Lydia stifled a scream as the battle raged all around her, the wooden barrel she was hiding in constantly vibrating to the aftershock of explosions, or the intermittent stamping of A LOT of feet hitting pavement as the enemy mobs moved past her location. She wondered how she got herself in this mess, when all she wanted to do was empty out her inventory at the local market so that she can go back out into the surrounding hunting grounds to level up. But, when she saw that the entire village was dead and no movement could be discerned after an hour of observation, greed won over caution in her internal struggle before she began creeping through the houses searching for loot and occasionally pilfering the bodies, though more often than not there was nothing left to steal.

When Lydia saw a unit of the Kingdom's soldiers stopping at the public square, she was about to call out to them when all hell broke loose. Knocked back and terrified by the explosion, she groggily watched the unit being rapidly cut to pieces and she did the only thing she can do as a lone mage…. hide. Crawling into the shattered wall of the local tavern, she found that the only safe place to hide was in an empty barrel… and that’s where she now remained, determined not to move until 48 hours have past for which she hoped that the enemy mobs would have moved on after annihilating the soldiers.

However, for some reason she felt that the tempo of the battle had changed, her curiosity as a student of journalism in real life made her lift the lid top of her barrel slightly, to sneak a peek at the going ons outside. After all, it's not her problem that a bunch of NPCs were being slaughtered… especially when she then saw a few dozen ORCS of all things charging out from an alleyway towards the prone and cowering soldiers. The human bandits and Orc raiders must have allied together, she thought in astonishment, mentally checking off the hunting grounds in this area from her list. There was no way she can solo level now, she groaned. The reason she came here was to get away from the crowded starter areas where she was constantly harassed to join all-male parties because of her looks. Which was to say that even Lydia knew she was quite attractive than most women …..in a not so boastful way…. probably….. well that’s how she reassured herself often. Dear readers, please forgive this woman's ego….

Fully expecting a forecast of falling human limbs with a 100% chance of a blood red rain, Lydia offered a short prayer, "Please, leave some loot for me you stupid mobs", when out of the corner of her eye she saw a man race out of a doorway and insanely steered himself into the path of the oncoming Orcs. Lydia felt her jaw drop at the stupidity of this NPC when unexpectedly, he began to sing. And what a voice! It was so heart stoppingly good that Lydia didn't realise she was holding her breath. The song seemed to be in a foreign language and for some reason she could sense that he was buffing himself with several positive statuses. 'Oh my god, is he a REAL human bard?', she thought to herself in astonishment, 'he is going to die wastefully', Lydia predicted. After all, a bard was just a support class with no close combat capability. She was more than sure that he was going to die if an Orc even brushed an axe past his face.

When the man swung his sword, Lydia closed her eyes and sighed, fully expecting his head to be lopped off swiftly …. Only to have her barrel shudder from an impact, causing her to open her eyes and glance down. Outside the bottom of her barrel contrary to what she was anticipating, lay the head of an Orc, its eyes opened wide in surprise like it couldn't believe at what had happened to it. The head must have travelled a good 30 metres from where the fighting was and Lydia realised that a tremendous amount of force was needed in order to do so. Returning her eyes back to the 'fight', a scene more akin to an action movie greeted Lydia's sight.

The man moved with… savage grace, like a lion amongst lambs (albeit big muscular ugly lambs with weapons), every strike causing terrible or fatal wounds, every strike lashing out with precision and power. And then there was the singing! Like a song from a divine angel of war, the soldiers on the ground lifted their heads up, courage welling deep within their eyes as slowly one by one they soon took up the song as well, the men getting up or leaving cover pulling swords from sheath, shields faced forward and then charging to join the mad fray even though they were completely outnumbered!

'WHAT WHAT WHAT is going on here?!!'

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INTRO SONG: Kono Sekai e Moeru

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"….im sturmwind dahin!" , Gerhard sang as he cut, his voice rising above the din of battle and seeming to settle the men into a rhythm of methodical slaughter.

