"Hold the formation, goddammit!" A burly young man shouted atop his lungs as he used a makeshift shield to swat aside a small copper-colored beast.
The beast appeared to be the forbidden entanglement between a goblin and a winged snake. It had tiny, leathery wings, a foot-long neck and sharp, crooked teeth.
The beast laughed continuously, even when it felt pain strong enough to cripple a human.
"Why are there so many of them?" Asked another young man, cutting down one of the beasts, before addressing their leader.
"Jhonas, we can't hold on forever. We need to break through, somehow!"
The leader took a quick glance behind him and grunted. The others weren't looking too good.
Due to their exhaustion, their bodies were littered with cuts and bruises.
He nodded.
"We'll break through the encirclement."
The others roared in response, gathering whatever energy remained in their bodies.
Jhonas took the lead and charged at the nearest beast, using his shield to push it away and into others of its kind. Looking around him, he could only curse his back luck.
He and another ten trainees had been teleported into a depression of this swamp. All around him, he could see almost vertical stone walls stretching for meters on end.
Only east, one could see a low ramp that left this well.
Being in this low depression meant many nasty beasts crawled through the cave system underneath the swamp.
"Conserve your stamina. Don't go out of your way to kill this fuckers!" Jhonas ordered upon reaching the beginning of the ramp before turning around to protect the rest of the group.
The teens moved fast but were also careful. They had no information about their surroundings and the potential beasts lurking out there, hidden from view.
Those latter ones were the nastiest of them all.
"How much longer?" Shouted Jhonas from the back, sending another snake-goblin flying using his shield.
Being the strongest of the group meant he had to take most of the pressure from the group upon himself. But he couldn't fight dozens of monsters and be able to look over his shoulder at the same time.
"There's a clearing right ahead!" Someone shouted back, nocking an arrow on his bow.
Jhonas' shoulders relaxed a bit upon hearing this. Tension left his bones, making his strikes flow smoother.
"Run to the clearing!" He ordered. "Make sure to stay in the sunlight!"
"Yes, sir!" A young man from the group responded.
If one were to look at this young man, one wouldn't understand how he endured the Recens' training.
He was skinny to an unhealthy degree, with arms slightly thicker than a broomstick. His features were deathly pale, and his eyes were sunken inside their sockets.
It was pointless to say this young man had no muscle mass whatsoever.
Even with all this, he had such a warm smile it could move rocks and brighten a night's sky.
There is no human that sees his smile and remains unmoved.
And to answer the previous question...
"Let's go, guys. Teams of three. Move out."
This young man's forte? His mind-boggling ability to analyze situations and act in the best way possible. His innate ability to influence others only made him the best possible general.
Then why was he here? Why wasn't this gem of an intellect studying at some prestigious academy to refine his talent?
That's a simple question to answer.
Because he was a commoner. Furthermore, he was an orphan who couldn't help his liege in any way, shape or form.
Their kind wasn't good, even as slaves.
Their owner would pay more to get these orphans suitable for work than they would get out of them.
Sure, one may choose to force them to work as they were, weak and lethargic. But even that wasn't a good business deal. The work orphans could do, was so trivial the slave-owner would better spend their money on a fit slave.
Here is where Recens come in. Noble could merely send orphans to these people to train.
If the orphans survived the Recens' Trials, the nobles would get to use mighty and reliable mercenaries. If not, the nobles still got rid of this pest.
"Phew!" Jhonas let out a heated breath as he watched the snake-goblins retreat. They avoided light like the plague, running towards shadows to protect their reddish-pink skin.
*Swish!*
A humongous figure swooped from above faster than the eye could track it down. The only thing announcing its arrival was a slight tremble of the air.
"Wha..." The skinny young man couldn't complete his sentence as a dark shadow loomed over him. His eyes widened as his features morphed into that of terror.
An instant later, the flying beast landed heavily on the wet ground, slamming its leathery wings into the ground.
*KREEEEE!*
A lizard-like beast announced its presence, raising its head and shrieking violently.
The sound shook the very ground beneath their feet, freezing the humans in place.
The teen hastily tried to turn around, attempting to get as far away but the shriek froze his feet in place.
The beast extended its arm, grabbing the young man by the torso.
The boy's face slowly turned from shock to fear, realizing he couldn't do anything to shake the beast's grip.
Suddenly, the beast slammed the human onto the ground before bringing him to its mouth.
A crunching sound rebounded through the clearing. For a long moment, that was the only sound the humans heard, as though that haunting sound was what they needed to hear.
The boy's arms and legs fell powerlessly to the side, as his head was crushed into a bloody mess.
"SHOOT IT DOWN, YOU FUCKERS!" Jhonas screamed at the top of his lungs, eyes red with fury, as he threw his short sword at the flying lizard.
The blade moved so fast that it looked nothing more than a silver blur, embedding itself into the beast's belly.
Shrieking painfully, it released its meal and clawed at its wound, intending to remove the blade.
"WAKE UP, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!" He roared once again, making others shake awake. Be it due to his scream or be it due to fear, it didn't matter in the least.
Shaking their heads, the ones with bows in their hands nocked arrows and shot them at the lizard. No matter how strong the lizard's scales were, they were powerless against their weapons.
The group of teens, however, didn't get to kill the beast.
Unannounced by anything, a black figure appeared outside the clearing, burning everything in its wake with the barest of touches.