Chapter 292: Four Leaf Clover

The captain leaned back in his seat the moment I spoke.

“That’s good to hear. Welcome to the military. Ethan will be your platoon leader so he willsee to your training.”

“Yes, sir.”

Following Ethan’s lead, I did a salute and left. After that, Ethan handed me three pairs of the standard military uniform, and later that night, he introduced me to the platoon. Apart from Ava, I didn’t know any of them, but they all greeted me warmly.

Ethan had 15 members in his platoon, and with the addition of me, it became 16 members, all of whom were awakeners. His platoon was then further divided into 4-man squads. Since I was more familiar with Ava, Ethan made some arrangements for me to join her squad.

Strangely, the atmosphere around the room was light.

“They seem happy for a group that is sent to fight demons,” I said to Ava as we waited for the other members of the squad.

“Yes, well… We’ve lost a lot of people. We’ve learned to cope with it,” Ava explained.

Something about the room and the atmosphere aroused my curiosity.

“How often are newcomers like me killed?”

“W-What do you mean?” Ava visibly recoiled at my question. It was hard to believe she was a military officer.

“The answer is a lot.”

Suddenly, another voice chimed in, answering my question. It was a young man about my age, or maybe a little older. He looked like he was a junior in college before everything happened.

He had blonde hair and a well-leaned figure. He also had a small scar on his right cheek. Beside him was a young woman. She had fiery red hair that was cut short and she was covered in battle scars.

There were two major scars on her face, but around her arms and the rest of her body, there were several. And that was only the ones I could see. She had more muscle than girls her age, which made me think that she trained a lot more.

“Newbies drop like flies. We don’t expect much from any of them.” It was the young man who spoke, with a wide grin. The girl stood beside him with her arms crossed. “This platoon originally had 40 members, and now we’re down to only 15. We’ve received like a dozen newcomers in between, and none of them stayed long.”

“Ah, you guys are here. This is our new member.” Just as Ava spoke, the blonde-haired young man approached me.

He stood in front of me and stared into my eyes for a while without saying a word. After an awkward minute, he finally sighed.

“You won’t live long. You don’t have that burning passion to live. You need a certain level of intensity to fight in this field; you don’t have that.” The young man sighed again before extending his hand for a handshake. “But if we’re going to be fighting side by side, then we should at least get along. I’m Rizor, by the way. The girl back there is Liz. She doesn’t talk much, so don’t expect much out of her in terms of conversation.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I shook his hand.

Watching our interaction, Ava smiled, seemingly satisfied.

“Good, now that we all know each other, I’d like to formally welcome you to Squad Four Leaf Clover,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Four Leaf Clover?”

Rizor chuckled and threw his muscular arm over my shoulder.

“That’s our squad name. In short, it means we’re lucky.”

Ava and Rizor spent a few hours telling me different stories about the battles they had encountered. Liz didn’t say anything; only sat and listened to our conversation. Reminiscing about their previous missions, they laughed lightheartedly until the smile on Ava’s face suddenly disappeared, and she turned to look at me.

“Hey, uhh, Ethan told me what you said. About trying to escape the mainland with your friends before your boat capsized. Does that mean that Liora, Isabella…”

“They’re all dead.”

My answer immediately cut through the atmosphere. At least this way, she wouldn’t ask about them again.

“I’m really sorry.”

The next morning, Ethan took me aside for personalized training. The two of us stood inside the combat room.

“I need to learn more about your ability. Show me what you can do?” Ethan said, preparing to fight.

I stretched out my hand, and immediately a small flame began to form in my palm.

“That’s good, but I need to see your ability while in combat,” he said.

“If I fight with fire, someone is going to get hurt,” I said, which caused a confident smile to form on Ethan’s face.

“How do you think I became a lieutenant? With my awakened ability, I’ve already reached my first evolution.”

“Really? Does that mean you’ve already awakened a class?” I asked.

Ethan, seeing my interest, nodded proudly.

“Yep, I was one of the first in the military to evolve. If you’re interested, then I’ve awakened a monk class.”

“A monk class?” I inquired.

“Yes, it allows me to use spiritual energy and martial arts in place of heavy weapons. The moment I evolved, my agility increased tenfold. So instead of worrying about hurting me, your focus should be on catching me first.”

With that, Ethan burst forward. He was fast and nimble on his feet. He bounced around the room like a monkey. If I had to make an estimate, I’d say he was half as agile as Sylvie. It was still impressive for a human.

I wasn’t good at using fire magic, so I didn’t have to try to look weaker than him. It naturally looked that way; it was a struggle for me to use my magic. The issue at hand was that I didn’t want to accidentally incinerate Ethan or blow up the entire ship if I wasn’t careful, so I had to hold myself back.

Khalissi said she would train me in magic, but since she’s not here, I’ll have to find someone else to teach me.

“Not bad, but your fighting could use some work,” Ethan said after we exited the room. “You’ll progress with time. By the way, I wanted to ask you…”

BRRRR!

Just then, a loud alarm went off inside the entire ship. Immediately, the whole ship erupted in panic. No, upon further glance, it wasn’t panic. Their heartbeats were high, but they acted perfectly rationally, grabbing their weapons and meeting up with the platoon.

Following Ethan, who had rushed off without a word, I was led to the outside deck. The moment we got outside, we saw soldiers running, their gazes fixed up in the sky. Ethan followed their gaze and almost lost his footing.

Wanting to see what the commotion was, I too glanced up at the sky and was left in shock by what I saw.

Far out in the distance, a flock of scaly creatures was flying towards us.

There were so many that it covered the horizon for as far as the eye could see.

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