MILITARY BATTLE POV: SOLDIER JULIAN.

***In Continent 'Eclipse of the Oceans' North West Region; -Saccurrus- also known as the home to the wild (Sliver wing Clan's border territory)..

    In this seemingly lawless areas, the military has been making heavy movements in the ruthless hunt of the cultists that identify themselves as 'Vessels of truth'.

     For the last six months, it has been operation after operation with the military elite squads tearing through the cultists sub-ranks while slowly circling to their nest and region leaders.

     During these operations, some specific military elite squads stands out the most. These specific squads have had the most successful at making a mockery of the cult as they tear their members apart again and againwithout fail.

Within these six months, some of these outstanding elite squads have rooted out and killed cultists in numbers of hundreds but these squads have also lost a fair amount of military brothers and sisters to the blades of determined cultists.

     As of lately, many has observed that the silently tied battles between the various elite squads and the cultists is becoming more and more personal than operational. Cultists work hard to kill those who harmed their ranks and the military squads moves with purpose and hatred at those who had touched their brothers.

Blood has floowed, buildings ripped apart with multiple other non-cultist had been implicated by the ongoing chain of chaos. From pirates to mercenaries and even casual civilians, all in Saccurrus can feel the boiling heat of the countless small battles that happen at random places and timeline.

    Even in a place as lowly as Saccurrus, its military powers cannot be taken with any sort of levity. Considering that Saccurrus holds a Continental border , there are multiple hidden and open military war bases with most of them deployed only in times of invasions. No matter how powerful a Cult or inner crisis may be, a war base cannot be deployed for action as it would be like using a gaint sledge hammer to kill a cockroach.

The sledgehammer no matter how gently handled would spread too much damage to innocents. The cockroack will see the hammer coming and try to fly away and in the end, the shockwave of impact might only mildly maim the escaping cockroach. Worst of all, the energy used to move the hammer and rehide the massive sledgehammer make it all so not worth it and so, there are elite squads and mid military bases to deal with internal crisis.

     In a specific medium sixed military base, a set of returning elite squad has been sighted from afar. The squad is obviously coming from a bloody clash with cultists as they can be seen carrying their injured as they race through the streets with their destination being the main gates of the vast military quarters.

     Racing through the streets while forcing the crowd to part, three massive military tamed Earth lizards can be seen carrying returning soldiers while rousing up dust and sand. Earth lizards are infamous Rank two beasts that are breed and trained by the military for movement purposes alone.

     The physicals of earth lizard's is both massive and intimidating as they hold their heads above the ground at an imposing height of five feet tall. Their body's length-(from nose to tail tip)- measures at over eighteen feet in length.

     These lizard's massive bodies are supported by huge four reptilian limbs and on scaley and uneven skin is a light layer of metal armour. Just like the Earth lizard's untoned and draggy brown scaly skin, the metal armours attached to the massive lizard's bodies are of a similar shade of brown though with a shell-like design.

     The metal armour doesn't cover any of massive Earth lizard's limbs but instead protection focuses on their softer undersides. With a backpack-like design, this practical armour covers the lizard's bellies and throats then extends to the lizard's backs where seating designs are in place.

     The metal seating designs on the backs of massive reptiles were in a simple *υ* shape. Military riders sit between the space of the *υ* with their legs flanking the sides of the massive reptile's body. Each Rank-2 Earth lizard is known to carry up to five military members thus the seating arrangement on top of the beast forms *υ_υ_υ* shape.

     Right now, three of these giant armoured reptiles are currently being ridden by a set of bloodied Soldiers with female Soldier Julian being one of then.

     Today's operation was very tough no her squad but when is it not. Julian can still remember clearly the details of her first operation regarding the cultist group known as Vessels of truth. Six months ago, her squad's leader and ninety-nine others had been put into commission to deploy forces and purge the city of the filth that identify themselves as Vessels of truth.

     In a lawless paradise like Saccurrus, fighting a specific group of cultists can be considered a random mission but they are an elite unit of the Military. They are trained go forward when they are asked to go and make sure to hit home or die trying.

They serve under the territory of the Silver Wing Clan and pride themselves in being an unwavering spear of one of the arms of the court.

     Without question, hunderds of spies stuck their noses into the crowds. Julian's Elite squad only has five trained spies in their ranks and with the orders of their leader, four were immediately deployed. Despite the seemingly small manpower, as trained spies it didn't take long to find something and they weren't hesitant to share.

