Over the next few weeks, Thebe continued to train along with the others. And although his accuracy improved and he hit a few new records on weights, he spent most of his time in the pod. Because of this, his core was yet again nearing its max.
This time though, Thebe was prepared.
After his daily training and another quick dinner - quick since he barely chewed - he resigned to his bunk for the night. Instead of sleeping, however, he circulated his mana even more, expecting to go through another compression.
After only a few minutes, he felt his mana core compress. Like before, another surge flowed through his body, opening his mana veins even more than last time. As expected, he felt incredibly tired afterward and swiftly went to bed.
Days turned to weeks, and weeks into months, and before Thebe realized it, the day to graduate was just around the corner.
By this point, he had spent years doing nearly nothing but improve himself. He could lift like a national strongman, shoot the eye out of a squirrel a hundred meters away, and had his mana core compress another six times.
Thebe had also spent a bit of that time getting closer with his bunkmates. The knowledge of knowing that most of their personalities were completely fabricated with the purpose of dying at war disturbed him. Still, two years is a long time, and as a wise man named Stockholm once proved, spending a significant amount of time with a person will form a relationship.
He had also spent his time processing what had happened in his previous life. His parents, his feelings. All things he thought about and came to conclusions about. He never wanted to go through that kind of pain again, and he believed becoming stronger was the only way to guarantee that.
With strength he could defend, preserve. He wouldn't have to worry about losing everything he cared about in the blink of an eye. What had happened on the day of his parents' deaths was permanently ingrained into his soul. He vowed that if he ever returned to that world he would make his parent's murderers suffer.
Thebe was now biologically sixteen, and visually showing so. His round face had sharpened, deepening his cheeks, emphasizing his chin, and giving his eyes a slight glare. His brown hair had gone uncut, reaching just below his shoulder blades, and was now kept in a braid - like his fathers.
His body had changed as well. He had hit a growth spurt about halfway through his second year, putting him at about two meters tall. He had also become significantly muscular due to his physical training. His muscles were well defined, clearly visible through his clothing.
He was, by Earth's standards, rather attractive. Not like any of that mattered though, since the only people who saw him were the nearly-mindless drones and the commander.
Along with his training, he had also practiced magic when he was alone. He was now at a level where he could consistently conjure water, fire, earth, and air - of which Thebe assumed were the basic elements. He could only control about a handful of any of the given elements at a time, but this was significant progress. He hadn't done any practical training however, out of fear of being seen, so he had no idea of the possible potential he held.
Currently, Thebe was fast asleep in his bunk. Unfortunately for him, that was about to change.
"WAKE UP WARRIORS! YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS! GET TO THE TRAINING AREA IMMEDIATELY AFTER BREAKFAST. ONLY ONE WEEK REMAINS, DON'T WASTE IT!"
'One week…' Thebe thought to himself.
'I'd better make the most of it.
He hopped out of bed, heading straight to the breakfast table.
Thebe spent the entire week taking it… easy. He ate plenty, relaxed, and spent most of his time training in the pod. He figured that if he was going to have one more week in peace, he'd better make sure he enjoyed it. And enjoy it he did.
In the final week, he'd managed to compress his core one last time, putting him at nine. As with the last eight times, he felt his mana compress and flow stronger, his control get better, and his mana core get brighter.
But the time had come. Graduation day. The commander kept a large amount of what would happen today to himself, only telling the Quick-Soldiers that they would be loaded into vehicles and transported to the 'war-zone'. This, of course, left Thebe with many questions, most of which he knew he would not get answers for - at least, not from the commander.
He proceeded to prep for war by stuffing his face, laying in bed, and circulating his mana until the commander came and collected them. The commander then had the advanced group form a single-file line chronologically, exiting to a door at the end of a long hallway that Thebe assumed led to the outside. Only Thebe's group was lined up here, so he assumed that they were being shipped off separately. Two men stood at either side of the door, which were taking the kids outside one by one until finally, it was Thebe's turn.
