Note: (“...”) are thought bubbles, indicating what they are thinking
Also, I will only be writing this series part time as I want to finish The Arrayist before. These chapters will not be proof read or edited, be warned.
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Soul Sage - Chapter 1: Rising Early
The sound of several snoring men lightly filled the dark room. The window filled with cracks let in a small gentle breeze across the sleeping men.
Cold. The men shivered from the cold breeze and instinctively covered their exposed limbs that was attacked by the frigid air with their blankets.
The moon had long departed but the sky was still dark.
A well built old man walked through a hallway. His gray hair neatly combed and his beard was perfectly trimmed. The old man walked with heavy disciple engraved within every fiber of his being.
BAM!
The door was kicked open and a bell that was hanged besides the entrance rang loudly
Old man: “GET UP SOLDIERS! HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO SLEEP?!”
The loud and powerful voice dragged the men from their dreams back to reality. They all hurriedly came to their senses and stood up forming 2 perfect lines. The men stood straight, no one dared slouch. Their feet neatly together; their left arm tucked in behind their backs and their right on top of their chest forming a fist.
The old man saw the many cadets assigned to him to train. They were young, ranging from 15 to 18 years old. Although they were still not well disciplined, their improvement was something he was proud of.
He walked in the middle of both lined men and inspected each and every cadet. He noticed a nervous look on one of the cadet’s face and realized why that cadet had an expression like that.
Besides that worried cadet was an empty spot where another cadet should be.
The old man looked towards the nearby bed and a youth still deeply sleeping under his blankets. The youth snored so very loud and a small drool dropped from the corners of his lips. Even with the loud shout from the old man and even the ringing of the bell, the youth was still sleeping.
Old man: (“This must be the new one. I guess I have to break him in.”)
He raised his foot a kicked the youth off the bed.
BAM!
Dropping to the floor, Ray felt a sticking sensation to his side and back. Finally waking up he noticed that the other youths were looking at him as if he was some strange creature. Others happily smiled at his misfortune as they also knew the punishments that came along when they had enlisted.
Ray felt the glare of the old man and chills ran down his spine.
Ray: (“Oh shit, that should be the commanding officer”)
He quickly stood up and lined up with the other cadets.
The old man moved right in front of him and glared at him.
As the old man stared at the new recruit he noticed that the kid wore a calm expression. His eyes were slightly dead as if it was someone who had seen lots of blood. It was not rare for a child to see blood in this side of the world, and this unfazed attitude was just what soldiers should have.
Old man: “What’s your name boy?”
The old man asked Ray in a very intimidating manner, but Ray stood silent. He looked a little troubled yet he stood still looking straight at the old man.
Old man: “Boy I asked you, what’s your name?!”
The old man became irritated. Being disrespected by the new recruit, he had to assert his dominance as the commander of this platoon. He grabbed Ray by the collar and lifted him up off the floor.
???: “AHEM.. Commander that recruit is called Ray, he is mute. I have already informed you this yesterday”
A stern yet sweet voice sounded out outside the entrance. A red haired woman stood in uniform, stood directly outside the door. Her complexion was slightly fair, her lips alluring but her emerald green eyes were a little cold.
The several cadets gazed towards that woman and swallowed their own saliva. She was beautiful but was like a beautiful rose with poisonous thorns. They did not dare to even look at her in any other way other than respect.
Commander: “Oh Rory, that’s right I forgot”
Rory: “Commander, please address me formally when you are on duty”
Commander: “Sergeant Rory”
He could not help but give out an uneasy smile. The old man let Ray down and let go of his collar. A tinge of embarrassment could briefly be seen on his face. He coughed and cleared his throat and looked at Ray.
Commander: “5 laps around the area before breakfast for you”
Even though he made a slight mistake, the old man still punished Ray for oversleeping.
Ray: (“Hmph ha ha, this old man is being lectured by his granddaughter”)
A smirk appeared on his face and the old man quickly noticed it.
Commander: “Make that 10 laps”
Ray’s smirk vanished, replaced with a regretful expression. The Commander saw this and gave a smile, then turned to every cadet
Commander: “We’ve wasted enough time, hurry up outside and do your morning drills. Sergeant Rory, supervise them”
Rory: “Sir, Yes Sir!”
Cadets: “Sir, Yes Sir!”
They rushed outside in an orderly fashion. The early morning drills were light, but to an average person they were very hard. For Ray, who was just recruited yesterday it was tough. One exercise after the next, from pushups, sit ups, to crawling on the floor, jumping non-stop, and finally running around the area.
When the majority of the cadets finished their, Ray was still running an extra 10 laps. His speed was slow and he would sometimes collapse on the ground.
Rory: “Hurry up newbie, if you don’t hurry even I will miss breakfast!”
She was in charge of supervising the new cadets, and she had to accompany Ray until he finished his punishment.
Ray collapsed on the ground and panted heavily, Rory became slightly annoyed but found it interesting that although Ray could not speak, as he panted a loud sound could be heard as if he could talk.
Rory: “Ray, as long as you don’t tell anyone, we can just say that you did all your laps”.
