Demons are a lot faster than the undead and you're wounded, no way are you going to be able to outrun them. You turn around and draw your bow, trying to ignore your pain which is overriding any fear you have at this point. Your weakened state is causing you to have a hard time aiming.

"Uh oh, better be careful, looks like this one is going to put up a fight. I'd say by his uniform that he's a soldier."
"Hur hur. Good. Hey human, better stop wobbling if you're going to aim that thing properly."

You miss the demon completely.

"Hah! You want me to walk slower human?"
"You sure you should be playing with him like that? Don't you remember what happened earlier today?"
"Shut up! I told ya, that bitch musta had some magical powers because…OW!"

You hit the demon in the chest, but it doesn't seem much damage. He pulls out the arrow and now begins to quicken his pace. The other demon starts to walk towards you as well.

"See, I told you to pay attention."
"Bah! If this is the extent of what his little pig sticker can do, I'm not concerned. Hey human, don't you know they're doing great things with gunpower these days? RAAAAGH!"

The big demon suddenly charges you, and you let your arrow fly. Right in the eye.

"Perfect." You whisper.

The demon bellows, but it doesn't slow him down. You narrowly dodge his charge. You roll on the ground and shoot two more arrows in his back. He turns around snarling and bellowing for your blood. More arrows fly into the creature, but at last the demon has reached you and smacks you to the ground. Your bow flies from your hand, and while crawling on the ground you try to draw your sword, but a crushing blow hits you on the back. This might've caused a lot more damage, but miraculously the lute that's still in your pack "softens" the blow. The crunching of wood signifies that it's broken though.

"What the fuck, that's a weird noise…what is this? HA HA HA! Hey! You gotta be shittin' me! A fuckin' lute? Check this out! He's carrying a fuckin' lute! What's a fucking soldier doin' with a lute?" the big demon shouts to his acquaintance while he holds up your broken instrument.
"Don't talk you idiot! LOOK OUT!" his acquaintance shouts, just as you recover long enough to shove your sword straight into the demon's groin. You push the sword upward in an attempt to do more damage and you succeed. Blood is flying everywhere and the demon howls in pain from the grievous wound. You pull your sword out and then proceed to repeatedly stab the demon until it falls backwards on the ground, dead.

You're exhausted; you used all your remaining strength killing the thing. Unfortunately the other demon grabs you by the scruff like a helpless kitten and lifts you up off the ground a few inches. He knocks your sword out of your hand and looks at his fallen comrade.
"Hmm, can't say I didn't warn him. Oh well, more meat for me. This may hurt a lot…"

Fully expecting the death that you've managed to avoid for so long, you once again evade it when a gunshot rings out and part of the demon's head splatters in your face. You're dropped immediately. The demon's body is still standing though.

"Shoot the bastard again!" you hear a gruff voice shout and this time the next shot hits chest and the demon falls.

You lay motionless on the ground, looking up in the sky when your saviors come up to you. It's a group of dwarves armed with gun powder weapons.

"By the gods, get doc out here! We need to fix this man up! Hey lad, you'll be alright, don't worry…are you a Zalan soldier?" one of the dwarves asks you.
"…yeah…Nuro…lost…all dead…" is all you utter before fall into unconsciousness.

A few days pass before you're somewhat back to a coherent state. You find yourself in a military outpost and at this point you don't care. You're just happy to be alive.

It would seem that during your escape from Nuro, you ran in the direction of the Tulan Kingdom, the dwarven scouts that found you were from a small neutral kingdom trying its best to stay out of the dispute between Tulan and Zalan, but the new threat of demons running all over the nearby countryside caused them to increase patrols. They fixed you up, but dropped you off at the closest Zalan Fort. The Zalan fort that you're in right now is called Virtue and it's on the Tulan border. It seems relatively calm though. Not at all what you thought it would be.

When one of the healers comes in to check on you, you begin to ask questions which she tries to answer to get you up to speed.

