Pale wandered through camp, looking around for her friends as she went. Unfortunately, it was nearly impossible to spot anyone – they'd all been gathered up towards the front of the area, just behind the barricades, and were bunched up so tightly that it was difficult to make out who was who. Moreover, she wasn't the only one searching for friends – all around her, others were calling out the names of friends and loved ones, desperate to connect with them for what may have been the last time.

  Pale couldn't fault them for that, she supposed, but much to her chagrin, their shouts were drowning her out. Frustrated, she sucked in a breath and prepared to shout at the top of her lungs, when suddenly someone put a hand on her shoulder. She whipped around to face them, only to freeze when she saw Valerie and Cal standing there, both of them with looks of fear and uncertainty on their faces.

  "Pale," Cal greeted. "Looking for someone?"

  "Yeah, all of you," she answered over the roaring of the crowd. "Have you seen the others?"

  To her dismay, he shook his head. "No, not at all. They're around here somewhere, I just don't know where."

  Pale's brow furrowed in annoyance, and she shook her head. "...I'll keep looking for them in a bit," she promised. "What's going on with you both? You look frightened."

  "How could we not be?" Valerie demanded. "From what I can see, we're about to be thrown right into it."

  "Much as I hate to say it, that's a fair assumption to make," Pale grunted. "Do we know anything about the people we'll be facing?"

  Cal hesitated for a moment. "...I think I heard one of the Mage Knights say it was mainly goblins over there."

  "Tell me about them, then."

  "They're small, ugly, nasty little things," Valerie answered. "They're only about four feet tall on average, but they're fast and downright vicious."

  "Magic users?"

  Cal nodded. "Yes, same as any other human-like species on Sjel."

  "Great…" Pale let out a sigh. "Do they have any weaknesses that you know of?"

  Valerie shook her head. "No, but then again, I don't know much about them. All I know is that they're little monsters in combat, and that some of them like to coat their weapons in fast-acting venom, to boot."

  "That's good to know," Pale told her. "What about numbers? Do we know anything about that?"

  Both of her friends shook their heads. She couldn't help but grimace at the sight of it.

  "No training, limited intel, and bad tactics all-around," she commented. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say they're trying to get us killed."

  "You really mean that?" Cal asked, surprised.

  Pale was quick to wave him off. "Ignore me; just thinking out loud. Anyway, look… remember what I said last night – stick together, and stay alive. Don't do anything heroic or stupid. Find me if you can, but don't risk your life to do it. Otherwise, stay back and do what you need to do to ensure everyone in our group makes it out. Think you can both do that for me?"

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Cal and Valerie exchanged a glance with each other, then nodded. Pale let out a small breath.

  "Good," she said. "Now, then-"

  "Alright, soldiers!" Commander Mitchell suddenly announced, his voice booming across the camp. Everyone who'd been talking instantly quieted down and turned towards him as he began to approach them, a stern look on his face.

  "This ought to be a simple mission," he said to them. "So simple that even this batch of new meat can handle it. In case you've forgotten, I'll remind you – your job is to cut through as many goblins as you possibly can. That will open things up for our Mage Knights to come in and finish them off." His eyes narrowed. "Just remember – we all have to die someday, so you might as well do it surrounded by the bodies of your enemies."

  He gestured towards the barricades. "The attack begins in five minutes. Consider yourselves dismissed."

  With that, he turned and began to walk away. Pale watched him go, still in disbelief at how callous of a commanding officer he was being.

  In her old system, she'd met officers who were willing to spend lives to achieve an objective. That was the nature of war – sometimes, commanders were forced to send entire units to their deaths because the bigger picture demanded it of them. But it was never an easy decision to make, she knew that – it couldn't have been so simple for them to do.

  But Commander Mitchell, on the other hand, seemed to revel in what was sure to be a waste of lives. At the very least, he didn't seem to care at all about the people he was sending to die. On a certain level, that was necessary for a good commander to function properly in the field, but Mitchell was going beyond the level than what would have been expected of a good commander, and was instead scratching the surface of becoming a complete monster.

