“So, if you can do that earth trick before? Why did you need my help? I can think of several ways of how to beat that gorilla with your trick.” I asked Sarfak who is still lying on the ground. He is still breathing furiously, and there are traces of blood on the corner of his mouth. “My trick -as you can say- is the application of magus manipulation from our tribe, and it is not something that I can do it freely for now. I am still an apprentice after all. Once I am accepted to be a dwarf warrior and get access to our library, I can learn a lot of things for the magus user test to get a master to teach me.” He said with passionate eyes. “What is the difference between apprentice and master?” He shakes his head at my question. “It is almost like comparing heaven to earth. Apprentices are people who learned the basics of magus manipulation in our academy, and once they graduated, they will have to pass this rite of passage to become the warrior. This is the stage between apprentice an
“What the hell is going on here, Lad?” I feel relieved when I hear Sarfak’s voice, then give him a brief explanation as fast as possible. “You really cannot help but keep getting into trouble aren’t you?” He muttered sarcastically. I want to protest because it is really not my fault that trouble keeps coming to me, but decided to shut my mouth and wait for him “I don’t really know anything about healing, but I know someone that mastered dryad healing magic in my village. She will know what to do about them.” “How far is your village from here?” I asked seriously. He glanced at the little girl who is looking at us nervously and the unconscious boy and replied, “If we move fast like when we first met and didn’t meet any trouble, one hour is enough to get there.” I know from his subtle glance what he really wants to say. If we move like when we chase down by the gorilla for the first time, we will arrive at Sarfak's village in one hour. But we can’t do that with the girl with us. “I
There is no sound on the field that is usually filled with a lot of military shouts. The only thing that can be heard was the sound of the wind blowing. Every soldier on the field is holding their breath, their eyes keep looking at one particular soldier that is just standing on the field. He is holding a machine gun with a firm posture, his eyes are still wandering around, trying to find the strategic spot for the battle.His name is Devin, a veteran war soldier from the Northern Alliance. However, despite being called a veteran, he is still 15 years old. He officially joined the world-war 3 when he was 10 years old because of the Northern’s loss against the Western Country.The first time he came to the battlefield, he surprised everyone by assassinating almost every enemy that he met and rescued the intelligent unit from being backstabbed by catching a traitor in that unit. After that moment, the world has known him as ‘the shadow assassin’ for his ability to assassinate quickly in
-- Devin PoV -- It has been just 15 minutes since I leave General Atalanta’s office, and I am just sitting on the bus. It has been a long time for me to be in the Northern Alliance's capital city, Moskva. The last time I have been here was when I got the promotion to captain in the military. After that, I spent almost all my time with my squad, either training or going to the battlefield. This time, however, I decided to ask for a break from the military. I didn’t have a plan to spend my rare holiday in this city. Instead, it is Khimki, a small city in the north of Moskva that I will go to right now. While Khimki is just a small city without anything interesting to attract visitors, this city is my hometown, the place where I grew up and honed myself to be the strong person I became right now. After the bus reached the nearest stop in the city, I walked for about 10 minutes before reaching a small old house. The house itself is just an ordinary building without anything fancy. The
His name is Andra. He is still 15 years old, just like me. However, unlike me who is tall and muscular, Andra has a very ordinary appearance. The only unusual thing about him is his round glasses and messy hair. If you didn’t know anything about him, you will assume that he is just an ordinary boy without anything special. The truth is, he chooses to have a very ordinary appearance to hide the fact that he is a trained spy and assassin from the South Region called Malaya. He is also the one who teaches me how to handle a lot of daily life things that can be used as weapons, from a simple kitchen knife to a handgun. He was at the orphanage one year earlier than me. He was found by Lieutenant Maxim, Mama’s late husband and our father, in the street near the military base in Moskva. At first, he acted as a street child to get the attention and sympathy of the higher-ups in the military. A few years ago, when the Northern Alliance was still not formed, a street child trying to get the
“What happened? And where the hell are we?” This question seems to wake me up from my shock. I try to keep my breath steady and calm. When I am looking around, I got confused because instead of the orphanage, I am now in the middle of a forest. But after thinking about what happened before, I start to curse around. “DAMN! Did we just get absorbed by a bloody book?! How the hell is that possible?!” “It seems so.” Andra just shrugged at my rant. I feel a sudden urge to smack his head. For someone who is the main reason for what happened to us, he is way too calm right now. Either he is still in shock, afraid of what will happen, or he has already calmed himself. I hope it is the latter. “So, what do you think right now?” I ask, trying to keep as calm as possible. As a soldier, I am trained to always calm down when I have to face an unexpected event, and while this is definitely at the top-notch of my unexpected event list, I have to keep forcing myself to calm down, at least for my s
-- Sara PoV -- ‘Is she awake?’ I can hear a small whisper coming from a little girl from afar. ‘Not yet. I think it will be soon.’ Another girl, this one comes from my side, returned the question. After hearing that conversation, I started gaining consciousness. I want to groan. However, I don’t have any energy to do that. I don’t know how long I have been asleep, but by how weak my body it is right now, I can estimate the last time I eat properly was almost three days ago. Then, a memory of three days ago struck my brain like a lightning. I can remember all of the torture that I experienced for almost three days in a row. And then, a name suddenly came through my brain. ‘Aliyya!’ While I cannot remember clearly what is exactly happened three days ago, I can still remember that my sister was also kidnapped with me. Just the thought of what would the kidnappers do to my little sister in the hand of the kidnappers makes my body sweat heavily and my heart beat faster. I tried to ca
-- Devin PoV -- On the battlefield, a surprise attack is a common thing. There are a lot of cases when my enemies send a suicide attack at night. As a soldier, I trained myself to react with my instinct first and think later when the surprise attack happened, because you will need every little time you have to save yourself. I honed my instinct for almost five years to face unexpected situations like a surprise attack. So when a scream is coming from the other room, the room where we place the black robe man, I instinctively duck for a cover. I didn’t have to worry for Andra and Sara, because Andra is also trained in this kind of situation and he is closer to Sara, so he will definitely protect her. And a few seconds after the scream, our home exploded. A tremendous boom shook the building, shattered the wall, leveling our home to the ground just in a blink. ‘Cosma! Nina! Mama!’ My mind is screaming, begging for me to move quickly to find them. After looking around and seeing Andr