"Phew, I guess I'm done now" I said to myself after my "self-improvement training" as I had called it. Short sprints, boulder lifting, waterfall standing endurance, I did all I could to endure and it actually paid off. I remember challenging Sir. Brian two days after I begun this training and I won against him. YES!! In a contest of speed and technique I won against Sir. Brian and now my physical stats have increased thankfully. Now to the matter at hand. Getting drafted to the army field work. It simply comprised of going out scouting for places that wasn't destroyed by the MONARCHY, fighting off the monarchy forces and all. And today was the draft day.
Now to get into the army you just needed to complete the 3 challenges; Place within 100th in the 100km endurance race, win in hand-to-hand combat against other participants and achieve a mana scale of above 4.5. The last was already a cinch for me due to mine being 6.2, so I was eligible to skip that. Now heading to the site for the draft exam I saw 4 of the friends I was able to make. They also had come for the draft.
Stacy of course was there looking all beautiful and ready to ace the exam, Alex the bulky one with his humongous physique, one of the natural born high form, Mick the sprinter, met him during my training with Sir. Brian, and Cain the strongest High Born. He had this aura around him that spoke "Born Leader" and well his was the leader of our little circle.
The race began and ended in ease for all five of us. That wasn't a major concern for any of us since we were all physically feat, the major problem was the hand-to-hand combat challenge. The rules were simple, win by submission or incapacitation. And my opponent was to be Abel. One of the strong high forms.
"Hey Abel, hope we have a good match" I called out to him. "I don't need your wishes, keep them to yourself cause you're going to need it" he retorted with his face contorted with irritation. "You might have a high mana scale to be a supreme form, but don't think that it means you have the best physical stats" he rambled on. He clearly didn't know of the training system I formed for myself. Comical. "Whatever you say Abel" I said while he angrily walked away. I smiled to myself about how this was going to go. "Certainly, going to be interesting" I said before going to watch the first match-up.
"For our first match we have Stacy Walters versus Davids Pearsons" the announcer announced. "Now you know the rules, victory by submission or incapacitation. Now start" and so the first match-up began between Stacy and Davids.
Davids made the first move with a straight jab at Stacy which she effortlessly dodged with a comeback of a kick which landed cleanly on Davids head. He staggered a bit before getting straight. "What a nice kick you have there" Davids mentioned. "You sure take pride in those legs with your kicks and speed, why don't I destroy em" and with those words Davids started to target Stacy's legs. A normal person would've been at risk since their mobility would be at risk now that their legs were being target. But a "normal person" and Stacy was clearly not normal in any way. "Tee-hee I'll love to see you try" Stacy laughed and dodged the first attempt made at her legs. Then twisted with such unnatural acrobatics and landed Davids another kick on the same spot as earlier. Davids staggered and then went on to receive a barrage of kicks to that same spot. "I thought you were aiming for my legs" Stacy said with contempt in her voice, sporting a devilish smile. Almost forgot, Stacy has a demonic side to her. When she gets too into a battle, the opponent is at a risk of her fury and would lose if not stronger than her. Of course, I was a victim of this in our mock battles and sometimes went to bed with more than two bones broken.
"And Stacy Walters wins this match-up" the announcer screamed and a bunch of cheers rang in the air in the favor of Stacy. Man was she strong and beautiful. But now it's time for my own match-up.
"Dan Terry versus Abel Wriggler" the announcer said. "You know the rules, submission or incapacitation. Have a fair match, begin" and so our match started pretty much the same way the first had. I started on the attack so as not to be caught lacking, landing a blow on his solar plexus. He quickly regained his stance and sent a similar blow my way. Let's be honest. It was slow. Very much slow, it seems I had become much faster thanks to my training system but this movement was very slow. I caught his hand and threw him in a takedown. "You're slow Abel. Almost too slow for me to train with" I said while holding him down in an arm bar. "H-How did y-you get this strong and f-fast" he said with his face turned white with fright. "Well, I guess it's due to the guide system of course" I lied. I couldn't tell anyone about my training system. It was a sacrilege to stray from the "redundant" guide system. But I guess it's about time I win this match.
