Part 1

Everyone was looking at me. Not only the other four participants in the duel but also the other soldiers who were sparring with each other and the few civilians looking at the training. The dumbfounded expression on their faces was priceless. I could clearly read it in their eyes. They were asking themselves if what they saw was true. They had probably never seen a kid beating a full fledged soldier. Those expressions gave me so much pleasure that I couldn't contain my grin. I had just made a sound statement. I wasn’t someone to underestimate.

“Ok boys, let’s rest a couple of minutes and then we start the second match. Connor get ready, you fight next!”

“Yes sir!”

A middle aged dark skinned man stood up from the rest and started stretching. He was smaller than the others but ,judging from his bull-like neck, he had an outstanding muscle mass.

In the next three matches I scored three consecutive wins. The first I fought was Connor-san, then Furo-san and lastly Galdan-san. Their strength, the difficulty and the time it took me to beat them kept increasing. I didn’t get hit pretty often but, especially in the fight with Galdan-san, I felt my body getting heavier both because of the hits I received and my mana depleting. Nonetheless I won every match. The spectators, both soldiers and civilians, kept increasing to the point where at least fifty people were surrounding the training grounds and eagerly looking at the fights.

“Ok everyone, ten minutes break since Raph needs to refill his mana. Erik, you are the last one, try not to get too excited!”

With a big and deep laugh the tall man stood up and stretched his upper limbs behind his neck.

“Hahaha don’t worry captain! I’ll try not to break too many of the kid’s bones!”

Ten minutes were never near enough to refill all of my lost mana but were enough to last for one last fight. Me and Erik-san were facing each other, five meters apart. Neither of us in a fight stance, just glancing at each other. The aura Erik-san emitted was something on a completely different scale from the other guys I fought. If I were to describe it with a feeling I would say cold rage. There was no killing intent in his eyes but I could feel the decisiveness. He wasn’t gonna go easy on me.

[This is gonna be fun!]

I thought while trembling in excitement. Without realizing it I was craving the action, the adrenaline. I was drawn to the fight as if I waited my whole life for this exact moment.

“Are you both ready?”

Asked father while giving looks to both me and Erik-san. We nodded in agreement and father raised a hand. We both reached the hilt of our swords. I slightly squatted while putting my right leg forward. Erik-san slightly bent his upper torso over.

“Let the last duel start!”

Both our bodies moved in unison as soon as we heard my father shout. I dashed in for a horizontal slash while Erik-san grabbed his sword as if it was a dagger, with the tip facing his shoulder, in order to parry my slash. The two swords clashed and heavy brown dust coming from the movement of my feets started forming around us. My next movement would have been a punch either in the stomach or on the upper thigh if I didn’t see a heavy blow coming from my right side. Erik-san was about to hit my right shoulder with a heavy fist. I dodged just barely in time by rolling on my left shoulder. I didn’t have a moment to breathe because with incredible speed Erik-san jumped towards my direction holding the sword with both hands ready to let it fall on me. It would have been too slow to dodge with only my strength and it was also impossible for me to parry such a heavy blow. Magic was required.

[Sky walk]

This was a spell that I had been working on but was still far from ready to use in actual battle because of its difficult to control power output. What this spell does is generate a sudden burst of air from my feet, supposedly letting me walk in the sky. If developed and mastered, this spell could become a very important weapon in my arsenal but, as it is now, it’s more of a danger than an asset.

Strong wind generated from my feet, draggin me three to four meters back. My back got scraped but I was able to dodge his massive sword slam. I finally had time to breathe, not much since he was already on the run. I had to create a favorable situation for myself. The one spell that came to mind was one that I used in the fight against master.

“Fire pit!”

I shouted as Erik-san was closing the distance. Fire covered the ground around me in a radius of six meters. Red flames were raised from the ground and surrounded Erik-san. Jumping forward was not an option for him since the closer to me the flames were, the higher they were. The only option left was to jump back. He was able to jump and evade the ‘fire pit’ but not before sustaining some minor damage. The crowd was screaming.

“Hahaha… I acknowledge you Raphael-kun! I understand now how you were able to beat the guys before me you sly fox. You are strong, yes...but you are far from ready to beat me!”

His words were meant as an announcement more than a threat. He was about to come at me with full strength. If I were to let him get closer I would have lost.

“Stone bullet”

I screamed and the projectile flew towards my opponent’s direction. With a swing of his sword he diverted the direction of the bullet, leading it to hit the ground. Then, in what seemed like a split second, he ran and jumped into the area around me where the flames didn’t reach. Still midair he prepared a vertical swing, a guillotine. Dodging was impossible for me, the only option was a shield.

