Chapter 1

Hi, I’m Jillion Humphries, formerly an officer in the New York City Police Dept. You can call me Jill. Nude, I am 5’-11” tall and weigh in at 227 pounds, and all of that is muscle, except for a bit of fat where all women carry it on her chest. I am quick and I am fast. I was a sergeant teaching Krav Maga and the use of the baton to new recruits. I am an expert in most of the martial arts, and I have won prizes in contests with the sword. Anyway, that’s enough about me. Except to say that I was not married, but no virgin.

This story really starts one afternoon after work. I was walking to the subway entrance when I heard two gunshots that sounded like they came from a 9mm pistol. That was enough to trigger my instinct to contribute to my chosen profession. I immediately ran toward the sound of the shots. I was not in uniform, but was wearing a white tee-shirt and jeans. Therefore, I had nothing to make it obvious that I was a part of the Police Dept.

I did have my service automatic with me in my holster under my waist band where it was not obvious, but was easy to draw in an emergency. The gunshots had come from a pharmacy, so I figured that it had to do with a drug robbery. Without giving the matter any thought, I drew my pistol and ran through the door.

I guess that my pistol was very obvious, so I have only myself to blame. Practically the moment I ran into the pharmacy, another shot rang out and I was struck in the top of the head by a bullet. Obviously, it didn’t kill me, but it sure as hell knocked me cold. I have no idea who fired at me, whether it was a brother cop or a perp (perpetrator).

The next thing I knew, I came to lying on the floor of an obvious tavern. This sure as hell was not the pharmacy that I had been in when I was shot! The next thing I noticed was that a Black woman was leaning over me and saying something in a language that I could not understand. She shook something in front of my face that struck me as looking like a voodoo doll like those sold at Halloween. She then touched me on the forehead, and all of the pain went away.

Wow, had I just been cured of my wound by some sort of witch doctor magic? Something sure had cured me because I felt perfectly normal. Well, I was in no mood to argue with the source of the cure, I was just grateful for it and told the woman so. She smiled and helped me to stand up. That cure was so effective that I was not even woozy. Man, I could make a fortune if I could bottle it and sell it on the streets of NYC (New York City).

The Black healer said, “If you are okay now, I will leave you. I have an urgent appointment with some demons across the river.”

I figured that she was kidding about the demons, and I assumed that she was joking about them. Dammit, I was not as smart as I normally was—if there were magic to cure my wound, then there could well be demons. It would not be long before I found out the truth in that.

I looked around for my pistol, and, naturally, I could not find it. I even asked several people in the tavern about it, but nobody could (or would?) help me. Dammit, I could see the mile high stacks of paperwork I was going to have to fill out over the lost pistol. Oh, shit, it never rains but it pours!

At this point, I looked around at the furnishings of the tavern and realized how thoroughly it was decked out to resemble a tavern of the Dark Ages. Somebody had spent a lot of money on the decorating, and I wondered if it had paid off in the amount of business it drew. Well, I figured that alcohol was not such a good idea after that knock on my head, so I decided to head home. I went out the door and was stunned by what I saw.

People were walking around in armor and carrying swords, axes, clubs, and various kinds of arrow shooters. Dammit, what was going on? The bit of town that I could see was surrounded by a high wooden wall, and the few buildings I could see were in the same style as the tavern I had just left.

I was looking around in deep puzzlement when I heard somebody shout, “THEY ARE BACK AND ATTACKING AGAIN!” That precipitated a rush for the wall or for the gate through the wall. Several people with missile weapons climbed to the fighting platform running along the wall, and people with swords, clubs, and such ran for the gate. Like a damned fool, I was caught up in the excitement and ran with them.

Once I passed through the gate I was even more stunned. A variety of monsters were attacking, and the crowd of attackers looked like they were from the cast of a monster-movie. There were zombies, skeletons, and little creatures whom I assumed to be demons. The zombies were not armed with weapons, but their attacks were often fatal, anyway. The skeletons had bows, swords, axes, and clubs. The demons were armed with swords, clubs, and spears.

These damned (and I think that I used that word correctly) creatures attacked as if they did not have a care for their own lives—all they wanted to do was to kill the humans. The humans retaliated with the same order of ferocity.

Hardly had I passed through the gate before I was attacked by a skeleton armed with a sword. I had no choice, I had to fight even though I had no obvious weapon. The skeleton was not skilled with the sword, so I was able to dodge his swing and punch it with the palm of my hand under the chin with the object of lifting its head off its body. I certainly was not foolish enough to hit those bones with my fist.

