Chapter 28: Mandatory Shounen Time skip
In a thick mountainous forest blanketed with pure white snow, walked a group of men. Each of them walked without making even a hint of sound, as if they didn't even exist. If not for the extremely faint sound of their breathing, you wouldn't even be able to tell if they were alive. Walking in a formation with three in front, four in the middle and two behind, they slowly made their way forward, as if tracking for something..or someone. Suddenly, the man ahead of them all raised his hand, palm closed tightly. Seeing this, the rest stopped in one place, not moving a single inch. Then, the man continued to make more signs. He first raised two fingers, and then opened his palm fully, facing the forward direction. Seeing this symbol, the rest slowly grouped together with the first three, surrounding one man in the centre. Then once again, they slowly moved forward. Exiting the treeline, what greeted them was a vast expanse of hills, rising and falling as snow slowly fell on every inch of ground. Gazing at the beautiful scenery for a second, the man in front once again signalled for the group to slowly move forward. However, before they had moved barely ten steps and fully crossed the treeline, another man beside the first one suddenly signalled for them to stop, as he slowly knelt on the ground and placed one hand on it while closing his eyes, as if feeling something. For a second, all was silent, but then suddenly the man's eyes shot wide open and he opened his mouth to scream,
"Scatt-!" And yet before he could finish, an explosion strong enough to kill someone blew the layer of ice and snow right in front of the man who shouted, sending him and the group flying backwards and back into the treeline. And just as the explosion occurred, another group of nine people emerged from the snow and started to run towards the first group. As they ran, a device in their hands started to light up with various circles rotating around it. And five of them raised their hands in front of them and shouted,
"Oh spirits of Agni! Help me strike down my foe!"
"Fireball !!"
And instantly, five balls of fire materialised in front of them and started to speedily chase the nine who went flying. However, before they could hit their targets, one of the men from the original group, who had now recovered from the sudden explosion, slammed his hands on the ground in front of him and said,
"Earth Wall," after which, a wall of about half a metre in thickness and two metres in height rose from the ground, meeting the fireballs in the air.
*Boom* x5
Even as it managed to block the fireballs, the wall itself was now looking completely charred. And just a second later, it completely crumbled into dust, with the one who created it now gasping for breath as he lay on the ground, with barely any energy left in his body. However, his task was over. He had bought enough time for his teammates, who did not waste the chance he had brought them, as immediately after the wall broke, six various spells rained on the opposite group,
"Ice lance!"x2 "Wind bullet!"x3 "Fire bullets!"
And suddenly, it was the opposite team under attack. With a barrage of attacks coming towards them, their faces suddenly fell as they fell back towards one person. The man they went towards however, suddenly spread his arms wide open and said,
"Divine Shield of water!"
And suddenly, a sphere of water covered the entire group, and tried to block the attack from the opposite team. However, it did not work as expected. While the shield managed to block the wind bullets, the big ones had not yet come. When the ice lance's landed on the shield, they completely froze it, and when the flame bullets came in contact with the frozen shield, they broke through it like fire through ice and immediately arrived in front of four of the men inside the shield. Seeing the bullets in front of them, their eyes widened in fear before the bullets passed through their bodies. And as soon as they did, a whistle rang out from above them, causing all of the men to drop their guard and relax. As they looked above, they saw a young child of about ten or eleven drop from the sky and start to gaze at them,
"Congratulations team 5 on winning this game. As for team 10, well, you came in second place, so not bad eh? Now, quickly gather together so that we can leave this place," saying that he waited for them to gather around him, after which he suddenly vanished from there, taking with him the other 18 men.
In the grounds of Base Smaoi.
Surrounding a raised platform on the grounds were 80 soldiers, with various expressions on their faces. Some had anticipation, while some looked afraid. Most however were just looking bored, waiting only for the result of the competition to come out.
Yup, competition. It had been three years since the first mission that the company was given, after which they were given plenty more. Over the years, they had successfully completed 20 missions, with a perfect track record. Well, the perfect part was due to Alaukik's presence, but credit had to be given to the other members too, who had each grown far greater than their previous selves. In more ways than one. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. The competition they were holding right now had become a kind of tradition among their company, in which they would be split into ten teams of nine each (randomly every time), and they would be left out in the mountains to the west of the base. The goal of the competition was to eliminate every other team without taking damage from anyone. Even a single cut on the skin due to another team would result in a loss, thus becoming a mission where stealth, defence and tracking were all trained. Well, apart from that, the reason this competition was so looked forward too was not the competition itself, but the, for lack of a better term, the extracurricular activities it brought with it. All of the men in the company would bet on which team would win, which would come second and so on. The bets ranged anywhere from money to alcohol to even special talismans made by the ancient magic users. That was why the men had varying expressions. Some were waiting for the winner to be declared from the remaining two teams, Team 10 and Team 5, as they had bet on one of them. While the rest were disappointed as they had bet wrongly and would lose this time around. And just as the tension in the air was reaching its limit, there came a sudden *bam* from the stage and suddenly, 18 men and one child appeared on it.
