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CHAPTER 4 HAD UNDERGONE THE REPARATION PROGRAM: BATCH ONE

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Chase managed to make it back home in time. At first, he was quite worried about being late because of his decreased speed carrying the heavy bag.

He opened the door and dumped his bag down along with the spear.

*Bam* *Clang* *Nyaaaaaa!!!*

The sound of the luggage hitting the floor and a cat hissing reverberated on the stone walls.

"How could you do that to me?!" Rie hissed in anger after being dumped in an unceremonious manner.

"Sorry... I didn't mean to put it down that hard. I was just too tired, and it slipped out of my grip" Chase explained apologetically.

"Hmph!" Rie turned its head away. "Fine then since you've apologised. Be careful next time"

Closing the door as he entered the house, he proceeded to sit down at his study table.

‘Adventuring is just as tiring as I thought it would be.’ A satisfied smile appeared on his face. The fatigue weighs down on his eyelids like heavy lead.

The smell of cooked meat seeped through his bag and wafted into his nostrils. His stomach growled in protest, longing for its missed lunch.

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‘Don’t worry Chase I’ll be back home tonight, just sit tight in the house’ Aaron thought as he waved off goodbye to Chase that morning.

Aaron did not realise he had reached Thanes while he was reminiscing on old memories. The village of Thanes was busy as usual, though incomparable to larger towns and cities. It was one of the biggest villages in the Kingdom of Armitage with a popular market. Where there was a thriving market, business boomed. Where there was a booming business, merchants bloomed.

The trek east towards the village of Thanes was an uneventful trip, boring, even. In the immediate vicinity, Thanes was the best place to trade in his acquired loot. He would undoubtedly fetch a better price in the capital, but that would require weeks of travel. The merchants in Thanes offer a decent price, for the short distance Aaron has to travel.

Various merchants stop by to purchase goods at a lower price from hunters and adventurers and sell them off in the towns and capitals on their trade routes for profit. Those they bought from did not feel like they were taken advantage of because moving across the continent is a long task and not something everyone had the time for.

‘These should fetch me enough to get by for a month’ He shot a furtive glance at the six bulging sacks tied to his body. ‘I’ll need to deduct the appropriate amount for Chase’s Academy funds as well…’ The loot he brought along was the accumulation of one week’s worth of hunting. Most of it was wolf fur but there was a small quantity of higher level loot from the second layer of the Forest.

Aaron was more than capable of handling the third layer but the return trip home would take too long and he would be late for lunch and dinner. Besides, the monsters in the third layer were quite resilient and hard to kill. He could probably earn twice as much in terms of value in the easier areas.

Aaron went off to seek a merchant acquaintance of his and sold off his loot. The merchant gave him an extra 10% for being his loyal supplier. He then went to buy some food supplies such as spices and dried meat and also some vegetable seeds to plant at the back of his house.

He carefully goes through the contents of his bag. It is a habit from back in the army, where checking their rations properly was a must. ‘Now, that should be all of it!’

His business properly taken care off, Aaron wastes no time on unnecessary dalliances and immediately set himself on a journey back home. His six bulging sacks of loot has transformed into a single one filled with supplies.

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June, Year 317, Inanis Calendar (12 years ago)

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“MAINTAIN FORMATION! I REPEAT, MAINTAIN FORMATION!!”

Aaron’s voice rang loud and clear while giving commands to his subordinates. His squad of ten was ambushed by a band of monsters in the third layer of the Millennium Forest, The Autumn Glades. They did not have any reinforcements to aid them in their moment of plight.

Their mission was simple, march into the Forest and rescue a nobleman’s son who went out two days ago with a team of hired adventurers to sight-see and did not return. The Glyph of Life confirmed that the son is still alive.

Aaron’s squad was dispatched for the mission instead of the elite Zenithian Knights due to political reasons. The nobleman in question possessed little power in the kingdom, and is not part of the King’s court. This brought forth an eloquent refusal from the King when he presented his case to the sovereign. The fact that the nobleman’s son ventured into the Forest of his own accord is heavily played by the King, leaving the nobleman biting his lips in frustration.