When Thebe stepped out of the door the familiar sight of gray and the smell of gunpowder greeted him. An endless, barren wasteland - just as he'd remembered. After his disappointing reunion with the outside of this world he was put into the back of a transport truck. The truck smelled of mold and sadness, and its look reflected that. The inside appeared completely ravaged, as if a savage animal had been let loose. Thebe could only imagine the sights of war this truck had seen. In the truck were two men, both of which were in the front seats, with one being the driver.
Thebe sat down in one of the mildew-smelling seats.
"Uh, how long is the drive?" Thebe asked, hoping it wouldn't be more than five minutes.
"Fifteen hours." Responded the man in the driver's seat.
'Shit.' Thebe grumbled to himself, contemplating if he would be more comfortable running alongside the truck rather than sit in it. At least the outside didn't smell of mold and mildew.
In the end, he had decided to stay in the truck after noticing the windows in the back could open. To pass the time, Thebe focused on circulating his mana. He got comfortable, tried his best to ignore the smell, and relaxed.
After a monotonous eleven hours, he was interrupted by a jarringly loud boom. While the shockwave from the sound would've been manageable for Thebe, the explosion that the boom came from was the problem. A piece of artillery had struck the ground just next to the truck, completely blowing off the right side and flipping it onto its left side.
Luckily, Thebe had taken his seat on the left side, and rather than be mist-ified he was temporarily blinded and deafened.
His vision returned before his hearing, and as it did so he tried his hardest to assess the situation. He was now on his back, still on the left side of the truck - just, now it was down. He saw the right side above him had been completely blown off, revealing the smokey gray sky. He looked to his left toward the front of the truck, only to see the remains of both of the men, liquidized by shrapnel.
Thebe pulled himself up using the seat that now lay parallel to the ground and examined himself. He was in a state that was much better than expected, only sustaining a half dozen shallow cuts, some still filled with fragments of crude steel originating from the blast.
As he brushed dust and debris off himself and his uniform, he began to hear the familiar whistle signaling impending doom. Reacting quickly, he sprinted out of the crater and dove into a nearby abandoned foxhole, nearly slipping on the loose, casing covered dirt.
Identical to before, an incredibly loud, violent impact cratered into the wasteland just a few dozen meters away from 0732.
He managed to hold it together, undamaged by the shell. Before the artillery could lock into his position, he used basic earth manipulation to maneuver and compact the earth against the trench, creating a fortified tunnel into a rudimentary safe room - safe from bombing, anyhow. This simple action had nearly completely drained him of his reserves, so he had to make do with the simplicity of his shelter.
As the third whine and explosion hit nearby, 0732 felt the dread set in as he realized he would likely be there for a while. With any spare time he had ever had, he circulated.
He counted 23 detonations in the desolate wasteland above before they finally ceased. Understanding it was likely they still had a note on the position, he opted to remain in the shelter until nightfall.
Once the sun had set and visibility had decreased significantly, he made his escape. Slowly crawling out of his hole, he waited some time to know if the artillery had sight on him. After a few minutes of nothing, he continued his move.
He walked up onto what remained of the road, and began his journey.
"I need to get somewhere safe. The only two places I can think of are the training facility, and whatever compound they were shipping me off to. The compound is closer, so I'll head that way. That guy said fifteen hours, it's been eleven, so four hours? The truck wasn't moving very fast, about double my running pace. If I run I could make it to the compound before sunrise… hopefully." 0732 thought to himself.
After taking the few seconds to think things through, he set off towards the compound.
Running was a terrible idea. The ground seemed to absorb him at every step, the air was filled with smog and death,and the uniform they put him in chafed. Not to mention visibility. With the moon being covered with a thick layer of fog, it was nearly pitch black. Even attempting to follow the road, he nearly fell into trenches several times.
After getting sick of this he stopped to rest for a few minutes in a nearby trench. Now that he was out of sight, he could create some fire to see the area. Luckily for him, this trench had an open, undestroyed dugout. In it were a few dozen bunks and a couple of footlockers. Not looking to disturb the probably-dead's belongings, he left them alone. He laid down on one of the beds and put out his fire and began circulating.
