One

Night came and went as Mark and Kane did some last-minute melee training together.

"I must say Kane, you really are talented with this stuff!" Mark grinned wildly while shattering Kane's hand.

Kane gritted his teeth and cycled mana into his leg for a roundhouse kick, right as Mark went to block it he teleported behind.

Mark instinctively ducked, but the kick still clipped his head, sending him flying several yards.

Mark had broken so many of Kane's bones while training that pain of that level had stopped bothering him.

"Yeesh, I'm not sure where your mana's at right now, but your physical strength is at least mid-5," Mark walked up and rubbed his neck.

He glanced down at Kane's hand, giving a satisfied nod upon seeing it had already healed.

"Well, not wanting to die during our spars has been wonderful motivation to train," Kane grinned.

Mark looked around to make sure no one was listening, "I'm sorry man, I really don't like doing this to ya, kids like you shouldn't be forced to go through this."

Kane gave him a pat on the shoulder and smiled lightly.

"It's okay Mark, you're just following orders, I get it."

He sighed, "I know, but I still plan on making it up to all you guys."

"I appreciate it, man."

----------

Hours passed with nothing important happening, Kane and Mark just continued to spar.

Mark was obviously holding back, but so was Kane. He wondered who'd win if they went all out.

Kane quickly decided Mark was still way stronger than him as a large mana bullet rocketed past his cheek, barely affording him time to dodge.

"Christ those bullets are stressful!!" Kane yelled with a smile.

Mark clicked his tongue, "You're welcome to fire them too you know."

Mark's laughing promptly stopped as he saw a small drill-like mana bullet teleport a centimeter in front of him.

And just like that, a large amount of his mana had been drained.

"Ah, not again!"

Kane had an idea.

When Mark's mana got drained, he could vividly feel it passing through the drill. Kane wondered if using space magic to force Mark's mana to sustain the drill would be possible.

If it was, he could have it run several times longer, completely devastating his opponent's mana reserves.

Kane afforded a small amount of mana to his brain and slowed his reaction time, using only his body to marginally dodge Mark's attacks while the rest of his mana regenerated.

The moment his mana refilled, Kane focused all of his efforts on pushing a mana drill into Mark.

The moment contact was made, he went deep in thought, precisely controlling space to force the outpour of mana back into the drill.

Kane's hands were shaking from the effort, but for a moment, it worked.

Mark's mana merged with the drill, forcing it to continue draining him for an extra second, but maintaining this took a level of control and energy Kane didn't have.

"I swear, every time we fight you take something away from me," Mark smirked.

---------

More time passed, as Kane was finally given orders.

He and Mark got in separate jeeps, beginning another long drive further east.

They quickly split off, Mark said he had to report somewhere before rendezvousing at the base.

Kane noticed a change in the air and stretched out his scanner, seeing the edge of a body of water.

"What's that over there?" He pointed out the window.

One of the soldiers chuckled, "That's the ocean, I'm guessing you've never been?"

Kane shook his head.

He couldn't see out to the horizon, so he had no way of knowing how massive the sea really was, but from the few hundred feet he could see, it was certainly big.

The drive continued on, mostly silent.

They passed by some destroyed towns, ravaged farms, black scorch marks, and strange craters.

It was hard to think about what the people living here had gone through.

After a bit more driving, Kane heard a whistling noise in the air, he had no clue what it was.

As the sound got louder, the other soldiers finally took notice.

"Sh*t, Jordan grab the tailgun!!!" The driver frantically yelled.

As the soldier scrambled for the mounted gun in the back of the jeep the roof suddenly collapsed.

Kane instantly teleported outside the jeep and shielded himself with a thicker layer of mana than usual as it erupted.

Metal shrapnel and gore flew everywhere as a missile struck the roof of the jeep, a sharp of glass struck Kane in the shoulder, harmlessly bouncing off of him.

Kane quickly cycled mana into his head to heal his ruptured eardrums, shaking off the disorientation he ran over to the jeep.

"GUYS! Shit."

It was extremely obvious no one else survived the explosion, Kane forced himself to calm down, using mana to stop himself from throwing up all over the road as he saw the mangled bodies of the soldiers he rode with.

Now that Kane was out in the open with his ears fixed, he could hear a slight buzzing coming from the sky.

He lept up as high as possible and began using space to create platforms.

The platform method was far more cost-effective than flying.

As he climbed higher up, a fairly large drone appeared entered his range of view.

Before the drone could do anything, Kane connected a mana bullet right to its insides, making it explode.

Kane slowly made his way to the ground and began sprinting up the road with a serious look on his face.

With his current physical strength, he actually moved a few times faster than the jeep did.

The jog lasted a while, Kane was thankful for the cool mist spreading from the ocean, it was definitely helping keep him calm.

Eventually, Kane arrived at the military base and was led underground by some soldiers.

A surprisingly young man with a red wooden cane greeted Kane as he entered a meeting room.

The man raised his eyebrow, "You must be Kane, I must say, you're here a lot sooner than I expected."

"The jeep got blown up so I jogged," Kane said with a scowl.

He glanced around worriedly, "And jogging was faster?"

Kane nodded.

The man coughed, "No matter, welcome, I'm the commander of this base."

He walked up and shook Kane's hand.

"We'll have you suited up and sent out in an hour, I expect that you'll perform greatly."

Kane struggled to put on a fake smile, "I sure hope so, sir."

After finishing a conversation with the general, he made his way to the bathroom.

Quickly using mana to confirm no one was inside, he made a sound barrier and punched a hole in the wall.

"GODDAMNIT KANE! You could've at least teleported one out with you... why'd I have to panic, I could've saved them!?"

"I heard the f*cking missile too, if I said something maybe they could've stopped it in time... f*cking idiot, why're you so stupid sometimes?? Use your head goddamnit, you're in a war zone of course there was something wrong with a sound like that coming from the sky."

A few teardrops sat on the floor as Kane used mana to calm himself down.

His inner voice kept telling him he was just a normal teenager last month, there's no reason he should've expected that to be a missile.

But Kane felt guilty, so he silenced his inner voice and made it his fault.

With mana calming him down, he wiped the tears off his face and made his way over to the entrance to wait for Mark.