Little Sky

"Damn, it's another one of those stupid nightmares again" a young man cried out.

The young man yelled as he roused himself from his sleep.

He had always suffered from recurring nightmares that showed scenes of various warriors battling evil beings known as demons. In these dreams, the warriors were always defeated. The young man's name is Little Sky and he is from Earth.

The 'Little' in his name is not just a nickname given to the young man because of how he appeared; rather, it is an old family name that has been passed down through his family for generations. 

Whenever he informed people that his name was little Sky, they would look over at him and give him a kind of shake of the head as if they thought the word "little" was some kind of a moniker for his height.

He didn't have muscles, but he was fit, and he couldn't exactly be called a tall guy; as a result, whenever he told people his surname, they thought it was his nickname.

He loathed the name so much that when his father was still alive, he asked him numerous times if he could use the father's name in place of the surname like other children did, his father always said disagreed When he made a statement that was comparable to that to his grandfather, he was scolded instead.

His grandfather is an elderly Asian man who has always placed a high value on his heritage. He is proud of being of Asian descent. It is reported that one of China's Emperors gave his first great-great-grandfather the name "Little" as a tribute to his little stature. Since then his family had change their name to little as a form of pride.

It was a point of great pride for his grandfather to continue the family 'Little,' and he made sure that everyone of his children and grandkids inherited it from him.

You can understand why he didn't like the name; one of the reasons is that despite the fact that he was turning 18 this year, he appeared to be no older than 14 years old.

His mother was born in the United States and was a American,he had lived in this country for his entire life, he was still unable to fathom the reason why his family is obligated to keep using their traditional surname.

These days, whenever somebody asked him what his name was, he always responded with "Sky."  Yeah, just sky.

And Sky was a Knight, even though Sky was not entirely certain that he met all of the requirements to hold this title, he was nonetheless a full fledged registered Knight.

…….

About fifteen years ago, a colossal gate made its debut appearance for the very first time in Egypt. Subsequently, it began cropping up in other countries as well. At the time, nobody knew what it was; scientists attempted to comprehend it but were unsuccessful; numerous weapons were fired at it, but it continued to stand.

One very fatefull day the  gate opened, bringing with it a vast number of monsters that erupted from within it; wherever they went, they brought with them death and ruin.

Nevertheless, that was hardly the most peculiar occurrence that took place once the gate was opened. A significant number of regular people also acquired superhuman powers; some of these abilities were so spectacular that it seemed as though they had been lifted from movies or  comic books.

As a result of this, the individuals who had successfully reawakened their latent superhuman powers came to be known as knights. Mankind destruction was spared as a result of the knights banding together, fighting the monsters who emerged from the gate, and saving the world in the process.

After the knights had cleared the area of demons inside one of the gate , they discovered that the area inside the gate was named the demon grotto and that it was a form of dimensional gateway that connected multiple worlds together.

………..

three years ago, Sky awakened his super powers and became a knight; looking back, it's safe to say that it was one of the best days of his life.

When he awakened the powers he was taken to the Knight's Order, which is an organization rhat regulated the Knights and also where Knights are tested of their powers.

After the test, he received the worst news of his life, which was that his powers were not any of the great and powerful powers like throwing flames, controlling lighting, or any of the other cool and useful powers.

One thing that was found out about about his powers was that he had unusually heightened senses.

Despite his disappointment, he never gave up faith, he presumed like those of other knights, his abilities would develop and change as he continued his training.

But he was dissatisfied once more because his powers had not improved despite the fact that he had been training day after day and also been going into the Demon Grotto with other more powerful knights. In fact, he was barely able to kill the weakest demon that could be found in the Demon Grotto.

Because the main application for his abilities was to detect demons in the grotto, he ended up serving as a kind of scout for the other knights.

Due to the fact that he lacked the physical prowess to eliminate the demons on his own, the job of scouting was extremely hazardous. Because of this, he was constantly on the precipice of life and death.

He would always be covered in wounds all over his body, and if it weren't for the medicine that was given to him by the Knight's Order, it's likely that he would have passed away from his injuries.

People were often curious about why he continued to visit the grotto despite the fact that he was in such poor health and had litle abilities.

