I walk, and walk, and walk, putting one foot ahead of another at a time mostly staring at the ground, unaware of my surroundings as I do so. The trees gradually begin to thin out, patches of grass continuously grow larger. A strong breeze of wind suddenly hits me as I exit the forest, I look up, surprised to see a long grassy plain, devoid of trees. Voices begin carrying through the wind, dozens of voices. Further up ahead lied a hill surrounded by makeshift fortifications. Various tents were set up at the top, and there was a large wooden pole jutting out from the center of the camp displaying a well worn insignia.
I stare at the hill wondering what my next move should be. Should I just camp out here and wait? Watch until I see the army march out for battle, follow them quietly, and then join the fight? Or maybe I could even preemptively head towards the opposing camp, sneak close and do some damage. As I was thinking I hear a whistle and then a thud. I turn my head and stare at an arrow that buried itself at a tree only a couple feet away from me.
Ah, I've been spotted. The first thought that runs through my head is to turn tail and run. However, my feet are stopped by another thought.
I slowly raise my arms in surrender, all the while making sure to put up an invisible shield of wind in case they fire another one at me. No arrows come for the next couple of minutes. As I wait patiently, far off in the distance, I could see three or four armed soldiers exit the camp and make their way to my location.
"What is your business here?" The soldier who seemed to be the leader of the bunch asks me in a polite but slightly aggressive tone.
"Well, er' I'm from the countryside and I heard the fightin is goin pretty awful, so I thought to help out a little." I say in a makeshift country accent that I had instantly regretted making.
The soldiers look at each other for a couple of seconds, before resting their hands on their hilts, clearly hostile at me.
I very slightly back off. Do they know who I am??? Has the news traveled that quickly? It's only been a week right?
"Putting aside the strange accent, I guess you're fine. Follow us and I'll put you in with the newest batch of recruits." The leader said before turning around and leading me into the camp.
"Wait, wait, wait, are you sure he's not a spy?" Another soldier immediately speaks up.
"Take a look at his clothing." The leader says.
All the soldiers, including myself stare at what I'm wearing. Oh yea… I still have the clothing Yesenia gave me huh? They all instantly shut up and continue to escort me.
"Boy, I'm not sure why someone like you is here, but I don't care. We need everyone we can get." The leader quietly murmurs.
I quickly find myself in a smelly uncomfortable uniform sitting besides a bunch of men and women of various age crowded together in a single tent.
I wonder if I made the right call here. It seems like my face hasn't been spread around yet, but I'm not too sure about my infamy.
I look down at my clothes. We were given a new set of clothes, a very military style clothing, however, extremely uncomfortable compared to the soft luxurious fabric from the palace, but at least I can blend in a little bit better now I guess.
"Hey, I have a question, what do ya'll know about the Tetsudo that were supposed to show up? I haven't been too familiar with how everything's been happening."
No response. It was like I was sitting in a room full of corpses.
"Anyone?" I get a couple of annoyed looks and then I decide to shut up. From the forced drafts I heard about back in the city I could reasonably assume that nobody here wanted to be here. I shift my position and then lie down on the ground, getting a couple of disgruntled noises from the people around me. I then close my eyes and try to catch some sleep.
"Look alive! Acting gloomy ain't gonna to increase your chances of surviving!" The flap to the tent opened exposing everyone to the bright flaring sun. A couple of light groans rise up, but everyone quickly stands up.
I follow and do the same; this time, I would draw as little attention as possible. It's become obvious to me that my big bold actions like breaking out of the castle or marching straight into the middle of town caused more harm than good. I walk out of the tent and into the open air.
"You will now be assigned your squadrons! You go to group 39! You! …" As we trickle down in number, I get assigned to my group, and walk to the designated spot marked on the ground.
I stare at the number I was assigned to. Four, a completely ordinary number, for any ordinary person. I was now just another soldier among thousands. If any of us died, maybe a few back home, if one had relatives or close friends, would cry, but further than that we would simply be forgotten once dead.
I wait patiently as the last of the recruits get their numbers. I counted 151 recruits in all. I look around at the other groups, some got three, some four, some even got five new members, but some reason I was the only one assigned to group four.
Am I getting singled out? Do they know who I am? This is a coincidence right? Annoying thoughts like these continue running through my head until I'm suddenly interrupted.
"Your back seems to be a little bit straighter than the rest of the recruits." I looked up to see a pleasant looking woman approach me.
"And you're quite young as well; what's your name and where do you come from?" She asks me lightheartedly.
"I'm... Roak, and I live out in the country, quite close to this place." I said, continuing on with the countryside dweller persona I had I made up on the fly.
