Confrontation

Huff, huff

Melfer ran swiftly through the dense trees and greenery.

‘I don’t know when Irfika left that letter. Nor did he mention when the operation would begin. Just now, I saw a green flare. It was probably the signal for the teams.’ He thought, increasing his speed.

Soon, he reached a crossroad.

“Right, left, and forward…There are three paths…” Melfer whispered, breathing heavily. “But which one leads to the unit?”

Melfer closed his eyes, searching the location in his memories.

‘Enter from far west, at the crossroads, and take the path to the far east. Don’t panic…There would be signs. Signs you know well…’ He recalled the directions.

“The path to the far east…There will be signs…” He mumbled.

Melfer turned back and understood the directions.

“This is the southern region. This means I entered from the west. And the opposite of west is east. This means…” He turned towards the crossroads. “This is the path to the east…” He said, looking at the path in front.

Melfer walked forward and searched for the signs. Looking beside, above, around, and below the plants, he finally found a sign: a yellow circle and an arrow at its centre. The arrow pointed towards the east.

“Right…This is the path…” Melfer smiled.

He stood up and walked on the path. Suddenly, he felt a throbbing pain in his head. He fell to one knee and groaned in pain.

‘Chi-ld…’ A voice spoke inside him.

“Ugh…What? What was that?”

Melfer grabbed a branch and tried to stand.

‘Hea-ve… cho-sen…yo-…’ The voice spoke again…

“What the hell? What is it even saying?”

Suddenly, all the pain vanished, as if it had never existed.

He slowly stood up and looked around.

‘There is no one. I am alone…’ Melfer thought, heart beating rapidly. ‘Then where did it come from?’

Melfer kept standing still, too scared to move.

‘No…I must move. The voice has vanished, so I should continue my journey…’ Melfer gathered some courage.

He took a deep breath and ran towards the destination. He kept an eye out for every hidden sign and stayed on his path.

A few minutes passed, and he arrived at an open area. He looked around, but it was empty.

‘It is awfully quiet…Is this really the place?’ He thought.

Melfer heard a sound behind him, pulled out his sword, and turned around, ready to attack. In front of him, beside a tree, stood a man. The man was tall, and he wore an iron mask covering his upper face. The right side had the number ‘96’ written on it.

‘Golden eyes…Golden hair…and a white and golden sword…This might be the boy commander Irfika mentioned…’ The man thought, observing Melfer.

“What’s your name?” The man asked in a heavy voice.

“Melfer Erkinson…” Melfer replied, tightening his grip on the sword.

“How did you find this place? Who gave you the directions?”

“Irfika Korloff, Solaris of the Eclipse. He gave me clues to this location.” Melfer replied in the same tone.

The man eased up and smiled. He snapped his fingers, and soon eight more people appeared from the bushes.

“Two archers, two gunners, and five swordmen…” Melfer observed his surroundings.

“Relax, Melfer. We are Unit 96. Commander Irfika told us about you.” The man came forward. “My name is Walter Rinskat, and I am the sub-commander of the unit.”

“He told us that a young, cute boy would be joining us. But I never thought that he was telling the truth…” One of the archers, a female, walked towards Melfer. “I am Alice Olter…”

“Nice to meet you all…” Melfer’s face lit up with happiness.

“Same…” Walter said, patting Melfer’s head. “You are still a rookie and under training, but you are now a part of the unit. We are both your older siblings and friends…So, welcome to the unit…”

…

In the far north of the southern region.

The headmaster and the instructors, except for Irnik, sat around a campfire, laughing and drinking. Behind them was a crate, full of Malgis coins.

“This is the best deal we ever had…” An instructor said, taking a sip of his alcohol.

“Of course…” The headmaster laughed back. “One Malgis coin is equal to one thousand gold coins. Getting two hundred Malgis Coins from King Larnet. This is a dream come true…”

“Those Gorbin mice thought they were safe here. But they aren’t!” Another instructor, drunk, shouted.

The rest burst into uncontrollable laughter.

“I never knew the Falvarians were this generous. Now I can finally leave that rusty house…” Another one followed.

“House? Hahahaha”. The teacher with the big build laughed. “Why buy a house when you can make a mansion for yourselves?”

