In unison, all heads snapped toward the source of the voice, and a few released a gasp when they saw who it belonged to. Had I not been familiar with Andreaki, Daphne, or even Griste’s appearance, I would have joined in the spectacle of the peculiar sight.

Standing where I swore I looked over seconds prior was a figure unlike anything. He was a man with unnatural bronze skin that glimmered under the cloudy sky, shiny enough for the grass at his bare feet to reflect off of. The fur of an unknown white spotted animal made up his clothes, which only covered his lower half, but the most notable feature of all were four muscular arms folded across his chest.

The man’s face looked straight off of a sculpture, lacking in flaws and blemishes at the cost of also lacking the ability to express himself.

He allowed the group to chatter amongst themselves for a solid minute before he cleared his voice to gather our attention.

“If you are done gawking, then we can start moving things along,” he announced, his voice reverberating in my chest. “I am Brontul, and because the time we have is short, I shall keep this simple. The mission assigned to you is of the utmost importance, and it will be mine, as well as my associates, job to make you prepared for the trials ahead. By the looks of it, we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Before the bronze man could continue on, Shimazu stepped forward, breaking away from the group to grab Brontul’s attention.

“With all due respect, Brontul, I have trained with a blade since the day I could walk. I do not see the point in attending this “training camp,” as you so call it. I am already prepared to head to the New World,” she explained.

Despite his lack of ability to make expressions, the man looked amused by her statement, and had he a physical mouth, he would have laughed.

“Perhaps you would make a fine soldier in Pangea. But you’re not here to be trained as a Pangean soldier, you’re here to be trained into a soldier for The Nest. You, as well as some of those you will fight, have magic. That little thing adds far more complexity to a fight. If you are not careful, your arrogance might get you sent home,” Brontul replied.

“What do you mean “send home”?” Shimazu asked, voicing the same question I had.

“The Nest contracted me to prepare thirty soldiers for deployment. For those who can’t count, there are fifty-six of you present now. Those two numbers don’t add up,” he explained.

He’s going to send us home? Just like that? I panicked.

I knew Harok chose me because I was convenient and not because of anything special. I knew that was the case with all the children, yet that knowledge did nothing to hamper the pride I felt towards being selected. The fact the bronze man could send me home tore down such an emotion and I could feel the shame of what such a fate would bring me.

The crowd shared my sentiment and burst out into a protest in a dozen languages that all melded together into an unintelligible mess. From what English and French I could pick out, the word “fair” got thrown around the most.

“The Nest cannot afford to send unqualified soldiers for this task,” Brontul boomed, his voice silencing the protests. “And despite what you may think, I have no desire to throw you out in order to meet a quota. The more of you sent the better.”

“And how will we be disqualified?” Henry piped in, resigning to stay within the crowd.

“At my discretion, which will start now.”

The man raised two of his hands into the air, causing a rumbling to permeate the air. For several seconds, nothing happened, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw an object descending from the clouds. Once enough of it showed itself, I realized it was a pillar of stone. From the distance we stood, I could not tell what the inscriptions carved into it were.

“You have twelve hours to cross the Ashen Fields and make it to the camp. Those who fail to make it in time will be sent home. This is not a race, so do not attack one another to get ahead,” Brontul explained.

“It’s not that far away, how is this supposed to weed us out?” Henry asked.

Brontul responded by pointing all his hands to the fields leading up to the pillar. The ashy substance that clung to the grass pulled away as a gust of wind propelled them into miniature tornadoes. Starting from the bottom up, the ash took shape as humanoid forms, lacking all features that could tell them apart.

“Rest assured, nothing fatal shall happen on your way, but do not think they will be gentle either. You have twelve hours; get going,” the man explained.

Gesturing for us to move along, Brontul’s bronze form shimmered out of sight, leaving us alone once again.

No one knew how to react at first, but action had to be taken when the ashy figures shuffled toward us. Shimazu was the first to act, notching and shooting an arrow into the closest one.

The arrow flew straight through the figure, causing the ash to dissipate and a massive hole to appear on its torso. When the form refused to fall, I thought it would rematerialize right as rain. Instead, it exploded, sending its remains in all directions.

Henry and another boy followed up her arrow, crashing into the next closest ash men with their swords, cutting them down to a similar effect.

I acted fourth, powered forward by the fear of what failure meant. Without a weapon, there wasn’t much I could do against the ash people. I had magic, but I wasn’t sure to what extent I wanted to use it. The effects of Aura drain were all too known to me, and I knew I wouldn’t make it to the pillar if I had to deal with them.

Yet it soon became clear hiding behind those who had weapons was not a choice. As they pressed forward, the ash men started reforming behind them, surging forward to meet those such as myself.

I grimaced as one shuffled toward me, knowing I had to fight. Raising my hand toward him, a spike of ice shot forth from my hand, piercing him in the chest and achieving the same result as Shimazu’s arrow.

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

My attention was torn away from the falling remains when something grabbed a hold of my arm, and my heart went into free fall when I stared into the blank expression of a second ash man. Out of reflex, I pulled away from the creature, and while I freed myself, it continued to push into me, threatening to grab ahold of me once more.

Holding him back with one hand and creating a ball of fire in the other, I thrust my magic into his chest. The light infected the creature’s insides, causing him to explode into embers and obscuring my view. Not wanting a repeat of what just happened, I blew the ash away with a gust of wind.

The once hectic sight of boys and girls crashing into the men fell into deeper chaos as the creatures retaliated with varying degrees of success. Many pushed them away like I did, while others succumbed to their panic and failed to capitalize on the creatures' weak constitutions.

I couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity in their struggles knowing I almost fell into the same trap.

