Luna never liked going into battle. The only ones that ever did, were the ones that were so strong, it was practically guaranteed they wouldn’t die. Still, she didn’t have a choice. Her only options were maybe surviving the upcoming conflict, or surely dying if she tried to desert. She’d seen many get the idea to flee before, and not a single instance had ended cleanly.

At the very least, she was an archer. The men who took her from her family - they called themselves “recruiters,” even though they were forcing people to fight in the war - had deemed Luna too weak and small to even be useful as a human shield on the front line. Understandable, considering she was only barely seven years old at the time. Instead, they gave her a bow, and taught her enough to not hit any allies.

The rest, Luna had to learn on her own, battle after battle, kill after kill.

Name: Luna Maret

Age: 14

Race: Human

Mana: 830/830

CLASSES

Class 1: Child Soldier of the Knight’s Republic - Wind (Uncommon) (Level 71)

- Feast or Famine (2nd Stage, Lvl 2)

- Nimble Development (Lvl 16)

- Piercing Arrows (Lvl 19)

- Burst Movement (2nd Stage, Lvl 4)

- Mana Arrow (Lvl 14)

Class 2: N/A

Class 3: N/A

STATS

Strength: 71

Dexterity: 277

Speed: 112

Vitality: 117

Perception: 174

Mana: 83

Magic Power: 83

Free Stats: 0

COMBAT SKILLS

- Archery (Level 18)

GENERAL SKILLS

- Identify (Lvl 14)

- Running (2nd Stage, Lvl 3)

- First Aid (Lvl 5)

- Meditate (Lvl 19)

- Foraging (Lvl 15)

ACHIEVEMENTS

- Archer: You have learned of the powers that a bow can bring. Rather than relying on your own skill to fire arrows at your enemies, rely on a Skill instead! (Granted Skill: Archery)

- Child of Death: You have killed many, and have almost been killed just as much. With this achievement, should you die too young, you will be granted a second chance.

By all means, she was powerful… for a 14 year old. It wasn’t often that someone got to level 71 so young. Usually, that was because most other children in the war died early. And anyone not in the war had very little reason to choose a combative class, unless they were part of a town’s guard.

Luna finished packing the arrows into her quiver. The army was low on resources, so she only had 20. Her Mana Arrow skill allowed her to conjure arrows using mana, so it wasn’t a huge deal. Regardless, her and the rest of the soldiers were marching to the next battlefield soon enough. Only the sounds of boots stomping down into muddy farmland were audible. The next fight was approaching.

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The city of Isam was already under siege. The hills surrounding the walled city were filled with millions of soldiers. Luna had seen them long before the relatively smaller group she was in had even arrived at the location they were supposed to be. That wasn’t the most surprising part though.

The city itself was massive. Many, many times larger than anything else Luna had seen before. Its walls were hundreds of feet high, and miles across, forming a large circle that stretched into the horizon. Luna wasn’t very educated, considering most of her years were spent in the army, but it was obvious that these walls were a feat of magic. They were much too smooth, and much too large to make sense otherwise. The only thing separating the walls was one large river, though there seemed to be gates and more walls to protect the entrance. Otherwise, Luna wasn’t sure how anyone got in or out of the city.

As the soldiers approached the encampment, Luna was able to make out billows of smoke coming out from further inside the city. The fact that they were even visible over the walls suggested that the fires causing them were far from small.

They marched and marched until suddenly, they all stopped. The captain often liked to use visual commands, like raising his fist to signal them all to a stop. The problem with that was that Luna was not only at the back of the rows, but was also entirely too short to even see him in the first place. Her dexterity and perception were high enough to keep her from running into the person in front of her, at least.

Some orders were shouted out, and soon, more tents were being erected. There were only a few thousand in their group of soldiers, compared to the millions that were already there, so there was barely any change in the surrounding scenery.

A few hours later, Luna was in one of the communal sleeping tents, lying in her uncomfortable hammock. There wasn’t much to do until orders trickled down from whoever was in main control of everything.

“Hey, Luna. They’re serving dinner,” Madeline called out from the small tent entrance. Women usually didn’t join the army, or even conscripted for that matter, but there were always exceptions. Madeline was a decent fire mage, and had been allowed to join. She was also one of the only people that Luna regularly talked to.