     With information and location at hand, the squad deployed for battle. Julian remembers the adrenaline rush of excitement at something new as she flies through the building's walls while delivering a one-shot-kill to someone an entire Rank above hers. In hindsight, she got a little overconfident in crushing the enemy and although she did crush them, she got hit by a stray attack from the enemies Intermediate Peak level Rank three Fire Mage!.

     She was brutally slapped back to reality about the vast difference between ranks. Her bones were broken, her organs were squashed and her remaining mana is the only thing that prevented her from immediately crossing over to the other side.

     Bleeding, broken and bruised, Julian laid in rumbles. Away from her weapon and fighting unconsciousness, she watched in a blur as one of the injured cultists she had considered a pathetic weakling stumbles to pick up his sword.

     Fighting unconsciousness, Julian watched as the injured cultists slowly stumbles towards her unmoving and broken body to finish the job.

    At that moment, she thought she was finished but timely help from a member of her squad had saved her life. Although it was a tough battle, on that day nobody in the Twenty-five member elite squads had died but over the last month, the twenty-five members squad has been reduced to a nineteen member squad. If they do not get the help of a healing Mage soon, the numbers are only gonna drop to sixteen after today!.

     "Faster!..", Julian couldn't stop herself from yelling at the current driver of the Earth lizard she's riding upon. The driver is currently sitting at the front-most seat with one thick chain in each of his hand. Each of the chain in his hands is connected to the sides of the running reptile's helmet as he steers the beast through the crowd at an outstanding speed of about three times that of an Earth's horse!.

     ¥CLANG!..¥

     The driver whips both chains forward, urging the beast to go even faster despite knowing that they are already at the speed limit of the Earth lizard. Currently, there's a soldier dying on the back of the racing beast and the driver is aware that every second counts.

     The injured and dying soldier is strapped to the centre position on the massive lizard. The center seat has been engineered to flatten for situations like this and so, it is currently flattened and connected horizontally to the rest of the lizard's back armour in order to form a make-shift emergency strap-bed that's very stable even during rapid movement.

     Holding onto the front of her seat, Julian squintsvher eyes and watches people scramble out of the way for dear if being stomped to death!. Chains are pulled and the Earth lizard is steered through one final turn. A couple hundred meters away is the opening gates of the Military base.

     They are almost there, Julian tells herself as the massive gates begin to slowly lift off the grounds.

     Kicking up dust, the earth lizard is soon passing under the opening military gates before sharply hitting the brakes. The sudden drop in speed makes Julian's body jolt forward but she quickly recovers as she gets off her her seat then jumps to the ground with her cape slapping dust to the ground.

     Aware if the situation, stationed military health workers behind the gates immediately moved to action. In less than five seconds, they were already into work as they start to tinker with the armour on the back of the Rank-2 Earth lizard.

     CLANG..φ..SHANG.., Small noise of metal being dismantled and rearranged rings out as health workers hurriedly works on detaching the makeshift strap bed from the centre back of the massive lizard's armour.

     Still tense and worried, Julian can only watch the health workers in action as her pulls off her blue and gold shaded helmet before holding it by her side. Her hair is tied into a messy warrior's bun and her lips seems to be bleeding from combat though for a cultivator returning from battle, she's in a very good shape.

     The other two Earth lizard's her squad is riding with soon slithers their way through the gates then comes to a halt close to her side. These lizards are obviously slower than the one she had ridden on.

     On one of the newly arriving lizard is another injured and dying soldier and as expected, another set of health workers were opon him just seconds after entry.

     Julian gives this a glance but soon turns her attention back to the dying soldier she had brought in. With a clang, the strap bed attached to the lizard's armour comes loose as four health workers heaves the strap bed and the soldier on it up.

The health workers bring the bed unto their shoulders while standing in a rectangular formation as they start a soft and co-ordinated run towards a nearby massive door.

     Julian and two other soldiers follows after the jogging health workers. Her metal boots clashes softly against concrete floors as she's able to keep up with just speed walking.

     In less then thirty seconds, the health workers crosses through the door and into the emergency bay with Julian following after.

     Just a Julian is familiar with, the emergency bay is both orderly yet bustling as usual. Health workers were all around and on their feet as operations were carried out with every second determining the life or death of fellow soldiers.

     Over the last six months, Julian had visited the emergency bay many more times than she's comfortable with though she's lucky enough not to be visiting as a patient.

     "What's his Rank and Pathways?..", A healing Mage approaches the Strap bed being carried as she escorts them to an empty bed.