The Tulan Kingdom is currently under attack from the demons now. They've been assaulting the place and even gaining help from some of the evil populace there. The demon citizens there have reverted back to their "bad behavior" and thrown their lot in with the invaders as well. That doesn't surprise you. The Tulan Kingdom pulled back some of their military from the borders so the fighting hasn't been as bad and Zalan's made a little more progress during this time, but the military minds are being cautious not to over extend. There is extreme concern over the recent demon invasion, not to mention the incident at Nuro. Word has already spread about the unsuccessful siege there.

The healer also tells you that a few Zalan "high ups" are eager to speak to you soon, as they want to know what exactly happened at Nuro. You're somewhat of an important survivor since as far as anyone knows; you were the only one to successfully escape that killing zone. There's also talk of a "Grand Alliance" being created to counter these new threats.

While the healer talks you end up drifting back to sleep wishing you could just escape it all.

One year passes…

You're still at Fort Virtue and it doesn't look like you'll be leaving the army anytime soon.

You couldn't have been more wrong on your belief that you'd get executed for cowardice. You got promoted to sergeant instead, which in light of the current situation, is nearly the same thing.

Your promotion came after several Zalan officers spoke to you about Nuro. You even got a medal.

Stories and rumors creep around about how against all odds you survived an undead onslaught and fought off a bunch of demons as well. Your past "reputation" from your time in Retlad is exaggerated as well. It doesn't help that the citizens there remember you and are all willing to add to the exaggeration.

All of these stories have been woven together in such an elaborate way to make you seem like some kind of hero most likely for propaganda purposes. And you know you're not hero. In fact you try to explain you aren't a hero to people, but they think you're just being modest, eventually you give up.

Your assignment at Virtue hasn't been uneventful. There's fighting, but now it's mainly demon commanded enemies rather than Tulan ones. Some demon lord called Velzix killed the royalty there, completely conquered the area and made it his realm. The border war continues under new management except now it's more than just a border that the enemy is looking to take. Your superior, Captain Eckard reminds you of Valhlat except with a different name. You suppose there is a certain "cookie cutter" that occurs within the Zalan army that causes people to act the same. You've briefly wondered if you ever make that rank, you'll act the same way. You then usually laugh at the very fact that you ever would.

Fort Virtue hasn't suffered a really bad attack yet, and it's mostly skirmishes, but it's like waiting for the other shoe to drop. You routinely go on patrols and give orders which you didn't think you'd be good at, but you think back to how you used to order your brothers and sisters around and perhaps you always had a bit a leadership skill, you just didn't want it.

You thought that you'd be able to at least visit your family, but of course due to recent events, you're ordered to stay put. Your family at least is getting more money from your pay increase. They even send a new lute for you after you told them of the unfortunate event that resulted in the destruction of your last one. This gives you a little pleasure in a relatively joyless assignment.

All in all, you still prefer it compared to being in the unsuccessful assaults on Nuro. The Grand Alliance that was formed hasn't been too successful as every one has been a slaughter from what you've heard. You already went through that once. You don't relish the idea of going through it again.

One day while you're spending your free time practicing a new song, some new soldiers come into the fort. They look like they've just seen a vicious battle and are here to restock. One of them sees you and gives you a disapproving look. It's a woman with striking good looks, but definitely carrying an air of leadership about her. Her rank signifies her as a captain…yep same cookie cutter, just a little prettier.

"You there! What are you doing playing an instrument? Shouldn't you be on watch or doing something more constructive with your time soldier? And you're a sergeant? You should know better!"
"I'm not on watch duty right now and…"

The woman doesn't even let you finish your explanation. Other soldiers that were sitting in your area are now slowly creeping out of the fray. Even her own soldiers are creeping away. They probably know all too well of how she acts.

"So? You think evil is going to wait around for you to be ready for battle? Where is your superior officer? I can't believe they would allow such a relaxed attitude around here considering the importance of this fort! If you were serving under me, I'd have you flogged for your lack of discipline!"

