The Legend of Serpia

Chapter 2: Real Military Camp

The fight with Seth, to Parsni's horror, was labeled a draw because Seth could only defeat me with an illegal fighting move. He had karate chopped the universal Jeitan weak point, the pressure point just below the ear, at the side of the jaw. The Sensei of the school actually said that I would have won had it not been for that cheap shot. They said the fight had been in my favor. I had the upper hand. I thought this was a load of bullshit. I knew damn well that the battle had been completely equal, that it would have continued on forever if he had not knocked me out with a cheap shot. Seth and myself were at the exact same level. I continued my training at that school for nearly 4 years after that incident, sparring with the Sensei more often than with the students. I completed every level they offered at that school and Sensei Timah sent me off to the same military camp Seth had gone off to: the camp north of Novajita's biggest mountain range. Timah himself accompanied me on this journey. He sent word to my father that I was going to Novajita's highest ranking military camp and that he should be proud to have fathered the greatest female warrior in Jeitan history. I arrived at the military camp on the 5th day. Timah seemed to know where he was going because he immediately found and entered the training commander's office. He told me to stay in the hall but I listened to their conversation through the crack in the door.

"Hello Shinar, my brother, it has been a while."

“Timah! How are you? What brings you way out here?"

"I have a new recruit for you. Her name is Serpia, the princess of Novajita. She wants to be a battle commander. She definitely has talent. I believe that she is the best student our dojo has ever produced. Maybe even better than Seth. Speaking of which, how is he?"



"He's gone for the year. A scouting job in sector 9. Something about Arilians posting a war demand there. They're looking for allies, you know. He'll be coming back in a month or so. This girl… you say she's in the hall? Bring her in and lets take a good look at her."

The door swung open and Timah led me into a large office to see a very large but powerful man sitting behind a beautiful desk of ebony, a rare wood from Earth.

" Serpia, this is my brother, Commander Shinar. He is the current commander for this training camp. This is where all the best soldiers, commanders and your father's own palace guards are trained. Shinar, this is Serpia."

" Well, Princess, it is my pleasure to meet you and, mark my words, I am going to do everything I can to get you into this camp. You will have to do some tests, of course, to make sure you can handle the heavy training. Hey, wait, you're the one who battled Seth a couple years ago, right?"

"Yeah. That would be me."

"Let's get the doctor and the head trainer in here. I want a full fighting examination done on this girl immediately."

He said to the servant who had just entered the room with lunch for the three fighters.

She zipped out of the room and returned not even 5 minutes later with two tall and formidable looking men. Shinar paused a minute to introduce me to them before resuming stuffing his face.

" Serpia, this is Doctor Paru. And this fine gentleman over here is the head trainer Korian. They are just going to take you to another room for a few minutes to perform their tests. Don't worry," he added, seeing the look of fear on my face, "There are no needles."

First I followed Dr. Paru to the hospital room, leaving Korian outside the door. He gave me a full physical before deeming me to be completely healthy and in excellent shape. Next I went with Korian to a large training room, one with a gravity control system.

"We fight in here, just basic sparring, at 10x Novajita's gravity. Think you can lift up even 50lbs at that level?"

"I'm sure I can. Let's find out."

Korian turned the gravity up to 10x Novajita's gravity. Although I felt very heavy, I made my way over to the weight lifting area of the room with almost no difficulty and lifted the weight with no problem.

"Princess, can you hold it up with one hand?"

I tried it and found that I indeed could.

"Impressive. Most soldiers can't even walk the first time they come in here. Try to attack me. I just want to see how fast you can take me down at this level of gravity. I will try to block, but I won't hit back. Bring it on."

I charged at him and somehow found the speed and strength to attack him almost the same as if I was on normal ground. When I tried a sidekick, he dodged, and my foot hit the dial controlling the gravity. It spun, turning the gravity up to 100x Novajita's gravity. I just powered up and continued my onslaught. Korian couldn't stand the gravity at this level and sunk to his knees crying "Enough! Turn it off! Please…" I stopped the attack and walked over to the dial. I turned off the gravity but found that Korian was knocked unconscious. I ran out of the room and back down the hall to Commander Shinar's office. I burst through the door.



