Day 4, part 2.
"Monsters!! Monster attack incoming!!!"
Stopping in the middle of the training drill, I look up at the source of the voice, a lookout on the leftmost lookout tower.
I can barely make out him waving frantically in the distance.
A moment later he shouts again and points to the southwest, panic building in his voice. "They are amassing in the southwest!" A moment's pause follows and then he shouts, voice full of panic: "There are more than ten-thousand of them!! Only half a day out!"
Following the shouts of warning, loud bells start ringing in the lookout.
A moment later bells further away start ringing, until bells are ringing throughout the whole city.
A few minutes pass as all the other guards rush around and while us trainees simply stand around, trying to stay out of the way.
A 10 minutes pass, until the hall doors slam open. Looking over I notice corporal Kal walking quickly towards us.
"Form up, recruits!" Corporal Kal yells as he reaches the middle of the training hall. After everyone has fallen in line, his gaze sweeps over us. His slight frown only adds to his intimidation factor as he makes an imposing figure in his full set of heavy metal armor with his bulky frame.
Surveying us slowly, he straightens himself and puffs out his chest and speaks in a loud, clear voice: "It is unfortunate it is so soon; but this is it: real battle." He says as his gaze sweeps over all 50 of us new trainees.
"If it was up to me, I would put you at the back, up on the walls and out of the way." Pausing, he looks out at us a moment, to let it sink in. "Unfortunately," He says and before sighing, shoulders slumping and shaking his head. "I am not the highest ranking officer here." Straightening his posture again, he continues: "Colonel Trayus has seen fit to send you trainees out as forward scouts. Get your gear; and any other items you may have at hand, and assemble in the ramp plaza outside the guard post. You have 30 minutes to get your gear and report back here."
Noticing our obvious lack of real weapons, he grimaces and adds: "Those without personal weapons; follow me to the armoury first." He says, turns and walks away.
Looking around bewildered, it takes a moment for my head to catch up.
Snapping into motion, I jog after corporal Kal and catch up to him a minute later as along with most of the other trainees.
Glancing over my shoulder, there are 35 or so other people following behind us, I am utterly unfamiliar with everyone I see, however. I don't think I have spoken to anyone here.
A minute later we arrive at the armory. The armory is a massive stone building complete with steel gates close to the gate into the city proper. It looks like it could take a real beating before anyone would get through any of that to get inside.
With a few quick words between corporal Kal and the armoury guards, we are brought inside the main hall, where all standard gear and other misc items are stored and given permission to pick one weapon of choice.
Looking around, there is an impressive amount of gear stored here; weapons, armor, gadgets and misc oddities are stacked around the room in chests or cabinets, depending on the item.
Walking along the racks and crates of weapons, I see nothing that catches my eye, so I walk further inside, toward where there seems to be older, more used gear.
Catching a strange glimmer out of the corner of my eye, I look curiously towards the spot but can't seem to find any polished steel or any such thing that could reflect light towards me. Walking closer reveals a crate of worn and rusty weapons, most looking more like scrap iron than something you could use as a weapon.
Peering into the crate and moving things around reveals nothing of note, just a mismatched heap of discarded weapons, most are rusty and worn by tear and many long years of use.
"Hey!" I hear someone holler at me "Grab something so we can go already. We need to go form up soon." Looking over, I see it's one of my fellow recruits that is calling out to me. He is a tall redheaded youth with a strong gaze and a lean yet muscular build.
"Alright, be there in a sec." I shout in reply. Scratching my head, I refocus on finding a weapon and notice a previously unnoticed sword standing off to the right side of the crate. With a jet black sheath and handle it is hard to keep track of its shape in the poorly lit surrounding, even as I stare at it. Almost as if it is blending into the shadows…
'Did I miss it because of the bad lightning? Somehow I feel like it wasn't there before...' Almost unconsciously, my hand moves to grab the sheathed sword.
About a hands width away, it suddenly starts to glimmer, the light shining in a myriad of colours. Surprised by the sudden lights, I hurriedly pull my hand away from the sheathed sword and the lights quickly fade as well.
"What the hell? Magic sword? Is that a thing? Ehh, clearly it is, what with all the lights and stuff coming out of it..." I mutter to myself before hesitantly moving my hand back towards the sheathed sword again, ever so slowly.