You argue with her

You've served in this army well and always done your job regardless of the shitty situations you've been in. You might not like a lot of it, but you've never complained. Lately you've been on edge about a possible all out assault of some big ass demon army that's going to attack any day now, and playing is one of the few pleasures you have to put your mind at ease.

Perhaps it's a combination of this and a combination of this unwanted and unnecessary scolding that causes you to speak out of turn.

"With all due respect ma'am, I am fully prepared to battle at a moment's notice and so are those under my direct command. But even soldiers need to rest, if only for a minute."

The woman looks very surprised you didn't comply with her demand to see your superior officer.

"…you DARE speak out of turn like that to me? I'll see you sent to the Nuro Front for that sort of insubordination! Then we'd see just how battle ready you are! How would you like that?"
"I wouldn't like it at all. I barely survived the first time." You say trying not to express any fear.
"…What? What are you talking about? First time?"

Now you're a little surprised she doesn't know who you are considering how some of the high ups exaggerated about how you managed to survive. You explain yourself briefly and she doesn't quite believe you at first, a couple of your troops hiding nearby at least back up your claims before slinking off.

"That was YOU? What the hell are you doing here? You should be leading from the front not languishing in some fort that barely sees battle!"
"Doesn't see battle? We suffered a small demon raid last week! We see plenty of battle!"
"What I mean is, somebody of your obvious combat and survival skills should be assigned on the front lines where you can do more good. Normally I don't question Zalan command, but this is really an oversight on their part."
"Well maybe they know better than the both of us, besides this assignment isn't a walk in the fairy fields. I think we'll be suffering a grand scale attack any day now."
"Doubt it. Velzix has been having a hard time keeping his unruly mob together. If it wasn't for a lot of the sycophantic Tulan citizens, he'd probably be confined to pure defense, though something will have to be done soon, reports say he's attempting to gate in more demons everyday. Not to mention that supposedly civilized demons from other nations are starting to display their true colors and flock to his banner. Like I always said the only good demon is a dead one!"

This causes you to smile a bit and she very faintly smiles back when she sees that you feel the same way. This smile disappears quickly though as she continues her rant.

"I wish I wasn't assigned to the Tulan Border though. I'd rather be taking Nuro back. THAT'S the more dangerous threat. The demons will kill themselves with their own chaotic and violent natures, but the undead…they've almost taken over the world before just because of one bastard that lead them. I never thought I'd see a serious threat like this in my lifetime, especially not…"

The female captain at this point stops. She even looks away from you as if whatever she was going to say was just too much even for her. She seems to be a lot more battle hardened than you and probably ten times braver. You can't imagine what horror she experienced that would be worse than your own, but you don't find out since she changes the subject.

"…Bah! Maybe you're right; a soldier does need to keep their mind occupied on other things every now and then. We aren't undead after all. So what's with the lute? You also a bard or something?" she laughs.
"No, I think those dreams are long gone, but my playing seems to boost spirits around here a little, which can only be a good thing in this situation."
"Hm. My mother was elven and she used to sing this song to me and my…brother when we were very young. It was very smooth and calming. Beautiful melody."
"Yeah, most elven music is like that. When I was assigned in Retlad I learned a few elven songs from a few of the citizens there, you wouldn't happen to know the song would you?"

She tells you the name of the song and you know it immediately. One of the first new songs you learned while stationed in Retlad actually. This seems cause her to momentarily revert to a less stand offish behavior. You're about to play it for her, but then a messenger comes running up handing her a note. She reads it and she's all business again.

"Alright men! We're moving out!" she shouts and leaves without saying another word to you. You didn't even learn her name.

Perhaps it's just as well; you'll most likely never meet again due to one of you dying on the battlefield. You go back to doing what you were doing.

Two years pass…

Three years since the Nuro Incident and this struggle still continues.

You're still stationed Fort Virtue and you've repelled more demon attacks than you would care to count. Velzix has finally gotten his shit together completely. A unified demonic front is in full swing here and its taking its toll. Once again your skills have come in very handy in defense. You are certainly known as a demon slayer, but you still don't feel like a hero of any kind. You're just trying to do your job and survive. You save lives when you can, but you know ultimately it's a futile task as death seems to be everywhere nowadays.

