Flashes of multicoloured light illuminated the underbelly of the ominous clouds on the horizon as the wind howled, carrying thunderous rumbling sounds, tinted with explosions and screams of pain and anger.

"Keep going brothers," hissed a Rakorn that was running ahead of three of his kin, their speed and recklessness a testament to their plight.

The Rakorn sucked in another gasp of air, barely managing to avoid stumbling, as he tried to encourage his comrades. "Not far now. The first supply base should be a few leagues aw-."

Before he could even finish his sentence, a cold metal hand wrapped around his neck and slammed him violently into the ground, forcing what little air he had remaining out of his lungs.

The Rakorn twisted as best as he could while pinned in an attempt to see his assailant and what had happened to his group, only to momentarily close his eyes in defeat as he realised that their flight was over.

With knees in his comrade's spines and their dominant arms pulled back to restrain them, similar to the sensation on he felt, were seven-foot tall humans wearing heavy, green metal armour that covered them from head to toe. The Rakorn couldn't even see their eyes through the horizontal slits.

Intimidating would be one of the words he would use to describe them. Physic-breaking, though in his language it was called something different, would be another. -"How in the name of the Great God did they manage to catch up with us so silently wearing that?"

Studying his captors in an attempt to calm his mind, the Rakorn noted that if it weren't for the distinct differences between human males and females, as well as the white marks on the top right of their chests, even with his keen senses, he would not be able to tell them apart.

A flicker of movement ahead drew his attention; the Rakorn's scaled snout scraping along the ground as he turned to face the two human females that were casually walking towards him as his tail flicked pathetically. -"We never had a chance did we?"

"Looks like more broke through than System reported," said Ren as she glanced over the recent captives, unwilling to hold eye contact with them,

"Request that he pays better diligence and..." A look of guilt and pity flashed across Ren's face before she turned her back on the Rakorn. "You know what to do."

The Rakorn couldn't understand what the human female had said, but her body language told them everything they needed to know and fear started to gnaw at their insides.

As Ren turned her back, the woman next to her walked forward with a solemn expression, past the lead Rakorn before coming to a stop and kneeling next to the one furthest away.

The way she moved made it apparent to him that she wasn't a warrior. The thick, brown leather armour made her steps clumsy and awkward; however, instead of relaxing them, it sent a chill down their tails.

To the Rakorn, the only non-combatant that would accompany a war party this experienced would be an incredibly skilled Elementalist or a Mindcrafter.

The four Rakorn prayed that it was the former, having little to no mental defence against mindcrafters or the human equivalent.

However, it did not seem that their gods were listening, as a calm, gentle voice soon entered their minds. "You have been captured. Surrender or Die."

"We gladly meet our ancestors," hissed the last Rakorn in the group, only to be silenced a second later as his head was violently jerked back and a metal blade sliced across his throat.

The human race had learned, painfully, that only when a Rakorn had surrendered, were they relatively safe and so, the order to execute any none priority targets after their first refusal was given.

"Death before dishonour," uttered the next Rakorn, his language nothing more than a hiss to human ears, who quickly met the same fate.

In less than a minute, the second from last putting up a semblance of a fight, only the lead Rakorn remained as the corpses of his brethren were dragged to a rapidly forming pit that was being dug into the side of a nearby hill.

Brutal, efficient and merciless. The Rakorn couldn't help but feel a hint of respect for his foe as he prepared to meet his God. There would be little dishonour for meeting his end at their hands.

Though their Warband was extremely weak by Rakorn standards, their Karn only newly appointed, the humans had pretty much run circles around them. If they hadn't fallen back when they did, accidentally running into the humans that had been preparing to cut off their retreat, he was pretty sure that they wouldn't have lasted an hour.

Not that it mattered to him now.

With a shaky nod of his head as he glared into the sad, sky blue eyes of the woman, the Rakorn felt a cold sensation along with stinging pain, flare across his throat, only to vanish as his consciousness faded into the void and he breathed his last.

Releasing a deep breath, Ren turned her gaze to the horizon as her sensitive ears picked up the sounds of battle. "Why can't they just surrender?"

"Most of their females do. The males seem to have some kind of honour system that won't allow them to," mumbled the leather armoured woman as she stood up and returned to Ren's side. "Doesn't help that most of them are religious fanatics."

Ren grunted her acknowledgement of the statement as she continued watching the horizon.

To her, it looked so surreal and otherworldly that, from this distance, she found it hard to believe that her friends were probably fighting for their lives.

"Captain, location secure," one of the armoured soldiers walked towards the two women, the white lettering on his chest reading 001. "Orders?"

"Secure the area and tell your men that if they confront a white humanoid creature they are to avoid any signs of hostility at all costs."

"Capta-" 001's eyes defocused for a moment as if he was reading something. "System has updated our orders. Understood."

With a salute, a fist to his chest, 001 turned and started organising his troops, sending out scouts to the nearby hills.

Ren's head turned towards the woman by her side, distrust apparent in her voice. "Mary, what did System say?"

"We are to follow your lead and await a potential ally," mumbled Mary as she looked at her feet.

"And?" Ren crossed her arms as she scowled.

Mary looked embarrassed as she fidgeted."Rewards for any information on it. Especially strengths and weaknesses. You know he knows everything I do right? System will stop giving me all the info if you keep pressuring it out of me. He even gave me a quest to get you to merge with him which I see every time I make a query."

Ren clicked her tongue. "No thanks and if he stops giving all the info based on his selfish desires and others find out, he is going to be in a world of pain. The reason many accepted him was that he claimed to be impartial to all humanity."

Mary put a comforting hand on Ren's thin shoulder. Dark bags appeared under the foxkin's eyes, and it was clear that she hadn't slept well in days. "Why don't you get some rest? Your shadows will alert you if the potential ally is close and we can always wake you up if anything changes."

