"hmm... give me a second"

Mars awoke after Hans shock him a bit, he had the feeling he had been dreaming but was unable to remembered what he was dreaming about

'well whatever...'

Mars got up or at least he tried to as he quickly found Victoria was lying on top of him

"hey Victoria, wake up"

Victoria woke up and still on top of Mars began stretching while her horns flashed

"good... morning Mars"

"yeah good morning Victoria, could you get off me?"

"okay..."

Victoria jumped off and Mars was finally able to get up and look around, there was not much to see as he still was inside his tent, quickly getting on some clothes Mars got out of his tent and greeted Hans that was working on disabling his own tent

"good morning Hans"

"oh, good morning Mars"

Mars began taking his tent apart as he looked around, besides the endless desert there wasn't that much to look at so he quickly got his tent taken apart and packed into the large backpack before he joined Vanessa and Nicole that was eating breakfast

"good morning"

"morning Mars, sleep well?"

Mars gave a smile

"like a baby although I have the feeling I dreamt something, I just can't remember what it was"

"okay... was it a good dream?"

"I think so..."

Mars dug into his breakfast which was freeze-dried oatmeal after putting in some water it was more than edible and actually surprisingly good, while he ate he fed some leftovers form yesterday's barbecue to Victoria and by the time he was done eating the others was ready to move

"Mars you ready yet?"

"give me a second captain... yeah I think I'm good"

"okay then let's move"

""""yes captain""""

"yes... captain"

Vanessa was a little startled by Victoria's telepathic message but with Mars pointing to Victoria she figured it out and gave her a smile

"let's go"

the group began moving, the formation was the same as yesterday with Hans leading as navigator and Vanessa directly after him, then Nicole that was watching the right flank then Gus that was watching the left flank and finally Mars and Victoria that was watching the back

'this is really nostalgic... the only thing I miss is my gauss rifle... maybe I can make one when I return to the academy?'

Mars walked and made a mental plan about making a man portable electromagnetic rail gun and found that after he had observed the runes on Vanessa's armor suit it was surprisingly doable to mentally design one

'well that is for the future... now to make sure we don't get hit from behind...'

Mars put his focus back on watching the rear of the formation and thus time pa.s.sed until it was about midday and the group stopped and Mars walked up to the front and looked forwards

'that's.... a village?'

some 50 building where half organized half randomly placed around what looked like a central well, there was no signs of life form the village and judging from the sand that covered the pathways in between the houses it had been empty for a while

"do you see anything Mars?"

"no, just a empty village, but the well in the middle got me interested..."

Vanessa gave a nod and looked towards the village

"right, we could always use more water... let's go check it out, we need to make sure its clear anyways... let's go"

"""yes captain"""

the group approached the the village and soon they reached the edge of the village, the houses was made of brownish clay or mud they looked simple but comfortable homes but now that they were all but empty they gave off a lonely feeling that spread over the group as they walked into the village

'empty...'

Mars cheeked a building at a time but they all turned up empty except for scattered furniture that made it look like the owners had left in a hurry

"how does it look?"

"empty so far..."

"keep an eye out, we don't want to be ambushed"

"yes captain"

Mars drew his sword and continued looking through buildings along with the rest of the group

'wait a second... why don't I just use my energy sense?'

Mars felt a little dumb but still activated his energy sense and looked around

'nothing... oh, wait there is something... in the well'

"captain"

"what is it Mars?"

"there's something in the well"

"something?"

"well... a bunch of golems"

Vanessa stopped walking and turned to look at Mars

"Mars I'm not doubting you here it's just... how do you know that?"

"well that's..."

*rumble*

just as Mars was going to make an excuse about his energy sense the ground began to rumble

"s.h.i.+t..."

Mars turned to look towards the well that was the center of the of the rumble

"fall back!"

the group quickly fell back and left the borders of the village as the center of the village collapsed and a giant sinkhole appeared, before the dust had a change to settle eerie blue glowing eyes appeared in the dust cloud looking towards the group

"prepare for battle!"

"""yes captain"""

before the group had a change to move rocks came flying with break neck speed out of the dust cloud towards Mars in particular, he didn't panic but easily sidestepped the rocks with [Instant movement] feeling annoyed that the golems were targeting him Mars called out to Vanessa

"I'm going ahead"

"Mars! wait for backup!"

"nope~"

Mars disappeared and soon a bunch of sword glints appeared within the dust cloud as Mars quickly began cutting down the golems but something unexpected happened when one of the golems managed to block Mars's sword

'what the..?'

thinking it was just a fluke Mars slashed at another golem but his sword was blocked again

"s.h.i.+t..!"

Mars activated [Instant movement] and pulled back and as soon as he reappeared he felt his neck hair stand up and quickly ducked down as a sword made of rock pa.s.sed right over his neck, rolling forwards Mars got on his feet and looked at the golem that had slashed out after him

"what the f.u.c.k are you?"

the golem looked like a cla.s.s 2 golem made out of rock but one thing put it apart from the other cla.s.s 2 golems and that was the rock swords it carried in its hands, there was also something about its eyes that was different almost like it had intelligence form the way it looked at Mars with a calm gaze before it dropped one of its swords and took a stance with it remaining sword raised high

"oh, so you want to play?"

Mars also took a stance as his body slowly transformed into its half dragon from before he kicked off the ground and clashed swords with the golem

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

after 3 high speed exchanges Mars found that the golem clearly knew swordsmans.h.i.+p and clearly had a high level in the skill, but alas that was all it had

"done testing you out now, so DIE!"

Mars sent out a slash that clearly was higher speed the the rest and cleanly cut the golem in two before he picked up the mana stone but just as he was about to absorb it he saw from within the dust cloud another 5 golems holding swords charge out at him

"looks like the fun just started"

Mars stood his ground and held his sword as the golems surrounded him seeing the 10 swords pointing at him from all sides Mars felt a little pressure but all the pressure did was making a grin form on his face before he shouted as he raised his sword

"COME!"

the golems charged at him at the same time all attacking different points on his body in a coordinated effort to kill him, unfortunately for them their opp.o.r.net didn't play fair and disappeared right before they managed to cut him down at the same time a thin sword line crossed over the golems as they all suddenly halted and paused for a moment before they all turned into pieces of harmless rock, Mars reappeared a little away and took a deep breath before he mumbled

"so [Instant movement] can be used on body parts individually and not just on the whole body..."

Mars looked down a his arm, it was covered in fresh blood that dripped down on the desert sand, seeing this Mars gave a smile as he tightened his fist

"looks like the backlash is something else..."

Mars looked up again and noticed the dust was settling and his view expanded out so he could see the rest of the group

"wait what's that?"

Mars quickly noticed Vanessa's armor suit was keeled over and the others were gathered around it, Mars quickly headed over and when he arrived he saw Vanessa was out of the suit and was looking angry when she spotted him

"Mars!"

Vanessa stomped over towards him

"yes?"

"this is the last time you disobey orders or I will have you kicked out of my squad is that clear!?"

Mars was a little take back but quickly nodded his head

"yes captain"