37

Chapter Thirty Seven

D A Y B E F O R E T H E W A R

Osiris forced Haldir to ice his ankles as he sat in the shade, once again, for another lecture. Osiris hissed. His mana was excited. He was over it.

"Stop it you bitch."

Haldir pretended not to hear anything.

"Today we move out!"

Hakim got his men as ready as they will ever be in such a short amount of time. Some surprised him, others worried him, he could tell the runners from the freezers to the fighters and the saviors.

A lot of them will die tomorrow.

"We will march until sunset where we will be meeting with all other units at the front."

The faces were wary.

"Today we will be forming parties."

Everyone looked around.

"A good party is made up of equal parts. You cannot have a party made up of only tanks, nor a party made up of support."

Osiris was a bit curious about that. This military does have basic formations. Like tomorrow they were all going to line up at the front while all the big heads hide behind lines and lines of soldiers like a bunch of high end government officials. But oddly, inside each unit they form parties. It was pretty much a large-scale rpg war.

Osiris paused.

Was it rpg or fantasy? Or are those two things the same? Fiction? Wait, wasn't the genre romance?

Behind their unit would be a support and the medic division, all of the lowest grade, but they were the sacrifices after all.

Osiris has learned a lot about these men.

Their tongues sure wagged about one another like it was their job. He expected it from the teens, and there were a lot of teens, but the adults were worse.

Osiris tried to focus.

"Go ahead and start looking."

Damn, he missed another lecture.

Osiris fought with his mana as it started up again.

"I'll run away if you don't stop."

His mana went still.

You had to mean it when you made a threat. And he meant it. This bitch was getting out of hand. He didn't like being out of control of his own body. He already dealt with the leak.

He didn't need to deal with another.

Osiris took a deep breath.

"I didn't mean it, I'm just nervous too."

His mana throbbed.

"I promise we'll have fun, but you gatta let me rest. If I can't then the fun will be over before it can start. And I wanna have fun tomorrow. So settle the fuck down and collect yourself you freakin weirdo."

His mana settled for throbbing once every ten seconds. He'll take it. Before you knew it everyone had formed a team. Everyone but him, that is.

"I told you that I'm fine with it."

Osiris was ready to deck the man.

Hakim surrendered.

He didn't want to force a party to take him and he wasn't willing to force the Prince to be in one if he didn't want to be.

He'll let it slide this fight.

He really doubts that boy will care about anyone but himself on that battlefield.

"I'll let it slide this one time."

The Prince side-eyed him.

"If you say so."

Hakim walked away to check the teams for balance.

Osiris stayed where he sat and worked on his rings. When he started he had none.

The first one he made was hard.

His patience didn't work well with how slow mana moved inside him. It felt like his body was clogged with junk. Osiris sighed as a bit more mana went into a ring. He found out a neat little trick.

He could form a ring around each of his hearts.

Osiris shivered as his third ring finished forming.

He had two on his human heart and one on the other heart. It was twice as hard forming one over that heart. His chest throbbed as it got to work circling the mana around and around.

It felt like working a new muscle.

But he could feel it.

The difference in his power from before to now. This was what he was missing. This will get him everything.

The soldiers pretended not to see the Prince smile.

That smile haunted them while they slept. They all could feel his ego grow bigger and bigger by the day. It was terrifying.

Osiris hummed to himself and swung his ankle around his knee like a wandering wisp.

After an awkward introduction and light chatter everyone settled around with their parties as the Sergeant went up to speak.

"This lesson is important to hear, so please listen up."

Osiris perked an ear.

"The orc we faced that day should have killed us all."

The mood became somber.

"There was an important lesson to be learned that day." Hakim pulled up two models, only one was a child and the other an orc. "At the time Osiris was a 5 star, no ring child. And the orc was a b class monster. Though he was wounded, why was it that Osiris still won?"

Osiris was really tired of being the example.

If the example was a little more exciting then he might be more accepting but.. Instead it was a video about experience versus power.

"That's right," No one has answered. "Luck."

Osiris rolled his eyes.

"I kid I kid." The mana display changed to a mock fight. "In a battle it doesn't matter the strength of your foe, whether they are weaker or stronger than you. If you can think on your feet and adapt it is possible to survive. And when you underestimate a foe, you will lose."

The scenes changed.

"Of course, in the face of raw power, no one can survive. Sometimes our enemies will be weak, and sometimes they will be strong. You must not lose yourself. The moment you freeze is the moment you die. Osiris never froze, and we are alive because of that."

"Wasn't he thrown into a tree?"

Osiris snickered.

Sunnie felt her shoulder's un-pinch slightly. Though he gave her food, she was still unsure about him. Everyone was still unsure about him.

His moods were still unstable and violent.

But there was comfort in knowing he was not the enemy. She did not know if she would be able to stand it if that aura was directed her way.

"He was indeed hit into a tree. Twice. Yet he still won."

The scene changed again.

"One advantage our platoon has is we are used to Osiris. The enemy will not be, and neither will our comrades. On that note."

A patch with the Lux's patch? Symbol? Logo? Whatever it was, it was plastered all over the new model's body.

"Everyone will be given one piece of clothing that will have the Lux insignia on it."

Ah, the word.

"You must make sure it is visible. You will die if a comrade cannot see it. I've seen too many people go because they lost their tag."

A lot of faces dropped.

"On the other side, if you see someone on the field with this symbol, know they are a friend. It doesn't matter if they are an orc or a beastman-" A fuck ton of faces turned ugly. "-you must help them as they would help you."

"Yeah right."

Someone whispered and a lot of people laughed. Those that didn't were of mixed blood.

"Keep in mind that the enemy can come from every si-"

Osiris let himself relax to the drawl of the Sarge going on about war.

He's done the best he could.

He hopes it is enough.