One....and no more time

[One day to war]

"It's gonna be noisy outside," was the first thought that came to mind. Not when I woke up, but before. I remember sensing people coming yesterday to my room for something, but they didn't say anything on seeing me meditate.

Or at least that's how I thought it was.

Surprisingly, my foresight didn't activate these three days as I couldn't see anything that would happen. It wasn't definitely a good thing, but hey, at least I got a good sleep. Now I felt like I could take on the entire population of my clan. However there was both no time and meaning to it now.

We would be moving out and away from our current homes so that the attacks don't happen on the ordinary folk.

Two knocks on my door.

"You awake Jester?" a familiar voice sounded.

Smiling, I responded, "No I'm sleeping, go away."

The door opened, and in came my closest friend Iwarzoǭ, a tired smile on his face. Dressed in combat clothes with his katana on his left, he looked worn out. Plus his eyes showed how hard he had been practicing and trying to get past his limits. This wasn't a normal well-to-go threat. Being second-in command was not tough, but considering the opponent this time, it was gonna be deadly tough.

Taking a deep breath, he replied, "You can't be awake and asleep at the same time, so get out of bed and help everyone out. After all, everyone will be following you if the leaders' strategies fail."

Considering only one day was left before we all went to war and everyone siding with me, I had no choice but abandon my self practice.

I freshened up, put on my armour, took the blessed sword and a regular sword to help the others practice. Besides, in order to achieve Xor i should be aware of the things that I'm doing wrong and need to improve; hence the regular sword. I decided not to use my bow and arrows unless deemed necessary since I'm not a very good applicator.

I walked out and felt as if the temperature was a little higher than how it had been the last two days. I spotted Iwarzoǭ at one of the supper stalls and joined him. This time, we had some newbies joining us and apparently all of them but two looked up to me too much. Their eyes shone too brightly as they saw me and excitedly asked me random stuff.

"TOO LIVELY AND BRIGHT," I thought.

Yet, good things never last and so our time with supper was up. Once cleared out, I went back to my room and took a long last look since it might be my last time here. I opened my locket, and showed it my room. I hoped they were able to see it, and with that....

I moved out.

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Training all the fighters of all four clans would not at all be possible. The number exceeds anything so far. Hence, I decided to take it clan by clan. The first thing I instructed everyone to do was run a thirty kilometres within a maximum time limit of half an hour. But of course, there was a twist.

"Use any Zarc you would like. But compete against me. Anyone who takes more than will have to face me in an all-out battle. If you aren't able to survive today's regime, you do will not fight tomorrow, and will die right here."

This sobers them up completely. Fighting is what is worth to a warrior. If they end today, the shame would either way make them kill themselves.

Lining up all the fighters of the Amavero clan in twenty rows, I let them loose one-by-one. Leading the run was Iwarzoǭ, followed by other zarc-only users, enhancers and physical fighters. By the time the last row left, I gave other tasks to the other clan fighters.

Sword and katana users must do a thousand slashes; 500 to the ground and 500 in the air, till they can crack the ground with one slash. Even if it is a very slight crack, it would be counted. "After every 100 slashes, take a minute-pause, and check for yourself if your form is correct or not. Try and create something special to you which you can use tomorrow," is what I told them. Bow users were to enhance their arrows such that they're strengthened and can go at high speeds. The rest must as well run the same distance. But, they'll do fifteen kilometres one side so that they reach back by the time the Amavero clan warriors finish.

Around ten to fifteen minutes passed in this entire walkthrough. I turned back and saw everyone practicing or running. I stretched my back and my legs, and got ready.

"Mach 1," I mumbled. Energy cackled within me; pushing myself into the ground and face down, I shot forward. Mach was a very useful zarc for me. It had four stages and I unsurprisingly had never used the fourth stage (never needed it). Besides, stage one was enough to cover thirty kilometres within a few minutes. Plus, I wanted to take a look at how everyone was taking the threat and keeping up with others.

Within two minutes, I could see a some of them struggling to run. Only one-fourth of the distance had been covered and they were out of strength. Sighing, I went straight to them and helped them out a little.