  Pale's eyes narrowed. If she survived this, then she was going to make sure Commander Mitchell didn't. She owed that much to the others, at the very least.

  XXX

  Pale didn't have much more time to spend with Cal and Valerie before her squad leader found her and pulled her back over to the rest of her squad. Pale found her squadmates standing there, trembling and muttering what had to be silent prayers for mercy and protection to whatever gods they thought were listening. The sole exception was the young noble she'd spoken to earlier – Marshall was staring at her with that same level of intense loathing he'd given her earlier. Pale, at least, was quick to shrug it off; she didn't know him in the first place, so his opinions towards her meant nothing.

  And, beyond that, he was probably going to die in the next few minutes, anyway.

  Pale turned towards the barricades, sucking in a breath as she did so. War was familiar to her, but this would be her first time entering one as an infantryman. Something about that made her feel… not quite nervous. Uncertain, probably – as if she wasn't sure what to expect. The thought made her brow furrow. She'd personally killed plenty of people since arriving on Sjel, but something about this felt different, and she couldn't quite put her finger on why.

  "Look alive, everyone," Allie announced, hefting a warhammer up onto her shoulder. "Things are about to get busy." She cast a glance over at Pale, frowning as she eyed the rifle in her hands. "You sure you don't want a blade or something?"

  "I'll be fine," Pale answered without looking her way.

  Allie shrugged. "Alright. Your funeral, I suppose."

  As Pale stared ahead, a few Mage Knights made their way over to the barricades. A large wrought iron gate had been erected between two of them, barring the way forward; as Pale watched, the Knights approached the gate, then took hold of two ropes on either side and began to pull. The gates slowly began to open with a metallic screech, loud enough that several of the students closer to the front winced at the sound of it, though it was soon drowned out by Commander Mitchell shouting orders at them from behind.

  "Go, go!" he yelled. "Get moving, now!"

  But nobody did. All of the students stayed rooted to the spot, frozen in fear. Pale turned around just in time to see Commander Mitchell absolutely fuming with rage, his teeth grinding as he stared them all down.

  "Gods damn it, you will get out onto the battlefield, or so help me, I will start executing each and every one of you myself," he hissed. "Now, go!"

  Pale had seen enough. She leveled a glare at the Commander, every fiber of her being telling her to shoulder her rifle and squeeze off a burst at him then and there, but she held herself back.

  There would be time for that later. For now, they needed to get moving.

  And if that meant serving as a symbol of true leadership in the face of a terrible commanding officer, then so be it.

  "All of you, with me!" she shouted, motioning with her arm to get everyone's attention. "Unless you want to die for sure, let's get going!"

  She didn't wait for anyone to argue with her, and instead took off through the now-open gate. At first, she thought she was alone, but a few seconds later, she heard the telltale sound of people running behind her; a quick look over her shoulder revealed that her friends had all heeded her command and were now racing onto the battlefield alongside her.

  And that, thankfully, seemed to be the push the other students needed to get into the fight. It started off small – a trickle of them breaking off from the rest of the group, coming out to join them. But as more and more students broke free of the group and their own fear, it had a cascading effect on the others. Before long, dozens of them were flowing out of the gates, and several more were in the process of following after them.

  For just a moment, Pale felt pride well up within her – pride in herself for taking command, but more importantly, pride in her friends for following her lead without hesitation. A thin smile even crossed her face for a fraction of a second, though it soon faded as she turned her attention ahead, across the empty and open field, to where the enemy fortifications had been set up. As she stared ahead, she saw what had to be hundreds of small green shapes spilling out from behind its walls, and her eyes widened at the sight of it. She immediately paused, dropping down to one knee as she flipped her rifle's magnifier into place behind its holographic sight, then started to take aim.

  She didn't get the chance to squeeze off a shot before bolts of magic and arrows began to descend down upon them all from within the enemy's stronghold. And as soon as they arrived, so too did the screams of pain from the wounded and dying.

  And just like that, the war had officially begun for Pale and her friends.

  /u/Ickbard for the help with writing this story.