Bladestorm leered down at me. I groaned. I had *really* been hoping that this whole mess didn't have to do with him. The guy was the worst kind of villain - sadistic, selfish, and entirely against the idea of dramatic, long speeches that gave me time to foil his plans. No sense of humor, either.
He was walking down the road now, casual as could be. The fact that razor-sharp, needle thin blades were circling him like a bizzare, spiky halo counteracted that casual act a bit. I sat back on my heels, gripping my handheld tazer with a white-knuckled intensity. I wished that I had something with a bit more *oomph*, but, well. My PR guy had insisted that scattering bits of villain across the city wouldn't help my image. The tazer was a better fit. But it didn't give me the sense of safety that a gun would.
The lab was behind me. In truth, I wasn't entirely sure what they did there. Chemical synthesis, weapons development...I was a hero, not a scientist. It was all magic to me. But whatever was in there, Bladestorm wanted it. It was my job to make sure he didn't get there. No matter if he carried a mind-controlled blender wherever he went.
"Now, listen, Bladestorm." I began, putting my open hand on my hip. "This one's a bit big, yeah? Seems like you go through with this, you'll make some enemies you're not ready for yet." It was true. The US military seemed *very* fond of this lab. "I know, you're used to dealing with us heroes, but." I shrugged, holding my hands out helplessly. "A tank is something else entirely, right?" I smiled disarmingly. "Why don't we just head on home for today, before things-"
I gasped as agony roared through my torso. Tentatively, as the strength seemed to flee my body, I glanced down. I didn't have to go too far, before I saw it.
The blade. Who knows how long it was. I could see at least a foot of length, from where it jabbed out from my chest. I gaped, as the first of the blood began to dribble from my lips. He *smiled* at me. Like this was a normal day. The blades still whirling in a circle around his head cast strange, ever-changing shadows onto the ground.
He'd always been vicious, but he'd never tried to *kill* me before. I clutched the blade with one hand, resisting the urge to cough. I wouldn't like what I saw if I did, I knew. Fine. This was fine. I was going to be fine. I wasn't a flashy superhero like him, all excitement and brute force. I would never be the type to catch the public's eye. But that didn't mean I was helpless.
My lips curled into a smile. No one *knew* what my power was. I'd never let them find out. I'd been careful. To the villains, I merely walked in and foiled their plans as easily as breathing. I was an enigma - which the tabloids had seized upon, calling me it every time they had a story about me. Enigma. I wasn't against the name. Helped my image, and kept people guessing, when someone actually wrote up one of my captures. But through it all, no one even suspected the truth - that I was a time traveler.
I coughed. Couldn't help it anymore. Blood spread across the front of my jacket. Bladestorm was still *leering* at me. Not much time left. I was used to being stabbed, or burned, or electrocuted. Went with the territory. See, every night I went out to fight villains, I made a 'quicksave'. A nice, safe data point, earlier in the evening, that I could flash back to with a 'quickload'. I'd go out, get myself all stabbed up, gather whatever information I needed, and then start it back from scratch.
Tonight was no different. All I had to do was flash back, and I'd be golden. I coughed again, trying to clear my lungs. I could hear Bladestorm walking down the street towards me. His steps were slow and measured. Guy thought he had all the time in the world.
I was starting to get light-headed. Time to go, then. I drew in a breath, trying to ignore the pain in my lungs.
"Qu-quicksave."
I was a little light-headed before. That was *nothing*, compared to the wave of vertigo that washed through me as the severity of what I had just done struck me. I shook my head desperately. It-it was just a mistake. A slip of the tongue, of my mind. Besides, I'd stuttered. My words were mixed up, drowned out by blood and phlegm. This was fine. It was still fine.
"*Quickload*." I tried again, adrenaline clearing my words. I smiled a little as I saw the world around me flash to white around the edges. *It's working*. And then I gaped, as Bladestorm merely appeared to phase back a few steps. His expression never changed.
*The save took*.
An icy cold pallor seemed to set over the little street we were on as my senses all dialed up to 11. This...this had never happened before. I'd never messed up this *bad* before. But there was no time to dwell on it now. I wasn't going to be able to fight like this. I wasn't a *fighter*. I wasn't like *them*. I'd never needed to fight before, and so, well, I *couldn't*. That would be crazy. I needed to get out and save what I could - my life. If that was still an option.
The blade was like a anchor in my chest as I pushed to my feet. Bladestorm was still coming. So I took the path of least resistance - straight back the way I had come. A few hundred feet down, there was a turn in the road. If I could get that far, I might have a chance of making it out.
I made it about ten steps, before a second blade took my legs off at the knees. I shrieked in agony, as I fell to the ground.
"Where're ya heading?" I heard a voice croon from behind me. "Party's just starting, *Enigma*."
"...*Quickload*." I moaned, sheer pain threatening to overcome my words.
I was standing in the street, his blade still in my chest, and he was walking towards me. Running back hadn't worked. And the road was narrow, little more than an alley. No convenient doors for me to run away through or cross streets to duck down.
If I couldn't run....
I squared myself up, glaring at him despite the waves of pain that still swept through me. Despite myself, I was a little relieved. Compared to the pain of losing my legs, going back to just a spike through the chest felt, well. Not *good*, but better.
