A glimpse of Power

I woke up with some cold water on my face. I looked around and saw the whole camp there looking at me. The Captain was kneeling beside me and inspecting me with his eyes. I tried to get up. I had my legs stretched and was supporting my upper body with my arms behind me on the ground.

"Very good instincts kid! Really, if it wasn't for your shout before a few of the recruits would have died before me or Gareth could have come to help scare that beast away" he said, giving me a tap on the shoulder that felt more like a punch.

Gareth in front of me stretched his hands and helped me back up.

"What even was that beast? It had the eyes of a demon. I felt like I was dead just from looking into it" I asked.

"Well that my friend was a young Armored Bear. There was a spotting of one a few months back that killed a whole team of Land Guards patrolling the area around Greenhaven. The Provincial Vanguard was deployed to deal with it and it did. This one was probably its offspring and was kept hidden from the Army. The mother was a Spiritual Beast and I'm guessing this one is a talented one, because it is probably almost at the second Stage of Spiritual Energy." the captain responded.

Well great, more terms I don't understand. I'm not gonna make a fool of myself and ask stupid questions right in front of everyone, but I'm guessing that humans are not the apex predators in this world, or the place I ended up in, I thought.

"Alright everyone. There are just a few hours before sunrise. Gather your things and move. We are leaving immediately. The beast is young and for some miraculous reason fled from here, but we are not safe. This beast is a danger to the whole forest around Greenhaven. We will only really be safe once we get inside the city. Let's move your lazy Asses!!!" the captain shouted and went for his tent to gather his things.

I was left there in the middle while everyone gathered their stuff and prepared to leave. I didn't have anything with me so I just waited patiently. After 15 minutes we were ready to go.

In the front were the captain and a few others. I was all the way in the back. To my right was Gareth. He was like before, not much of a talker. In Front of us were the aspiring trainees of the military and a few meters to the side were more of the army guys.

I was dying to know all the new terms around in the last few hours. Spirit Energy? Spiritual beast? Stage two? What was all this? So I decided to risk it and ask Gareth.

"Hey, so I can't seem to remember what all this was with Spiritual Energy and Spiritual Beast. Do you think you can talk about it a bit to see if my memory comes back?" I asked.

"You must have hit your head very hard to forget things like this. Weird that you remember where you came from and how you came to lose your memories." He said looking me in the eyes.

"Well, for starters Spiritual Energy is a Energy contained in all living beings. It's like a life force that gives us energy. Most of the people just learn to control this energy up to stage one. There are three stages. First Stage is to learn to control it inside our body, since it's where our energy resides. Second Stage is learning to project it outwards like counting yourself with it." he responded and picked his hand up to show me something.

"I will make it visible for your untrained eyes by focusing more in one spot". As soon as he said that I could see a spot on his indicator finger. It was like a dense buble. When I tried to touch it it repealed me.

"This is the second Stage, it has many usages but mainly defensive. If a person who mastered only the first stage fought against a second stage that would really be much of a fair fight. The third stage is conjuring this energy outside. I can't show you that since I don't really know how" responded and the energy bubble started to enter his finger, like being consumed by it.

"Cool" I said. 

"Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool," he replied. "As for the spiritual beasts, all Spiritual Beasts are above the second stage. Since it is a pretty big jump from first to second and the beast are already just stronger than humans they are a pretty big theat. That's why we are rushing to Greenhaven, so we can alert the duke." 

"Right. So that's why you entered the army? To master this Energy?" I asked curious since I think it was the reason for many last night, to become strong.

"No." he said with a cutting tone, indicating he didn't want to talk about it.

The rest of the trip was in silence and I was wondering what I should do when I got there. Greenhaven was obviously not on Earth, neither was this whole place. I got transported into some sort of other world with some kind of magic, aka, spiritual energy. 

I was coming to terms with it, but it still scared me. Last night I had felt a sense of danger so profound that I really thought I died. This place was very, very dangerous and I had no idea how to navigate it. 

After pondering for a while I had decided on something. There was no way for me to just go to a city I didn't know anything about, to seek work or something. Besides, what if I wasn't the only one to be transported here? What if others came with me or maybe the whole team? Were they ok? 

The thought downed on me. I was their captain, the one responsible for the team. I couldn't just focus on my survival here. I needed to find a way to find them and see if there was something that could be done to bring us back to earth, and if not… I just needed some way to keep us safe.

That's why I asked Gareth. "Hey you know, I was thinking. Do you think there is some way for me to go with the other guys and enter the army training? You know, I don't know my way home and don't really have any money. I might as well enter the army."

He looked at me doubtful. "Well we could hold your test there in the training grounds. I guess it is possible."

"What kind of test is it?" I asked, since I had no idea there was a test and now didn't know if I could even pass it.

"Well it's nothing special, we just kind of measure your Spiritual reserves. It just needs to be a little above average for you to pass." he said.

Right, Spiritual Energy and what not. Do I even have this energy? I mean I didn't come from this world, I thought. I had to risk it, this was my best shot at survival and finding my team.