Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 23: Attention

Before the crack of dawn, a siren blared through the entirety of the Academy. Erec shook in his bed—slick with sweat as the siren rang out again, deafening.

A magically amplified voice cracked through the halls. “—all Knights. This is not a test of the Emergency Alert System. Hostiles have been spotted amassing at the southern wall. Equip your gear and immediately report to a Knight Protector or higher. Attention. All Knights—“ the message went on as Erec rubbed his eyes, as his heart hammered away.

The image of the stag burned in his mind.

[Well, that isn’t ideal. You lack training and are already being sent to a battle. Ah, humanity. Indeed this is one of your most classic of tales.] VAL’s voice pulled him out of the hazy-half-conscious mindset. Erec struggled over to the pile of clothes from the day before, quickly yanking his uniform pants on and tossing on his shirt. He didn’t bother with the jacket before he threw his door open to head to his Armor.

This was the point of why he became a Knight. To face these kinds of threats and grow stronger while protecting those that couldn’t; until he got strong enough.

Though for something like this to happen so early was concerning, he’d make do. He hadn’t collected a weapon yet, so that was his first priority.

Garin gave him bleary eyes in the living room. “Second fight, eh? Couldn’t ask for a better friend to wade into battle with. Let's slay some monsters for breakfast.”

“I’m sure we’re just headed to provide support, not anything crazy.” It was a baldfaced lie, but if he pretended to be bold and kept from letting his fear show, it’d keep Garin’s spirits up. He couldn’t recall the last time there was an attack on the walls. Given he lived far underground, this sort of thing never really stuck in his memory, to begin with. “Let’s get our Armor on; we still need to get weapons.” The Academy tended to hand out weapons after their second week of courses. Usually, it accompanied a symbolic ceremony for the Orders. Most of the time, this would never be an issue. But the timing of this… was awful.

“Yeah, no way am I dealing with monsters with only my fists.” Garin looked down at his hands and smirked again, “Well, unless I can crush them like those thrashing mites. That was actually pretty fun.” He clenched his fingers and gave a forced laugh.

How had this attack occurred so suddenly? The thick steel walls surrounding the Kingdom often gave the Knights plenty of sight of the wastes. The more time he’d got to slog through his tired head, the less it made sense.

Ultimately, worrying about the details was fruitless. Sooner or later, they’d have answers. Erec strode into the Armor room and quickly equipped his Vallum Armor—right behind, Garin got geared up too. When they returned to the living room, Olivia trailed out, still in pajamas; her eyes were wide. “Whoa. This is real. I thought I might be dreaming.” She tilted her head at them. “Wait a minute for me, will you?”

Garin and Erec exchanged looks and then shrugged. At this point, another minute wouldn’t matter much. Better to stick together in a group than leave her on her own.

Erec expected her to go back into her room to toss on clothes quickly, but no. She ran right past them into the room with her Armor. The mad girl was going to pilot her Armor in pajamas and face Goddess knew what.

Come to think of it, should he have even bothered with throwing Academy clothes on? In comparison to her, Erec felt a little silly at his instincts. Perhaps Olivia was more practical than either of them.

Olivia stepped out in her Vallum and gave them a quick clenched fist to her chest as a sign of respect.

With that, they were off to the Quartermaster—joining a small line of twelve initiates in their class who came to their first conclusion. A Knight Commander oversaw the ensemble sternly, likely having predicted this and moving to take control of the new initiates.

She had her helmet tucked under an arm and ignored the hushed conversations in the hall.

Initiates moved to the Quartermaster and slowly received their weapons. However, the Quartermaster didn't have any forms to fill out or account for the weapons, which made sense given the emergency alarm.

The troop moved painfully slow and unorganized, stoked by the whispered fears and worries in the new bloods.

After the glacial pace, and a couple more initiates arriving, the Commander gave a quick shout for them. It didn’t seem to help.

Garin gave Erec a tap on the shoulder. “Hold my spot for me?”

“What?” Erec asked, but his friend didn’t answer. Instead, Garin stepped right out of line and walked straight up to the Knight Commander—performing the same clenched fist to the chest that Olivia had done briefly before.

The Knight’s irritated eyes landed on Garin.

“Initiate, return to the line. It is important you are all equipped promptly,” she said, without a trace of any emotion in her voice.