As bad as it is on the demon front, its nothing compared to what've you've heard on the undead front. The Necromancer has finally broken out from Nuro, and successfully attacked the Kingdom of Brot. Several undead giants demolished the area. You've never even seen a living giant and they sound intimidating. You can't even imagine an undead one. The power to raise one, let alone several is sort of scary. The Grand Alliance army didn't get there in time to stop him and as usual they were repelled when they arrived.

You worry about the Grand Alliance failing to stop the undead horde. You hope it doesn't get any closer to the Zalan Empire where your family might be in danger.

Sometimes you worry so much that you can't sleep, not that you do much of that nowadays anyway. Normally you play to keep your mind at ease, but tonight you go to the archery range to keep yourself focused.

For a long time you're by yourself, but suddenly you feel a creeping suspicion someone is watching you…

You turn around with your bow and see a pale man. He holds up his hands.

"Hey now! Don't shoot! Sorry for creeping around like that. Professional habit." He says.
"What? Who are you?" you demand.
"Warnov. Zalan Intelligence."
"You're a spy?"
"Well I suppose you could put it that way. I was here to give some info to your Captain Eckard, and I also wanted to take a look around the fort. Didn't think anyone would be on the range though. Nice shooting, I know who you are and heard about your marksmanship with a bow. You're certainly doing your part with the demons around here."

Despite the fact that you're talking to a spy, you feel the need to vent your feelings.

"Yeah, well I hope the Grand Alliance starts doing its part. I mean what the fuck are they doing? Weren't they created to put a stop to all this shit? I mean am I supposed to worry every day if that undead horde is going to get closer to the Zalan Empire where it can threaten my family?"

Warnov doesn't look offended by your words, if anything he looks intrigued.

"Well, I can understand why you're venting. Trust me I sympathize. But as part of intel, I can tell you its not that easy…there were a lot of surprises that weren't accounted for. We're doing our best to rectify this situation by gathering as much info as possible. In fact, you could help us…"
"Excuse me? How?"

Warnov looks around and gets closer before speaking.

"Look, as I said, I know all about you and your skills, why you joined, all of it. I know you don't much care for some of the propaganda made about some of your exploits. But it's important to realize that deeds like yours must be blown up a little to give common people hope that ultimately good will win the day. You may not consider yourself a hero of any kind, but your actions aren't without some of those qualities. You obviously care very much about your family, and I've heard how you try to keep the people under your command alive. Sound like heroic qualities to me. Perhaps they're on a smaller scale, but they're there. I'm betting that there's a BIGGER hero in there somewhere, just itching to get out. You think the Grand Alliance isn't doing a good job? Perhaps we can arrange something for you to be transferred into it, or maybe you'd like to take an even more direct approach."
"What do you mean?"

Warnov suddenly backs away.

"Before we go any further. I need to know are you willing to take up the mantle of being a hero. Because if you aren't, then we have nothing more to discuss. I shall require an answer now."

You decline the offer

You have to admit, the idea has crossed your mind a bit. A small part of you does wonder about embracing the whole hero image and deliberately doing grand deeds that go beyond the call of your duty. You suppose that you'd at least really feel like one if you did that.

However, more often than not real heroes don't live long. You're wondering what exactly this Mr. Warnov has in mind for you and given his demeanor, his appearance and just your own feelings of uncertainty about him, you decline. You know your limitations even if others don't see them. So, no you won't be hunting down some artifact of unlimited power and then single handedly taking out a Demon Lord or Necromancer Lord in their own throne room.

"No, I don't think so Mr. Warnov. As I've often said, I'm no hero. I'm just doing my job and providing for my family."

Mr. Warnov looks disappointed and sighs, but accepts your decision.

