Perceived Fate

Awaking to a banging headache, Malum found himself repeating his new routine. He immediately went to take shower and the cold water managed to take some of the edge off. Then a hearty meal and plenty of water would finally make him back to functional.

The squad had reunited soon after their first night and choose the best inn for them to stay at. They then continued their unproductive lifestyle for a few days before training re-emerged in their brains.

The only reason they had woken up hungover today was that it was their last time to and so they had taken the final night in stride.

The training area they used was jointly used by the guards around the city. Since they were starred military men they had access to several training grounds and they choose the hardest one to sharpen themselves with.

Jake couldn’t express his sadness enough when the group went back to their insane regime but sadly his wife and his life were on the line so his laziness had to take a step back.

With the sun falling down, the group packed their bags and left the walled city they had once found so impressive. It had served them well, and they would return soon but sadly duty called.

Gerald was giddy with excitement at the fact that they were retuning. His smile could hardly be wiped off his goody face as he thought of the hunting grounds they were going to return to. So rich with prey, he didn’t even need to go and find them. They came to him!

Laughing at his own wonderful circumstances, Gerald provided himself as the annoyance to everyone. They had to hate something and Gerald’s goofy grin acted as a challenge for anyone to wipe it off his face.

Insects didn’t work, neither did any sort of danger at all really. The second somebody jumped, Gerald was ready to leap at what scarred them.

He was just a different species sadly, so the group gave up on him and focused back on themselves.

Malum worried about improvement, Alicia was worried about her and teammates survival, Jake was worried about his sore feat and Jerome was worried about whether he was good enough.

The sun rose again. Malum had to admit that it never failed in the beauty department. The tinge of orange strewn across a line of fluffy clouds, across a landscape of green forestry and Malum had to say that it was like looking at art.

He always wandered why Nobles would have artists bring pictures of landscapes to their own homes. If they wated to see it why didn’t they simply go and look? They clearly had the money.

The wanders of the nobility always baffled the common man. That was from one of the smarter teachers he had learned from over the years. `He was a good teacher that one.`

Breaking his line of thought was his morning schedule. The wood he stood on creaked and the bed he climbed off was damp but still was fairly decent.

The camp was where he opened his door to and with his now awoken squad, they soon went to look at their newbies.

They lined up in the training grounds of the camp and watched as the fresh batch slowly waddled their way in.

After a gruelling speech from the teamwork-Team Leader, the newbies were left to pick who they wanted to join.

Malum was looking at something else however, he was looking next to him at the other lines. He had heard a lot about the other teams and the usual death count of Outposts came to 2 every month. There were also situation where there was a complete gap in the line where another team should stand.

They were called annihilation as the death of one tended to cause the deaths of others. Section F was looking fairly empty with only three people stood solemnly. Malum wandered if they would make it this round, and he wished them the best with a prayer to the God of Luck.

Soon a group wandered over and they even looked pretty good. Higher ranked definitely as their physiques alone would certify them for the higher ranks of the strength tests.

They got to chatting as the admin guy came round to note the new teams. Short introductions led to casual conversation and it only stopped when the administrative person looked at the group and turned to the Team Leader.

`A reassignment` was Malum’s first idea and it quickly came true. The Team Leader walked over and took a look at the paper the admin person was holding and after a few moments of contemplation he told Tim, Agatha and Roger to move over to Section F.

Words of sadness came out, but protest wasn’t going to be an option. Questioning the commanding officer was never a great choice and so they could only pack it in.

Malum knew it was likely to occur to little people had died and their section was growing too strong. Conspiracies about them wanting to die sprouted in Malums mind and whilst to some degree he reckoned it was true, he didn’t think that poorly of humanity that the officers moved them around so that they would die.

Perhaps he was still naïve, but Malum at least wanted something to keep his mood high.

Hugs and waves were done but they parted the same regardless. Malum was going to miss Tim advice, Agatha’s covering fire, and Roger reliable presence. Instead he got a shuffling body of newbies. Ones whose names Malum didn’t even try to remember, instead he went with nicknames.

The sun was high and demons were as bloodthirsty as they could get. Malum was making short work of one Triceratops as he guided the newbie he was assigned to.

The squad had decided to do split themselves into 2 groups with Malum and Jerome with 2 newbies and the remaining squad of 3, Troy, David and Jane.

Gerald had also helmed a group with Jake and Alicia and the four other newbies.

This was the split that they agreed upon, and they agreed that they would reunite once they had ironed out some good soldiers from the recruits that had just joined.

Pushing against a charging demon with his shield, Malum returned the favour by slashing the demons head clean off. He cleaned the blade of blood with his sleave before he saw one of the newbies struggling against a stronger Variant – 001.

“Pretty Boy you’ve got to do better than that,” Malum dive kicked the beast for mostly enjoyment as he let the newbie finish it off with a slash to its neck, “stay strong and charge at them with no fear.”

Pretty Boy nodded but Malum reckoned it would take more than a dive kick for the kid to get over his fear of the nasty little critters.

Demons were no longer providing the challenge that Malum used to feel. Some of the stronger variants still caused damage and the odd mistake on a weaker one still hurt but no longer was Malum counting every second.

The terrain change was a large part in the help towards that as no longer were they being overwhelmed and instead could focus on the one on one.

It wasn’t so much about himself as it was his teammates. He dodged another beast as he moved towards Troy who was dealing with a stronger Variant – 002. Troy had already gotten himself a few cuts and so Malum ran up to surprise the beast and end the fight before Troy got hurt too much.

With the snake distracted, Malum indicated to get an opportunity and when Troy delivered Malum managed to get his blade deep into the brain of the beast.

With its weight falling on the blade Malum quickly pulled it out before it got stuck and turned to see Troy beginning to collapse.

Malum rushed over as his mind caught up to what he was seeing.

`Blood loss?` was his first thought but he could see that the wounds were not nearly big enough.

“H.e..lp me.” Troy managed to croak out as Malum watched his muscles relax and his eyes slowly close.

“Stay with me!” Malum shouted, he needed him awake. He had no way of dealing with any poison and the damn snakes weren’t even supposed to be poisonous in the first place.

All he could really do was watch as he felt Troy slowly turn colourless and cold. He still tried, his hands searching for any information at all about why he died. There was nothing in the wounds, no stringer of any kind just blood and cuts.

Malum looked around for Jerome but saw him fighting with another demon. His medical expertise were better but with him distracted and time running out, Malum slowly put Troy back down.

No longer in his arms, Malum called over the squad members of Troy and dealt with their demons for them.

David kept himself calm and seemed to quickly move on from his friend after a lengthy prayer. Jane shed a few tears and said her goodbyes.

They brought the body back to the Outpost and continued to fight.

Injuries racked up but nobody else fell during the first shift. With a wave, Malum set Gerald off and wished him luck with his own team.

He watched a short while to see his leadership style and it followed an expected `figure it out yourself` style with Gerald demonstrating and the rookies attempts at copying.

Malum left Gerald to his own team and after a short re-sharpening of his blade he fell asleep