The group woke early the next day to a universal vote of extra sleep. For once, Jake had finally convinced the group of his lazy idea. Although considering what they did the day prior calling any of the group lazy was beyond logic.

Malum was relatively okay, Jerome wanted to die, Alicia was weak, Jake was dying, and Gerald was already dead.

Not exactly, but his still body would give you the impression. Although that goofy smile forever persisted.

After a half hour of more sleep the group finally went down for roll call and breakfast. They found the meals less tasty than usual although Malum felt it was more filling than the meals he had grown used to.

Once the meal was eaten, the pointless chatter exhausted, and roll call completed finally did the Troop Leader decide to show up.

Decked out in his fancy outfit, medals strewn on his chest, he began a long speech about the importance of teamwork and collaboration.

“In the army you are one singular Troop with the sole goal of taking out the enemy. That means you shall corporate with your members to best achieve your objective. The singular tournament was for you to see the best and brightest and for what most of you should yearn to achieve.

However some have thought that others in the competition have slighted the other, or perhaps you were jealous of someone’s luck.

Grow the fuck up. If you want to survive the frontlines than you better suck your hatred down to your soul because if you decided to act on your revenge and one of your fellow men die because of it well that is a life lost for absolutely no reason.

The more there are of you, the less demons you each have to take out.

Factions, politics all of that crap mean absolutely nothing if you all die. Don’t make complaints again, I am neither your mother nor your father, so I really don’t give a shit.”

That ended the rant.

“...” And it left the whole hall silent.

The warning was a bit to direct, and it left no room for any negotiation. It was a show of power, but it spoke of facts that would be needed for the troop to survive.

It left eyes darting around to particular faction leader to see what the responses would be, although realistically there was only one available option.

Surrender.

Malum didn’t think the factions would really dissolve, instead they were more likely to hide themselves more thoroughly than before. If the troop really wanted to unite they would need a strong dictator and Malum couldn’t be asked to take such a role and he was the only obvious candidate who could receive it.

Strength ruled, that was the universal law of the Dao. Everything else was just petty tactics.

The hall was eventually dismissed, after the Troop Leader reeled back in the soldiers with promises of freedom and wealth. Carrot and stick was how these people were manipulated and Malum was hardly different.

Knowing you were being manipulated and not, either way you were being manipulated but Malum couldn’t do anything about it. Running away meant a bounty and forever anxiety and that was if he could escape.

Too much thinking put Malums mind back into disarray and it led to a headache which was sure to stick around…d for a few days.

It didn’t really matter much at the moment as it was currently the team tournament. They had already completed the first round and the second was going to be a walk in the park.

To make things challenging they were doing 1 vs 4 or 1 vs 2, otherwise nothing was going to be learnt. Jake had made quick work of the first group and now it was Gerald and Jerome chance to take on the second group.

They had some potential, one of them was quite quick and had good reflexes but apart from that they clearly hadn’t put in enough work. Potential was great but hard work was needed to uncover it, so Gerald and Jerome barely had to pull out any of their moves before their opponents surrendered.

“Cowards!” Gerald said, to which Alicia told him to calm down.

“At this rate they are going to die because of their cowardice. I’m doing them a favour trying to break them out of it!” Rebuked Gerald, and Malum had to say he agreed with him.

Well they had begun to walk off now and so Malum’s group decided to leave them be. They weren’t their parents; it wasn’t their jobs to bicker them into training.

The troops strength was important, but Malum doubted it would affect his own survival that much. Afterall as long as he could kill the demon in front of him then he would guarantee his survival, his group only served to compliment that fact.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

That was his logical thinking, no matter how floored it actually was.

The group tournament lasted no longer than a few hours. Most of it was taken up by a few weakling teams taking forever to take themselves out. Then it was time for the losers to see who was the best looser and that took even longer.

Malum was bored.

Waiting for all these peoples fights to end had left him with free time he had never had before and with it he decided he would do exactly nothing.

Starring at the top of a tree, Malum lay directly below it as he watched the swaying leaves.

It was calm, peaceful and yet Malum was anything but.

Ever since he was dragged out of his village a fire had been set in his heart. It constantly muttered in his ears. `Get stronger` `weakness is death`

And so his relaxation time had been mostly spent in discomfort as he tried his best to ignore the thoughts in his head. Alas, after a few minutes he gave in.

Swinging his sword, he did a very basic motion. A simple slash. It wasn’t very taxing, and it took little thought. It was just enough to be called training and that meant he could finally relax.

The sound of his sword going through the air, the sound of tree above him swaying the wind, and the feeling of the sun against the back of his neck, for once Malum actually felt relaxed. The thoughts of death were no longer plaguing his mind and so he breathed freely.

