About the past

"So how do you two know each other?" Lucille asks.

We were sitting in Principal Vaughn's office, which now had a ten-foot hole in the wall.

"Zee and my mother were best friends," I tell her.

"I met her around ten years ago."

"He saved my life," Zee added.

"How?" Lucille asked.

"Well, the first time we met was on the battlefield," Zee said.

"Wait a minute, ten years ago? You would've been eight years old right?" Lucille asks me.

"My parents used to bring Kevin and me to battlefields so we could understand what war truly meant," I told her.

"He may have been young but he killed his fair share of Vaders." Zee chuckles.

"Vaders?" Lucille asked.

"It's what soldiers on the front lines call the army of despair," I tell her.

"The face guards that they use resembles some character from an old movie."

"Cool." she said.

"So what happened?"

"Where do I even begin?" Zee sighed.

******************

[Ten years ago.]

Zee returns to her tent after ending the day's battle, she takes off her armor and stretches out on her mat. She's exhausted, after fighting nonstop for the last twenty-two hours she needs to rest. She was just about to fall asleep when there was a voice at the entrance.

"Sorry to bother you, Staff Sergeant."

A burly man salutes her.

"But there's a woman here asking to see you."

"Who is it?" she grumbled as she put her gear back on.

"She said her name is Tasha ma'am" he responded.

Zee's eyes immediately light up and she rushes to finish getting dressed as she suddenly doesn't feel as tired anymore.

"Thank you, you're dismissed." she stops to salute the corporal before she runs for the camp entrance. As she gets closer, she sees a crowd of soldiers yelling and cheering.

"They better not be betting on Vroad fights without me."

Zee grumbled as she pushed her way through the crowd. When she finally managed to push her way through the crowd she was shocked to see a child standing in the center surrounded by several unconscious soldiers.

"THE FUCK'S GOING ON HERE!?" Zee roars, instantly silencing the crowd.

"That kid and his family just arrived here and Finnegan and some of his pals were harassing the parents for bringing kids to a battlefield." One of the soldiers explained.

"So the kid challenged them and kicked all of their asses in a matter of seconds."

"Those fucking idiots." Zee sighed heavily.

She walks over to the kid who looks like he's no older than eight years old.

"Hey, buddy, how you doing?" She kneeled to check on him.

"Did those bullies hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine." The kid smiles cheerfully.

Hard to believe he just incapacitated six grown men.

"Impressive." Zee smiles.

"What's your name kid?" She asked.

"I'm Malcom, my mom and dad brought me and my brother here to show us how the world works." He says.

"Is that so?" She chuckles.

"Yeah, but some of the people here are meanies," he said pouting.

"They yelled bad words at mom and dad. So dad told me to train with some of them, but I guess they were tired or something cause they fell asleep before we could finish."

Zee looked around in amazement, this eight-year-old child was able to wipe the floor with six elite soldiers and he treated it as if it was just ordinary training.

"Where are your parents, honey?" She asked.

"Zee?"

She heard a familiar voice call out to her.

She turned around and saw Tasha, who was practically her sister, and nearly tackled her.

"I missed you so much." She said as she bear-hugged her.

"Zee I can't breathe." Tasha struggled.

"Right, sorry." She let go and finally noticed the other two people with Tasha.

"Good to see you too Jacob," Zee said coldly.

"I know you don't like me, Zee, you don't have to pretend." He smiled.

" I see you've already met Malcom."

"I should've known he was yours," Zee sighed.

"Your kid is probably the only child that can fight six of my guys and come out on top." She smiled at Malcom.

"Holy shit, is that Kevin?" She exclaims.

"Hey, auntie Zee." Kevin beamed.

"Damn kid, you got big. How old are you now?"

"Fifteen."

"Oh child, you just made me feel old as hell." Zee sighed.

"I mean I haven't seen you since you were about his age."

Zee gestured towards Malcom who was busy poking one of the unconscious soldiers with a stick.

"I was nowhere near as strong as he is when I was his age." Kevin grabbed Malcom and placed him on his shoulders.

"That just goes to show that my little brother is gonna be a great person one day." He says as he tickles Malcom, who giggles playfully.

"So what-"

She started to say before an explosion rocked the sky.

Everyone's heads snapped up to see a giant ball of fire being deflected by a barrier.

"W-what was that?" Kevin stuttered nervously.

"Don't worry about it kiddo," Zee assured him.

"As long as that barrier is up none of those attacks can hit us."

Several more large explosions detonated against the barrier, which didn't show even the slightest sign of cracking.

"Weird." Zee frowned.

"Why are they launching a bombardment on our campsite when they already know they can't breach our defenses?"

Explosions continued to rain down on the barrier, to the point that all the soldiers had now been standing at attention with weapons in hand nervously eyeing the barrier.

"Kevin I wanna get down," Malcom said.

Kevin kneeled and Malcom proceeded to jump off.

He had a strange look on his face as if he were looking at something weird before he walked over to his father.

"Daddy there's gonna be trouble." He stated.

"Are you sure buddy?" Jacob asked him.

"Yeah they're below us, there's a lot of them and they're strong." He pointed to the ground.

"I'm gonna need 'em."

Tasha immediately began to open up a small case that Jacob had been carrying on his back.

