Lucas Grey leaned against a battered tree, his chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. The battlefield had finally gone silent, save for the occasional crackle of dying embers. The once-vibrant island on planet Cannadah was a graveyard now—proof of the sheer chaos of the day.
They did it. Sohow, against all odds, this small school expedition group from Earth had survived. Barely. The year-one soldiers, green and untested, paired with their seasoned year-three chaperones—the academy's top 25—had walked into what was supposed to be a routine expedition.
But it wasn't.
So died. Lucas didn't know how many yet. He imagined there were survivors, perhaps hiding in fear among the dense forests and jagged cliffs of the island, too shaken to erge.
But one na stood out among them.
Not his.
No, the na on everyone's lips tonight would be Noah Eclipse.
Lucas chuckled bitterly under his breath, shaking his head. A month ago, he wouldn't have given that na a second thought. Noah was just so ordinary year-one student. One among hundreds.
But today?
Today, Noah wasn't ordinary. Today, Noah was the reason they were alive.
Lucas leaned his head back against the tree, his body aching from the toll of battle. If soone had told him this story—how a year-one student single-handedly turned the tide of battle against a two-horned Harbinger—he wouldn't have believed it. He'd have laughed in their face.
But now?
Now, Lucas couldn't deny it.
Noah Eclipse wasn't just so lucky first-generation talent who slipped through the cracks of the academy's rigorous entrance examinations. No. The display Lucas witnessed today put Noah in a league far beyond that.
'S-Class?' Lucas thought, his lips curling in a wry smile. 'No, maybe SS,' he dared to say, putting Noah a class above himself.
The sheer potential Noah exhibited—the way he commanded Nyx, the sheer force of will it took to fight even while his body was broken—Lucas had seen nothing like it. Not in any first-year. Not in any third-year.
It wasn't just impressive. It was terrifying.
But now wasn't the ti to dwell on it. Lucas's body was barely holding together after using his Soul Awakening state to fight the Harbinger. He'd reverted to his regular state, unable to maintain the transformation any longer. The exhaustion hit him like a tidal wave, making even standing feel like a monuntal effort.
Lucas sighed. He didn't want to admit it, but Noah was the hero today. Not him. Not Lucas Grey, the academy's number-one ranked student. No, the boy from year one—class 1B, to be exact—was the one who saved them all.
Lucas closed his eyes for a mont, trying to block out the nagging thoughts in his head. The plan now was simple: survive the night. Find the other survivors, tend to the injured, and hope Cannadah's base troops found them soon.
If help didn't co... well, he didn't want to think about that right now.
Noah had proven sothing today, sothing Lucas wasn't sure the academy—or the world—was ready for.
Whatever the answer, Lucas knew one thing for certain. The academy's number one wasn't number one today.
And that stung more than he cared to admit.
For now, Lucas knew he couldn't afford the luxury of collapsing, no matter how much his body scread for rest. He inhaled sharply, feeling the sting of every bruise and cut as he pushed off the tree he was leaning against.
He needed to move.
Walk around, assess the situation. Regroup the survivors. Help the injured. Gather the dead for a proper burial. Anything to restore so sense of order to this chaos.
And pray—pray that no more pods descended from the mothership looming ominously in Cannadah's orbit.
Because if they did?
If more reinforcents were sent down now, they were all sitting ducks. Noah was out of commission, barely holding onto consciousness.
The dragon, Nyx, the towering beast that had been their savior, had disappeared into so strange, swirling purple portal that closed behind it without a trace. Lucas had no idea what the creature was doing or where it had gone.
And the battlefield? It was a wasteland.
Cracked earth, uprooted trees, scorch marks, and craters marred the once-lush island. The air was thick with the acrid stench of burned foliage and blood. Bodies lay strewn across the ground, so still, others twitching in their final monts.
It was a ss. A graveyard.
Lucas clenched his fists, summoning what little strength he had left to keep moving. Every step was agony, but he forced himself to continue. He couldn't let this break him. Not yet.
His mind raced as he moved through the wreckage. How many students were still alive? How many had managed to escape into the woods? How many more were hiding, waiting for soone to co for them?
And what about Noah?
Lucas glanced back toward the spot where Noah lay, unmoving. The boy's chest rose and fell in shallow breaths, his hand resting limply on the ground where Nyx had left him.
'He doesn't look like much,' Lucas thought, a bitter smile tugging at the corners of his lips. 'And yet, he managed to do what I couldn't.'
