Chapter 1

“Engineer parachute at ready! Request drop!”

“Aye, get y'er a*s over the rail!” Yelled a brute of an ogre.

A lightly blue tinted Scalvar hopped atop the platform for parachute drop, and adjusted his helmet. A scary sight, his helm reflected a black, standard pull down, with a face guard taking up half of the front, carved into a wide-toothed grin of red, and column of braids running down the back of the helm in green. He tucked his head somewhat, and proceeded to dive straight forward into a flip with no land in sight below him.

Exiting the clouds, Scalvar kept himself tight together, diving straight into what seemed to be a village half-burnt to the ground. A parachute burst from his pack, slowing his fall merely yards from the earth and slowly descending, he landed on his backside. Taking the time to tuck his chute back in its vial, he set the vial into the leather slot of his belt and surveyed his area. The zeppelin continued above and faded into the distance, leaving Scalvar alone, half a mile off the boundaries of the burning town west of him.

He pulled a second vial from his belt and popped the stopper, knocking the contents onto the ground, leaving a largely wrapped leather bag, in which he unrolled, spreading armor and a weapon onto the grass neatly. He pushed greaves of blue with red lining onto his thighs, and a pair of boots over his thinly leathered slippers of the same design. Clasping a chest piece of black and red, with tattered cloth bearing a unique crest, he proceeded to push his shoulder gear onto them, being of large rounded blue, with red grooves embedded into the design.

A b*****d sword of good fashion was set onto his back, in which it glowed a purple aura falling from the sheath it resided. As he re-wrapped the bag into the small vial, Scalvar flipped a coin. Landing heads up, pocketed, and gear fastened snugly, he took only but half a step before a force from the northwest knocked him over onto his back.

“Watch out!” Warned a man loudly as his knees crashed into the helmet of Scalvar.

Both rolling multiple times across the grass and dirt, they landed on their backs next to each other, staring to the dusky sky.

“Sorry, bro. I didn't realize someone else was coming...”

Scalvar sat up slowly and removed his helmet, brushing the sand away. “What the hell'd you do that for?”

“I'm not the best at landing.” The man extended his hand out after standing. “Gim 'Gimbo' Tucken.”

They shook hands firmly as Scalvar raised himself to his feet. “Sergeant Major Scalvar, Jurildian Commander.” He reseated his helmet and took in Gimbo's appearance. Slightly younger, but very slight, with hazed armor of gray trimmed in gold design unbeknown to Scalvar. His weapon was a claymore, nearly five feet in length, bolted to the back of his chest piece, with light blue cracks of power seen along its blade.

“Sergeant Major, much an honor to meet you.” Announced Gimbo.

He smiled, raising a gloved hand. “Scalvar, please. No formalities here, especially for a new friend.” Pointing to the still-burning town, he motioned to Gimbo. “You here for that?”

Gimbo nodded, adjusting his extravagant helm of smoky gray, fitting tightly around his face. “Aye.”

A word on the village, still burning. Jurilda is the eastern continent of the land, Ildonia, and is separated by 900 miles of flooded canal. Created by an earthquake 1,430 years ago, spiders of rivers emit from this one canal, both flooding into Jurilda, and its counterpart Yurilda, or the western continent. Named after the cousin emperors battling for the center of the land, the intense war ended in a stalemate, killing both armies during the earthquake and aftershock in mid-battle.

The village is located in southern Jurilda, just two days travel by sea north of Aegrus Isle. The island is almost an empire itself, infested with plague-walking minions controlled by Garminly, a necromancer trying to rid the island of all opposition. Currently, the small town of Nordin is under attack by undead monsters, trying desperately to spread their disease to all of Ildonia. The point of these two fighters is to lend aid to the small militia quickly dying off from the overwhelming forces of the 'plagued ones'.

“Well, lets get going then.” Scalvar stated, taking initiative.

“Right.” Both men began jogging at a leisurely pace, their gear clinking against metal quietly into the afternoon plains. “Is this town even worth saving? I know I volunteered, but it seems so...burnt.”

“The point isn't Nordin, it's the creatures. We stop the small spread now, save ourselves big issues later. I want to come up the south side, near the beach, and hit up the docks, moving inward.” He pulled a folded piece of parchment with scribbled writing on it. Unfolding it, he traced pieces with his finger as he turned to the left, moving onto the sand and paused. “Here, there's a town hall on the right end of the dock, which means we can reinforce here and push them outwards to the north where the gate guards are.”

Folding the paper, he scuffled down, and hopped off the small ridge that was heightening on the edge of the beach. Gimbo followed, agreeing with the logic.

“Though, it may not be the situation at hand. For all we know, resistance is gone, and we'll be fighting alone. Or, it could be reversed, and the battle is backwards, but either way, we'll move up the line here, and arrive on the edge of the dock. We'll burn the ship the monsters came on, and move our way north.” He pulled four vials from a small leather satchel on his right hip, filled with black powder and white crystals. He also produced two vials of simple water. “Take these. Now, what you do is pour this over the cargo deck, pick something that'll catch. Its Silver Iodide, a powder that catches with water after a few seconds.”

Gimbo tied the vials to his belt, nodding. “Always fun to have a fire with water. Were going to swim from here, and head up the side ladder leading from the life boat.” Gimbo pointed not a few yards ahead, in which Scalvar agreed after a few seconds, and they tied their belongings tight. Wading water briefly before diving into the sea, swimming close to the bank towards the bottom of the ship docked at Nordin, they quietly pushed through the calmness of the ocean beach, breathing quietly and moving undetected.