Chapter 2 - A New Start

"Is that what people see when they are dead drunk?" Ryan asked himself, trying to understand what the hell was going on. "If that is the case, I can see the appeal…"

It looked like Ryan was daydreaming and speaking nonsense. The ground under him was trembling, and he could hear the sound of trees falling in the distance, but he still could bring himself to ask what was really happening. Rather, he didn't know if he could understand it.

It looked the whole Earth was trembling and didn't have the intention of stopping it anytime soon. To make matters worse, several copies of different colors of that thing appeared in the sky and began to fall like meteors. Ryan didn't want to admit it, but they looked quite similar to the western dragons he saw in countless movies, games, and comic books.

"I had planned to watch some movies for a few days, but this is much better…" Ryan said.

Ryan was fully aware that he couldn't let those creatures see him, but luckily, they were all flying in the same direction, and it was on the opposite of the place where he was… they were flying to Shreveport. They probably wouldn't go there to make some friends, so Ryan grabbed his cellphone to call the police.

"No reception… Still, can the police do something about them?" Ryan frowned.

Although Ryan left his old life behind because of the recent events, he didn't want to see the town where he grew up burning down. Unfortunately, he already could see a lot of smoke in the direction where Shreveport was supposed to be, and the dragons didn't even arrive there.

Ryan could see some residences in the distance, and despite the fact that the area was still trembling and trees were constantly falling, those houses seemed fine. For some unexpected reason, the dragons were heading to a highly-populated area and ignoring all the other areas on their way. That was very suspicious and worrisome, but such worries disappeared from Ryan's mind when he felt the mountain trembling even more for a while to the point where he imagined the whole place would split in half… However, after five seconds, the earthquake stopped.

"Just what the hell is going on…" Ryan muttered after he got up. "I wanted to start a new life here, but not like this…"

In any case, Ryan didn't know what was going to happen now. How could he? Some crazy shit was happening for an unknown reason that someone like him couldn't even begin to imagine as to why everything was happening. Still, he knew one thing… he was living at the top of a mountain, and his house eventually would become a target to those massive creatures that could fly despite their massive size and weight. Ryan's father taught him many things when he was a teenager. Just like him, he wasn't a bright kid. However, he learned a lot when he served in the army. One of the first things his father taught him as if something unexpected happens, he had to try to understand what was going on or why. If that wasn't possible, he had to leave and move away from the center of the problem. Otherwise, things could get worse if he gets involved.

"Fortunately, I didn't have time to unpack…" Ryan said to himself. "But what should I do now? Where should I go?"

If dragons were flying toward highly populated areas, then he had to go in the opposite direction. That was the only thing he could do. Hiding in some underground shelters probably wouldn't be a good idea if earthquakes like that happen again.

"There is strength in numbers. Father taught me that," Ryan muttered while he was walking toward his car. "But I wonder how much of that can be applied when dragons are also part of the equation…"

Ryan's main reason to move to the mountain was to move away from society and then forget about Mia and Daniel, but it looked like if he wanted to survive, he would have to join a group of people. Maybe he was thinking too fast and too ahead in the future, but he couldn't help it since his father's words were echoing in Ryan's head.

When Ryan returned to his car, the first thing he saw was a box… that was something that his father gave him on his eighteenth birthday. Ryan opened and saw a composite bow that his father used when he was young. There was also a quiver fully loaded with arrows that his father used to hunt.

"I will make good use of it, father," Ryan said while he touched the bow.

Ryan didn't know if that bow would help him in any way, but if something happens, it was the sole thing that he did have that he could even scratch dragons… he didn't know if he actually could, but at the very least, he would try. Ryan felt like laughing that he would leave his new home before even spending a single night there, but it wasn't time to laugh. If anything, it was time to cower in fear now that he could see dragons flying in the sky.

"I can't lose my cool," Ryan muttered. "No matter what happens, I have to keep focused on what… is… important…"

The moment Ryan finally calmed down, he noticed something odd in the corner of his vision. There were three lines there… one red, one blue, and one green. He focused his eyes there, and then those lines became more prominent, revealing what those were…

HEALTH: 10/10

MANA: 10/10

STAMINA: 10/10

Ryan blinked several times, he even tried to clean his eyes in order to confirm that there was nothing weird there, but that screen didn't disappear. Ryan was fully aware of what that was, but he didn't want to admit it. Instead of believing that he could see a HUD bar, Ryan could accept more easily than he had gone mad after losing his parents and being betrayed by his best friend and fiancee