"Oh, so did you choose to enter the war of your own volition?" She chuckles. "Someone who actually wants to join a losing battle? Rare these days."
"Are countrymen exempt from the fighting?" I asked, confused.
"Why yes. We would waste far too many resources trying to track you guys down and forcing you to join, so you aren't a part of the draft." She said before turning around.
"Well Roak, I'm Lydia. I'm afraid to say that you've arrived at a pretty bad time. There are only four or so days until the next campaign, so I'm afraid you won't have very much time to learn and reinforce your skills. Don't worry though, I'll make sure you'll be put near the back." She looks over her shoulder and says.
"Don't worry, I'm not all that nervous." I said confidently.
"Hmm, that's strange, you should be nervous really; you should be terrified! Don't worry about what people say. Be a coward! That's what separates the people who will die and the people who will survive." She pats my shoulder. "Come on I'll show where you'll be living soon." I lightly nod my head at the advice and follow her through the field of tents.
I look around as we walk through the field, it was quiet. No lighthearted chit-chatter like back at the city. Even though every tent was quite crowded, very few people were talking to each other. I hear a couple of grunts here and there as people were practicing their forms.
I look back as I hear a loud yell from within one of the tents, I instantly bring my guard up, but Lydia motions me to follow her into that tent.
"Our newbie is here, don't treat him too rough."
"Ahaha! Our new punching bag for the time being! Bal, you've been promoted!" A massive man rushes up to me and carries me by the waist, swinging me around. I almost use my Tetsu on reaction; it was like a bear charging me.
"What's your name?"
"ah, my name is-"
"Doesn't matter! Your name is going to be 'boy' until the next recruit comes! Ahahaha!" He puts me down on the ground.
"of course." I said meekly.
Lydia then walked up to the bear of a man, grabbed him, and slammed him to the ground with one arm.
"And this is our Captain, Bythem." She said.
"Ohoho, that was a good one, and that's why I love ya." Bythem gets up and dusts himself off.
"Alright, let's try that again. What's your name?"
"My name is Roak, it's an honor to meet you." I said.
"Eh? It's an honor to meet me? I must be stronger than I thought if people know me from outside here! Ahahaha!" Bythem slaps his hip.
Soon, various other people began crowding around me, asking me about myself. I respond a lot more reserved than I usually do, put off by the crazy energy the emanated from this little tent.
"You guys... Are a lot more joyful than I thought you would be." I said after a while.
"What a weird thing to say." Byzem said. "But you know, the Tetsudo-" I had a brief stroke of panic when he said this. "-from the southern capital going to be joining us during this campaign, and from what I heard. Both of Oliviand's Tetsudo aren't available right now, so this should be an easy sweep." Southern capital? I thought to myself. I was supposedly summoned in the northern capital, so that means that I'm not the one he's talking about.
"What about the one from the northern capital?" I asked curious about my reputation.
"Oh him? I heard that he went crazy, killed some people, then disappeared. It's just been rumors floating around though, we haven't received any direct communication about it from that side." Byzem then slapped my back. "In any case, it's best to think that all of this are just baseless rumors, no use thinking so negatively all the time, ahaha!" Byzem finishes with his now signature laugh and goes to talk with someone else.
I walked outside the tent and take in my surroundings. A couple of soldiers were practicing thrusts with spears in unison, practice fighting with purposefully dulled swords, running laps around the field. I stare at the soldiers for a couple of minutes.
Oh boy... This is a problem. The spears were flying back and forth at speeds where they blended together into a blur if I didn't focus hard enough, the swords were being swung at such force that I could feel a slight breeze every time they were swung, and the motions were so complex and intricate that even my eyes were struggling to keep up with their physical movements, as I blinked the runner whipped right past my line of sight, moving with such speed that it takes a second for my brain to realize what just happened.
How am I supposed to keep up without revealing my identity? I try making a fist and swinging it as fast as I could. But it looks like I'm moving underwater compared to the soldiers here. I then try breathing in and out, letting wind circulate through my body. I swing my fist again, whipping it through the air with the help of a controlled burst of wind. I then clutch my shoulder in pain as my arm nearly tears out of its socket from the speed of my punch, my fingertips also begin to ache from all the blood that just rushed into my hand.
"Oi, make sure to warm up before you begin practicing, don't want to be tearing your muscles." I hear an unfamiliar voice from behind. I turn around and thank the soldier for the advice, before continuing my practice.
It's the same thing as when I tried kicking that rose-metal armor with wind. It'll hurt my body even more than my opponent since I'm so fragile compared to these people.
I scratch my head in frustration. Ah, I wish I wasn't so inexperienced with wind! If only my sister Fiao was here to...