As I come a hands width away once again, it again starts glowing, sending rainbow light flying every-which way. I stop myself from touching the sword as I consider whether I should touch the now steadily glowing sword and sheath at all, or, if it's simply best to just leave glowing magic swords well alone.
As I watch the sheathed sword's glow dims to a such a weak glimmer that it is barely visible, I make up my mind to touch it.
Tentatively, I reach out my hand to touch the sword. It is cool to the touch, yet strangely, not cold.
Grabbing the sheath and lifting the sword up in front of me, it's surprisingly light for its size, a good 1.2 meters or so long; It is not too long so as to be unwieldy but also not too short so you have a decent reach. Inspecting it more closely, I notice it is a curved sword, closer to that of a katana rather than a traditional sword.
There are etchings done into both the sheath and the handle, and looking closely I notice that they are glowing faintly. It would seem that is the source of the gleaming.
Drawing the blade, I see even more etchings have been engraved into the blade. The whole length of it is glowing and blinking like stars in the night sky. Looking closer at the glimmering etchings, a strange feeling creeps over me. There is something… else. A… shadow, for lack of better words.
Suddenly assaulted by a rush of darkness, my sight and surrounding disappear as the darkness swallows it all and leaves me all alone in the dark. The only light, being a dim gleaming in the sky, not unlike how the etchings gleamed.
"Welcome, to my home." a voice suddenly comes from behind me.
Spinning around in a hurry, I am met with the sight of a middle aged man, cleanly shaved and with an androgynous face.
With jet black hair and clothes, he naturally blends in with the darkness.
The only thing giving him away being his unnaturally gleaming eyes, that are glowing like miniature stars in the darkness.
"Who are you?" I say to the clearly not human man in front of me.
Looking around the immediate surrounding reveals nothing but darkness around me.
Almost like there is nothing, except darkness at all.
"Where is this?" I ask as I look around, making sure to keep the strange man in my sights at all times.
Bowing like a gentleman, the middle aged man says: "I have been called by many names throughout the ages; Diatos, Regius, Jintou, Alun'di-ret and various other names..."
Pausing, he cooly inspects me for a moment. "But If you wish to know my actual name, you may call me 'Riatos'." He says, and looks up at the glimmering in the sky.
"Loosely translated into your words, it would be something along the lines of 'The darkness, the light'." he says and lowers his gaze back at me.
"But that isn't important, not right now. What is important is your presence here; why are you here?" he says and taps his right foot slowly.
The tapping is producing a strange echo in the darkness.
Feeling lost for words, I start shaking my head weakly before I reply: "I… don't know. I was looking for a weapon. Then I found this strange sword that was glimmering, and when I drew it from its sheath; woosh! and here I was." I say and scratch my head. "I guess that's what I get for messing with magic glowing swords."
Shaking his head slowly, the man speaks slowly. "That is not what I meant; I know why and how you came here. What I want to know is, why. " he says and stares at me. "Why, have you come to me? What do you hope to achieve?"
A moment of silence ensues as I ponder the questions. "I wish to… return to my home." Pausing a moment I shake my head slowly. "No, that is a lie. Right now, I wish for the power to save the ones who have taken me in, to repay what I am owed. To save the ones who helped me when I had nothing to give in return." I say slowly. "I wish for the power to protect my allies and destroy my foes." I say finally.
Standing completely still, frozen like a statue, Riatos doesn't move for a long moment. The moment passes and he nods slowly. "I see…" he says slowly. "I have heard your wish."
Clapping twice he continues: "Go then. Succeed in proving yourself, and your wish will be fulfilled." He says while looking at me stoically.
Then grimages slightly as he continues: "Fail, however… and your soul will be consumed and assimilated with me." With a slightly pained expression, he finishes: "Now go; prove you are worthy."
Following his statement a rush of darkness envelops me, and a moment later I am back in the armoury.
A second pass as I stand in a daze, drawn sword still in my hand. Another second passes as I stare at my right hand, where a strange... Rune, for a lack of better word now shines dimly.