"If visibility weren't such an issue, I would probably be making good time. With how things currently are, I won't make it there before sunrise."
He was right.
"And, while I enjoy working on my mana, I don't think I could spend another day holed up with no water or food." He reasoned.
Without thinking, he opened his eyes and noticed the dugout was easier to see than before.
"Oh god, is the sun rising already?"
Ending his circulation, he stood up and ran outside only to see it was just as dark as before. He returned to the dugout to see it was near impossible to make out a single shape.
"What the hell? Am I losing my mind? I know it was brighter in here, but why? There's no lights, so that can't be it. Maybe… my eyes just adjusted to the dark?"
He knew this was obviously wrong, since he had been in the dark for nearly five hours now, but it was all he could think of.
Since he didn't want to sit much longer, he decided to walk and circulate to save some rest time. From his earlier experiments, he is able to move and circulate at the same time, it just makes both much less effective - movement slower and circulation weaker. He made his way back to the road and began walking and circulating.
As he did this, however, he noticed, with significant startling, that doing so allowed him to see the area around him, though still incredibly dark.
"Holy shit!" He yelled, giving out his position to anyone listening.
Luckily for him, no one was.
"I can see! It's… mana? When it circulates it must pass though my eyes, making them see better?" He concluded. "What if I send the mana into just my eyes".
He hadn't directed mana into a specific part of his body before, so he was unsure if this would work or make his eyes explode. Yet, he attempted it anyway. He directed mana from his core straight into his eyes and back.
His vision went from pitch black to completely visible in shades of green.
"Perfect! It works! It works… like night vision goggles? Interesting."
With this, he was able to sprint full speed without having to worry about falling into a trench or trap. Just as the sunlight was peeking over the horizon, so was the compound he was looking for. Breaking into the fastest bolt he'd ever run, he approached the daunting iron doors that held his salvation.
"Hey! Let me in! I'm here!" He yelled as he approached.
"Hostile approaching, readying shot" a hoarse voice grumbled, somewhere out of Thebe's earshot.
"My truck was hit by artillery! I ran the rest of the way! Can you open the -" his words were shot by a bullet.
The round entered his right eye and exited just above his temple - missing his brain, but bringing him to the ground.
"What's going on? My eye hurts. Are they coming to get me? I can't see right. My eye hurts." Were his thoughts.
Two sets of heavy footsteps approach his body.
"What was this dumbasses' plan, running up to the gate? Suicide bomber?" A grizzled voice said in confusion.
"No… I don't see any explosives. Besides, they're wearing one of our uniforms. Possibly an infiltration mission?" A young male voice added.
The older man kicked the body over, revealing Thebe's face and number.
"Am… am I there?" Thebe managed to gurgle past the pain.
"Shiiit. He's still kickin'. I was sure I hit him in the head." He said, eye's shifting to the missing chunk of skin and skull. "I did hit him in the head. Must've missed the brain"
"0732… isn't that the bloodbag we're getting from the nursery? Supposed to show up last night, got bombed?" The younger man said, catching the attention of the older.
"He- help me" Thebe choked out. "Please".
"Oh. fuck." The old man said, considering his significant demotion. "How'd this little shit run from the truck to here?" He kicked Thebe. "Reports confirmed artillery strikes four hours drive away."
The younger man perked up. "Upper command claims the quick-soldiers can run 15 hours straight before getting tired."
The older man grimaced. "These things are an affront to God, I swear. Downright disgusting."
He leaned down closer to Thebe. "Look kid, this isn't personal. I have a position to hold, a family to feed, and I can't have anything jeopardize that." He said softly, as he raised his rifle onto Thebe's forehead.
"Sir you aren't really going to -" the young man said as the older man readied on the trigger.
"W- wait. Please, I can't. I can't die. Not again" Thebe begged.
"Again? Hell, maybe I did hit its brain. So long, kid."
"Nn. No!" Thebe managed to slur out before he heard the familiar sound of a military issue rifle fire.