CHAPTER FOUR : 300 HOURS OF PAIN, IN A MINUTE

The sounds of the night seemed to die away as the sun of the system steadily begun to rise in the west( the sun rose in the west for most planets in the system, apparently on earth it would rotate from east to west, which in my opinion far less logical than it rising in the east)

The scorching flames around us continued to wage a war against our flesh, with every spark and flame unstoppably racing to the receptors in our bodies.

In all honesty this was unlike anything I had experienced in my few years as an academy student in the army of the empire of lancelot.

I had grown used to doing laps around the barracks and lifting the heavy artillery from storeroom to storeroom each night. You might even say I was getting way too used to the soldiers' way of life.

Despite this, my soul still yearned for the feeling of a true battle, blood trickling into my mouth, sweat blocking my vision and the sound of bullets raining down on our enemies, that was truly something incredible.

I quickly absorbed the nature of the situation, it was very basic and simple;stop sebastien before he destroys half of the planet using his beast form, but for some bloody reason there was a catch to it, (why the fuck wouldnt there be a catch?).

The catch was, we had to do all of the above tasks, without killing him, because despite him nearly killing us, and despite him using my toothbrush to clean his boots, and definitely despite him nearly drowning me in a pool of fizzy water on my birthday( yes he was most definitely a big bum), Sebastien was like a brother to me, and also he owed me 15 dollars.

So far Tobias, Lazarus and I had come up with the most effective plan in any given situation in life, having no plan.

Go with the flow,

Roll with the punches,

Blow with the wind,

Ride it out, you feel me?

I, for one, was one punch away from dying after I got the living shit beaten out of me by two very attractive looking women.

Lazarus was destined to die very soon anyway, he had probably smoked and drank so much that his body is barely hanging on to the force of gravity that dictated all matter on a planet.

Tobias was at this point going through a god mode of some sort, because he was fighting Sebastiens beast with such precision, accuracy and speed, and yet he barely looked tired.

I guess he caught a common case of, i was built different ( and he was incredibly built different)

He certainly had a tendency of proving to us how much better he is at everything, in comparison to our incompetence in 9/10 situations.

Tobias' way of fighting was deemed unnatural by most older or higher ranking soldiers, due to the fact that he fought with an axe and a shield with each of them being made of the hardest metal in existence, Galanium.

But obviously what they deemed unnatural was somehow extremely effective, the boy was known for quick kills in virtual reality training exercises, as well as his formidable mastering of hand to hand combat, which was an extra flex in addition to the others.

His gear however did not look as strong, as he was moving it was slowly tearing away and clinging to his skin where he had gotten a few burns from Sebastian's beast in the past few minutes.

I then proceeded to my initial mission, first of all I had to tell Tobias what was going on,and what we would have to do( seeing as he was the team leader).

I began to race between the trees and the remainder of the burnt forest, smoke filled my lungs as I got closer to where sebastien and his beast were, which i turn ws where tobias was.

I could spot him perched on a tree, getting out of the view of the beast, before landing down and giving it a few blows on its hide, which caused it to scream in agony.

Even with his burns,and his seemingly tired body, Tobias continued to dominate this fight, which was seemingly impossible seeing as he was merely human and was fighting this gigantic beast.

At a quick, but stealthy speed, I ran over to Tobias and perched reign next to him atop the tree.

" Wonderful day isn't it?", he sarcastically inquired.

" Wonderful day it is brother"

" So i see you found old man Lazarus, so what plan has you got, assuming it does not involve the killing of our dear friend"

" The funny thing is…", I said nervously, stopping before I could finish, with sweat going crazily down my face.

" The funny thing is what, you have a plan don't you?"

" No we don't have a plan, we were busy trying to come here as fast as we could and avoid me dying from an extreme loss of blood."

" Oh, here i was thinking we were fucked before, but oh no, we are in some shitty situations right now, and i have a feeling it wont end well"

" Oh wow, thanks for the enthusiasm Mr.Always happy"

" Would you atleast lower your bloody tone before trying to get us killed here"

" As far as i know, we are already dead"

" Well jeez, thanks a lot sherlock, we wouldn't have guessed that, would we?"

" Oh fuck off, lets just try to think of something before we lose approximately half of this planet, as well as half of our clothes in the process"

After this brief argument, Tobias closed his eyes, seemingly in deep thought now, the entire energy around him seemed to change as he began to think.

I continued to stalk the beast as it went around in constant rampage, destroying more and more of the forest.

After a few minutes , he raised his head, seemingly in conclusion of what we should do to defeat the beast.

" First, we need Lazarus, where the hell is he?"

Well his question seemed to have an answer innately present, as Lazarus jumped out from a crop of trees, with his twin katana in hand, slashing viciously at the beast, making it way more angry than it was before.

Despite this, the beast could barely land a blow on Lazarus, who was arguably more impressive in this situation than I expected him to be.

