Along with the booze, the old man continued his story, "It was about 80 years ago."
"Don't give bluff old man", Alex teased, "you look like you are in your early 60s if I am not wrong."
"kid, it seems like you haven't had much interact with awakened people", the old man retorted, "while normal people live for at most 100 years, awakeners live far more than that. The more powerful the awakener is the slower his aging becomes. Even a so-called weakest awakener will have a life expectancy of at least 150 years. The stronger awakeners live for more than 300 years on average."
Learning that the old man was an awakener the bartender suddenly grew respect for him. Awakeners were not uncommon in society but in the case of ordinary villages, it was hardly possible to meet one. Thus he silently nodded his head affirming the old man's statement.
"So, it was when I was already a captain in the royal army for more than a decade. One day I was selected for the guard duty of the wall of God. Our squad consisted of 200 captains. We had to service at the wall for the next five years. Even our salary was doubled. So finally fifteen thousand normal soldiers, three thousand of our capable awakened soldiers, along with 500 elite warriors and mages, and 5 of our s-class awakeners left for the walls. It took us almost 2 months to reach near the walls, which even included two long-distance teleportations, one from our capital to Farmus kingdom. And from there the nearby teleportation gate at Kaga Empire. From there we had to travel the entire way.
When we finally reached, the previous shift handed over our duty and started their return journey. The first village from the walls starts at 10 miles distance. This area near the wall is known as a buffer zone. Sometimes some abominations manage to teleport or jump over the wall and come to the other side of the wall. Our primary was to keep surveillance and inform the intelligence network if we spot any abomination. The higher-ups then send the action team to kill that abomination. Other than that the stronger awakeners periodically go to the other side of the wall through special one-way passages to eradicate nearby abominations for war credit.
Abominations come in many forms, some resemble different animals, some look like fierce monsters, some are even humanoid. The only thing common in them is their black color and unnatural expressions. They have no consciousness. Don't feel pain. Attack everything in sight and emit a blackish kind of ominous aura.
I had already served for more than three years by that time. I had my shift at a village 20 miles from the wall with two more awakeners and 50 units. We often had to check the habitats within 100 miles range from the wall. It was noontime when we received a telepathic transmission to evacuate. It had only been 10 minutes. We were still moving all the villagers to the underground shelter. Most of the villagers still hadn't left their house when a heard an ear-deafening screech. At that time I was at the gate of the shelter. Hundreds of the strongest awakeners landed in front of us with instant teleportation. The next moment we saw a black humanoid figure landing on the horizon. The pressure was making us almost chock even from that distance. All nearby people including us were immediately thrown into the underground safety vault in an instance.
Every underground safety vault had crystal balls to observe the surrounding. I and my fellow soldiers had gathered around the crystal ball to observe the situation outside. But what unfolded made our blood freeze. We couldn't even track that monster's movement. All the fighters took defensive positions in front of the mages and the mages kept casting one after another high-tier magic. When the dust settled the abomination calmly came walking towards our forces. Mages kept casting spells, even some of the warriors charged towards the abomination with their battle cry. However, what unfolded next was a single massacre. With only its bare claws, within 2 minutes it slaughtered the entire battalion. Blood splattered everywhere. Only the abomination stood in the midst of all. After standing for one or two minutes on the spot and gazing through the surroundings it opened its mouth and raw energy accumulated in front of his mouth in a condensed ball of purple light. Then a devastating beam was released. It rotated its neck covering almost the whole area. When the beam ended every little existence of the village was gone. The village was replaced with a charred field. With one more ear-deafening screech the abomination was walking straight towards the ground above the shelter.
We were all shivering in fear. I can't even describe to you what that fear felt like. Hope had already abandoned us. I couldn't even move my finger. My legs gave up. I fell to the ground. But just then a large bang shook the entire shelter. We thought that monster had opened the vault. Even After a few seconds when nothing happened an awakened looked at the crystal ball and shouted that the s ranks had arrived. It was only two people.
We were glued to the crystal ball, holding our breath. The Abomination jumped at one S rank. But the next moment we saw the monster shooting away from the s rank towards the horizon, and the S rank had one of his legs up in a kicking stance. Before the abomination could react, he pounced. The whole place was banging. The ground shook like one after another earthquake was bent on destruction. Even the walls of the shelter cracked.
This continued for a few minutes, but it was like hours to us. Then we saw the S rank warrior holding abomination from the back, blood all over his body. But even so, the monster couldn't escape his grasp. And then the Second S rank, most likely an archmage cast his fifth tire magic. It was the first time and maybe the last, that I had witnessed fifth tire magic. A small white marble size ball slowly moved towards the abomination. The last thing we saw the S rank warrior standing next to the mage, panting. And Boom! The next moment everything went white As if a thousand suns had been let.
When the light faded we saw an almost 200 feet wide crater where the warrior guy was holding the abomination. It was deep as well. There was no abomination.
It took a few days to take care of the basic situation. 12 villages were wiped out within those few hours and around 5000 of our troops were sacrificed in that process if we don't consider the countless ordinary citizens. We were the only non-S rank party that partially survived."
After A deep sigh, the old man continued, "Kid, that day I witnessed what true power was. In front of them, we were not even comparable to ants. I couldn't master my courage after that. The illusion of strength and power that I dreamt of, was scattered. I was ashamed of being awakened. After that When my duty was finally over and I returned to the kingdom I resigned from Army. And this is what I am today, a weakling who acknowledges his weakness and lives like a coward."