go down?"

Tsubaki frowned slightly, openly thinking about the question. "It's not really known I guess. The Loki Familia takes various expeditions down into the lower floors. They usually reach Floor 50 and occasionally try to push further beyond that."

(("50 Levels at the minimum. Referred to as THE Dungeon. Meaning only one, or at least the only one known. Monsters spawn in repeated intervals, beasts that have valuable cores and even leave behind items on occasion. Stronger monsters on lower levels.")) Tenebra glanced around at the group. A number of them didn't seem too bothered about where they were whilst others never let their guards down. (("Levels. Adventurers. Armor and weapons. It's like every standard fantasy merged into one. Maybe, instead of looking at it from MY reality, I look at it from one of fiction. Where the illogical becomes the logical."))

Taking a deep breath, the black-haired youth closed his eyes. One by one, he began to rearrange the puzzle, but this time, he took an entirely new angle.

An adventurer, one who dove into the mysterious and dangerous tunnels and rooms making up the Dungeon, a vast underground pit just underneath a place called Orario. These adventurers lived their lives to fight the monsters within the Dungeon, collecting the stones and items dropped and 'maybe' using them to level up. It would explain why they were so valuable, though it was possible that they leveled up a different way and the crystals acted as mere currency. Either way, one of the main reasons for going into the depths of hell in the first place was to get stronger and go even deeper, where the real treasures lay such as rare item drops and valuable monster cores. Tenebra was quite familiar with books depicting dungeons, and they almost always had the hard to find loot near the bosses and in deeper parts of the area.

Familias were a bit harder to understand, but the teen managed to grab the gist of it. A group of adventurers whose guild or clan were named after gods and goddesses, though not solely following any particular religion. Loki was from Norse mythology. Hephaestus was from Greek.

Tenebra would need a lot of information to be filled out before he could come to any solid conclusions, but he did what he could. He wasn't in any hurry to survive but he DID want to learn about the things around him and comprehend what it all meant.

Why was he here? Had he not fallen off the school with Archard? He should've been dead to rights? How'd he get there? What purpose did a pathetic waste of space have in a fantasy world other than to feed the beasts that roamed the Dungeon? What use was a Toy Soldier in a place of actual strength?