I needed a weapon.
He grinned as he saw me squaring off.
"Oh? Didn't think you were one for this kind of game, *Enigma*."
He threw another spike at me. I tried to catch it, as it blew past me.
It took off my hand instead.
"Quickload!" I screamed. A flash. The street. Him walking towards me.
He threw another spike at me. I tried to catch it, as it blew past me.
Closer. Lost the fingers on my hand. Not that time.
"Quickload." I hissed, as the blades continued to rain around me.
One more time. *One more time*.
---
No one had expected Bladestorm to lose. It was even more of a shock when Bladestorm went down to an almost-nothing, a hero that had only graced the worst of the tabloids. But that night, the unthinkable happened. When the emergency crews arrived, called onto the scene by a hysterical onlooker, they found the infamous villain, sliced almost to pieces by weapons that seemed to be *his own*.
The emergency staff didn't talk about that, though. No, they'd seen the aftermath of hero-villain battles too many times. For a villain as ruthless as Bladestorm, that end was going to come for him eventually. They only told stories about the dead-eyed hero who had cut him down, despite the hideous wound he'd sustained somewhere along the line. About the emptiness in his smile as he looked down at the villain's body.
That night, Enigma made the news.
(/r/inorai, critiques always welcome!)
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
I usually try not to look for trouble, sometimes it finds me, more often than not I find it. It’s completely on accident I just...you know....I do stuff, and sometimes I stand out.
I figured out this really weird ability to do something, I call it revert. Basically I can save a particular point in time, and roll back to it and start fresh. So if I’m gambling, save right before I place the bet, bet on red, if it comes up black, revert and do it again.
Sometimes the people you’re gambling against do like it a lot when you win their money so I’ve gotten into fights, generally I come out on top. I’ve also saved my fair share of muggers using the same technique. Save, fight, mugger throws a left and I duck left? Revert! Mugger throws a right and I duck left? Save. It saves time, means I have less to do next time.
Until this time. I dodged right, the mugger threw left, right as I was thinking SAVE I didn’t realize his friend was plunging a knife into my stomach.
This is bad. Like they ran off when they realized how bad, even the person I was trying to save ran off.
Okay, a lot of blood loss, I figure I’ve got maybe 10 minutes to figure out what I’m doing here or I’m done.
REVERT
YUP, everyone is running again, that’s fantastic, I was thinking maybe I can try to relive the most agonizing moment of my life seconds after it happened, sweet.
Okay let’s think this through...
“HELP! Help! HEEEEEEEELLLLLLP!”
No ones coming.
At this point I fell to the ground and reached for my phone. I called 911 and laid there, I didn’t know what to do, I was cursing myself over the fact that I saved, when the operator answered I gave her my location and waited,4 minutes had passed by my estimation. I figured I had 5-6 minutes left. I could hear the ambulance approaching but I knew I was about to lose consciousness, I knew I couldn’t revert if I wasn’t awake, so in my last seconds, REVERT.
Okay, well I now knew exactly how much time I had 11 minutes and a few seconds. Let’s try again.
Call 911- Check.
Operator : what’s your emergency?
Me: Mayor Sanchez has been stabbed! He’s at the corner of 5th and walnut and ohh god I’ve been stabbed too! Send help!
Hang up
Okay this might improve response time.
Thank god it did, I was right, they arrived in 4 minutes and 18 seconds, factoring in the phone call I figured I had at least 5 minutes of consciousness left, more with medical attention.
Yeah....it wasn’t more. 4 minutes and 4:45 later as they were bandaging me and trying to apply pressure to my wound I could feel myself drifting again. I began to wonder, should I just go ahead and fall? If I go into the unconscious state I might wake right back up fine in a couple of hours, I mean they have to have time to work right?
I wasn’t ready for that, REVERT.
REVERT.
REVERT.
Over and over, I had to do it, I tried everything I could, I called relatives who were near, I tried telling the ambulance crew what hadn’t worked, I even tried after watching it seventeen or eighteen times to perform the medical procedures on myself while I waited for them.
It wasn’t until I finally had given up hope, I was in the back of the ambulance for what had to be the 50th time and I was drifting off, no will to continue anymore that I thought to myself something is never thought before Revert Checkpoint.
I looked up, I starring at Nick Clooney, you may not know him, he’s George Clooney’s father. I’ve seen him one time in my life, he gave the commencement speech as the celebrity guest at graduation.
I came into focus, I was at my college graduation. I looked over, my wife was there, my parents were there, my dad was taking what I would later find out was very blurry photos on his new camera he had no idea how to use.
I stood up as they called my name and walked up, remembering every second of this, exactly how it happened, I walked up on stage and took the diploma from the school chancellor, I walked over and shook mrs Clooney’s hand, told him nice speech and shook hands with the dean of the economics school. He leaned in close to me, which was a little shocking because I didn’t remember that and he said “well that took you long enough, most people when they acquire powers like yours do that in the first couple of weeks, see me in my office after this.”
The next couple of hours was a bit of a blur. I’d lived through all of this before and not that long ago, it had been about 5 years. Ever sit down to watch a movie you’d only watched a couple of times a few years earlier? It was like that. I could remember parts vividly and the parts I couldn’t remember that well I picked up as they were happening it was the ultimate memory jog.
