The Earth After Rebirth

Hiro ensured that every single tanker got a shield that was ranked rare and above, of course with the limited he couldn't create everyone a legendary weapon, so depending on how strong one was, they had to settle for lesser ranks.

"Yes sir!" Andel sprung into action with her shield in front of her. She was adorned with golden armour that complimented her brown skin, that showed in some parts the armour wasn't protecting.

She had long wavy hair that wasn't tied behind her. Andel didn't like tying it and well, she had experience fighting while it fell on her face, something she quite liked.

Andel jumped higher than many thought possible landing right in front of the Sin she was needed to keep busy until her leader could strike a finishing blow.

Unlike many tankers who had a shield and a weapon, she never learned to wield anything else other than a shield. Andel never quite trusted anything else other than her own body, if it were up to her, the shield would be her own body but that didn't do well against monsters.

While every other player focused their stat points on growing their attack, she mostly used hers on defense which raised the constitution of her body significantly. Making her own body to be a formidable weapon itself.

With the new energy, Kaos, her fists bulged when she formed them, they were definitely bigger than she remembered, not wasting any time she threw her right fist while her left clutched onto the protective shield.

Unfortunately for her, her trusted fist landed on the harbinger's open hand. For a second their eyes met, Andel could feel her entire body spiraling out of control but she could still feel the ground beneath her feet.

"Puny humans, your struggling is impressive but this is as far as you go."

Most of the players had never encountered a harbinger before, they thought they were just regular monster but only stronger. Even with most guardians, while they'd fought some harbingers they had never met ones that could talk so this shocked almost everyone in the battlefield.

As petrified as Andel was at that moment she knew doing nothing at all would certify her death so she tried to wiggle her fist out of the clasp of the harbinger. But it was ironclad, she made the mistake of looking at it in the eyes again.

The fear entered her blood vessels, swimming in every direction of her body, sending little signals making her completely still.

'What the hell is this? It's like I've been caught in a honeytrap.' Discover stories at empire

"Your shield!"

A voice from above shook her out of her stupor, Andel didn't need to look up to know who the voice belonged to, besides, if she had dared looked the other way she may have missed the hand that came from her left.

It looked like it belonged to the devil himself because the nails that would usually be there were replaced by long and sharp claws.

Her eyes may have seen the claws earlier but her body couldn't move in time. Her shield was already on the way to block the claw but she knew it was already too late. Even then, she wasn't the type to throw in the towel.

She didn't stop trying to set her other hand free but she could feel her hand getting absolutely destroyed under the weight of the harbinger's large hand.

Isaac was right above them, sword at the ready. If it was him from before, he would've most likely used Andel as bait not caring whether she died or not but the months leading to this battle had given him plenty of time to think about a lot of things about his own life.

But the arrogance in him was still very much present that's why he didn't mind much taking this much of a risk, Andel was at the clutches of death and if he made a single mistake she would die or lose her progress which would both be really bad.

"Duck!" He yelled to her, something he noticed was very hard to do. But through nothing but a will that seemed to have been made of stronger things she obeyed the order.

Isaac could feel his sword burning, yearning for blood and so he obliged, reaching the harbinger faster than it could react since it was solely focused on Andel, a less than smart decision on its part.

As part of the original guardian echelon, Hiro ensured that he was given a legendary sword which was serving him well at that moment. His cut started from the neck, vertically slanting towards its shoulder and it sliced on through flesh and bone.

Decapitating the head completely and instead of disappearing like every monster in the game previously did when it was killed this one fell to its death, making this all the more real.

"H-how?" Andel had not expected for Isaac to one shot it, she expected for him to have trouble with it as she did.

"You still have a lot to learn I suppose." He answered simply.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I'm your leader Andel, you should address me with more respect!" The arrogance was once again leaking out.

"Sorry, sir." She quickly amended, Isaac was clear about how he wanted to operate his squad and they agreed with it.

"That Harbinger was not at all strong, it was using some kind of fear inducement to paralyse you and it worked wonders, for it and for us."

Andel's eyes were as wide as saucers, she had never considered the fact that some harbingers wouldn't be strong physically they would just play mind games making their victim believe they were weaker.

"That's kind of scary sir." She got up from the ground, legs still a little weak and now that she understood that it was a mental attack she tried her best to ignore their complaints.

Isaac smirked, "no time for chatter, forward we go!"