My gaze drawn to the sword, I watch as the sword glows brightly for a moment, only for the brilliance to gradually fade; starting from the tip of the sword. Gradually, it moves upwards along the blade, up towards the hilt. Looking at the sheath in my other hand, the same thing is occurring. At the same time the rune on my right hand is steadily glowing stronger and stronger until a bright flash blinds me.
As my eyes readjust to the surroundings, all but the first etchings on the sword and the sheath have disappeared completely while the rune on my hand is a lot more complex and detailed then a second ago.
With only one etching, or perhaps rune is more apt, remaining on the sheath and sword, the now dim glow stops as the remaining runes return to the state it was before I came close to it; Jet black and with decorative details but no lights or glowing. If someone didn't know better, they would think it a regular, if finely decorated sword.
While inspecting the sword and sheath, I am startled out of my reverie as a rough hand lands on my shoulder.
"Enough dallying. We need to go." says a voice from behind me. "Now." It adds.
Looking over my shoulder, the tall redhead man who shouted at me before is there, with a giant buster sword slung over his shoulder.
Nodding, I reply with a simple: "Right." A moment later I add: "After you."
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Back at the entrance corporal Kal is still waiting with the armoury guards.
Walking up to him, I show him and the surrounding guards the sword and say: "I want this; it is ok if I take it, right?"
Looking over at me, the guard inspects the sword. One of the armoury guards say "You found this in there?" Indicating towards the hall I came from.
Giving a quick nod in response to his query, he once again looks at the sword, this time, more carefully. "Never seen a sword like this before..." he says, looking slightly confused.
Nodding to the guard, I answer as truthfully as I dare. "It was in a crate in the back over there" I say and indicate the far section where I found the sword next to the crate of junk swords. "The crate was full of rusty and worn swords, except for this one, that is."
Shrugging, the guard grunts and turns to corporal Kal for confirmation, who simply says: "It is yours now. Now, we need to go and form up with the rest, else we will be late when the Colonel arrives; And we really don't want that."
Following a quick farewell to the armoury guards, he turns and heads towards the ramp plaza, with all of us trainees trailing behind him.
---------------÷=×
Arriving at the ramp plaza and reuniting with my training group, we quickly form up.
Only moments later a very surly looking man with white hair, and impressive black and gold armor walks out of the guard post interior.
He looks us over with a slight grimace plastered on his face, and walks over to corporal Kal, who salutes him sloppily; Seemingly on purpose, just to irk the man. And it is working, as his already surly face gets even more surly and wrinkly.
After a brief exchange of cold harsh words between the two, the surly man turns and faces us trainees.
"I am Colonel Trayus, highest ranking officer in this region of the kingdom and a former rank B+ mercenary." he says and puffs his chest out, as if that is impressive. But then again, perhaps it is but I have no idea what that even entails so his statement is lost on me.
"You trainees have been given the honour of being our forward scouts to scout the monster threat." he says and sweeps his cold gaze over us. Just his cold gaze alone sends shivers down my spine and I instantly realize that he doesn't care one lick about us. 'He doesn't care one bit if we all get torn apart by those monsters...perhaps he's even counting on it...' I deliberate grimly as I watch his cold gaze drift over us.
"I want you all to work together and estimate the number, and more importantly, the strength, of the gathered monsters."
"But sir!" Exclaims Aya, the lithe redhead who doesn't care much for me. "If we get noticed by a monster, we… we will get swarmed, with no way of escaping." she says and looks conflicted.
After a momentary pause, she adds: "Isn't there more suitable personnel available for the task? Perhaps scouts with agility skills?"
Gaze ice cold, he replies with: "Are you questioning my judgement, trainee?" he replies cold hard fury, barely restrained in his voice.
"No sir! By your will!" Aya quickly says as she steps in back in line and salutes the Colonel.
Sneering derisively and waves his hand dismissively. "You have your orders; Follow them or be charged with treason, punishable by death." He says and glares at Aya.
"Dismissed." he says and turns to corporal Kal. "I expect a report by midday, Corporal." before promptly turning and returning to the guard post interior.
Sighing deeply, shoulders slumping, corporal Kal shakes his head wearily.
A moment later he recovers and shouts: "Form teams of 5.
Balanced teams with both ranged and melee capabilities.
When formed, gather in your groups below the ramp. You have 10 minutes." he says and sweeps his gaze over us. "Dismissed."
End of Chapter 9.