Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 6 | Day 24 | Wednesday

One week later, in the Magical Warfare classroom

“So you’re still having trouble with it?” Leo asks with a frown on his face.

I nod my head before looking down at the printed-out script in my hands and saying, “I just can’t figure out why the temporary shield isn’t strong enough to block the acceleration blast.”

The instructor’s frown deepens for a moment, only for some of the other cadets participating in the ‘field trip’ to enter the classroom as he looks like he’s about to say something.

“Come find me after the trip and I’ll look through your script,” he says after a moment’s pause before walking towards the center of the room.

“Alright, thanks,” I say to his back right as Aidan and Sophia enter the classroom together.

I’m glad they got together. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen Aidan in a relationship before.

Not to mention that, ever since they finally got together, Aidan’s stopped pestering me about my secrets.

They both nod their head and greet me before we begin to chat a little bit until the time comes for us all to head out. During this time, both Cyria and Rebecca join us, along with a couple of other cadets who’re curious about Leo’s ‘spell’.

Which has become a pretty common thing now.

At some point the cadets moved from anger and jealousy, to trying to get close to me in the hopes that I give them the spell’s script.

And since that’s literally not possible, I’ve been left having to navigate my way around the conversations to make sure it never actually stays on the topic of my ‘spell’.

“It looks like there are some cadets who didn’t show up,” Leo says while looking around at each of us before turning around and walking towards the gate at the back of the room, “Guess it’s their loss.”

Some of the cadets look confused at where he’s going, but he doesn’t address them and simply waves for us all to follow.

Once we reach the gate, he grabs the handle, and a flash of red light scans his body before the handle morphs into the remote that I had seen him use the last time I was him coming from the gate. He then steps back and presses a few buttons on the remote, causing the gate to open up and reveal a large purple portal.

Leo then turns around and says, “This portal links to one of the basecamps within the outskirts of The Desolate Warzone. If you’re having any second thoughts, voice them now. Because you’re not getting back through this portal again until after the trip is over.”

Many of the cadets whisper to each other at this, but none of them back down, making Leo nod his head with approval before walking into the portal.

I follow directly behind him and quickly find myself in the middle of a military base set up within a desert. The base has six large, metal walls surrounding it, with a few buildings and several dozen tents throughout the grounds.

“Damn, it’s hot,” I hear Aidan mutter from behind me right after he passes through the portal, followed shortly by the rest of the cadets.

I ignore his complaints to instead look up at the large red barrier in the sky meant to block any and all powerful weapons – such as nuclear bombs and other sorts of missiles and heavy weaponry – from passing through into the Warzone area.

“First time seeing the barrier?” I hear a hoarse sounding voice ask from behind me.

When I turn around, I find an older man – seemingly in his forties or fifties based off of his appearance – standing behind me with a cigarette in his mouth. Although what really catches my eye about him is that his throat has several burn marks on it.

Which would explain his hoarse voice.

Aside from that though, he surprisingly isn’t wearing any sort of uniform and only has on a simple t-shirt and shorts, with nothing on that can identify who he is.

“Yeah,” I answer him before looking over at Leo, who is talking with some of the soldiers on site who seem to be acting incredibly polite towards him. Like someone would towards a superior officer.

I then look over towards the other students, who are all taking in everything around them, before I turn back to the old man, only to find him no longer next to me and instead on practically the other side of the base.

The heck…?

“Alright everyone, gather here,” I hear Leo’s voice, dragging my attention away from the old man again to see him standing next to an officer this time while looking at us.

Once we all get closer to him, he continues speaking while pointing at the officer next to him, “If your entire group is here, then you can choose to work together with your group. But if not, then this man will assign you to follow a group that’s working on the base.”

The officer in question – a man wearing a captain’s uniform – nods towards us with a frown on his face, likely not happy to have to babysit students.

Leo – uncaring of the man’s obvious mood – turns back to us and says, “For those of you who already have your groups, either myself or one of the other officers in this base will join you to both give you orders and to make sure nothing too bad happens to you. Meanwhile, those of you who are being assigned a group merely have to follow said group’s orders and join them in their duties.”

I turn to look at the others in my group before seeing them all nod in agreement.

Looks like we’re sticking together.

When I turn back around, I already find a lot of the other cadets approaching the irate officer. But I also find Leo approaching us.

“I’ll be acting as your officer for this trip,” he says to my group, making everyone in it turn to look at me.

I just shrug at their look.