At first, everything was easy for Finn. He just had to go back and forth the well on top of the mountain and back to fill his tank, while holding two dippers in his hands. But after a while, his steps started to feel heavy, and he wobbled from time to time. It felt like someone was holding his feet and dragging them down.
He couldn’t count how many times the others went past him. He didn’t have the energy and strength to look at them anymore. He forgot that this was part of the training. The only thing in his mind was how to finish this or he wouldn’t have enough water for that day.
Those two hours felt like years. His tank was only half-filled, and he already lost track of the time. But when he made it back, he saw that everyone was done, and were only waiting for him to finish.
“Is my time over?” he asked through ragged breathing. Before he could get to his tank, he tripped on his own feet and stumbled on the ground, spilling the content of the dippers. Unable to use both hands, his face hit the ground with a loud thud.
Day was fast on her feet, and helped him get up. “Are you okay?”
The others couldn’t help but laugh at the scenario before asking if he was okay. They had never seen someone trip on their own feet aside from a baby learning their first steps. Seeing a full grown man stumble was amusing to them.
On the other hand, the man in his thirties shook his head and mumbled, “Lame.” He didn’t laugh, but he didn’t help Finn either. He was just staring down at him, like he was belittling him.
Finn felt more embarrassed as he tried to stand on his own. “I’m okay. My knees went weak for a second.”
“Are you going to be okay?” Day asked, genuinely worried about him. “The training’s not stopping until lunchtime. We don’t have a break this morning.”
Finn tried not to panic about the revelation. It was only around six in the morning, and thinking about having to go through with training for another six hours without rest made him feel like collapsing.
He prepared for the worst. He knew that the training to become a katona wouldn’t be easy, but he didn’t expect it to be this harsh. Living in Fract, he didn’t have to go back and forth the mountain like this. He just had to do it once everyday.
Yet he was disappointed in himself. What was he doing these past few years? Why was his body so weak? He couldn’t even keep up with the women here. He felt small.
The next training was a little easy, at least he tried to convince himself. They had to swing a wooden sword for an hour, without stopping. They needed to swing it at least a thousand times or more. Failure to do so would lead to a punishment. No one was telling him what the punishment was, but he didn’t want to know.
It wasn’t a walk in the park either. Swinging half a thousand from the left, and then another half on the right, wasn’t easy for Finn. And he somehow understood the reason. Since he could think straight now compared to a minute ago, he had the time to inspect the surroundings now.
The air in this place was different from Fract. It was thicker, and more gloomy. The sun should be up by now, but the sky was still as dark as the night. It was also quite eerie, like someone was watching them from behind.
Finn wasn’t sure if it was just the surroundings, but something was definitely different here. It felt like this wasn’t part of the dazzling Flexure anymore, which he liked to call it now. This was more like the depressing Fract now, if not worse.
After an hour, they started shooting using a customized gun. Since this was the first time Finn held a gun, he asked Day how to use it.
“This customized gun has two buttons here on the side.” She showed her the little protruding buttons and clicked one of them. “This triggers the magic circle inside the gun. One click, it changes to the magic circle to injure a murklin, another click to injure a caelum, then a cerise, and so on and so forth.”
“Wait. Magic circle?”
Day inhaled. “You don’t know what a magic circle is?”
I just discovered that immortals exist yesterday, Finn said to himself. “You can say that.” He scratched the back of his neck.
“Day,” Ronin called, “since Finn is new, I’ll allow you to skip shooting today. Teach him everything he needs to know.”
Day beamed beside Finn. “Roger that!”
After that, Day started explaining enthusiastically. “A magic circle is casted by chosen people like us. Meaning, ordinary mortals can’t cast them for their own safety, and to prevent it from being used for evil. You should know how to cast them by now, but it looks like you don’t know how.”
“How do I learn about it?”
“Later at Aria training. We learn and memorize different chants and spells. There are spells that we can use to fight different immortals, and chants to fight mortals.”
Finn nodded. “I understand now, but would we need to fight with mortals too?”
“This world is also filled with cri.minals, Finn. There are mortals who learned how to create magic circles and use it to harm others. Unfortunately, some ex-katonas are teaching them to mortals without proper authorization like us night hunters.”
“So, Aria is those who use chants and spells to create magic circles, did I get that right?”
She nodded. “And Aria is now officially included in the list of katonas. I, for one, am an Aria. I use spells and chants to fight during battles. We act as a support in the team. We boost their magic spells and weapons, and act as the healer of the group.”
Finn nodded, fascinated with the information he was hearing.
“Knights are those who use swords to fight. Dragoon is for gun shooters, and archer for bow and arrow.”
Finn didn’t know any of this. He didn’t know that there were positions like this in an elite team. He thought there were just the major, the commander, sergeant, private, and the others under them.