There was much resistance to knocking the skeleton’s head off, but I did succeed in doing that. Well, there was no blood for me to contend with. The skeleton fell at my feet and I bent over to grab its sword. Oh, my God, there was a massive jolt of what felt like an electric shock when I grasped the sword’s pommel. I was not harmed by the shock, but I felt like I was massively invigorated. Was this more magic at work?

I had always thought that I was familiar with using the sword, but that was in a duel in a supervised contest using a rapier or an epee. Never before had I held a longsword like this one. The blade was over 40 inches long and was quite heavy, compared to an epee, yet I seemed to know exactly how to use it.

While I was about it, I grabbed the skeleton’s shield which was rather small. It resembled a large buckler. At this point, I was in no position to argue the details of the two weapons because I was attacked by two more skeletons. I managed to block the attack of one skeleton with the buckler while I made a stabbing stroke with the sword at the other skeleton.

The sword passed between the ribs of the skeleton without doing any damage that I could see, so I jerked it back. Fortunately, my work with the buckler had been sufficient to block the swing of the other skeletons sword. Okay, it was obvious that stabbing a skeleton was not the most effective way to eliminate one. I was going to have to swing at it as if I were using a club.

I prided myself on being a fast learner, so I switched my ideas on how to fight skeletons by treating the sword as a club or mace. I blocked the sword of that first skeleton again with my buckler while I took a mighty swing at the second skeleton with my sword. I’m sure my former teachers would all have cringed at least, and probably shit in their pants, when my sword came whipping around.

Damned if that was not the proper thing to do! My sword hit the second skeleton’s shield with its cutting edge and sliced completely through the shield, hardly slowing down in the process. At that same moment, two jagged rays of lightning were emitted by the sword. One went into the body of the skeleton that I struck and somehow made its whole body explode.

Likewise, the other ray of lightning hit the first skeleton, and it also exploded. Hot Damn! This was a magic sword! Okay, that was all of the encouragement that I needed. I began to wade my way through the attacking skeletons and to mow them down. Lightning was flashing all around me every time I struck a swinging blow, and I was able to eliminate more skeletons than I simply hit with my sword. I have never enjoyed a fight more than this one.

Maybe when the fight was over, I could find somebody to explain what sort of magic this sword was capable of. There was no question that the invigorating feeling and the lightning blasts was a combination that had turned me into a near superhero. I was actually looking forward to doing that again sometime.

When the fight finally ran down from lack of monsters to slay, I noticed what looked like gold coins littering the field. Other people were picking them up, so I did the same. By the time I had reached the point of not finding any more, I had collected 227 of them, and they were a problem to carry, even when I filled my pockets with them.

There was no question that I was going to have to come up with some sort of moneybelt unless I could find something better to use. That was when I spotted the Black woman witch doctor look-alike who had cured my wound about an hour previously. I rushed over to her and said, “Excuse me, I was the woman you helped about an hour ago. I am new here and very confused. Will you please take the time to explain some things to me?”

“Very well, I missed the ferry to take me across the river, so I have time for that. Let’s have a mug of ale while you ask your questions.”

We went back to the tavern where we had first met and sat at a table. A barmaid took our order, and I paid for the ale with one of the gold coins that I had picked up a few minutes previously.

I said, “My name is Jill. May I ask what your name is?”

“I have such a long and complicated name that you would tire of it fast. You can just call me Nux.

“Jill, may I examine your sword? I have never before seen one just like it with those particular runes on the blade.”

I handed Nux my sword, and she examined the runes carefully. “Jill, where did you find this sword? It has amazing properties. According to the runes, it will invigorate you whenever you wield it, and it will repair minor wounds while you are doing so. It can’t cure you if you die, but it can prevent or cure any wounds short of that.

“Furthermore, the sword is ensorceled to teach you the best way to wield it. That should be enough to make you almost unbeatable while you are using it. Finally, the sword has the magical properties of lightning. It will strike a foe with a strong charge of electricity and can emit as many as four more bolts of lightning to strike nearby enemies.

“This town is a backwater named Arillium. As long as you are near here, this sword is powerful enough to give you a lot of protection and killing power. However, the farther you travel from Arillium, the less effective the sword’s power will be, and you will eventually have to replace it with more powerful weapons.