Chapter 747 — Challenge the Sky
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
On the western side of the Dark Mountains, an undisclosed military training facility sat nestled among the forests and hills.
It was a sizable installation, defined above all by its gray concrete walls and the sprawling complex of low buildings, none taller than two stories—a color scheme and style of construction that let the whole facility blend almost invisibly into the backdrop of the mountain rock. Within the perimeter enclosed by walls and watchtowers lay plainly styled barracks and warehouses, along with an unusually large open field, where soldiers in training were now assembling.
The biting winter wind stirred the imperial banner close by. Soldiers in winter dress had formed neat ranks across the field, and at the front of those ranks, the griffin knight Jinna waited for her commanding officer with a touch of nervousness.
This woman knight, born to a family of griffin riders, had trained for nearly a hundred days at the facility known as Windcaller Camp, and so had every soldier who had come here with her.
The soldiers had never been told their specific mission or the purpose behind the camp's founding. Their daily training fell into two basic categories: theoretical knowledge of arcane machinery and rapid mental calculation of instruments, and repeated operational drills on certain simulated devices.
Yet even with the secrecy imposed from above, after a period of training Jinna and her comrades had more or less guessed the purpose for which this facility had been built.
Seventy percent of the soldiers selected and sent here came from griffin rider backgrounds; throughout their training they kept encountering certain terms, and those terms all seemed to relate to flight; and a large open field was well suited for landing something...
This world was not without flying troops. To soldiers who had all, to one degree or another, dealt with the sky, flight was no unfamiliar concept.
This place existed to cultivate some new type of flying unit, and that unit was surely connected to arcane technology.
Even confined as they were within this sealed facility, they had heard the news that the Arcane Technology Research Institute had successfully built a new type of flying machine—they simply had not yet seen one in the flesh.
Jinna drew a soft breath; the icy air kept her mind clear. The night before, she had heard strange humming sounds coming from behind those enormous warehouses, and when she thought of the arcane technicians who had suddenly arrived at the facility two days ago, and of the solemn manner in which the instructors had announced the assembly time yesterday, the woman knight had a vague sense that something was going to happen today.
Several minutes later, the instructor finally appeared—the silver elf Soyou came into Jinna's view, walking unhurriedly toward the soldiers gathered and waiting.
This high-ranking courier was the instructor of Jinna and the other trainees.
At the beginning, Jinna had wondered why a member of another race should serve as instructor to imperial soldiers, but she had never questioned her superiors' orders. Moreover, on the battlefield of the Holy Spirit Plains, she had fought side by side with this high-ranking courier, and she knew the courier's superb flying skill and dependable character. In the training that followed, Soyou had indeed demonstrated the fine qualities of an instructor, and by now this elf from the Silver Empire had won the soldiers' trust.
When Soyou came to a stop before Jinna and the others, every soldier snapped a crisp, forceful salute.
Soyou nodded, her gaze sweeping over the soldiers.
"Today we enter the final stage of this training camp," the high-ranking courier said in a loud voice. "You have trained here for ninety-eight days. Frankly, in my view, that is not a long time—but I believe that over these ninety-eight days, you have already guessed the purpose for which you were gathered here.
"It is as you think. You are here for flight.