"Vatten, Push - harmony," I said, touching the back of one of them. The keyword 'harmony' lets users share their zarc's strengths to multiple people. Sad part is, it's not everyone's cup of tea. Mastering such an ability is damn tough. Vatten rehydrated them and Push helped them regain part of their strength.

"DO NOT STOP. KEEP RUNNING. FULFILL YOUR DUTY," I yelled at them, and went ahead. Motivating them with kind words would not do justice. For a few kilometres, I couldn't spot anyone. Maybe they were closer to the end than I was and so I had to speed up. If I hated anything other than being interrupted while eating, it was losing. "Mach 2," I spoke and shot at a much higher speed, cracking the ground beneath slightly.

Having covered more than half the distance, I spotted a lot more people and zoomed past them. I took a look at their conditions, and they looked a little out of breath. Hopefully, the healers would do their jobs and help them out.

The last five kilometres. Only four or five were visible at a time. Passing them, I noticed one person up front, extremely close to the end point. Using Push, I stabilised myself a little more and headed straight for that someone. However, they reached the end point a few seconds earlier than I did. And it was none other than Iwarzoǭ.

(He was completely breathless, while I had my entire breath)

Diving back first, he huffed and puffed. Somehow he opened his mouth and said, "No...(huff)...wonder..they..(huff)..(cough)..call...you..The...(huff)...Person..(cough)."

I laughed. Even Iwarzoǭ had a speeding zarc, but mine was too much developed which was why I had unreal speed. Our countless hours of practicing so long might be fruitful after all.

5 minutes were left. Most of them were here, sprawled on the ground, some trying to remain standing to show their will and courage, but I told them to sit. In the last minute, the rest of them came, and fell face first. Giving everyone a 10-minute break, I sat down and thought about the prophecy a little and what I could do to kinda cancel it.

The first four lines talked about the greats of each side. There were four sides hence referring to the four clan leaders, and them fighting alongside. Biggest calamity = extremely high number of deaths. The next three lines talked about the land we would fight on - Tantallon. Whatever remained there would perish and out would come the souls of darkness.

But what was the most worrying were the last two lines.

'The Scale of Twahna, the word of mouth;

One side up, One side down.'

This meant only one thing. The Scale of Twahna which is the scale balancing the number of living and dead; it was no longer balanced. And in order to balance it, Ciaran's minions had to be defeated.

I kept thinking on what all could be done, when suddenly my Foresight began. My head screeched in pain. My eyes turned blank. I could not see or hear anything. I could not move. The pain was not bearable, and I struck my forehead with my right fist. It did not hurt, but slowly and steadily my vision came back. One eye turned normal, but the other one had some kind of pattern clad in blue.

I could see what was going to happen tomorrow....

...and tomorrow did not look bright.....

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A cold feeling of dread spread through me. "I have to steel myself, " I told myself. "This is not the place to get scared. There's no time to feel negative when everyone has been working hard. Nobody should feel negative because of one person."

I got up, and assigned everyone their tasks for the day. Meanwhile, I had our contacters reach out to the other clan members and asked for their progress. "Everyone's doing fine so far," a deep voice said. "They successfully completed the run in a little more than half an hour. The swordsmen are almost done with their slashes. The bow users are still struggling a little bit so the buffers are helping them."

Things were looking fine so far, and if everyone was up, we did not have the leisure of feeling down.

Once everything was done, supper was set at the middle of our clans - fifteen kilometres from either side. I wanted to lift everyone's spirits even more, and tried to do one thing.

With everyone in position, I used Push on all of them. "Three...two...one..GO!" Everyone ran with everything they had. A few seconds passed. I was feeling a little tired, but I had to be the most upright one. Stabilising myself with push and vatten, I mumbled again.

-Mach 3-

Within a minute, I reached the destination and within a few minutes, everyone had come by too.

I tried to take my mind off the new vision and had supper with everyone else, laughing and having a good time.

After all....

It was gonna be our last time together.