A little help wouldn’t hurt, I decided, sweeping my arm toward those struggling.

Starting as little more than frost, icicles formed around the figures who had someone in their grasp, freezing them in place and allowing those in peril to catch their breaths. Without exception the ice confused those I helped, but many did not waste the opportunity, using the breathing room to break free and collect themselves.

I did not have time to observe the results of my help for long before I had to worry about a creature of my own.

—

The slog to the pillar was greater than I ever could have expected, and it became clear why some people wouldn’t make it in time. For every ash man destroyed, three more replaced it, and those who struck out on their own fell to the overwhelming numbers. Some tried to use magic to barrel through them, and while some got far, their stamina and Aura could not keep up, and they soon became victims of the horde.

With no safe way forward on their own, we started forming groups ranging from three to eight for protection, and by chance, I ended up in a group with the friends I made in the horse as well as a fifth boy from Spain. Like me, he used magic for protection, casting arches of lightning into the shadowy figures.

Henry led the group in front with his shield, trapping the ash people in place as they tried to push through his defenses with no success. Wherever he could, he would lash out with his arming sword, stabbing or slashing at those who tried to get around.

George stayed close to the French boy, often using him as a human shield while he waited for the ash creatures to build up around his shield. When it started becoming too much for him to handle, he would duck out of safety and cleave away those pressing on, destroying up to half a dozen with a single swing. The ease with which he handled his sword surprised me; treating the massive claymore like I would a knife.

Shimazu settled herself into the middle of the group, prioritizing her bow to pick off those trying to surround us or those Henry missed. Ammunition was never a problem she faced. Any time she ran out of arrows, a green string extended from her quiver and attached to her arrows before pulling them back, allowing her to shoot without the fear of running out. Despite her use of her bow, she was not above stringing it around her shoulders to engage with her swords.

This left the back to me and the Spaniard, casting our magic to support the other three wherever possible. Whether it was creatures approaching us from behind, or ones that somehow slipped past the first three, we blasted them away with our respected element, making what would have been an impossible journey possible.

I froze, the Spaniard shocked, Shimazu pierced, and the boys sliced through the ever-growing horde of ash people, making way for our path and destroying countless of them. Together, none of the creatures posed a threat to the five of us.

Despite our teamwork, the constant stream of creatures took its toll on all of us. It started off with Henry resting his sword arm and allowing George to take over in the offense. Then Shimazu slowed down the rate of arrows she sent, and George soon after from the increased workload.

The support the Spaniard and I provided also decreased when our magic became more difficult to cast. It was as if a lid was creeping over the funnel that was my magic, forcing me to spend more Aura to get the same results. This realization forced me to create more mana to achieve the same result, forcing the two of us to slow down the pace of our spells to not become liabilities.

This decrease in offensive output allowed the ash men to get closer to us little by little. Not long after we hit the fourth hour, Shimazu abandoned her bow to assist George with her swords.

“I guess you’re getting an answer to your question Henry,” George huffed, slashing through four men at once.

“Shut up,” the French boy replied.

“Just didn’t think I would get dragged down with you,” the Brit continued.

“If you’ve held on for this long, you can hold on for a few hundred feet longer,” Shimazu interjected.

The three of us who understood English started looking around for what she meant in desperation for whatever relief we could get. Looking up, I saw what she meant. The pillar floated above us all, and in the distance was a white line, drawn into the grass.

“Ese mejor ser la línea de meta,” the Spaniard muttered, his voice broadcasting how much of a toll his magic took on him.

After saying what he said, the boy halted, and crouched down to place his hands on his calves. Both confused and interested in what he was doing, I saw magic travel from his fingertips into his legs. The second I pieced together the type of spell he casted, the boy launched himself into the air away from the safety of his group toward the finish line.

“What are you doing?” I shouted at him, forgetting he wouldn’t understand a word I said.

Either because he lacked the necessary Aura, he forgot to calculate for the barrier our magic faced, or because he lacked the strength to launch himself far enough, the boy failed to send himself over the white line.

Landing on his hands and knees, the Spaniard tried to scramble to his feet, only for his strength to fail him, sending him crashing back down. It took him a few seconds to collect himself and try again, but by then, men of ash materialized all around him and clamored on top. His bolts of lightning could only fend off the creatures for so long before they overwhelmed him and he succumbed to their weight, robbing him of the strength to scream.

A part of me wanted to help him, but I didn’t know how much I could accomplish without falling victim to the same trap.

“You don’t think he…” George started, not wanting to finish the sentence.

“Brontul said our lives would not be in danger,” Shimazu answered.

“Think we should get him?” he continued.

“Be my guest,” the girl replied, gesturing to him with her sword.

Both George and Henry considered her proposal, looking at one another in silent conversation.

“We’ve come this far, I’m not going to risk being sent back home over someone else’s gamble. He took a risk, and now he’s paying for it,” Henry decided, sounding unconvinced by his own words.

Not willing to argue with him, George nodded his head, and we resumed our march forward, no one willing to look in the direction of the Spaniard.

Yet as we passed by the boy, I felt an overwhelming sense of pity for him. I did not need to see his Aura to know he had nothing left, and with the number of creatures on top of him, I knew he wouldn’t slip out. I could feel nothing but pity for him as I imagined myself in his shoes. Until then, he had done everything right, and now one mistake would cost him everything.

I imagined how I would feel, trapped under all those bodies, unable to move as the feeling of failure crept into my mind. I could see the looks of disappointment on my family’s faces when I returned home, having nothing to show but shame.

The words my father told me before I left came to mind, and upon remembering them, I imagined how he would react to seeing me scoot by the boy. The face he would make did not sit well with me, and it came to a peak once we passed the boy.

“I think I’ll take you up on that offer.”