Tear A Path

"If war had started, you think they"d wait for us that long." Another similarly dressed young man answered her question. Unlike her, his eyes radiated a fierceness, if only his tense body didn"t give away the anxiety in his heart.

"No, I don"t think so, but then why are the infantry and heavy armored corps here too? We"ve never been gathered together unless it was for a full out war." She asked, her heart getting heavier as she scanned every pa.s.sing face.

"Hey, I literally got the message as the same time you did and came here with you, you think I"d know anything you don"t" he replied in annoyance.

"Um... Hi." Suddenly a lady had walked out onto the platform. Somehow as everyone thought that, they retorted themselves in their own mind. Someone so beautiful could hardly be called a lady.

"Who"s that?" The girl asked the boy, a little hint of admiration in her voice for such a beauty.

"Maybe one of the captain"s attendants?" A swordsman asked from behind them, jumping into the conversation, curious as well of this newcomer"s origins.

"I don"t think so, she seems like a foreigner, and I don"t think anyone with such beauty wouldn"t be famous if she"d been here even for a month. And I doubt any of the captains would let an outsider get to that position." The boy a.n.a.lyzed.

"What"s that supposed to mean?" Turning around, the boy had the urge to drop some spells on top of himself at the sight of his companion pouting.

"I think you"re half right there." The swordsman chimed in, ignoring the potential lovers quarrel that they definitely were going to have once they were out of sight. "She"s probably an outsider, but I think the captains have done more than just let her get to the position of an attendant."

"Hmm what do you mean?" The girl pretended to not notice her friend"s pleading look and turned her focus to the person on the stage. After a quick scan, she was able to notice a glimmer that was being reflected by the sun"s rays.

This flash of light was being reflected of a small metallic object that was hanging off the lady"s lapel. "Is that! no it can"t be..." The girl gasped.

"Yup, that"s no other than a captain"s badge." The swordsman replied, his face making a difficult expression. On one point they were at war and they needed every help they could get, but at the same time, he didn"t know if an outsider should get a position of leadership.

It was difficult to believe an outsider she had any loyalty to this place or it"s people. Not too mention that with the world in such a disarray, there was no telling where she actually came from. For all they knew she could"ve been from the enemy camp.

It became pretty clear they weren"t the only ones who felt this way as several outbursts came out from the crowd amongst the murmur of uneasy conversations.

"Um... Everyone... h.e.l.lo?..." Grendolyn tried with difficulty to get everyone to listen to her, unable to quell the commotion that was building up.

"Heh serves her right" Tess thought as she watched her get more and more overwhelmed by the crowd"s indignation. She was just put in her position, and the first thing she did was command all of them to gather? Not to mention if a captain even had that kind of authority, she had forced those on the same level to attend too.

"D#$n her! I had some ki...*ahem!* plans for today and just because she"s stronger than us she thinks she can command us." She looked at Alos who shifted uncomfortably where he stood, also understandably miffed after being interrupted in the middle of his "plans". As he turned and they made eye contact, both couldn"t help but turn away, blushing at their eerily similar thoughts. In the end, both just wanted to see Grendolyn crash and burn right now under the weight of society.

The other captains who were less hostile didn"t know exactly what they were supposed to do in such a situation. Jeral was in the midst of figuring if he should step in to help out, but even if he did what was he supposed to do!? Was he required to speak up? In front of so many people!? But before his indecisiveness could even settle a glare from Tess had made the decision for him.

Ode and Travis thought they should step in, but they"ve never been much of a talker. The Charging Bulls way was always quite spartan, messages were always better conveyed with a good beating. It had been the same when the mantel was pa.s.sed on by Ode"s former leader to him. And now it was nice to see that Travis had continued the tradition and was pa.s.sing it on to his underlings.

Either way, there was little chance they would have anything to do here. Maybe they could shut up their own men. But the crowd was formed by all the different squads, there was little chance that the other captains would be grateful towards them for giving their men some much needed bruising. So for now, they could only watch and hope for the best.

At this moment, there were sounds of rattling, like that of metal clashing with metal and it was spreading across the whole field. Alos was ready to step forward. To him, the sound resembled that of armor and weapons clashing in battle.

In such a controversial situation it was normal for everyone to have differing opinions, with all the different jobs and squads here, there were bound to be some arguments. For Alos, a small commotion was allowed, encouraged even as it would at the very least diminish Grendolyn"s authority in the future.

Even if not to the point where giving her the position became useless, at the very least she"d have a harder time gaining everyone"s, even her subordinates respect. That would put her in her place enough to not throw around her weight like she did this time.

But if the situation continued to become more aggravated to the conflict that"d become a different issue all together. There was little consequence if Grendolyn was a victim, she was an outsider anyway. If she could contribute some benefits to their army then good. But even if she died, no one would truly mourn her, he thought.

Their people however, whether or not she was a captain would have to work together on the battlefield. Things like injury or even death in some quarrels would lead to bad blood between squads that would leave them with problems inside and outside their kingdom.

"Hey..." He was about to shout but slowly his armor began to rattle as well. Slowly at first, but it the sound began to spread through the whole field to an almost deafening level. It didn"t take long for anyone to figure out why this was happening, the earth had begun trembling and was building up towards a large quake.

At first just the armors rattled on their bodies, but soon no person on the field was able to keep their balance as the ground groaned as if it was coming alive. Being so closely packed in such a s.p.a.ce, men and women began to fall like dominoes.

"Everyone get to cover!" On the other side of the walls Bartram was shouting at his men who were panicking as they tried to stabilize themselves. Many of their vehicles began to tip over from the sheer magnitude of the earth quake.

And as swiftly as it had appeared it had suddenly disappeared, lasting no more than 40 seconds from the start to the end.

"What the h.e.l.l?..." Bartram said as he eyed the wall and his surroundings, unsure of what had just transpired.

The captains by this time had already pinpointed the source of this, sweat running down their backs. She, a mage was standing calmly in the midst of a whole army of trained men and women who had bowled over from the earthquake, it wasn"t hard to put two and two together. And if there were any doubts in their hearts her next words confirmed it for them.

"I hope I have your attention now..." She spoke lazily, gazing into the crowd, a hostile air coming off of her. Coming off from a person who spent little time on the battlefield it was probably not to have such an effect. But after what she just pulled, it might as well have been the gaze of a demon looking down on their lives which she could put out as easily as stepping on an ant. Anybody who met her gaze felt their heart stop for a moment as they somehow forgot how to breathe.

"Now where was I... Oh right, the reason I called you here, was because of one thing and one thing only. I was planning to go in depth into the hows or whys of the subject, but now I get that trying to use such sophistry is a waste of my time..." She articulated each word as much as she could as if talking to an idiot and making sure they listened. "Out of all I wanted to say at the end of the day it all boils down to one thing..." At these words everyone prepared themselves for a revelation.

"You"re all weak."