I stop and pause. It's been a while since I've thought of her huh? I wonder how she's managed to hold on while earning the hate of everyone in the country like I did, or maybe she wasn't as foolish as I was. In any case, I hope she's doing well. During that brief reminiscence of my sister a memory I shared with her flashed through my mind.
If you want to move fast, lighten your body, if you want to hit hard, keep your body heavy. However, if you want to hit hard and move fast... I lighten my body and swing my arm at a lightning-like speed. Normally, if you lighten your body, no matter how fast your arm is moving, the force does not damage your body.
However, if you time it right... I slightly open my palm as my arm fully extends. A tiny air bomb at my hand explodes the second the punch completes. Blowing my hair back and the grass around me flat to the dirt, and there was absolutely no pain whatsoever.
I remember asking my sister why she even needed to punch in the first place when all she needed to do was touch the opponent, and they would be hit with the same amount of force. "It looks cool right?" Was the response I got. I later found out that she didn't even need to touch the opponent, all of it was for pure style.
"What are you doing throwing your arms around like that? The second you lose your weapon I want you to run away, not stay and fight." Lydia sneaks up from behind me.
"Weapon?" This was the first time that obvious thought had crossed my mind.
"Of course? What, did you really think you were going to go charging into the enemy barehanded?"
In all seriousness, I really didn't think of that. There is absolutely no need for any weapons in our world when our deadliest weapons were the Tetsu stored in our bodies. In fact, the only reason I even knew about stuff like swords and spears was because I studied up intensely on this side of Rai the months preceding my arrival.
"To be completely honest, yes I did." I decide to be truthful.
"Have you ever used a weapon?" Lydia then asks genuinely and without any sort of mocking tone.
"No, this will be my first time."
"I see, then I'd better get you familiar with a spear before our final drills tomorrow. Lydia disappears for a second before bringing out two wooden poles with metal weights attached to the tips. She gives one to me and then drives the other one into the ground and leans on it.
"Don't worry about form right now, there's no way you'll be able to achieve proper form by the time the campaign comes so just thrust as you see fit." She then goes quiet and stares at me intently.
What am I supposed to do?
I try thrusting the spear without any wind.
"Hey now, don't be shy, use your Anku." Lydia said.
I stare at the spear and hesitate. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to approach this. I can lighten my body but the spear stays the same weight. I look back at Lydia, she was still staring at me expectantly.
"You got this." I decide to try it anyways. A vortex of wind curls around the spear like a snake as I thrust it forward. Immediately, the momentum of the spear wrestles itself out of my grip and flies out into the field.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa relax there!" Lydia dashes off and catches the spear before it lands.
I raise my arms and drop them in exasperation and defeat.
"Here try again." Lydia hands the spear to me. "The anku should start in your leading arm and roll across the entire length of your arm until it reaches your fingers. If you're not good at anku control, just try to concentrate anku towards your fingertips so it doesn't fly out like that again. It doesn't have to be the fastest thrust ever, in fact that was already extremely fast, just keep it controlled."
Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about, but I have to pretend that I do.
"Alright, let me try it again." I do the same motion, but this time just as the tip of the spear reaches its apex, the direction of the wind reverses, grinding the spear to a dead halt.
I struggle to stay on my feet as my head began to spin. All these specific motions and techniques were all new to me, so they took a sizable chunk of my focus, and therefore consumed a lot more mental fatigue than they normally should.
Lydia scrunches her eyebrows after I do the thrust. "What was that?" She mouthed from the corner of my eye. I bite my nails, my form must have looked a little bit unnatural, I have to be more careful.
"Alright, that looked pretty good. Now…" Lydia claps her hands together and grabs her spear out of the dirt. "Do that three-hundred times." A hollow feeling begins to spread across my chest the second she said those words.
"What? A noble person like you never had to work hard before?" She said, amused as she saw my reaction.
"How- How did you know that I was a-" I cut off mid-sentence.
"You've done pretty well to hide it, but from what I've observed. You don't have any calluses anywhere on your hands, your skin is paler than the average person, and the tone in which you speak is polite and doesn't reflect the countryside people at all." She looks away. "I won't pry into what the real reason is that someone like you decided to join this war. All I hope is that you're prepared."
"Does anyone else know about this? Did you tell anyone?" I ask frantically.
"I never said anything to anyone. But Bythem and a couple of others can be pretty observant, they might catch on soon. Anyways, don't worry about that; I shouldn't have said anything. Just practice the motions." Lydia begins to thrust the spear effortlessly, inviting me to join along with her.
I look down at the spear. "I might be coughing blood by the end of this." I murmur.
Thus, the soldier known as Roak was born.