It was often the case for Ozzy that when he’d hear voices in the wilderness it meant turning around and heading the other way. He had at no point in his short span of life gone and interrupted someone’s time outdoors, that just wasn’t right. Finding himself alone in a strange new environment, not to mention in a swamp with only a single pair of socks though? He knew he was in deep dookie, swamp dookie.

  Looking back at the watches screen Ozzy read the instructions for summoning the big iron.

  Unlocked gun Core ability — Big Iron

  To summon the Big Iron conjured weapon focus thoughts and willpower to summon it into your hand.

  Focusing his thoughts and mind on the action he felt a strange sensation of energy congealing in his hand. The energy condensed into the familiar shape yet very unfamiliar weight of a big bore revolver with a couple stark differences. As he looked down at the revolver he was blown away by the sight of a firearm that for all intents and purposes, should not exist.

  The size and bore of the pistol were like something out of a video game. It was probably more apt at breaking wrists than making accurate shots. The barrel didn’t simply end with the large bore however, a thick bowie knife hung like the world’s least practical bayonet off of the end of the pistol. It would work for stabbing or slashing but he didn’t ever want to get into a situation where using the heavy unwieldy weapon as a knife rather than a gun was necessary. Quite frankly he needed to have a conversation with whoever had designed this thing, knives did not belong on pistols.

  The firearm had the familiar shape of a modern high-performance revolver, though the design was much more angular and geometric in nature all except for its rounded textured handle. It had the classic open sights he was familiar with, but as he raised the revolver to peer through them a holographic display popped up. The display was nearly as impressive as the gun, it was set up with bright red crosshairs over an incredibly clear transparent yellow screen that if he focused on magnified the image behind it slightly, the magnification wasn’t anything crazy but man was it cool.

  Swinging the cylinder out of the revolver he was surprised to find it loaded. Wanting to see what he was working with he tipped the revolver up and pushed the cylinder release down and six unusually heavy rounds fell into his palm. Surprised by their weight he fumbled one of the, and in the act of trying to catch it again fumbled the rest of them, dropping the rounds into the murky water below. Ozzy let out the world’s weariest sigh and ran a hand across his sweaty brow, he’d just given his only bullets up to the swamp. Unhappily, he glanced down at the unwieldy blade at the end of the barrel. He did not want to be using that thing anytime soon.

  As he went to close the cylinder he felt a slight drain on his energy. A speed loader appeared in his hand as magically as the revolver had before, and with the muscle memory of a lifetime of shooting he pushed the rounds into place, released the speed loader, and swung the cylinder back into place. The weapon felt solid in his hands, like he’d been using it his whole life.

  “Ready for anything I guess” He muttered turning the piece over in his hands.

  Ozzy could still hear the fight off in the distance and made his way over as quickly and clumsily as a drunk swamp rat. With all of the crashing he did through brush and knee-high water it was a miracle nothing had heard him and broken off from the battle. He could hardly even hear the battle when the water got deeper and the splashing more violent and he had to focus intently on the noisy clamor of combat to make sure he was headed the right way, which was exactly why he didn’t notice the new friend headed his way.

  As he made his way through a thick tangle of brush he was hit by what could have been a small eighteen-wheeler. The impact sent him hurtling through the brush at mach heck and he nearly skipped as he hit the surface of the water, only managing to stay above the water because of the conveniently placed island he’d flown towards.

  Ozzy felt like groaning but the best his battered chest could manage was a wheezing cough that hurt just about as much as hitting the island had. Thankfully however, his body impossibly managed its fourth and probably final adrenaline rush of the day. He was positive if he didn’t die in the next few minutes, it’d would be a heart attack taking him in the not-too-distant future.

  Rolling over weakly, he got his first good look at what had decided to tango. A rat, not just any rat though, a giant rat. It was like someone had taken the classic sewer dwelling menace, cross bred it with Dobermans, and put it on the kind of steroids Russian body builders were too afraid to use. Aaaand it was aggressively making its way toward him through the water, proportions wise it had all the similarities about it of an earthly rat save for being about twenty times bigger though he wasn’t sure on his conversion. At around the same size as a brown bear the rat made waves as it rushed through the now worryingly crimson swamp water straight for him.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  A lifetime of firearms training bade him raise his arm and pull the trigger of his new revolver in a single smooth motion. He then found that he had apparently misplaced the firearm upon being thrown across the swamp, he’d have been cursed up and down by his hunters safety instructor but thankfully the rat wasn’t so crude. It went with history’s tried and true method of letting displeasure known, rights and lefts, but this time with plenty of room for claws.