"What's going on here?" Zee asked

"Can you guess how long it'll take for them to get here buddy?" Jacob asked.

"Uhhhh..." Malcom cocked his head to the side as he thought.

"Ten, maybe twenty minutes away"

"Good job Mal." Jacob praised him as he tousled his hair.

Tasha pulled a strange pair of red daggers from the case that Jacob carried. She handed them to Malcom and as she did Malcom cuts his finger on the blade.

"Crap," Kevin complained.

"Seriously WHAT is going on here?" Zee asked again.

"Tell everyone to be ready for an attack, they're coming from below, and from the looks of it they're gonna be tough ones," Tasha tells her.

"How did he know that?" Zee asked her after she relayed the orders to her soldiers.

"Malcom is a bit special compared to other kids his age, though his mana pool is still lacking, his mana manipulation and comprehension skills rival most adults." She beamed.

"Simply put, he sensed the enemy's mana approaching before any of us could."

Zee looked at Malcom, the small eight-year-old child that normally would be just now learning the fundamentals, standing on the battlefield in full gear, weapon in hand ready to fight.

He was currently cutting his finger and wiping the blood on the blades of the knives he held in his small hands.

"Why is he doing that?" Zee asked concerned.

"Those knives are special," Jacob called out.

"They can drastically boost the user's speed and strength, so long as certain conditions are met."

"And him doing this is one of the conditions?"

"Yeah, and that also means trouble for us." Tasha chimed in.

"How?"

"It means the enemies this time are strong, mid to high tier at best."

"Shit," Zee sighed.

"They're most likely aiming for the loadstone."

"What's that?" Kevin asked.

"The reason why those fireballs haven't turned us to toast kiddo, it's the power source for the barrier." She explained.

"If they take it down we'll be easy pickings after they bomb the shit out of us."

"So kill any monster going near the loadstone."

Kevin summed up.

"With extreme prejudice."

As she said that the ground started to shake and crack apart.

"READY UP!" Zee shouted

Her soldiers moved in unison like a well-oiled machine, brandishing their weapons and creating a formation a favorable distance around the ever-expanding cracks forming from the ground.

Suddenly, clawed hands burst from the dirt as massive green-skinned humanoid creatures emerged from the earth letting loose a chorus of guttural growls.

"Shit Earthfiends!!!!!" Zee roared.

The soldiers launched an onslaught of attacks cutting down many of the monsters as they appeared but their numbers continued to increase until they became too much to handle. Horns started blaring from all directions of the encampment and sounds of battle could be in the air. As Zee cut through monster after monster she saw that Kevin holding his own out of the corner of her eye as he was already surrounded by the dead bodies of several monsters and was impressed with how strong he'd become.

After cutting down another Earthfiend she scanned the battlefield looking for Malcom and was surprised to find him standing in the middle of the battlefield surrounded by dozens of Earthfiend corpses. Suddenly one appears behind him, its claws prepared to take his head off.

"Behind-" Zee started to warn him.

But in an instant Malcom disappears and reappears behind the now frozen Earthfiend whose body begins to fall apart as he was cut to ribbons.

"How the fuck?"

Zee wanted to ask him how he did that but that would have to wait for later as another wave of monsters was approaching.

She readied her blade as the next wave of Earthfiends attacked when suddenly a deafening chorus of roars resonated from within the hole where the monsters emerged.

Everyone on the battlefield froze as they felt a truly enormous wave of mana wash over the battlefield. The attacking Earthfiends halted in their tracks and withdrew towards the rift that was opened in the ground and stood waiting as four powerful beings ascended from the earth.

Their skin was a pale purple hue, their hair as black as the night, the same shade of black as the pair of horns sprouting from their foreheads. Proof that each of these beings stood as a high-level demon.

As the largest one roared towards the sky Zee summoned a compound bow from the air, and as it appeared it crackled with a monstrous wave of magical power, and as she charged her mana to notch an arrow she roared out to her soldiers.

"WARRIORS OF THE FIFTH BATTALION OF HUMANITY."

"SIR YES SIR!!"

The soldiers responded their voices resound throughout the entire encampment.

"THE ENEMY HAS BARED THEIR FANGS AGAINST US. MASSACRED OUR FAMILIES. HOW DO YOU RESPOND??"

The soldiers released their magical power in unison as the army of monsters roared in opposition baring their fangs and claws.

"BY BURNING THEIR BONES AND SHITTING ON THE ASHES."

Tasha, Jacob, Kevin, and Malcom appear next to Zee.

"Those purple guys are tough," Malcom calls out.

"That one's really strong."

He pointed to one of the demons that seemed different from the other three, though he wasn't the biggest of the four he gave off a bloodlust that was more powerful than that of the other three combined, he also had a streak of white in his otherwise pitch-black hair.

"I've seen demons like these before." Jacob noticed.

"The other races call them Oni. They're difficult to deal with because of their regenerative capabilities."

"Great," Kevin said sarcastically.

The Oni with the white streak stepped forward and as he did releases a wave of mana so powerful a few soldier's weapons started the shake ever so slightly as beads of sweat form.

"Hello Humans," he said.

His voice oozing with confidence.

"I am the great Razan, commander of the twenty-fifth battalion of the Heaven and Hell alliance."

He smiled as he introduced himself.

"Prepare to die."