“Well met Mitharan Seth, Captain John Prescott at your service.” Captain Prescott Saluted. The two leaders of the respective groups stepped forward as was tradition.

  “Captain Prescott,” Seth returned the salute. “Given you might not be aware, I’m not a Mitharan yet. So, you may call me Senior Seth.”

  Though Dominic was only half paying attention, his mind focused on the heads-up display before him, he still had to hold back a smirk.

  “I Apologize sir, I meant no disrespect. You are the ranking officer on this mission and given your title is all but formality at this point. I assumed I should address you with something more appropriate of your station.” Captain Prescott replied having brought his body back to attention, though his gaze was still firmly locked with Seth before him.

  “I see, well I would appreciate it if you followed protocol from now on,” Seth replied before he turned to face Dominic. This was the moment Dominic was waiting for, as it would be the only time he would have to act in this little charade. “Let me introduce you to my squad.”

  “Our Shield, aspiring Aetherian Knight, Dominic of Seekland.” Seth continued his arm pointed to Dominic. Dominic stepped forward and gave a general salute. After a few seconds he stepped back into line. With that done he would now be able to focus solely on the faint words before him.

  In one upper corner of his vision was a partial ring that held the number 97. Underneath this Eatheral Donut was a faint representation of a human body cut into sections, each of which was filled white. Both the Eatheral Donut and the Paperman were representations of his current condition. In the other corner were the names of his squad and their respective gauges. These were normally the more useful segments of the HUD to Dominic as he has long learned to tell his own condition by instinct.

  Dominic focused his Sense on the last soldier in the line, a young man of roughly his own age. A slow exhale of air was paired with a gentle tingle in his arms as he reached out with his eather. He searched for the eatheral signature of the other party. Soon, he felt the familiar resistance of ingested eather and began the linking process. Having found his target, he willed his eather to meld with the edges of the resistance.

  “Our Point Defense, aspiring Aetherian Wayfinder, Bethany Smalls.” Dominic faintly heard as beads of sweat began to form on his head. The soldier’s eather resisted every attempt of Dominic’s to coax it into a bond. It had been a while since he had this much trouble forming such a basic link. His lips rolled as he focused on the young man, Dominic was attempting to force the issue.

  A second later he had to pull back in fear of hurting the lad, the link having finally snapped into place. Now there was almost an imperceptible tug of his Eather as the soldier’s own was consuming it in miniscule amounts. A blue dot formed over the youth, as well as, Soldier 1 being added to the list of his squad mates, though this one had no other gauges.

  “Our Knife, aspiring Mitharan Shadow, Tylor Wade.” The words flowed past Dominic’s mind as he moved onto his next target, an older gent with some white in his beard. As his Eather collided with the man’s, it snapped into place almost instantly.

  If only they were all this easy, Dominic thought as he continued down the line. Eventually the introductions were finished, and everyone split to finish their final preparations. All the while Dominic was slowly adding dots and names to his HUD. When the final one was added he looked at his gauges to see how he was holding up.

  The donut held the number 21 inside and the paperman had a yellow triangle over it followed by the words eatheral stress warning. Dominic nodded to himself as a smirk came to his mouth. He wasn’t surprised as he could feel the sluggishness of his muscles, the indicator of a density below half of his capacity. His mind was also having a bit of trouble putting coherent thoughts together, which was a sign of his density below a quarter of his capacity.

  As a knight, his physical capabilities were enhanced thanks to the eather that flowed through him, however, it was also now reliant to some degree on that very eather. So even though he was still faster and stronger than the typical man, he felt tired as his body could no longer freely consume his Eatheral supply.

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  A simple mental command and the 22 inside the gauge changed to his delta eather of .150. The fact that it was positive was a surprise to Dominic as he was used to a negative change while his HUD was active. The environment typically was unable to provide enough ambient eather to refill what the HUD would consume.

  “So that means, with my HUD active, it would take…” Dominic had to pause for a moment as his brain tried to process the math. A task he found harder than normal given his lack of free eather. “Divide by sixty and you get roughly four and a half. So, it would take almost five minutes to recover my Eather from zero with my HUD active here. Hmm. It brings to question why we don’t practice near the boundary that often.”

