Struggling Against The Strugglers

'…Whatever! It is no time to think of such trivial things. I must complete this challenge as soon as I can, it's starting to feel like I'm taking too long.'

Levon runs back to where he initially came from, while simultaneously checking if there is any other way to the surface.

"There it is!" Levon stops as he spotted an entrance on top of him, a hole wide enough for him to fit. However, it's a bit high!

"No scales to climb... I must jump from here up." Levon takes a deep look at it from below with those eagle eyes of his.

It was to measure it precisely, so he can avoid hitting himself in the process.

"I am not yet used to these jumping abilities in this world… I could end up using too much power and ruin my calculations. But either way, I'll have to try…"

Levon stands right in the middle of the hole vertically and lowers his legs just enough to apply some force on the ground.

"It's better to use less than more, here we go." He jumps!

The hole was about 5 meters high, and he covered it so quickly and smoothly to end up landing on the surface with both legs on each side.

"Nice!" he says with a little smile on his face. But right as he complimented his little feat, he realized that he is still right in the middle of a hellish battlefield where bombs and bullets are being exchanged!

"Okay not nice! THE MAP!" he calls on to his watch.

Graham immediately follows the green arrow showing him the way to his next destination. Running with great speed, he wondered how rly fast he is… "What is my current speed right now?" He asks, hoping that the watch could answer this question.

It did, a speed counter suddenly pops up in front of Levon's right eye!

"55Km/h! Hmmm… Not bad at all, let's see if I could run even faster." Levon gives it his all, despite the ruins and destroyed buildings covering the road.

"57… 58 …. 60 …. 60

Seems like 60Km/h is my speed limit… I wonder if it can be enhanced if I moved up to the 2star level!"

Out of nowhere, a fighting plane passed by right on top… and fires a missile towards a building in front!

"OH SHIT!!" Levon tries to slow down but he has yet to fully control his motion "...I must slide to apply some resistant force!"

The missile lands and causes a big explosion!!! Levon covers himself with his bronze armor while laying down on his back.

"Damn it… I barely can see anything with all the smoke! I must get out of here immediately." He gets up while keeping his armor activated, and navigates through the newly destroyed building, or what was left of it…

Knowing that another missile could land anytime made him tight, the lights emitting from his eyes shined brighter than ever… He's in survival mode now!

Suddenly, he stops.

Not because he sensed some danger coming his way, his eyes landed on a scene he was not expecting to see. A corpse, of a little kid… covered in his own blood and dust!

Levon could not get close, nor get away… To everyone who knew him, his face at this moment looks almost identical to how it always did, but it hid much more behind it.

For about 10seconds, he froze in his place, did not blink, speak, or even think… his feelings do not translate into any words, he has not developed that ability.

He takes a step forward, looks at the map again, and goes on his way like nothing has happened…

'The target place is about 1389meters away from where I am currently. Judging from the map, it is situated in the borders of this city… That is probably where these people gather…

Strugglers was their name, right? That's a cool name I must say…' Levon says to himself.

From avoiding any interaction with someone, to getting hit by some falling construction, It took Levon about 20 minutes to reach the last stop of this challenge.

"Finally… I thought I won't make it here at one point. There they are, there are quite a few of them…" He's now currently hiding behind a little rock not far away, analyzing the situation.

'I have no idea what type of people they are, I could tell they're all armed and ready to fight. Of course, they are, that old man said they already took over 80% of the land. So how should I approach them without putting myself in a bad position?

Oh yeah! I almost forgot, it said that I must tell them "I come at peace"

Maybe that's a sign they agreed on so they could identify the foe from the ally. Should I shout it from up here? That doesn't sound like a great idea either… Maybe I can take a listen to what they're saying if I could just get a bit closer…

There's a big tree right there where I can hide.' Levon carefully jumps without making any noise, and then closes his eyes and puts his hand right under his nose… and focuses on nothing but his hearing! And though the strugglers were about 30 to 35meters away, his ears caught their sound waves!!

*EVERYTIME, I TURNED MY CHEEK… BETWEEN MOVING FORWARD AND FEAR

OPPRESSION PUSHES MY SOUL… TO MEET MY END SO NEAR

WALKING TO DEATH NO MATTER… HOW LONG MY LIFE REMAINS DEAR

WHY ISN'T IT CONSIDERED GLORY…. TO DIE UNDER THE SWORD AND SPEAR"

Levon cannot believe himself. '...They're singing!! I was not expecting that whatsoever… I never heard something like this before, so different from the music we have in Babel…

The lyrics are...

*GUN CLOCK SOUND*

Levon feels a metal object being put right behind his skull!! And hears the next sentence in his spine "Who are you, and What are you doing here?"

Levon freezes, and the only thing that came to his tongue was "…I come at peace."

"…We'll surely see about that. Put your hands behind your back and move, if you decide to even flinch, I'll blow your head wide open."

Levon has no choice but to obey, he walks slowly with an AK-47 pointed on his head, his eyebrows tightened from how angry he was at himself. 'FUCK!! This is the downside of concentrating on one sense and one thing… I lose track of everything else. The one scenario I tried to avoid I've fallen in… Now even using the sentence has no effect, finding me hiding so close to their base indicates that I'm a threat.

Now, what will they do to me! Will I lose a life if I get killed here, or It will be considered as failing the challenge…?

DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN ITTTT!! HOW COME I HAVE BEEN STRUGGLING SO BAD LATELY!!?? This isn't who I am…"

"BROTHERS!! Look what I've found on my way here" The man capturing Levon says to the others, as they enter the base territory.

"Oh Brother! What do we have here?' asks another, as everyone stood up and gathered around the two.

"Either a future brother, servant, or dead body" replies another.

"Where is the prince?"

"In his tent, let me call him to come".

"Here I am, you woke me up from my little nap what's going on here?" he says while rubbing his eyes and yawning.

Levon immediately understands that this is their leader, hence why they're calling him the prince. '..It makes sense, he looks like the strongest one here, he's huge!"

"Hmmm, I never seen one like this before. Where did you find him Joseph?" He asks.

"Actually, I found him right behind that tree, he was hiding and watching the base from there. I made sure to sneak up on him and at point blank he had no way out except to surrender peacefully."

"Good job! How come you all let someone get so near to the base?? You were busy chanting again right! I told you that overdoing it will cause us problems one day.

Anyways, Let's see what this young boy is about" He says, while looking directly to Levon's eyes.