About our enemy

"So…are you feeling better now?"Layla inquired as she grimaced at the sight of Liam yelping in pain for the ninth time in the last thirty minutes since their class started.

Currently,they are in the class session for strategical and theoretical planning for war time.A larger than usual crowd of trainnee was whispering and listening to their lecturer sir Daniel,a retired military man that is still responsible for parts of strategic planning in the current war.

"I am fine…uck!!…Anyway don't worry about it,I did outdone myself ,so this much is normal."Liam forced a smile at his worried friend amid resisting the sensation from his body that is pulsating with immense pain.

After the spar ended and the dust settled,two limped body that made the observing student as paled as a wraith can seen on the arena floor.

Layla and liam's other two friends gareth and Amelia were the same and Layla was even more reactive as she tried desperately to bash the barrier open with her war staff to drag him out in her panic.

Fortunately,after ivy who is their weapon master dragged the two limp body out like a mother ready to shower her two son with spanks.She assure them Liam was fine and the trio can finnaly feel Liam and colin's mana frequency's pulses,meaning their life was not in too much danger.

The two was sent to their healer staff room within the Academy and swiftly nursed back to health with a few spells and potions.After that,they of course both received a earful of lectures by a glaring Ivy seething with rage and were punished by cleaning her training and lectures rooms for a week.

But thankfully,they were almost fully healed up after half a day of rest and were required participate their lecture session the next day.

This subject called strategical and theoretical planning for war time was a session is attended by all students with no exception hence a larger crowd students is here in the massive lecture hall.

"...…as you may all know,the trade with lopis empire was the reason for our kingdom's current predicament.And they are a unquestionably dangerous foe that should not be underestimated,normally as the lecturer of a military academy we would not tell you how dangerous or feared our enemy are.But since the vast majority of you will not be actively participating in battles or even get too close to them."The middle aged men that seems to be around the age of liam's uncle explain their situation calmly.

He have a particular pair of golden eyes,for they were silted like a bird,a mutation prehaps, but they also cause the student that were gazed upon to tense up in fear.Almost like a certain predatory gaze was piercing their soul and seeking their weakness.With his graying slick hair, the image of a deadly, battle hardened and intelligent officer were engraved into their mind.

"As such,your missions in the future intead will mostly be including maintaining the kingdom's internal order while the main military body were away which will include monster,outlaw and dungeon subjugation.The only situation in which you might be required to attend matters related to the war before 3 years of training and reaching the age of 16 will be to protect the supply line and a division responsible for delivering them.Isnt that wonderful?"Daniel nodded to himself in approval at his kingdom's wise policy to protect their future generations.

Like hell!!!

Most of the student screamed in their mind at the thought of monster and dungeon subjugation.They couldn't even fight against an common armed outlaw,how could they survive in a dungeon full of grotesque and man-eating creatures that is much more powerful than most human?They will do little more than filled their empty stomach.

"Ah I suppose most of you might be a bit upset about the monsters,prehaps this would make it more bearable for you."Daniel smiles almost charmingly but with his silted eyes thinning further as he watch his student's shocked expressions.

He relieve a glinting object from his storage ring that is just like ivy's.It was a small transparent orb that was installed upon a indentation of a golden disk shaped artificact.

Once he touched the orb with his index finger,a projection bloomed from the orb now glowing in brilliance much like a star would at night in a clear sky.

"This is what the solider that is defending you,your family,your loved ones and your home is dealing with in the field almost every day."He added after the activation and observed the curious students that are now gazing at the projection in a ever changing myriad of emotions.

At first,their view were frozen at a wide plain of barren land.The deris of fallen trees,burned remained of village houses and …a flowing river of crimson blood as well as the remains of what must have been people half submerged in it.

It was a grotesque sight,they can tell from the view projected that the recording crystal were positioned in somewhere that was once a village from the houses and other mostly broken downed settlement in the vicinity.

The village that once housed many many families whom lived in harmony with each other.Were razed into a flat barren land of burned earth and rotting bodies.

They watch as the view changed after it was done observing the environment and move on,floating in the palm of a soldier.

Daniel didn't even bat an eye as some of the trainnee ran out of the room to presumably empty their breakfast or paled in fear as a trinkle of tear formed in the corner of their shaking eyes.

Sometimes,the view would shown groups of Echela solider attempting their rescue by lifting debris of houses off of where they believed a survivor might be trapped,only to find a half charred,half rotting corpses infested with Nepidae.

It is a insect monster with a fat squirming pitch black body and a sharp beak as their mouth to pierce and drain liquefied flesh and blood from the corpse they letch on,their body would slowly turn a few shades redder as they have their meal.

Daniel only change to the view of another crystal somewhere in the distance.After showing everyone all there is to see in the aftermath of a battle against their common enemy.

Liam grimace when he saw mutiple corpse the shape and size of a child some even looked like they were a toddler discovered under the debris,while the vast majority of trainnee turned away in disgust,sadness,pity and various emotion.

Liam decided to keep watching the scene in silent ,when he thought about some of the possible bright future these children and their family might have if they hadn't been caught between the conflicts of two nations.And what were they feeling at their last moment of life when their parents held them in their arms for the last time.

It was not only pity or sadness he felt,there was also a flicker of rage that have been light up.The grim realization of how the life of innocent people were insignificant to the rulers as long as there was profits to be had or personnal grudges to be settled made him sighs deeply.

