First Battle [1]

"Today! Will be the day that you fresh meats will experience the taste of real battle!" the squad leader's voice thundered as he stood on top of a wooden apple box.

With a two-handed great sword on his back, the squad leader had a chestplate, helmet, metal gloves that reached his elbows, and metal boots.

He was addressing the ten boys and men that made up his squadron whom he was in charge of.

The members of the squad were looking up at him whilst simultaneously doing their own thing as the squad leader was prepping them for the battle that was about to ensue between them and the other dozens of squads in the company against the incoming company of barbarians.

"Some of you will not make it to see another day!" the squad leader informed them of the realistic truth while scanning his members from left to right. "Others... such as myself in the past, this battle will be where they start their journey of making a name for themselves!"

A few men nodded at those words with pride written across their chests.

This squad of ten, excluding the squad leader, was a bunch of rookies and recruits. Other than the few weeks of basic training, none of them had ever been in a fight to the death before let alone being involved in a war.

Observing them closely over the past few weeks during the sparring sessions, the squad leader didn't find any of his members to be talented and have the potential to become someone great.

But there were a couple of men who seemed capable of surviving their battles and eventually getting promoted to team leader or even a squad leader such as himself.

That little boy in the back sharpening his sword, the youngest of the bunch, wasn't one of those few men he was thinking about.

That little boy is Sunyoung, a thirteen-year-old teenager.

Sunyoung was listening to his squad leader's words with very little care because he could sense that there weren't expectations for him to make it out of the battle alive.

All the words that came in one ear, left swiftly out the other.

Off in the near yet far distance, traveling on their horses or by foot was a small company of the barbarians from the North.

They were making their way over to his own company which belonged to the imperial army.

Both companies were around 200 men with the barbarians having just a slight number advantage as well as the number of horses.

[How are you feeling, Sunyoung? Nervous? Do you feel like throwing up?]

His alien companion, Zero, questioned him through the mind thus making it possible for only he to hear it.

'For now, I'm okay. My stomach feels a little weird but I guess that's natural. I'm not as bad as some of the others around me because even if I die, at least I know that it won't mean much,' Sunyoung responded.

He took another glance at the incoming enemies and saw the dust that came off the ground from all the stomping.

'It's a little strange, knowing that all those men over there are capable of cutting off my neck but instead of running away, I'm sharpening my sword awaiting their arrival,' he told Zero.

[That's how war works. Everyone heads to battle knowing that they can die at any given moment. It's just that they don't have a choice. Most of them fight to defend their families back home. Some fight for honor and glory. And others, such as yourself, are fighting because they desire blood on their hand.]

Other than slightly nodding his head to acknowledge the truth in Zero's statement, Sunyoung didn't respond.

Finishing with his blade sharpening, he slid the weapon back into the sheath.

He threw on the barely padded shirt he was given as well as the singular piece of metal armor which was the helmet that barely fit his head.

His heart rate was slightly faster than normal so he tried to amend that by taking deep breaths.

Those breaths attracted Mun Kwang, a fellow squad member, who asked him, "Are you scared of what's about to happen?"

Mun Kwang was a few years older than Sunyoung and as the squad leader stated about the entirety of the squad, he was also new to the battlefield.

"I'm a little scared... and a little nervous," Sunyoung answered. "How about you?"

"Me? I'm shitting bricks," Mun Kwang chuckled. "If it wasn't for the punishment for running away, I'd be dashing in the opposite direction of those barbarians this very second."

Turning to look at Mun Kwang, Sunyoung saw him sitting down on a wooden crate. Although his upper body looked fine, his legs were shaking profusely.

His hands were clutched together and his eyes stared intensely off into the distance where the barbarians were.

"There's no turning back now," Sunyoung stated.

"...Nope," Mun Kwang smiled.

* * * 

Five years ago.

"Haaa haah... haa.. hah," an exhausted Sunyoung panted as he came to a stop.

The muscles on his legs, especially the calves, and thighs, felt like they were burning from the nonstop running.

Tears were pouring down the Sunyoung's face. They had been doing so for quite some time now and they didn't look like they were going to stop any time soon.

Sweat dripped down his back and forehead from the running but also, from the heat that surrounded him.

The child was feeling choked up as if he had swallowed a rock.

He didn't even want to blink because every time he closed his eyes — like a nightmare, images of the corpses that littered the city that he encountered during his run would flash before him.

Behind him was the city he knew and loved dearly as his home of eight years and as he turned, the city he knew was replaced by a shell of itself.

This was the place where he was raised.

This was the place where his family lived.

This was the place where his clan had established themselves.

It seemed like a mundane place that rarely experienced change and yet, a while ago, he had woken up to the sound of burning wood and the metallic tint of blood.

"...Th-they... they're dead," he muttered to himself in disbelief. 

His eyes moved slightly from left to right, right to left. He was gazing at the crumbling structures of his city that were being consumed by the flames that were engulfing everything.

Excluding himself, all of the clansmen of his clan had been massacred, falling victim to blades, poison, fire, lightning, etc.

He could still vividly recall the sound and image of the sword that sliced across the neck of his little sister, decapitating her.

He could still see her head rolling around as her body fell to the knees before slamming flat onto the blood-drenched ground.

Just a few seconds before that, he had encountered the corpses of his parents who had been slain during his sleep.

His parents, who were the strongest people that he knew, his role models, as well as his friends — how did they die?

The idea of them falling victim to someone's blade wasn't even fathomable for Sunyoung.

"They're dead," the child repeated to himself as if he couldn't believe the words coming out of his own mouth.

His entire body began to shake as if he were standing at the peak of an ice-capped mountain.

"All of them. They're all gone. Ahh... ahhhh... arghhhhh!!!" he screamed as loud as he could. Anger and hatred began taking over his body.

The faces of the people responsible for these feelings inside of him were being saved in his mind one by one.

Sunyoung felt like his heart was being squeezed by this hand which had sharp daggers for fingernails.

The sensible part of him knew that he needed to leave and run away as far as his short legs could take him before they realized that he was still alive and came to finish the job.

He didn't understand why.

Why did those people have to massacre his clan, going as far as burning down the rest of the city with them?

Another part of him, the emotional side, its only desire was to run back into the city, grab a sword, and head into a meaningless battle with whoever he found.

Sunyoung knew that he would die from a single stroke because he was nothing more than a child who had never fought before but at least then, he'd be reunited with his family and clan in the afterlife.

His legs felt like they were stuck inside a swamp with heavy water that trapped him in place.

Forward or backward? Sunyoung was unable to make the choice.

But before he could make a decision on which direction to head in, the building in front of him exploded.

BOOOOOOM!!!

The force of the explosion, which blasted pieces of wood in every direction, pushed Sunyoung's body backward and into the air.

SPLASH!

His body descended and fell into the river that traveled along the city.

The currents were strong and although he knew how to swim, he was unable to balance himself and fight the pressure of the water which spun his body around and carried him in whichever direction it felt like.

Succumbing to the river, he passed out when his head struck against a protruding stone in the river.

Like a corpse, his body began drifting along the river, leaving the confines of the city.