Days and weeks passed.
Today the sun was out just like the day we first arrived here.
We walked through a field of grass, the guards ordered me and the other captives forward with our hands tied behind our backs while Lucien walked ahead.
I had been thinking about what he said to me last night.
Was it really possible for me to get to Valeria?
Lucien had come to me this morning, asking me if I had thought about his offer. I told him i'd agree only under certain conditions.
Conditions he accepted with open arms.
The green grass waved from side to side in the wind.
Now that I was not blinded by a sack any longer, I was now able to see who the other captives were.
These must've been the other warriors Lucien scouted to enlist into his Black Thorn.
To my right was the guy Kadil who spoke to me in the carriage.
He was roughly the same height as me, lean, had ruffled black hair with blonde highlights that was cut at about the end of his neck, and peculiar eyes that told many different stories.
Meanwhile to my left was a tall girl who towered over everyone around.
She walked bent forward with her head down, and she had short dark hair that was shaved in some areas more than others.
Multiple scars scratched the surface of her body, letting their presence be known.
I couldn't ignore the fact at how abnormally tall she was, it made me draw the conclusion that she had to be of the Giant race.
It was crystal clear to the point nothing else came to mind but that.
Kadil was too busy looking around to notice anything, while the girl had this look of depression plastered all through her face.
Taking a closer look at the two made me realize that they also shared the same symbolized burn marks on the left side of their faces just as I did.
Did they also go through an awakening? The only difference between each of our marks was the king of runic symbols burned into them.
All of ours differed in a few specific ways, but the reason as to why didn't come as naturally to me as I thought it would.
They led us to where the carriage we were carried in before was located and stopped right in the back of it.
It was on the end of the grassy field and stationed on the road leading to it.
Lucien cleared his throat loud enough for anyone nearby to hear, and then stepped back to charge up before launching a fierce kick at the back wheel of the carriage.
The kick shook the whole carriage violently, and what followed was a moment of emptiness.
No sound, no movement, nothing.
But after that brief moment of quietness, a long bearded man with long spiky black hair, a fur coat atop a set of ruffled armor, and lastly, that same damn burn mark and symbol.
This time, it was in the center of his face and covered almost all of it. Unlike our marks on the left of our faces.
The man jumped up from the front of the carriage; spooked and alert.
Because we had woken him up from his beauty rest, he wasn't exactly all 'there' if I had to place a title on it.
He was drowsy and clueless, darting around until his eyes landed on Lucien.
"Oh, it's you."
The man's voice was the deepest thing I've ever heard.
"Good evening Victor."
Lucien answered back.
"What brings you here so early, little noble."
The nameless man Victor, who was no longer nameless, asked Lucien.
"Do you remember our agreement?"
Lucien questioned with a reassuring tone.
"Somewhat. It's all still a little shaky."
Victor responded to Lucien as he scratched his beard.
Lucien sighed, this was clearly going nowhere and it appeared that Lucien was growing impatient.
"Our little pals here would like your assistance Victor…."
The king said through gritted teeth and a fake smile.
"These twerps? When you came to me with the proposal Lucien, I didn't think you'd really take me for a fool."
"Not like this at-least."
Victor's tone got a little more serious which caused the gravity of the encounter to shift in his favor.
Chills shot down the backs of everyone in the vicinity and nearly brought us all to our knees, including me which was surprising.
Lucien dropped his head in retaliation. Picking it back up, he met Victor's seriousness with his own, rivalling firmness.
Lucien's eyes lit up in a fiery blaze that resembled something akin to unfiltered bloodlust.
Victor and Lucien traded gazes, Victor dropped his head as well and scratched his beard again.
"Fine."
He surrendered his intense feelings.
Victor leaped from the front of the carriage and blinked in front of me. I literally did not see him move or touch the ground, and he had seemingly teleported right in front of me.
He inspected my body, raising the clothing rag they gave us so he could get a closer look on my muscle definition, weight, height, and other things.
He did this for everyone else too, scaring us all in the process as he moved at speeds incomprehensible to anyone of us.
"Hmph. Not bad. That kid with the white hajr though…."
