How to die

The War. A concept that is as old as humans. Fighting for survival, honor, liberty, or even money. The winners are the righteous ones, the losers are villains. Those who choose to go to war are often not the citizens, but the one who rules.

576th years into the cultivation era, the Grand war has been ongoing for some time, opposing the great lightning empire of the west and the kingdom alliance of the east. Now, a battle was raging on a large battlefield, the rain pouring onto every soldier's shoulders.

"Who will win is unpredictable"

Said the general of the great lightning empire army to an officer.

"Our enemies have the numerical advantage, but we have more diversity in our troops, our impressive cavalry being the most important. It seems more veterans are on our side, or at least our soldiers act professionally, not like those disordering ones from the other side.

We could also deploy the special team... from what our spy Intel said, we have more cultivators at the enlighten stage or higher than our enemy. Maybe it's time to use this force and make this pitiful kingdom association forfeit."

The officer at his side retorted:

"Still, the emperor would be furious if one of them died, they are so precious. As long as they stay alive, they can become stronger, they will definitively become the pillars of our great empire in due time.

General, I think we should not accelerate the process. Let our archers do the job, spearmen can stop the enemy at the front line and the cavalry can do major damage on the flanks. Why don't we play it safe?"

As an important discussion was going on to decide how the battle would play out, soldiers were fighting ardently, killing or getting killed. Surrounded by mountains, they were actually on the borders of the great lightning empire and an adjacent kingdom, "Andem".

It was a member of the kingdom association and chosen as the place to go for the ultimate battle. Simply, the war was happening because the empire was obtaining power too quickly, invading countries after countries.

Deciding to fight back instead of getting dominated, the bordering kingdoms formed an alliance and declared war two years ago. They finally united their armies now, to invade and crush the empire before it is themselves getting invaded. They gathered a lot of people, but the large army was not really united, everybody being from different countries.

They had not only picked their warriors from their best soldiers, but also from a lot of random men they subscribed by force into the army, like prisoners, immigrants, those without a job, and even some of the populace like farmers. They even got rid of some thugs this way, pushing them into the army, directly to the frontline.

Obliviously, they trained them all before putting them on the battlefield, so they could be a bit useful at least. This is exactly what happened to Erik, a simple mortal, who is now fighting for his life. He was placed on the front line, with other prisoners and thugs, because he was a bandit himself. Brought up as an orphan in a bad environment, you couldn't say he was an angel.

But among his peers, he truly was a respectable bandit, if you could feel respect for one. Instead of retrieving "protection fee" or interest from debt, he did risky missions in which they targeted rich people to gain their possessions. He always proposed himself to do those types of missions, not only for the money, but also because he didn't want to bully some weak nobodies.

It's not like he was a hero, he mostly kept the money for himself and didn't help the poor a lot. He was still kind enough to feed some hungry children when he had extras but he doesn't stop other thugs in the gang from doing whatever they wanted. He never made any good friend, as he was pretty much always alone, training and reading knowledgeable books.

It's not that he was antisocial, but those around him were normally stupid and violent men with no respect for anything. To Erik, they were not worth spending time with, he much preferred relaxing with a book. After ignoring them for years, every other bandit assumed that he was the kind of person who only likes to work without ever having fun.

He still occasionally had his way in a woman's bed, but he never had a relationship which was not based on sex. Love was a foreign concept to him, his education making him somewhat indifferent to other people. Brought up by a retired bandit, he learned how to steal and fight from a young age, his "dad" teaching him how to use the bow and some weapons like the spear and the sword.

Dying from a sickness when Erik turned twelve, this left Erik alone, having to make money by himself, doing every odd job he could find. After some time, he was recruited in a bandit group and started doing dangerous missions. In fact, Erik was saving money to purshase a cultivation book, which he finally bought a few months ago.

Since you could buy it with money, it was obliviously a sh*tty book to any respectable cultivator. But to Erik, this was an awesome opportunity of finding his way into the incredible cultivation path. However, while following the provided instructions, he couldn't feel anything different in his body.

The training proposed in the book was also awfully painful, getting him in a state of intense fatigue. As he exercised the breathing technique to feel his inner energy, he quickly realized he either had no talent or so little it would take decades to control his energy for it to be somewhat useful.

Even so, it was not really surprising, as only a few people had a talent for cultivating. Actually, even without inner energy, he was quite respected among thugs, for his battle strength and ingenuity. But now, the lifestyle he was used to was gone, as a month ago, guards suddenly barged into the bandit den, capturing everybody and making them walk all the way to a camp close to the battlefield.