The nobleman threw away his tall pride and prostrated himself, putting his precious son’s life as the first priority. Alas, it only needlessly added to the King’s well hidden mirth. In order to keep up appearances, the King asked the audience for anyone who would be willing to lend their soldiers to the nobleman. However, it was clear that anyone who agreed to do so would fall out of his favour.

While others gave downcast glances and shrugged their shoulders, one particular general stepped forward. For a split second, the King’s expression turned into a displeased frown but it was but a fleeting moment, like a phantom in the night. He clapped and smiled, as if relieved that the issue is solved. Without dragging it any longer, he dismissed the general and nobleman so they could sort things out.

General Gordon and the nobleman politely took their leave and proceeded to continue their discussion in the halls outside. The thankful nobleman’s smile slipped a little when the general told him that he would only be sending in one squad. After hearing the clarification that sending in a small number of elites would be better, he calmed down… a little bit.

And so Aaron Blackstone had the task dumped onto his shoulders out of the blue. The small group headed out to the Forest as soon as they received the message from the capital. Not a battalion of a hundred, nor a legion of a thousand, but a squad of ten. Not a general of ten battalions, not a battalion commander of ten squads, but a squad leader of ten men.

Tracking down the target was the easy part, thanks to Aaron’s scout and trails left behind by the team of hired adventurers. While the nobleman’s son was undoubtedly a fool, at least he chose the right people for the job. They left behind plenty of signs to indicate their taken path for rescuers to follow as a precaution for worst case scenarios.

Having the route drawn out for them, Aaron’s squad followed the path at full speed, wasting no time on needless encounters. The trails led them into the third layer and stopped at a certain point. Having their lead suddenly cut off, Aaron’s scouts spread out and stealthily checked the surroundings.

Fortunately, the missing people were located quite near to their current location. The bad news was, they were right in the middle of an orc encampment. The good news was, it was completely deserted. The nobleman’s son was immediately recognizable, thanks to his dirty, high quality clothes. Right beside him, grabbing on the bars of the iron cage, is presumably the sole survivor of the escort adventurer team.

It was a relief that there was any survivors at all, considering the days it took for the message to reach Aaron from the capital. Taking full advantage of the deserted encampment, Aaron’s squad hurriedly moved in to secure the two prisoners. They had no idea how much time they had until the orcs return from their customary mass hunting party.

Their scout immediately moved in to pick the lock on the cage. Seeing the arrival of Aaron’s squad, the prisoners’ lifeless eyes flared with hope . Their eyes latched onto the lock. The crude locking mechanism proved to be an easy opponent for the scout’s deft hands, and the door swung open in less than five seconds. Trembling in fear and gratitude, the young noble shakily stepped out of the cage.

“T-t-thank y-you for saving me” He said, eyes glistening. “Please bring me home n-now” His faint voice accentuated his gaunt and haggard appearance. He was tired, terrified and terrible.

‘Typical of nobles, cowardly and only knows how to give orders’ Aaron thought biasedly.

The other prisoner firmly stepped out, wavy long brown hair and confident blue eyes, she was the only surviving member of the adventurer team. Unlike the relaxed look on the relieved noble, a determined expression adorned her perfectly symmetrical face. It spoke of her fierceness on the battlefield, of a burning passion to fight.

Instead of cowering and crying over her timely rescue, she wasted no time to retrieve her sword from the confiscated weapon stack nearby. Aaron whistled when he saw the woman lift a large steel claymore that was almost as tall as she was.

She eyed the boiling cauldron nearby and her face contorted with anger. Her teeth were bared, her brows were knitted tightly, and her eyes… they blazed with fury. The bloodlust she gave off sent shivers down Aaron’s spine.

The scout decided to check out the contents of the cauldron out of curiosity. He peeked inside and pulled back, almost vomiting. The rest of the squad including Aaron put on grim expressions as they figured out what the contents were. It must have been what was left of the other adventurer team members.

