24 Athra 2 (1/2)

A/N Please recheck the Glossary before you start reading (Military ranks)

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Kai's head jolted back and his eyebrows raised in surprise. He stood there with his mouth agape as the colour drained from his face, 'What happened to us Kings in waiting have to stick close together?'

Seeing Kai's reaction, Leon the lemon haired lanky leader laughed livelily, ”Of course you wouldn't know someone from such a lowly clan,” He grabbed Quinton by the shoulder and walked back up to the aircraft. On his way, he said practically screaming, ”Now that you are with the fire clan. All the impurities in your life have been burnt away. You are one of us now!”

Still stunned, Kai turned around and stared into the distant waves. He watched how they were formed and how they crashed. It was much like his friends.h.i.+p with Quinton, it was formed and then it crashed, 'I don't get it. If being friends with me was such a problem, he could have just told me about it. Then even if I saw him, I wouldn't have bothered him as not to make him look bad in front of his clan... Did he abandon me completely? Probably because Carmen hasn't heard from him in a while and she is from the water clan. That is the clan directly under the fire clan so if he did it to her, he did it to me. Not to mention, he used to or does have a crush on Carmen... But maybe I'm overthinking it and there is a reason. I won't know until I get a proper answer from him... Shoh, what a way to start the first day...' Kai shook it off and then went back to Lexi.

While he was looking up she saw his face and could see that he wasn't in a good mood. She wondered why considering he left her in high spirits. He stood next to her and kept quiet. So Lexi initiated the conversation, ”Something happen?”

Kai stayed silent for ten seconds then he spoke, ”You know Quinton, the guy who was at our wedding. Well, he is here and when I greeted him, he practically denied knowing me. He was with people from his clan, the fire clan. I wanted to ask him why he was doing this but with them around the result would be the same. So to get an answer, I'll have to get him alone so that he can tell me what's up. Whether that's today or a week later. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, I don't know how it is on his side. I'd hope someone would do the same for me. But for now, I'm going to tuck that away neatly and keep myself level headed as today is our first time out in the field.”

During the first part of Kai's rant, Lexi's face s.h.i.+fted between different expressions of anger. This made him feel good. She was the one outwardly expressing anger when he was the one that went through it. Kai spoke and she listened. She never offered advice because she knew Kai didn't want it; he just needed an ear which she was more than willing to lend. They had been living together but most of their conversations were superficial and consisted of subjective banter, innuendos and puns. And even that in itself was a mask to cover up their feelings for one another. Now that the facade was falling away and their feelings were surfacing, she wanted to know Kai deeper than the eye could see.

As he spoke, she made mental notes of things, 'He has a good heart. Instead of making a.s.sumptions, he sees the best in his friend and hopes there is a reason for it. It's kinda cute... I wondered if he meant it when he said he would never leave me or if it was just in the moment? But now that I am seeing how he treats those he holds dear, I can actually see the truth in his words and it's making my heart race... But for now, I'm going to compartmentalise my feelings and focus on what's important. Like mother used to say, everything at its own time.'

After Kai had finished speaking, she looked at him and smiled. Kai smiled in return and then he pushed her on the shoulder with his right hand. Lexi's body swayed to the right and then came back to the centre. Then they laughed changing the mood of their conversation. Opening up and willingly showing that he was hurt was hard for him. Especially when she was the one he wanted to show his strength to. However, he knew he had to in order for them to draw closer to one another.

After they had finished laughing, the Second lieutenant's walked out of the aircraft. They had a final briefing on how this event was to be run. Now they planned on relaying it to all surpa.s.sers present.

The Second lieutenant's of each clan stood in front of everybody. Then the Second lieutenant of the fire clan spoke, ”As the winners of last years expedition, we got to choose how today would be set up. So let me explain. This is a joint expedition specifically designed to ween our new surpa.s.sers. Therefore the only ones fighting will be those that are Beginner Rank 2 and below. There are Sergeants on standby to prevent death, as long as the Zolma aren't bipedal they can easily be destroyed. Minors injuries are fine as each clan has been provided with regen shots to heal up.

We have arranged a fixed terrain with a radius of two kilometres (1.2 miles). Each clan has been given a piece of land and that is your territory and also where your base is. This was decided by the system. Caddies you return all your meat to your base and once it is returned it will be uploaded as points. So with that being said the Lightning clan, you are located on the west side. Fire you are on the south side. Water is east, Earth north and Wind is in the centre. The locations will be sent to your genome map.

It is possible to enter another clans territory and kill the Zolma there. However, if you do kill them and then your caddie brings them back. Your cargo can be contested without the use of a contest as long as you're within that clan's territory. Each clan can contest a carriage from another clan three times. Not three to each clan rather just three times in general. To activate the contest you have to touch one of the caddies in the group then yell contest.

When in contest weapons are not allowed nor will the contest be combat. To win the contest, you have to take the badge of the other person. Only one person will be doing the contest. A team decides on a champion to accomplish the task. The champion has to be from their clan and within ten meters of where the contest was called. After a winner has been decided the team of caddies that won will have immunity until they unload their cargo. The immunity is only to the clan that contested them on the journey back to base they may be contested by another clan. After that, any score they claim is fair game.

Today will be streamed live to paying customers all over the world. Streaming plays a vital part in being able to afford transport, equipment, etc. Streaming is also paying for the prizes that the top three will receive. Although the goal is to eliminate the Zolma this is also a compet.i.tion. The winner will be decided via points. You gain points by killing Zolma of different sizes. The bigger the Zolma the more points you get. However, not all the Zolma here can be killed at your level so it's the job of the scouts to navigate the Attack force past the potential dangers. At your level, you can only take on the four-meter Zolma's if you see a bigger one we advise you to retreat. Should you choose to take it on and you end up needing help from an officer points will be deducted from you.