“Double shi-”

While casting the spell I was interrupted by a heavy horizontal swing on my chest. My breath got cut out and ‘fire pit’ started to disappear as my consciousness started to lose strength. My whole body was pushed back, almost outside of the boundaries of the ring, leaving me facing upwards. I tried standing up with what strength I had left in me but the tip of Erik-san’s sword was pointed to my throat.

He won the duel.

With an overwhelming strength he surpassed my defences and crushed me. Especially the last hit was beautifully delivered. Faking a vertical swing to convert it to an horizontal one at the last moment was truly the work of a master.

“Haha yeah, I’m far from it!”

I said while grabbing the hand that Erik-san stretched towards me. With the last duel my tests were over. Now it was up to mother to decide if I was fit enough to participate in the raid.

Part 2

Two days passed since the duels and the whole raid group captained by father was now travelling by horse towards our assigned zone. Even after seeing my performance at the training grounds, mother was still reluctant to let me participate. In the end even her immovable spirit yielded but was still able to compromise with father to have Erik-san always accompanying me. It was in no way a bother for me. Having someone as strong as Erik-san always close to me was both a security and a source of information and advice. In a way or the other I was going to bother him for the whole raid.

Our zone was half an hour by horse further from the city but, since it wasn’t safe to get close to the zone while riding a horse, we travelled the last ten minutes by foot. While riding with Erik-san I was able to learn about the formations of the squad and the various calls. Even though the technical stuff was all gibberish to me, I still got the gist of the crucial parts.

“Ok boys we walk from here! Get in a shield formation, even if we are far from the zone there may still be monsters out here so get your eyes open!”

At the words of the captain the group responded with a loud “Yes sir” and got into formation. Shiel formation was the basic formation of the group, two lines of people surrounding the core in a square like shape with shield holders on the outer line. I was the core. Since I was the mage my role was to provide defense against long range attacks and basic healing, it wasn’t required for me to perform long range attacks, since we had archers in the back row.

“Move out!”

Shouted father and the whole group started marching through the forest. Our group was composed of twenty two soldiers and a mage. Our goal was to clear the area of monsters and the time expected to finish this raid was between three and five days. The raid started.

As soon as we entered the assigned area the air changed. From a chill forest that smelled like mushrooms and fresh grass the air became filled with the stench of death. Bones and the remains of flesh could be seen around the area. The whole group tensed up.

“We are in captain”

Said a soldier in the first row.

“Copied Mark. Listen up everyone. From here on we will be attacked and we will attack. As I have already said, signal everything you see. Our first task is to find a suitable place for a base. Move out!”

Once again the chorus of the soldiers replied with a “Yes sir” to my father’s words. For the next seven hours our group went around looking for a place that could be easily defended and had the high ground. We found a cliff north-east from our entrance place where we could set our camp. Of course during those seven hours we got attacked multiple times over and by many different kinds of monsters. Some saber tooth wolves, two nomad bears, one chameleon red lizard, something between five and seven tree turtles and razorsharp croco. The overall rank of the monsters swung between iron and silver. Thanks to Erik-san I was able to understand what the monster rank was about. Every monster is assigned a rank based on their lethality. In crescent order, the ranks are: wood, stone, iron, bronze, silver, gold, emerald, ruby, diamond and obsidian. If the said monsters move in packs then their overall rank increases by one or two ranks at max, if their numbers exceed the hundreds.

Setting the camp took a couple hours itself. The steps needed to build it were far more numerous than what I had expected. Cutting wood, building a palisade, setting the tents, starting the fires, securing a source of water and building what seemed like toilets. Everyone was doing their part, me included. I wasn’t expected to do heavy lifting so instead I helped with the fires and the tents. Every tent housed two people, and of course I was paired with Erik-san, who occupied more than half of the tent. That was probably the reason why everyone seemed so happy when I was announced as Erik-san’s partner. That or the fact that the way he snorted at night felt like I was sleeping next to an elephant.

The group, after finishing working on the camp, proceeded in clearing the zone close to the camp of monsters and gathering food. Both from monsters and animals. During this “clearing” time a lot of fights happened, since we spent at least another seven hours out of the camp, but none of them could be considered as a major fight. There were no injuries and there was no need for me to either attack or heal.

When night fell upon the forest our group returned to the camp. The group was divided into three smaller groups. One was tasked with the cooking, one with the guard shift and my group had a supposed “free time”. I thought about relaxing during my free time but was interrupted by Erik-san.