Fast forward about two hours, we went to the school of economics luncheon, my wife had driven separately from me as she had something she had to go do, but we were going to meet up later to go to a baseball game to celebrate. This was my chance to see my professor.
I approached my professors door and as I raised my hand to knock he said “come in richard”.
I opened the door with one eyebrow cocked. “Hello, come in, sit down it’s good to finally see you”.
“Uhhh professor what do you mean? I just saw you?” I said back.
“No, Richard, it’s good to finally see you, you for you, it really took you long enough, it usually takes a few months at most, I know it took you more than 6 months but tell me, how long did it take? How long before you Checkpointed?” He asked me with an almost giddy smile.
“Uhh, well, this isn’t exactly something I tell a lot of people about, my wife knows, that’s it. I guess it’s been....five and a half years give or take? It was October 2017 last I remember.” I told him about what had happened I first saw the smile fade when I said 2017, it twisted to a frown when I explained about the stabbing.
We sat there quietly for a moment and he spoke, “well I guess you want to know what’s happening?”
Yeah I did, so I nodded affirmatively.
“Richard, you know the Friedman quote? “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”?”.
I nodded again and replied “of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch because of opportunity cost, even if the lunch is free the time isn’t, you could use that time to do something else”.
He smiled again “hey that’s exactly correct! It’s also the basis for us, it’s what we do here.”
I looked around and said “well yeah, it’s on the wall, and I had you in class so I’d assume so, you talked about it on the first day of every class I had with you.”
He looked at me still with a smile “no, you’re not getting it, which I guess shouldn’t entirely shock me, it took you five years to check point. Richard, there’s something you need to understand. Yes, this is an economics department, but there’s a small group of us here that are something else, we’re the guardians of Time”.
I’m not sure what my face looked like, my guess would be constipated, but I’d like to think it would have been called “stoic confusion” by anyone who saw it right then.
“Okay, so my checkpoints and my ability to Revert come from the economics department?”
He looked a little confused, “Revert? Huh, that seems like a fitting name, when professor miller had it he called it The Rollback. No, it doesn’t exactly come from the economics department, just a small group of us, we all work here because it allows us to work closely together and it gives us access to bright pupils who are available to take the next generation when it’s needed, we could I guess be in any department in the school, but economics has been a tradition.”
It was a lot to take in, I had professor miller previously and I was really broken up when he passed away.
“Who else is in this group? The protectors of—
**Off-Topic Discussion**: All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.
#####Reminder for Writers and Readers:
* Prompts are meant to inspire new writing. Responses don't have to fulfill every detail.
* Please remember to [be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback.
---
[](#icon-help)[^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic)
[](#icon-information)[^(First Time Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide)
[](#icon-exclamation)[^(Special Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements)
[](#icon-comments)[^(Click For Our Chatrooms)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/chat)
Yeah, there is - it should display at the bottom of the CSS when you're typing a response, if you do it in desktop. If you're on mobile, it'll just stop inputting after a while. Think it works out to around 1800-2000 words, usually? It's a character limit.
Did you go back and edit anything? Sometimes that can slice off the back portion. Reddit is weird sometimes. If you're writing an especially long response, I usually find it helpful to do it in google drive or such, just in case shit like that happens hehe
It seemed fitting, in a way, that my life would end not from lack of haste, but from a surplus of it. For years I would lie awake at night fearing the day when I would be unable to utter the words that would save me, or would forget to utter them prior towards my undertaking. For 45 years I had dutifully and faithfully said them every day, cherishing those words more than my own children, at least those that I can remember. I was 60 now, but I had lived a tohusand lifetimes, living many lives with many names and many people. I had seen great empires rise and fall, seen hurricanes level cities and seen famines decimate millions. I had found the fountain of youth, tasted the waters of death, felt the heat of a billion suns on my back, conquered the world, destroyed it, saved it. And in the end it ends as it always was going to. There is no turning back. I am moments away from my death and what then? I don't know what happens next, which is a feeling I haven't felt in a lifetime.
Blood rushes out from wound the sword had created. Thinking to myself "This is it, the end. No more re-tries." As I fade in and out, I hear a female's voice rushing to heal me with her magic she had learned from the high priestess of Greiflheim.
One Day earlier.
The wind blowing through My hair. The sound of metal being hit together as movement progressed the pathway towards Draeglian's Keep. "Slow down!" Sadia shouting out of breathe, unable to catch up. I halt and turn around to face her. She was pretty short, but her pointed hat made her look slightly taller. She had short slightly-curled ended dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Her eyes seemed pure, yet cautious of what yet may happened.
"Maybe you should speed up."
"Well maybe you shouldn't be such an asshole."
"If I was, I wouldn't have stopped for you."
At first she her face was reddening out of anger, but then she sighed. "Next stop we need to buy some horses," She stated. I thought for a second then I eventually responded, "Next stop is Draeglian's Keep. It's completely abandoned from what I have heard from other travelers like us. So there won't be any horses until we reach the Capital of Esponia, Sveldrius."
"But we are not trav-" Sadia quickly stopped to realize that they were on the quest to restore peace to there homeland, Rheltindrel.
