My day was going pretty well at this point, I had already delivered twenty of my twenty-five packages and I hadn’t had one incident at all, not even a broken or cracked package. I laid back in my carrier as it flew through the sky, I decided not to turn on the main engine as of yet I really needed a break and I was pretty far ahead of schedule so I had time to take one. Also from what I had learned of the way this machine functioned these lights meant the next delivery point should be very close by, so not using the main engine wouldn’t really add that much time to my day. It would just give me a chance to rest, which was what I needed more than anything else at this point. I had been going at it nonstop all day and it was only just past midday.
The twenty-first delivery point would be coming up soon, and though it was short lived, I did get a bit of rest. The red light flashed and I got ready for the fall, I had learned that unbuckling the belts before the carrier flipped allowed me to have a much smoother fall from it. Which In turn made it much easier to get myself in position to use the carrier as a catapult.
The package fell and I was soon following after it. I landed on the ground and before I could even look up, I knew something was wrong. It was dead quiet and I didn’t see a city anywhere nearby, I looked at the notepad to find out what the recipient looked like and it just made things worst. “What? Wait, where’s the image what’s this.” The pad reads. “No recipient mark needed payment will be attached to a large tree, collect the payment, and leave the package.” “Really, have you guys head of the word setup, I mean really, come on guys gees!” I yelled out into the air.
I looked around the field where I had landed and saw a bag hanging from a tree nearby, that must be the payment or maybe it’s bate. I looked around the area again to see if I saw anyone, then I took a step towards the tree. Whoosh! An arrow flew right by my head. “I knew it.” It was a trap I turned and there was a whole group of angry looking figures standing at the tree line behind me. I sighed and held my hands out catching the package and setting it on the ground in front of me. “You know you should work on being stealthy, well actually if I were you I would work on not talking to myself so loudly.” Came the voice of what seemed to be the leader echoing across the field to me. “Well, I didn’t think that there was anyone here that could hear me, or maybe I wanted to draw you out and get this over with.” I said in reply as I walked up to the bag and pulled it from the tree.
I held the bag in my hand by its neck, holding it up for them to see. “Now before we go any further tell me whether or not the payment is in this bag.” I shook the bag and walk back towards the package. “Ha ha, that’s just filled with rocks.” He replied pulling a bag from his pocket and holding it up for me to see. “You mean this payment, why would we give it to you when we can just take what we want and keep it. You must not be very smart if you believe that.” I smiled, then switch the two bags, pushing my speed as fast as it would go so I would be back standing next to the package before my phantom image faded.
“I would like to thank you for cooperating with me today. Also for providing your payment and placing it where it was to be kept as promised.” I said with a smile as I held the package up towards them. The leader looked at me in confusion and just as I was about to take off, he realized something was wrong. He opened the bag in his hand and saw the rocks. “You switched them. What is this, some kind of magic trick? However good of a trick that was I still can’t let you leave with that money. Get him men, kill him if he won’t give up!” He screamed, then he turned the bag over dropping the rocks to the ground. “See I knew thanking you would be too nice I should have just taken the money and left you the package.” I said shaking my head, watching them come straight for me.
By the time I finished finish talking they were arrows coming at me, I knew this wasn’t going to end well for me. What made it worst was earlier when I had to move so fast that I would be back before my phantom disappeared had completely wore me out. I could still fight them off, but not with the phantom style, which would prove to be a problem for me sooner than later and when I say sooner I mean now. I dropped to the ground and rolled back and forth barely avoiding the arrows, then without warning one lucky arrow caught my shoulder. “Oh come on, I wasn’t even fighting you, that really hurts you know. I give up already just stop shouting at me already gees, arrows really hurt.” I screamed out as I tried to get to my feet, then pulled the arrow out, which hurt a lot more than I expected it to.
I stumbled to the leader of the group handing him back the bag with the money in it. Well, I may not have much energy, but I did have enough to give them a hard time until my carrier circled back around to get me. I fell forward onto the leader holding onto his clothes. “Please please show some mercy and spare my life good sir. Please find it in your heart to let a lowly delivery boy go without harming him anymore. Please please sir, I’m just trying to feed my wife and two baby girls please find mercy in your heart for their sake, so they don’t have to grow up without a father.” I said crying, sobbing and pulling at the leaders clothes.
“Get off me you piece of trash, how dare you put your disgusting hands on me.” He replied to me as he grabbed the bag back from me and kicked me to the floor. I needed to stall them for about five more minutes to get back enough strength to run. Then I would have enough strength to take what I needed and then get out of here. My plan to do this was very simple; I would grab the bag that was filled with the money then I would just vanish.
The pad I carried had a small button on it that would signal my carrier to return for me, once it was pushed it would take about a minute and a half for the carrier to be above me. Which means I just had to stall them for about three minutes. Then I would push the button, and do whatever I could to avoid using the Phantom style until the carrier was above my head. But that in itself seemed like a nearly impossible task, their leader already wanted to kill me so I had no clue what I would be able to do to in order to keep them from just killing me and leaving right .
Well, there was only one thing I could do and that was taking something they wanted, which was either the money or the package. Seeing that he was currently holding the money in his hand, I figured I would take the package. I pulled myself up on his jacket again, but this time when he went to kick me away, I moved launching forward at the package. I grabbed it and rolling with it to my feet, then I started to run as fast as I could. They came running after me, trying to hit me with arrows and whatever else they had in their hands. “You fools what are you doing. He has the package in his hands if you keep this up you’re going to damage it.” I heard their leader yelling from behind me.