Guards had let them do as they pleased before because they were bribed, but with new orders, money could not change anything. In the training camp, they mastered the basics of a provided weapon and learned how to use their equipment, but were mostly showed to comply with any order. Their instructor was a very fierce one, a strong cultivator who gave punishment easily whenever he was displeased with something.

Erik had never seen another cultivator use his power before, so this was an interesting experience for him. When someone tried to flee from the camp, the instructor calmly made water from his hand and manipulated it to form an arrow. It shot out rapidly in the direction of the deserter, accurately piercing his heart. Quick and efficient, that was the impression it made to Erik.

They finally had to finish their training earlier than supposed, and all had been sent for their first battle, the final assault. Because most of them were outlaws, their position was the front, where it was expected that they would die, tiring the other army down a bit with their body. For this reason, Erik was there, under the rain, thinking about his fate. Wielding a war hammer, a good infantry weapon, he was fighting for his survival amidst the battlefield.

_" Fight for your country, they told us, fight for our honor, fight so god will forgive your sins. What a load of sh*t, this country did nothing for me and neither did god. What is honor anyways? Does it feed your famished citizens? And here I am, fighting for some king, only because I know my superior will kill me if I start running back."_

While internally cursing at everything, he came to confront an alone spearman, as he was forced to advance towards the front. His enemy looked like he was a 16 years boy, shaved and good looking. Normally, each of them would be fighting with their respective team, but the two of them had lost contact with it.

Erik got separated from his teammates when some of them got killed and the others got scared, trying to run back but quickly being dealt with, killed by another team's sergeant. Erik was left without anybody to rely on, he had to struggle by himself. As the soldiers behind him were advancing, he couldn't just stop, so he continued to the front. Now, he could only guess his enemy, the young spearman, also lost his partners.

_"I can't underestimate him because of his age, I know too many people who died because they were not careful"_

His opponent's weapon, the spear, was a bit tricky, as it gave you the range advantage, but you would need to strike the weak part of the armor to pierce your opponent. Erick was relieved after the fight started, his enemy was clearly not an expert, it seems he hadn't often fought for his life.

His eyes were full of fear, as he stayed in the defensive, attacking rather passively at long range. Erik was slowly but surely advancing, making his enemy scared. The spearman finally made a mistake while delivering a hit, and that was all it took for Erik to triumph.

He parried the strike and rushed the spearman with his war hammer, wielding it to crush his opponent's head, or at least trying. He hit the helmet hard, creating a dent. Whether the guy he struck was dead or alive, he didn't know, but for sure he dropped on the ground. It was not the first time Erik killed, but never before he had caused the death of such a young person.

_"Should I be happy about winning? He was an enemy, but maybe he's just like me, forced to fight. An adolescent... Maybe he had a good family waiting for him. Whatever, I can't show pity now, it's gonna get me killed."_

The adrenaline boost he received from fighting was slowly disappearing, as moving with his heavy armor was really tiring.

Erik was getting overwhelmed by fatigue, something extremely bad while being on the battlefield. As the rain fell over his face, his situation became the worst possible when he detected an enemy group approaching him, looking at him like he became their prey.

Composed of two spearmen, one shield bearer, one sword user and led by a sergeant who chose his own weapon, this time an ax, this was the common small troop formation of the great lightning empire army. They had good cooperation and were not nearly as vulnerable as a lone spearman like Erik had fought just before.

_"I have basically no chances... it also looks likes my allies are not gonna help me now."_ Erik thought as he checked his surroundings, seeing everybody fighting their own battle.

The opposing team started the attack, making Erik realized the true potential of a small-scale expert team. The shield bearer quickly rushed to Erick's front while the two spearmen flanked him. They were very aggressive, determined to take him down.

He could only try to evade by walking back, but he was suddenly hit from behind. It was the sword user, who was wearing light armor and could run much faster then Erik could walk backward. He had found his way around him and kicked him hard, making Erik fall to his knee.

The sergeant, wielding his ax, appeared in his vision, getting in front of the shield bearer, holding his weapon on his shoulder. With a simple chop, the ax went for Erik's neck and while feeling some terrible pain, he saw the world spun around.

_"So I'm dying like this, isn't it pitiful... Well, If I live again, I definitely don't want to be this weak anymore... I made dangerous missions all my life and finally spent everything into a book which didn't help me at all, my luck really is awful"_

His life rapidly flashed before his eyes, but soon the world went black and he felt nothing anymore.

[Ding!... SYSTEM... compatible... directing the soul... soul too weak... host has to wait for any living organism to come near... human near detected... soul too weak... worm near detected...soul too weak... smaller lifeforms detected... soul not compatible... hibernation state is activated...]