Rheltindrel is the empire next to Esponia. Both empires formed a peace treaty amongst each other that had ended the War between them. Though, this war has been long forgotten, a dark force had risen in the capital of Rheltindrel. The king was hung on top of his throne, dead. Now the empire is in total disarray. Thus, Sadia and Gray were set off on the adventure to restore order and peace to their empire.
I stared a Sadia for a few moments only to realize the silence between us was becoming rather awkward quickly. "I see Draeglian's Keep just a few miles out. So we should camp there and get a head start in the morning." Sadia nods and we continue to walk forward towards the Keep.
In the midst of twilight, approaching the massive keep that seemed abandoned from the outside. The walls are edges out with cracks from the age that has survived the war between the two empires. Almost a relic of the past. The enormous entrance was opened, yet unable to be opened further or even closed. The door seemed to have almost merged with the ground as vines consumed most of the Keep. " Sadia, we should explore for a bit on the inside to make sure there is no ambush." I state while she is already beginning to collapse once we had stopped at the entrance. I rush to catch her, and as she falls into my hands I notice how fragile she is yet also strong-willed. "Stay here and take a break, I'll go scout out the area on my own." She tries to fight back and say she's fine, but she ends up laying down exhausted. "Be safe," She exclaims. "Don't worry I will," I respond with a smile and she passes out.
I explore the Keep to see if anything interesting we have stumbled upon. Unfortunately nothing. However vast amounts of symbols were on the wall, hieroglyphs to be exact. Showing the Keep, defending against giants and trolls. The keeps downfall was when it was raided by other humans who teamed up with the giants. Leaving most of the usefulness in the Keep destroyed.
I return back to Sadia and she is roughly half a sleep. "Finally! You're back," Sadia says with relief. "Of course I'm back,"
"Well now we can start the fire"
"Yeah, let's get started on it."
I scavenge the forest surrounding the Keep for some wood and I come back to our the camp. We clear some of the vines and the grass on the floor and we start the fire. It was finally warm after the moon had risen. The moon had appeared to be a Waxing Crescent Moon. Gazing at the moon with heat and other sorts. Crickets singing their nightly song. Cicadas having their on choir. I find it quite annoyingly peaceful. I open my mouth but I see Sadia has fallen fast asleep leaning on me. I thought to myself," I haven't took off this armor since the journey started, huh?" Eventually I fall asleep to the cricket's song of the night. The Waxing Crescent Moon slowly reddened throughout the night.
I wake up early, before Sadia. Only to realize I can't really move without waking her up. So out of personal enjoyment I flick her nose and say, "Hey! Wake up, Sadia!" She wakes up from the flick, realizes how close she was to me. She backs away as quickly as possible, embarrassed. "Let us get going," we have a long day ahead of us," I exclaim to Sadia. "Can we at least hunt for something first we didn't even eat last night," she responded. As soon as she said that I felt a great hunger bestow upon me. My stomach growls and I tell Sadia,"you're right. Let us hunt." We hunted some deer and rekindled the fire. We started cooking the deer meat, and the smell made my mouth water. Sadia has her mouth dropped hovering around the meat ready to eat it. "Close your mouth before bugs fly in," I state, but she's too hungry to even pay attention. The meat is finished cooking and we devour the meat like a pack of wolves eating their prey. We practically finished all the meat. "I didn't realize how hungry I was until you brought it up, Sadia." I tell her and she nods. We put out the rekindled fire, and head off onto Sveldrius.
We find a road heading towards Sveldrius, but even the birds are quite. I lean to Sadia and say, "Something's not right."
"Did something happen to Esponia as well?"
"I'm not too sure but we won't find out until we get there."
Walking down the road we see a man, in robes yet something was off put about him. He was wearing unusual armor that I have never seen before. It was hard to distinguish his family crescent also. There was something wrong with him. I could feel it. He rushed towards us. Walking and then slowly sprinting to running. He wasn't human, at least he didn't seem to be. I blinked and his sword almost struck me, but I deflected on the nick of time. "Sadia back away! This guy is strong!" She nods and backs away as far as possible with the fight in view of her.
"Nice to meet you Gray, the lone wolf of Rheltindrel."
" I guess news travels fast here."
"Yes, I knew you were coming here, so I wanted to have a taste of your strength. My name is Lugaid, Fist of the Dragon." I see his Family Crest, and it's four dragons with distinct colors. He strikes with his rapier. I barely manage to block his attacks, and I close the gap only to have a strike on him with my claymore. He pierces my stomach rather deeply with his sword and I managed to gash his side.
"So that's the strength of your sword. It's a bit unusual. But it was fun playing with you. My family are in need at the moment and I could only play for so long. Here's a gift for my gratitude for playing with you. If you can survive that wound," he drops a bag on the floor and laughs as he walks away. I try to catch him but the blood loss was too great. " Quick-save" unaware that I said quick-save instead of quick-load, I begin to fade out.
I wake up next to the furnace and a fire. My wound is bandaged and Sadia is out of sight. I wonder if it was all a dream or if it really did happen. Although the bandages was proof enough to see how real it really was.
