Chapter 50 - The Ansem's Army Camp

Alarm bells rang throughout the Ansem Army Regiment camp. Several soldiers grabbed their weapons and approached Elijah in a threatening manner. Regardless of motive or cause, this young man had just assaulted an Army Captain, a direct affront to the dignity of the Kingdom of Ansem. While further enquiries would be made, the first order of business was to subjugate the assailant without mercy.

Elijah, obviously, was not about to give himself up without putting up a fight. So using <Flash Walk> he disappeared from Captain Apollo's side and appeared among the tents of the camp. Several of the soldiers moved in to stop him, but Elijah used his agility to leap between poles, darting in and out of the tents at high speed.

Elijah did not stop to fight any of the soldiers, after all, if he stopped moving he was likely to be surrounded by hundreds of Qi Masters and Grand-Masters, not to mention the Captains who were all Praetorian and other higher level Warriors. In part, Elijah was lucky, because many of the higher level Warriors in the army, as well as the soldiers under their command, were currently in the Rando Woods and on the periphery of the Forest searching for information about the craters. For this reason, while there were still a large number of soldiers, there were not many who could stop Elijah in a short period of time, giving him the opportunity to achieve his task.

A soldier came out of a tent and with his sword launched a wave of Qi in Elijah's direction. <Sword Slash>. Elijah quickly jumped up and dodged the light wave with some difficulty, immediately activating his Qi claws defensively to stop two more Qi Waves similar to the previous ones coming towards him. Two other soldiers had launched their attacks towards Elijah at that moment.

These three soldiers were three Praetorians who were in the camp reserve and were the first Captains to reach Elijah. When Elijah had defended himself from the waves of Qi, he used the ricochet to bounce away from the three Captains, arriving at another area where several soldiers were preparing to attack him. Elijah extended one of his hands towards a nearby pole and exerting force on it, launched himself towards the top of the pole. Several soldiers shot arrows at him but Elijah did not stop and once again disappeared from his spot reaching the roof of one of the tents where several soldiers were coming out to join the search.

Since Elijah began his infiltration mere seconds had passed, but more than a third of the camp had been activated and in a short space of time all the other soldiers would have come out. Once in formation, it would be only a short time before Elijah was captured. Not to mention that eventually Centurions and even Qi Generals would begin to pursue Elijah, so his fate would already be sealed. In fact, with the time that had passed, it was already too late even if Elijah wanted to leave the camp, since all his effort had been put into getting closer to the centre of the camp.

Using his great agility and dexterity, Elijah continued to dodge the soldiers around him. One of the soldiers, another Praetorian, sneaked up and kicked him with all his Qi, to which Elijah could only respond hastily with his two hands clasped together and allowing himself to be thrown several metres in the opposite direction, thus overcoming another enclave of approaching soldiers. Still, with the blow he received, the wounds he had received were greatly worsened.

However, Elijah did not lose his cool, nor his calm, but entering another tent nearby, he used all his power to use the same technique Silvester had used in the past <Giant's Hammer>.

A large cloud of dust rose up along with the tent, which flew up into the skies. In the dust, the soldiers momentarily lost sight of Elijah. Finally, one of the army's Qi Centurions, who had recently arrived looking at the accumulation of dust and seeing the tent floating in the air, ordered the archers to fire arrows at the tent's fabric floating in mid air.

At that moment, Elijah, who had jumped out of the tent's canvas, had been able to take a small breath and quickly using the canvas as a support in the air did a <Flash Walk>. The tent had taken a hail of arrows and had been completely perforated, looking like a sieve.

Several of the soldiers looked into the air to check where Elijah would be heading. However, Elijah had leapt diagonally towards the ground, using gravity to help him fall faster and again used the <Giant's Hammer> causing a small shockwave that caused the soldiers around him to fall back, and he took advantage of the ricochet to move closer to the central tents. At this point Elijah was a mere 10 metres away from one of the central tents.

Elijah pulled from one of the pockets of his clothes a small, closed leather pouch. This was precisely the bag that Maikal had given him just before he went out to pursue Jackal. Elijah was about to open it and shout, when suddenly, out of the main tent nearest him, stepped a young woman in her early twenties, heroic-looking, 5'7" tall, with bright red hair and violet eyes. Her curves were markedly accentuated. She was wearing the blue Ansem uniform, with no medals on her lapels. The uniform only served to accentuate her hourglass-like figure.

The woman stared at Elijah, when suddenly she smiled at him. At any other time this smile would have been magnificent in anyone's eyes, but Elijah felt as if a cage had completely trapped his every movement and thought.

With difficulty Elijah activated his Qi claws, but the lady in front of him did not even flinch, but disappeared completely in front of Elijah, as if she had never existed. At that moment Elijah felt a hand, as if it were made of the finest jade, resting on his head, and although he tried to turn around and defend himself, everything he did was in vain. The hand began to exert pressure on his head and eventually Elijah was pinned to the ground face down, feeling a weight on his body that prevented him from moving. The leather pouch in Elijah's hand fell to the ground and opened, revealing a small wooden plate, with a metal sheet on top of it, with a seal engraved into the sheet.

On top of Elijah sat the woman who had defeated him as she laughed and said in a voice like a lark: "hehehehehe, boy, you put on a fantastic show. I swear I was about to applaud your bravery. Tell me, come on, what were you up to, a murder, a robbery, come on, tell me". The woman's tone was playful, as if the whole thing was a stage play, and she wanted to know spoilers for it. However she suddenly went quiet and pensive when she notices the wooden plate on the ground.