Victor sighed.
"His body's pretty weak so it's going to take me some time to get him ready."
"Don't worry, I have other plans for him."
Lucien calmly stated.
Victor inspected us all closer this time while Lucien watched on.
"Alright then. I believe that settles things. I'll be leaving them in your care Victor."
"Toodles."
Lucien smirked then took off in the way we came with his guards.
Air whistled cleanly, Victor stared at us three with his hand on his chin, thinking of something.
"Ok roll call!"
Victor blurted out at random.
Roll call? What did he mean?
"I want you all in a line, and when I call on you, I want you to step up and give me your name, age, what you're good at, and how many people you've killed."
Victor stood there hands on his sides as he sternly gave us orders.
The last order sounding kind of odd.
"You first!"
He pointed at me.
I walked up one step.
I held my head high without shame, I looked Victor in the eyes proudly and started to lay out what he asked.
"Nel Laurent."
"My age is 19, and I specialize in the way of the blade."
I said hurryingly.
"And how many people have you killed?"
Victor asked.
"26." I said.
That is what all those years of hunting heads for Lucien and all of Solim tallied up to.
Victor nodded at my kill count.
"Not bad…. Next!"
I stepped back, and Kadil stepped up.
"Kadil Augustus. I'm 18, and I don't really know what I specialize in, but I like books!"
Kadil yelled nervously.
"Books huh? Alright, and how many people have you killed?"
"Uhm.. I'm kinda too embarrassed to say."
"Well? How many is it?" Victor asked more forwardly.
"Uhmmm.. 73.."
Kadil itched at his neck as he said that ludicrous number.
73 people killed??
What type of answer was that?! He had to be joking, there was no way that was his actual amount of people killed.
You only hear something like that from an experienced combat veteran. Kadil didn't look like that.
His body was too frail to be a warrior, there had to be a catch.
Victor hid a smirk under his mean exterior, then went on with what he was meant to do.
Victor shooed Kadil away and Kadil stepped to the side.
"Now as for you-"
Victor halted his speech when the third prisoner aka the lady I saw before, walked up to him.
Extending her back straight up to reveal her true height left Victor's jaw agape.
She was way bigger than any of us had imagined.
"Ve."
She spoke before Victor could. Her voice was rather soft and gentle in contrast to her physique.
Victor's face was comical.
He forgot how to speak after he saw her. Clearing his throat, Victor was blushing at the embarrassment.
"Y-Your last name?"
Victor asked.
"It's just Ve."
She replied.
Victor was left astounded.
"Ok Ve…"
"And what about you?
"What are you good at?"
Victor talked openly.
"Nothing."
Ve looked menacing in every regard, I wonder what he story was.
What has Lucien gotten me into….
Victor's thoughts were loud and clear from here in the awkward silence that swallowed us.
"And how many people have you killed Ve?"
Victor moved on.
"1."
Ve's face was stone cold and showed not an ounce of emotion as she said those words.
Victor looked at her with a pondering stare, eager to ask more, but not eager enough.
"Alright. Pretty sure that covers everything, for now."
"Ok, i'll start explaining everything you'll be going through these next coming year."
Victor's posture straightened.
"I'm pretty sure Lucien already told you about his whole Black Thorn thing. So i'll keep it short and sweet."
"He's tasked me with the job of shaping you little shits into proper warriors and teaching you how to use mana."
"I'm sure you all have gone through your first stage of Awakening so i'm going to briefly go over all you need to know about Awakened ones so listen up."
Victor strolled in a circle while speaking, his eyes trained on us from time to time.
"First. There are 3 main types of Awakened."
"There's the Control types, the Physical types, and the Summoning types."
"Control types revolve around the manipulation of various elements, concepts, and
"Physical types mainly focus on the manipulation of themselves, or their equipment."
"And lastly, Summoning types are the most vague of them all. They can count as skills that summon demons, angels, beasts, or anything else, or skills that allow for temporary possession in return for enhanced abilities, and alot more."
"Those are the 3 main types. All fairly self-explanatory."
Victor rambled on.
