Cadet Alfheim Orion

Orion's shift was over and walked over to Jager who was still up.

"Couldn't sleep?"

"I know I said that I left everything behind and accepted Elaine, but that's not quite true. I left everything man, everything. My family, my friends, my life, all gone. I still miss though." said Jager

"We haven't talked to each other much, so I just assumed you had no one like me." Said, Orion who was now sitting next to Jager.

"I don't know how I feel about everything, I feel sad that I had to leave everyone, and they are probably looking for me, yet I feel so happy when I'm with her, you know," Jager said with his hands covering his face.

"I don't know how you feel, but I do know that I felt so angry at the orcs that captured me and destroyed my home, killed my wife, but just everything felt meaningless whenever I woke up. You know what's weird, I know I should be happy that I got revenge but it felt empty, like all this time that really wasn't my goal. Also about the happiness, I feel the same way" Orion said thinking back, "I never truly grieved about what happened, that's so messed up, I loved her yet I can't even cry about what happened to her." Orion was now breaking down emotionally.

"Why did I do all that training but I break down now? Why did I learn how to protect but couldn't even protect her. why after all this time, can I actually cry for her, my love, Elaine." Orion cried out.

"Man, I know we haven't known each other for a long time, but do you want to talk this out, I heard a while back that you should talk this sort of thing out with family or friends, and right now I think I'm the closest thing you have to that," Jager said while revealing his own face with an unusually nice voice.

"How could you help, I'm incompetent, she was the love of my life, yet I let her die," said Orion

"Well, how should I know how you feel about everything, if you don't tell me, how can you work through all this repressed sadness if you don't talk it out and actually grieve," Jager said while grabbing hold of Orion's muscular arm.

"You're right, it actually doesn't sound so bad now," Orion said in a depressed voice trying to wipe his tears away.

"It's hard but you can't just repress that stuff, if it is too hard for you to talk about it we don't have to but wouldn't it feel better if you had someone else to lean on while you're hurting, all this time you had no one but now you have at least me," Jager said.

"At first I thought you were an asshole but you're not such a bad guy after all," Orion said while sounding genuine. Orion then got the courage to tell his story "I had just finished training for the human brigade...."

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"Cadet, what are you doing out of your unit" a tall, beautiful woman with hair of red color and gorgeous gray eyes, asked the cadet.

"Cadet Alfheim Orion, ma'am. I have just finished training and have been told to meet Captain Greydark. Ma'am, may I ask to whom I may need to speak to for meeting said, captain?" Said Orion very formally to the elf of superior rank while saluting.

"Why have you?" The elven woman asked, to the thin cadet in front of her.

"I have been notified that I have been assigned to Captain Greydark, ma'am"

"I see, Cadet duel against me, then I will judge for myself if you're worthy of being assigned to Greydark's unit." The woman said to the cadet, looking him up and down like she was assessing his combat strength, she really wanted to fight.

Orion was confused and just asked "ma'am?", while he saw the elf walk away towards the training grounds.

"Cadet are you coming or will I need to report that you're not in your unit," The woman said.

"Yes ma'am," said Orion, following the woman, running to catch up with her.

Orion arrived at the training grounds he knows so well from his 4 years of training, looking around he could spot the duel arenas that brought up bad memories of being beaten, over and over again. The strange thing though is he couldn't find the woman that he was following up until now. Confused Orion looked all around, he could see the runners that were completing laps, the people who were lifting heavy weights envying their big muscles, just then he heard.

"Stop eyeing the boy candy and come here," The woman shouted at him from fighting arena 4, which was supposed to simulate jungle environments, in the standard-issue infantry armor, however, the uniform fit far too tight on the woman's body causing Orion to be a little too excited at the sight, to be fair he was only 18 at the time so it was to be expected.

"Cadet do you have your weapon in your pants or are you excited to see me, stop staring and come inside, you do only have until midnight after all," The woman questioned already knowing the answer.

"I apologize, ma'am, let us proceed," the embarrassed Orion said, covering the bulge.

"It is alright, just shows you have youthful energy in you, ease up cadet." The woman said while chuckling, opening the doors to the arena.

Orion stepped in and felt short of breath while saying "I'll never get used to spatial magic, ma'am are you ready", Orion looked back and didn't see the woman at all.

"Cadet you have until midnight in the overworld, I suggest you start trying to find me." Just as the voice appeared it had disappeared as quickly.

"So if I have until midnight in the overworld that means I have 10 in the overworld and 40 in here. I'll have troubles with the monsters and I also have to worry about that woman trying to attack me, but if I don't beat her she will probably court-martial me." Orion said out loud.

"You should really keep a better eye on your things. Cadet can you really swing that thing, even for me it was challenging to throw it, its at least 3 meters long and 5 cms thick, I'm hoping you are not just showing off and can actually wield that, its at least 137.5 kilos!" said the woman while a two-handed sword was shot at his feet and Orion could recognize it as his weapon. The sword was massive, creating a crater as it hit the ground, Orion walked over to it and struggled to lift it out of the ground, finally being able to do it after the 3rd try.