It was clear to Rory that Ray was completely exhausted as a recruit. She felt bad for Ray, who was punished on his first day and decided to cut him some slack.
Rory gave a smile as if she made the funniest joke in the hemisphere, and gave an oddly sounding snicker.
Ray looked at Rory as if he was looking at a weird creature
Ray: “This girl sure has a weird laugh. Oh well, I guess I’ll let it pass”
Rory let her guard down with Ray as he was mute, and could not say anything to anyone. Although he could understand what people are saying, he had no way of communicating to others.
*******
Ray sat alone on a table, slurping his soup with a small bread on his hand
Ray: “I guess I’ll be here for a while. At least there’s food. That Rory sure is something strange, and that old man sure is strict, but this is the perfect place to get stronger”
As Ray finished his breakfast, a fight broke out among the other cadets. There were cadets of a different platoon and they clashed with some cadets Ray was slightly familiar of. Two guys from his own platoon, fighting with four other cadets. Ray easily remembered their faces, as he had a good memory.
Ray recalled back when he lived with his father. They traveled from city to city within a caravan. They were a people of nomadic peddlers, buying and selling goods. Ray recalled the incident when his father and him were selling goods to other merchants but a fight broke lose and interrupted their business.
He came back to his sense and concentrated
Ray: (“Lily can you hear me?”)
Lily: (“Of course I can hear you Ray, I wish I could stop hearing you someday”)
Ray: (“Come on Lily, you know that you’re the only one I can talk to. Anything happen at your end?”)
Lily: (“No, it’s the same as usual. Grandfather is buried in his research and my parents are busy with work. I’m all alone here, reading a few books. What about you? Anything interesting happening?”)
Ray: (“That uncle who was taking care of me kicked me out, now I’m a cadet in some military training facility. My day started off really bad today..”)
Just as Ray was in the middle of explaining an alarm sounded across the whole facility. All the other cadets stopped everything that they were doing and rushed out. Even the people who were fighting also stopped. Ray who did not know what was going on decided to follow.
Ray: (“I’ll tell you more later Lily”)
He went and followed the other cadets that he recognized as his platoon mates.
Several cadets lined up, forming 4 platoons. Each platoon had around 20 members. Ray lined up at the back with his platoon.
Rory: “Platoon 4, sound off!”
Cadet 1: “1!”
Cadet 2: “2!”
The cadets within the platoon soon counted off one by one. Ray who was placed last knew that when it was his turn he would not be able to count off.
Cadet 21: “21!”
Rory counted the number of men on the list and the number stopped at 21. She took a look at the very end and remembered that the 22nd member was mute.
Rory: “Alright ladies, we will be going outside and participating in defending the city.We will only be acting as a support so we will be mostly out of danger, but don’t lower your guard”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Ray: (“What the hell, I haven’t even been train and I’m being included in this fight?”)
*******
The four platoons of cadets stood at the rear of the army that was positioned outside the city. The main army that protected the city numbered around 5,000. They were positioned in the north, west, east and south locations of the city.
The city was protected by a 3 meter city wall, it was around a meter thick and although it looked old and damaged, it was strong enough to defend the city.
*******
The world was divided into two hemisphere by naturally created wall. This gigantic wall was taller than a mountain and was terrifyingly steep. People have tried climbing the wall before but once you reach high enough the cold frigid winds would quickly freeze the body.
No one knew how this wall was created, nor what it was made of, but everyone knew that the wall was impenetrable for hundreds of thousands of years, as far back as anyone could recall, this wall stood strong even under the test of time.
There was no way around the wall, and climbing it was impossible. Those who had tried would either fall to their deaths or never return at all. Luckily this wall had two openings, from the northern side and one at the southern side.
But these gates were controlled by a powerful organization as the guardian of the wall.This organization was known as the Thorax. The Thorax had protected the gates for as long as anyone can remember. They were the undisputed ruler of the world as their strength had no rivals for hundreds of thousands of years.
They would recruit strong individuals from the outside world and would live within the confines of the wall. The wall became synonymous to the Thorax and many people would always refer to the wall as the Thorax.
The Thorax might have been a strong organization but they never invaded outside of the boundaries of the wall. It was like as if they were never interested in the world outside the wall.
The hemisphere where Ray was in was called Damora. Damora was a poor and savage land. One had to constantly struggle to survive in Damora. Countless of dangerous beasts or bandits would attack human cities, preying on them as if they were sheep or cattle.
It was a world where the strong survived and the weak could only be enslaved or perish.
*******
The soldiers stood in formation, around 1200 per gate, waiting for the invaders to come. A scout placed relatively a distance away from the city saw a large dust cloud approaching the city. After discovering the cause of the dust cloud, the scouts had informed the city soldiers that a large bandit group was approaching.
Ray and the other cadets stood at the rear, normally they would not need to fight at all but it seems that the invading forces were much larger than they had anticipated.
A group of 2000 men stood before the western gate, Ray towards the enemy forces and recalled the time when his father had died. His fist tightly held the handle of his sword but this sword was very old. Several nicks and scratches could be seen on the sword’s edge, it was more of a blunt weapon at this point. As for his armor, he had none. The only thing that resemble the platoon full of young cadets were a color blue band tied to one of their arms so they could differentiate allies and enemies.
