Open Buffet's western shores were usually under a dense blanket of stove smoke and toxic fog during the noon hours. However, today, the sounds of work tools and creaking wood dominated, breaking the silence and gloom of the beach. Unlike the town's makeshift structures, a massive skeleton pushing the boundaries of modern engineering was rising here. It was a shipbuilding project trying to imitate Holyland's magnificent steel beasts but carrying the rusty soul of Rivaril.
Below, an army of workers looking like a colony of nine thousand ants was rushing to and fro in a deadly hurry. The appearance of Holyland ships on the horizon when winter ended meant the absolute end for all of them. This fear made even the heaviest logs feel as light as feathers, whipping their tired bodies into action.
Fifteen meters above the ground, two silhouettes stood in the watchtower, open on all four sides, where the howling of the wind never ceased.
Firel stood with his hands clasped behind his back, watching the hope taking shape below from above. His thick black hair waved like a wild flag in the harsh wind that sought to freeze his face.
"You managed to bring all the engineers together and create order within this chaos, Nedim," Firel said. His voice came out clear and full despite the wind.
Nedim wrapped himself tighter in his coat, shivering from both the cold and the pressure Firel radiated. "Thank you, boss. But if Hakan hadn't looted those materials from the other islands..." He swallowed, looking at the massive keel below. "We would have given up hope long ago."
Firel nodded slightly. Nedim continued speaking, as if trying to dissipate the tension: "I am not a soldier, boss, you know that. Battlefields, the smell of blood... Those aren't for me at all. I wasn't exiled here for gutting someone anyway."
Firel laughed lightly with that humiliating curl at the corner of his lips. "You embezzled money from the state coffers, if I remember correctly? What kind of idiot tries to steal from the state? Even our Carlos would think twice before doing that."
Nedim bowed his head, not out of shame, but fear. "You are right, sir."
"I reviewed Hakan's reports," Firel said, not taking his eyes off the horizon. "Our materials are not as plentiful as we thought to finish that ship, Nedim."
"If we push it... Maybe we can scale it down a bit and produce a medium-sized ship, boss. It won't be comfortable, but I'm sure it will get us to the mainland."
Firel finally turned his head. When he fixed his pitch-black eyes on Nedim, the man's breath caught in his throat.
"The problem isn't reaching the mainland, Nedim. The problem is deciding who gets on that ship."
Nedim stammered in confusion. "L-Logically... Shouldn't we choose the best warriors, Hakan's elites, and the skilled workers needed to sail the ship?"
Firel let out a weary breath as if dealing with a slow-witted child. "You still don't understand. The Holyland isn't organizing a tourist trip here. They are coming to wipe the island off the map, to leave no stone standing upon another."
He pointed to the swarm of ants below, the town, and the forest. "What do you think twenty-one thousand people will do when they realize they can't get on that ship, their only chance of salvation? Will they just sit and wait for death? Moreover, there are intelligent and wild monsters in the forest whose numbers we don't even know yet. The moment they catch the scent of the ship, we will have to fight them before the Holyland even arrives."
The blood drained from Nedim's face. "I... I hadn't thought about that part at all."
"Relax. Thinking about that isn't your job; your job is to build." Firel turned around. "That ship will be launched before winter ends, Nedim. Do whatever it takes; I give you permission."
He headed for the tower stairs. "I have business to attend to in town. I'll come back to inspect later."
He stepped onto the creaking wooden stairs with his heavy boots and started walking toward the forest. He had only taken a few steps when he suddenly paused, as if hitting an invisible wall. His back tensed. He tilted his head slightly to the side, as if someone were whispering in his ear.
Suddenly, he turned around and roared at Nedim, who was standing alone in the tower: "I SAID I JUST WANT TO BE ALONE, NEDİM!"
Nedim jumped where he stood. His heart was beating as if it would burst out of his chest. "B-Boss? I... I didn't even open my mouth?"
Firel didn't answer. As if he weren't there at that moment, he gathered the anger he had hurled into the void and plunged into the darkness of the trees.
Hours had passed. Firel was trudging through dense snow that came up to his calves, sucking him in like a swamp. The deafening silence deep in the forest was broken only by his own breathing. Finally, he stopped in a wide clearing where the trees thinned out.
He sniffed the air. The disgusting smell of rust and rotting meat had hit his nose.
"Come on out," he said with icy calm. "Let's do some training."
As soon as his words ended, the shadows of the snow-covered trees moved. Soldiers of the Kakiru race, their ash-white skin camouflaged by the snow and their eyes shining with hunger, emerged like ghosts.
Among them, a male Kakiru, larger than the others and holding a brighter, notched sword, stepped forward. The steam coming from his mouth mixed with his words. "Human die... Ship belongs to us, we agreed."
Firel cracked his shoulders, ignoring the circle of death formed by 54 figures surrounding him. "It's always good to do warm-up exercises before a battle..." he muttered. As if doing his morning workout, he stretched his arms and legs, sizing up the creatures facing him like punching bags.
With a raspy scream, the Kakiru leader gave the order to attack.
Firel took a deep breath. With one hand, he grasped the massive war hammer on his back, its handle covered in tough snakeskin and weighing 135 kilos. The weapon, defying gravity with its weight, lifted into the air like a toy in Firel's hand.
He caught the first Kakiru jumping at him in mid-air with his free right hand, without even using the hammer. His fingers locked around the creature's throat like a vice. "You guys are truly the most pathetic monsters of Rivaril. Huge disappointment..."
He squeezed his hand slightly. A wet crushing sound was heard. The Kakiru's throat was shattered, its neck severed from its torso. As its body fell onto the snow like a lifeless sack, dark blue, viscous blood trickled down Firel's glove from the creature's severed head.
He looked at the 53 soldiers running toward him screaming as if looking at the leftovers of a finished meal. He threw the severed head in his hand into the air. When the head reached its peak, he swung his 135-kilo hammer with tremendous speed.
The sound produced when the metal of the hammer hit the head resembled a cannon blast. A cloud of blue blood sprayed into the air. The launched head cut through the air like a cannonball, embedding itself in the chest of another Kakiru behind, collapsing its rib cage inward and exiting through its back.
Chaos had begun. The Kakiru attacked with a disorganized but savage appetite, like a pack of hungry dogs. But facing them was not a man of flesh and blood, but a natural disaster. Firel was spinning like a tornado with his massive 2.30-meter frame. Every time the hammer in his right hand descended, it shook the ground; whomever his left fist touched had their bones pulverized.
In the midst of the mayhem, the Kakiru leader found an opening. Sliding under the hammer Firel swung, he plunged his rusty sword into Firel's calf.
A sharp pain exploded in Firel's nerve endings. But on his face, rather than pain, a sly realization appeared. The reaction of the ground... The feeling under his feet...
He hadn't noticed because of the snow piled on top, but the place he was standing on wasn't soil; it was a frozen lake.
His lips curled cruelly. "So, you want to swim..."
He gathered all his strength in his arms, his muscles tensing like ropes. He raised the massive hammer into the air and brought it down with all his hatred right at his feet, onto the icy ground.
The resulting boom echoed through the forest.
The blow created an earthquake effect. The thick layer of ice cracked like a spider web and shattered with a terrifying noise. The massive rift created by the broken ice began to swallow everything on it like the mouth of a hungry monster. As the Kakiru lost their balance and fell into the freezing water screaming, some tried to hold on to Firel in a last hope.
But gravity and the ice-cold water took no sides. With their leader jumping on him as well, everyone, including Firel, was pulled down into the depths of that dark and freezing lake.