Not to mention magic powers. No one in Fract used magic, none that he knew. His parents hadn’t told about it as well, even though his great grandfather was once a katona. Or maybe no one told them as well. He didn’t know.
And he would never know.
“Knight, Dragoon, Archer and Aria need magic spells to injure an immortal.” Day showed him the gun they were using. “Every click on this button triggers the magic circle. One magic circle for injuring a murklin, another one for injuring a caelum, and the others for cerise and mauve.”“That sounds complicated,” said Finn. “What if the enemy is already in front of you, and yet you clicked the wrong button? You’ll get k-lled even before you click.”Day chuckled. “That’s why we’re training, Finn. We’re training how to shoot faster, and how to click the button faster.” Finn nodded and let her continue. “The swords, on the other hand, are different. Instead of buttons, you cast the spell on the spot.”Handing a pair of training swords, Day unsheathed it. She raised her index and middle finger, and before placing it in the middle of the sword. While mumbling under her breath, she started to move her fingers towards the tip of the sword, and it started to produce a white light.When she was d
The Night Hunters stood before the huge man-made arena in the middle of the forest. In front of them was a protruding stage shaped like an uneven circle made of a carved stone. They were surrounded with trees, which made the place quite eerie and uncanny.“I asked Day to orient our newbie a while ago,” Ronim stated. “I hope you’re aware of what's going to happen this afternoon, then?” Finn only nodded. “Since you’re now an odd number, I was thinking of a way on how to do our afternoon training, and this is what I thought.”“You’re still free to choose the opponent you’d like to fight against, and I’m still going to choose for those who are undecided. As for our newbie…” Ronim stared at Finn and continued, “You’re going to be fighting against me.”Everyone gasped, especially Finn, who was conflicted for a moment. The first thing that entered his mind was how ridiculous the idea was. He looked at the instructor’s seve.red leg, and he thought it wouldn’t be fair for the latter.Finn was
Day and Rina’s fight was different than the first one. Since Day was an aria, and Rina was an archer, they preferred to distance themselves from the opponent and fire long range. No one dared to fight head on, and chose to focus on calculating each other. While Rina fired her arrow nonstop, Day chanted back to counter all her attacks.Finn was gaping at the fast paced duel between the two. The faster Rina fired her arrows, Day would chant faster too. He didn’t know that someone could speak as fast as Day. The mortal was born to become an Aria.But it wasn’t half an hour yet, when Finn noticed that Day was falling behind. Rina started to move from her position. Rather than firing her arrows in one place, she started shooting aimlessly in the air, or so Finn thought.In a blink of an eye, magic circles appeared in the air. They appeared where Rina was shooting a few minutes ago, and some where positioned behind Day, where she couldn’t see them. And just like that, lights came out of the
Finn held his chest, trying to stop the fast pounding of his heart. But it was futile. He could hear it throb faster and faster as time went by. Who wouldn’t? He was facing their instructor right now.Seeing Ronim’s missing leg, Finn tried to convince himself that he could somehow put up a good fight despite being a newbie. But this was their instructor. He was no instructor without a reason. After years and years of teaching night hunters, he must have seen a lot already. Finn believed that experience was second to hard work, not talent.Whether he admitted it or not, there was a possibility as well that Ronim was a good fighter not just because of experience. Someone was telling Finn that there was something about Ronim that was why he became an instructor of night hunters. He just couldn’t put his finger to it yet.Finn stared at the gun he was holding. He decided to pick this since this was his best choice right now. He wouldn’t have to attack Ronim head on with this. He couldn’t
Thunders roared as smoke and fog covered the already dark sky. The bright moon glared at the Tempest castle that stood on the highest mountain of Izvor. Ravens and bats flew out of the cave when the mountain shook. Hundreds of decades-old trees from the forest surrounding the mountain swayed like it was going to uproot from the ground.Penelope Tempest stood abruptly at her throne, hands shaking with rage because of the news everyone seemed to be used to."Where the hell is my goddamn daughter this time?!" she growled, throwing the glass of wine at the person in front.Jikan Kyojin closed his eyes and hissed when the glass hit his face. His face sizzled as the shards slowly dropped on the ground. He grimaced as the wounds started to heal.For a small and petite mortal, Penelope's strength is something else."The heiress is at the front gate, stuck, and wouldn't be able to open it, your highness," Jikan answered in the smallest and softest voice he could possibly mutter."Well then, br