Confirming that their targets were safe and sound, they got ready to return back to the capital to report. At least, that was what they planned to do. The crackling sounds of muscular legs trudging through a sea of dried leaves caused them to freeze. They just had to have the worst of luck on that day… the orcs were already on their way back.

Two orc scouts came into the encampment through the path and froze. Their two sets of eyes met with twelve in a shocking instance. They swiftly turned around and ran back to inform the horde.

Aaron’s scout was not slow in his reaction, his fingers whipped up an arrow from the quiver on his back and the bowstring was released in one smooth motion. The arrow whizzed through the air and embedded itself on the back of an orc’s head. However, the other orc got out of range before he could fire another one.

“Shit!” Aaron cursed. “We’re going to be boiling in that pot if we stay here any longer! Forget the path, run between the trees!” He began to shout out orders, just like the squad leader he was.

One of the brawny squad members picked up the scrawny noble and slung him over his shoulder like a rag doll. The noble would only slow them down if he walked on foot. They leapt into the cover of trees, and trudged their way through the carpet of autumn leaves. Aaron thought the woman would fall behind due to fatigue, but she was keeping up just fine with that giant sword of hers.

‘That is one strong woman alright’ Aaron thought in admiration as he gave a sidelong glance.

The orcs saw where they were heading and started to chase them into the gathering of trees, where orange and yellow leaves fall like soft feathers, indefinitely.

Axes, maces, glaives, a variety of crudely forged weapons danced in their iron grips. Their wide shoulders heaved with each step they take, their bursting muscles rippled with every motion they made. Like a swarm of ants, they flooded through the gaps in between the trees. Their large bodies accompanied by their heavy breathing would have intimidated some warriors, but not Aaron’s squad.

Aaron’s squad was the best in their legion. Perhaps none of them were at the pinnacle of anything, but together they excelled as an efficient team. Aaron himself was almost as good as a Zenithian Knight. Considering his young age, he might have possessed enough talent to join their elite ranks.

Three squad members gathered mana in their hands as they sprinted. They turned around, switched to running backwards without stopping and fired off their spells in unison.

“Earth Wall!” They shouted. The swirling mana they gathered crept into the soil and streamed across the ground.

Three walls of earth shot up between the trees they just ran through, blowing a spray of leaves up into the air. The orcs in pursuit saw it and grunted in surprise but they were going too fast to stop and hit the wall head on.

The half metre thick slabs of earth crumbled from the impact, turning into fist-sized rubble. A few orcs were knocked out cold by the collision but their overall speed did not decrease in the slightest.

“Damn, they’re stupidly tough!” one of the squad members who fired off the spell exclaimed in frustration.

Seeing that their earth walls were so easily broken, they turned their bodies around and resumed running normally.

“They’re gaining on us!” Aaron bellowed, his feet were indistinct blurs but they were still outpaced. “Change of plans! Riley, you run back to the capital with the noble and the girl!” He addressed the subordinate who was carrying the noble. “The rest of us would stay here and delay the orcs!”

Aaron made that decision in a split second without any hesitation. As a soldier, he was prepared to sacrifice his life to accomplish the mission he was given. Likewise, so were his subordinates. They tore through the curtain of trees, into a large empty clearing, an autumn glade.

The brawny man carrying the noble nodded gravely and broke away from the group.

The rest of the squad immediately skid to a halt and spun to face their enemies. They arranged themselves into a formation shaped like an arrowhead, six warriors including Aaron in the front protecting the scout and three spellcasters at the back. They unsheathed their weapons and got into their battle stances.

There were ten of them, because the woman was standing right beside Aaron while gripping her claymore.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??” Aaron shouted at the woman, flabbergasted.

“I’VE GOT A SCORE TO SETTLE WITH THESE ORCS!” The woman bellowed back, even louder in reply. “THEY KILLED MY FRIENDS!” Her face was bright red from anger, and more delicate emotions.

There was no time for further exchange to take place because the orcs were already too close. The spellcasters had begun to hurl their spells. Fireballs streaked between the gaps in the formation and hit the approaching orcs.

