A metallic sound accompanied by a commanding voice awoke Yun Qiang.
"Everyone wake up! It's time to go out on patrol."
He easily recognized the voice; it was Voss, their squad leader and training instructor. Still tired, he forced himself out of bed. Around him, about twenty people were doing the same.
He wore the gray robe that he had received the day before, and then slowly made his way towards the end of barracks where the sound was coming from. As he passed the rows of beds, he massaged his wrist. After spending weeks chained, his wrists were still sore, and sometimes he moved them expecting the weight of the chains to drag him down.
When he arrived at the end of the rectangular building that was his barrack, he finally saw him. Voss was there. His back was perfectly straight, and he was staring at the recruits with a serious expression. In one hand, he held a spear, while in the other he held three sets of chains that he was shaking furiously.
"Everyone wake up! Whoever doesn't come here in the next minute will be forced to clean the common baths for one month!"
However, the threat wasn't very effective, and only a few of the remaining people hurried up.
When the minute was up, only 13 people were in line in front of Voss, while the remaining seven were still sleeping or feigning sleep in their beds.
Voss's face darkened.
"I see, then," he dropped the chains. "I will have to treat ypu like they do in military prison."
He started walking towards the closest sleeping man. Voss's oppressive aura surrounded them, making them uncomfortable.
When Voss reached a man that was clearly feigning sleep, everyone watched attentively. When Voss had brought them here, he didn't show nor boast about his strength, so everyone was curious about it.
He raised his fist up in the air, and then he let it fall. The move was simple, but it was executed at lightning speed, and Yun Qiang could barely see the fist barreling down towards the insubordinate man.When the fist connected, the sound of two loud cracks was heard in the barracks. One came from the bed frame that now laid broken on the floor, while the other....
Yun Qiang silently reevaluated Voss and looked at the dying man on the ground; even if he deserved punishment for disobeying, he didn't deserve that much. The man had already lost his senses and was currently bleeding from his mouth and eyes. Besides this, a clear dent could be seen in his chest where the punch had landed. If he didn't get immediate medical attention, he would probably die in the span of 30 minutes.
Seeing the violent scene, nobody dared to disobey Voss anymore, and they quickly dressed up and entered in line. In less than a minute, a line of 19 people was formed.
Voss slowly walked in front of them. The sound of his boots scraping against the wood echoed in the silent room.
"Good," he sounded dissatisfied. "Now we will do a quick round of presentation. I want your names and cultivation; everything else is irrelevant."
"I will start. I'm Voss, I'm at the fifth stage of the foundation realm."
He pointed at the edge of the line. "You start."
A skeletal man took a step forward and presented himself while trembling.
"I'm Lee, I'm at the first stage of the Qi gathering realm." He took a step backward.
Following him, everyone presented themselves. Yun Qiang noticed that most of the recruits had just broken through and were still stabilizing their cultivation. In fact, only himself and Sun had surpassed the first stage.
Voss, however, wasn't surprised by this lack of diversity and started introducing them to what would happen in the next months.
"Here at the shard fortress, we don't care about background, past glories, nor past mistakes."
He started pacing in the room. "Here we only care about strength and skill. It doesn't matter who you were before arriving here. Now you are all recruits in the border guard, and after training for three months you will officially become soldiers."
"Don't think of this experience as a temporary thing, since I will be your squad leader both during and after training, so don't think you can do whatever you want just because you are recruits." He stopped right in front of the exit. His wide and commanding gaze forced everyone to look towards him against the light.
"This is your chance to rise up in an environment that only cares about merits. It doesn't matter who you are. When you reach the foundation realm, you will become a squad leader. When you reach golden core, you will become a company lord, and in the low chance any of you reach the soul wandering realm, you will become the right hand of the lord of a fortress."
He waved his hand, seemingly willing into existence 19 sets of spears and armors.
"These will be your weapons and your armor. Keep them well: clean them, wash them, polish them. It doesn't matter what happened the day before. When I call for you, I want your armors and spears to shine."
He paused while looking at them with expectant eyes.
"Now wear them and form a paired line divided by cultivation stage: higher stages in front, lower stages in the back."
He turned around and walked outside. For a while, Yun Qiang stood there dazed by the amount of information. He didn't imagine that the military had this much upward mobility. After a few seconds, he came back to his senses and started wearing the armor that he had received.
It was formed in two parts: one for the chest and one for the legs. The chest part was a simple chest piece made of iron that could be put on like a shirt that covered only the upper part of his body, leaving the abs and the shoulders to maximize mobility. The shape was regular, almost geometric, probably to make it easier to mass-produce.
The leg armor was divided into four parts, two per leg, and it consisted of plates of metal that could be strapped on the thigh and on the shin. Once again, Yun Qiang noticed that the armor was made to favor mobility at the cost of defense, since the knees and the back of the legs were completely exposed, defended only by the robe that he wore.
Once he was ready, he went outside the barracks and joined the double line beside Sun. While he was at it, he looked at Sun. He didn't know when, but he had cut his hair and now sported a short haircut typical of the military. He had to admit that Sun's blonde short hair synergized quite well with the armor and gave him an almost heroic look, unlike the one he had while in prison. He guessed that it wouldn't be difficult for him to get the attention of some ladies even in big cities.
Yun Qiang instinctively touched his hair. It had grown quite long while he was locked up, and now it stopped just below his shoulders. He wondered if he should get a short haircut now that he was in the military.
Noticing him lost in thought, Sun bumped his shoulder, making him stumble forward a little.
"Hey, are you good?"