Seeing Alaukik appear, all of the soldiers suddenly stood straight and removed all expressions from their faces. They even arranged themselves in a line formation. Sensing all this, Alaukik gave a slight smile and then walked forward towards the edge of the platform.
"Well, what's up everyone? Did I make you all wait too long? Were you not able to control your anxiety at what the result would be?"
"NO SIR!" x 80
"Good. Now, to announce the results of the .. how many times have we done this again Vinay?"
Hearing this, a soldier stepped up from behind the stage. Reaching about 1.8 metres tall and with a slight beard on his face, he looked like he was in the prime of his life.. And indeed he was. After taking a few steps towards Alaukik, he whispered in his ear,
"This is the 10th one sir."
"Ah yes! Now, the results of the 10th AlCompany Battle royale was *drumroll* Team 10! Congratulations!"
Hearing this, many of the soldiers couldn't help but burst into joy, but some of them still had dubious expressions on their faces. One of them was a certain light mage. Standing 1.69 metres tall with a clean shave and a crew cut, Vishal looked at Alaukik as if he was looking at a really shady merchant selling his wares. Why? Because this was most likely a trick he was playing on them. He knew this because Alaukik had done this many times previously. And his fears were true, because just a second later, Alaukik spoke again,
"Ah, wait a second.. I think my memory is failing me again. You know how my memory is right? Sorry, sorry, in reality, Team 5 was the winner of this CBR. So, tell me, who won the bets this time?"
Upon hearing this, the previously happy mages suddenly lost all expression and glared at Alaukik for a second before shifting their eyes to Team 10, while the faces of a few others lit up in delight as they revelled in their new found wealth.
"Well, seeing your expressions is enough for me to understand, but just in case all of you forgot, betting is banned in the military, so all of you better come to my cabin later and accept the punishment okay? Well, that's all for now. You may disperse," saying which, Alaukik once again teleported away, this time to his cabin. And as soon as he did, loud cheers of joy along with wails of pain spread throughout the grounds, causing the other soldiers practising there to start glaring at Alaukik's company. Of course, they didn't do anything, as they were already used to the various antics of this mage company, and knew that they would all leave in a while. And leave they did. Slowly and steadily, the number of mage soldiers in the ground decreased, as they all left to their respective tents to relax after participating in that competition. Of course, the ones who won first went towards Alaukik's tent, to accept their 'punishment'.
As for the person in question, he was lounging on his chair with his head resting back on the headrest. As he was waiting for the winners to come to his tent, he looked to his table and saw a letter lying on top of it. Sensing it on his table, he sighed and went ahead to open it, but just before he did, his soldiers came into his tent. And so, deciding to open the letter later, he switched his focus to the soldiers in front of him.
"We're here as per your order, Major!" came the deep and loud voice of one of them.
"Aah, Ameen, fancy seeing you here. I thought your luck was always bad, you know? And who's there with you? Ohh? Vishal, Gaurav, Akbar and even Sunil? That's a lot of winners for this round eh? So, what did you get? A few bottles of wine? Money?"
"It is the same as always, major. About 10,000 in cash, three bottles of whiskey. Well, there were a few odds and ends, but well, that's the gist of it," said Vishal.
"Ehhh, that's boring. You guys should add more interesting stuff in your bets you know. Well, it doesn't matter. You know the drill, 10% of all your earnings, right there in my chest. And remember, don't try to cheat me. Don't forget what happened the last time you tried to do that."
Hearing this, Vishal shuddered at the painful memory that just flashed through his mind before replying,
"Of course, major! I would never cheat you!" saying which he walked towards a wooden box and took out about 2000 and placed it in the chest. He then, along with the others, saluted Alaukik and then quickly walked out of there. Looking at them leaving, Alaukik thought,
'You know, I really can't fathom what goes on in his head. Sometimes he acts like a complete muscle head with only fighting in his eyes, and at other times he becomes a clear headed leader. Does he have split personality disorder? Ohh, that could actually be a thing you know… Well, I guess it's time to open the letter. God Hriday has become lazy. Even since I made that mini teleporter, he doesn't even bother to call me, and just sends these specially made letters. But to be honest, it does make life just a bit easier. Although, it still is only able to transport barely 5 grams of weight once a day. To be honest, I still can't believe I was able to make it. I guess all that physics I learned in 12th didn't go to waste huh.'
Reaching out his hand to the table and opening the letter, Alaukik quickly sensed the words on the letter, only to drop it in a second and say,
"Life is gonna get a lot more hectic now huh.."
And as the letter fell to the table, you could see what was embossed on the letter,
[The rebellion has begun]
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
SoManyAngels
SoManyAngels READ THE NOTE READERS
Well, here is the full chapter. Also, like previously said, routine will be a mess from next week as I have exams(from 11 to 18), but this week should be fine. Anyways, have a great day and thanks for reading!
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