The scout’s hands blurred as he let loose arrow after arrow from his bow. Each shot of magic and arrow was fatal, all of them aimed at vital spots. The orcs with their mouth wide open while shouting their battle cries were fed with fireballs down their throats and died. Wisps of smoke rose from their charred tongues, spreading an acrid smell over the pristine glade.

Every hit must count because they do not have a limitless amount of mana and arrows. At most, fifty orcs can be mowed down from their long range attacks, which… was a small number in comparison to the size of the horde.

‘That’s about … three hundred?’ Faced with overwhelming odds, even Aaron’s squad might not make it out alive but the woman beside him had the guts to stay and fight for revenge. Aaron paid a furtive glance at the woman, admiring her spirit and fiery beauty.

*Whirrrrrr*

Axes revolved like pinwheels, darting through the air. Now twenty feet away from them, the orcs had started to throw their weapons towards Aaron’s squad.

*Clang* *Clang*

The axes were parried by the warriors in the front line and fell harmlessly on the ground with dull thuds. Seeing that their prey were not defenseless rabbits, the orcs kept hold of their weapons and chose to utilise them in a better way.

Aaron dashed forward, a dagger twirling in each hand. The orcs which did not throw their weapons stopped their charge and faced Aaron in direct combat. They grunted and swung down their crooked blades.

Aaron skilfully maneuvered his way in-between the orcs and slashed their throats. The orcs fell without much resistance and Aaron had already leapt away before their bodies even hit the ground. He ran around the battlefield taking down solitary orcs one-by-one while the other warriors maintain the formation. They would not join the battle until their long range attackers run out of ammunition.

All except one, the woman was rampaging on the battlefield. Every swing of her claymore decapitated two or three orcs. Blood spurted here and there coating her in a crimson layer. Her bloodlust was so strong that some of the orcs froze in fear for a moment when they came face-to-face with her.

‘Woah, scaaary…. Wouldn’t want to anger her now, would I?’ Aaron thought as he regarded the woman’s prowess.

A swift flash of silver, a brief glint of blinding white, that was all the orcs could see before dying under Aaron’s twin knives. He was unstoppable, a storm of death and decapitation, a tempest of fear and fury. If it was not the throat, he sliced their brains. If it was not the brain, he punctured their hearts. Every single hit was lethal.

“Ugh!” The world was painted red as a spray of blood got onto his eyes, effectively blinding his vision. He rolled down in reflex, avoiding a hooked sword by a hair’s breadth. Estimating the orc’s position by the sound, he rammed his dagger up the orc’s spine and rubbed his face on its back.

He opened his eyes and saw the blade of a glaive swinging down on him through a hazy film of red. “Tch!” Aaron ducked and brought up both of his daggers to block the attack.

“Urgh!” He grunted from the oppressive force of the blow. A shower of sparks flew from the clash between his daggers and the glaive. ‘Got to…. Move!!’ He thought, and slid the knives across the glaive, bringing his body closer to the orc.

The orc widened its murky yellow eyes and let go of its weapon but it was too late to avoid a powerful kick to its crotch.

It bellowed at an earthshattering volume, directly proportionate to the terrifying degree of pain it was suffering from. Being the merciful man he is, Aaron drove one of his daggers through its spinal cord and relieved the orc of its pain and life.

A group of three orcs were charging at him, shouting their battle cries for their fallen comrade. Aaron put a dagger in his mouth and kicked up the glaive lying on the ground. He grabbed it with his freed hand and swung it in a wide arc, causing the orcs to halt.

Aaron released the polearm and sent it hurling at an orc in the distance. He let go of the blade between his teeth and stepped to the side of the trio, putting himself in a more favourable position. He rammed a dagger into the first orc’s hip and sent it toppling towards the other two. Taking advantage of the brief loss of balance, Aaron slit an orc’s throat and crushed the other’s windpipe with his fist.

He tugged out his knife from the dead orc and paused to catch a breath. His hands were trembling. He had been fighting at full power for far too long. He felt how weak his knees were starting to feel, threatening to buckle underneath him at any moment.

