Inescapable Fate

Xuiyan takes me to what I can assume to be an armoury, due to the abundance of weapons on the walls and pieces of armour strewn about by cloud-knights who get before us.

From glaives to swords, to shields and bows. It's as if every weapon in creation was available to found here. I even see an axe connected to a flail by a chain on the wall, as it is taken by a towering cloud knight with a frankly freakishly buff physique.

Even now, a steady flow of cloud knights quickly enter, arm themselves in a rush, and leave with a swift urgency. Some of them with fear on their faces, others anger. And a few with a serene calm, as if they were anticipating this moment.

After letting go of my arm, Xuiyan looks me up and down once speaking. "You've changed since the last time I saw you, you have a different feel, you know? It's like you went from a kitten to a slightly larger kitten." I blush slightly at the comparison.

"Yeah, I've changed since I got here. I can fight back now." I silently grip my hands closed as I think back to what happened on Cosgolonia, how powerless I was to do anything but sit there and accept my fate.

I could have chose to hide my current capabilities from her, but the thought of standing idle while others risk their lives feels wrong. Especially when I possess the power to make a difference.

"That's good to hear," she replies, her tone now more commanding. "I hereby draft you into the cloud knights, temporarily, until this situation is resolved." She then loses her commanding tone as quickly as it came. "What weapon kind of would you prefer? We have pretty much everything in here."

"Give me something easy for a beginner," I say, awestruck that I was just drafted not even a full 3 days on the Luofu. They better pay me well when this is over.

After a quick glance at the weapons stored within the armoury, Xuiyan picks up a spear from the wall and tosses it towards me. I fumble slightly but manage to catch it. The weapon seems to have a sort of mental weight to it, even though its not that heavy.

She gives me a quick crash course on the spear. "Pointy end towards the enemy, use the spear's range to your advantage. Avoid wide swings, you're inexperienced. Focus on stabs and pierces."

She also tosses me a pair of arm guards, a chestplate and a helmet. "You can grab a pair of greaves over next to the exit." She points towards the exit, with various types of greaves, all looking equally uncomfortable, being there.

She loads her quiver with arrows, the movements practiced and efficient, and after a moment of hesitation, she grabs a sword, strapping it to her side with a fluid motion. She then dons various pieces of armour and puts on a helmet.

She straightens, and for the first time, I truly take in her appearance. Her helmet obscures her face, but her sharp green eyes shine through the slit of the helmet with determination.

Xuiyan extends a hand covered with a metal glove towards me, palm open. "Ready for your first lesson on the field?" she asks, her tone a mix of casual ease and underlying tension.

I grasp her hand firmly, drawing strength from her confidence. "Yeah, I am."

-/-

Being a long life species was boring. You spend your first 30 years in school, and then are expected to go to work until you fall to mara, or die before that. I was never one to conform to standards, though.

I hated school, everything just dragged on and on and on over and over again. Math this, history that, alchemy this. I felt that every day I was in school drew me closer to getting mara struck, seriously!

My parents always heckled me about school too, even though my grades were decent, in my opinion. A 73 is much better than a 0, right?

Anyways, that's why I wanted to join the cloud knights. I thought that it would be exciting, and leave me satisfied. I right, for a time. I did well in combat, got a squad, went on missions that had me doing backflips on the tightrope between life and death, but eventually it got boring too.

I mean, the missions were still interesting. It felt good to help people, but the paperwork became my bane as I achieved higher ranks through the years. Imaging a literal stack of paper the height of you, needing to be sorted through! Logistics, mission recaps, and a whole bunch of other things.

Isn't being a cloud knight about keeping the luofu safe? The only danger I saw in paperwork was the ability it had to corrode the joy out of people. Look at the workers of the realm keeping division! Need I say more?

I requested a demotion on the clause of 'Wanting to get closer to the battlefield instead of the battle between pen and paper,' and was approved. Even though I got a bunch of weird looks, I didn't care. Why would I let others influence what I take joy in?

It was like old days again. Meeting with new squadmates, more missions and less paperwork, and I even began fletching with all the free time that I had between missions. Even though my salary was frankly ludicrous, I somehow ended up broke within a week every time I got paid. Which is why I started offering my fetching as a service for some extra income.

Cosgolonia was meant to be a rank and file mission. Cleanse the abundance, secure an area blah blah blah. But we found a survivor on a planet that fell over 3 months ago! In my 300 years of service, it's only happened around 2 times, so it was pretty rare.

He burst through the treeline with a maelific ape on his heels, almost put an arrow in his skull on reflex before catching myself and helping my squadmate take down the ape.

One thing that stood out to me were his eyes. He was scared, yeah. But when you spend enough time on the battlefield, you learn how to read people. And what I saw in his eyes was a emptiness only saw in people that were about to turn mara struck.

He looked like he had lost his soul.