“Sorry, ma’am. But I couldn’t help it.” Garin jerked his head towards all of the initiates milling in the line. “Everyone’s nerves are haywire, and I thought it’d be best to ask for a brief explanation of the situation if you have any details. I think it’d go a long way to easing everybody.” His voice cut across cleanly to the crowd. The hushed conversations between the initiates vanished as their ears trained on what was happening.

The Knight Commander took a long moment, her face locked in a frown before the dam finally broke, and her expression softened to a grimace. “I am aware you lack any training from our Order. Typically you learn quickly not to question your commanders during an emergency situation. But, given all of you have yet to take a single course, I believe I agree with your assessment. Knowing the situation will prevent misplaced fear and mistakes derived from that.” She nodded her head. “Twenty minutes ago, the Order of the Azure Tower noticed an odd reading on the southern wall. A large rift opened two minutes later. Since then, they’ve been preventing any monsters from breaking through our fortifications and sent a desperate request for backup. We must be prepared to evacuate our interior lands if needed. And then, if our wall is secured, press forward and close the Rift. The Academy is close, so we are poised to offer a first response.”

There was a deadly silence as everyone took in the breadth of the situation.

“It is vital you get your equipment. Though I have no intention of leading you into direct battle unless the direst circumstances occur, it is impossible to say whether or not the hostiles that appear from the Rift will escalate this further.” She concluded with a slight nod. “Please return to the line, receive whatever weapons you’re best trained with, then form rank in front of me. Time is of the essence.”

With that, Garin gave her one last ‘salute’ by pressing his hand to his chest before turning on his heel and getting back in place.

The whispers in the hall ceased as a fixed determination took hold. Everyone realized the reality of the situation; the Orders didn’t know how bad this could get and were taking every measure to control the damage if it spiraled out of control. Rifts, by their nature, could connect to any other world and spew out any horror. For a Rift to suddenly appear so close to the wall… It was a perfect storm of bad situations.

With the commander’s calm and detailed explanation, the line went quicker. Each initiate received their weapons—mostly swords—and moved to assemble in front of the woman. Erec was offered a variety of weapons—which, again, most of what they had stashed away back in their garrison were numerous swords.

First off, Erec asked for two hatchets. During his fight against the thrashing mites, it’d been dangerous when he lost his weapon during the fray. Better to have a backup weapon. Then something caught his eye; it was tucked in the far back of the racks of weapons, forgotten about in favor of more popular weapons.

There was a massive two-handed war axe with a wicked blade shaped like a crescent; the metal of the axe head was smooth and layered in a wavy pattern. Black leather wrapped around its haft.

Were he to fight that thrashing mite queen again a weapon like that would easily cleave the beast in two. “How about that?.” Erec asked—a finger pointing towards the axe. The quartermaster gave him an odd look.

“That was a custom order, but the Knight who wanted it failed to return from his expedition. He was a dear friend of mine.” He said the words carefully. “If you’re looking for something to accompany the throwing hatchets or a weapon with reach, I’d recommend these instead. Often new initiates are more familiar with swords, correct?”

“No, I’m not.” Erec shook his head. “But if it was meant for your old friend—I understand. I’ll make do with the hatchets. Thank you.” He turned to leave, understanding the sentimental feeling behind the weapon. Better to let it stay there—

“Wait.” The man called, and Erec paused. “It’s been here for a long time.”

“I don’t want to dredge up anything; I’m sorry if asking about it brought up memories you’d rather have left buried.”

“No, that’s not it.” The Quartermaster hefted the two-handed axe from the wall and set it on the counter. “I think of him when I see it. I think of how much it could’ve done if he’d been given a chance to use it. If they’d still be here if they’d had it. Since I set it up on that rack, rarely has anyone given it a second glance.”

Erec could understand why. With the sword being the Goddess icon, it had the highest demand. Most else was limited to side armaments—such as these hatchets typically used as throwing weapons—or custom ordered like that axe.

“I’d rather it do good. Take it. Bring it honor.” The Quartermaster pushed the axe forward.

Hesitantly, Erec picked the weapon up. It was heavy in his hands, both from the weight of what it represented to this make and its heavy steel. A powerful weapon for war. “I’ll do right by it.” Erec nodded his head.

“See that you do.”

With that, Erec strapped the weapon to his back—the Armor utilizing ‘anomalous energy’ from the frame to hold it in place. He joined the line of the rest of the initiates waiting in front of the Commander. In a few minutes, they’d be on the move to respond to the assault on the wall.