He later saw us in the tree and proceeded to come to where we were, landing with not as much grace and elegance as me, but he was doing his bare minimum for an old man.

He was breathing extremely hard and panting even harder, it was very clear that he had not attended such a rodeo of a fight, in a long, long time.

" Fucking beast nearly chopped off me head using its claws, i was bloody vigilant ofcourse, saw right through each of its attacks, afterall i am the greatest soldier in this galaxy's history, My name is Lazarus Armindle, son of Jaxon Armindle who is the son of Mary Heloiine who was the daughter of Jack Heloiine. I am the greatest soldier that has ever graced the Empires asses, I've conquered 13 planets, each within a time period of 2 months. I slaid the entire colony of Jeremuis minor, by my own. I laid waste to the planet Orionnai, with a single blast of my lightning beast. My name is fucking Lazarus Armindle, and i am the star-collector, the beast had no shit on me way before i even got into this fight, i did what a real man would do, and dominated this fucking fight.", he said effortlessly and shamelessly at the top of his voice ( yes this old man was extremely egoistic and self loving).

"Okay, can I speak now sir?", Tobias said, seemingly extremely irritated.

" Yes you may, extremely inferior soldier", he said with a smile on his face.

" Okay, so we all know the beast has an extreme range of fire and heat, which is leading to the mass destruction of the forest at a colossal rate and also leading to the destruction of the forest. But we have each ultimately been unable to think of a way to neutralise him before he achieves that level of mass destruction, until now. We will counter his fire with more fire", Tobias announced valiantly, much to both me and Lazarus' confusion.

" Did you just say we will extinguish his fire, by using more fire ?", i replied

" I have to say, I was very sure you were going to be the last of the three of you boys to go crazy, Tobias", Lazarus said in turn.

" I'm not, crazy old man, it's the most efficient way to disable his flames, by somewhat overloading them, remember the blaster and the microwave ?"Tobias said.

" Is it me or did he just say a microwave and a blaster?", Lazarus replied in more confusion than he did before.

However those words made perfect sense to me. It was an experiment we did on our first year class at the academy. We were taxed with finding a force that could produce more radiative energy than a microwave and disable the microwave without destroying it, but by simply overloading it. Sebastien is the one that came up with the idea of using the blaster, after Tobias and I had exhausted any logical answers that were left. We tried the blaster experiment and put it in the microwave, waiting for the best and the worst to come up from that borderline crazy experiment. We ended up winning the award as the best in the experiment, as the blaster deactivated the microwave effectively.

" So if Sebastian will work as the microwave, what will we use as the blaster?" I laced in.

" Thats what im trying to figure out, and that's where Lazarus comes in", Tobias replied

" At your service kid, just nothing too crazy", Lazarus said valiantly, seemingly invested in the fight now.

" I need a catalogue of every firearm on your aircraft and how much firepower each of them has, measured in Joules, which we will use to counter the number of joules that the beast's fire was radiating.", Tobias said.

Lazarus quickly got to work on the small tablet in one of his many straps on his gear vest, the catalogue was seemingly long, seeing as he spent the next three minutes compiling it, and only left me wondering why someone had so many weapons on a small aircraft.

He then handed the long list to Tobias who stared at it and a wave of astonishment swept over his face.

" Well damn, this is alot to work with", he said nervously .

It was at this point I realised that besides being a soldier, a leader of a team, and now even leading the so-called greatest soldier ever, Tobias was merely just a boy, among us he was the youngest, being only seventeen years old.

Yet he was the most decorated of us all in the field and in training, he was the definition of a five-star recruit.

If he wasn't such a douchebag, I might as well have called him my hero. Of Course i wouldn't outright tell him he is my hero, that would be weird.

" Well here comes the hard part, and where my dear friend Damien comes in", Tobias announced.

As soon as i heard him call me his dear friend i knew what he was asking me to do was going to end up with me either dead or really fucked up.

" Well, what is this 'hard part'? ", I replied.

" You see, we're trying to overload the power and radiation coming from him, but we can't know that without knowing the radiation that is coming from him, so…"

" …so you need me to somehow get close enough to record it?"

" Good, so you agree"

" No i don't"

" Why, it's straightforward ?"

" i don't want to die, i have a bright future ahead of me"

" neither do i, mine is even brighter"

" well, lazarus is basically in a coffin, let him do it"

" the fuck is wrong with you, ive got a wife and seven kids, i aint finna die in the name of being a geek", Lazarus protested.

The reality that these two saw me as an expendable asset, was both terrifying and sad, but it was just as it was. Someone was going to have to do it either way.

" Fine, even if I may die doing it, I'll do it", I said in a not so enthusiastic manner.

" that's a good boy, now here is what you will use", Tobias tauntingly said as he passed me a large metal device with a large screen and a huge antenna ( yes, everything about the device was very big"

" all you will need to do is to get near him, and scan him with the device, the system will handle the rest", he continued.