"You better submit Abel" I said tightening the arm bar. And before I knew it, 3 taps on me and I won the match. "T-The winner is Dan Terry!!!" the announcer screamed and the site went into an uproar, most rising form the fact that I even though I had the weakest physical stats (according to them) won a stronger high form. Well, I was a bit happy to be honest and even happier when Stacy jumped on me. Oh, the joy...
***
Alex, Mick and Cain each went on to win their own match-ups and the were of the right mana scale and so our full circle had been drafted to the army. We celebrated all night and turns out Mick couldn't hold his alcohol and some funny happenings occurred but that's a story for another day.
Done with my training system this morning, I was to go to the assembly camp for our briefing, fitting, equipment and what not for the army. I met up with Stacy and we both went to the assembly grounds. There we did fittings for the uniform (a lot of fun looking at those get fit, if you know what I mean), equipment; I opted for a katana and some throwables since I could imbue the former with mana and the latter for aesthetics. A man's got to do what he does best.
Now for the briefing. We were led to a hall of sorts; I looked at the hand-out and our briefer was Sir. Henry Britley. The man known as "The Noise" for his sharp and commanding voice and his explosive spurt during battle, Sir. Henry cleared his throat which brought an end to all rowdiness in the hall.
"Today, you're going to be briefed on the Army's next expedition" he began. Man, he didn't even need to use a mic or a megaphone, His voice lived up to the name "the noise". "As we all know, we are the last resistance Army against the MONARCHS and we need to capture the next city" by next city as everyone knew he meant Merth. Merth was a city down south with endless resources to solve our food, clothe and space issues. But all those resources did come with it's necessary drawbacks. The city was teeming with what we the army call "ORTS" black formless beasts who directly devour the souls of whoever they bite. Some orts were captured and research was being done on how to make one a familiar and results weren't forthcoming. I guess it was a project for the future generations. Bummer. "We go to Merth, and we conquer" bellowed Sir. Henry. "And that'll be all. Go to your sectional heads for the strategy plan" he said finishing.
Luckily for us, our sectional head was Cain, and it turned out I, Stacy and Cain will be on the frontlines with Alex and Mick manning the support due to their physiques. The strategy was simple. Kill any Ort in sight, whichever remained after the raid were cornered and caught for experiments. To be able to kill Orts one must imbue their weapons/self in mana if an ordinary weapon. But luckily for we the resistance army, our weapons and equipment where made with mana stones. Mana stones were the physical manifestations of mana, found where there was a large amount of mana. That was another reason we were going to Merth. Wherever there was a large amount of mana the place teemed with Orts. It seemed to make the Orts even stronger and thus harder to kill hence, the basic strategy was to first kill any Ort in sight and then corner any remaining.
Done with our strategy meeting. All three of us frontliners were to go rest till the raid on Merth and boy was I happy. I did my training system for the day and reflected on the past month. From being a weak low form to being a strong supreme class. I knew I was still not the strongest and I knew there was going to be issues in Merth due to me not being too strong. But I wasn't going to let myself go down easy.
I had already learnt mana imbued attacks for myself and my attributes were light and water. I could make basic attacks with those elements such as a light projectile or go on the defensive with water and make a water wall as strong as steel. Then was my speed. Training myself was hard but it also brought for its rewards. I simulated a battle against myself where I shoot off the light arrows and I'll have to get to the target before it. Trust me such wasn't easy. It always got to the target before I started with my sprints which was downright annoying. But as days turned into weeks I began going on par with the arrow and before I knew it, I was easily faster than the arrow.
Now to test if I could imbue not mana but the elements on my katana and throwables. I went through three stages starting with the katana; first try imbuing only mana into the katana which worked, then turn the mana into a light and water element, which took me a lot of hours before I could perfect it, then try swordplay with the elements which unexpectedly was easier than the second step. The same for the throwables except when it was time to swordplay, I tried to make the explosions as powerful as usual but in the elements form. This sort of took me more hours than expected which made me have to retire to the dorms due to lateness rules.
Tomorrow, we conquer Merth!!