ACT 1.2: The White Room

After all was said and done, Genesis took his place at the sparring session, he was to face Allus the man who he disliked the most out of all his comrades.

Genesis took his stance with the sword and prepared to spar him. This was of course another regulations placed by their king in case of a betrayal of treaty which was bound to happen, but it still would by them some time to train and become stronger.

Genesis had spent 3 days in this place and with the meals he was eating he definitely wasn't the same scrawny boy from when he first fell but he definitely wasn't a man ready for battle.

Genesis looked at his temporary opponent at observed his weapons, he tried to do some calculations based on the opponent's weapon in his head but he couldn't focus when a voice rung out and started to count down.

When the kings voice said zero the battle was on. Allus charged at Genesis with blazing and courageous speed. Genesis took what little he knew from the lessons he had learnt from books and novels and tried to parry. It was completely and hilariously unsuccessful as when he brought his sword to defend himself, Allus flipped over the spear with vicious intent, slamming Genesis in the stomach with the blunt side of the spear. Genesis tried to recuperate but Allus kept attacking, each strike more painful that the last.

Genesis was almost getting used to the sound of Allus's spear and his armor connecting. Genesis was kicked away by Allus's metal boots and was given time to gather himself together and most of all think. He knew he probably wouldn't be given this chance in a real battle so he planned for him to train his speed of thinking.

Genesis mind was getting unscramble as he thought.

'At face value the spear is a light and fast weapon, with each side being a painful experience, but if the weapon was too light a sudden shift in momentum would cause it to go flying and the perfect shift would be my armor when he strikes with spear in both hands I tilt my body towards the spears side which would cause it to go flying if not it would loosen his grip and then I strike the spear with my sword! This is brilliant!'

When the next attack came he followed through with his plan. Genesis tilted his body to the side of speartip before it hit him, but he was too early Allus saw through his brilliance and stabbed the spear in the ground and swung on it like an animal in the jungle, kicking Genesis's face repeatedly and when he was done Genesis tried to swing. Allus deflected it with his spear causing him to stumble and Allus struck his feet and he fell on his back with his head slamming into the ground, with his armor biting into his skin as it felt like the room was shaken by his fall, his head was recoiled and bounced a few times before coming to halt.

Genesis looked up to see a spear being pointed at his throat, by the one he disliked in the whole of the blue team and the white room, Allus. He grunted and bit on his tounge with his teeth and accepted defeat.

After the loss Genesis felt undeserving of the title of knight, but he kept pushing because he knew he could improve, so he set off to train and learn, to train by pushing his body to the far away limit and to learn by watching how others fight. He figured if he could master 4 basic slashes, those being the vertical slash, horizontal slash, diagonally right slash and the diagonally left slash, he would become just barely good enough for war. He would learn by watching other battles, learning the weaknesses of his enemies weapons and the enemy themselves, he would also learn to become a better fortune teller of sorts, someone who could counter and parry the most intense and powerful of blows. Those types of fighting styles always appeased Genesis, the thought of your opponent throwing their most powerful blow just for it to be nullified in a single swing of a sword or even better the opponent ends up on the receiving end of an attack after they have just given it their all.

Genesis smiled at the thought to improve and improve he was going to do.

Genesis quietly watched from atop the towers made of beds. The next sparring session was between two knights Lautaro and Hana.

Genesis was heavily into Lautaro's favor because Lautaro is absolutely jacked and Hana is strong in things of her own ways but when it comes to physical strength Hana just doesn't seem to enough.

When the battle started Lautaro and Hana waited in their respective starting positions and it was only until Lautaro started the attack that the real battle began.

The charge from Lautaro was vicious and rigid it had no skill only fury. Hana did her best to block Lautaro brute strength, overwhelming at that, but it seemed it was barely enough as Lautaro clashed swords with Hana and Genesis saw a firework of sparks and he heard a thunder of metal clashing against each other. Genesis saw that Lautaro became more and more animalistic as the battle went until Genesis could feel it too the malice it was here again.

This time malice showed no mercy. It devastated Lautaro's mind and he was left screaming and reeling at the malice he tried to condition it and he was hanging by a thread.

At that moment Genesis saw what this new malice could do to person of that strength of mind and he wondered what would happen to the other side of the room.

Genesis turned his head around armor making tears in tapestry of the beds weaving and sure enough he saw them massive swarms if people approaching. They had murder in their eyes. Genesis turned his head back to see Lautaro repeatedly slashing at Hana although not lethal it was still painful.

Genesis jumped down and along with the Jae and Noel they pinned Lautaro down and put their swords at his throat, threatening that if he moved so much an inch he would be in a world of pain.