When Finn’s group reached the town, they used their masks to cover their faces. Instead of walking like normal mortals, they hid behind shadows. They hopped and jumped from one roof to another. And it was only possible since the houses here were almost the same height.They needed to find information about the Four Arc Shadows, who escaped from the Aysgarth Prison. Day already oriented Finn about the four prisoners, and they just had to gather information from the townspeople.“This is where we separate,” Day said. “After an hour of gathering information, we’ll get back here at this inn and discuss what we’ve gathered.” Finn raised his hand. “No need to raise your hand. Just speak your mind.”Kiel snorted. “Are you in grade school?”Finn ignored him. “Can we not use a disguise while gathering information? I think it’ll be more effective for me to ask around instead.”Day nodded. “It’s up to you on how you’ll do it. Just don’t get caught and act like a normal mortal.” He nodded. “Any m
“Let’s go,” said Euben, not looking back even once to wait for the others. He hid his face with the mask and placed his hood securely. “Aren’t we going to wait for them?” Rina asked while pointing at the headquarters where Day and the others were preparing. “No need to do that. We won’t need them.” After waving towards the others, Rina looked ahead and walked beside him with her hands inside her pockets. “I know that, but it’ll be fun if we do it with the others.” He scoffed. “You just want the newbie to watch and praise you.” Grinning, she said, “That’s a given, you know. I want him to see how good I am at fighting.” They jumped from one roof to another, and Rina just followed him. It looked like Euben already knew where to start. Or maybe he already started. “He already knows that. He was gaping at your fight a while ago and can’t help admiring you. Dude’s almost drooling.” Rina beamed, “Really? I didn’t see that.” “You were too focused on the fighting. How the hell will yo
Sphere opened his eyes slowly, trying to make out her surroundings. They were no longer in their opulent mansion. Instead of the familiar white and blue, the environment was now vibrant and colorful. Strange creatures, some with two, four, or many legs, roamed the area. "Oof!" she grunted as something heavy hit her stomach. "Sorry," a voice apologized. She looked at the person beside her and realized she wasn't alone in this crowded place they found themselves in. She wiped his face and stood up. She left the captain, who followed suit. "What's your plan?" Jikan asked while observing the surroundings. They went to a part of the place where many homes were visible. Structures almost covered the moon. Many people were just preparing to close their shops, but there were some who were just about to open. "I don't know." "You don't know?" Sphere just nodded and continued walking. "Why did you leave the palace if you didn't know what you were going to do?" "That's the point. I didn
“Don’t expect,” Euben said, “to be picked as the next katona with this kind of ability. Heck! Don’t even expect to survive as a night hunter if you’re going to do this. You’ll not only let yourselves get killed, but you’ll end up dragging everyone’s feet.”After that, he left.Finn sighed. Even though Euben wasn’t looking at him, he knew that those words were meant for him. He didn’t even have to say his name. Euben already showed his distaste towards him since the beginning.“I’m sorry,” Day mumbled. “It’s my fault. I couldn’t even do one simple task.” Trying her best not to cry, Day ended up on her knees while holding her mouth. She stifled a cry, not able to suppress her feelings any longer.Finn walked towards her, and tried to console her. “No. It’s my fault for attacking without thinking first. We both didn’t know that he’s carrying a sword with him.”“He’s not carrying it with him,” Kiel stated. “It was hidden behind his back so we didn’t see it. It’s another spell to hide obje
The search for Limos, one of the four arc shadows, became easier after defeating Thanatos. After all, they seldom venture far from each other.“It’s not like they have anywhere else to go,” said Day. “They can only go here in Flexure to hide. Going to Parastin and Banhar to hide would be difficult for them, since security is tighter, and most of the most skilled elite army are stationed there.”“What about in Fract?” asked Finn. He didn’t mean to mention the place, so he almost scolded himself. He was just curious why they seldom talk about the place, and they didn’t even consider the place as a hiding place for the criminals.“The four arc shadows are originally from here, so they hate that place like all of us.” Day said that in a matter-of-fact tone.Rina continued nonchalantly, “I’d rather hide in Banhar too where the higher-ups are living than go to that filthy place.”Finn clenched his fist to prevent himself from saying anything reckless. He didn’t want to keep asking questions
As the group traversed through the dark and chilly mountain, Kiel could feel it: the eerie sensation under his skin, brought by excitement and anticipation. There was something in this place that he couldn’t put his fingers on. Something mysterious that he couldn’t wait to see.Aside from the rustling of trees and the cold breeze, there was nothing on this mountain. At least something that they couldn’t see.The mountains at Fract were as dark and as chilly as this one, but Finn could tell that it was definitely different here. He could feel the hair at the back of his neck standing, and he felt like someone was watching him from behind. But whenever he would look back, he would see nothing but the creepy branches of the trees that looked like fingers and faces. He swore they were alive.When the wind blew harsher, they all stopped and covered their eyes to prevent dirt and dust from getting in. But they were all sent flying when a sudden gust of wind hit them, like someone threw the