“Oi Raphael-kun I forgot to tell you but free time is considered as time given you to check your armor and weapons AND if you have remaining time then you could relax...soo get to work on those gear hahaha”

“Yeah...what did I even expect?!”

“Disappointed?”

“Mhh not really. Something like this is supposed to happen during a raid I guess...but I’ not going to deny that I would love some relaxing time haha”

“Hahaha me too kid! Your father really wanted to show off today”

“Ohh did he?”

“Yeah! I was surprised that you were able to keep up with us!”

“I guess the training was worth it in the end”

“Seems like it”

While having such a light hearted conversation with him, we were both getting rid of our gear. I was wearing lighter armor compared to the others since I wasn’t going to be involved in intensive close quarters fights. I had a sleeveless iron chestplate, a pair of iron and leather vambrace, leather gloves with reinforced knuckles, reinforced leather tassets and some light iron boots. All of this was covered by a big long light brown cloak that reached my ankles. Underneath the armor I had a long sleeve white shirt and a pair of long black trousers.

Cleaning wasn’t hard for me, I had very few stains of blood compared to the other guys. Just a couple of mud stains, dirt under my boots and sweat on my clothes. I didn’t even have to clean my sword since it never leaved its sheath. While it took me ten minutes to fully clean my gear, Erik-san took almost half an hour, consuming all of the free time. Food was ready by then.

Everyone ate around the fire. A very easy yet filling dish. A soup with mushrooms, various vegetables and chunks of different types of meat. I didn't even have time to ask for seconds that the whole pot was emptied clean. Not even a spoon was left. Dinner time went on for an hour or so with the change of shift in the middle of it, letting the guys that didn’t eat have their time. Conversations were accompanied by the taste of liquor. Even though I was eager to try it and Erik-san and the others were trying their hardest to slip some of their liquor into my cup, the watchful eye of father caught them every single time.

After dinner we were given time to clean ourselves and do our personal hygiene routine, then right to bed. The next day the bell was ringing as soon as the sun was making its appearance.

For the first time that night I experienced what a guard shift feels like. A two hour long shift in the company of Erik-san sitting on a stump waiting for the next guards to change with us. Erik-san offered me to sleep and let him do the guarding but I didn’t want to become a burden for him so I sucked up my sleepiness and kept guard. The rest of the night was followed by one of the most appreciated rests of my life.

Part 3

The next two days went very smoothly. It was a succession of exploring and killing in the morning until lunch time, lunch, exploring and killing in the afternoon until dinner time, dinner and guard duties. I lost count of the monsters we killed during our time outside the camp. Luckily there were no fatal injuries but the further we went into the forest the more difficult it became to hunt those monsters. Even our tracker had some difficulties in finding traces here and there. My contribution became more and more needed. I even got a couple of long shot kills using ‘stone bullet’ but what I mainly did was injure the monster so that the soldier could finish, distract the monster or shield the soldiers. I was really testing out the limits of my mana circuit. Even father started treating me more like a soldier than his son. Which felt like being recognized as one of them, even though I didn’t really bond with anyone except for Erik-san. On the fourth day was when things started to get serious.

As the past mornings I woke up as the sun rose. Some people were already dressed and having breakfast, or at least what was considered breakfast. Basically it was dried meat, eggs and bread. Not really what I was used to but still I couldn't afford to be picky so like every morning I sat on a tree trunk near a fire and ate my share. Erik-san was a bit slower than me, usually he would wake up between ten to twenty minutes after me. At that time I had already finished breakfast and was going to brush my teeth and my face. I would then spend the rest of the time before the morning call meditating in my tent and putting on my armor.

The call came at the same time as usual, right after Erik-san finished putting on his armor, like a swiss clock. At my father’s shouts all the soldiers answered by lining up in three rows like the three groups we were divided on our first day.

“Ok listen up boys. In the past days we cleaned the majority of this place, what is left is the area after the river north-west from here. We have yet to set foot there so we don’t know what to expect but since it looks like the monsters are all coming from that direction I would guess it’s their nest, or something like that. Finish what you were doing fast, we move out in five minutes. Dismissed!”

“Yes sir!” The deep loud chorus responded as always.

We started marching towards the river where it’s banks were the lowest. After two and a half hours of march we reached the spot. Even I could see the traces of monsters everywhere. Footprints of what looked like wolves and lizards could be seen everywhere. Blood was also a pretty clear sign of monsters. Nonetheless we crossed the river.