When Lautaro was painfully pinned down the weight of their combined armor crushing his throat he came back to his senses.

"It hurts! It hurts so much! It's screaming out it's being vengeful the malice! The malice is tearing my mind! It's retaliating for a terrible sin we have committed!"

Genesis could still know that the effect of the malice was in his mind because the Lautaro he knew would never speak those superior words.

Genesis alerted his king and queen that danger was near. Genesis focused his mind because there was work to be done. First, they had rearrange their soldiers minds as one by one they fixed the weaving of each and every person minds back together.

The archers readied their posts and bows were drawn, the silver lining of the arrows shining in the light of the White Room. The spearmen also prepared for the battle the most frightened people on the entire field as the first line of defence was a adventurous job and not a the best adventure.

Genesis could feel it entering his mind but his mind was strong, very very strong. He kept going trying his best to push the instinct that the malice gave him, the instinct to kill.

The soldiers on the other team finally arrived some wielding swords, spears, axes and even bows. They were others sticking to the old reliable method of pipes.

They drew their bows both sides of the field covered in a rain of arrows. The archers from the blue team had made the beds as a secondary shield to guard them from other bowmen, with a square shaped hole in the bed for them to shoot and the spearmen lifted their shields over their heads protecting them from the arrows.

The other team however the other team did not care about pain as they brought no shields to protect themselves from any danger or impeding doom. Genesis quietly waited the air suffocated with tension. He quietly resisted the malice as he looked into the crack in the floor.

The crack was caused when Allus put his spear in the ground, maybe that was the retaliation. They weren't allowed to break the ground or walls that's why they released so much of the Miasma of Malice.

Genesis quietly clenched his teeth as he prepared for battle. He thought that Jae's treaty could bring them more time to become better but the White Room had other plans.

The soldiers rans as they ran a few were picked off by the archers silver arrows. Theirs aim still wasn't good enough for war, a person wasn't supposed to able to pick up a weapon they had probably never picked up in their life and master it, especially since bows of war took a lot of strength to pull and if you did manage to pull it you would have to challenge your poor accuracy.

However there was one was one girl, a commander at that, she was masterfully stringing her bow and shooting enemies down with fury in her eyes. Genesis knew the girls name, because out of all the commanders, knights, kings and queens. She was the only one to wield a bow as her weapon and she was good at it.

With hair that was straight and reached to her back. Her hair was the color of the tropical sea and eyes the same color of a typhoon that was blessed by the god of the sea. She had a stunning pale face although closer to Hana than Noel. Her name was Sephina.

Genesis was jaw dropped at the site he saw, she hadn't missed a single shot on her bow and Genesis wasn't sure she ever would. It string of the silver arrows was executed with deadly precision and it shot had the accuracy of the god of archery.

It seemed like the malice was dying down and the first line hadn't even been in use because of one woman. Sephina. She was still shooting arrows the enemies came back to their senses and ran away.

When the enemies ran from the battle, Sephina fell off the stack of beds collapsing with exhaustion and she fell right into Genesis's outstretched arms. Genesis smiled as they looked at each other and Genesis faintly mumbled.

"You did amazing rest well."

The girl smiled as she fell to sleep and Genesis pit her to a stray bed, the most amazing part wasn't that Sephina was a goddess of archery, it wasn't that Genesis had gotten a girl to smile at him for the first time in his life, it was that even through thick and thin, bow and arrow, victory and retreat, she kept and iron grip on her bow.

The whole of the blue team erupted in cheers as they were saved by one person and one person only. Sephina. They crowded around her bed and they smiled at her.

Lautaro went up to Genesis and whispered.

"Looks like Noel has some competition."

Genesis smirked at the thought but he ignored and then his smirked turned into a smile as he moved his hair out of the way and looked at the lights of the White Room.

Atleast his companion was back to normal.

The time for the closing hours of the day had already been in succession by the time the battle raged on it was already 7:20 the battle went on for 2 hours and 7 minutes after the other team first crossed the border.

When it was all said and done their King Jae rallied them for another encouraging speech along with Queen Noel.

"Today we faced an unexpected battle yet we still came victorious and it was all thanks to our wonderful bow women, Sephina! This is why we set out strategies for us to attain victory. This is the third day we have been trapped in this room and the second day our brave soldier Genesis rescued the baby if we keep up for 8 more days we will succeed together!"

The speech was really influential to the people it gave them hope that both their rulers still believed and if they believed the whole of the blue team believed.

It was almost fascinating how Jae and Noel orchestrated their speech both of them switching dialogues at different times.

Anyway Genesis had to prepare to protect his people as a knight he had a responsibility to uphold and he was going to fulfil the responsibility as he went to practice his sword swing and did various workouts.