No orcs tried to attack him at the time, perhaps acknowledging how dangerous he was. This allowed him to look at the remainder of his squad and the woman. ‘Already out of ammo?’ He deduced from the sight of his scouts and spellcasters wielding swords. The formation was not broken, they simply marched forward delivering death to all that approach them.

‘She looks fine’ Aaron judged the woman’s condition by the speed of her attacks and the growing mound of orcish corpses lying about her. ‘No, wait… she’s getting tired’ He could see how the woman’s shoulders were heaving up and down and out of rhythm and her face shining with sweat.

Aaron retreated towards the moving formation and re-joined his squad. “Hey miss! Get over here!” Aaron called out to the woman who was still engulfed in the bloodbath. She looked at him and followed the order, taking her leave from the orc encirclement. She simply swung her blood-stained claymore and the demoralised orcs broke their ranks.

She returned to the group without receiving much resistance. Only a couple of foolhardy orcs dared to block her way, and they paid the price with their heads. Now numbering ten in total, they changed the formation into a circular one to cover all directions.

Aaron gazed upon the battlefield, performing quick estimations of the enemies’ numbers. ‘More than a hundred dead, and all of us alive’ It sounded good, as if the odds were in their favour but they knew better. Aaron eyed his fellow companions, noticing shallow cuts here and there and the steady trickle of blood dripping onto the brown soil.

There was no time to bandage the wounds, no opportunity to let their guard down. Looking at how pale they appeared to be, Aaron knew that they would not last long. They would lose consciousness from severe blood loss if the fight continues for a prolonged period and he knew this would not be concluded anytime soon.

“They’re surrounding us, sir!” The announcement made by one of his subordinates snapped Aaron out of his thoughts. He moved his attention towards the orcs and found them to be forming a perimeter.

‘Why the sudden change?’ The previously disorganized and scared orcs did a full one hundred and eighty transformation. Their posture and expressions were grim and brimming with discipline. There was... a uniformity to them that was previously absent. ‘We can’t get out… not all of us together’ He made that conclusion based on his previous assessment of the squad's condition.

The sound of a war horn blared through the battlefield and the ground shook as the orcs stampeded their way towards Aaron’s small squad. “Damn it! Don’t any of you dare drop dead in front of me, you hear me?! MAINTAIN FORMATION AND SURVIVE!” Aaron shouted to his squad members. They all knew it was a form of encouragement and grinned in response while cutting up the orcs.

He could have escaped alone. From the moment they rescued the nobleman’s son, their mission was over. He could have returned, all the praise and rewards would have been his, but he did not. He was a squad leader, and above all, he is a man.

Even the woman stayed behind, still decapitating orcs without fail. It was obviously not due to their unbreakable friendship or anything of the sort, but she was not part of their squad. Her hair was dishevelled, her face glistened with sweat, her arms ached, her lungs hurt, but she fought on.

‘This has got to end soon, I've got to find the leader and kill him and the orcs might retreat.’ The sound of the war horn and the orcs’ lifted morale confirmed the presence of an orc chief on the battlefield.

It wasn't a certainty that the orcs would leave if their leader died, but Aaron decided to take on the gamble. He scanned around the clearing while holding his ground. ‘There!’ He saw it. A small isolated group of orcs were standing behind the encirclement, not moving a muscle.

One orc in particular was slightly bigger than the others and had an air of superiority. It only stood there, but Aaron could sense its power, the power of authority. The two orcs around it were most likely acting as its personal guards.

‘You’ve got some nerve looking at us like that’ Aaron glared in the orc chief’s direction. The emotion did not reach his intended recipient but that was of little consequence because he would personally deliver it. “I’ll go and slay their leader! You guys stay here and don’t die! I REPEAT, DO NOT DIE!”

With that said, Aaron once again started dashing around and maneuvered his way through enemy lines to reach the orc chief. He jumped, rolled and forced his way through the waves of orcs coming down on them.