“Also attract some of those rich ladies…”

“But how will we deal with the government? They would become suspicious if we became rich suddenly…” An instructor cautioned.

“Don’t worry about such petty matters…” The headmaster smirked. “Just throw one or two Malgis coins at their face, and they will start licking your boots.”

“Yeah…The highest they earn in a year is 200 gold coins. Which isn’t equivalent to a single Malgic coin…” The teacher with the big build followed.

“Our golden days have started…” The headmaster said, raising his cup of beer. “Cheers, fellas!”

“Cheers!” All the instructors shouted together.

Bang, bang, bang.

Suddenly, multiple gunshots were heard from the forest. The smiles on the staff vanished immediately, and some picked up their guns.

“What was that?” An instructor asked, trembling.

“Has the government arrived?” Another one said, grabbing his dagger.

“Gu-guys, relax. There is n-nothing to worry about…We have our guards…” The headmaster replied, panicking.

Bang, bang.

More gunshots were heard, and soon they heard someone clapping.

“Hahaha…Having fun, I see.” A voice spoke, approaching the staff slowly.

“Who is there?” The headmaster shouted, slowly walking towards the coins.

“Partying without me and forgot me this early?” Irnik emerged from the trees, smiling. “Isn’t that a bit impolite?”

“How did you find this place? We never told you!” An instructor shouted, grabbing a handgun.

“Exactly! You never told me.” Irnik took a step forward, smiling. “But you see…I am very good at finding liars…” His smile vanished.

“We are five, and you are alone! We have guards, too!” The headmaster shouted, standing beside the crate of coins.

“Dead people don’t count. It’s just you five against me…”

“Huh!?!? What did you do?!?!?”

“Hahaha, now don’t start crying…” Irnik chuckled, pulling out his gun and sword. “Why don’t we settle this?”

Suddenly, from the forest, a man dashed towards the school staff.

“Lightning Art…” The special guard mumbled. “Thunder Shriek.”

He waved his sword and an invisible shockwave emerged. It struck the staff, shattering their eardrums.

And then, two guards appeared from the opposite side, rushing at the special guard and Irnik. From Irnik’s left, Ronald appeared.

“Wind Art, Death Chasers.” Ronald cast his Art.

As he spoke his Art, two wolves made of wind emerged. They ran on the air and bit the two guards in the neck, snapping them.

Ronald’s colleague left the forest, aimed his rifle at the staff, and shot two in the head, one by one.

The headmaster fell on the ground, hugging the coin crate.

Irnik slowly walked towards him and sat down.

The headmaster pointed his handgun at Irnik, trembling. He couldn’t take a stable aim due to his shaking hands. Irnik slowly grabbed the handgun and pulled it from the headmaster’s hand.

“Good boy. Kids shouldn’t play with these…” Irnik smiled and stood up.

He checked his handgun and pointed it at the headmaster’s head.

“Pl-Please don’t kill me. You can have half of these coins, but p-please. S-spare me.” The headmaster cried for his life.

Irnik placed the barrel on the headmaster’s forehead and clicked the gun.

“P-please! P-please, plea-…”

Irnik fired without a care.

“At least show some bravery…coward…”

“This has been taken care of. What’s next?” The special guard asked.

“Tell, Marnis…” Irnik called Marnis.

Marnis slowly stepped out of the dense trees and looked at the dead staff. Then he gave his answer, furious.

“Simple…Kill the rest…”

…

Felmer and the squad rushed into the forest, hands on their sheaths, ready to attack.

As they rushed, Felmer heard a voice in the bushes and signalled for the team to stop. They came to an abrupt stop.

“We are surrounded…” Felmer whispered, unsheathing his sword.

The squad formed a circle and covered all directions. Felmer observed his surroundings, looking for any movement.

Suddenly, two bushes moved, and two boys rushed at them. Felmer sheathed his sword, ducked, and punched one in the abdomen. The other immediately stopped to attack Felmer, but Zendaya grabbed her sheath and hit the boy in the head. Both attackers fell unconscious.

“If my memory serves me right, they are squad number 5. So all four of them will be boys…” Zendaya informed, looking at their faces.