Luna slipped out of her hammock, grabbed her bowl, and exited the tent, walking next to Madeline as they made their way toward one of the feeding areas. There was already a pretty sizable line there, but there would hopefully still be food left by the time they got there. And if not… that would be fine. One of Luna’s Skills, Feast or Famine, allowed her to go much longer without food or water. Her vitality stat helped with that as well, but neither of the two took away the feeling of hunger, so she always preferred a meal whenever one was available.

“Do you know why we’re here?” Luna asked, as the two settled in.

“Kinda,” Madeline shrugged. “Apparently, most of the people here already only came within the last month or so. Not hard to figure out what the commanders are planning, gathering up so many soldiers. Looks like they’re trying to finally put an end to the war.”

Luna tilted her head at that. “What do you mean? How would the war end?”

Madeline sighed. “I forget you were conscripted so young sometimes. Anyway, this is the Capital. If we take this city, we’ll have effectively won the war.”

Luna nodded, but wasn’t all too excited about the news. Part of her doubted she’d be released from her military duties, even if they won. Another part of her also hoped that she wouldn’t be. There was no way she could just go back home and live happily with her parents. She’d directly killed, or indirectly helped to kill thousands of people. Thousands that would never see their families again. That number would only rise.

“We’re next,” Madeline brought Luna back to the current, and the two made their way over to a man who was surrounded by multiple large cauldrons, and had a wooden ladle. Two of them were already empty, but four more were close to full. Luna held out her bowl, and was treated to a helping of vegetable broth. There were some chunks of vegetables in there as well, but it was mostly liquid. At the very least, it was filling enough to count as a meal.

“So we’re going to be storming the city then? Those walls look a bit too sturdy to take down,” Luna said, after drinking the entire bowl of broth.

“As willing as the top brass is to throw away some lives, they wouldn’t set up a major attack like this if they didn’t have a plan they were certain would succeed. I said the war would be won if we end up taking the city, but look around. There’s so many soldiers here that, if most of us were to die, our military would be crippled. Plus, I’m sure there’s some Knights here. A hundred of them working together could probably take that wall down.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Do you know what our roles are going to be?”

Madeline shrugged. “Nope. Haven’t gotten any orders or anything like that yet. There’s a chance we don’t even try to invade the city, but I seriously doubt that. I’m pretty sure that at least half of the Republic’s total fighting force is here. They wouldn’t have gathered so many of us to just wait here and look pretty.”

Luna and Madeline arrived back at the tent. Luna hopped up into her hammock, her dexterity allowing her to barely shake the fabric as she settled in. “I think I’m gonna go to bed early. Goodnight, Madeline.”

Madeline put her bowl away, and made to leave the tent. “Sure thing. Night, Luna.”

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For a few days, nothing happened. More soldiers steadily trickled in, filling the surrounding hills with even more tents. The total number of troops seemed to have increased by at least a quarter. The only other thing of note was that groups were now being formed. With how many soldiers were present, entire areas were being given orders, rather than specific people.

The area that Luna was in was ordered to divide themselves into two groups. The first group consisted of the shortest among them, while the second group consisted of the tallest. Luna was easily the shortest one in the area, but it had taken days for the few thousand soldiers to properly work things out. Madeline was tall for a woman, and had just barely been placed in the second group.

The next couple of days after that, the army was slowly divided and moved. Luna and her group stayed in the same place. Others, who were also in the shorter groups, migrated to the same general area. Everyone who was taller had to make the long trek to the other side of the walls. The entire process took over a week, just due to the sheer number of people present.

Luna had missed Madeline’s company somewhat, but she was fine on her own. The two of them weren’t exactly friends, they just talked because it was convenient. Plus, the women in the army usually shared the same tents, just to keep anything unsavory happening, so they were usually close to each other anyway.

Finally though, everyone was in position. And on one foggy morning, the order was given to pack everything up. There were no other instructions, but the intent was clear. Today, the battle would begin.