  Moving in what felt like slow motion he rolled with the strike, for a moment he thought he’d gotten away Scott free. The pain of ripping flesh on his side let him know otherwise. The strike threw him again, though the glancing nature of it only gave him a disappointing amount of distance from the monster.

  Panicking now, he searched for the revolver, it was of course nowhere to be seen and probably lost forever in the now cloudy swamp water. Still panicking as he cast his eyes about for the weapon a push of instinct that was as alien as it was welcome encouraged him to try summoning the weapon again. He focused intently on the firearm, the shape of it in his palm, the heavy weight and with a rush of energy its weight settled back into his palm. He pulled the trigger, once, twice, three times, and as nothing happened realized the stupid revolver was single action. He had to manually cock it.

  Lacking a bullet to compensate for Ozzy’s human condition the rat barreled over him, trampling him and stopping to stare directly down at him. As the beast snarled Ozzy came face to face with a very un-ratlike maw. Two rows of large grimy fangs curved backwards, gleaming as the light caught dripping saliva, The sticky substance falling from one tooth to the next and hanging dangerously over his face.

  With the threat of nasty monster rat saliva hanging overhead Ozzy cocked the hammer of his new revolver and pulled the trigger.

  The resounding boom would have been more at home on a battleship and he could feel the wave of concussive force in his bones. The rat was much worse off however and it staggered to the side, only barely standing as it let out an infernal screech.

  Cocking the hammer again Ozzy lined up a much better shot. The holographic sight was basically cheating, and he dropped the crosshairs right over the screeching rats face. BOOM, the round hit the monster like a sledgehammer, caving the surrounding bits of skull and crumpling the rat like a discarded puppet.

  Getting to his feet felt a lot more like lifting a car than just standing up. Back on his feet he was assaulted by the noise of his beeping watch. He barely processed the noise before a holographic screen popped up from the watch.

  *BEEP BEEP*

  Notice

  New objective added, 2/3 starter objectives used.

  Objective: Kill the remaining Murk Rats in the area and save the besieged fishermen.

  Bonus Objective: Eliminate all remaining rats without sustaining further injuries.

  Rewards: Core, potential bonus awards.

  “What the hell man” Ozzy groaned up at the sky, “There’s more of them?? You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

  Venting his frustration on a root Ozzy continued his trudge through the swamp. This time making sure to be just a little more observant. The last thing he wanted was to get blindsided by another rat thing, not only did it hurt like hell but he wanted that bonus reward.

  As Ozzy reached the sight of the battle he slowed, doing his best to keep his splashing to a minimum. With the time it’d taken him to get there most of the fighting had already died down, the only noises left were the snarling and chittering of the giant rats.

  Brushing a low hanging willow branch out of his way he finally got a good look at the situation, and like he’d imagined it was not going well. Several strangely dressed people sat and stood on top of a massive wagon that looked like the land faring version of a riverboat, all of them variously injured and bleeding.

  The disheveled group all watched as four of the rats beneath them clawed and bit at the wagon. It was like watching ants disassemble a leaf, each rat gnawing its way slowly through what must be a pretty sturdy wagon with how long it was taking them. While the rats weren’t getting through the reinforced wood quickly, they were getting through it, and it would only be a matter of time before they managed to tear enough of the wall apart and get to the people inside.

  Honestly crazier than the situation itself however was the wagon in the middle of it all. It was at least three stories tall with two different levels and base that was the size of a small gas station. It was a good thing for it too, because without the extra size the rats would probably already be inside chowing down.

  Ozzy had always considered himself an altruist, not because of any noble cause or ideals but simply because he felt the urge to be so, he’d done bad before and just wanted to be good. Being kind and helping people out felt good and more often than not came at little cost to him. Plus when it came down to it most of the help the people around him had needed had never been anything crazy. Sure, he had to spend a day helping a friend chop wood or fix their car, but in the end it was just a day, and he had plenty of those.

  As he stared out at the rats chewing through the wagon however he felt very differently about his natural altruism. This very much had the chance to go very wrong if he tried to help. He could wait for the rats to get a little more distracted as they got closer to getting the people in the wagon but wasn’t sure how that would go. If his last run in with a rat was anything to go off of there was every chance his decision or lack thereof could result in death.

  With a heavy chomp from the largest of the rats a board snapped off of the wagon. One of the men in the wagon yelping as the massive rat reared up in an attempt to scramble up into the wagon. Its claws biting into the wood as it snarled, heaving to lift its furry bulk off of the ground.

  For a moment Ozzy thought it would get over the side, until with an ugly ripping noise the rats claws dug furrows in the wood as it slid slowly backwards, depositing the monster heavily back onto the ground.

  With a sigh, Ozzy readied his revolver.