I Am No Hero (DoTA Fan Fiction)

Chapter 3

The first thing that Davion showed Eugene was the map of their battle ground. Davion laid the map on the table in his tent and started pointing on locations to explain further about the area. Eugene glanced over the map and he was sure he had seen it before. It looked almost alike the map that guide him when playing his computer game back home. His mind wandered over the thought of home that just seemed so far away now. The map he was looking at now had different shape than the map he used in his DoTA 2 game. The game map was square in shape with small square bullets to indicate the towers and any relevant places. The red color squares belong to the enemy and the green squares belong to the radiant. But the map that Davion was holding was not square in shape. Well, the paper in which the map was drawn on was rectangle for starter, and the map drawn on it was irregular in shape, like a country in the world map. The shape was almost similar like the Asian continent’s drawing, with borders showing other lands in this place. Eugene noticed the name of each area in map, on the southern border of this land which stretched over the eastern border they are in, was a place called the Veil. The land on the northern border was named the Dire and the land on the western border was known as the Shadow. The land Eugene was in right now was called the Radiant. Davion started by pointing at the Fountain of Life on the map located at the southern of the Radiant land. “This is where we are,” he said. Eugene stared at him waiting for him to continue. And so, Davion continued, “Inside this fountain, there are five tents. The most left here is Mogul Khan’s tent, next to his tent is Mirana’s –”

Before Davion could finish, Eugene stopped him and asked in excitement, “Wait a minute! Mirana?? You mean the Princess of the Moon?”

“Yes. Princess of the Moon.” Davion answered him with a little curiosity before continued to say, “I assume you have heard of her before?”

“Oh! Sorry Sir! There is one tiny bit of information that I forgot to tell you.” Eugene said.

“Go on.” Davion said. Eugene sighed and said, “In my world, where I come from, we have a machine. We can see moving pictures in the machine and we can play games using it. One of the games in the machine resembles this world of yours and the people in it. So, I kind of know a little bit about this place.”

Davion was curious. He did not have a single clue as to what Eugene was saying. So, he decided to ignore it. “Shall I continue with showing you this map?” Davion asked. Eugene was taken aback but quickly answered, “Yeah! Sure! Just one more question. Is she hot? I mean – beautiful?”

Davion then replied, “Beauty is something subjective, young man. You should wait until you see her. She will return in a few days time, I presume.”

“Where are they now?” Eugene asked.

“Well, in this world,” Davion paused and continued, “War is inevitable. But for the love of peace and honor, Mogul Khan embarked on a rather different path. He was now here.” Davion pointed at the border of the Dire and the Radiant then continued to say, “Negotiating a truce.”

Eugene was surprised by the input he received. “Seriously?! And what do you think the Dire will say to that?”

“Like I said, war is inevitable, even if the Axe succeeded to obtain a truce, war will come, in only a matter of time.” Davion said.

“You mean, a truce is more like postponing a war?” Eugene asked.

Davion nodded. Then, he returned his glance to the map on the table and continued with his briefing for Eugene. “Next to Mirana’s camp is your camp. Then, you have this Old Man’s tent. I will take you there later. It should be interesting.”

Eugene nodded. He remembered the name from his game back home. The old man was the person that sells items to strengthen the hero’s strategy in terms of their speed, swiftness, power catalysts, vitality and so on. He continued to listen to Davion’s explanation, “Here is Puck’s tent and this is where we are now, my tent.” Davion was done with showing Eugene every dot on the map in the Fountain of Health. Next, he continued to point to the area outside the fountain which mainly consist of the defense barrack, guide trees and most importantly the tree of life. “The tree of life generates all the power for us. If we lose it, so is Radiant.” Davion explained. The he pointed to the area outside of the Radiant camp. On the left side was an ancient forestry, the area merely infested with unknown creatures but also rumor has it that there were hidden treasures for those brave enough to explore. Next to it was a lair belong the Radiant Wizard whom was famous for mixing powerful ingredients in order to produce incredible magical abilities and items for the Radiant warrior. On the right side was another forestry where magical beings and normal beings lived together in harmony but often threatened by the evil lurking from the forestry of the Dire. Then the border that divides the Radiant from the Dire was a river that ran down all the way to the border of the Veil and the Shadow. Then, Davion flipped close the map and took a deep breath. “Let us go out there so you can see for yourself.” He ushered Eugene outside to show him the world for real.