Out of the tent from which the woman had emerged came two men. These were Sub-Commander Saul and Commander Sebastian.

"It seems that more and more people want to test the dignity of this army and its laws. First it was that coward Sagat, and now it's this boy. Perhaps the new generations are not being educated well," said the Sub-Commander in his usual professional tone.

He knew how the Commander liked the rules to be followed to the letter, so without further ado he drew his sword and prepared to cut off Elijah's head. Regardless of why he had infiltrated, the punishment for attacking an army captain and subsequently infiltrating the camp, causing damage and so on, could only be paid with death.

The Sub-Commander was about to carry out the execution, when he felt Commander Sebastian's hand on his shoulder. The Sub-Commander was puzzled, as he thought the Commander would eliminate the intruder without a second thought, but he noticed that the Commander was not looking at Elijah or Saul, but at the badge that had partially come out of the leather bag. The woman sitting on top of Elijah kept also staring at the badge, though her thoughts and face were inscrutable.

All the soldiers who were pursuing Elijah stood still, somewhat petrified, not knowing what to do, seeing that their superiors had fallen silent as if they were ruminating on something markedly important. There was stony silence for almost a minute. Finally, it was Commander Sebastian who broke the silence and said, "It seems you wanted to talk to me in a desperate way. I'm afraid young man, the Army of Ansem has clear rules that must always be followed. The Rule of Law is the only thing that distinguishes us from the Beasts and what makes Ansem superior among all the Territories of this World, do you understand?"

After the Commander spoke, and before Elijah could say anything, Captain Apollo finally arrived where Elijah was being held. His face was clearly bruised, with a black eye, several missing teeth, and blood pouring from his nose and mouth. "Commander. Please bring justice Commander. This savage attacked me for no reason and then infiltrated the Camp. I have long suspected he might be a spy for Rhodnius, he seems to have no respect for the dignity of this army of Ansem," Apollo said almost screaming, blinded by the pain, envy and humiliation that Elijah, a young orphan of barely 14, had caused him.

Sub-Commander Saul turned to look at Apollo, and several of the captains turned as well, with a look that seemed to say 'idiot'. Clearly the Commander was acting a little strange, but who were they to decide what the Commander, who had absolute power in the regiment, could or could not do. The Commander seemed not to hear Apollo and, picking Elijah up off the floor, urged him to say what he had come to say before deciding on any punishment. Apollo slumped, as he realised that things were taking a most unexpected turn.

"Commander Sebastian, Sir, my name is Elijah, an orphan from the village of Radem. My brothers and father from the orphanage came to the Frontier to seek our fortune, when we started investigating the craters and got into trouble with Sagat, the leader of the Violent Tigers mercenary gang. They kidnapped the sister of a friend we met in the city of Corona, and we decided to help rescue her, and managed to infiltrate Sagat's lair, which is in a cave on the northwest side of the Rainbow Rose Lake towards Mount Karol.

We infiltrated the lair, when to our surprise we discovered that Sagat was involved in business with Rhodnius soldiers and Beastmen, specifically with Roland Du Sacar, the Commander who invaded the Frontier 8 years ago. He is apparently accompanied by a Qi Emperor of Rhodnius. When I heard about this, I rushed out of the cave to warn the Commander and seek help. Please Commander, we need your support. Otherwise my brothers and father who are in the cave will lose their lives and the Rhodnians will take the material that Sagat recovered from the craters. Said material appears to be the Fruit of the Mountain God."

Elijah spoke quickly, fearful that he would not be allowed to say all he had to say. When Commander Sebastian heard the words Sagat, cave, Rhodnians, Roland and Qi Emperor, his face remained unchanged. However, his pupils constricted a little when he heard Fruit of the Mountain God.

Apollo was about to rebuke Elijah's words when the Commander began to look at him with eyes that clearly said that if he said another word he would lose his life immediately. Then he turned to Saul and said in a tone that allowed no room for doubt or delay: "What this young man has said must not leave this camp. Saul, go forth at once accompanied by five Centurions and all the Captains present and accompany this young man to the lair of Sagat. You know what to do when you get there."

"Commander, yes sir," Saul said and began calling several Captains by name, excluding Apollo.

"You, young Elijah will go with my soldiers. I trust you are telling the truth, or I fear your punishment for doing what you did in this camp will not be limited to a few blows or a swift execution." then said the Commander as he looked deeply at Elijah.

He rose with difficulty but managed to say, "I wouldn't dare, Commander," and together with Saul and the regiment's group of soldiers, they sped off in the direction of the lair.

As they left, the Commander bent down and picked up the wooden plaque lying on the floor as he looked at it carefully. The beautiful red-haired woman stood beside him, also looking at the plaque. The Commander began to say as if muttering to himself "it would be a pity if Roland and his group could escape".

The woman also spoke as if in a whisper: " No, he won't ". She then began to walk in a westerly direction towards Rhodnius' territory. After ten steps she disappeared as if she had never been there.

The Commander closed his eyes while caressing the badge in his hands and muttering to himself some words no one else could hear. A small tear left his face and afterwards, he returned to his tent as if nothing at all had happened, saying to one of the men next to him, "Send Captain Apollo to the pole. He will receive 10 hits with the stick for speaking out of order".