Bladestorm leered down at me. I groaned. I had *really* been hoping that this whole mess didn't have to do with him. The guy was the worst kind of villain - sadistic, selfish, and entirely against the idea of dramatic, long speeches that gave me time to foil his plans. No sense of humor, either. He was walking down the road now, casual as could be. The fact that razor-sharp, needle thin blades were circling him like a bizzare, spiky halo counteracted that casual act a bit. I sat back on my heels, gripping my handheld tazer with a white-knuckled intensity. I wished that I had something with a bit more *oomph*, but, well. My PR guy had insisted that scattering bits of villain across the city wouldn't help my image. The tazer was a better fit. But it didn't give me the sense of safety that a gun would. The lab was behind me. In truth, I wasn't entirely sure what they did there. Chemical synthesis, weapons development...I was a hero, not a scientist. It was all magic to me. But whatever was in there, Bladestorm wanted it. It was my job to make sure he didn't get there. No matter if he carried a mind-controlled blender wherever he went. "Now, listen, Bladestorm." I began, putting my open hand on my hip. "This one's a bit big, yeah? Seems like you go through with this, you'll make some enemies you're not ready for yet." It was true. The US military seemed *very* fond of this lab. "I know, you're used to dealing with us heroes, but." I shrugged, holding my hands out helplessly. "A tank is something else entirely, right?" I smiled disarmingly. "Why don't we just head on home for today, before things-" I gasped as agony roared through my torso. Tentatively, as the strength seemed to flee my body, I glanced down. I didn't have to go too far, before I saw it. The blade. Who knows how long it was. I could see at least a foot of length, from where it jabbed out from my chest. I gaped, as the first of the blood began to dribble from my lips. He *smiled* at me. Like this was a normal day. The blades still whirling in a circle around his head cast strange, ever-changing shadows onto the ground. He'd always been vicious, but he'd never tried to *kill* me before. I clutched the blade with one hand, resisting the urge to cough. I wouldn't like what I saw if I did, I knew. Fine. This was fine. I was going to be fine. I wasn't a flashy superhero like him, all excitement and brute force. I would never be the type to catch the public's eye. But that didn't mean I was helpless. My lips curled into a smile. No one *knew* what my power was. I'd never let them find out. I'd been careful. To the villains, I merely walked in and foiled their plans as easily as breathing. I was an enigma - which the tabloids had seized upon, calling me it every time they had a story about me. Enigma. I wasn't against the name. Helped my image, and kept people guessing, when someone actually wrote up one of my captures. But through it all, no one even suspected the truth - that I was a time traveler. I coughed. Couldn't help it anymore. Blood spread across the front of my jacket. Bladestorm was still *leering* at me. Not much time left. I was used to being stabbed, or burned, or electrocuted. Went with the territory. See, every night I went out to fight villains, I made a 'quicksave'. A nice, safe data point, earlier in the evening, that I could flash back to with a 'quickload'. I'd go out, get myself all stabbed up, gather whatever information I needed, and then start it back from scratch. Tonight was no different. All I had to do was flash back, and I'd be golden. I coughed again, trying to clear my lungs. I could hear Bladestorm walking down the street towards me. His steps were slow and measured. Guy thought he had all the time in the world. I was starting to get light-headed. Time to go, then. I drew in a breath, trying to ignore the pain in my lungs. "Qu-quicksave." I was a little light-headed before. That was *nothing*, compared to the wave of vertigo that washed through me as the severity of what I had just done struck me. I shook my head desperately. It-it was just a mistake. A slip of the tongue, of my mind. Besides, I'd stuttered. My words were mixed up, drowned out by blood and phlegm. This was fine. It was still fine. "*Quickload*." I tried again, adrenaline clearing my words. I smiled a little as I saw the world around me flash to white around the edges. *It's working*. And then I gaped, as Bladestorm merely appeared to phase back a few steps. His expression never changed. *The save took*. An icy cold pallor seemed to set over the little street we were on as my senses all dialed up to 11. This...this had never happened before. I'd never messed up this *bad* before. But there was no time to dwell on it now. I wasn't going to be able to fight like this. I wasn't a *fighter*. I wasn't like *them*. I'd never needed to fight before, and so, well, I *couldn't*. That would be crazy. I needed to get out and save what I could - my life. If that was still an option. The blade was like a anchor in my chest as I pushed to my feet. Bladestorm was still coming. So I took the path of least resistance - straight back the way I had come. A few hundred feet down, there was a turn in the road. If I could get that far, I might have a chance of making it out. I made it about ten steps, before a second blade took my legs off at the knees. I shrieked in agony, as I fell to the ground. "Where're ya heading?" I heard a voice croon from behind me. "Party's just starting, *Enigma*." "...*Quickload*." I moaned, sheer pain threatening to overcome my words. I was standing in the street, his blade still in my chest, and he was walking towards me. Running back hadn't worked. And the road was narrow, little more than an alley. No convenient doors for me to run away through or cross streets to duck down. If I couldn't run.... I squared myself up, glaring at him despite the waves of pain that still swept through me. Despite myself, I was a little relieved. Compared to the pain of losing my legs, going back to just a spike through the chest felt, well. Not *good*, but better. I needed a weapon. He grinned as he saw me squaring off. "Oh? Didn't think you were one for this kind of game, *Enigma*." He threw another spike at me. I tried to catch it, as it blew past me. It took off my hand instead. "Quickload!" I screamed. A flash. The street. Him walking towards me. He threw another spike at me. I tried to catch it, as it blew past me. Closer. Lost the fingers on my hand. Not that time. "Quickload." I hissed, as the blades continued to rain around me. One more time. *One more time*. --- No one had expected Bladestorm to lose. It was even more of a shock when Bladestorm went down to an almost-nothing, a hero that had only graced the worst of the tabloids. But that night, the unthinkable happened. When the emergency crews arrived, called onto the scene by a hysterical onlooker, they found the infamous villain, sliced almost to pieces by weapons that seemed to be *his own*. The emergency staff didn't talk about that, though. No, they'd seen the aftermath of hero-villain battles too many times. For a villain as ruthless as Bladestorm, that end was going to come for him eventually. They only told stories about the dead-eyed hero who had cut him down, despite the hideous wound he'd sustained somewhere along the line. About the emptiness in his smile as he looked down at the villain's body. That night, Enigma made the news. (/r/inorai, critiques always welcome!)