The calm before the storm was brief and soon the invaders attacked like wild dogs. They ran towards the gate as if they were mad men. Some who rode horses led the charge. Their target was the west and east gate. Another 2000 of their allies were attacking the other side as they attacked the opposite side.
This group of bandits had attacked the same city 2 weeks prior to this and heavily damaged the gates. These 2 weeks were not enough to repair the damage and they could only hope to defend against them.
Reinforcements were called from the northern and southern gates, but they did not dare leave those gates unattended. They left 500 men at each gate and sent around 700 to support the gates being attacked.
The bandits’ attack was fierce, it was as if they disregarded their own lives. Many were killed and the fight was long and drawn out.
The cadets who watched the fights were not shy of blood. Living in Damora, they would have already seen a lot of bloodshed as children. Although they were not affected by the carnage in front of them, some of the cadets’ legs would shiver. Many of them knew that if they were to fight the chances of survival were low.
The savage bandits were at the brink of starvation. If they did not attack and robbed people, most of them would die. The lands were poor and there were not enough to feed everyone. Most of them were forced to join the bandit group and those who attempted to escape would be killed.
The land was dyed in blood, soaking the earth and turning dirt to blood red mud. Before the reinforcements arrived the city guards were outnumbered and took heavy damage.
Rory: “Cadets! Cover the right flank!”
Several of the cadets face grew ugly but had no other choice than to follow orders. Most of the soldiers were in a similar situation as the other bandits. They would enlist in the army to get fed or they would have to resort to robbing others or starving to death.
In a dog eat dog world, one had to fight to survive.
As they positioned to cover the right flank of the gates, a group of 50 bandits arrived attempting to control the gate. Some of the inexperienced cadets died from the first blood, but many of them held the group back. Their job was to stall for time until reinforcements arrived
Ray managed to block one of the bandit’s strike, but was blown back towards the several large stones that fell off from the damaged wall a long time ago.
Ray: (“Shit, I almost died but luckily I can hide behind these rocks”)
He quickly stood up and dashed behind one of the rocks, hiding himself. He hoped to just wait it out rather than actually fight. His main goal was to survive without getting kicked out.
??? 1: “He he he this little mouse thought he can hide”
??? 2: “What I love to kill the most are cowards, they will squeal once you slice them up slowly”
Suddenly two voices came behind the rocks nearby. Two bandits appeared with their swords soaked in blood. They looked vicious and wore sinister smiles across their faces. They had a look of a predator confidently looking at their prey.
??? 2: “Brother let me handle this, he looks like a newborn cub. He should be fun to play with”
One of the bandits walked forward and swung his sword at Ray.
Ray barely dodge the strike and rolled to the side.
Seeing Ray struggle, the bandit gave a huge grin and lifted his sword up preparing himself for a wide swing.
Ray’s eyes flashed and he quickly rushed towards the bandit. He tackled him to the ground and they both rolled on the floor.
Both the bandit and Ray laid on the floor motionlessly as they were tangled up together. Seeing both of them not moving the other bandit became confused and approached the bodies.
??? 1: “Brother what’s going on with you?”
He observed his brother’s body and it was stiff and lifeless. He checked his pulse and breath but there were no signs for both. Anger filled his head as he grabbed Ray’s collar up to his face and shouted
??? 1: “You fucker! What did you do to my brother! I’ll fucking tear you limb from limb”
His sword was quickly pushed against Ray’s throat. He almost could not contain his anger but wanted to killer of his brother to suffer.
Ray’s mouth slowly motioned as if he was trying to talk. The bandit saw his mouth and moved his ear a little closer.
Ray: “I killed him and you are next!”
Ray’s voice was soft and cold, it was a beautiful voice but it sounded cracked as it it was not used for a long time. It resounded in the bandit’s soul and *CRACK*. Something broke from within the bandit and a translucent white gas flowed from the bandit’s mouth and was sucked through Ray’s mouth.
???: “HA HA HA you finally killed two, they were delicious. Rallen, you should feed me some more and then you won’t have to rely on such dirty tactics”
A voice sounded within Ray’s head.
Ray: (“This damn soul eater! I told you my name is Ray, who the fuck is this Rallen”)
Soul Eater: “Ray, Rallen, it’s all the same, but the contract between us still stands. I’m counting on you”
The voice faded into the darkness and Ray searched the bodies of the two bandits. He found a small bag, hidden within the pocket of the second bandit.
Ray: (“This is an interspatial bag!”)
An interspatial bag was not too rare but it was valuable. It was a bag that could store many different items within a small space. It was useful for carrying many items as it negated the weight of the items placed within the bag. His father owned large interspatial bag before but when the bandits attacked their caravan, it was stolen from his father’s body.
He continued to search the other body and stashed all the items into the bag and hid the bag under his shirt. There was no time to check what items were in the bag but he took everything valuable from the two bodies and even replaced his sword with the bandit’s sword.