"Uh," startled Yun Qiang took some steps forward before stopping and going back in line. "Ah, yes, I was just wondering when did you cut your hair."
"Oh, Captain Voss lent me a knife to cut them while you were going to bed."
Voss cleared his throat, signaling everyone to stay silent.
"Good. Now that everyone is here, we will go on patrol. You are a lucky bunch. Your first patrol is a short one and will only take half a day."
He turned around and started moving his spear, touching the ground with every step. Everyone followed in a wobbly double line.
"While on patrol, you are not allowed to talk and are responsible for your companion, so don't lose it."
Qiang smiled awkwardly. What are we, children? He then turned to Sun, who also had an embarrassed expression. Well, at least my companion is a good one.
He quickly glanced at the recruits behind him. Yesterday, Voss had told them that all their team recruits were prisoners sent to the border as a way of punishment, so he didn't know how much he trusted them to follow orders and not make trouble.
And most importantly, don't stab him in the back at the first occasion.
Then the march started.
Two hours later
The group of recruits was marching on a small road not too far from the fortress. Every one of their steps was accompanied by the clanking of iron and the thumping of spears. Well, everyone except one.
Yun Qiang watched Voss while heavily breathing. The man walked extremely fast for someone in armor. And extremely silently, his mind silently added. He frowned. It was true; he was the only one who walked without being followed by the sound of metal brushing against the ground. Even when Voss's spear touched the ground, he could barely hear a small thump.
He started paying more attention to the way that Voss moved, but the more he watched, the more differences he noticed. In fact, the way Voss walked was different from theirs. His back was as straight as a spear, and his head was constantly watching forward. A stark difference from their group's way of walking. While they seemed to want to hug the ground as they moved, Voss's walk resembled more the movement of someone that is about to take flight at a moment's notice.
Yun Qiang straightened his back while trying to make less sound with his steps. He did this mostly because he was bored. There was nothing to do; they were just walking in silence in the monotonous flatlands that surrounded the fort. He could only walk and look at his surroundings.
As he tried to imitate Voss's walk, the road made a sharp turn, putting them perpendicular to the Shard fortress. He briefly looked at it. The construction was clearly visible from where they were, and the high tower looked imposing when seen from the surrounding flatlands. It was like seeing a mountain in the middle of a plain. No matter how high or low the mountain is, it will always look imposing by comparison.
The march continued.
Three hours later their patrol had ended and they were sitting in the cantine to get some food. The cantine was a simple rectangular room filled with wooden tables occupied by the occasional group of soldiers; on the side, there was a counter where soldiers would line up to get food.
The room felt boring and bland, but nobody seemed to are about it.The group's focus was on something else. The food.
Yun Qiang smiled as he observed his bowl full of food. The bowl was filled with rice, vegetables, and even some chicken meat.
Finally some real food.
He started eating with gusto. He had spent months eating overcooked white rice. For a moment, he forgot the fact that he was in a military regiment famous for their death toll and only focused on eating. Around him, people did the same. The only ones that weren't in a hurry to eat were Sun and Voss, who still ate in an orderly fashion.
After the meal, a heavy silence fell on the group. In fact, while the other soldiers in the room seemed to enjoy themselves and talk to each other, their group was completely silent.
"This is not a patrol routine anymore. Everyone is allowed to talk."
Voss tried to encourage them to talk, but still nobody spoke. They had arrived the day before, and most of them weren't used to their situation. The silence continued.
After a while, Voss sighed.
"Do you have any questions about the Border guard? Or the Shard fort where we are?"
This time someone responded. Yun Qiang looked at the speaker. It was a skeletal man with black hair. His voice sounded timid, and the armor too big for his body only accentuated the feeling of insecurity that could be heard in his voice.
"Sir, why are the other soldiers groups so small?" He paused. "I... I mean, I only see groups of 5, or maybe 6 or 7, but I don't see groups of 19 like ours."
Voss's face darkened as he put on an awkward smile. Lee had asked the only question that he didn't want to answer. Nonetheless, he was the one that encouraged the conversation, so he couldn't back down.
"It's because most of them died." Voss scanned the team, his eyes only stopping briefly on Sun before going over the others. "I will be honest, most of you won't make it to the rank of soldiers. In my experience, most recruits either die on patrol or are punished after they try running away from the Shard."
He closed his eyes.
"That's why soldier teams are only made up of 5 to 10 people. Simply, the original groups of recruits tend to become smaller and smaller until only the ones capable of surviving remain."
Voss thought that there was no hope for conversation anymore since he had brought down the mood so much, but at this point Yun Qiang spoke.
"But, we will receive training and resources that will help us survive, right?"
Voss scanned again the people at the table. He could see that some of them had hopeful expressions on them. It was his chance to bring up the mood and pump up the morale of his team.
"Yes, I will try my best to train you and make it so everyone here survives. However, I expect all of the present to do their best."
"As for resources, you only have to hold on for 3 months. After that, you will become official soldiers and you will receive a pay that you can spend on resources like pills or techniques to improve your cultivation."
Hearing this, most people cheered. Three months weren't much; even if they were inexperienced, they could survive. It couldn't be that bad, right?. Besides this, most of them were prisoners or loners who could never hope to afford cultivation resources, receiving a pay was a big plus.
After this announcement, the table became more lively and some recruits tried to introduce themselves and get to know each other better. Some even tried to involve Sun and Yun Qiang in the conversation.
Voss looked at them. It seemed that he had managed to save the situation. As he smiled and responded to some of their questions, he thought to himself:
Maybe it will be different this time...