Doomsday Pillars

Chapter 71 - Be The Very Best

BRRAAKKK!!!!

"Ouch!"

A boy was thrown down by a man wearing a martial arts uniform. Currently, the boy lay on the floor, head spinning, and his body aching. Many spectators were looking at him but the boy didn't care as he tried very hard to stand up and ask for another round. "Again," he said.

The man wearing the martial arts uniform was in his early twenties, but although the boy's age wasn't that far from this man, the strength difference between them was too far apart. 

The young man was smiling, seeing the boy's high spirit.

The boy finally stood up, started to form the pencak silat defensive stance. He used the eight direction steps to move forward carefully before jumping forward with a kick.

"Ciiiaattt!!!"

His opponent blocked with two hands and followed up with a rising hip, roundhouse kick.

BANG!

The boy once again dropped to the ground. However, he gritted his teeth, gathered his strength and flipped himself and did a triple kick. The three kicks, unfortunately, were blocked then dodged and a counter fist arrived into his face. 

BANG!

The boy fell flat again. His eyes were closed from the sudden impact and his body was telling him to give up. But then, a beautiful face came into his mind. Then her beautiful voice and the words he vowed to never forget. 

"I believe in you, Barry," said the girl in his mind.

Barry rose up shaking, and this time he rushed at the young man with a body slam! His opponent, still smiling, only moved a little step to the left and pushed Barry's shoulder softly, making Barry lose his balance and fall again.

"Enough! I like your fighting spirit but passion without using your brain will only get you killed!" The young man turned around and added to the fifty people around him, "Does everyone understand?"

"Yes, Instructor Milo!"

The young man was Milo, a young black belt karate specialist. He was assigned to train this group of new fighters. Today's lessons were sparring. His karate was good practice for the pencak silat trainees in order to teach them how to adapt to a different kind of opponent.

"Well done, Barry."

"But I wasn't even able to touch you, Mr. Milo..."

"Don't worry. With your spirit and enough practice, you'll pass me one day."

Barry's eyes glimmered with hope. Milo, on the other hand, was worried that he might have given him a bit too much of a praise.

Barry had joined the fighters group about a week ago. Although each day became harder than the next for everyone, the difficulty for Barry was much more because being in a state of love-struck. He really missed Cynthia.

"Barry, I can see you've a real passion in combat. Whatever your motivation is, keep it up! That kind of motivation will make you survive the disaster better."

"Yes, instructor."

"Everyone, we're going to the Curahee mountain again. 20 miles up 20 miles down. Let's go!"

The practice had always started and ended by running up and down the mountain while wearing the full combat equipment: sword, shield, and spear. The main purpose wasn't stamina, but to create discipline and bond between the squad.

"One two One two One two One two…"

Today was the tenth day of practice. Tomorrow, these new recruits would be divided into the regular fighters and the elite fighters group. The ten days of training included the basics of: martial arts, weapon combat, formations, and firearms. They were some sort of a test to pick the talented fighters so that they could focus on those who have an aptitude for fighting to train and treat better in the future. But of course, these talented ones would also be responsible for the more dangerous missions.

The reason why Barry had been trying hard to be a part of the elite was to fulfill the wish of his dearly beloved. Only by becoming an elite fighter would he be able to achieve Cynthia's wish of him 'To be the very best'.

While running through the mountains, Barry's mind calculated his chance of getting accepted in the elite fighters. All the new recruits had been given by each instructor a mark and he remembered his to be the following:

Name: Barry Hans

Age: 16

Firearm skill: Average

Formation understanding: Low

Weapon combat: Average

Hand to Hand combat: Average

"Ahh… too much average. This'll be a problem. I don't think I'll get accepted."

While his mind was wandering through Lala Land, suddenly, Milo shouted! "Gather up! Defensive phalanx formation!"

The fighters drew their spears and shields; the first rank of fighters locked the shields together in a tight formation while the second rank of fighters stretched the spears overhead of the first ranks. The phalanx, therefore, presented a shield wall and a mass of spears pointed at their enemy, making frontal assaults against it very difficult. The firearms were stationed at the very back, and as long as the defense held, the firearms would've no need to waste their bullets.

"What happened?"

"Smoke at the front, something is coming"

Not long after, the group saw it. A group of rats! At least one hundred of them!

"Stay strong, men! We can defeat them!" Milo tried to calm the fighters. 

These new recruits either had limited or zero fighting experience, Milo thought that fighting against mutated rats would be the best practice to build their confidence.

When a rat mutated, its body grew much bigger either the size of a dog or the size of a cat. The biting power of the mutated rat became more powerful as it could take out a chunk of the human body. They also ran faster and had harder skin. However, their main threat was their numbers, rats always hunted in groups like wolves packs.

Stabbb

Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!

"Firee!"

Dratatatatatatatta

The situation wasn't bad, the phalanx formation was at best facing enemies from the front and the fighters were standing shoulder to shoulder that there was no opening, but suddenly, five mutated made their presence known at the back of the formation. 

An attack from behind was the phalanx's main weakness. Because once the phalanx had been formed, the tight formation made it hard for people to move. So, back attacks could easily destroy the formation.

The mutated cats no longer looked the small ones before Doomsday, they were more similar to tigers and lions, growing up to at least 300 kilos each. Although the five cats moved at a slow pace right now, when they strike, most normal humans wouldn't be able to dodge. The claws and the teeth of these cats were terrifying.

Milo quickly tried to think of a solution. He asked thirty fighters and people with firearms to stay in the phalanx formation and asked twenty more men to form four squads using five-man formation.

The five-man formation was the most basic squad for assault. The twenty people were all using sabers and each squad would handle one cat, while Milo would face the fifth cat.

Barry was accidentally included in one of these five-man teams, in his mind, the cats were scarier than the rats, but on the other hand, this was the one chance he could prove himself.

The five-man team was the easiest to learn and also the most effective in fighting an enemy stronger than one squad. When a member of the team was threatened, the other four would jump in and help. Unfortunately for Barry though, two of his teammates were shocked by the ferocity of the cat and suddenly froze up. His five man squad took a lot of effort to finally kill one cat, but because of the two, one of his teammates was heavily injured. 

He became enraged and rushed to help the other group.

SWISH!! SLASH!!

A few minutes later, the situation was under control. Milo checked the condition of all of the squads, a dozen light wounded, four heavily wounded but no deaths. He was pleased with the result. When his eyes fell on the boy named Barry whose whole body was covered with blood and hand still trembling, holding his bloody saber. It left a good impression on Milo.

The group checked out the mutated animals and found two spirit stones from the rats and one from the cats. The mutated animals had a much smaller chance to drop spirit stones. Milo then organized a transport to deliver the mutated animal bodies to the Starbase.

Finally, the group returned to Antiga City. Before they separated, Milo approached Barry. "Well done Barry. The most important qualities to be in the elite fighters is courage."

Milo gave Barry one of the spirit stones and a badge symbolizing his entree to the elite fighters group.

Milo gave Barry one of the spirit stones and a badge symbolizing his entree to the elite fighters group...