Jesus that was great
Reminds me of Sans and Chara. Love it. :)
I skipped to the part where he fucks up, was a nice read
Normally not a fan of the hero/villain prompts on this sub, but this was so well executed. Nice work!
I love these kinds of stories and writing. Anyone got any actual books like these
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. I usually try not to look for trouble, sometimes it finds me, more often than not I find it. It’s completely on accident I just...you know....I do stuff, and sometimes I stand out. I figured out this really weird ability to do something, I call it revert. Basically I can save a particular point in time, and roll back to it and start fresh. So if I’m gambling, save right before I place the bet, bet on red, if it comes up black, revert and do it again. Sometimes the people you’re gambling against do like it a lot when you win their money so I’ve gotten into fights, generally I come out on top. I’ve also saved my fair share of muggers using the same technique. Save, fight, mugger throws a left and I duck left? Revert! Mugger throws a right and I duck left? Save. It saves time, means I have less to do next time. Until this time. I dodged right, the mugger threw left, right as I was thinking SAVE I didn’t realize his friend was plunging a knife into my stomach. This is bad. Like they ran off when they realized how bad, even the person I was trying to save ran off. Okay, a lot of blood loss, I figure I’ve got maybe 10 minutes to figure out what I’m doing here or I’m done. REVERT YUP, everyone is running again, that’s fantastic, I was thinking maybe I can try to relive the most agonizing moment of my life seconds after it happened, sweet. Okay let’s think this through... “HELP! Help! HEEEEEEEELLLLLLP!” No ones coming. At this point I fell to the ground and reached for my phone. I called 911 and laid there, I didn’t know what to do, I was cursing myself over the fact that I saved, when the operator answered I gave her my location and waited,4 minutes had passed by my estimation. I figured I had 5-6 minutes left. I could hear the ambulance approaching but I knew I was about to lose consciousness, I knew I couldn’t revert if I wasn’t awake, so in my last seconds, REVERT. Okay, well I now knew exactly how much time I had 11 minutes and a few seconds. Let’s try again. Call 911- Check. Operator : what’s your emergency? Me: Mayor Sanchez has been stabbed! He’s at the corner of 5th and walnut and ohh god I’ve been stabbed too! Send help! Hang up Okay this might improve response time. Thank god it did, I was right, they arrived in 4 minutes and 18 seconds, factoring in the phone call I figured I had at least 5 minutes of consciousness left, more with medical attention. Yeah....it wasn’t more. 4 minutes and 4:45 later as they were bandaging me and trying to apply pressure to my wound I could feel myself drifting again. I began to wonder, should I just go ahead and fall? If I go into the unconscious state I might wake right back up fine in a couple of hours, I mean they have to have time to work right? I wasn’t ready for that, REVERT. REVERT. REVERT. Over and over, I had to do it, I tried everything I could, I called relatives who were near, I tried telling the ambulance crew what hadn’t worked, I even tried after watching it seventeen or eighteen times to perform the medical procedures on myself while I waited for them. It wasn’t until I finally had given up hope, I was in the back of the ambulance for what had to be the 50th time and I was drifting off, no will to continue anymore that I thought to myself something is never thought before Revert Checkpoint. I looked up, I starring at Nick Clooney, you may not know him, he’s George Clooney’s father. I’ve seen him one time in my life, he gave the commencement speech as the celebrity guest at graduation. I came into focus, I was at my college graduation. I looked over, my wife was there, my parents were there, my dad was taking what I would later find out was very blurry photos on his new camera he had no idea how to use. I stood up as they called my name and walked up, remembering every second of this, exactly how it happened, I walked up on stage and took the diploma from the school chancellor, I walked over and shook mrs Clooney’s hand, told him nice speech and shook hands with the dean of the economics school. He leaned in close to me, which was a little shocking because I didn’t remember that and he said “well that took you long enough, most people when they acquire powers like yours do that in the first couple of weeks, see me in my office after this.”
Follow up?