Untill one dreaded thought came through his mind.

`Fuck I’ve got the endurance test tomorrow.`

Despair was the only word that could accurately describe his emotional state.

`The sky is, blue?

Yeah its blue, so why does it look orange?`

Malum’s dazed eyes lingered on the sky. His body kept on moving though, one leg forward at a time. He didn’t know why he had to continue moving, after all it hurt like hell to do so, he just knew he had to.

Perhaps it was dehydration. Or perhaps it was hunger, boredom, or about any of the other several thousand reasons why he could be hallucinating.

He was dancing with death, but sometimes humans could be unbearably durable.

`How long has it been since I started? Wait, what did I start? It was a race! Yes, that was it! I don’t know how long it has been. Am I okay? My thoughts feel blurry, no that’s not the right word. Almost like the paint is smudging, does that even make sense?`

He walked onwards, the sun above him staring at him like he was a monster.

2, days. 48 continues hours, some ungodly number of minuets and he was still going. It wasn’t even stamina anymore; it was just insanity. Gerald had been proud of his day of labour but looking at this, well he could only think that this achievement was nothing.

Gerald had heard some of Malums backstory: a travellers son who had lived in several villages and was by all standards pretty normal and yet he was doing this.

That didn’t make much sense to him. Or anyone to that matter.

The crowds around the dirt track had thinned ever since the first day but now they were slowly coming back to see the madness first hand. It wasn’t the sun looking at him as if he were a monster it was the 50 other troop members and instructors whose eyes were judging him.

It had even gone so far to bring out the Troop Leader who was sitting on a small hill, with his eyes analysing Malums every movement. His thoughts, every person on the field would have given lots just to catch a small snippet.

`Interesting` Thought the Troop Leader, `That is some will for someone so young, and it doesn’t even look like its sprouted from fear. Just pure drive, to achieve their goal. Look at him, he’s bloody smiling.`

A small smile escaped from his lips; the young man reminded him too much of his younger brother. Driven, and full of potential. `If only he’, no, he had told himself not to think those kind of things.

He straitened up, gave a nod to the instructor, and told him to end the race. The recruit had already shown enough, and first place had been secured hours ago, at this point they were just harming him.

`The Southern Front, he sure would have a chance but` he thought back to his brother, he had gone to the Southern front as well. `I would prefer it if he lived.`

Persistence had saved Malum from even worse hell.

Hell was still his destination, and all it took was one poor mistake and it would be over. In life you get no second chances, perhaps Malum would be able to quote if he was not passing out from exhaustion.

When somebody told him to stop, he thought he was hallucinating. So instead Malum was knocked swiftly out. Finally, his thoughts went away.

He woke up inside of the encampments infirmary. On a small bed, Malum starred at the wooden ceiling as he thought to how he got to this position.

`Why did I try so hard?`

He thought to himself, and the answer to that question wasn’t as clear as Malum had hoped. Revenge for his Uncle played some part, so did getting back at him, and then there was his basic fear of death, then his ambition to grow older.

There were far too many reasons to single it down to one, but all of them had something in common. He would benefit from doing the bets he could in the tests, to get those army credits to leave the hell he would soon enter.

With that, at least, somewhat cleared up, Malum focused back on his injuries and found nothing to terrible with his body. Flexing his muscles hurt, but it seemed nothing too detrimental. There was one thing however, he was hungry, really hungry.

“Hello, anyone there?”

The room was empty with only his bed inside of it. Actually it was odd that he was alone, usually when he came to the infirmary he was inside some sort of dorm with beds all around him but this time he seemed to have secured himself a private room and not only that his bed actually felt more comfortable than he remembered them to be.

`Why the sudden upgrade.`

Was it his efforts in the exam? Or perhaps his domination of the top ranking? Whatever it was Malum was not going to complain but he really did need food, so he continued to call out.

Finally, after a few calls someone came through the door.

“Be quiet, what do you want?”

`Ah finally the doctor.` Malum thought, then replied, “Yes I’m super hungry can I get some food please.”

The doctor was a young-looking man, his hair drooping low beneath his face. That would make someone think he was shy, but they would be wrong.

“Oh yeah, by the way its been 2 days since you fell asleep. I felt you would want to know that. Okay, I’ll go now.”

“Wait, what?”

`2 days? God he really did just run away. I mean yeah I worked hard but 2 days of sleep, that has to be a record or something.`

Malum didn’t feel regret over not training in that time. After all sleeping was one of the most productive things he could do. Although he did wonder what they did for the speed and strength trails. Both could be timed and done with set weights, so Malum assumed they did it that way.

For now, Malum just relaxed his body as much as he could. He had food, he had shelter and he had water. As long as he breathed, he would be alright.