The first game took an hour. Mostly because I kept getting distracted by all the things flying by the window. With the train going at nearly five hundred miles an hour, the various nearest oddities came and went in the blink of an eye. As for those further out, they tended to linger.

  A figure stood, overlooking the train as it passed by. From here, the person looked normal. That is, until you noticed that it was standing on top of a mountain. One that was quite a distance away, judging by the mountains between here and there. It was one thing to hear and read about Mountain Giants, but another thing to see one.

  Thankfully, Mountain Giants never strayed close to any of our cities. But even if they did, I was fairly sure they could be, if not killed, at least driven off.

  The train zipped along the sides of valleys. Given the amount of glistening threads that I could see, it made sense why the train avoided the place. I wouldn’t be surprised if the threads stretched much higher than they looked. Somehow kept clean of the dew that allowed the sun to reveal their presence.

  “Hey,” Bert smacked my hand. “No cheating.”

  “How was I cheating?”

  “I saw you grab two cards from the discard pile.”

  “Nope.” I countered as I moved the card I just dropped to reveal the card I placed last turn. “See, I placed the four of clubs last turn.”

  “Ah,” he put his hand down as he held onto mine. “But I put a five of hearts the turn before that.” With a twist of his wrist, he revealed the card in my hand. It was a queen of hearts.

  “See?” My face hurt as he failed to prove that I had been cheating. I mean, who in their right mind would keep the card they stole in their hand? That would be stupid. The smirk on my face fell when he pulled the five of hearts from my sleeve.

  “Really?” He returned the card to where it belonged. “If you are going to cheat, at least be good at it.”

  I had no clue how he did it, but no matter what trick I tried, he found out moments after. The worst part was that it was obvious he was cheating, but I had yet to find a way to prove it or catch him in the act.

  A fact that led to his victory not even half a dozen turns later. “And I win.”

  “Another game?” I asked as I started to collect all the cards together.

  “No,” he took the cards from me and put them into their box. “I think I will save my games for another day.”

  “Why?”

  “We will be coming up on the plateau in a few minutes. At that point, the train will start slowing down for our approach into Harvest.”

  “So?”

  “Knowing you, your eyes will be more focused on what is out there than any game in here.” My cheeks burned at his words. It wasn’t my fault the outside was just so different.

  “I never did ask you,” I tried to at least keep the conversation going. “But what department are you going into?”

  “While I wanted to go into the Brawler Department, my parents convinced me to wait a little while before I made any final decision. Apparently, they think I might accept the offer for the Heavy Armaments Department.” We both laughed at the idea.

  The Brawlers were one of those crazy groups that got up close and personal with the monsters they fought. And he would fit in perfectly with them.

  Outside the window, the mountains were momentarily replaced by hills. Those vanished behind us as the land flattened. Around me, the air shifted. Mana poured out from somewhere in the back and seemed to flow like a river through the cabin before sinking into something closer to the front.

  It was only as the scenery stopped passing in a blur that I realized the train was slowing. My head crushed against the glass as I tried to get a look at the city of Harvest. Like the city of my birth, the walls here were massive. Dwarfing everything for as far as I could see. And around the city was a zone of death.

  I was always told that a human, well, those without gifts to our senses, did not have the ability to smell blood. That our sense of smell just isn’t strong enough. A fact that has held true, until today. The taste of copper stuck to my tongue as the smell of death clogged my nose.

  Corpses covered the ground as far as I could see. With how some of the bodies still smoked, it couldn’t have been all that long ago. A horde of monsters had attacked the city. Even the dirt I could see through the blanket of bodies wasn’t spared. So much blood had soaked into it that the mud itself had a deep crimson tinge.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  But that wasn’t the worst part.

  No.

  Ahead of us, the city burned.

  Ahead of us, the wall was shattered.

  Ahead of us, people fought.

  Ahead of us, people died.

  “Eli.” Bert’s voice was calm. I don’t mean the calm one has when they are relaxed. It was the calm of someone ready to fight but still in full control. Ready to explode yet contained and distant. As though he was trying to make sure that what he saw wouldn’t affect him.

  “Yeah?” Unlike him, my voice came out in a squeak.

  “Whatever happens, stay next to me.” His words remind me of his promise. That he would protect me.

  Unable to take the tension, I tried to break it. “I said I would. At least until the first day of classes.”

  “Maybe now would be a good time to get your drone up and running? You did make it for these kinds of situations, right?”

  I shook my head. “Even if I was confident it would work, it was never meant to take on anything more powerful than a pest.”