"Very well. This is a shame though. Despite your humble birth you seem to have lots of potential. You could've made an excellent addition to our…organization. I've also heard your lute playing wasn't bad either, we don't have any musically talented types anymore…oh well."

Mr. Warnov leaves rather quickly after his last statement. Something about him seemed very odd and you're sort of glad you didn't take his offer. You go back to your target practice for awhile when you suddenly hear an alarm cry out loudly through the fort about a small demon army being sighted over the hill.

"Well back to work…" you say and prepare for battle once again.

Two years pass…

It's been five years since the Nuro Incident and things have gotten worse.

Both the Necromancer Lord and Velzix have made progress. Too much. The Grand Alliance hasn't been able to do anything except fight them to a stalemate. All three sides are looking to gain an advantage and somehow you don't think it'll be yours.

The Zalan Empire has become increasingly totalitarian. It's been increasing its influence over how the Grand Alliance should be run and its strategies. Some of Zalan's officers have been transferred to become more prominent in leading and commanding the bulk of the Grand Alliance army. You're not sure if this isn't a bad idea. Bullying or not, one final voice in matters would probably help the Grand Alliance at this point. There's been some grumbling by other nations though.

However it's also begun several repressive internal measures to keep itself safe. Your mom has mentioned in letters back to you of seeing routine patrols now near the farm. Talks of seizing private property for the good of the Empire are being discussed. You don't really like the sound of that, but it's not really like you can do anything about it. You can only take solace in the fact that being part of the Zalan army will at least result in your family not becoming homeless. They would probably still be able to live and work on the farm…it just wouldn't be your family's anymore. There's also talk of a draft. You don't like the sound of that either. Your brother Mallack would certainly be conscripted now. You can't imagine him dealing with the things you've had to face. You hope it doesn't come to that.

Your position at Virtue is looking worse and worse each day. Parts of the fort are severely damaged, you're short on man power and you don't even have any decent wizards or healers. You've attempted to talk to Captain Eckard about withdrawing and falling back to a safer position, but he won't hear of it. This fort is NOT to be abandoned.

The only good thing is that there's apparently been a small contingent of mercenaries severely messing up things for Velzix in his own territory. They must be incredibly brave or completely mad for Zalan gold to perform such a task. You can't help but think that maybe YOU would be there right along side them, if you'd joined up with that mercenary company years ago. A sobering thought.

Time to go on patrol again. You gather up some soldiers and get ready. You look at all of them and wonder which ones won't be coming back this time. You look at yourself and wonder if you will. A few years ago, everyone coming back alive was at least a possibility, but now it's not even certain.

You go out and change up your routine path again. Always have to be different, can't become predictable.

A couple of imps attack. Nothing to worry about. Easily dispatched. You know you'll encounter worse before the day is over though.

A group of Tulan "citizens" led by their demon overseer attacks you next. Made up of hapless slaves and misguided idiots who think serving the demons is going to pan out in the long run.

Finally you come across something a little more unusual. A small group of dwarves fighting off a large demon ambush. They look ragged, wounded and in dire need of help. So you help them.

You unleash five arrows into the head of an Eviscerator before two of your number are fried by a hellfire blast from a Flame Child. The fighting doesn't get any cleaner from there. You see another one of your members getting shredded, before a path is cleared for the dwarves to follow you back to the fort. One of their own chooses to stay behind to give the rest a chance to escape. As all of you run, a large explosion is heard followed by several yelps, howls and screams. The dwarf has blown himself up with whatever explosives the dwarves are fond of making.

Finally you get back to the fort where it's relatively safe, and all you're thinking about is how you'll have to do this all over again tomorrow. You retire to your private room where you play your lute and hope you aren't disturbed by another attack on the fort. Happily, that doesn't happen, but you are disturbed by one of the dwarves you rescued earlier instead. He's come to thank you.

"Hey lad, I just want to say thanks to your actions at least a few of us survived from our clan. Such as it is now. Something about you looks very familiar. Normally you humans all look the same but…ah hah! You're that lad who I saved near that farm five years ago! Looks like you returned the favor! Stagir's the name."

