Chapter 74 - Difficult Task

"If they are good at magic, while they have those weird bows…" Zaos asked. "Are they really made out of…"

"Bones, yes, you are correct," Commander Ruvyn said. "No one know why that is the case, but the followers of the demon god are good with magic, their bodies are proof of that. The bones are from the bodies of their dead comrades and with those, they can use magic near instantly. While the weapon has certain limits, they still can be used to turn a single one of them into a fearsome force that can kill entire squads of soldiers by themselves."

It didn't look like the followers, and the demon god had any blood relation. So, Zaos couldn't understand why they were blessed with impressive magic powers… by the look of things. That kind of weird power didn't transform them into weird creatures. Still, even so, magic powers were more than enough. After all, ordinary humans still were the majority of the people in the world… Despite that, the heretics haven't been exterminated. So, things were probably at a stalemate.

"That is more or less a summary of the things," Ruvyn said. "Usually, we only pass this kind of information to those who graduate from the army, or when some recruit is forced to fight against them, they also swear to keep this information protected from the ordinary citizens of the kingdom. You need to do the same."

"I swear that I won't reveal this information to ordinary citizens, sir… but, is that all?" Zaos asked.

"Yes, there are several other details, but they are not relevant," Ruvyn said. "The followers of the demon god are planning to start a war, and we need to defeat them. That is all you need to focus on."

"Yes, sir…" Zaos said.

It didn't look like the commander was lying or hiding something, but Zaos couldn't help but think that wasn't the full history. Regardless, he left his room after being dismissed. The commander had many things to do now that probably a big battle was approaching. Zaos wanted to think that his squad wouldn't be involved in anything dangerous again since they had close to no real combat experience. Still, in the end, he couldn't say if they would or not.

"Come to think of it… despite the fact that they were good at magic, my attacks easily killed the demon god's followers," Zaos thought soon after he returned to his room. "That is weird since the higher your mana, the more powerful your attacks will become and the more resistance to magic you should be…"

Zaos recalled the start of his new life where he knew so little and so many things were confusing or he didn't have an answer. It looked like he had returned to those times… maybe Zaos would come up with his own explanation if he does some research in the library. However, that could wait.

Zaos decided to make good use of his free time and decided to meditate. He had almost recovered all the mana he had used. Still, he decided to speed up that process, but after a while, keeping his focus was getting harder and harder since the number of people coming and going through the base was increasing. While the snow decreased the sound of the horses moving, they were so frequent that Zaos couldn't help but check things from his window.

Around dinner time, Zaos and the other recruits noticed the severity of the situation. The veterans around were only a few dozen. All the others had left the base. They probably left to hunt the followers of the demon god. Zaos's squadmates still were a bit tense to the last events, and as if he had noticed that something was amiss, Drannor showed up.

"Hey, Zaos," Drannor said. "I heard that you guys left to do some guard's work in a nearby village, did something happen for you guys to return so early?"

"We evacuated a village because our instructor concluded that the area wasn't safe for us and for the villagers," Zaos replied.

"Why?" Drannor asked.

"You should ask lieutenant Elius," Zaos said. "I can't see a single reason why they wouldn't kindly answer your questions."

"Yeah, right…" Drannor said and then sighed. "Anyway, if you don't have anything better to do, let's spar a little on our day off. I have to train my squad, but I know so little about the sword that I need to see you in action again."

"Don't involve me in your problems," Zaos said.

Zaos wasn't in the mood for a spar, even less so when Drannor was the one who would benefit most from it. Considering what Zaos saw that night, he understood that his magic was at a deadly level, but his speed still had a long way to grow. After all, Elius was much faster than him. He needed to train and improve his fundamentals again… Zaos decided to do some strength training for the rest of the day and even run fully armored around the base the next day. However, it looked like things wouldn't go as planned…

Zaos and everyone who was sleeping woke up when some bells began to ring across the base in the middle of the night. That was weird. Zaos didn't know that the base had wings or even that they used them to alarm the soldiers. In the blink of an eye, all the members of Zaos's squad woke up and then put on their gear. When everyone was ready, Zaos guided them to the first floor in an orderly manner. They noticed that every squad was moving toward the armory, and there they found a massive line of soldiers picking certain types of weapons and gear.

"Grab some shields and bows, we are going to leave again," Elius suddenly appeared and spoke.

"May I ask where we are going, sir?" Zaos asked.

"We will try to save a city that is being sieged," Elius replied