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Luna stood with her bow in hands. The archers were spread out wide and thin, so that they could have better area coverage. The warriors of the army each had their spears and shields ready. Luna couldn’t see the front line, even with her enhanced perception stat. There were just too many people.

They obeyed their orders to stand by and wait. Even after hours passed, and a storm set in over the city of Isam, they stood, and they waited. Luna really needed to pee, but the punishment for disobeying orders was much more severe than her urge to relieve herself.

It wasn’t until night that something finally happened. A wave of sinister energy rolled over the soldiers. It was powerful, but tainted. Luna wasn’t sure what it was, but it didn’t take a genius to guess that it couldn’t have been anything good.

And then, the walls disappeared. They didn’t fall. They weren’t blasted away. They just vanished. One minute, hundreds of feet of solid stone stood in their way of the city, and the next, it was gone.

The soldiers were still pretty far away from the walls, but it was still possible to make out the thousands of enemy troops falling to their deaths. Flight skills were rare. Most of them wouldn’t make it. And most of the ones that did would soon be killed anyway.

“Take the city!” A voice, amplified by magic, reverberated throughout the troops, and suddenly, everyone sprang to action. Luna fell a bit behind, but was at least able to keep up with most of the other archers.

With stats to enhance them, the army was able to clear most of the distance to where the walls once stood within a matter of a few minutes, even with their armor and clothes soaked in rainwater.

The strength-focused warriors were there first, and cleared out as many of the survivors as they could, without making too much of a detour. There was a ring of broken bodies, which seemed to stretch just as far as the walls did. Isam hadn’t been prepared for them to just disappear, and apparently felt comfortable stationing hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the walls.

Luna hopped over a body with a splattered head, and landed on farmland. It made up the rest of the distance they needed to cross, until they got to the city itself. They only got halfway when screams began to echo out. Luna saw the flash of a bright yellow light just before thousands of men were blown up into the air.

Having been conscripted as a child, it took a certain level of common sense to be able to survive for as long as Luna had been able to. When a lot of people suddenly started dying, the only sensible reaction was to run in the opposite direction. Even now, Luna doubted her chances of escaping the army without having someone chase her down and kill her for desertion. Instead, she ran at an angle, putting distance between her and whoever was going on a killing spree, while still going in the direction of the city.

She ran and ran, until she got to the river bank. It was a few hundred feet wide, which was much further than Luna could jump. She chose to just follow the bank instead, and went straight for the city. Maybe this way, she could get a better angle to pick off whoever was still stationed inside the city.

Tossing a look back at the main force, whoever had attacked earlier didn’t seem to be going at it anymore. Most likely, they were dead or out of mana. Luna wasn’t going to join them, though. They were the obvious target, and she really didn’t like her odds of survival if she stuck with them.

The rest of the distance only took a couple more minutes. Luna jumped onto the roof of a house, and was met with an eerily silent city. It seemed that most of the citizens were holed up in their homes to avoid the fighting. Still, the city was large, and enemies could have been hiding anywhere. Her perception stat made it easier to see in dark areas, but didn’t do much against anyone with a decently-leveled stealth Skill.

After a quick scan, she noticed that there were a lot of warriors spread throughout the streets. Most of them wouldn’t have stealth Skills, so they were easy enough to spot. Luna didn’t have one either, but banked on her smaller figure and the night sky to obscure her as she lined up a shot. The target she was aiming at was alone, and very obviously terrified about the millions of enemy soldiers that were rushing the city. A good warmup.

She activated her Mana Arrow Skill, and took aim. He was shaking, but that didn’t throw off Luna’s aim. She was a dexterity archer, rather than a strength one. That just meant that her arrows didn’t hit as heavy, but were much more precise than someone who invested more into the other stat. In practice, there wasn’t a huge difference for someone at her level. A good shot from any archer could kill someone. She just needed to aim for the head, while a strength archer just needed to make sure their shot hit with enough force.

She loosed the arrow, which glistened as it flew through the air. The young soldier died quickly and quietly, but Luna hopped over to another rooftop just to be safe.

System Notification: You have killed Kamil (Guardian of Isam - Earth - Level 54)

More targets, more arrows. Luna received a notification each time she killed someone, though she often found herself needing to take two or three shots to finish someone off. She could nock arrows at supernatural speed, and was able to get around mostly unnoticed, as the real dangers were her allied soldiers that were filing through the streets.