"Okay, so how much time have we got, old man?"I asked lazarus.

" Not much time my boy, not much time," he replied.

After that brief encounter I quickly jumped off the top of the tree, eventually landing on the ground that was now covered in ash and cinder.

I raced to where the beast was ( i wouldn't really say raced, seeing as i was limping to the position at which the beast was standing, a few metres from me)

I had two options, go right in its gaze and get it so wound up that i could easily scan it, or sneak up behind it and simply scan it from there without getting hurt or burnt,

And to be honest by this time it should be easy for you to guess I went for the latter. I was at no point going to put myself at the mercy of this gigantic beast to simply plummet on me and ultimately kill me.

I found a good crop of bushes behind a few trees that were not completely burnt, and snuck up on the beast.

I pointed the strange looking device at it, and the device showed a notification to indicate it had begun scanning the beast.

After a minute or so, it showed that it was completely done scanning the monster's energy and radiation output.

I then , I assume, sent the results to tobias.

This was my signal to get the hell out of there. I walked straight down the same path I came on, and I found the tree where we were seated. I climbed up it only to find Tobias and Lazarus were not there.

I didn't really care so I went through the data that Tobias compiled and I was strolling through it as casually as a bee, when I saw something weird.

The energy output on the beast was not presented as a singular figure, but as a flux of energy.

So that meant that to a certain degree, his overload could not be fully assumed or grasped, which means too much would ultimately kill him.

After this realisation I quickly scrolled through the list of weapons to see which one Tobias had selected, and the one he selected was of about 20 joules more energy than the beast radiated, which was still too much.

It was a long range sniper, which meant Tobias was probably in some tree or something, to enable him to have a good angle.

I quickly ran back down the same path that I came down originally, and found the beast just as I left it.

I then began to scan the trees for Tobias or Lazarus. I ran from tree top to tree top, looking and scanning for any sign of them to stop them.

As if by luck i saw them atop a tree, about twelve metres away from me, i ran towards them with the little energy i had, i then saw Tobias placing his eye on the eyepiece of the firearm.

I started to wave my hands, shouting at the top of my voice for him to stop, then it happened.

A large boom spread through the forest as the shot from the firearm hit its target, Sebastian.

A cloud of ash and smoke quickly spread throughout the forest, and a deafening silence was the instrumental of this vivid simulation.

I instinctively ran to the last place i had seen Sebastian's beast, i was running at a speed that was shocking, probably due to a rush in adrenaline.

I arrived at the spot and saw not a beast, but the body of Sebastian laying neatly in a large crater on the ground.

A smile spread across my face and I ran into the crater, taking off my heavy gear, and landing right next to Sebastian.

He didn't look his best, but he was certainly looking in very good shape, considering the fact that he had nearly died twice, and here I was thinking Tobias' plan was not going to work.

He opened his eyes and closed them immediately when he saw the sun blazing high in the sky.

" What in the fucking hell happened bro?", he whispered.

" You went and got urself half killed, and then followed that up by trying to kill us, so yeah it's a usual friday"

" I feel like shit"

" You certainly look like it, come on, you need a bath"

" Let's go, useless one", he said as he stood up.

We walked out of the pit when suddenly Sebastien began to lose strength in his stride, he was even growing a bit pale.

" Are you okay, buddy, you're losing strength? "I asked pryingly.

Though my question was followed by no response as a cough of blood left Sébastien's mouth, he then fell to the ground clasping his heart and screaming loudly.

" SEBASTIEN, WHAT'S GOING ON!!"I shouted.

" SEBASTIEN…SEBASTIEN"

He continued to vomit blood, and eventually he suddenly stopped. He was laying on his back, with his face to the sky, his blonde hair shining in the sunlight, and his blue eyes shining even brighter.

" You know, i wish i got to see the other planets, to travel the galaxy, find a wife, have kids, you know…?, life stuff, but i think my time is up", he said slowly.

" Your time is not up idiot, get the fuck up, we need to get to Lazarus' ship, theres first aid there"

" Don't cry, be strong Damien", he said in a low raspy voice as he looked at me with a smile on his face.

It was at this moment that I realised my face was full of tears and I continued to cry, and sob, and sob.

" Why does it have to be this way, why should it be you, why not me?", I wailed.

" Damien…, you and Tobias, you are my everything, my best friends and my family. But I feel me and you had an especially significant relationship, (as he said this he handed me the diamond pendant he always wore), me and you are never going to be away from each other, I'll always be here."

"Please don't go, i need you"

" Just do me a favor…stop the empire, before they use the…",his body suddenly went still and his eyes turned glassy.

" SEBASTIEN, BEFORE THEY USE THE WHAT?!"

" SEBASTIEN, WAKE UP, WAKE UP SEBASTIEN!!"

I continued to shout even though I knew what happened.

SEBASTIEN

WAS

DEAD.