People were unaware of the fact that his family had been weighed down by debt, the majority of which was set to have been taked by his dead father.

The loan sharks that were affiliated with the casino stated that his father had taken out a loan for twenty million dollars prior to his passing, and they presented documents proving his father's signatures on the loans.

Sky and his mother both knew it to be a lie, but they lacked the evidence to prove it. Sky's father was a responsible person who would never take out loans for gambling purposes.

After that, the casino took all of our properties, but that still left them with a 15 million dollar balance to pay the casino. Meanwhile, his mother suffered a stroke as a direct result of the event, and after taking her to the hospital, he discovered that she also had cancer.

At that time, he was clueless and didn't know what to do; ultimately, he had no choice but to go to the Knight's Order and take on tasks from them  to clear demon grottos with the other knights. 

The meager earnings he made from that, were used toward paying his mother's medical expenses, and the remainder of his earnings are being utilized to make incremental payments to the casino for the loan.

……..

As Sky was about to go back to sleep after being awakened by the nightmare, a beeping sound erupted in his ear.

"Beep" "beep"

"Damm I almost forgot"

Sky sprang out of his bed as quickly as he could. Yesterday, he had set an alarm on his clock so that he would be reminded about the epedition onto a gate that had recently appeared in the central business district. The Knight Order had asked him if he was interested in clearing the gate alongside other Knights, and he had agreed.

After giving his assent and realizing that it was now time for all of the knights to congregate, he hastily put on his armor and proceeded toward the Knights order.

When Sky walked into the room, everyone's attention was immediately drawn to him, since the majority of them had been wondering who their final member would be.

As he entered the room, he noticed that the majority of the knights had disappointed expressions on their faces. Since the majority of the knights in the room lived in this town, all of them were familiar with one another, so they knew how weak he was.

They were all aware that Sky lacked true strength, and even his heightened senses were not particularly helpful in fighting against demons.

An irate young guy who was approximately the same age as Sky rebuked saying, "What the hell is the Order thinking, sending this weakling together with us, he just going to slow us down."

Sky did not respond because he was accustomed to receiving insults of this nature from other Knights. Instead, he went straight to an elderly man named Mr. Smith who was standing nearby.

Mr. Smith, was an oldan who lived nearby sky neighbourhood, he is a good neighbor who watched out for him at all times.

"Kid, why don't you just give up being a Knight? I'm sure with your intelligence you will be able to obtain a decent job outside, and I can talk to my friends who am sure will be able to offer you a nice position."

Sky gave a frustrated shake of his head. He was aware that, even though he could get other jobs outside, those jobs would not be able to pay for his mother's medical expenses or the loan.

A man with a stocky build stated to everyone as he gathered them all to his side, "Since we are all assembled here, I suppose it is time for us to depart." He was the head of this particular mission.

They exited the facility in a group and piled into a vehicle that was being driven by one of the workers from the Knight's Order.

They arrived at their destination quickly, and there was a large gate that was directly in front of them. This gate appeared to be very tall and majestic.

 "This is really a low level gate." The leader said as he assessed the gate

Another guy commented, "If it wasn't a low level gate, do you think low level Knights like us will be summoned," they all agreed with him, it it was s tronger gate, the Knights Order would not call people like them.

The entire group were all low level Knights, according to the Knight's Order's ranking of strent, the low level Knights were further devided into 1 star Knights, 2 star Knights and lastly the 3 star Knights. After the low level Knights, then they was the  middle level Knight called Grand Knight, the Grand Knights were also further divided into 3 stages just like the low level Knights.

Sky's entire group was only made up of mostly 2 star Knights, only Sky and the leader were different. The leader was the strongest being 3 star Knight and Sky was the weakest being a 1star Knight and not just a normal 1star Knight, a 1 star Knight who could not fight.

The Order would only assign low level gates to low level Knight clear. Since higher gates would only mean sending them to their deaths.

"Gear up, even though this is a low level gate, we shouldn't let our guards down," said the leader of the group.

As everyone entered the gate, they did so while wearing their gears, which primarily consisted of protective armor,  while holding their respective weapons.