Not even seconds after I activated my armor, I hear knocking on my door. “Coming!” I say in a loud but slightly hushed voice. I press the button to turn on the keypad and punch in my PIN. The door opens, and I stare outside, but don't see anyone.
“Ahem...” a voice says, just a few inches below my field of vision. I am taken aback. Is this my instructor?
“Oh...hello...” I meekly say, almost bewildered by this experience. Standing before me is a four-foot-tall CAST. He must have been the shortest one I've seen ever, and considering I live on Parum, this is quite the surprise. My expression must have shown this, because even though this particular CAST's face was cast in metal, I could feel he was not amused.
“You must be confused to as why someone like me would be knocking on your door,” he begins. “Well, I am your Guardians instructor.” By now, my eyes are fixed on the wall behind him. I don't know what to say. “Since you still seem confused, let me introduce myself. My name is....” By this time, I couldn't concentrate and didn't catch his name. “...but you can call me 4E.” Four E? That's a simple name I could remember, I suppose. “You seem alert now,” he continues after noticing that I looked at him. What a strange day, I think to myself.
After I introduced myself to my instructor, we begin walking out to the elevator and descending down to the lobby. We walked out of the building and continued past the bridge over the small artificial lake. Now, we walk up to the left to the Flyer Base. We aren't going to leave the planet as the plan says; we are simply visiting the site where the old Guardians colony collided with the now Old Rozenom City on this planet. It was only months ago when this collision happened but it left the four main governments in panic. And now, I train to be one of the many Guardians to prevent another large-scale disaster from happening again.
“Do you know how to equip your items?” 4E asks me as we scout the area where we landed. I nod my head and show him my Saber and Shield. “Good. Let us begin then.” He runs ahead into the damaged city. I follow but do not know what to do. In the first 'block,' a giant enemy spawns. 4E arms himself with two swords, one large and one small, that look like Yohmei technology. As he rolls around the monster, he speaks, “This is a Polavohra. Don't engage it face on lest you take significant damage from its short charge! And roll when it raises its legs!” And just like that, the beast stands on its two hind legs, raising its upper torso as far as it can before dropping. I leap high enough that the shock wave doesn't damage me. “Good! Now attack it!” 4E switches to guarding, forming a cross with his two metal sabers.
Now I'm stumped. I wasn't ever taught attacking, only guarding. I think of a quick maneuver I could do and an idea comes to my mind. I jump to dodge another shock wave and dash behind it. With my shield pressed forward, I swing furiously at the Polavohra. 4E sees what's wrong and throws me some sort of disc. “Quickly, use it and use its new-found power to aid your attacks!” I instinctively crush the disc, but it works! I feel its power infusing with my saber, but it gives me a splitting headache. I drop my weapons and clutch my head.
“AHHHHHHH!” I scream in agony. The last thing I see that day is red.
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