You didn't realize it either, but then with all the fighting and the chaos you'd barely survived during that particular day, you weren't really paying attention to faces. You were just glad someone came along when they did.

"Yeah…small world I guess. So what happened to your clan?"
"Wiped out lad." Stagir says mournfully. "At least when you humans were fighting each other you didn't mess with us, but getting caught between the undead and demons…well it's a bit different."
"The undead are that far now?" you ask.
"Aye. They and the demons have been involved in skirmishes here and there. Got no problem with evil fighting evil, but it was just our bad luck that my clan was caught in the middle. The demons are evil incarnate to be sure, but the undead…I dunno. Something worse about them. In the final days, I had to kill clan members who I once called friends and family because of the fucking necromancers raising them from the dead. Some stayed behind to fight since they refused to run. They'd rather die than run from their home. Normally I'd agree, but after seeing that this was a losing battle, some of us decided that it would be better to run. After all we would just be raised again to be used as puppets of the necromancers when we die. Not even free will to choose, or the threat of a demon's whip. You just become one of them. Can't let that happen to me. Never."

You know something of it, having had to do a little of that five years ago at Nuro, but actually killing undead parodies of family members would be pretty horrific.

Stagir attempts to lighten the mood a bit by asking you about what you were playing before he interrupted. When you tell him, he tiches and says something about how elven songs are nothing compared to dwarven ones. You never really thought of dwarves having a musical interest before, but Stagir boasts about how they have quite an extensive musical history.

He takes the lute from you and shows you a couple of dwarven songs, breaking strings in the process. His insistent singing accompanying the songs isn't exactly pleasant either. He complains about the human made strings not being strong enough to play the songs properly, but thanks you again for saving his life before leaving.

Every now and then you play these songs for your new dwarven allies who have taken it upon themselves to strengthen and rebuild the fort the "proper dwarf way". They seem to appreciate it. You're a little more careful with the strings and don't indulge in the singing though. (But unfortunately for the rest of the fort, the dwarves do)

A few months pass and the demon attacks seem to decrease. The strengthened fort certainly helps, but something else is going on. Eventually you're seeing less and less of them. Eventually some ragged refugees come to the fort and after a bit of babbling and thanking the gods, a few of them explain.

There are a couple of conflicting stories, but it would seem Velzix is dead! He was killed by something or someone. Consensus seems to be that the mercenary leader died in battle with him though. Without Velzix's leadership the demons are fighting amongst themselves and the realm is in complete disarray. The Grand Alliance is taking steps to retake the land immediately before the Necromancer Lord gets it. The Zalan Empire in particular is closer though, so naturally YOUR nation is going to get that land first!

While things may be looking up somewhat, they aren't necessarily looking up for you. Captain Eckard has orders to begin an attack immediately. You aren't looking forward to it mainly because you'll probably encounter an undead army in the process.

You don't have a choice though except for what role you can serve. Thanks to your skills and rank. You can either lead troops as normal, or be part of a scouting party.

You choose to lead rank and file

If its undead you're going to face you decide you don't want to get caught fighting them with only a few men to help you. Captain Eckard is a little surprised by your decision, but chooses a few others to be the reconnaissance group.

Your replacements aren't as good as you might've been however. Many times they fuck up and miss a few demon bands that were fleeing from the Tulan Kingdom and ambushing whoever passed by. It's not too bad at first, but the closer you get to the capital, the more powerful these little groups are. The losses get more severe, but Captain Eckard insists on continuing.

By the time you get to the capital during most of the citizens there have been so corrupted or beat down by the demons at this point that they've either sold their own souls to Hell or gone completely mad. You're attacked by them and a few of the demon hold outs. Your own ranks have been severely weakened by this point.

It's during an ambush that you're suddenly hit by a fireball from a flame demon who was sitting on top of a nearby rooftop. You run around screaming and trying to put out the flames, but a couple of flying imps throw spears into your back ensuring that you lie still as you finish burning to death.