Ovallord

Used a greentext story to remind Canadians to vote.

Illustration by : Axelord

Goes by the handle Anonymous on 4chan

Part 5

The most important thing in a fight is situation awareness. Know where your enemies are, what they want, what they are doing, what your ally is doing, what the neutrals are doing.

John thought back on his days as an officer cadet in the Canadian army. His training had been both theoretical and practical, a balance necessary for someone to lead troops in battle. However, his injury during combat moose riding course cut his career short.

His bladed hockey stick, a standard issue weapon of a Canadian, was knocked loose doing a mounted charge simulation drill. The blade left a deep laceration on John’s thigh, and the blunt side hit the trainee defending the goal right in the face.

Canadian instinct kicked in and the words ‘I’m fucking sorry’ formed in John’s mind. He was also concerned about the injury to the goalie, and wanted to ask ‘Are you okay?’ The words jumbled up and in the end, John said “Are you fucking sorry!?” He could see the goalie choking back tears in response.

He was offered a transfer to the artillery units, but he didn’t want to spend his time launching curling balls with catapults while sipping on maple syrup. John retired from the military since healthcare was free in Canada, but there was no way he could imagine another adventure awaited him in another world.

The truck caught up to the girl in no time, cutting John’s reminiscing short. The girl was stunned by the sudden appearance of the truck, choosing a route that veered away from both the wyverns and the truck instead. Seeing this John lean his body out the window and waved at her.

The girl stopped momentarily when she saw John and weighed her options. Running away from John and the woods meant death by wyverns, but she was hesitant about going towards the machine monstrosity controlled by a man. She made her decision quickly as she dodged another dive by a wyvern and ran towards John.

Slowing his truck down, John controlled the truck into a skid, sliding it towards the girl with the driver side of the truck facing her. He opened the door and she scrambled in, grabbing onto the truck and John on her way in.

John helped her in and then pushed her butt to the passenger seat. The wyverns seemed confused by John’s intrusion and hovered in the air. Using this chance, John closed the door and started moving the truck once more.

John drove at half speed, watching the wyverns through his side mirror. Having no idea how fast the wyverns could fly, he decided to observe and learn more about them. Like what he learned in the military academy, gathering intel was the key to completing your objectives.

The wyverns were fast. Wary of this intruder, it circled in the air around the truck, easily outpacing the 30km/h John was moving at. Getting bolder, one of them made a pass in front of the truck, staring intently at the cockpit as it flashed by in a second from the left of John’s vision before disappearing to his right.

John continued tracking the wyverns as he drove in a straight line through the plains. The moment he saw another wyvern attempting another fly by, he jammed down the accelerating pedal.

The sudden burst of speed caught the wyvern by surprise and the truck rammed into it. After yelping and spasming a little after impact, the wyvern stopped moving, like a doll with its twine snipped. It remained stuck to the front of truck, but didn’t block John’s view as most of its body was below the windscreen.

Looking in the side view mirror, John could see the wyvern getting further away. It had either given up the chase or was too slow to catch up.

♦ ♦ ♦

Illustration by : Anonymous

Goes by the handle Anonymous on 4chan

Now that the danger was over, John looked at his passenger who had been quiet through the entire thing. Smiling weakly, he managed to say: “Hello madam, erm, konnichiwa.”

The girl pulled her eyes away from the wyvern stuck in front of the truck and looked him in the eye. Her expression was incredulous as she backed away a little like a small animal before a predator.

Her body was thin but John could see the slight swell of her chest and the prominent shape of her hips. Her long dishevelled hair and her eyes were both black and John thought that her facial features were Asian. Like all Asian women between 15 to 40, John wasn’t able to tell her age.

After long moment of silence, the girl finally spoke:

“Do you speak English?”

John literally rolled his eyes. The Caucasian spoke Japanese while the Japanese spoke English? He decided not to ignore that for now.

“Yes I do. My name is John Sene, a truck driver. What about you?”

The girl seemed a little relief that John understood her, and replied:

“I am Jasmine, daughter of Dnyce. I am a summoner.”

“Summoner? Do you issue summon tickets to those who break traffic rules?”

John asked half jokingly. He had no idea what a summoner was, but he didn’t want to look dumb before a girl and just blurted something out.