"No. I'm fine." Ren's, fox-like ears flattened against her head as Mary's words unintentionally reminded her of why she was here and not with her friends. Although she was seen as incredibly powerful, given a B+ ranking by System, she wasn't a fighter in any sense of the word.

Her magic required concentration and time, based on emotions, illusions and, at a push, the purple flames Ren called Foxfire that were more suited to distractions than inflicting damage.

Sighing, Ren shook her head. She wouldn't have minded as much if the battle was going as planned, even if she wasn't sure what was worse, facing the man pretending to be a monster or fighting hordes of lizards. She just wanted to know that her friends were safe and it seemed that System wasn't prepared to let her know without taking some form of payment.

It had started out so well.

The Lizardman's initial attack was not only repelled, but their first wave was slaughtered down to the last without a single casualty on humanities side.

However, unlike the war-like, honour bound creatures the information gained those captured previously indicated, instead of standing and fighting, they instantly fled into the hills and straight into the emerging human forces, rising from the tunnels dug to specifically encircle and trap the invading army.

A desperate battle ensued. One which forced humanity to reveal far more than it had initially intended as the casualty rate skyrocketed and parties, a term that had been quickly adopted from System, were isolated and trapped.

Ren felt her skin prickle just thinking about the casualty reports.

Even though, if a body was recovered within a specified time limit and could be healed enough to support life, a person could be revived by one of the priests, no one, not even the monster-type humans felt even remotely comfortable about dying.

Well almost everyone.

Surprisingly enough, those that had brought their religions from Earth were the only ones that openly embarrassed the chance of a second life and, excluding some monster types or the three known necromancers, were the only ones that could resurrect the fallen.

A whistle in the distance, a sign that the sentries were set up, broke Ren from her musings as she cringed at the conflicting emotions that threatened to burst forth. Having nothing to do, she tried to distract herself by looking up to the brooding clouds as her stomach squirmed.

Though she believed she would like nothing more to go and help, the prospect of having to join the battle terrified her.

Ren had been disabled in an accident back on Earth and wanted nothing more than to enjoy her new found freedom, make friends and live a peaceful and happy life.

It seemed that while one wish was granted, that she would be able to move again without a wheelchair, it came at the cost of the other. Ren had been thrown into a world where, like many of the books she had enjoyed, strength and psychopaths seemed to rule and danger lurked behind every shadow.

The respect those calling themselves gods showed their former kin, as well as System's interest in the White Reaper, a name taken from the interrogation of Rakorn captives, was proof enough to Ren. While at the start it seemed that they wanted to make a positive difference, now all she could see was them furthering their own goals at the expense of humanity.

All of the gods had propositioned Geoff and his party, vying to meet the strange creature with the intent to lure it to their side while System had openly declared lifetime preferential treatment for any who could get it to merge with him. Something that had caused a bit of an outrage amongst his supporters and given those that deemed him a threat more ammunition to try and convince those yet unswayed not to merge with the parasite-like organism.

Ren sniggered.

From what she had seen of the man's aura, System would have better luck trying to form a new body that getting him to accept what amounted to a hallucinogenic parasite.

"What is the creature like?" asked Mary, her eyes scanning the area for danger, even though her senses were far inferior to those guarding her.

Ren frowned as she contemplated the question.

After a lengthy discussion, it had been decided to keep the man's secret, about him seemingly being human under his bone shell, and no one in the group had a good reason to disagree.

Not only did they feel that it was his choice to make, but they were concerned that if others discovered this fact, they would attempt to recruit him under the banner of a united humanity forcefully. At best pushing him away and at worse, creating yet another enemy they would need to face. -"United humanity indeed. How can we even call ourselves a single species anymore? Appart from those that basically became high humans, like those military freaks over there, there is no longer any common linkage bar our mentality."

The first cracks had started to appear in humanities united front, and Ren was sure that if not for the threat of annihilation from another species, a multi fractional civil war would have already broken out.

The so-called Gods versus System and the multiple species, both human-like and monster already starting to separate into factions seemed to hint at a bleak future for the once humans.

The limited resources and the vast range of incredible power each person had been able to acquire only seemed to make it worse as people started to believe that their abilities made them invincible or above others.

Ren was sure that, if there ever came a time where they were safe, the uneasy alliance would fall apart within days.

A thunderous explosion caused Ren and Mary to flinch, the clouds in the distance glowing red for a moment.

"Will it really be able to help us?" Mary asked, fear in her voice as it seemed Ren wasn't going to answer her previous question.

"If the stories from the lizards we captured are even somewhat true, he already has," responded Ren. "This is at best, only half their forces. The rest have been killed by the White Reaper or left to increase the defences of their supplies and ensure he doesn't get behind them at the wrong moment."

Mary frowned. Though she had been given a vague mission from System before they left the Southen Garrison, it had only stated to protect and Aid Ren. "A single creature is that powerful? Why is it helping us? What if it turns against us?"

Ren shuddered remembering the man's aura. The thick, blood-red seeping from his body, intermingled with a faint, calming blue.

Two opposites that seemingly were perfect for each other.

Though one appeared violent and the other calm, Ren instinctively knew that they were both as dangerous as each other. The red parts of the aura tore at the air around it as if trying to rip it to shreds while the blue did the same but in a much more clinical, relentless manner.

Ren's voice came out flat. "Then a lot of people will die."

An eagle-like screech echoed in the distance behind her, followed by two more, and then a much higher pitched one causing a faint, mirthless smile to appear on Ren's lips as she turned and walked in the direction the noise had originated. "Looks like our break is over. our guest approaches."