Eventually, Luna found a man covered in blood, who was sitting in an alley. He seemed to be tending to his spear, and was completely unfocused on the chaos spreading through the rest of the city. She took aim at him, going for the softest spot on his head. When she was satisfied, she released, and watched as her arrow darted toward the unknown soldier.

It was just about to hit, when he simply waved his hand, batting the projectile out of the air. He blurred as he moved, closing the distance between them in a matter of seconds. For some reason, this high-leveled piece of shit had been sulking around in an alley, rather than actually doing anything. And because of that, Luna knew it was only a matter of time until she died. She stood up fully, and looked the man in the eyes. It was hard to be scared of anything, when war was a constant for most of her life.

“What’s someone so young doing out here?” He seemed amused, for some reason. Luna used Identify on him.

(Warrior - Level ???)

She hadn’t expected to see his exact level, but the three question marks revealed that he had 30 levels on her at a minimum. Which also meant he had at least his second Class unlocked. Which… yeah, she didn’t think for a second that she was going to make it out of this situation alive. She still turned and ran as fast as she could though. Maybe Luna wouldn’t go down fighting, but there was the slightest of chances that some high-leveled ally came to her rescue.

Luna jumped from rooftop to rooftop, occasionally checking over her soldier to see if she was being chased. The man from earlier never gave up his pursuit. In fact, he seemed to maintain the same distance, even as she sometimes used Burst Movement to increase her speed for a moment. As she neared the river, she watched as his body once again blurred, until he was running alongside her.

“As much as I love to chase the ladies, you’re a bit too young for me.”

Luna hated how he talked. He was having fun. It pissed her off, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. He was toying with her life, because he had the strength to do so. She jumped down from the top of a roof, and landed next to the river. There was nowhere else to run. Not that running was even effective. She knew without a doubt that this guy could have killed her without a second thought.

“Finally done running?” He asked, as he landed right in front of her.

Luna didn’t say anything. No point in letting someone have any more fun while killing her.

“Oh, you’re no fun. When I die tonight, I’m at least gonna let whoever kills me have a bit of a laugh,” He sighed as he held his hand out. “Kids these days have no manners.”

Luna saw the same yellow flash of light that she did earlier, right before she was blown a hundred feet away. Her vitality stat was high enough that she didn’t experience any shock from most of the bones in her body being shattered. Interestingly enough, it was only her bones that had taken any damage. Her skin and other organs were perfectly intact. It was just that anything that provided any actual structural support was turned to dust.

She landed in the river, alive, but in unbearable amounts of pain. Luna would have been flailing around in pain if she could move her body. Instead, she just sank in the water, screaming until her mouth was covered by the water. The asshole from earlier decided to let her drown, rather than kill her outright.

The river current started to pull her away as Luna’s lungs eventually ran out of air. They were promptly filled with water as her body instinctively tried to inhale. Her only saving grace was the unconsciousness came quickly, and death followed soon after.

System Notification: You have died.

That was weird. The pain went away, and Luna couldn’t feel her body. But still, she was seeing a notification from the System lighting up a void that was otherwise completely dark.

System Notification: Achievement: Child of Death will fully activate in ??? days.

Luna’s eyes would have lit up, if she still had them. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but she did remember getting the achievement years ago. It happened when she was only 10 years old or so. She and a few other soldiers were sent out to clear a small bandit camp. Afterward, she unlocked an achievement. It hadn’t had any active use, so she just kept it in the back of her mind, until she forgot about it completely. It wasn’t like Luna looked at her entire status every time she opened it.

System Notification: Achievement: Child of Death has failed to begin to activate. Now erasing memories.

Luna didn’t like the sound of that. What was the point of resurrection if she was just going to lose her memories? That, in its own way, was just another form of dying. There wasn’t any way she could find to stop it, though. Her memories were ripped from her mind, and with it, her personality.

System Notification: Achievement: Child of Death will fully activate in 7940 days.

I ignored the notification. I was tired. Very, very tired. It was time to sleep.