Even though they were surrounded, even though they were outnumbered, none of them thought of death or defeat, the small tight circle of six humans lashed ferociously out with their swords whilst protecting one another with their shields, blocking attacks that would have wounded their neighbour in the shield wall. And all the while Gerhard kept singing.

"Ob's stürmt oder schneit, ob die Sonne uns lacht,

Der Tag glühend heiß, oder eiskalt die Nacht,

Voraus den Kameraden, im Kampf steh'n wir allein"

"JA, WIR ALLEIN!" , the men, now HIS men roared in reply as he continued.

"SO STOßEN WIR TIEF IN DIE FEINDLICHEN REIH'N" , Gerhard raised his voice as well and practically leapt forward from the shield wall and into the dense orc formation, the rest of the men following as they kept singing.

"VORAUS DEN KAMERADEN, IM KAMPF STEH'N WIR ALLEIN!" , by the end of his sentence every single orc within his reach was dead while the men made short work of those that strayed too near.

"JA, WIR ALLEIN!" , came the expected, almost joyous response.

"SO STOßEN WIR TIEF IN DIE FEINDLICHEN REIH'N" , he repeated followed by the same manoeuvre he did before, to which the Orcs for the first time began to show dread at this monster in human form, rushing towards them without any sign of fear or hesitation. Already, several of the weaker willed Orcs in the back had begun to slip away, and in moments as though a dam had broken, all of them turned their backs towards the soldiers and ran for their lives, sprinting back towards the alleyway they came from. With the beyond all odds decisive rout of the Orcs, more message bubbles began appearing.

*Ding!

You've leveled up!

You've leveled up!

You've leveled up!

You've leveled up!

You've leveled up!

You've leveled up!

Leadership has risen by 13 points (+13 LS)

Charisma has risen by 9 points (+9 CHR)

Fighting Spirit has risen by 8 points (+8 FS)

Seeing the opportunity, Gerhard shouted, "VOKWÄRTS KAMERADEN! TÖTET SIE ALLE!" , not realising he was giving commands in German.

Though it didn’t matter as the soldiers seemed to understand what was required of them as they gave chase like hunting hounds unleashed, the effect of Gerhard's song still coursing through their system as he dragged one of them off to follow him into clearing the buildings. Already the devastating arrow fire from before was slackening as the panic seemed to have affected the human bandits as well, caught totally off guard by such determined resistance from soldiers who earlier before faced total destruction. Nevertheless this didn’t mean that the bandits had given up and those that still retained some semblance of discipline began to focus their fire on the pair that was racing towards one of their occupied buildings.

Gerhard’s and the remaining soldiers' HP were already precariously low, yet both of them didn’t seem to care as Gerhard took a running jump without breaking stride and went shoulder first through a closed glass window with the soldier soon following close behind. Their entry into the building brought chaos to the bandits’ sense of order as more than five bows turned to fire in panic at the rapidly closing warriors. Gerhard grunted as he took an arrow to the chest but the padded armour absorbed a lot of the impact and damage before he drew back his arm and hurled his sword like a javelin in reply to the closest of the mobs.

Critical Hit!

The bandit was instantly killed by pure luck as the sword cleanly penetrated its neck and as it slowly fell backwards dead, Gerhard was already beside the corpse, pulling the sword cleanly out in an unbroken stride to hack at a target to his left while the soldier advanced into position on his right to act as his shield. This tactical combination brought out the best in damage dealing and protection with Gerhard proving to be unstoppable in close combat whilst placing absolute trust in the NPC to maintain both their defences and HP from dropping any further. From an outsider's perspective, it looked like all Gerhard was doing was grinding for exp…. If you did not take into account how much of a difference the levels were between him and the mob, which by all rights should have been difficult if one was not in a party of 5 well equipped players.

