Ben came early morning to the school. He was going to Aatva today. Mahaansh was waiting for him. They were going on Mahaansh's vehicle. They sped through the skies towards the largest forest in Gyagar nation. It was about 5000 km away. But they reached there in about 2 hours. Looking at Ben Mahaansh said, " You can feel it right, the chaos in the air." Ben answered, " I don't know, I feel really uncomfortable. But I don't know why that is." Mahaansh answered, " The reason is simple. The higher level animals in the forest are preparing for a war and they are releasing their energies influencing the environment. That is being sensed b your sixth sense and making you nervous. When you get to the army, this is the first thing that you need to overcome. The pressure from higher level martials and life forms." Ben nodded and looked outside. The forest was really beautiful. There was the Aatva river going through the forest, which he could see from this large distance. There were tall trees which were as tall as mountains, piercing through the clouds. Beautiful birds flying with elemental energy trailing them.
Soon Mahaansh and Ben landed in camp set up by the government. The Ministry of Ecology and the Military were jointly operating the camp. There they met Mahaansh's friend.
" My name is Vishok Kram, a beast master. This is my buddy ' Azurban'." He was also almost the same height as Mahaansh. He had a white hair that was flowing and clean shaven face. He was muscular as well. He wore a shirt with no buttons at all showing of his scar ridden torso. Behind him was creature with pronounced features. It was from the same family as the leo that Ben had faced for a test. But this one was different. It was not an animus. But the power it was radiating was no different from an animus. It had stripes all over its body and its body was almost 6 meters long. It had blue stripes on a black body. Its eyes were red and blue in colour. It was emanating heat that could be seen with naked eye. No one was getting any where near the duo. Mahaansh and this guy seemed to be old friends. " You rascal, you got old. Your hair is white." Mahaansh said. " Oh please. As if you are in your sweet 20's. If I am old, you are a relic 'Senior'" his friend replied. Mahaansh was at a loss of words for a second. Then he regained his wits and said " Is that how you address a senior. Show some respect". His friend said " Is that all you could come up with. Pathetic." Then he turned to Ben and said: " It is sad that this guy is your martial teacher. Take only from his training. Don't take up from his so called 'life lessons'. You will die alone." Mahaansh gritted his teeth as he knew the embarrassing thing the other guy was referring to. " You rascal you were the one who did it. Then you put the blame on me. Now you dare to bring that in front of my student. Do you want to die? If you want, we will go to the martial arena now. You take that little cutie of yours as well." Ben did not know what to do. Everyone was looking at them. He was at loss . The normally calm Mahaansh was all worked up. The other guy was really amused by all of these. He just smiled and looked at them. The he said: "Oh come on, don't be so stiff. This is just the bickering between two long lost comrades. This guy gets worked up for no reason." Mahaansh was staring daggers at him.
In a short while the team registered themselves and were sent to the south western corner of the forest. Vishok started with small talk, "So, a Shamanic beast master. Hmm, indeed a rare variety. How are you getting by?" Ben answered, " Ok I guess." Vishok chuckled. Before he could say anything, Mahaansh said, " We are in Aatva people, focus." Vishok was exasperated and showed faces behind Mahaansh. Ben was trying to suppress his laughter.
They soon reached the designated area. They set up a camp at an appropriate location and sat to discuss the game plan. Vishok said, " We are currently in the territory of the trava lupis. They are a significant force in the forest. We will be handling them as well as some species of prosimians. The target for us is to prevent as much of these beasts from crossing this border marked in the map. We will handling creatures till the lord rank and if anything beyond that comes, we retreat." Ben was stunned, " Lord rank? How will we handle Lord rank?" Vishok looked at him in confusion and then realizing something looked at Mahaansh. " You haven't told him?" Mahaansh did not say anything. He just looked at Vishok and Ben. Vishok shook his head and said, " Your teacher and me both are Martial Lords at the intermediate level. We can handle peak animus lords. No problem." Ben looked at both of them incredulously. He did not know what to say. Mahaansh said, " I have my reasons. Don't tell it to anyone. Now we have work to do. Today we will make ourselves familiar with the forest and from tomorrow onwards we will hunt for food and for preventing creatures from crossing the border. Remember, no unnecessary killing. We don't want to damage the ecological balance."
They set out to survey the designated area and began to mark important points. Both Mahaansh and Vishok had military experience and Azurban was also with them. They easily surveyed the area, marked important points and settlements of animals, found the lair of lord class creatures. Then they went for a last round of patrolling.
Since they marked all the danger points, Ben was left to patrol one last time and then come back to the camp. This was considered part of training. Ben started to patrol and took note of important points. He reached the border of the designated area. He looked around and seeing there was no issue he was about to come back. Suddenly he sensed some movement. His aura flared and he unleashed the claws and went into a defensive posture. He did have a low end energy gun with him. But his training with that was limited. On the opposite side he saw a woman with a sword in her hand. It was a straight sword which was about a meter long. It with several color lights. The two stared at each other for a few seconds.
The woman pointed her sword down and assumed a neutral stance. Ben also deactivated his claws and looked at her. She said, " Sorry for the misunderstanding. I thought it was animal. But this is not an area for civilians to come." Ben just stared at her without saying anything. She did not have any accentuating features or stunning beauty. But there was a regal air to her. She was beautiful in her own way. Also, something in Ben attracted him to her. "Hello", the woman waved hand at Ben. Ben snapped out of his reverie and said, " Oh sorry… ah , ah, we are here from the military and ah… we have military clearance as well." Ben somehow completed the sentence. She stared at him with a slight amusement. She was used to this. After all she was the grand daughter of a martial entity, and someone who became a martial knight when she was 14. She said, " Ok, but from here on, it is our designated area. Please note." Then she turned around to leave. Ben for some reason asked, "Um… uh, what is your name?" She stopped and looked at him. She did not want to tell strangers her name, but for some reason she felt that there was no problem in telling him her name. "Rebecca Khrav, that is my name" she said. "Ok...my name is Benjamin John. Nice to meet you. I…will be going then. See you around." Saying this Ben shot off. Rebecca looked at him running away. She did not know if she should feel insulted or not. Now like the forest, her heart and brain were in chaos. The same was going on with Ben. It was chaos in Aatva and in his mind.