Orion lifted the sword and rested it on his shoulder saying, "Of course I can hold my own sword, I made it for myself after all, but wait where is the sheath" but there was no answer.

Orion then started heading in the direction of the woman's voice. Orion heard rustling in the dense forest vegetation, after a couple of moments though, he saw what was a large tiger-like creature with two large teeth, the creature was black in color and large.

Orion jumped back and swing his sword absolutely exploding the creature. Orion's swing was clumsily done though so the swing made him fly too.

"Sure you can swing that thing but it appears you have no idea how to use it." The woman said from the shadows again.

Orion got up and kept on going trying to keep up with the voice he was following.

Orion kept going until he found a river separating the forest, the river was fast flowing making crossing it by swimming impossible, 'there has to be a way across' Orion thought, going up the river Orion still couldn't find a way across, and about 5 hours have passed already.

'Why don't I just cut down a tree, I mean it might be crude but it could work,' Orion thought to himself while walking over to a giant iron tree that loomed over all the trees around it, Orion swung his sword at the tree causing his sword to vibrate and causing Orion's hands to bleed from the force, looking at where he swung he could only see a small nick on it.

'I know iron trees are supposed to be hard but Aldrun be damned I didn't think they would be that hard, my hands hurt, note to self don't do that again. Iron trees seem to be the only trees in this forest so I probably wouldn't be able to cross that way, shit ill need to continue upriver then.'

Another 5 hours passed and night came with it, Orion decided to keep moving on for the night since he didn't know how to start a fire without the tools, lucky for him though he did see a light in the distance, he didn't know whether it was the mysterious woman or some trainees but it was the best he's got so he headed off in that direction.

Orion got to the fire but it was deserted already with showing no signs of anyone being here except the campfire itself. Orion was tired from the 10 hours of walking with his weapon, so he sat down on the ground, put his weapon next to him, and took 1 out of his 3 rations which are given to everyone in the brigade in case of emergencies in the base.

"I wonder what this captain Greydark, is like, I have never heard of him before which is quite strange in itself, usually captains are like public figures." Said Orion as he drifted off to sleep.

The sun woke up Orion, picking up his sword from his side and he headed off to the river to get a drink before trying to find the woman again this day.

"I only have around 22 hours left to find her, but how am I suppose to do that with no clues whats so ever." Orion took a sip from the river while yelling out in frustration.

Orion headed back to the camp, and then he realized something.

"if there are no footprints or evidence on the forest floor wouldn't that mean they would have had to either use magic to conceal them or they would need to just not be on the ground, magic is unlikely since the magic department has their own facilities, so it must be her, either being able to use magic or she is using the trees."

Orion immediately looked up high and saw what appeared to be snapped branches notifying him that his theory was right and she was using the trees to evade tracks on the ground. Orion grabbed a couple of vines from the nearby trees and made a makeshift rope that he attached to his sword, and tied around his back.

Orion now that his sword was somewhat secured to his back tried to climb the tree that he saw had the broken branches. The climb was hard since the large tree didn't have any foot-holds or groves that would have made the climb easier.

When Orion almost made it to the top, his hand slipped and almost made him fall down which would have made him plummet over 60 meters, from that hight he would have definitely been killed. Regaining has holding climbed for a little bit more and grabbed a hold of a branch, pulling himself up and resting on top of it. From on top of the tree, Orion could follow the tracks easier and since the forest was so dense the trees were really close together allowing him to traverse quickly.

4 hours left

'I have been following this trail for 18 hours, when will I reach her.'

Then as he made his way to the next branch he heard, "Took you long enough to get here, I thought that you would never come" the woman said.

"Finally I found you, now are you ready to fight me," Orion responded to the woman.

"What do you mean by found me, I lead you to me, didn't you for once think that the campfire was odd, or that the branches were snapped, if I wanted you would have never been able to find me," The woman confessed.

"Whatever, you said you wanted to fight so fight me," Orion said while almost falling off the tree.

"You want to fight, fine we will fight, but let's not do it on the treetops, you might die and I don't want to explain that." the woman said grabbing hold of Orion by the uniform and jumping off the tree

"ARE YOU INSANE!" screamed Orion while the woman only laughed maniacally.

The woman hit the ground hard causing a small crater to be formed at her feet. She threw Orion ahead of her. The elf then looked to see Orion who was close to fainting, then reminded him "Remember you have only 4 hours left, you probably don't want to waste them unconscious."

Orion got up, and quickly throw up the ration he ate on the way here. "ARE YOU INSANE, HOW MANY SCREWS LOOSE DO YOU HAVE, I COULD HAVE DIED!" Orion told the elf.

"Calm down, you didn't die. did you?" The elf woman retorted. "So are we going to fight or not?" said the woman taking out her sabers the same time.