LOG 10

(DAY 121)

I am feeling pretty annoyed, especially over the last few days. have you ever worked way under your rank. technically I am supposed to be the general of this group but I am working as the leader of a group with ten young kids(only one of them has a class 9 core). they are not even a combat group, but a scouting group.

I understand why that is the case, but it is still pretty annoying. I don't have the power, the capability to command these people. my strategy is not suited for these people.

I don't have the strength to beat an adult of the group, even the weakest one. right now I am leading a group of young tribe members. the most embarrassing thing is to be considered among these kids. I am supposed to be leading their parents, and I have to train among the kids.

sometimes one has to swallow his pride to survive. anyway, I have no interest in becoming a martyr for these people (which is what happens when one tries to lead without having the capability to).

I have somewhat of an idea on their idea. after some rigorous explanation, I understood what thunder drum was telling me.

the beast hides that they wear is an ancient kind of totem. while I am still not exactly sure how it came to be, their power comes from their hides.

the entire tribe is divided into four factions, with four distinct kinds of hides. we have the thunder bear, which wears the fur of a silverish bear. thunder drum is their leader. then we have the wind falcon which can manipulate the air that surrounds them. they are the only ones capable of long-range attacks. then we have the darkness monks. these guys wear the hide of some kind of a monkey and have some weird skills. I still have not seen them in action yet so I don't know about their power. the last group is the one I am most familiar with, it is the golden lions, who wear the animal skin of a lion. these guys are the saddest people in the group. their ability allows them to strengthen their body. without any long range ability, they are doomed to fight as cannon fodder. I happen to be leading a group of them. thunder drum purposefully kept everything pretty vague, which makes his stance pretty clear. it is surprising to see such hostility. usually such tribes have a loyalty almost at the level of a clergy.

anyway, I have to leave now, time to go to work after all. these guys cant have their great totem failing in the very first mission.

( live recording)

thunder spark - team leader, what are we supposed to be here. there is no need to wait so long. we can take that place on our own.

me - thunder spark, you need to keep it cool. patience is something that you don't have. now, don't disturb me too much, I don't want to be found now.

( I whispered it to him in the loudest voice that I dared to speak in. I don't want to be caught by them now. they are pretty close to us, on the road right in front of us.)

( right now we are right next to a path outside the city. there are constant groups of patrols in the place. our job is to attack one of these patrols and if possible scare the remaining patrols from coming out too far. I can understand their worries. if a small troop of soldiers were to sneak into their city, and temporarily disable their defenses, then it would be quite easy to storm the place.

they also need information about our side. right now it is in our best interests to make sure that this does not come to pass. I mean they don't know of our numbers, if they did so they most likely will keep sending waves of attack to take us out.

we can't even cause heavy losses to the enemy if they were to attack, because their base is so close by. in a way, I am happy that I am not leading these people, after all that kind of stress screws with people.)

(right now, I am hiding in the grass. I don't have a sense of touch, so I am not uncomfortable, but the other people in my group seem to be very uncomfortable, maybe due to the grass or that weird medicine that they have used to cover their smell. thankfully, they are staying still, minus thunder spark who never can stay in one place. as long as he doesn't blow our position we shall be able to take this group out before the other side can react. )

(a few minutes later)

( the enemy has finally arrived in groups. they are a troop of fifteen soldiers. among them, three of them are carrying bows, which means we can take them out quickly. the remaining might be a bit of a problem. they have two spear users and the remaining are swordsmen.)

(I quickly signal the soldiers to enter into a combat-ready position. they are too eager to get out of their miserable fate. finally, I give the signal of attack)

suddenly the group jumped out of the plain grass. I had a makeshift spear in my hands. I threw it at one of the guys wielding a spear. the enemy did not expect that, crumpling in an instant.

(by the time that they entered a combat-ready state, six of them had fallen. these lions are good at close combat. I quickly retrieve my spear, from the head of the spear wielder and quickly engage another spear wielder. the lions always use their claws in battle, which makes it pretty hard to fight against those that have a longer range. they struggle against a sword user, so do you think that they could handle a spear user.)