" Timah, Commander Shinar, Korian's knocked out! I think he might be in trouble!"

I didn't see Dr. Paru in there but we met him in the hall, and told him about Korian. The four of us rushed to the gravity room. There was Korian, still knocked out, lying on the floor.

" It was an accident. He was testing me at 10x gravity and I kicked and he dodged and I hit the dial and the gravity boosted and… and…"

"Sssh, Serpia. He'll be fine. Dr. Paru will take care of him. I have to go soon, but tell me, real quick, how in the name of Kami did you survive the gravity???"

"Oh… well, Sensei Timah, I just powered up. When the gravity hit 100x, my body powered up all on it's own. I didn't even mean for it to."

The Commander heard me say this and was shocked to hear it.

"Do you know what this means, Timah? She just tapped into her potential. Do you know that even I can't stand 100x gravity? The only other Jeitan that has ever so much as taken a step in 100x gravity is Seth! Paru said she's in excellent shape even for a warrior… and now… with all this… We'd be proud to accept you into our camp. Princess Serpia, do you want your own quarters or are you fine with bunking with the others in the Barracks?"

"I prefer the Barracks, sir. I do not want any special treatment, if you don't mind."

He chuckled. " No, I don't mind. But allow me to bestow upon you one special privilege. I would like you to eat at my right hand in the mess hall as the most powerful soldier after me. It is the same privilege given to Seth when he is here, except he eats on the left side. Will you allow it?"

"Yes. It would be my honor, Commander. One more thing… my name is Serpia. No more "Princess", please."

"Shinar, Serpia? I must go. It is a long journey back and I must not waste more time. It was good to see you again, Shinar. Good luck Serpia. Achieve your dream."

And, just like that, Sensei Timah, my friend, was gone. Shinar turned to me.

"It is nearly dinner. Come with me. I will personally show you around our base. It is quite small, but it offers the best training in all of Novajita."

He and I walked down the halls of the base for nearly 20 minutes. I kept attracting the stares of the soldiers as I passed. I knew damn well that I was quite, uh, womanly, in my appearance, but I just smiled and waved at the soldiers as though I had no idea what they wanted and thought they were all psycho. Shinar knew what I was doing and grinned every time I waved at someone.

" You like to tease the soldiers, don't you? Do you not have any fear of them?"

" Commander, with all due respect, I fear no one."

"Do you know who you remind me of? Seth. I'm surprised that you two didn't get along earlier in life… you two have the same kiss-my-ass, I-fear-no-one-so-back-down-or-die attitude, you both are legendary fighters and, well, you two are kinda compatible. It seems that only you can control him and only he can control you."



" I have no interest in the boy. He can take his arrogant attitude and stick it up his ass."

"And, you know, he'd probably say the same thing about you."

The Commander and I said nothing more but went to dinner. Like he asked, I sat at his right side at the head table. I noticed that every single soldier in the mess hall was staring at me. I didn't like being the center of attention and found it hard to eat.

After dinner the commander had some important business to take care of so he sent me off to the barracks along with one of his more trusted soldiers. He was near my age, with light colored hair that spiked only in the front. He was quite handsome, and was pretty nice, but I knew better than to get attached. There was something about him that I just didn't like. I was to stay in the same room as him, along with several other soldiers. I found out that the soldier's name was Zorion, and he was 15. He introduced me to his friends Oberon, a very fat, slow yet strangely powerful soldier, and Onyx, a tall, thin soldier with jet black, messy hair. I thought Onyx was the nicest and trust worthiest of the three, so I took the bunk above his. I noticed a door on one wall in our small room.

"Where does that lead to?" I asked Onyx.

"That goes to our commander's room. Commander Seth. He's away right now, he'll be back in about a month."

Soon Commander Shinar came in and announced it was lights out. I crawled into bed and fell asleep.

