An Unwelcome Hero - shadow slave

*How long is this nightmare? Isn't it a one and done deal? What's going on at this point?! I've been here a day off a month and I personally killed an ascended! What else am I to do? Should I go to the f"cking dream realm as an aspirant, while inside this nightmare and beat the forgotten shore? When will this end?!*

Ever since the dawn of time, there have been several universal laws. Death favours none, and Karma is a bitch with a sense of irony instead of humour. As if answering his plea, a loud horn was sounded. *Oh fuck!* And he knew exactly what the horn meant, as it had been drilled into him by Charlie multiple times.

*Enemy attack!*

Ii it was an enemy raid, then that would be okay. He has faced some before and even killed 3 enemy soldiers, during such events. That was his duty as a guard. They were normal humans, so he didn't get much of a reward from them, or any reward at all, only the confirmation, that he did indeed kill them and they were dormant.

His standing was already high, due to having the kill of an ascended assassin under his belt and being the best training partner in the entire city garrison of 1.4 thousand, so his reputation couldn't be higher. Some random skirmishes wouldn't reward him much in this simulation and neither was he that insistent on getting into random fights. And even if he did get a reward, a normal human wouldn't give anything substantial in terms of memory quality.

With the war horn sounded, he quickly climbed up a ladder onto the castle walls to get a better look and decided if he was going to take part in this one or not and his eye popped while his mind blanked and those around him pissed themselves.

Chiron finally standing still allowed him to feel what was going on, rather than just see it. The tower trembled, as did his body with each step he saw on the horizon. His fingers had long since recovered, but his left eye had long since decayed, as it had been too long before he received any medical help, so it could not be saved. This was the main wedge stopping him from being promoted or receiving watchmen training, but that made no difference to anything, as you don't need two eyes to see your demise marching at you.

An Aranai group is usually refered to a group of 5-10 people, a unit usually refers to a team of hundreds of soldiers, while a troop is usually around 1 thousand men strong.

What they saw on the horizon was an army. Not a troop or garrison, a gathering of multiple troops, an army was marching toward them. This wasn't a small amount of gathered Aranai garrisons of a couple thousand. This was a full army of tens of thousands. An army is referred to not an organized march, but a tsunami of soldiers.

It was plain and simple to all. They weren't planning a fight, they were planning a slaughter. Even if the entire fortress city's population went out to fight the incoming army, they would have to, in the best case scenario, compete in a 1 on 1. Which means every man, woman, child, soldier, noble, awakened, commanded and general would have to kill 1 enemy soldier each to avoid being massacred. Such a scenario... Would never happen!

Chiron took a cold breath, as he went into panic mode instantly *F"ck! Am I supposed to defend this city from them?! What the hell is going on? Since when are nightmares this difficult?! I've KILLED an ascended, who countered my 'build'! I've done enough!*

He held his head, as his single eye trembled *I'm a tank, a turtle, but that doesn't mean I'm f"cking EVERYBODY's meat shield! Nor does it mean I can defend against THAT! How does this ruddy spell expect me to take tens of thousands of hits and not die?! Like, WTF?!*

"Men, gather in your watchtower's training grounds!" The shout of Charlie was heard and Chiron rushed over... Rushed out of the window and fell down. Even as an awakened, he was still Charlie's underling and one who did not want to die! He stood there and waited, as Charlie nodded at him in a knowing way, with some pity in his eyes. *F"ck! I'm getting left behind, aren't I?*

The 93 people of the Charlie-Holmo tower gathered, as Charlie began his speech, while the less sociable Holmo kept watch on the tower. "Fellow brave men." *Oh No! This isn't a good sign!* thought Chiron, as soon as he heard and saw the red flag being raised.

"The enemy kingdom is invading and, to put it lightly, we can't stop them. To say it in a more frank way, we are only waiting to be slaughtered. They have an army of 27 thousand strong, as an estimate. We have 14 hundred strong warriors, but it isn't enough. We cannot win. That's all there is to it, but we can help the civilians retreat. They are slow and will take a couple hours to get here and we can stall them. A delegation was sent to slow them down with pea- "

"They're dead!" Said Holmo, with an emotionless voice, while looking at the incoming army from on top of the watchtower.

"F"ck! Guess they mean business and we have even less time, so I will cut the bullshit, Charlie. Arnold, Dolby, Charlie*Oh thank God! I thought he said Chi* and Chiron *Fuck!* Go to the general's courtyard. The rest of you, follow me!"

With no choice left, Chiron went to where he was assigned. *Why the fuck am I not running away? The nightmare is basically ordering me to kill 27 thousand people, who are all probably stronger than me. How am I supposed to do that?! I'm a fucking turtle! And being an impatient one can't save me this time! Hell, what can a burst of speed do against 27 thousand strong soldiers? Jack shit! Maybe the answer is in my other attribute? But how can a single attribute help me win this? Especially a pitfall like Overdraft? Hoarder? Maybe?! I don't f"cking know!*

Chiron pondered on his last attribute, trying to figure out what exactly it did and how he could exploit it, but no idea came to mind. The description did nothing and even the name didn't give any hints *Overdraft, what am I overdraft-ing exactly? My power? My attributes? Can I overdraft overdraft?! It says break the limit over, and over, but how and what limit? What limit is it breaking? All limits? But there are biological limits, like acceleration, energy, foo-*

He felt his brain explode, as if lightning suddenly struck him. He looked down and saw the belly fat he had a month ago gone, replaced by a decent figure and he felt enlightened.

"Holmo, sir, we need to go and meet the general faster! I think I know how we can survive this!"