Chapter 3: Republic of Gaul

The Republic of Gaul is a country with middle-grade military power, and they are directly opposite of Kingdom of Camelot in terms of territory comparison. Republic of Gaul and Kingdom of Camelot are neighboring countries with no close sentiments to each other.

Invading other counties for their resources or territories are the norm in this century. Republic of Gaul has always coveted the Kingdom of Camelot’s territories and resources. The Republic of Gaul is more advanced than Kingdom of Camelot technologically, but not by much. The Gauls don’t like that and show much aggression against the Knights of Camelot.

All citizens of Camelot have hatred already indoctrinate into them. There is no good interaction between the countries only hatred.

If the countries every interact with each other, it always leads into small skirmishes. These skirmishes would at time lead into major invasions. The Gauls are more enthusiastic about the invasions, as they are slightly stronger.

Kalen, a knight of Camelot, naturally hated the Gauls as they killed his parents.

He sat close to Aledos on the helicopter, as it flew towards the CreepyWillow Forest. The government only provided them a pair of daggers, a standard Camelot squire uniform, pair of boots, pair of military gloves and a sword made from reinforced steel.

The squires were sad because the government refused to issue out any guns for this part of training.

He silently observed the rest of his teammates, who were all serious and stone-faced. When he felt no one was looking at him, he secretly prayed. “God give me the strength and brains to survive this training.”

He felt ridiculous after he finished praying. He wanted to laugh. “Is this fear? No, that is for cowards. I am not afraid of anything. I will fight with all my might.”

As he thought this, he saw his friend suddenly turn to look at him in the eye with the biggest grin. Kalen knew what the expression meant. “Hahaha, you nervous as shit.”

He almost wants to hit his friend, but he heard Aledos chuckled. “Calen, don’t die, please.” Kalen smiled to his friend and nodded.

No matter how much his friend annoys him, they were still best friends until the end. These little antics were not harmful, but helpful as its strength their bond.

A brotherhood without antics or any mischievousness is just a farce. He told his friend, you too, as this was the best answer, he could give him. In his mind it was a fierce battle.

They were both 18 years, there was not a lot they haven’t seen from the world yet. This were their best years, and they were not ready to waste their joyfulness by being serious all the time.

“I am going to use this training to train my reflexes and obtain real batter experience,” he thought to himself silently, as he clenched his fists.

Twenty minutes later, Aledos was dropped in an unknown part of the CreepyWillow Forest. Fifteen minutes later, Kalen was the last squire to jump out. He looked over to their escort Sergeant Langley.

The sergeant noticed his stare. He turned to look at him and smiled. “Kalen, this batch of ten squires that’s under me, you are the most exceptional. I know you are meant for great things, don’t disappoint me.”

He only smiled in reply, and then quickly jumped out of the helicopter. He landed on the ground and watched the helicopter departed.

“Come on, variant beasts. I’m ready for y’all,” he suddenly said sarcastically, to improve his spirit for the training. You never know, the smallest gesture now, can be what will save your life in the future.

Kalen looked around the area of the forest he dropped in. It’s kind of swampy area. He wisely decided to leave the area to drier environment. Surviving five days in this forest is not going to be fun. He reminded himself to be self-conscious of his surroundings.

It took him about an hour to find a dry area. He quickly set up his tent for the night. He unsheathed his sword to cut down some trees nearby for their broad leaves.

As he worked, he began startled as something suddenly crossed his front with abnormal speed. He used his fast reflexes to get away from whatever it was. He looked and to his surprise, it was a cat. He looked closer before realizing it was an augmented Tigon.

“Damn, you bastard scared the hell out of me,” he said out loud in anger and embarrassment.

“Shoo!! Get out of here, or I will kill you,” he said because the main reason was mostly didn’t want any meat now.

To his surprise, the tigon started growling with obvious hostility. It lunged forward with startling speed; it almost reached his face in an instant. Kalen was also fast, as he reflexively blocked with his sword.

Damn it!! The Tigon knocked Calen’s sword away from him. The tigon continues to strike and claw at his face with its claws.

Kalen remembered the fundamentals, he immediately rolled away. He lunged forward while pulling the dagger out of his boot. It connected to the tigon underside, as it howled in pain, but kept its aggression.

It tried to claw with its claws. Kalen felt the sharp pang of pain as the claws cut his. It almost disoriented him, but he concentrated harder. He started to pull the dagger upwards to the tigon neck widening its injury.

Kalen jumped back as he is expecting a retaliation from the tigon. He left his dagger behind and reached for his other dagger. He threw it with precision, and it connected with the tigon’s left eye.

Before Kalen jumped back, he calculated where his sword landed. Upon landing by his sword. He picked it up and immediately did a backward slash. The tigon accelerated to him, but he already knew the tigon would do this.

The sword made contact, removing the tigon head with ease. Blood spurted out of its neck, as his tense nerves began to relax a little.

After he killed it, he immediately searched around the area as to make sure there was no other animal that would attack him. After about 15 minutes he start to feel a little bit safe. He returned to the body of the tigon and just stared at it. He was still in shocked that he killed it.

“Jesus, these augmented animals are no joke. They are scary as hell,” he blurted out, still shocked. “It seems I can’t just breeze through this test after all.

He picked up the leaves that he cut down previously and arranged them in a slightly covered shape, to protect him from prying eyes in the night.

After he finished getting his tent set up. He scouted around the area for any more latent threats, seeing none at the moment he lit a fire. He roasted the tigon meat. He used his implant to learn some basis medical to help nurse his injuries. He found some forest medicinal herbs to use.

After he finished eating, he felt he wanted to sleep. “What time is it? Where is my watch?” He asked himself but then he remembered where he was and what he was doing.

“I am in the CreepyWillow Forest doing the advance tech test. I got this. All I need to do is close my eyes.”

He climbed into his tent and felt satisfied. He uses the last of the sun rays and his shadow to check the time. “That’s better, God is still with me.”