Palms of Fury

Chapter 3: The six



Sochi was tire. Killing the creatures earned her new XPs. She also noticed she was also learning how to use her arms and hands better as she spent more time in the room. By the time she killed the last of the creatures, she knelt down in the middle of the room, panting from exhaustion. The notifications she was receiving were all updates on her new XP, but one notification stood out from the others and really got her attention:

YOU HAVE HANA IN POSSESSION NOW

CHOOSE HOW TO APPLY AND CULTIVATE YOUR HANA

Before Sochi could make up her mind, she felt a pain in her right side and a notification popped up

YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED TO THE MAIN EVENT

ACCEPT OR DECLINE

(You can try after another full time cycle)

Sochi shook her head in defeat. She was not going to enter an event she knew nothing about while wounded so she clicked decline and the room dissolved before her eyes and she was back to her hospital room. Sochi sighed and drank the water on her bedside. A notification popped up, 

USE 200 HANA TO CRAFT SOME HEALING POTIONS

you have 10,000 hana in stock

Sochi decided to try it, after all using 200 hana outside of 10,000 hana would leave 9,800 hana and she needed to be healed. She clicked on accept. Within few minutes a bottle appeared in front of her and she picked it and drank it. She felt the wounds in different parts of her body healing. The pain in her side disappeared in an instant. She was walking over to the mirror to check herself when the door opened. It was a nurse and a woman who she had never seen before. Sochi pulled her shirt down and sat down in her bed. "Hello, how are you doing today?" Sochi nodded. "I am Corporal Fidora and you will be under my command for as long as you last in the war squad. I will be your training and deployment officer. You will move in today with others in your squad and struggle to survive. Do not expect a special treatment because of your condition," she said, looking at Sochi's hands before turning and taking her leave. Sochi did not understand, what was wrong with her hands? Did she not see the hands that were there. Sochi decided to ask someone about how her hand looked like next. 

The next day, Sochi woke up with a start. She was having a terrible dream where Dima was holding her hostage and ripping the hands out of her arms. It was so painful she felt it was real.The monitors were beeping regularly as she woke and everything around her was normal, like the hospital she was used to, but just about she wanted to take a breathe of relief, the door opened. "I was sent to pick you up," said the young man that walked in. He was tall, with broad shoulders and a face that Sochi was sure made many women's hearts skip. "I will wait for you to get ready, we need to report there before 0900 hours" he finished, turned and left the room. Sochi did not understand what it was with her visitors from the war squad, they all seemed rude and inconsiderate, but Sochi was used to that after living with the Mintasomo's. They had also treated her like she wasn't there even when she was,but at least, now she had a hand, Sochi thought, grinning to herself. 

The journey to the war squad housing was short and uneventful. There were rarely any wars, so Sochi did not understand why such a department needed to be kept running or to be recruiting people, maybe to ensure fighters never disappear, she concluded. The young man showed her to her place of rest and the different places she may be needed and after she had dropped off the little belongings that had been sent to the hospital by the Mintasomos, she reported to the work station. She was lost, she didn't know what to do and it seemed no one was ready to show her, so she kept moving from group to group looking at what they were doing and how she could be of help until she got to a group that had no women among them, just men. They seemed to be going on an expedition and were gearing up. "Who is this?" the most muscular one asked, nodding towards her. "I am...." "She will be your shadow on your mission, feel free to assign any other tasks to her, " a voice said from behind Sochi. She turned and there was the corporal. Sochi bowed, and the men chuckled and laughed at the same time. "We don't do that here, new girl, everyone is equal, or so we all like to think, there is no slave here, just higher ranking officers," one of the officers in the group said, brushing his hand lightly through her hair, "always," he continued speaking, putting her hair into a bun, " wear your hair up. That way you don't attract too many things" he finished, patting her lightly on the shoulder. "You will be in charge of collecting hana and distributing weapons when we get there, I hope you can manage?" he asked. Sochi nodded. "Good. We will call you six, welcome to the team."

The trip to the war ground was done in a chopper and seemed short. "This is our second mission and we are still trying to build our reputation, let us work together as one and achieve great things," the one that had brushed her hair out said, getting shouts of encouragements from the team members. Sochi followed them down in silence. She did not understand the war they were about to fight. As they approached the fence wall, Sochi felt it before she saw it, a dense feeling like something was draining her energy. At first she thought it was probably just fatigue from the stress of the past few days, but it wasn't. She could feel her body feeling heavier and each step been steeper. "One, I thought it was a rank 3 channel, why is it's energy rank 6?" the muscular one asked. One did not respond, rather he waved his hand with a signal that said keep going. They kept walking. When they walked through the fenced wall, Sochi was shocked. What had just happened? She didn't trust them enough to do that with them but she couldn't leave them as she had their supplies with her. Taking deep breathes thrice, she decided to first put her hand, then her face and her whole body. 

The place she entered was beautiful but smelt funny. There was that smell of something burning. She could see that her squad members had not waited for her before going into battle, Sochi began to run in order to catch up with them. On her way there, she saw slain creatures who looked like bluish people all over the floor. "Glad you could join us," the muscular one shouted in greeting. "Leave her alone, two" said one "we need to cover more ground in order to finish this mission as soon as possible, so let's split up. Three, with me and 4, the rest together, take that way and we would take that way" one said and everyone followed his orders. It was obvious he was captain of this team. The way they had taken was filled with strange beings and by the time they were killing, SOchi realized she was not protected. When two strange beings tried to hurt her, Sochi picked one of the weapons she had on her and killed them. It seemed quite easy, she had to admit, easier than some of the creatures she had killed during her trainings. She quickly hurried up to catch up to them and was just in time to see some creatures about to kill one and four. Sochi, not sure of what she was doing, decided to harness some of her hana and cultivate. Once she made that decision, a notification screen popped up:

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO CULTIVATE? 

STRENGTH

MAGIC

WISDOM

SPEED

Sochi realized, making decisions at spurs of the moment was not always best but for now, she choose strength and magic, then prayed that the system would help her in achieving a fast cultivation.

Her eyes closed and weapons in hand, Sochi leapt into the air, aiming for the creatures who in turn aimed for her with blood lust in their eyes

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