Duties
Eden Military Training Camp, 14 years ago
Bang!
"That's all you got, cadet?!" A well-built middle-aged man bellowed, punching a young man to the ground for the nth time that morning.
The sixteen-year-old Garan groaned and pushed himself up once more, his muscles hardening as he prepared for another attack.
The older man narrowed his eyes as he watched the young boy's movements.
"You cannot be a proper soldier if you're not strong enough!"
The huge man snapped into position again. "Come!" He yelled and the boy flinched, similarly entering an aggressive stance.
Determination burning in his azure eyes, the young lad lunged forward. His strikes were swift and precise for his age, but it was lacking in the eyes of the older man, who was grooming him to be the best there was.
Bang!
Another takedown, with the lad immediately jumping back up to stability, darting towards the older man without a beat of delay.
The boy's movement was impressive, but the older man easily deflected his hits, and soon started to counterattack.
First, the boy was hit in the stomach, then to the chest. The lad struggled to defend, albeit with increasing frequency of a decent block.
However, the soldier's seasoned movements contrasted greatly with the teen's imperfect techniques, and he failed as soon as the old man changed his tempo a bit.
The older man's movements were precise and impactful, and the boy blocked the blows with gritted teeth.
The impact pushed him down everywhere, but he stood up every time.
He was beaten up again for another half an hour, but without fail, Garan stood up.
The huge man looked at him deeply and relaxed his stance. Still, Garan did not dare lose his guard.
The boy's eyes sharpened and his body shifted. Using his excellent reflexes, he jumped up and changed his position, indicating it was a fake.
He launched a quick strike hitting the man's side and the man, taken by surprise, let out a muffled grunt.
The boy immediately jumped back in a defensive, ready should he attack him again.
However, instead of attacking, the man's posture relaxed, making the boy's eyebrows furrow.
The man smiled and patted his shoulders, with no signs of a new attack. Garan's tense body relaxed a bit, but still guarded enough in case of a fake-out.
"Good," the man said after a while and the boy blinked, lips twitching upward.
"...thank you."
The old man looked at him with deep eyes and Garan unconsciously straightened his back more.
"Listen well, soldier. We are the shield in front of our country, and thus, the shield in front of our loved ones."
Garan couldn't help but think of that huge scar he saw on the young Althea's back when they were swimming. She didn't mind it, but he felt like crying.
As he remembered this, his eyes sharpened, and the man saw it and nodded in approval.
"That is the duty of a soldier." He said, "And you have the eyes and soul of one."
___
Xeno Continent, present
"They're headed over there." Chris motioned in a direction, showing the scratches amongst trees.
Garan's team had been following the traces of the mobs for a while now, following closely behind them.
Not only were they aiming to lighten the load of their brethren, but it was also a well-known fact that mobs were known to detect sources of aether—that was, other living things, especially intelligent beings—and attempt to eat them.
Hence, to find other humans at a time when they had no direction, they must follow this mob. Not too close to attract them, but not too far to be too late for rescue.
However, before the mobs found their targets, they heard a group of terrified screams getting closer to them from the side.
They frowned. If they could hear the noise, so could the mob up front.
Sure enough, the mob quickly turned to the noise and instantly changed targets.
"Go!!" Garan yelled to his team, and they sprinted after the monsters, hoping to get to the humans before the monsters did.
They ran as fast as they could but when they arrived the monsters were already mauling a few corpses.
Cursing, Garan immediately summoned his ice spears, sending them directly to the monsters.
The ice picks embedded on their skin and through their necks, finally killing them.
His teammates, similarly, used their skills to kill the monsters as quickly as possible to minimize the deaths.
However even if these monsters had lower levels than they did, they were still around level eight and could not be killed in one shot by most if the weak points weren't hit.
Regardless, it was an amazing sight—how terrifying monsters that could kill a person with a small bite seemed so powerless against humans—humans that were so similar to them.
Brethren.
The refugees gaped in amazement as elements floated around, menacing, and killing the beasts that had terrorized them a moment prior.
Not only were they extremely skilled in weapons, they also magically released fireballs, waterballs, and other elements. It was a magical sight and many survivors thought they already died and went to heaven.
In their distraction, they failed to notice a small but agile monster that darted to their direction. "AH!" A person yelled when he caught sight of it, and his heart dropped—believing it was finally his time to get eaten.
But a wall of earth appeared in front of them, protecting them from the monster. Then, from behind the wall, another person seemed to have… flown.
Carried by the wind, he raised his sword as he jumped over the wall and straight to the monster.
Splash!
The sword was buried into its skull, and it fell down to the earth with a thud.
"This… is a miracle…" a rare surviving old man uttered, tears slowly forming in his eyes.
"I… how…"
"Are… are they l-like… us?"
These people are amazing…
The people who had been pale, scared, and soulless stopped moving.
Their dull eyes watched as the soldiers cleared out the mob that attacked them, dead eyes slowly gaining a bit of life.
Hope had been lit.
And that was the first step to everything.