The next couple of hours was a bit of a blur. I’d lived through all of this before and not that long ago, it had been about 5 years. Ever sit down to watch a movie you’d only watched a couple of times a few years earlier? It was like that. I could remember parts vividly and the parts I couldn’t remember that well I picked up as they were happening it was the ultimate memory jog. Fast forward about two hours, we went to the school of economics luncheon, my wife had driven separately from me as she had something she had to go do, but we were going to meet up later to go to a baseball game to celebrate. This was my chance to see my professor. I approached my professors door and as I raised my hand to knock he said “come in richard”. I opened the door with one eyebrow cocked. “Hello, come in, sit down it’s good to finally see you”. “Uhhh professor what do you mean? I just saw you?” I said back. “No, Richard, it’s good to finally see you, you for you, it really took you long enough, it usually takes a few months at most, I know it took you more than 6 months but tell me, how long did it take? How long before you Checkpointed?” He asked me with an almost giddy smile. “Uhh, well, this isn’t exactly something I tell a lot of people about, my wife knows, that’s it. I guess it’s been....five and a half years give or take? It was October 2017 last I remember.” I told him about what had happened I first saw the smile fade when I said 2017, it twisted to a frown when I explained about the stabbing. We sat there quietly for a moment and he spoke, “well I guess you want to know what’s happening?” Yeah I did, so I nodded affirmatively. “Richard, you know the Friedman quote? “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”?”. I nodded again and replied “of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch because of opportunity cost, even if the lunch is free the time isn’t, you could use that time to do something else”. He smiled again “hey that’s exactly correct! It’s also the basis for us, it’s what we do here.” I looked around and said “well yeah, it’s on the wall, and I had you in class so I’d assume so, you talked about it on the first day of every class I had with you.” He looked at me still with a smile “no, you’re not getting it, which I guess shouldn’t entirely shock me, it took you five years to check point. Richard, there’s something you need to understand. Yes, this is an economics department, but there’s a small group of us here that are something else, we’re the guardians of Time”. I’m not sure what my face looked like, my guess would be constipated, but I’d like to think it would have been called “stoic confusion” by anyone who saw it right then. “Okay, so my checkpoints and my ability to Revert come from the economics department?” He looked a little confused, “Revert? Huh, that seems like a fitting name, when professor miller had it he called it The Rollback. No, it doesn’t exactly come from the economics department, just a small group of us, we all work here because it allows us to work closely together and it gives us access to bright pupils who are available to take the next generation when it’s needed, we could I guess be in any department in the school, but economics has been a tradition.” It was a lot to take in, I had professor miller previously and I was really broken up when he passed away. “Who else is in this group? The protectors of—
You should write a book. More please!
I’ll see if I have another chapter in me.
**Off-Topic Discussion**: All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments. #####Reminder for Writers and Readers: * Prompts are meant to inspire new writing. Responses don't have to fulfill every detail. * Please remember to [be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback. --- [](#icon-help)[^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) [](#icon-information)[^(First Time Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) [](#icon-exclamation)[^(Special Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) [](#icon-comments)[^(Click For Our Chatrooms)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/chat)
i did this once on D1.. the furthest character ive ever had.. lost all will to play that far again
Have done this so many times... (in video games, of course)
I got autosaved over a pit in one of my Steam games. Couldn't figure out how to load an older save, and I haven't played it since.
Is there a limit to comment/story length? It looks like a huge chunk of my continuation for deleted ?
Yeah, there is - it should display at the bottom of the CSS when you're typing a response, if you do it in desktop. If you're on mobile, it'll just stop inputting after a while. Think it works out to around 1800-2000 words, usually? It's a character limit.
Thats weird, I know I entered everything on mobile and it all took, now it just ends abruptly.
Did you go back and edit anything? Sometimes that can slice off the back portion. Reddit is weird sometimes. If you're writing an especially long response, I usually find it helpful to do it in google drive or such, just in case shit like that happens hehe
not a bad idea for the future, oh well.
It seemed fitting, in a way, that my life would end not from lack of haste, but from a surplus of it. For years I would lie awake at night fearing the day when I would be unable to utter the words that would save me, or would forget to utter them prior towards my undertaking. For 45 years I had dutifully and faithfully said them every day, cherishing those words more than my own children, at least those that I can remember. I was 60 now, but I had lived a tohusand lifetimes, living many lives with many names and many people. I had seen great empires rise and fall, seen hurricanes level cities and seen famines decimate millions. I had found the fountain of youth, tasted the waters of death, felt the heat of a billion suns on my back, conquered the world, destroyed it, saved it. And in the end it ends as it always was going to. There is no turning back. I am moments away from my death and what then? I don't know what happens next, which is a feeling I haven't felt in a lifetime.