‘I’m almost there, just you wait!’ He pushed down an orc’s head and launched himself up into the air. He landed behind the last line of orcs, just a stone throw’s away from the orc chief. He took one step forward and realised something odd. Very odd.

His body felt rigid and heavy like all his muscles and bones had been replaced with lead. He looked at the orc chief and it triumphantly smirked in response. One of the orc chief’s guards was pointing a short staff at him, its mouth moving at top speed while chanting an incantation.

‘Damn it, one of them is an orc shaman!’ He knew what was happening to him. He had been cursed, most likely ‘Slow’. There was no way to break free of a curse once he had been afflicted, save interrupting the practitioner’s chant. Given his current condition, that was impossible.

The orc chief raised its hand and gave a signal to the orcs behind Aaron. Aaron knew what it meant, probably something along the lines of ‘finish the human’. The enemies would swarm over him soon and he would be torn apart like a ragdoll.

He regretted the fact that he could not rescue his squad members, but at least their mission was accomplished. They had certainly bought enough time for Riley to get out of the Millennium Forest with the nobleman’s son.

‘It was so close’ He smiled darkly.

The orcs grunted and howled behind him, it almost sounded like they were in pain. ‘Are they really that excited? Fine, I’ll take you down together with me!’ He growled and spun about to face death, but all he witnessed was the bottom of a shoe sole.

“Oof!”

His face was stepped on and his body bent backwards. He raised his aching head and stared at what stepped over him. The woman was running towards the orc chief with her claymore held by her side, her long brown hair tossed about in the wind.

The orc guards closed in on her from both sides and were about to cleave the woman in half. They were stopped cold by two daggers buried in their throats, one for each orc. The orc chief widened its eyes in shock and caught a glimpse of Aaron.

With both of his hands outstretched in front of him, Aaron smirked back at the orc chief. ‘How do you like that?’ He had thrown the daggers from his position to aid the woman in her reckless assault the very moment the orc shaman stopped its incantation in order to intercept her.

The woman trod over the fallen orc’s torso and swung her claymore with all her might, the air rippled from the power of her swing. The orc chief hastily put up its primitive battle -axe to block the attack.

*CRASH*

The battle-axe was shattered into pieces as the weapons clashed. The previously bulky hunk of iron was reduced to glittering dust and spindly shards. The orc chief was thrown backwards from its position due to the tremendous impact.

However, it was not the orc chief for nothing. It had ruled over this band for years now, and it had earned its position by brute force. It quickly recovered and threw a high-speed punch in return. The woman evaded it by jumping three feet above the orc.

She spun in mid-air and utilised the momentum to bring the sword down in a vertical slash. The orc chief could not react in time and could only glare at the woman as the blade touched the crown of its head. It savagely ripped through bone and flesh, rending the orc chief in half right through the middle. The two jagged halves slid off each other and fell onto the ground, oozing a pool of blood.

*ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR*

The orcs witnessing their chief’s death from afar screamed. The other orcs in the encirclement understood the meaning and started to retreat. They fled back into the trees, leaving the bloodstained glade and Aaron's squad behind.

‘I knew it’

Aaron understood that the only thing driving them on to fight despite their numerous casualties was their leader. The death of their orc chief was in fact a relief to them.

The woman stabbed her claymore into the ground and leaned on it for support. Her knees buckled up and she slumped down in exhaustion. Seeing that, Aaron was alarmed and ran to retrieve her. He lifted her up in a princess carry. Aaron took the opportunity to appreciate how pretty she looked and how soft she felt in his arms.

He headed back towards the rest of his squad who were bandaging themselves. They flashed their victory smiles and laughed. None of them died, they had proven that they could follow Aaron’s orders. They were told to ‘not die’, and they executed it perfectly by staying alive till the end of their ordeal.

Aaron later on found out the name of the woman, Iris Grim. Aaron’s squad was rewarded by the nobleman and all of the squad members were promoted by one rank thanks to General Gordon’s recommendation. Aaron became a battalion commander. He occasionally met with Iris after that mission. They hit it off very well and got married the year after. Aaron retired from the military and had their first and only son Chase the following year.

-Present-