Draga Of The Vanguard - Chapter 4 The 209th Squad

“You saved him?” said Morte as he saw Mayln carrying Rei on her back

“Yes…he don’t have, strong mind..” she said, dropping Rei on the bed. “You didn’t tell him, about mind manipulation…I wonder, what did he hear?”.

“He still failed the quest you know. If you weren’t there that would have been the end of our little Draga friend here.” said Gars, getting up from the bed he was sitting on to grab his sword. “But, near death put aside, we now have a grasp of his psyche, so it should be easier to train him.”

“To think he’d break down to this extent… Even Wilbur just shit his pants.” Pierre said, laughing. “His build is good though. I didnt think he’d be able to carry the sword that easily on his first try. He’ll be a great Vanguard if he can get over that mind thing though.”

“Gars…Train him properly when he wakes up. If we’re lucky there won’t be an extermination request. Alright, how are rations?” Morte said, changing the topic.

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Rei was woken up the next morning by the sound of metal claws scraping what seemed like a black rock. “What is that thing?…” he asked, getting up from bed. “And it’s three in the morning…why are we up…wait…how am I even her-”

“This is when vanguards wake up. We need to train after all!” shouted Morte, his ears covered as May continously scratched the black surface. Rei soon followed suite, protecting his ears from the deafening noise. He looked around to see Gars and Pierre doing the same. “STOP! WE’RE AWAKE!” shouted Pierre. “They’re officially awake.” said Morte, gesturing to May to stop.

“Why didn’t you wake us up like that yesterday?” asked Rei. “You weren’t here yesterday. You’re new, remember? Someone had a good dream.” said Morte as he threw some armor on Rei’s bed. “Wait… what? But I started day before yesterday? I can’t have dreamed that up right? Aha, bruises from Gars training!” exclaimed Rei as he pointed at the bruised part of his right arm. Morte looked at Gars with condemning eyes, who responded by looking sideways abruptly, his sweat visibly drowning him. “You’re a sharp boy Rei.” Morte said, still tearing Gars apart with his gaze. “That was an illusion test. We apologise for our rough behaviour yesterday…we just wanted to know if you wouldn’t chicken out in battle.”

“You failed the test yesterday though…you let yourself get consumed by pain during a subjugation.” said Pierre. “While it was expected, it wasn’t acceptable. So we’ll run pseudo illusion tests on you at irregular intervals.” “Oh…okay then…” said Rei.

The squad proceeded to wear their armor and move to the real training grounds. Some other squads were present, and they all presented their newest members. Rei was pushed forward by the whole squad, and looked back to see May and Morte grinning, Gars staring into the sky and Pierre laughing. He smiled a little.

“New recruits. Welcome to the Vanguard…officially anyway. I am Sir me Dure, the representative of the honorable 8th founding family, the me.” said a knight in normal iron armor, which was an unusual sight around the Vanguard training grounds. He had blonde hair and sported a goatee, with a thick moustache. He was tall but average in the physical department and his skin sported a dark cream. “The history of the Vanguard is one of strife and pain, with a solid resolution pushing us all. The elimination of all demons. The Vanguard started when eight knight families from around the world came together and defeated the first one eyed hydra, stopping it from reaching the castle of Asfaleia. They were the me, Knights of the soul.

The Sabre, Knights of the sword.

The Scth, Knights of the night.

The Krieg, Knights of the battle field.

The Clypeus, Knights of the shield

The Vivlia, Knights of intelligence

The Rego, Knights of the King.

And the Drag, Knights of the dragon. These families came together and formed an army of knights dedicated to freeing our world from all demons. Most especially the 16. The evil sixteen that plague our world…the only two eyed demons…once they are gone, the world will be safe again.” The man said, concluding his story. “Now let’s get on to introductions and motivations.” Dure said, looking at the 25 new recruits in front of him.

“I joined to feed my mother…”

“I joined for the money, is it too late to leave?”

“I needed a job, you know”

“Girls like strong men, so I thought…”

The reasons were bland at best and idiotic at worst. While Dure was used to this, he still wished a generation of people willing to actually want to protect humanity were presented to him. Then he reached the end of the line. A single boy stood there. The first thing he noticed was his blood red hair, which was a characteristic that he feared he did not share with a certain knight family. “Name?” he asked, praying it wasn’t the case.

“Drag Rei.”

Dure wanted to fall backwards, but he proceeded on as normal. The other recruits however stood looking wide eyed at Rei. “Motivation?” asked Dure with a shaky voice. “To kill all dragons.” the boy replied with fire in his eyes

Dure grabbed the boy by the collar. “Who do you think you are kid? Using a name as respected as the Drag, and even going as far as to say you’ll kill dragons with that name? Are you an escaped sacrifice or something? If not for that hair I would have cut your throat by now…” he said, dropping Rei and walking away. “Your training will be handled by Sir Krieg, same with the others before you. You should all try your hardest to survive. Train dilligently and rigorously.”

That was the end of the orientation, all eyes now fixed on Rei. “I thought he’d at least try to hide it.” said Morte. “The hair would have given him away eventually.” stated Pierre.

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“It’s called the slash n’ bash.” Gars said to an exhausted Rei. “You slice the monster’s legs with enough force to keep them in the air, then ram them at full speed. Like so!” he said running towards Rei with a wooden sword. Rei defended against his downward slash, only to be kicked in the stomach. He was suddenly propelled off the ground after feeling a stinging pain where his left leg armor was, and in the next moment he was sent flying. He landed a few feet near Pierre, who laughed at the scene. Then May punched his face with wooden knuckles. “Focus.” she said. “Sorry…” he muttered, getting up and continuing to block May’s strikes. “Against monsters, that move usually leaves them legless. You can ram them towards your squad members to finish them off, though most people just use it to escape. I wouldn’t advice that you tried this on ogres though. That’s a death wish.” said Gars, extending his hand to help Rei get up. “This move can only be used by someone with high speed and while the enemy is unable to move. So only a few vanguards bother to learn it. It’s a really good way to kill imps though.”

The pair continued their training all day long, along side Pierre and May. Espoir had taken an imp killing quest, so he was absent. The new recruits and their squads retreated to their rooms for the night, and Espoir returned, telling them how he had killed five imps in a matter of minutes. “Then I hid behind the bush when the other two came out, and in an instant, I jumped out and stabbed the back of their necks!” exclaimed Espoir, stuffing a piece of bread down his throat. The squad ate their dinner happily, then retreated to bed for the night. They were about to doze off when suddenly, a scream disturbed the quiet air of the Vanguard outpost.