As soon as I woke the next morning I was told to dress and report in the gravity room. I did so. Onyx, Oberon and Zorion, as well as five or six other soldiers were there. Our trainer was none other than Korian. While he made the others fight at 10x gravity he pulled me to the side and thanked me for saving his life yesterday, and then told me I was something special. He then made me train with Onyx. Onyx was having some trouble moving around with the gravity so high, as was everyone else, but I was running around, effortlessly throwing Onyx around, putting him in death lock after death lock. Korian and the rest of the class eventually just stopped training and watched me bounce off the walls at hyper speed, trashing poor Onyx. Finally Korian told me to stop. He took me to Shinar's office and explained to the commander that I was too high above the other soldiers to train with them, that I was literally bouncing of the walls as well as bouncing my training partner off the walls. He then suggested that I train with the Commander and himself later on that night, after dinner. The Commander agreed. He was curious to see my so-called unlimited power. I was given the rest of the day to get used to my surroundings. My new schedule was to help train the lower level soldiers during the morning, study battle strategy in the afternoon and train with Korian and Shinar after dinner in the gravity room until bedtime.

I spent the rest of the time before dinner walking the halls and memorizing rooms. I found, to my delight, a very large library full of books on fighting and Jeitan battle history. I spent and hour or so there, looking at various titles, and had to rush to the mess hall so I wasn't late for dinner.

"Did you find the library yet, Serpia?"

"Yes I did, Commander. It is quite impressive."

"It has more books on fighting and history than anywhere else on Novajita, including the King's own study. Enjoy those books, they are quite resourceful."

Dinner was good and I followed Commander Shinar and Korian to the gravity room. They warned me that they do not do light training, and that it would take considerable effort to train with them even when they are at their lowest level. Korian blasted music from a CD player taken from Earth. Obviously the other students didn't know about this. Commander Shinar turned the gravity up to 50x gravity, though they could both still move at 60x gravity. They were crawling at 70x gravity and plastered to the floor at 80x gravity, they explained. When I had no trouble taking them both on at the same time and defeating them both they decided to go to the viewing room and find my limit. They would turn the gravity up until I couldn't throw a punch. Shinar said I would break at 150x gravity, Korian said 180x.

I trained, throwing basic jabs, as they turned up the gravity. I watched the electronic board displaying the level of gravity I was enduring.

100x…

120x…

140x…

I was starting to feel it.

150x…

170x…

190x…

I was starting to slow down.

200x…

220x…

240x…

My arm felt like a ton, but I felt I could still go on.

260x…

280x…

BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

The ceiling caved in around me. They had pushed the gravity room past its limit, and they hadn't even hit mine yet. With the fall of the ceiling the gravity turned off. Commander Shinar and Korian stood there looking thunderstruck. My golden ki aura was flowing around me, and I looked very powerful. My eyes were narrowed and my muscles were small, but incredibly hard. Shinar turned and ran out into the hall screaming something about a Chaos Jeitan. Korian approached me, stepping over the debris.

" What are you?"

"What do you mean? I am a Jeitan!"

"You're so powerful… It's overwhelming…"

The commander's screams suddenly stopped. There was a blast from the hallway. And then yelling. Korian and I raced out into the hallway only to see a gruesome sight. I knew the species of the alien from all the books I'd read. It was an Arilian. They were mad at us because we wouldn't share our technology with them. There was a troop of them standing right before my eyes, the largest one, I'm guessing he was a knight, was holding the severed head of Shinar by the hair, blood dripping all over the floor. Out of a window I could see the Jeitan soldiers running for the mountains. I knew where they were going. They were going to Jaeda, the imperial capital, and my hometown, to alert the king. The Arilians noticed the running soldiers too, and knew what they were up to. I told Korian to run. He did. I powered up, attracting the Arilian troop's attention. I laughed as I let off a huge Ki shock wave. I wiped out the Arilian soldiers, disintegrating them before they even had time to move. I then took off in the direction Korian had run. I caught up with him a few minutes later. We could see the mountains towering over us.

"Serpia, Jaeda is doomed. We'll never make it over the mountain in time. I bet the Arilians are planning to launch an attack on the capital to kill your father."

"No shit! So we'd better get there soon. Who said we were going over the mountain?"

"What do you mean?"

I powered up and gathered ki in my hands, preparing to blast.

"We… are… going… through… it."

I let the blast go. It crumbled the mountain before us. I smirked at the open-mouthed Korian.

"See? Piece of cake."