Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

The sun had moved at the horizon, dyeing the sky crimson. The wind was swift and chilly, bringing shivers to the participants. 

"Davin, it was not your fault," Wrik said, sighing. "Stop feeling down."

That did not make Davin feel any better, but he nodded.

Wrik and others did just move back to the cave after finding Davin and Jacob. They had been sitting in to hear out everything that occurred during the week. After hearing everything out from the duo, Wrik cleared out a lot of things. He still had not come up with a plan to save Anton and Kevin, but as far as he could tell, it won't be anytime soon.

He clenched his fist unconsciously, and looked at the group of people, surrounded them. They have uncertain expressions on their faces. Some were worried, while some were like stones. 

"What do we do now?" Davin asked. 

"I am thinking about bringing you guys to where we were currently at," Wrik said. "Fortunately, others are there as well apart from Evan and his two companions." Wrik paused for a second to look at Jacob. "Are you thinking of bringing these guys with you?"

Jacob was embarrassed. "I still have not talked to them," he said. "If there are suitable spots for them, there's no harm in bringing them with us."

Wrik nodded. There were exactly seventeen people in the group. Jacob had managed to save quite a number of people. While bringing them to the cave had its usage, there were quite a few problems as well.

First was the food, the rations they had brought from the sanctuary was almost finished, now the only place they could find rations were the fortresses, and if there's luck was any good, they could find any edible animals, but the chances of that was extremely low. At least in the seven days on the test, he had not seen any edible animals. Despite the fact he did not have the luxury to look for edible vermin, he could guess there would not be many. 

While the other problem was another major one—even though these people were saved by Jacob, who could tell they would not betray them if they find themselves in a disadvantageous situation.

"They can come with us," Wrik said to Jacob. "But you need to make sure they follow the instructions well, and would not cause any problem.. . ."

Jacob understood what Wrik was talking about, and he feared that as well. He whispered to Wrik. "I am not very good at commanding. Can you do it in my place?"

"I'm no good at either, but I can try," Wrik said. He was not really good at instructing or commanding people, as he never had the opportunity to command others, but what he was good at was pretending. 

He thought for a moment to come up with a speech that could succeed him bringing all the people here in order. He stood up and looked at the folks.

"Fellow participants," he said in a voice loud enough to reach everyone's ears. He continued after he got everyone's attention. "We all have come a long way in just a week of the test. Some of you starved, some of you just by chance saved from becoming a slave," he paused when saying that. His eyes drifted off to Jacob, clearly, he was saying you all should be grateful to him. "While some of you have been enslaved."

His eyes drifted off to a few fellows who were hiding the slave marks on their arms.

"You people can only go two ways from here," Wrik continued, showing his index and middle finger. "First is, hide, starve in darkness. Hide from the cruelty of the test. This path may give you safety for a while, may even succeed in keeping yourself safe until the test ends, but it would give you an extremely low chance of getting to the thousand people who would be selected. While you don't know, you may have to give up even before the test ends out of starvation, or be enslaved again."

Wrik paused again. Now the most important point begins here. He showed their current state and what the future holds. He saw a few of them shiver, most of them sigh with dark expressions, and every single one of them waiting for the second path. Now it was time to entice them. Nobody would work their best if the future is strangling in darkness.

"The second path will be hard too," Wrik said. "The second path is to join me; no, join us. It may be even harder than hiding, no it would definitely be harder, but it would give you a chance to rise again. We will give you a chance to rise again. We do not have luxury beds, but we have a place warm enough to protect against the cold. You do not have to sleep under the naked sky. You do not have to starve. There is food enough to fill your stomach for a couple of weeks. All you need is just to follow commands and work hard. Can you achieve that?" 

None spoke; they were too bewildered by his voice to speak.

"Can you achieve that?" Wrik repeated loudly.

"Yeah, we can do it," some of the folks yelled back, holding their palms in fists. 

"You may not all be successful to be the one in the thousand," Wrik said again. "But I'll give you; we will give you an opportunity. A fair opportunity to rise again. Will you guys hide again, or do your best?" 

"We will do it," most of them yelled back this time.

"Good," Wrik nodded. He looked back at Jacob again, who was bewildered by his performance. Not just him. Even Davin and Byul were stunned. They never saw him tall like this, commanding and ambitious. "Jacob, organise them well, we will leave in a few minutes." 

Saying that, Wrik left the group for a while. He went past a few trees to look at the setting sun. The yellow tint reflected on the trees, path, but it did not look beautiful to him with all those worries.

"Are you really planning to take care of all those men?" a voice said from behind. It was Byul. She came following him as well. 

"It is not a matter of taking care of them, I just need them," Wrik answered, still looking at the sun. He had understood there was no way to succeed with only a few people on the test. His opponents already made their lines in hundreds. If he wanted to get what he needs, then he too needed to collect men. No wonder it was called Little War. "Need more of them for the rest of the trial, and to confront Scythe." 

Byul nodded as she understood. "I have a proposal," she then said meekly. She was fidgeting with her fingers to continue or not.

Wrik looks back at the short-haired girl. The chilly wind swayed her hair, though less than his. The crimson tint from the setting sun reflected on their faces. He gave her a look, asking what she was talking about.

Byul deliberated no more. "Do you remember what happened in the underground dungeon, when I was almost dying?" She asked, though she knew there was no way Wrik would forget that. It was purely because of her embarrassment she had not mentioned this as yet.

"Yes, What about it?" Wrik asked back, raising an eyebrow. On their very first meeting, Byul was suffering from berserk man deviation. With the help of her ability [Link], Wrik was successful in settling the problem. 

"Well," Byul faltered from his gaze to look at the sun. She continued, "That time I used my ability to Link with you.. . ."

"Yes," Wrik nodded. "I have been meaning to ask you. What kind of ability was that?"

Byul sighed. "I don't actually," she said. "I only activated it the only time with you, and even at that time I was not in a state to experiment what I can do."

"Right," Wrik said, though he was not satisfied with the answer.

"Rita Inistler, I mean the woman that invited me, said it would be a lot more useful," Byul said, and noticed the unsatisfied look on his face. "She seemed to know more about the ability than I do."

Rita Inistler was not an unfamiliar name. Even now, on his omega window on the tab of Inviter, her name was written. He clearly did not know her, while Byul had seen her, she was also not familiar enough to talk about her. She had been a mystery till now.

"You should train more with your ability," Wrik said.

"That's what I have been meaning to ask you," Byul looked back at him. "I can not train alone with this ability, would you help me with this?"

Wrik eyed her. She was clearly way embarrassed than needed to ask for this kind of help. He was about to nod when he felt a disturbance in the mana in the surroundings. It was coming from where he left the group.

"Looks like we have a problem. Let's go." 

Wrik moved swiftly back to the b pack and Byul followed her. Their weapons, the sword and wand, were already on their arms, respectively. It did not take more than a few seconds to get there, and saw the situation. It was not some unfamiliar fellow that was causing the problem. 

"I was looking for another group of nuisances, but found something I have been looking for a while now."

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Check out: The Chaos Cycle. The new book I'm attempting.