  Bert let out a grunt. “Well, then this is going to suck.”

  “What do you mean? Surely the train will speed past the city.” I started to panic at the thought that the train would purposely stop in a city whose walls had already fallen.

  Before he could answer, a rough voice boomed through the cabin. “Attention passengers. As you have probably noticed, Harvest seems to have found itself in a bit of a situation. Per various intercity agreements, as well as the decision of the Academy Charter, this train will be stopping in the city to see what aid we can provide. While all civilians and first-year academy students are encouraged to participate, participation is not required. As for the rest of you. Get out there and clean up this mess!”

  Dread and relief twisted my insides as they fought for dominance. The feelings were made worse when mana exploded out from the very walls of the train. As streams of it flowed toward the ceiling and into whatever was up there.

  Metal grated against metal as whatever was up there pulled itself out of storage. The metal vibrated for a moment before some giant grabbed onto the train and jerked it backward.

  It was only thanks to the table that I didn’t go flying into Bert’s lap. It was also the only reason I was able to look outside in time to see twenty lines of blue sear through the broken parts of the wall and into the city to hit something.

  Whatever they hit did not like it, judging by the roar that exploded outward. A roar that hit with physical force. Enough that even the heavy train wasn’t unaffected. For a hot second, the train was canted up on one set of wheels. Thankfully, when it came back down, the wheels managed to return to their tracks.

  All the while, mana emanating from the walls sputtered before dying down to a slow trickle. That first barrage was intense, but it looked to be a one-off. Whatever they had used to power it was tapped out.

  Something heavy smacked into the third car, causing it to roll to the side. As it started to tip, it pulled at the cars on either side. Fortunately for everyone, while the car connections protested, quite loudly I might add, they held.

  To my shock, the doors on those three cars chose that moment to slide open, and a good twenty or so people jumped out. Some flew while others ran or were carried. I watched as each of them made their way toward the roof before I lost sight of every last one of them.

  Still, the train plowed on. The world slowly fell away as it pushed toward the top of the wall. Unlike when we left our city, the train slowed to nearly nothing as it approached the apex.

  Then, just as we passed the highest point in the track, the train jerked to a halt. Not that I really cared. The scene before me was both terrible and beautiful. Where our city was made of stone, every inch of this one was covered in towers of glass and green life. Even the walls were made of some sort of wood.

  Or at least, they had been. Most of those near the edge were crushed and destroyed. Still, the various sections of the wall that were damaged were visibly moving. Various parts grew and filled in the gaps as they rebuilt themselves. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t stop the monsters that were already inside.

  Even now, monsters were tearing into the buildings as they worked to get away from the massive guns firing upon them from on top of the walls. Bursts of colors and power flickered across the battleground that was once a city as people fought the monsters bent on eating them for a snack.

  My heart skipped a beat at the sight of a massive vine as it sliced through the air in our direction. Suddenly, the vine twisted ninety degrees and lashed toward the ground. The air split as blood burst from something as a stick of a monster appeared out of thin air.

  “Bert.” The sight of that monster was enough to make me want to go back home. “There are Reavers here.” My voice came out in a whine. Sure, Reavers were relatively weak, but by the time you noticed them, you were already dead.

  “Just remember not to open the door, and we will be fine.” While I wanted to argue, I knew there was no point. Either we died here, or we didn’t. I had no real say in this. Not anymore.

  Even through the sounds of guns firing, monsters screaming, a pair of soft clicks near the back of the train caught my attention. I turned to find a pair of men racing toward the nearest gun as they dragged along a massive cable from the back of the train.

  A uniformed officer popped her head out of a trap door set into the wall. She didn’t hesitate to run to a nearby panel and work to get it open as they dropped the cable at her feet and raced back toward the train. As she opened the panel and started to hook in the cable, the pair managed to drag another cable toward her.

  Unlike the first, she let them hook it up as she made for a nearby box. It opened to reveal a series of levers. All of which she shoved up. Blue light filled the air during the cables as mana surged through them and into the train.

  Static popped and prickled against my skin as a veritable river of mana washed down the train and into whatever weapons were built into the top. A hammer slammed into my chest as they fired. Unlike the first time, the weapons didn’t stop. Mana continued to gush down the train, into the weapons, before ending up inside a monster.

  Honestly, I didn’t expect the weapons on a vehicle would have the same power as those built into the walls of a major city, but they did. And with the help, the city defences were able to focus their fire on pushing back the horde.

  Watching this, my body started to relax. Up until something deep inside the city roared a challenge, and something caused the whole city to shudder.