“I heard a lot of things about Thanatos,” Day started after everyone settled inside their room. They spoke in low voices so as to not disturb the two new workers from next door. The rooms weren’t soundproof, and there might be someone who would eavesdrop on whatever they would be talking about tonight.“He’s a former dragoon,” she added.“We discovered,” Honey said, “that the four arc shadows are former night hunters. Meaning, the other three might also be skilled hunters like us, or maybe even better.”Finn looked away. This might be more dangerous for him than he thought. But knowing that these three would be with him for his new mission somehow lessened the doubts he was feeling a moment ago.“The Nokogiri mountain,” Finn said. “Someone saw one of the four arc shadows on their way there. I’m not really sure if what I gathered is reliable, though.”“That’s fine,” Day said. “We can always confirm it as long as we have a lead.”Their heads shot up to the window when it opened abruptl
Sphere opened his eyes slowly, trying to make out her surroundings. They were no longer in their opulent mansion. Instead of the familiar white and blue, the environment was now vibrant and colorful. Strange creatures, some with two, four, or many legs, roamed the area. "Oof!" she grunted as something heavy hit her stomach. "Sorry," a voice apologized. She looked at the person beside her and realized she wasn't alone in this crowded place they found themselves in. She wiped his face and stood up. She left the captain, who followed suit. "What's your plan?" Jikan asked while observing the surroundings. They went to a part of the place where many homes were visible. Structures almost covered the moon. Many people were just preparing to close their shops, but there were some who were just about to open. "I don't know." "You don't know?" Sphere just nodded and continued walking. "Why did you leave the palace if you didn't know what you were going to do?" "That's the point. I didn
“Let’s go,” said Euben, not looking back even once to wait for the others. He hid his face with the mask and placed his hood securely. “Aren’t we going to wait for them?” Rina asked while pointing at the headquarters where Day and the others were preparing. “No need to do that. We won’t need them.” After waving towards the others, Rina looked ahead and walked beside him with her hands inside her pockets. “I know that, but it’ll be fun if we do it with the others.” He scoffed. “You just want the newbie to watch and praise you.” Grinning, she said, “That’s a given, you know. I want him to see how good I am at fighting.” They jumped from one roof to another, and Rina just followed him. It looked like Euben already knew where to start. Or maybe he already started. “He already knows that. He was gaping at your fight a while ago and can’t help admiring you. Dude’s almost drooling.” Rina beamed, “Really? I didn’t see that.” “You were too focused on the fighting. How the hell will yo
When Finn’s group reached the town, they used their masks to cover their faces. Instead of walking like normal mortals, they hid behind shadows. They hopped and jumped from one roof to another. And it was only possible since the houses here were almost the same height.They needed to find information about the Four Arc Shadows, who escaped from the Aysgarth Prison. Day already oriented Finn about the four prisoners, and they just had to gather information from the townspeople.“This is where we separate,” Day said. “After an hour of gathering information, we’ll get back here at this inn and discuss what we’ve gathered.” Finn raised his hand. “No need to raise your hand. Just speak your mind.”Kiel snorted. “Are you in grade school?”Finn ignored him. “Can we not use a disguise while gathering information? I think it’ll be more effective for me to ask around instead.”Day nodded. “It’s up to you on how you’ll do it. Just don’t get caught and act like a normal mortal.” He nodded. “Any m
Thunders roared as smoke and fog covered the already dark sky. The bright moon glared at the Tempest castle that stood on the highest mountain of Izvor. Ravens and bats flew out of the cave when the mountain shook. Hundreds of decades-old trees from the forest surrounding the mountain swayed like it was going to uproot from the ground.Penelope Tempest stood abruptly at her throne, hands shaking with rage because of the news everyone seemed to be used to."Where the hell is my goddamn daughter this time?!" she growled, throwing the glass of wine at the person in front.Jikan Kyojin closed his eyes and hissed when the glass hit his face. His face sizzled as the shards slowly dropped on the ground. He grimaced as the wounds started to heal.For a small and petite mortal, Penelope's strength is something else."The heiress is at the front gate, stuck, and wouldn't be able to open it, your highness," Jikan answered in the smallest and softest voice he could possibly mutter."Well then, br
Finn held his chest, trying to stop the fast pounding of his heart. But it was futile. He could hear it throb faster and faster as time went by. Who wouldn’t? He was facing their instructor right now.Seeing Ronim’s missing leg, Finn tried to convince himself that he could somehow put up a good fight despite being a newbie. But this was their instructor. He was no instructor without a reason. After years and years of teaching night hunters, he must have seen a lot already. Finn believed that experience was second to hard work, not talent.Whether he admitted it or not, there was a possibility as well that Ronim was a good fighter not just because of experience. Someone was telling Finn that there was something about Ronim that was why he became an instructor of night hunters. He just couldn’t put his finger to it yet.Finn stared at the gun he was holding. He decided to pick this since this was his best choice right now. He wouldn’t have to attack Ronim head on with this. He couldn’t