The arrow stop zooming by my head soon after, then I did something I probably shouldn’t have. I turned to see how far away they were from me and realizing they were a lot closer than I expected, I tried to run a little bit faster without actually looking where I was going so I could just focus on running.
Just like everything else that seems like a dumb idea at the moment you think of doing it, it turned out to be a dumb idea seconds later as I tripped and fell to the ground with the package in my hand. “Seriously, what is wrong with me, did I really just trip over my own feet, like seriously how did that even happen.” I said to myself as I flipped over to get to my feet.
By the time I was ready to run again, they had caught up to me and soon after surrounded me. At this point, I had nowhere to go; running was no longer a choice I had. It was time I stood and fought to protect the package. “Okay. Let’s be civilized, shall we. I don’t want to get into a messy blowout battle, and I’m sure none of you do either. I mean, come on, nobody wants to get hurt today.” I said with an optimistic smile, holding the package in my hand. I was still hoping they would let me go with the package, or give me the money for it and let me go. Either way I just wanted to get out of this place and avoid a fight. I really didn’t want to die today on my first day actually delivering serious packages. Well, not so much die, but I didn’t want to lose a package on my first day.
“Well, you are right about one thing we don’t want to get hurt. But you’re wrong about the battle we do want to fight you.” Their leader said with a smirk on his face. At this point I knew things were going to go bad there leader drew a sword from his side, and they all follow doing the same. Now, it was at this point that I realized my serious disadvantage. I had no weapons whatsoever. Though if I had one I couldn’t use it very well, I had some training as a child on how to use a sword but I didn’t pay it much attention. I looked around as they slowly walked towards me with their swords drawn. Then realized something, the package I was carrying was probably holding a weapon or shield of some kind.
I dropped the box on the ground and punched the top breaking it open. In it was a small circle; I quickly grabbed it and pulled it out to see what exactly it was. On the back, it had a handle just like a shield handle. I grabbed the handle and looked at the front; it looks just like a shield but much smaller. It was a shield though I didn’t really get what it could shield being the size of my fist. However, it was all I had and I was going to use it, I held it in my hand and ran straight for the leader. In my mind, I was thinking it may not be a very big shield, but it would be large enough to block a sword. Maybe that’s why it’s this size maybe it’s only intended to block a sword while you’re fighting, it would make it much easier to move around being this size over a normal sized shield. It would make sense a large shield in a sword fight most of the time ends up being the disadvantage to the person with the shield. They are always so heavy and bulky and they block your vision.
I may not have a sword to attack with, but I’m sure that the shield would hurt if I punch them in the face with it. I ran up to the leader and he swung his sword at me, and this is when it got interesting. His sword came down and impacted the shield, the shield absorbs the entire blow as it pushed closer to my hand. Then something I didn’t expect happened the shield extended in an instant it went from being just a little bigger than the palm of my hand to a full-size shield covering most of my body. I quickly pushed back with the shield, sending him flying, and then the shield did something else I didn’t expect, it retracted back to it’s original size.
I could work with this I thought. Even though I didn’t quite understand how the shield worked, I knew every time it was hit it extended, and once they were pushed off, it retracted back. After about two minutes of fighting with it, I started to understand how it actually worked. The back of the shield where I held it had a small latch that I could push down to extend the shield, and once it was released, the shield would retract. Learning this little fact made fighting much easier, now I would swing my fist straight for them and extend the shield at the last possible second, allowing me to hit them full force with the full front of the fully extended shield. Something that couldn’t be done with a normal shield because of how heavy it would be to swing, and how much air resistance it would have while swinging it.
I was able to keep them at bay for a few minutes, even though I couldn’t use any of the Phantom style. Turns out that I can’t actually fight without it, which I’m assuming would be a problem from how today is going. Especially seeing that I still had three more packages deliver.
I got the leader in my sights and I launched at him. Extending the shield at the last second and pinning him to the ground. I could hear my carrier coming closer and closer, all I had to do now was get the payment off him and get away from him. I looked up and my carrier was just insight coming towards me, I released the button on the back of the shield. It retracted and as it did I let it go, grabbing the bag with the payment off his waist. The shield spun around and flipped into the air, and before he could do anything, I was gone with the payment in hand.
I dropped back inside of the carrier sighing in pain, my hand was covered in the blood from my shoulder all the way down to my fingers. I pulled one of the straps off and wrapped it around my shoulder to stop the bleeding. I sat looking at the switch for the main engines, I reach for it and then stopped. I really needed to rest now, before I would be able to do the next delivery. my hand dropped back down and I laid back, I was going to leave the main engines off for now.
Luckily, the last three deliveries were just regular packages, and they also weren’t that far apart from each other so I didn’t actually have to turn the main engines on until I finished that last one. I switched it on and fell asleep right after as the autopilot took over and headed back to the city.
I finally got back to the city. I was barely able to get out of the carrier. Everyone ran to me to see what was wrong, I climbed out of the carrier and fell to the ground. “I really hate you guys.” I said then I passed out from the loss of blood.
Continues in Chapter 15 or go to previous Chapter 13
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