(the spear user understood my intention, though he can't do anything about it. I am playing as defensively as possible. my job is not to kill this guy, I just want to delay him as much as possible till the other guys in the group will come and kill him, for every swipe of his I block or dodge, attacking only when he is retreating.)

(we keep fighting for a couple of minutes, the enemy trying to lose me as much as possible. though I must say that this guy is pretty skilled, while I am not particularly strong(physically), I have used a spear for a very long time. this new body of mine is not particularly strong. it does not matter, after all, I won't be using physical strength to fight for long. I can't use any spell, I simply don't have the time for those. )

(anyway, our fight is going pretty evenly, meanwhile, from the corner of my eyes I can see my soldier taking out the other swordsme...)

suddenly, the spearman in front of me split into three illusions. the spearman and his illusions have surrounded me. I can't make a move carelessly, he needs only one well-placed attack to completely disable me ( precisely on my spine. it even affects the string circuit, disabling it for a couple of seconds. I don't know how he knows that weakness, but he has been targeting that for a while. )

me - who are you, you are no ordinary man.

Spearman - what kind of skeleton are you, you are not an ordinary skeleton yourself. are you one of his generals or one of his unholy experiments?

me - does it matter, knowing or not knowing won't save your life today.

( in an instant, the four spearman moved in synch. even this new body of mine is not fast enough. I can see the moves, but my body can't react. by the time that I discovered the real body, the spear was too close, partly pierced in my spine before I could knock it out of place, separating my head from body, thankfully not damaging the string circuit. but the other spearman found his opportunity to escape. )

me - mad dragon, can you connect my head to my body. it looks like we will have to leave a bit earlier than planned.

mad dragon - yes, great totem.

( the first time that I have been sent on a mission, it has gone pretty well. I did not expect that guy to escape, but we shall be gone before he can bring reinforcem.....)

me - what the hell is going on here. why Is so much mana gathering around the kid, mad dragon, answer me?

mad dragon - great totem, he is going berserk. do you know what going berserk is?

me - doesn't matter what is it, can we stop him in any way and will there be any permanent damage to his body?

mad dragon - yes we can stop him, and there will be no real damage to his body, but.....

( before he could complete, I swung my spear into his face. (it is not my first time that I have knocked out people.)he crumpled to the ground and nothing happened as I quickly signalled mad dragon to pick him up.)

me - we don't have much time, we have to retreat now. mad dragon, you are going to explain to me what the hell happened here in the base. let's retreat.

(I have no idea, but our position has been discovered due to the movement of mana in the air. there are beings in that city that can kill us with a single move, it would have taken the spearman at least ten minutes before he could have warned about them within the city by the end of which we would have reached the pit. )

(DAY 122)

(live conversation)

( I am resting in the tent that they have given to me. it is not particularly large, but honestly, I don't need any more than this. it is not like I can sleep anyway. right now mad dragon, the third in command of my group is sitting in front of me, sweating bullets. I have never really been intimidating, it is a surprisingly nice feeling. )

mad dragon - great totem, don't blame thunder spark for this, he does not have much control over his bloodline abilities.

me - bloodline abilities?

mad dragon - great totem, do you not know what are bloodline abilities?

me - yes, I don't have an idea, but have a feeling that you are going to tell me.

mad dragon - yes, great totem. every ability that we can normally use is inherent to the hide that we wear. you can say we use the hide to cast our abilities. all of us also have the bloodline of our ancestors in our bodies. we can excite this blood to use some of the abilities of our ancestors. our faction has the ability of berserk. we can boost the strength of our body by ten to a hundred times for a limited amount of time.

me - so, what was that kid was doing with this bloodline ability of his. there was no reason to use it at the end of the battle. it did not have any use and instead actively showed our position to the enemy. I will have to punish him for this?

mad dragon - no great totem, he did not do it voluntarily, his ability activates on its own whenever he fights.

me- doesn't matter, dragon. he will have to be punished. since you are arguing so much for him, I will reduce his punishment. by the way, call him here will you?

mad dragon - yes, great totem. by the way, great totem, he is very sensitive about the matter of his bloodline ability. if possible, don't mess with him on that point. he will become very hard to manage. he completely refused to follow the previous commander's commands and that directly resulted in the death of that commander. which was the reason that he was demoted to this squad.

me - I will try my best.