On the other side everything felt different. The forest became darker to the point where only a few sun rays could be seen piercing through the thick foliage. Torches were lit and distributed to the soldiers. Our pace got slower and more careful. Everyone was ready for an attack and since our vision and movement were contained we all had to pay extra attention to our surroundings, me included. I had a strange feeling. Ever since master left I kept training my affinity with natural mana and, even though I couldn’t see any clear progress, I still felt that my connection with it got a little stronger, as if we’ve come to a mutual understanding. In that part of the forest the natural mana was disgusting, it didn’t feel like it was corrupted but more like something evil was leaking out it’s intentions and the mana was reacting to it. As master said, mana was indeed alive.

It didn’t take long for me and the group to figure out what was happening in that place. Torn bodies were lying around everywhere. Monster’s bodies, human bodies, animal bodies. The ground was covered with a bloody red carpet and our boots were sinking in it. The sound, the smell, the looks, everything was awful. I could see some soldiers covering their mouths to prevent themselves from puking. For some reason it didn’t affect me that much, probably because I had already seen a scene similar to this one. On the contrary, I was filled with tension and excitement, like an absurd amount of adrenaline just kicked in my system. I was looking forward to fight whatever creature was the cause of this massacre.

The scene didn’t change much the further we walked into the forest, it just became darker. The dark red of the blood under our feets was absorbing all the light, causing the sunlight to be useless. It was then, after forty and something minutes after we crossed the river that we encountered the first alive monster. A borderline gold silver rank monster called ‘firestep tiger’. With its two meters of height and thirty centimeters white fangs, it appeared before us. Its paws were sunk in blood and blood was dripping out of it’s open mouth. A dull roar came out of it’s throat and the fearsome beat started running towards us.

“Get ready! Shields up!”

There was no answer this time, we just followed orders. As the front row fastened their grip on their shields I lowered myself enough to touch the ground with my hands while still being able to look at our opponent, Erik-san beside me had his sword ready for a counter attack. This was a formation we used quite often with enemies bigger than us. The shields in the front row had to stop it’s movements, I then had to block the monster and Erik-san, father and a couple others were tasked with the delivery of the killing blow. It had never failed us...yet.

As the red and black speeding creature approached the shield men were ready to welcome it’s blow. A strong swing with it’s left paw adorned with a set of five sharp iron-like claws ripped through the first two shields, fortunately leaving the soldiers behind then unharmed. I had to act quickly. While using the natural mana techniques I infused my own mana within it and casted one of my most common spells: ‘stone pillar’. Four pillars came out of the ground and hit the tiger in its stomach, neck and front right leg. The monster was left unscathed. For the first time a monster didn’t even feel my spells. It was like hitting an armored man with a stick. It’s eyes locked in mine. A menacing roar made even the braves of the souls tremble a little before it. I was excited to the point where I couldn't contain my grin.

“Hey Raphael-kun are you ok?-”

Asked Erik-san while tapping on my shoulder.

“- I know it’s a damn scary monster but get a hold of your..”

“I’m fine….just a bit excited!”

I replied, unwillingly showing the grin that was covering the lower half of my face. A worried look was painted on Erik-san’s face.

The tiger was preparing another attack. The same paw swang at the same speed in the same direction as the last one. This time a soldier was ripped apart by its claws. Blood sprinkled out of the lower half of the soldier’s body and ended up mixing with the red carted underneath us. Panic could be seen on the soldiers’ faces.

“Don’t falter! Change formation! Ruby formation! Attack it’s sides and narrow it’s vision! Archers, lit your arrows and air for it’s eyes! Raph...show us what you are worth!”

Those words were what I was waiting for. The sign for me to take action. The okey from my father and my captain. My body was tickling with excitement.

[I will rain hell upon this bitch!]

The soldiers started to surround the tiger, swinging their swords to its legs while the shields tried to tank the hits and the archerd rained their arrows on the creature. I nodded towards Erik-san. It was our signal to say “I got this, leave”. I didn’t need his protection now, rather he was needed somewhere else, swinging his huge sword at the monster. I had to prepare myself.

[Medium speed boost, medium strength boost, medium defence boost]

My body felt lighter and my mind cleared. Everytime I boosted myself was like that. Like some kind of ritual at the start of a fight. I smiled. I was waiting for this. With my light blue eyes glowing in the dark of the forest I dashed towards the creature with my unsheathed sword in my right hand and a fireball ready in my left.

The real raid was only beginning.