"Looks like the time is finally here!" One of the warriors chirped happily, "I'll finally get to avenge my brother. Just wait up you lizard bastards we'll kill you all!"

The man being overexcited about the war was Elantor Connors. A newly recruited A ranked tank. As someone who had never been defeated by a monster, he was fairly confident in his skills. Still, he was nothing more than new meat there. Also, Lizardmen weren't anything like the mindless monsters he had been fighting till now and he didn't know what to expect. After all, fighting off a goblin was totally different from fighting a lizardman in its own habitat. 

He only knew that God had given him an opportunity to avenge his brother who had fallen at the hands of the lizards during the previous attempt of capturing the swamps. It was an opportunity he wasn't going to waste. His brother might have been only a rank C mage, but he was someone whom Elantor looked up to and respected. His loss had turned him into a different man. 

Fortunately, his battle cry was met with equally enthusiastic cheers. Most of the warriors there had lost someone precious to them in the swamps before and for them, it was time for them to deal some well-deserved payback. Also, having not one or two but three SS ranked behind them gave them enough morale boost that they would happily fight a silverback gorilla barehanded and win. 

Still, some people were worried about the upcoming war. They couldn't help it. After all, they all had heard about the great massacre that happened last time. Thousands of capable warriors had died on that day... And they couldn't help but wonder if this was going to be another one of such massacres. 

Their fears weren't uncalled for as the lizardmen were known for their treatment towards their captives. For obvious reasons, it was never confirmed but everyone kind of had an idea what happened with the human prisoners, more or less.

The males were often used as live targets to be hunted down and practised shooting upon them or were tortured for fun. There were two main ways they tortured the captives. In one of such methods, Their limbs were most ruthlessly sliced off and then they were forced to run for their lives. Only to be hunted down by the rest of the humans. The second method was much simpler but way more painful... They were skinned alive.

The females were better as the matter of physical abuse but were used as... Vessels to subdue lizardman's lust and to repopulate their lost numbers. The torment they went through wasn't physical but mental. They were treated so badly that they desperately tried to anger the lizardmen into killing them. 

Neither of these fates was right or acceptable. This when compared to living their lives in West America and hiding from the monsters was a much worse fate. Yet here they were, preparing to fight for something they thought was useless. 

"It's odd, don't you think?" said Kayla, one of the healers who spoke in disgust.

"What?" Nisha, Kayla's childhood friend and also a healer herself, asked her. 

"That they are so keen to socialise the funding of war and not health," Kayla replied shooting a disgusting look towards the room where the five syndicate heads were residing in. 

You can say Kayla was deeply attached to her roots. Her family primarily belonged to the torn battlezone of Syria. That's why she detested wars. After all, she had lost her parents to war. While she, on the other hand, was saved by an American volunteer couple who adopted her 16-year-old self and flew back to the USA. It was then her name was changed to Kayla from Kashmira.

Life went well after that until oneday Dungeons started popping up everywhere and she had to go and tested for Xenoic energy reading like everyone else. Her results came positive. But unlike the others around her, she could use not one but two types of magic- Healing magic and curse magic.

Her power while using curse magic was explosive while compared to her healing magic but since she detested wars and killings she dedicated herself to improving her healing magic first rather than focusing on her stronger curse magic. Till now she had upheld her oath of not killing anyone, even the monsters but this time it might not be possible for her to do so. 

"What did you say?" A man's grumpy voice echoed in the girl's ears. 

Kayla was sure that no one could've heard her talking with Nisha just now. But she was mistaken. Someone had heard her bickering about her personal values in life. She slowly turned around to see who the person standing behind her was. She was expecting the man to be one of the adrenaline-driven junkies but she was wrong yet again. 

Instead of a young raging junkie, she saw a man with white, shaggy hair that clumsily hung over his menacing face. The man's small grey eyes were set threateningly within their sockets, delicately analysing the young woman in front of him. But his eyes weren't normal... Those were the eyes of someone who had forgotten about mercy long ago. 

That wasn't all. The man also had a fire mark reaching from the right side of his forehead, running across the nose and ending on his left cheekbone leaving a grievous memory of one of the man's unfortunate adventures.

This was the face of Caiden Jenkins, a true warrior among the warriors and also the right-hand man of one of the heads of the Syndicate and belonged to the Morrino family. He might have stood among the common populous, despite his subtle fame of being known as the 'Dragon's Claw', but in no way was he a common warrior like the rest of them. For this man was also the one who had trained America's first SS ranked warrior, Johnny Black. 

His popularity and strength were the reasons why people tend to brag about knowing him while helping him out in any way they can. He was a man of calibre. One even his own family members were afraid of. And now, Kayla had pissed him off. 

"Young lady, could you repeat your statement please?" Caiden asked Kayla once again, only this time he had politely phrased his question. Still, his eyes remained indifferent, his smile was deceptive because he was still pissed and Kayla knew it. 

Nisha being the loyal friend she was, immediately jumped in to defend Kayla, "I apologize on her behalf, sir! She has a bad habit of spewing whatever crap that comes in her mouth. I assure you she-"

"Young lady," Caiden cut Nisha off without turning his gaze towards her, "I think your friend is capable of speaking in her defence, considering that she has a bigger mouth than anyone I've met in my life."

"I-I a-apologise for my m-mistake." Kayla barely managed to mumble an apology. But it wasn't sufficient for Caiden. 

"Young lady, I'm sorry to say but someone without the resolve to kill has no place in an army. After all, an army without killers is no army at all." Caiden was still smiling at her but his words pierced through her soul like bullets, "Since you're not willing to kill and also criticise the ones who are willing to do the necessary, I think you'd be better off being grouped up with those slithering nagas and used as a meat shield. Don't you agree?"

A look of sheer horror flashed on Kayla's face, 'This man wouldn't do something like that right? He doesn't have the right to do so... No, he can't do this to me!'

Caiden quickly grabbed her arm and began dragging her towards the cells where nagas were being held. But before he could go far, someone pulled him back. Caiden turned around to see who dared to stop him. He was already in a sour mood and now every passing moment was pissing him off even more. He wanted to beat the living crap out of the man who dared to stop him but he soon realised he couldn't. As the one to stop him was none other than, Johnny himself.