Ordering the hundred men to stand in the form of a light crescent moon, almost a straight line. The barrels evenly placed between them, Lucas was waiting for a few seconds. He made sure that the people were leaving plenty of room between one another, it was an extremely vulnerable formation that didn't seem to hold any benefit.
If they wanted to surround any kind of enemy or monster, perhaps forming a U-shape could be useful if they divided themselves in three big groups and moved as a mousetrap. But with only a hundred people, the chain was too weak.
'Hey, shouldn't we get that kid here as well? I don't like it, but we have to protect him, better to keep him close so he can't screw up.'
'Yes, having him witness this might prove useful for later as well.'
Signaling for him to come to the front line, he stood behind him in complete silence. Nero who was beside him as well was wondering what would happen next.
"Uhm, Lord Starborn, what should we do now?"
"Just wait a bit longer. At their current speed, they'll be here in a minute or two."
"Who exactly are we waiting for?" Nero asked, concern evident in his voice.
Lucas smiled, a hint of anticipation in his eyes. "This training involves live targets."
"Live targets?" Nero echoed, his unease growing.
With a simple nod, Lucas's smile widened, his gaze fixed on the approaching forest.
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Rubert trudged forward, an army larger than he ever imagined at his back. He had always dreamed of leading a grand force, yet now that he commanded one, he wished he didn't. His troops, fully armored and weapon-ready, followed him with disciplined precision, but his thoughts were chaotic.
"Attack the capital? Just waltz up to the gates and demand the Emperor's surrender? Have those idiots they lost their minds?" he muttered, not caring if anyone heard.
Still, he almost had a headache, not because he didn't trust his fellow soldiers, but because of the entire mission.
He had been born with a special innate gift that many desired, but he himself didn't even know what it was and why he got it. Without a basic understanding of magic or the world above, he was always kept in the dark.
While he wasn't informed on the details, he did know what his gift did. It would warn him when his life was in danger. He was quite proud of his gift since it always helped him out at the right time.
Luckily, he was oblivious to the world above where there were way stronger innate gifts. No two innate gifts work the exact same and none were equal. While there were some that had extreme advantages, they mostly came with some terrible side effects.
Either way, it was a tiny gift that had a lot of impact. It guided him through his life, earning victory by choosing his battles carefully. He even received the honors of using the second trail, making him a lot more powerful than the people besides him.
Even so, with great armor, a gift that helped him in dire situations and a Tier 2 body, he felt little to no confidence in his current mission.
'I knew it the moment those pigs opened their mouths. I was expecting their breath to smell, not that they would actually be spouting complete garbage.'
When he received his assignment, his gift had given him a warning. It was never so early, only when his life was in danger, so he had never expected that just by accepting the mission, his life would be on a delicate balance.
The issue was, he couldn't go against the nobles, even if he wanted to. He could kill them, and he would be free from their grasp. The consequence would be that the entire Empire had to start a manhunt on him, and he'd rather avoid such a scene.
'Tch, I should be focussing on the mission.', shaking his head, he threw all unnecessary thoughts out of it.
'Hmm? There's a clearing? Here? I don't remember this.', not that he came here often. 'Oh well, this would be a good resting spot.'
Gathering his men on the plain, he thought of setting up some tents before his gift suddenly activated.
"Hmm? Here!?", he frantically looked around. "A beast? Black Griffon?", once he reached Tier 2, his gift activated less and less, making only the strongest beings trigger it.
It was then that he noticed some figures at the end of the clearing. 'Them? But there aren't even that many!'
Right as he was about to shout a command the ground started to shake heavily. "What the...!", right in front of him a massive wall started to grow out of the ground. The confusion and profanity overlapping one another behind him said enough about the state of his soldiers.
"Commander! What do we do?!", a soldier beside him started to yell in a panic.
"Just stay put! Everyone, defensive positions!", to order such a massive group he shouted at the top of his lungs. Humans were in the end always part of a herd, if most of them took up defensive positions, the rest would follow.
The air lit up light blue as hundreds of shields are formed every second. Rubert looked upon the top of the wall. A single person stood at the very edge with a nasty smile.
"A Starborn?", a man said under his breath behind him.
'That's the Starborn? The beings designed for war and slaughter?', he felt his heart skip a beat as he realized what his gift had warned him about.
Suddenly the figures he saw from before started to step forward, each with a spear in hand. The Starborn started to speak, but his voice echoed throughout the army.
"You are all complete idiots, aren't you? To openly go against the throne means you are willing to hurt the heart of this very Empire! I'm not going to bother listing your crimes, you're well aware of them. And if you aren't, you're even more moronic than I had thought."
He couldn't make sense of it, 'What the hell is he talking about?', he expected him to be a lot more formal like the rumors, not that those were ever the full truth in the first place.
"Oh well, I'm tired of talking. Let's get this over with, shall we? At least make it interesting.", the tone was almost bored.
A chill ran down his spine as he heard that. There was a strange sense invading his heart. Even if his gift wasn't going haywire, the tone he had was similar to how he crushed bugs as a child. 'This is just a game to him!'
Rubert was about to shout back that he would rather surrender than fight against the throne, but his mouth clammed shut when he saw a massive spear made out of Blue Fire appear in the Starborn's hand. His eyes widened as the crushing impact of reality hit him. He was certain that spear would be his end if he got hit.
"That..! Brace for impact!", he didn't even know what it was or what was planning, but his gift had been going off constantly. Each time it activated, his stress levels surged. The soldiers simply followed his example and held their shields to the sky.
