Crystal Palace Academy (CPA), one of the most prestigious training academies in the world, was well known for its diverse range in landscape mass, producing some of the most potential hunters sent to dangerous missions that not many academies were brave enough to risk.
The Drak were slowly advancing, trying to take over the other half of the planet that the rest of humanity occupied, but it wasn't that easy to go against the human forces.
As the Drak grew stronger, the human race followed closely behind in technology, strength, and dominance.
The cargo truck stopped in front of a colossal archway; it was made with a slab of iron fifteen meters thick, unmoved by time or flame.
The perfectly designed spirals on the outer face of the gates were mesmerizing in every distinctive way possible. As if it wasn't enough, two sigils of a crown with chains weaving amidst it were etched on both sides of the gate.
The brown gate slowly opened in a grand way, metals clanging as gears rotated until it stopped halfway with just enough space for the two forage vehicles to enter.
They drove the engines carefully, and once they entered, the gate shut behind them with a bellowing thud.
They drove through the street, bustling with people who were in the same matching attire: a green-and-white coat-like shirt extending to their knees with pants that reached their ankles.
It was a unisex dressing that every student within the Crystal Palace Academy wore. These uniforms were no normal clothes.
They had been made with the cores of no-blade Drak, melted down and woven into a fabric tough enough to shrug off small-arms fire without so much as fraying.
Although, the uniform possessed no abilities in any way due to it being a no-bladed Drak.
Eventually, after driving from corner to corner, the truck finally came to a halt in front of a building.
The instant the doors were opened, personnel of the academy who acted as the military rushed in. They quickly assisted the captain and the doctor, and Victor's body was placed on a stretcher, only to be taken away immediately to the medical facility.
The captain breathed in the fresh air, getting himself drunk from the feeling, and exhaled with a sigh.
"Hahhhh!"
His eyes then snapped open.
"Get the commander on the line!" he barked.
---
The academy was extremely vast and had different facilities located in its surroundings.
There was even a gym, a track field, a hospital, and so on.
The greenery was well-kept, the grassy areas trimmed neatly, tidy roads leading to places in the vicinity.
There were trees everywhere, painting diversity into the landscape. Even a forest could be sighted for miles away from where the buildings were stationed, a green smear against the horizon that gave the whole academy the strange feeling of a fortress built inside a garden.
The entire academy was surrounded by large walls hundreds of meters high, made from an oryx concrete that was almost indestructible. This concrete was on par with the skin of a three-bladed Drak.
The scene dramatically changed to an enclosed room. Inside, it looked like a medical space. It had a bed; the walls were painted with a comfortable blue with green stripes pattern, and marble tiles covered the ground.
On the bed was a man who lay motionless on a medical bed, his lips pale beneath the escaped breaths as the white hospital lights reflected on his face.
Electrodes from an ECG (electrocardiogram) machine traced faint lines across his chest, monitoring his heart's rhythm in real time. An IV drip fed fluids and medication into his left arm, a pulse oximeter clipped to one finger, and a blood pressure cuff tightened around his upper arm at intervals with a quiet hiss.
Near his head, a mechanical ventilator was connected via a breathing tube, rising and falling in rhythm with his assisted breaths.
The patient monitor beside the bed displayed vital signs in glowing green and red heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and oxygen levels.
With each beep, the fragile line between life and silence echoed.
Just then, his eyelids flung open as if yanked by fate. The white ceiling caught his gaze, and confusion formed on his face at the unfamiliarity.
He panicked as he wondered where they had taken him. He definitely knew that they had taken him, but along the way, the moment the beast erupted, his senses were lost, and he had actually fallen unconscious, trapped within his mind space with the Shadow Wolf.
'Relax, you fool. It's just intensive care,' the Shadow Wolf commented.
'Your plan backfired, and it's me who was caught in the crossfire!' Victor barked.
'Yeah, I didn't know why you fell unconscious. And yes, it had been a risky situation back there, but still, everything worked out, right?'
Victor could already picture the dog smiling within the space.
'Damn dog!'
'What did I say about calling me a dog, you filthy lower lifeform…!!'
"Man! You're awake. Thank the heavens; I thought I would lose another one," said a man as the door slammed shut behind him.
"You know, I have been losing patience left and right lately… Sigh… I guess I've lost my touch," the man murmured, loud enough to be heard.
"Should I tell you something funny? You know, I was once a veterinarian, but the academy had forcefully dragged me here to treat people."
"And you know, it isn't easy to stitch up humans like I did with animals, and most of them end up dying."
'What the heck is wrong with this guy? I think I am in an asylum,' thought Victor, deciding whether he should strike first.
The doctor's stomach rumbled, and his expression changed drastically; the playful manner ceased to exist.
"You can come in, Captain."
The atmosphere became dense; the air was silent like the untouched sea. A faint, stale smell hung in the room as a figure welcomed himself into the room.
A kind of pressure rested on Victor, yet he waved it away like it was nothing.
'Who is this foolish bastard dressed in some shabby suit? I have the urge to break his nose. They call him a captain? Tsk, I also died by his hands.'
'I was a full-fledged commander who risked my life to save my men and many others. This fool just hid in his armored vehicle and got all his men killed just because he was weak.' At least that was how it looked from where Victor was lying, and he'd seen enough cowardice in his first life to recognize the shape of it in a second.
'How pathetic!!'