"From there you have sub-types and hybrid-types; which are devilishly rare so don't even think about dual types. But that's for another day, unless one of you actually manages to actually become a dual type that is."
Victor shot us a quick glance as we listened. Or at-least I tried to.
"Right now you all are weak, so weak in fact, that the weakest Awakened in all these lands could finish you all off with the swipe of their pinky while blindfolded." He emphasized.
"So it is my job to make sure you all can properly use what you've been given so we can reach this whatever it's called."
"I forgot, what was it again? Was it, Valeria?" Victor looked up at the sky and tried to recollect the information Lucien gave him.
Bottled rage from the fact that everyone's just going along with what Lucien is doing to us; it was something I wasn't able to contain anymore.
"What?! You say given as if we've been blessed by the gods!"
"What you've done to us is nothing short of sick, and I won't rest until Lucien's head sits atop my blade and I reach Valeria myself." I shouted without holding my tongue any longer.
Victor turned his head from the sky and towards me. He stared at me with the stare of a disgrace. From that alone my body had instinctively acknowledged that I was beneath him in every aspect. Scary and terrifying, Victor's air of bloodlust only grew.
I stared him down in contest to give off the aura that I wasn't surrendering to him or Lucien for that matter.
Out of nowhere, Victor used his immense speed to flash step right in-front of me, his speed was faster than thought and I couldn't see any of it, not even him moving from his starting position.
Victor extended his hand, opening his palm as he rushed my face, slamming his palm right on my nose, pushing me down and slamming me down against the road head first.
My legs kicked up to the clouds and I came down with a loud boom.
Kadil and Ve both gasped. Because they couldn't see Victor either, it all was a blur.
They snapped their necks to look at the scene beside them in awe.
My skull rested in the rocks, I was still dazed by what just happened.
"Had I not dampened your fall with mana, your skull and brain would be mush right now."
Victor announced to me and the rest of us second handedly.
"Listen kid. No one has time for your lone wolf fantasies."
"You don't stand a chance against a crippled Awakened right now, and our road ahead is filled with loads of em."
"So you tell me if you want to die sooner or later, because I refuse to waste my time with meddling little kids who cry because things don't go their way."
Victor lectured me heavily with aggression as Kadil and Ve watched from the sidelines.
I clamped down my teeth in pure anger Just then, a large hand was placed on Victor's shoulder.
Victor turned to face who it could be and that's when he saw him. A man as tall or maybe even slightly taller than Ve who was an actual giant.
The man was bald, wore super tiny glasses, and had a funny little blonde mustache and beard combo. He had a gentle aura surrounding him that put us all at ease in this tense situation.
"Don't you think that's enough, Victor?"
The titan of a man quietly addressed Victor with his tight, arm shattering grip that even affected Victor.
Victor sighed and released his grip from my skull.
He got up, dusting himself off and brushing the man's hand off his shoulder.Victor rotated his shoulder, stretching his shoulder-blade out, freeing it from the giant's grasp.
"Everyone here meet Alexander."
Alexander walked past Victor and made his way over to me, reaching out his hand as a show of kindness.
"Need a hand lad?"
This giant man's name was Alexander? I would've sworn he was someone from an enemy nation. He didn't exactly give off Solim quality. Not in a bad way that is.
I took Alexander's hand and stood back on my feet. His hands were ginormous. Bigger than maybe my whole torso.
You could tell this guy was for sure an Awakened just off the pressure you felt from him just standing.
"I'm going to be the one who trains you all in combat, and physicality, while he is the one who is going to key you in on all the science behind this stuff."
"Stuff like mana, elixirs, what you need to be eating, Awakenings, Awakened types, drawbacks, skills, transformations, the Wretched, and more."
"He's also going to let you in on what exactly your mark does to begin with."
"That'll all be Alexander."
Victor touched his marked left eye, insisting that we do the same.
We all then took a look at Alexander and then looked at one another unable to determine what the future here would look like.
Alexander smiled widely and waved at us with one hand as he tilted his head to present himself more kindly.
"So? Is everyone ready?" Alexander smiled from ear to ear.