The Starborn didn't hold back and threw his spear, aiming it at the middle of the group.
"There are 10.000 soldiers here, what's one little spear going to do?", a soldier said to lighten the mood, but Rubert wasn't the least bit happy to see it flying towards them. His gift had been giving him a nonstop warning. His heart rate kept increasing faster and faster as he saw the little dot of a spear slowly gain in size.
"Screw it!", there was no time to inform the rest, standing still didn't help him out. He rushed forward towards the base of the wall. He was still quite a way away from it, but the closer he got, the less warnings he received.
The other soldiers looked at his figure and figured they should mimic him. "Follow the commander! Destroy the wall!", some of the group started to move forward. The ones that couldn't act immediately focussed on dealing with the spear.
Rubert looked back upon his army, it was an impressive sight from a distance. Some men had followed him, and they would be the luckiest among them. The spear hit the group somewhere in the middle.
What happened next must've been a dream, no, a nightmare would be more accurate. As if the gates of hell had opened right where they stood without warning. The moment the spear hit the ground, a massive explosion blew away everything in the vicinity.
That itself was terrible, but what happened next was simply a trial by fire. Secondary explosions occurred over the entire clearing, blowing all his men into the air, tearing them to pieces, setting their bodies on fire.
If that wasn't enough, the hysteric laughter of a madman rang throughout the battlefield as spears started to be thrown at them from high above, each one creating another massive explosion of flames.
Seeing the men who he was casually chatting with mere moments ago scream in agony as their entire body started to melt made his stomach churn. The ones that survived the initial impact had to deal with the scorching heat and rain of spears that seemed never-ending.
They summoned their shield and tried their absolute best to stay away from the fire, but that's exactly where the remaining spears landed, blasting them apart. Leaving the mortal world without pain would be best, since the other result was being burned to death.
Rubert barely hung on with the scenes in front of him. His own soldiers were debating whether to run away or empty their stomachs on the ground first.
In front of him, a sea of fire and pure unadulterated chaos, behind him an unsurmountable wall with the perpetrators at the very top.
"What is going on...", his voice, barely a whisper filled with despair at this point. The explosion kept occurring, if he tried his absolute best to check on his forces, he must've lost more than half.
Misery loves company, as if reality wasn't harsh enough, his gift was warning him again. Alarm bells were ringing out like crazy! He had to move, but to where? Running alongside the wall wouldn't help, but running into the sea of flames when the roars of the blasts kept alerting him also possessed horrible consequences.
"Commander! What do we do!", exclaimed one of the remaining soldiers who ran with him. There weren't a lot of people left, but standing around doing nothing would mean the end of his life according to his own gift. Attacking the wall was an option, but not one he wanted to entertain.
"I... I don-"
"Commander!", cried one of them out, he pointed to the wall behind him. His eyes flashed towards the base of the wall and got stuck like glue for a few seconds. Trying to ignore all the shrieks from behind him, his heart sunk the moment he realized it.
"Everyone! Run into the flames!", even if his army was about to collapse, he was still a general in the end. He had to at least do his absolute best to pull as many survivors with him.
As he ran towards the sea of chaos his internal alarm started to slow down, but still quite active. Never had he been given this many warnings, he knew Starborn were known for being dangerous, but he never expected his entire army to be blown to pieces.
Sprinting in the fire, he tried to protect himself, some of the soldiers had followed him, but quite a few were apprehensive. Who would willingly go into a sea of flames when they had the option not to. The screams of their friends were still fresh in their ears.
Hastily glancing behind him, he saw why his gift was going nuts. "G- Go deeper into the flames!", they were merely in the beginning of the sea of flames. The center of the explosion was further ahead.
Passing by all the corpses and the men who were barely alive and calling out for his help, but he had to ignore all their pleas. One of them grabbed his leg, suddenly freezing in place, he eyes were drawn down.
"..help me, please..", the sight of the man who had half his face burnt off, Rubert's heart skipped a beat. A sudden surge of energy came from the deepest parts of his heart.
'I'm not going to end like this! I'm not going to die here!'
Summoning a sword, he sliced the hand off unceremoniously before sprinting deeper into the woods, not paying any attention to anyone else. He was in his own world, if he had to survive, nothing else mattered.
The reason why he rushed without care for others was because he noticed why his gift was going crazy. The bottom of the wall had a crack that was spreading. The entire wall started to tilt and fall down on them.
As it gained momentum due to gravity, the remaining soldiers who had survived the surprise explosions stood still as they gazed to the sky. Realizing their position they rushed towards the flames without caring for the danger. A few simply stood still as they watched the wall slowly cover the entire sky. Start by Star, they vanished as the wall came down.
The ground shook as the wall hit the ground, the blast of wind extinguishing most of the fire, but the furthest parts only benefited from that boost of oxygen.
Rubert and some of his soldiers stood with almost shaking knees as they stared at where the wall landed. The dust settled to reveal a smaller army with the Starborn at the front, holding a massive Blue Flame Sword.
A dark red aura started to spread among the already ruined battlefield. The pressure was enough to force everyone to the ground, even if that mean that their faces were being pushed into active flames.
Rubert had the strength to push back, but doing so might aggravate the monster of a man before him.
"Surrender unless you want to continue our fight. I'll respect your choice.", pointing the tip at Rubert, his gift had finally stopped giving off any alarms. There was a strange calm in realizing that his life wasn't in danger anymore. Never had his gift been this silent. There was always some kind of signal, yet now he had a chance for a strange peace.