Before the Battle

In the dark night a fire was burning.

A group of men were sitting around it clutching their swords, trying their best to calm their nerves before the big day tomorrow.

A young man with black hair and dim blue eyes was sitting close to the fire, mesmerized as he saw how the flames danced.

As he looked at the dancing flames he was imagining how the battle tomorrow was going to go.

He was thinking how he could use his skills from the slums on the battlefield.

He was figuring out how to to survive tomorrow.

This was going to be his first battle.

But he wasn't going to die.

He would be damned if he was going to die before seeing Sarah again!

Damian took a deep breath.

He had to analyze how he was going to make it out alive tomorrow.

Damian looked to his left as he saw a muscular man with golden blond hair and beard, sleeping on a rock sitting straight up while laying his back.

Damian's eyebrows slightly loosened from tension as he looked at this ridiculously strong man.

Jonah was probably his best bet on surviving this.

Jonah did impressively well on their bootcamp training.

He was skilled with the sword.

He had the greatest strength among the recruits.

He was extremely experienced in his fighting skills.

Damian did outstanding as well, but he was more on the strategist end of skills then on the battle skills.

That was also why he was close to second command among their group, only with their Captain Duncan being the leading command of their squad.

Coincidentally Damian found Jonah when they were assigned to this squad together.

Before then they had no idea where the other was, only now knowing where each other were.

Jonah felt relief the first time he saw Damian.

He didn't know why he felt calm around Damian. He seemed to give off the same feeling as Sarah when he first met her.

When these two found each other they only interacted enough times to be closer then acquaintances but not close enough to be friends.

They were employee and employer before this so it became a bit awkward.

But with Damian's impressive social skills and charisma, he managed to dispel the awkwardness and was able to be on friendly terms with Jonah.

But now they were waiting for the upcoming battle.

It seemed like night time now but the sun was already going to come up sooner or later.

Damian just woke up a slight bit earlier before Jonah and his Captain.

But other then that, the rest of the squad were restless. They didn't sleep a peep last night.

For most of these men it was going to be their first time in battle. They were full blown greenhorns!

This was one of the reasons why Damian was thinking so much.

He was almost sure these people were going to drag him down.

He had to think of a way for at least him to survive around inexperienced and fearful soldiers.

Having more people is not always better. With just him, Jonah, and the Captain they would easily surpass in battle-strength compared to their current set up.

Having inexperienced soldiers is one of the first ways to die in a war. Often times it was your own teammates incompetence that cost their lives rather then the enemies.

But thankfully they weren't going to fight enemy soldiers. They were going to fight beasts.

Captain Duncan has had a lot of experience with dealing with beasts. He was more of a beast hunter then a actual soldier.

With this they were almost assured that they would be fine during the battles.

But Damian still wasn't relaxed because of this.

He had a bad feeling about something.

He couldn't put his finger on it, but it just felt like if he didn't make a proper plan then he probably wouldn't survive.

'Let's just hope it's not that.' Damian thought.

Time quickly passed and the sun had already been shining after a couple of hours had passed.

The squad of five was standing up while four of them were saluting towards the officer standing in front of them.

All of the soldiers looked like shit except for Jonah and Damian. The soldiers had gone to sleep an hour ago and were woken up by Damian so they could quickly throw their grogginess away.

Damian's mind was already fresh since he woke up a couple hours earlier, which allowed him to shake his groggy mind off while cooling his mind down by the previously burning fire.

Jonah had werewolf blood while also being a cultivator. He could survive a few nights of not sleeping without it severely affecting his mental capabilities.

But the other two soldiers looked like shit.

Yep... they were definitely going to die.

Damian quickly shook his head before listening to his squad captain.

"Alright soldiers. Today we will be your first battle during this war! We are not in a forest environment so there is no cover for you guys to hide behind."

"The only way to survive is through the formations you have been trained to use! Remember, today all of your training will come in handy. This will seperate the wheat from the chaffe."

"If you survive you get to fight another day! Now get ready, we're heading off!"

After the captain finished his small speech the soldiers marched behind him as a cohesive unit.

At least they tried.

The two soldiers were constantly going off-beat while walking. It was easy to see how useless they would be in battle.

Damian and Jonah looked at each then looked at these two men with a solemn gaze.

While they were walking many other squads were walking alongside them as well. They were all walking towards the barren looking plains were dots were seen shuffling on the horizon.

All of the soldiers quickly took deep breaths.

They had arrived sooner then expected!

These beasts were meant to arrive a few hours later, but now they were already on the horizon.

They would arrive in about an hour.

Immediately all of the squad leaders started speeding up. Walking two times as fast as before.

They kept silent as they didn't want to affect the morale of these newbies they were bringing with them.

This battle was meant to be a trial by fire.

Technically it was training, but there was a very real chance at dying.

The kingdom wanted warriors, not farmers using a knife!

If they wanted effective warriors for the future they needed to train these soldiers through life and death battles.

The squad leaders will be heavily rewarded for every soldier they are able to bring back alive from their squad.

This whole entire Beast War is actually a hidden opportunity that the kingdom had seemed to grasped.

They used the false fear of death and hope for a better future to train soldiers on the battlefield in a relatively cost-effective way.

For the kingdom they were going to increase their military strength massively after this war was over!

But this did not matter to the soldiers on the battlefield.

They just wanted to go home.