As soon as Eugene took a step outside of the camp, he saw several elves practicing with their bows and arrows. Their noses and ears were pointy and their skins were pale. They nodded at him as he passed by and he nodded back at them, unsure of the reasons for nodding. Away in the distance, he could see many soldiers in their base camp preparing for their battle. It was odd that these soldiers are unlike the creeps he used to see in his computer game. He did saw some creeps but there were also many other creatures around here. He jogged to catch up with Davion and started asking him, “Sir Davion, can you tell me about these soldiers?” Davion turned to look at all the soldiers around him and then, he began to explain, “Well, every warriors here are leaders to their particular armies. I lead the dragons to a fight.” Then, he pointed his finger towards a group of dragons over the fence of the base camp. They looked like giant birds minding their own business. Then, Davion started pointing over a group of creatures with wings and large ears. Some looked very pretty and some were fairly ugly. “The fairies. Puck is their leader.” Davion said. Then, Davion continued as he pointed his finger towards the elves, “Those are the elves. There are two groups. The Night Elves, those with darker skin and the Light Elves, those with pale skin. You lead the Light Elves and Mirana leads the Night Elves.” Then, Davion paused. “What about the Axe?” Eugene asked. “He leads the spirits that he called to fulfill their debts to him. Trust me. Those spirits are very powerful. You will not be able to see them here now. They only appear in battle.” Then, Davion turned to look at the creatures that looked like walking trees before he said, “Those creatures are known as the creeps. They are created using magic to help us in battle.” Then, he pointed to a group of beings that looked very familiar to Eugene’s eyes gathering near the Tree of Life. “Some of the humans who offered their help. Some are very skillful indeed.” Davion said.

From his conversation with Davion, he could gather that their leader was Mogul Khan, the Axe. Aside from himself and Davion, two more distinguished warrior among them namely Mirana, Priestess of the Moon, and Puck, the long living fairy trapped in a child’s body. They had armies of elves, fairies, creeps, spirits, dragons and humans. Great! He thought to himself, except that he was not sure how good of a leader he was. He realized that he needed to learn so many things and he needed to master them quickly. Then, he heard Davion said, “As of now, Mirana is guarding our top tower with most of her Night Elves and Puck is at the bottom tower with some of his fairies. We may hear words from Mogul Khan soon on the talk of the truce from somewhere near the middle tower. Once Mirana’s and Puck’s troops nearly run out of war resources, be it food, water, armory and weapons, you will need to take over guarding the top tower and I will be assigned to the bottom tower. That is our routine.”

Then, Eugene asked, “In the mean time, what should we do here? training?”

“We should be monitoring our defense barrack and yes. Training the new soldiers. Sometimes we may need to assist Axe at the middle tower. It depends.” Davion answered him. Eugene nodded staring at the defense barrack way up above him. He didn’t knew how far he have walked with Davion that he had reached where he was now.

“And since, you are the new soldier, I will need to train you how to use your abilities.” Davion said, mentioning the obvious, and he continued to say, “We also do not have much time.”

Eugene was beginning to get a grasp of how serious the situation was. Out here, it was real war. If he didn’t deliver what he was meant to do here, he may let down the whole force. Life may be loss and their blood would be on his hands. He felt a shiver down his spine. He didn’t know if he was up to it. Then, Davion said, “We should get to the Old Man’s tent. He may be able to advise you in what you need for your skills.”

Eugene stayed silent throughout the whole journey to the Old Man’s tent. They walked pass the towers, the Tree of Life, the soldiers and not a single word came out of his mouth. The whole experience was starting to take a toll on him. He wished he could remember Magina’s thoughts and battles. He hoped what he had was enough for the Radiant. Much worst, he prayed that the Axe able to convince the Dire for a truce.