“This means two more remain…” Felmer closed his eyes.

‘We spent our sweet time mastering the magical waves. So why don’t I put it to use…’ Felmer thought and closed his eyes.

As he focused, about a hundred meters from their position, he caught the waves of a bow.

He immediately opened his eyes.

“An archer in my direction. Three trees apart, behind a bush.” Felmer unsheathed his sword. “Two from the left and two from the right,” Felmer ordered and rushed to the right.

Anderson followed him towards the right, while Zendaya and Efkil took the left side.

Felmer saw the archer and lunged at him. The rival archer panicked and retreated, but his teammate got in front of Felmer and defended. Felmer tilted his sword and avoided the defence. He moved to the right and punched the archer in the head.

Anderson attacked the last standing rival and blocked his attack. The rival released his sword from his hands and kicked Anderson in the chest.

Efkil, still nervous, grabbed a rock and threw it at the boy’s head.

“Hey! This is unfair!” The boy cried upon getting hit by the rock.

He turned, and Felmer landed a punch on his face.

“But this isn’t…” Felmer smiled.

“Good work, fellas…Now where’s the flag?” Felmer looked here and there.

“There it is…” Zendaya replied, pointing at a high branch.

She picked up a rock, aimed at the flag, and threw the rock at it. The flag fell, and they retrieved it.

“Well…That’s one…” Anderson picked up the flag.

‘He is still acting weird…’ Felmer thought, looking at Efkil.

“Let’s find the second one...” Zendaya said and began walking, followed by Anderson.

Felmer walked alongside Efkil and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Are you really scared of the fighting, or is there something else?” Felmer asked in a low voice.

“Shut up and leave me alone…” Efkil said and paced up.

‘Whatever…I was trying to help…’ Felmer thought, shrugging his shoulders.

One hour passed, and they had found the second flag by then.

They reached an open area and decided to rest.

“We have been running for an hour…Let’s rest, or I might sleep…” Zendaya said and sat near a rock.

“Yeah…” Anderson nodded and sat on the ground.

Efkil sat behind Zendaya and hid his face in his arms.

“This sure is exhausting…” Felmer said, taking a deep breath.

“We have two flags. How do we find the remaining?” Anderson asked, drinking water from his bottle.

“Magical waves…” Zendaya replied, seemingly asleep.

“Oh…yeah…I forgot…” Anderson nodded.

“Our teacher won’t be happy if he heard you say that…” Felmer chuckled.

“Hehe…”

A few minutes passed.

“This is enough rest for now. We should start looking for the next flag…” Felmer said and sat upright, leaning against a tree.

“Alright…” Zendaya replied, eyes closed.

Felmer closed his eyes and focused on the magical waves around him. He removed all unnecessary thoughts from his mind and tried to detect the waves. Soon, multiple waves appeared around him. But they were too many.

‘That’s a lot of waves. It’s making my head heavy…’

Regardless of that, Felmer kept looking for waves or any potential enemies. As he looked around, he detected an unusual presence. A yellow wave…

‘Huh? Why is it yellow? Aren’t they all white?’ Felmer thought, confused.

He felt like he was losing control, so he focused more.

He followed the yellow wave and felt their number increasing.

‘Ugh…Is this normal?’

“Felmer!” Anderson called him.

Felmer swiftly opened his eyes and stood up.

“What!?!?” He asked, looking at Anderson.

But they were looking in the opposite direction. All three of them.

“What are you looking at?” Felmer asked, turned, and felt fear.

Four armed, masked men stood on the other side of the open area, each one of them carrying a gun.

“Who are you?!?” Felmer asked, afraid.

Before the unknown man could answer, Felmer heard a voice behind him.

“Felmer…” Efkil called his name softly. “I am sorry…”

“Huh?” Felmer turned, and his sword dropped from his hands.

Zendaya stood straight, paralysed, a knife in her back. Efkil held the knife tightly until he let it go.

Zendaya looked at Felmer and Anderson, eyes wide open. She took a step forward, fell on one knee, then her whole body fell.

Felmer looked at Efkil, boiling with anger,

“YOU BASTARD!!!”