Jasmine looked at John as if he was retarded. He now know how dumb he must have sounded, and decided to act as if he was pretending to be retarded. That always worked on the internet.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t understand what you mean by being a truck driver. I have heard about people like you, people from another world, wielding extraordinary powers and weapons. But being from another world means you don’t know about us, so you can drop the act.”

John sighed. He needed a guide and there was nothing to gain by earning her ill will. John found a spot with good vantage point and stop the truck. Don’t want any wyverns or monsters to sneak up on him. The wyvern that was being dragged by his truck all this time dropped onto the ground like a figurine with its cord slit.

Opening the door, John got down from the truck to survey the damage. The outer casing was raptured and the engines were visible. Engines and such seemed to be intact, but he would need to send it to the shop to repair the engine cover. Trucks were much tougher than John imagined, and so was the wyvern. It wasn’t dead, just unconscious from the impact.

The body of the wyvern was about 2 meters long and its tail was about that length as well. It was massive, easily to size of two combat moose. Thinking back, John realized how risky saving Jasmine was.

A moment later, Jasmine got out from the door at the driver’s side too. She probably didn’t knew how to open the door of a truck. Or John left the child lock on. Jasmine seemed uneasy at the sight of the wyvern, and asked John:

“Thank you, John, for saving me from this monster. I can’t imagine what would have happened to me if it got me. What do you plan to do with it?”

“Well… Wyvern hide should be a valuable product in this world right? But this one is still alive, and skinning it would probably be quite challenging. Not sure what I should do with it.”

Jasmine nodded as if she expected as much, and offered a solution after some deliberation.

“If you have no specific plans for it, how about letting me keep it as a familiar? I am a summoner after all.”

John observed Jasmine for a moment and asked:

“What do I get out of this deal?”

Jasmine already had her answer ready.

“I will introduce you to my mother, she will give you a safe haven and a fair reward for aiding her daughter.”

“That sounds like a plan. And how are you going to make it your familiar?”

John didn’t care too much about the wywern. Making friends and allies in this world had a higher priority, it was hard to survive by himself in this dangerous world.

Jasmine looked relief when John accepted her offer. She reached for her pouch awkwardly as her hands were still chained together. John haven’t asked her about them yet, he was a little awkward in the presence of girls. After searching for a moment, Jasmine took out a cube that was red on top and white below. She then threw it overhand at the wyvern.

A flash of light from the cube engulfed the wyvern, and it was gone the next moment as the light receded back into the cube. The cube then fell onto the ground where the wyvern laid moments earlier. The cube shook once. Twice. Thrice. And then, it stopped amidst a burst of stars.

“It worked! First try!”

Jasmine squealed and she ran forth to collect the cube. That is some impressive storage technology, John thought. “How do you summon it?”

“Oh, I just need to throw the cube in front of me and shout ‘I choose thee’, and the wyvern will emerge from the ball. Summoners like me utilized the power of these Pouch Monster, or PochiMon©, to fight.”

“Does the cube work on everything? Only fainted creatures?”

“No, only monsters. There is an index that list all of the possible creatures that can be captured, we call them monsters. It is possible to capture a monster with low vitality though, but the best way is to do it while the monsters are sleeping or knocked out. Capturing doesn’t work on dead monsters though.”

Jasmine was excited and eager to share her summoner knowledge, although John think she was more of a monster tamer than a summoner. John thought about the logic.

“True, knocking out a monster before capturing it makes sense. If the monsters can’t be captured after defeating it, it must mean that you have killed it.”

“It can’t be helped, It is impossible to capture them all. No point capturing monsters you don’t need. Most summoners only use six or so familiars anyway, it is better to release the familiars you don’t need instead of keeping them in captivity.”

“Wouldn’t summoning an army of familiar be advantageous?”

Jasmine shook her head.

“No, a summoner can only use one familiar at a time. If you face two enemy summoner at the same time, you can summon two while they can summon one each.”

“Why… Who set such a rule?”

“It is just the way things are, some say this was set by the god of balance, GamuPatche. If it is not too much trouble, could you head eastward? My home city is about a week’s journey by carriage in that direction.”

Jasmine pointed in the direction where the sun was.

“A week huh. Let’s get started then, I’m getting hungry.”

John head back towards the truck, opening the door on the passenger side for Jasmine, and got into the driver's seat from the other side.

“By the way, this is a truck, something used to ferry things. A truck driver is someone who operates this machine. Now, I have only one question for you. Are you ready?”

John started the engine with a wide grin.

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