Lucas shook his head, clearing the thoughts. This wasn't the ti for comparisons or ego. They were all in this ss together, and if sothing didn't change soon, none of them were getting out of it alive.
The mother ship above was a constant reminder of that.
Lucas shuddered at the thought of more pods falling. They'd barely survived this assault. If more Harbingers were sent down, it wouldn't matter how many dragons, awakened students, or miracles they had on their side.
They'd all die.
For now, though, there was nothing more he could do but hope. Hope that no more reinforcents ca. Hope that Cannadah's base troops would find them soon. Hope that whatever force had kept them alive this long wouldn't abandon them now.
Because if the enemy ca again?
Lucas wasn't sure if he had the strength to keep fighting.
He dragged himself forward, his gaze scanning the battlefield as he ntally braced for the grim tasks ahead. There were lives to save, bodies to recover, and survivors to reassure.
And through it all, the one thought that gnawed at the back of his mind was this:
What the hell kind of power was that dragon? Nyx? And just who the hell was Noah Eclipse?
As Lucas continued to walk through the wreckage, his thoughts lingered on the survivors—or the lack of them. The air was heavy with silence, an eerie stillness that settled over the battlefield like a blanket. The once-thriving expedition had been reduced to little more than broken dreams and mangled bodies. The top twenty-five, the pride of the academy, had been scattered to the winds. Most were probably dead. So, he suspected, had deserted. He couldn't exactly bla them.
If he'd been in their shoes, faced with the devastation they'd just witnessed, Lucas doubted he would've stuck around either.
The Harbinger's attack had shattered everything, from the landscape to their morale. Lucas had fought—no, survived—a Harbinger for the first ti in his life. The raw, terrifying power of the beast was sothing no one could truly comprehend until they faced it head-on. It wasn't just the monster's strength, but the sheer, overwhelming aura that pulsed from it.
'A Harbinger isn't just a physical threat; it is a reminder that no matter how strong one is, there are powers out there far beyond their reach,'
And now, Lucas understood sothing else—the need for the Flash Format program. The military's most covert project, one that most people either didn't know about or wouldn't talk about. As the academy's number one student, Lucas had heard whispers about it, rumors of soldiers disappearing, their mories wiped clean after brutal missions. No questions asked. No one cared.
He knew better than to ask too many questions about the program himself. If he did, he'd likely be suspended—or worse. But after facing the Harbinger, he now understood why so many soldiers signed up for it.
The fear of that happening again, of facing a force so powerful that it made you feel like an ant, was a terror that clung to your bones. And if it ant erasing those mories, forgetting that helplessness, that was a price so were willing to pay.
"Yeah, I get it now," he muttered to himself. The whole island felt like it was holding its breath, waiting for sothing to happen. He moved quietly, listening for any sounds of movent, but the stillness was suffocating. If there were any survivors, they were hiding, and they were good at it.
The battle had taken everything out of him—physically and ntally. And now, with everything so quiet, Lucas couldn't help but wish for sothing—anything—to break the monotony. He could really use a drink right about now.
But just as the thought crossed his mind, a crackling sound sliced through the air, followed by a distant roar from the sky.
His head snapped up, eyes narrowing as they scanned the twilight sky.
"What was that?"
There, far in the distance, sothing streaked through the air—falling fast. His stomach lurched as he recognized the familiar shape. A pod.
'Another pod?'
"Are these bastards doing periodic release?" An efficient war tactic. Not wasting too many force if little would still see the job done.
He froze for a mont, eyes widening as the reality of the situation began to set in. Another drop pod from the mothership was descending, far too close for comfort. The academy had to know what was happening on Cannadah. They had to have sent reinforcents, right? If anything, the base here on Cannadah should have done sothing about this by now. Or wait_
'What if the base has been overthrown?' he thought with a chill. That too made sense considering a coordinated attack of this level wasn't a bluff. The aliens intended on taking over this planet.
But this? This was different. They couldn't survive another wave like the one they just endured. Not like this.
His pulse quickened. Lucas took a step back, his hand instinctively squeezing into a fist that barely had enough spark to power a cell phone. He had nothing left, no strength to fight. But still, he wasn't about to let another attack catch him off guard. He couldn't let it.
A bead of sweat ford on his brow, and his breath quickened as the pod continued to fall, the ground beginning to rumble beneath him. Then suddenly out of no where...
*Boom!!!*
Lucas could hardly believe his eyes. The sky, which had been an empty expanse monts ago, was now filled with streaks of light as a powerful, unexpected shot cut through the air.
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