Barely three minutes had passed before the building was cleared, but the pace that Gerhard had set was beginning to slow as the damage and fatigue over time had begun to build up, although it was unavoidable because he was actually fighting opponents well above his current level. With the situation decidedly not in the bandits favour, especially with the Orcs now having fully fled the field and the remaining soldiers rapidly rushing back to lend aid to the two that were causing havoc and exacting vengeance, the remaining mobs were beating a hasty retreat, barely a dozen remaining… running into the direction of the tavern where Lydia was hiding…

'"GEEH", Lydia moaned as she saw the oncoming mobs and thought to do the one thing that should be done in this situation - panic. And panic like crazy. She basically stood up from the barrel, lid still on her head, and tried to climb out only to trip forwards when her considerable dress bunched up around her hips and made her lower half trapped in the barrel.

"Oh craaap!", she despaired when the mobs noticed her and decided that maybe they could salvage some pride from this situation by killing her.

She closed her eyes, fully expecting to die and log back in 24 hours only to hear the screech of metal on metal. The man HAD APPEARED to her rescue! Raising up her eyes she could see the wide gallant back of this mysterious bard/warrior/system error having deflected two sword strokes away from either side of her head, one with his blade and the other with his gauntlet, the polished lustre on it now dull and scratched.

" Fräulein , I highly suggest you cut yourself loose, this is going to be extremely… difficult", he panted.

Her eyes widened and then she realised he was right. Judging by the wounds all over his body and those that have penetrated his armour, by all rights he should be dead by now but instead he was probably hanging on with only a few points of HP remaining. The rest of the soldiers didn’t look too good as well as they finally caught up with the bandits and brutal fighting swept out into all corners of the tavern.

"I can help you", Lydia exclaimed from the floor whilst taking a knife to her dress.

"What?"

"I said, ‘I can help you’"

" Fräulein , explain in ten words or less. A bit busy here"

"I want all loot, I save us all. Easy right?"

"…..just do whatever you want!"

"I will take that as a ’yes'!", she cried triumphantly as she finally freed herself. Standing up, now with something resembling a miniskirt, she began chanting.

Suddenly, Gerhard felt himself being rejuvenated with energy, his wounds fading and surely enough his HP was rapidly increasing. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that she was casting the same spell individually to the other soldiers before returning his gaze on the pair of now very frightened bandits.

"Now", he smiled sweetly, "where were we again?".

… a few minutes later the unit emerged victorious as they slumped down onto the floor exhausted but glad to be alive. Gerhard remained standing as he continued to scan the area, noticing the strange 'Barrel Girl' as he had come to think of her, walking towards him with a bag of collected loot over her shoulder smiling happily.

"Good haul, good haul", she giggled ….totally unbecoming of a cute girl.

"To be fair", Gerhard arched an eyebrow, "technically we still did all the hard work in the end".

"Its fine, Its fine, after all you wouldn’t had been able to if you were DEAD"

"Well, that is true. And thus", Gerhard clicked his heels together as he saluted her, "Thank you for saving us madam. My name is Gerhard von Natzmer".

Lydia laughed as she replied, "I am Lydia, Fire Mage. I can't believe you choose that name for an avatar, you are probably the first role-player I have met in this game. Trying to live a childhood dream of being a noble?", she stuck her tongue out at him before abruptly ending the conversation by walking away…in search of more loot. In her mini skirt style dress. This girl really had no modesty. Please forgive her.

"But.... I AM a noble", Gerhard muttered in discontent. Computer gamers. He will never understand his grandson's generation.

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Date Unknown, July, 1943.

German Heer westward retreat, Russia

"Walking… always walking", One of the German soldiers groaned, before a few of the tired men told him to shut up simultaneously. It was too hot to be complaining, especially in the summer.

Fuel for their trucks and halftracks had long since been used up… however, the men of Großdeutschland can't ever rest. For they are tasked with a dangerous and self sacrificing work that none seemed able to accomplish; slowing the advance of the Russian Army. And they were damn good at it.

