Sirens blared in every room of the ship waking the members who were sleeping off the previous day’s party.

“What’s going on?”

Ker struggled to escape Kohn’s grasp. When the passed out man simply tightened his grip Ker punched, elbowed, kicked and bite to get free.

“What time is it?”

“Just five more minutes.”

Their teachers and instructors came running in, yelling at them to wake up. Most of the Earthlings started to realize something serious was happening and started putting clothes on. However one such person seemed oblivious to everyone else. And he had someone swearing in his arms.

“Kohn, want to learn some magic?”

“YES!” From a lying down position he rose up to standing upright, like a vampire in old movies. “Huh? What’s going on? Why are you in my arms? What happened to the girl I cuddled up to last night?”

Ker, red in the face, didn’t even dignify that with a response. He adjusted his clothes, combed his hair back with his fingers and joined his superiors.

“Earthlings! Listen closely!” One of the mages yelled across the bay to get their attention. “At long range a massive Jzanna World Eater has been spotted crossing directly in our path. If it notices us, it will attack.”

They had been taught very little about the actual Jzanna other than in their history lessons about how the Kingdom first came into contact with them, but they had heard the instructors and guards talk. A World Eater was a Jzanna ship that was so large that it could actually harvest planets.

“If it notices us, it will attack. This fleet does not have the forces necessary to outrun or fight against it. The fleet has stopped all movements. Usually the World Eater won’t be able to detect us this far out and hopefully it passes by without trouble.”

Relief flashed across the Earthlings faces, but the soldiers and mages didn’t share that sentiment.

“Other than the World Eater, the biggest threat lies in the Jzanna ships that fly around it. Normally their numbers are uncountable and while some of them hide in the World Eaters Breath, a significant amount will still trail behind or around it. Some of their ships are small enough that they’ll avoid our long range sensor spells and can be nearly upon us before we’ll even know. If that happens, stick to your training, follow your instructors and work together to survive. See the Armorer for Dark Vessel weapons and do NOT use any kind of fire magic. Defend the Kingdom.”

All the instructors and guards raised their hands into the air. “Defend the Kingdom!” They chanted together before splitting up to do their assigned duties.

Groups of the Earthlings were following their various instructors through the ships halls. While waiting for their turn to go through Kohn’s group saw others who were growing pale when they held their weapons and realized the gravity of the situation.

“I can’t do this!” Someone always panics and this time it was Raymond who panicked again. Since the first time he saw him, Kohn knew that that guy would need a pep talk every once in a while. “Fighting monsters and on an alien ship? I’m a nurse!”

“Raymond! Focus on me.”

Kohn held Raymond’s head so that his eyes couldn’t look at anything other than Kohn’s eyes.

“Do you want to die?” He asked in a firm voice.

“What? No.”

“Do you want to die?” Kohn asked louder.

“No.”

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“I said, do you want to die?” Kohn yelled.

“NO!”

“Then run away.”

“Huh?”

Everyone around them were absolutely stunned. Unlike other pep talks that Kohn gave people in order to get them to work, this one was the opposite.

“What did you think I’d say? You’ve only been working out for a couple of weeks and you’ve only had the basics of combat drilled into you for an even shorter period of time. You fighting would more than likely mess someone else up and get the both of you killed. So? Run away and hope for the best.”

“But they gave me a weapon?”

Raymond lifted up a short staff with two axe heads attached perpendicularly to the ends. They had been given a brief lesson on how to use it, but Kohn just thought of it as a wide spear-head and scythe combo that was terrifying to look at but ultimately it probably wouldn’t do too much damage.

“If you can’t run, shove it in somethings eye! That’ll at least slow a wild animal.”

That didn’t seem to appeal to Raymond’s Hippocratic Oath.

“But I took an oath to do no harm!”

Fine. How to describe the action of hurting something trying to kill you in such a way that an idiot would agree with it?