"But that wasn't the biggest problem."Liam narrowed his gaze at the projection,the village was set near a castle.Liam recongized the flag,It belonged to a count, but there was no sign of any of his private army among the groups of soldiers.

The castle gate were shut tight and there were corpse piled up near the gate,most likely…

"They were abandoned …huh."They most likely die because the noble didn't even bothered to notify the villagers when they already know that lopis were staging an attacking just to buy themself sometime using them as shield to escape.

Liam didn't notice then,Layla who sat next to him were watching the scene just like him with a grim expression,her usually milky skin paled further as they watched on.

He then picked out another item from his ring,it was a canister of some form.A blue shiny liquid were store in it.

"Now after that,I hope you guys will understand that ,at least compare to the rest of your comrade you are in a much better position.With that in mind,your effort to support them behind in the kingdom will be vital to your family and loved one's safety as well."Daniel added and pause to see his student's reaction.As cruel as it may be to expose these image and idea to childrens as young as 13,it was the most essential idea they must have inorder to survive in their future roles.

Other than letting them know that their roles in protecting people in place of the solider were already much better than the extremely grotesque sight of the battlefield and getting them used to the sight of death and blood so as to not lose their composure completely later down the line.

He also achieve the purpose of inspiration,by actively using lines that make them understood they are part of the pillars of support that guards their kingdom and hence their families and loved one from harm.

The effect were apparent,the students that were paling in disgust and fear of war a moment ago were now showing signs of determination on their expression.Exactly as he planned,he doesn't need the student to be overly brave to the lopis empire's threat for the battle will most likely finished before the need for employing inexperienced child solider appeared.

"Now this thing in my hand is called a ▪︎Compuster▪︎,it is a essential device of the lopis empire weapon systems.As it's name might suggest its main feature were creating combustion."Daniel then proceed to pulled out a metal casing with class panel installed,inside it was a foreign device or artifact to those that have seen it for the first time.The trainnee rest uneasy at their seat,knowing the tiny tube were Essential a contained fireball spell.

(Author's note:I will highlight items,concept or monsters of great importance in the story that were first introduced from now on and collect them into a analogy in another chapter.)

"This artificact dubbed ▪︎Scnhniter▪︎ is where the combuster was installed,allowing it to become a powerful weapon that can take life from a distance with simple control or commend."The weapon that are now in Daniel's gloved hand were shaped like long metallic tube with a thicker and wider end that were of another material.

There are also many kind of detailing that are slowly explained by Daniel.A side handle behind the tube were called a bolt,the blocky object that can be pulled out of the hollow under the body of the weapon were called a magazine etc.

In the magazine itself, two hollow indent exist where a combuster was said to be able to be fit in were installed and a projectile object called rounds can be fitted in one by one into the hollow.

"The idea of this recovered weapon after a throughoutly investigation,research and experiment were that it is a form of range weapon with much higher range and ammunition with high velocity.The aforementioned combuster is a container of refined liquid state mana.A solider would fitted the Magazine that have it's filled combuster unit and rounds into the main weapon body to use as ammunition much like a arrow."Daniel paused to let the student take in the information.

"The body were created from a few source of mixed material and some part in▪︎Dascalt▪︎,a flexible and shock resistant metal only founded in the kingdom of sloustus,the land of the Dwarven.After pulling the trigger like you would do with a crossbow,the combuster will received a signal from the device behind it.Releasing a powerful mana pulse afterward to push the round out through the barrel of Scnhniter.The result as you can imagine is a thumb sized pellet being launched at you faster than any conventional arrow."His student qulped audibly,understanding that with a simple pulled of trigger,a soldier could in fact blow a hole through someone's Skull faster than they can blink.

"But sir Daniel why didn't we used or create a similar weapon of them when we already know so much about it's characteristics through research?"A girl with a pair of wide curious brown eye and green bun hair inquired the question after she raised her hand ,some students have wondered about the same thing.

"Ha!A good and sound question trainnee Clarissa,yes we have most certainly try our best to create something similar to that but as you might know the weapon were never leaked outside the kingdom,not even our agents have manage to secure any information about it before the war.So we are still working on our developement,especially the combuster were extremely hard to figure out due to the foreign lopis magic formation installed on it written in their ancient language.But most importantly as for using the recovered weaponary..."Daniel fitted the canister back into the magazine and fitted it into the weapon fluently,the amazed student then slowly started to panick at the following event.

"The recovered weapon were a combination of mutiple device and magic infused artifact,one of them will have the immediate effect of fully releasing the stored mana inside the combuster in a few second when a race without the mana frequency of ▪︎Uthil▪︎were using it.Destroying the weapon as well as potentially killing the weider just like this."

A few seconds ago as soon Daniel laid his finger on the trigger, the area of the chamber of the weapon started to emit heat and steam as the mana inside the combuster presumed to be released .Liam were confused as to what was the professor trying to do as he wonder if he should put on a shield spell around him and Layla immediately.

The heat and steam from the weapon started to glow brighter and hotter like a fireball,until it slowly subsidies like a dying flame into its original state.

"We don't know the exact amount of energy being stored in one of these fully charged one,but from what we experimented and what I just felt through my barrier spell,it is around the mana of 9 ranked B fireball spells…?"Daniel scratched his chin and raised an eyebrow as his signature silted pupil seems to dilute with amusement.

"This guy is totally insane ."

That is what the students along with liam felt when they settled down in their seat with sighs of relief.But at the same Liam who have already learned the C ranked spell flame arrow and know of its poweress were in awe of sir Daniel's spell effectiveness.