  “Because it is too risky,” Seth said from right next to him. Dominic flinched in surprise, having set his Sense to passive to conserve his Eather. “There is always a risk of a beast attack this close to the boundary and given most of our training grounds are able to simulate this level of eatherial density there is no point in the risk.”

  “I guess that makes sense.” Dominic replied as he forced his body to relax some. In his current state it was surprisingly harder to stand at ease than it was to stand at attention.

  “Given your current civil ponderings, I assume it is safe for me to figure you are done with your linking?” Seth asked as he looked towards the soldiers. The majority of them are in the process of strapping down their large packs, weapons, and other travel gear.

  “Would be a safe bet, yes,” Dominic replied as he too made sure his equipment was in place.

  “Good,” Seth replied before he yelled. “Round up!” Dominic felt his body stiffen slightly as he saw everyone else shuffle towards Seth. The moods across the faces ranged from nervous anxiousness to calm detachment.

  “Senior Seth,” Captain Prescott saluted once again as his men lined up six deep, double file behind him.

  “At ease,” Seth replied as he glanced over the men once more. “Captain Prescott, your men have center. Smalls will take front, Dominic rear. Wade and I will have the flank. Any questions?” After a second of silence he continued this time with a yell. “Move out!”

  Dominic reached inside him, exciting his Eather into what is known as a battle state. His Eather surged, the flow felt almost as if another heart beat inside him. His fatigue fell off as his HUD brightened, his mind now raced at every thought.

  The delta eather in his gauge fell to -.033 which gave him a few minutes before he would be out of juice. Given the strain it put in his body he knew he shouldn’t be using it outside of battle, but he had to put up a solid front to the soldiers before him. It was for morale, he told himself, and not because his body was currently aching from his work.

  The group began to march as soon as the order was given, the hill gave way to the grassland before them. The wind shuffled the tall grass about as Dominic waited, his Eather slowly draining each second. Though his body felt in top form Dominic knew that could only last as long as he had Eather. Once he lost his reserves, it would hit him like a ton of bricks.

  The tall orange wall of swirling death slowly began to loom over the group. From his position in the rear he could see a few of the soldiers begin to slightly fidget. Most, however, simply marched unconcerned over the nearing wall. Once they were within a hundred paces of the wall, Dominic stretched out his Eatheral Sense, drawing from the limited supply he had left.

  The world beyond the wall filled his mind with information. Little changed since he had last looked a few tens of minutes ago. The grassland they were on would soon change into a thick pine forest. That wasn’t his main concern, however. He wanted to know of the nearby threats. Of which he sensed none.

  Bethany stepped into the fog and dropped from sight. From his Sense and link he knew she was fine on the other side. Still, it was slightly off putting to watch someone vanish into a wall of smoke. Soon, the rest of the group followed her into the fog.

  When Dominic was a step away, he reached out, his pace steady, and let his hand enter into the mist. It was a weird thing to Dominic every time. Weird in that it felt no different to Dominic than the air he was already standing in. Physically he could feel nothing as he passed by the boundary.

  His body stepped through the threshold and the world before his eyes opened up. Though there was still fog it was no longer orange, nor was it overwhelming. He could now see for a naut or two around them before the whiteness of the fog clouded over everything. He took in a deep breath, his body relished in the Eather that flooded into his system.

  With a glance behind him, he saw the hill upon which they once stood. Something he’s still not used to. When looking out of the shell, he couldn’t see beyond the threshold. When he looked in, he could see nearly the whole of the valley. Even the distance to the first of the mountains in the background was unhindered. All of it was merely tinted orange.

  Dominic turned from that sight and fell into formation and routine. His mind now ever vigilant of the world around them. His Sense slowly bubbled out, only hindered by the boundary behind. It wasn’t long before his Eatheral reserves reached a point he felt comfortable letting his battle state go.

  Suddenly it felt as if his body’s weight just doubled and he’d gone days without sleep. Still, his training showed as he fell into an almost hypnotic state marching and scanning.