"Haaa", Karl sighed, as he trudged beside his Captain, "and to think this time last year we were winning".

Gerhard barely gave notice to his Sergeant's reminiscing, as he constantly scanned the terrain, watching for telltale signs of dust kicked up by Russian tanks and trucks, however, he still managed a reply, "We ARE winning though if the Führer speeches are anything to go by. Just winning BACKWARDS"

Karl chuckled, as he grinned at his commanding officer, "Don't let a political officer hear you joke about that, Herr Hauptmann. I heard too many stories of good men disappearing…"

"We all know those stories are true, Unterfeldwebel . It's just that I am luckier than most, because I only say it when we are getting shot at"

"… but we are not under fire...?"

Gerhard sighed, "We are advancing towards the Russian Army instead of retreating away from it. Of course, we are going to get shot at. Hence why there is no NAZI bootlicking officer within a hundred miles. They are probably in Berlin by now"

Karl nodded sagely, "Your point is well understood Herr Hauptmann, even to a farm boy like me".

"Bullshit Karl!", one of the soldiers yelled, "We all know that you are a miner's son!"

"Aye, but I like farming more than mining", Karl gave an evil grin back to the men, "Spend most of my time there not to milk four legged cows if you know what I mean".

There was a roar of laughter at this, rare nowadays in their tired unit. Which is not surprising since their Panzergrenadierkompanie had started out with nearly two hundred men…now it was reduced to barely three half strength platoons of fifteen men each. They were more fortunate than the rest of Großdeutschland though, many infantry companies barely having enough men to field one half strength platoon. And that is why the soldiers loved Gerhard. He tries his hardest to keep them alive.

A figure waved at Gerhard from a distance, one of the platoons marching in parallel and led by his best friend, wondering what the laughter was about. Gerhard waved back but then noticed buildings in the distance, signalling to his friend to prepare for trouble. Immediately, silence reigned over the combat veterans of Gerhard's company, the men instinctively fanning out and hugging what cover they could find as the three platoons advanced slowly towards the outlying buildings. Located in a slight dip within the vast plains of Russia, the buildings sat nestled in the middle just below the crest, wooden structures and barns indicative of the fact that it must had been a farming village.

'Had been' because after pulling out his binoculars to survey the quaint looking village, Gerhard passed the device to his Sergeant in disgust as he rose up to his knees and signalled to his best friend to advance cautiously while telling the third platoon to remain where they are and to be on overwatch.

"You have got to be kidding me", Karl uttered, after visually confirming what had riled up his Captain.

"I wish it was some sort of joke", Gerhard said angrily, "But I am afraid we may need to set up some firing squads after this"

Gerhard turned to face his platoon, "Männer! Hold this position until I return!"

"Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann! ", came the cry from the other Sergeants.

"Ok, Karl…. Let's go smash some heads".

"I am with you on that one, sir!"

As the two men walked down the gentle slope, they were being bare witnessed to a scene of… depravity. Seven German soldiers, in the tattered remnants of their uniforms were chasing girls, Russian villagers who were screaming in terror as they tried to escape from the laughing madmen, and in front of the barn, the bodies of the menfolk of this village were all lined up face down… where they were shot through the back of the head. One of the girls, not looking where she was going because of the tears in her eyes, ran into Gerhard, quickly looking up at him and began to struggle as he hugged her close and started whispering in her ears.

"Тише, теперь все хорошо ", Gerhard said softly in fluent Russian to calm the poor girl down. She looked to be only thirteen years old… to which fury gripped Gerhard's heart in an unshakeable hold at what these men had done to the people here…

"Ah! Herr Hauptmann!", one of the leering 'soldiers' said, as he stumbled into a halt after seeing Gerhard's rank, "Officers first?", saluting lazily and winking at his friends behind him, causing them to laugh.

