Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

„Aster? Are you alright?" Paolo asked cautiously.

Aster has been acting weird lately. As the tank of their party, his demeanor was usually very calm and collected. But lately, he tended to become irate and mess up the party's coordination.

He would pull aggro at the wrong time, or attack hastily. More and more often he wouldn't react when they called him during battle. Marco and Paolo had been on their way to meet the others for a dungeon briefing when they spotted Aster in an alley at the coffee shop they wanted to meet at.

They came closer and the crouched-down tanker suddenly jerked his head around, looking at them with wide open, wild eyes.

"A-Aster? Is that...blood?" Marco asked insecurely.

Looking over the wide man's shoulder, Paolo spotted someone on the ground behind Aster. It was a person in a robe... Shocked he realized that it was Pia, their mage. The woman was bleeding profusely and her breathing was already very shallow.

"What have you done, Aster!?" he screamed in a panic and readied his healing magic.

"Roar!" Aster screamed in response and attempted to attack the supporter with his blood-covered hands. A bright silver shadow flashed past in Paolo's vision. With an ear-shattering howl, the hands that were about to attack him fell to the ground.

Marco had unsheathed the sanguine silver yatagan and cleaned amputated Aster's hands in one move.

"Look after Pia, I will distract Aster," they said seriously, facing their friend.

Paolo nodded and hurriedly kneeled down beside the mage to administer first aid. The woman had a deep hole in her abdomen and several broken bones. It wasn't something he could heal immediately, but he was confident to stabilize her condition.

"We have to get her to the hospital!" he informed Marco, who was busy fighting their tank.

Although he had managed to cut off his hands, Aster was surprisingly strong. Much stronger than they knew him to be. The saberman had been lucky with his surprise attack, as he was unsure how he would fare if this monster still had his hands.

He felt conflicted, about fighting a comrade they had spent a lot of time with, but this "friend" didn't give him any pause to feel guilty. At least he was focused on him, giving Paolo a chance to heal Pia.

A crowd had assembled on the street outside the alley and someone had enough common sense to call the police. There was a little commotion as the guards and an emergency healer finally arrived a couple of minutes.

"Put down your weapons and surrender," they demanded and interfered.

Marco backed away when the guard came to subdue Aster. He lowered the yatagan but didn't put it away. If Aster managed to somehow attack again he would be prepared. Seeing him back off, the officer ignored him and started subduing Aster. Despite his beastly powers, these guards made quick work of him.

When they had incapacitated Aster, Marco saw them stabbing the tank in the nape with something that looked like an EpiPen. Their former comrade immediately stopped struggling and slowly lost consciousness.

In the meantime, the emergency healer had further stabilized Pia's injury and got her out of the scene.

Paolo and Marco could only watch their two comrades being carried away. A third officer approached them for an interview.

…

"This is already the seventh time this week!" the commissioner exclaimed angrily.

"Are there no news from the investigation?" he asked the people seated at the table.

The other participants in the meeting could only lower their heads. The commissioner sighed helplessly. He couldn't blame them. Everything had changed too much, too suddenly. Not all of them had gotten classes that fit their jobs and even then, Skills were not omnipotent.

Not only counting the times skills wouldn't work or led them to false conclusions. Just getting results from skills acknowledged in court was a difficult topic.

On the other hand, skills were a great help for criminals to commit near-perfect crimes. All they had was that a new drug appeared in Delta. It spilled over from Ypsilon where it had already been a problem for several weeks, according to their colleagues over there.

Now it had also arrived in Delta and they had almost no clue about the sources. How they go into the city, how they distribute the drugs, who sold them.. they knew almost nothing except for the name and the aftermath.

They called the drug Divine Strength on the streets. At first, it allowed the user to permanently raise their physical attributes by several points. It was no different from a potion in that regard. The problem came afterward.

Divine Strength was also highly addictive and had several side effects like increased aggressiveness or paranoia. With prolonged intake, the positive effects would diminish, while the side effects would only become stronger until the user's mind finally snapped. These people would act like beasts and attack anything and anyone, unable to recognize their friends or family. At the moment, they could only sedate these people and keep them locked up under observation.

Doctors and healers had not yet found a way to help them. Even Y-City where the problem had existed for longer could only lock up the afflicted and try to find a remedy.

"I'm sorry for the interruption, but this is an urgent report." an officer hastily entered the meeting room and apologized.

He handed a piece of paper to one of the people at the table.

"What is it?" the commissioner asked, seeing the man's shocked expression after he read the report.

"Someone broke into the ward where the victims of Divine Strength were held and kidnapped them all." the man summed up the reports before handing them over to the commissioner.

"How could this happen?!" he exclaimed agitate.

The report backed the man's words.

While they had been sitting in this meeting, unknown assailants had attacked the hospital where the victims were held captive. They attacked the police officers stationed to guard them and made off with their captives in the ensuing chaos afterward.

The commissioner's faces darkened. Not only had someone kidnapped their witnesses, they were also left with three injured officers and five casualties among officers and hospital staff.

"But why? Why would anybody want to abduct these patients?" one of the inspectors asked.

"This gentlemen, is one of the questions we have to find an answer to." the commissioner answered grimly.

"We will intensify our controls. I want more officers on the street. I want the detectives will search every nook and cranny of Delta. I want answers, as soon as possible. Can I count on you?"

"Yes, Sir," they answered in unison.

"Then go and do your job. We have to keep Delta safe. "

The meeting ended abruptly and they left the meeting room.