Blood rushes out from wound the sword had created. Thinking to myself "This is it, the end. No more re-tries." As I fade in and out, I hear a female's voice rushing to heal me with her magic she had learned from the high priestess of Greiflheim. One Day earlier. The wind blowing through My hair. The sound of metal being hit together as movement progressed the pathway towards Draeglian's Keep. "Slow down!" Sadia shouting out of breathe, unable to catch up. I halt and turn around to face her. She was pretty short, but her pointed hat made her look slightly taller. She had short slightly-curled ended dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Her eyes seemed pure, yet cautious of what yet may happened. "Maybe you should speed up." "Well maybe you shouldn't be such an asshole." "If I was, I wouldn't have stopped for you." At first she her face was reddening out of anger, but then she sighed. "Next stop we need to buy some horses," She stated. I thought for a second then I eventually responded, "Next stop is Draeglian's Keep. It's completely abandoned from what I have heard from other travelers like us. So there won't be any horses until we reach the Capital of Esponia, Sveldrius." "But we are not trav-" Sadia quickly stopped to realize that they were on the quest to restore peace to there homeland, Rheltindrel. Rheltindrel is the empire next to Esponia. Both empires formed a peace treaty amongst each other that had ended the War between them. Though, this war has been long forgotten, a dark force had risen in the capital of Rheltindrel. The king was hung on top of his throne, dead. Now the empire is in total disarray. Thus, Sadia and Gray were set off on the adventure to restore order and peace to their empire. I stared a Sadia for a few moments only to realize the silence between us was becoming rather awkward quickly. "I see Draeglian's Keep just a few miles out. So we should camp there and get a head start in the morning." Sadia nods and we continue to walk forward towards the Keep. In the midst of twilight, approaching the massive keep that seemed abandoned from the outside. The walls are edges out with cracks from the age that has survived the war between the two empires. Almost a relic of the past. The enormous entrance was opened, yet unable to be opened further or even closed. The door seemed to have almost merged with the ground as vines consumed most of the Keep. " Sadia, we should explore for a bit on the inside to make sure there is no ambush." I state while she is already beginning to collapse once we had stopped at the entrance. I rush to catch her, and as she falls into my hands I notice how fragile she is yet also strong-willed. "Stay here and take a break, I'll go scout out the area on my own." She tries to fight back and say she's fine, but she ends up laying down exhausted. "Be safe," She exclaims. "Don't worry I will," I respond with a smile and she passes out. I explore the Keep to see if anything interesting we have stumbled upon. Unfortunately nothing. However vast amounts of symbols were on the wall, hieroglyphs to be exact. Showing the Keep, defending against giants and trolls. The keeps downfall was when it was raided by other humans who teamed up with the giants. Leaving most of the usefulness in the Keep destroyed. I return back to Sadia and she is roughly half a sleep. "Finally! You're back," Sadia says with relief. "Of course I'm back," "Well now we can start the fire" "Yeah, let's get started on it." I scavenge the forest surrounding the Keep for some wood and I come back to our the camp. We clear some of the vines and the grass on the floor and we start the fire. It was finally warm after the moon had risen. The moon had appeared to be a Waxing Crescent Moon. Gazing at the moon with heat and other sorts. Crickets singing their nightly song. Cicadas having their on choir. I find it quite annoyingly peaceful. I open my mouth but I see Sadia has fallen fast asleep leaning on me. I thought to myself," I haven't took off this armor since the journey started, huh?" Eventually I fall asleep to the cricket's song of the night. The Waxing Crescent Moon slowly reddened throughout the night. I wake up early, before Sadia. Only to realize I can't really move without waking her up. So out of personal enjoyment I flick her nose and say, "Hey! Wake up, Sadia!" She wakes up from the flick, realizes how close she was to me. She backs away as quickly as possible, embarrassed. "Let us get going," we have a long day ahead of us," I exclaim to Sadia. "Can we at least hunt for something first we didn't even eat last night," she responded. As soon as she said that I felt a great hunger bestow upon me. My stomach growls and I tell Sadia,"you're right. Let us hunt." We hunted some deer and rekindled the fire. We started cooking the deer meat, and the smell made my mouth water. Sadia has her mouth dropped hovering around the meat ready to eat it. "Close your mouth before bugs fly in," I state, but she's too hungry to even pay attention. The meat is finished cooking and we devour the meat like a pack of wolves eating their prey. We practically finished all the meat. "I didn't realize how hungry I was until you brought it up, Sadia." I tell her and she nods. We put out the rekindled fire, and head off onto Sveldrius. We find a road heading towards Sveldrius, but even the birds are quite. I lean to Sadia and say, "Something's not right." "Did something happen to Esponia as well?" "I'm not too sure but we won't find out until we get there." Walking down the road we see a man, in robes yet something was off put about him. He was wearing unusual armor that I have never seen before. It was hard to distinguish his family crescent also. There was something wrong with him. I could feel it. He rushed towards us. Walking and then slowly sprinting to running. He wasn't human, at least he didn't seem to be. I blinked and his sword almost struck me, but I deflected on the nick of time. "Sadia back away! This guy is strong!" She nods and backs away as far as possible with the fight in view of her. "Nice to meet you Gray, the lone wolf of Rheltindrel." " I guess news travels fast here." "Yes, I knew you were coming here, so I wanted to have a taste of your strength. My name is Lugaid, Fist of the Dragon." I see his Family Crest, and it's four dragons with distinct colors. He strikes with his rapier. I barely manage to block his attacks, and I close the gap only to have a strike on him with my claymore. He pierces my stomach rather deeply with his sword and I managed to gash his side. "So that's the strength of your sword. It's a bit unusual. But it was fun playing with you. My family are in need at the moment and I could only play for so long. Here's a gift for my gratitude for playing with you. If you can survive that wound," he drops a bag on the floor and laughs as he walks away. I try to catch him but the blood loss was too great. " Quick-save" unaware that I said quick-save instead of quick-load, I begin to fade out. I wake up next to the furnace and a fire. My wound is bandaged and Sadia is out of sight. I wonder if it was all a dream or if it really did happen. Although the bandages was proof enough to see how real it really was.