“Don’t think of it as trying to hurt a living being. Think of it as teaching something not to harm you. Does that work?”

“No!”

Either he’s not an idiot and realized that Kohn was trying to patronize him or he was an even bigger idiot and he couldn’t comprehend the idea.

“Then just keep running and if something catches you… shit yourself. Nothing will want to eat you if you soil yourself.”

Feeling like he gave it his ‘best’ effort, Kohn clapped Raymond on the back before moving down the hallway to get his own weapon, leaving a slightly less terrified and more irritated Raymond behind. Others were just staring at Kohn in bewilderment.

The armory was a very large room, but it was behind an impassable wall.  Though the wall clearly had a place where you could pass through, the wall was called impassable because of the gruff looking Armorer who sat in it.

The Armorer waited as about 50 people shuffled into a type of foyer in front of his counter before calling them forward one by one.

The Armorer was getting on in his years, the white beard a dead giveaway, but the thick muscles on his arms gave you the impression that it wouldn’t be wise to irritate him. And the near permanent scowl on his face also subtly said that he wasn’t there to become your friend.

One by one the Earthlings went up to the Armorer where he looked at them with keen eyes before pushing some paper parchments around. “Sword 1! Spear 1! Spear 1! Bow 1, Arrows 1!” He would yell out to assistants behind him who snapped to work in a heartbeat whenever he called out a particular weapon.

At first it was assumed that he was calling the number one out so that the assistants knew how many of each weapon to get and hand out, but when he called ‘Arrow 1” and the assistant gave out a quiver with a lot of arrows in it they became confused.

“Hey instructor? Why is he calling out 1 with each weapon? Is that like a nervous tick or something?”

The instructor wanted to tell him to stay in line, but he knew Kohn by now. Kohn wouldn’t settle down until his curiosity was satisfied. “He doesn’t have a bug?” The psychological repetition of actions must not have translated. “He’s calling out weapon type and rank. All of you are considered trainee’s so he’s appraising your abilities and giving you the lowest rank weapons we have.”

It depressed a number of Earthlings when they overheard that they were being handed low ranked weapons that were more than likely inferior mass produced goods.

“Oh! So there is a ranking system for weapons? Maybe I’ll get a higher ranked weapon then?”

“Pfff!” His instructor was remembering all the times that Kohn had nearly injured himself with his own weapon and couldn’t help but laugh. But he put on an assuring smile, nodded, and firmly pushed Kohn back in line.

“TALL ONE!” That must have been Kohn who stood a couple of inches over the next person there.

When Kohn stepped up the Armorer looked him up and down, from top to bottom. “Arms 50!”

“YES! I knew I would get a higher ranked weapon!” Kohn was celebrating his innate talent and genius ability when an assistant dropped a pair of arm braces on the counter. “What is that?”

The armorer grinned evilly like he had some kind of vendetta against Kohn and he was finally getting his revenge.

“Arms. Rank, Zero. Weight, 50 pounds.”

“What? I’m not using that!”

When he refused the Armorer whistled at the assistants before gesturing at Kohn with his head. Six of them came out from the back. Four held Kohn in place and his arms out while the other two attached the unnecessarily complicated arm braces on Kohn. He struggled of course, but each of the assistants were incredible strong and it was four against one in terms of power.

When they were done they went back behind the counter.

Kohn was trying to find a way to take them off, but he couldn’t see when they were being put on so he had no clue how to start. “Take these things off! I’m not fighting with these things on!”

But Kohn was grabbed by the instructor and forcibly dragged out of the room while he shouted obscenities at the Armorer. “Come on Kohn. You’ve got your weapons so now it’s time to get into your position.”

“He gave me a rank zero arm guard! That’s not a weapon! You didn’t appraise me right you stupid bastard! I’ll beat the shit out of you and take the highest ranked weapon you got! You hear me? I’m coming for you, you stupid idiot!

The Armorer waved goodbye at the struggling Kohn with that evil little smile of his.