However when the soldier turned back, all he received was a fist to his nose as a reply, shattering it in a bloody spray as Gerhard spat, "DRECKSAU! "

"WHAT ARE YOU HOSENSCHEISSER DOING!",Karl roared, "STAND TO ATTENTION WHEN AN OFFICER ADDRESSES YOU, SCUM!"

There was an immediate response as the six remaining men stood to attention whilst their friend lay on the ground, unconscious and bleeding. Gerhard didn’t even spare any attention to the prone figure as he addressed the guilty looking soldiers, "Why aren't you men… retreating westward. And what is THIS?!", he pointed to the corpses at the barn, the Russian girl still clinging to Gerhard, face buried in his chest.

"H-Herr Hauptmann", one of the figures dared to respond, "W-we thought there were some guerrillas in this village… and we were low on food so-…"

"THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS OUR ENEMY, YOU IDIOT! BUT DOES THAT MEAN YOU CAN RANDOMLY EXECUTE VILLAGERS?!", Gerhard was on the point of pulling his pistol out and shooting these men for looting and murder… till he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Gerhard… you are scaring the girl"

A quick glance to the side showed that it was his best friend, who was pointing with a finger down at the girl hugging Gerhard. Breathing in and out slowly to master his anger, before Gerhard finally dropped his hand to caress the poor girl gently across her head.

"Haaah", Gerhard exhaled, "You are right, I am sorry about that M-..", before he could finish, a shot cracked the air… and his best friend slowly pitched backwards as blood spurted from the gaping wound that blossomed in his chest.

Before Gerhard could yell in denial, the air became rife with explosions as Russian tanks appeared on the other side of the village, Russian Infantry leaping from the top of the vehicles and firing from the hip as they advanced on the German positions. Gerhard pulled the girl down and under him, a tank shell exploding right in the centre of the group of panicking murderous scum, as though divine retribution had fallen upon them. The other Russian girls had scattered and taken cover within the buildings however Gerhard had other concerns to deal with.

"KARL!", Gerard yelled, "GET THIS GIRL TO SAFETY!"

"WHAT ABOUT YOU HAUPTMANN!?"

"I AM NOT LEAVING MY BEST FRIEND FOR IVAN! GO! GO NOW!"

Cursing his officer for being a mad idiot, Karl did as he was told, grabbing the yelling scared girl over his shoulder and running back towards the platoons. Gerhard got unto his feet and ran the few metres into the storm of shrapnel and gunfire as he dropped to his knees and tried to stem the flow of blood leaking from his friend.

Pressing down with both hands on the wound, ignoring the buzzing and whistling bullets all around him, Gerhard was shouting, "Hang on! The medic will be here soon Kamerad! "

"Ah shit…I am dying", Came the weak reply.

"It's only a flesh wound! A few stitches and you will be walking both ends of Russia in one day!", Gerhard lied.

"Hahaa no way…. I am sick of the Russian cold…"

"OK! How about we go to Italy for a little sun, huh?! I will bring Hannah and you can finally meet your godson! Hermann, my boy!"

"It's getting colder Gerhard…"

"NO! DON’T DO THIS!", Gerhard pressing down harder on the wound, "FIGHT IT GOD DAMN IT!"

"Mutter……"

"MAX! DON’T DO THIS TO ME!", Gerhard yelled, "MAAAX!"

"HAUPTMANN! ", Karl had come back, after depositing the girl out of the line of fire, "THE LEUTNANT IS GONE!", shaking Gerhard's shoulder repeatedly, "WE NEED TO GO! THE MEN NEED YOU!"

"……Karl! Take command of second platoon! Go!"

"Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann! ", as Karl scurried off, trying to stay below the deadly trading of lead flying through the air between the two sides.

Grabbing all the ammo from his friend, Gerhard finally took out Max's dog-tags, snapping and taking one half, placing the tiny piece of metal into one of his top pockets, "I am sorry, Max… ", he whispered before eventually standing up, running back to his men whilst chased by enemy bullets. There was no time to weep and mourn. There was still a war to be fought.

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Ending Song: Gentle Light