The point system is as follows. Killing the small mutated beasts will net you ten points. Killing a two-meter Zolma will give you one hundred points. A three-meter Zolma one hundred and fifty points and a four-meter Zolma nets you two-hundred and seventy-five points each. We do not recommend it but if your clan happens to beat a five-meter Zolma you will receive one-thousand points. Note that should your clan attempt to kill a five-meter Zolma and instead have to be rescued your clan will lose one-thousand five hundred points. We award strength but we punish stupidity. The penalty applies to all other Zolma however, you lose the exact points you would have gained. So if a clan fails to kill a three-meter Zolma and requests help they will lose one-hundred and fifty points from what they currently have. The same with a meter two-meter Zolma, you will lose one-hundred points.

There will be a lacrima in the sky that will be visible to everyone. It will display the leaderboard. Whether it be the top killer, most points in a single haul, top contested steal, clan rankings and more.” Then he looked at the officers next to him and they nodded their heads, ”You have three hours to strategise and set up your base then we begin. That will be all.”

After he spoke all the clans took their equipment and dispersed in the direction of their respective bases. The lightning clan's territory was located on the east side. It would take 10 minutes to get there on foot. They weren't concerned with saving energy so they were running at a pace. They had three hours to strategise so the energy they expended by running would have returned by then. While running they saw how beaten up Athra looked. The infrastructures were smashed and leaning on each other. They were dilapidated and had several species of mould growing all over, painting them verdant. The gra.s.s was knee-high and in the distance, several herbivores species were feeding on them. Lastly, there were a few pockets of s.p.a.ce that were folded into each other causing time-s.p.a.ce to be distorted. It looked like a 100cm unreflective broken gla.s.s. Everything inside was jumbled up so it would look like the gra.s.s is in the sky even though it was not.

While they were walking the saw two young deer running and playing around in the gra.s.s. It looked like they were playing tag as they chased one another. The mother and father weren't present. They ran and ran until the smaller accidentally ran through the distorted s.p.a.ce and disappeared. The bigger halted in front of the distorted s.p.a.ce and then sniffed with its nose hoping to catch its scent. However, it was gone even the remnants of the scent had completely disappeared leaving only the memory behind. The deer let out a prolonged loud wail and then walked away with its head hanging low.

Seeing this everyone sucked in a cold breath. They couldn't understand what the deer was saying but the language of pain was universal. This heart-wrenching scene reminded them why they were doing this. The Zolma were responsible for billions of deaths just like this. Today it was their job to put their bodies on the line for their world. Seeing this everyone who thought this was just some compet.i.tion had a harsh reality check. That deer had disappeared, it was forever lost. Scientists had no idea where the distorted s.p.a.ces led. They had sent things in but whatever was sent in broke apart. Rumours and unconfirmed theories said that it sent you somewhere in the future or the past. There had been reports that people had looked through one of the cracks of the distorted s.p.a.ce and saw the death of a fellow surpa.s.ser. Then the next day or even a year later the surpa.s.ser died in that same way. However, this had not been confirmed and remained as a conjecture or baseless drivel. The only thing they knew was to avoid it. Scouts were told to mark distorted s.p.a.ces on the map so the surpa.s.sers of their clan knew where they were.

After the lightning clan solidified their resolve they picked up the pace and ran to their territory. Their territory was deep in the forest. The gra.s.s was knee height as that was its maximum length of growth. However, the trees were tall, they ranged from 50 meters to 100 meters.

They continued to walk until they found a circular open s.p.a.ce. This was were where they would set up base. They put all their equipment down and then began setting up shop. The tents were erected, there were single, double and multi-sized tents. This was where they would sleep. Then they set up the kitchen inside a double tent. The pots, pans and equipment were placed there too. As lightning wielders, they could run electricity through the equipment which would allow them to cook without the use of fire. Their supplies were stored in a single tent.

Once everything was sorted, they all a.s.sumed a rectangular formation and stood outside the Sergeant's tent.

”Who is going to tell him we are ready?”

”I don't know, how about you?”

”Are you mad!? Have you seen those eyes? He looks like he has girls like me for breakfast.”

”Maybe we should serve you up as an offering to get him in a good mood.”

”I won't go down easily!”

They all laughed afterwards and then someone said something that made everyone go quiet, ”So who is going to call him?”

Inside the tent, Sergeant Lazarus D'Arco heard the commotion outside, 'Ah, they already done. Let me sleep!' Then he closed his eyes, he wasn't upset about what they were saying because he knew it to be true. He just had one of those scary faces. You get resting b.i.t.c.h face, well he had resting scare you to death face. His skin was deathly pale and he had abnormally long and sharp teeth. The Sergeant's eyebrows were hooked while his eyes were blood red and wide-set. He had black hair and pointy ears. He looked like a monster. His laziness and hate for the sun didn't help him either. It made people think that he was lethargic because he hadn't drunk blood in years.

Outside the students shuddered at the private's question. They didn't want to call him lest they got ravaged. Seeing this, Lexi sighed and then took a step forward. However, Kai gently touched her shoulder and nodded. She stepped back and let him do it. Kai walked through the crowd so that he could get to the tent. While on the way, the privates talked, ”Wait is he going to call him?”

”No, he is just acting, you know as an elite and all.”

Kai continued to walk without any hesitation in his steps and drew closer to the double tent.

”Wait is he going to do it?”

”He might do it!”

”He is brave.”