“Aren’t these guys from the AA? Should we be doing this?” One of the Radiant members asked, seemingly possessed by a modicum of intellect. Considering their Guild's precarious situation, it wouldn’t be a good idea to get on the Agency’s wrong side.
Unfortunately for him, his companions had not been equally blessed.
The leader of the group, the G-rank who had verbally assaulted James, turned to face him, overtaken by wroth “Shut the fuck up. We can’t let these assholes get away with talking shit about us, or we’ll never get any respect. Ever.”
That was apparently enough to quell the glimmer of sense that had emerged, and the thugs spread out, slowly circling Team 0 as if to tell them there would be no way out.
“You people really love being dramatic, huh? An ambush at night in a park is almost too cliché.” James sarcastically commented, drawing snorts from his friends.
The eerie calm Team 0 was showing seemed to unnerve some, but after the earlier verbal browbeating, no one dared say anything, even if it was slowly becoming evident that not all was as it appeared.
The Radiant thugs’ leader, a robust figure with a wild mane of hair and piercing eyes, stepped forward, raising his hand to summon a translucent energy blade from thin air. It crackled and hummed, illuminating his smug face. “I can’t wait to hear what kind of jokes you’ll make after I’m done with you.”
Beside him, a slender woman with raven-black hair began to manipulate the fountain water, which writhed around her like serpents, waiting for a command. Another member, a lanky young man with glasses, started to hum, and in response, ethereal chains, shimmering and sharp, began to manifest around him.
The remaining two took their cues from their comrades. One, a bald behemoth whose muscles bulged, transformed his hands into massive stone fists. The last one took out an extendible baton, seemingly a more common variation of Warrior.
For all their bluster, Team 0 remained unfazed.
Lauren winked at James and whispered “Elemental Talents and Warrior variations. Predictable. Let me handle the woman." In a blink, she vanished into thin air, her innate stealth skills rendering her nearly invisible.
Maria rolled her eyes, her fingers dancing with anticipation. "Let me warm up a bit." Flames encased her hands, flaring out and sending an intense heatwave across the park. The fire's light cast menacing, flickering shadows across the scene, further distorting the face-off.
Without waiting for a signal, the leader lunged at James, energy blade whirring menacingly.
Drawing upon his willpower, James’s fists ignited with strength. He deftly sidestepped the leader's lunge and delivered a punch to the side of the blade, his reinforced gloves easily crushing the construct, sending shards of light everywhere.
Daniel stepped in front of Maria, acting as a human shield. The massive stone-fisted Radiant member lunged at him, throwing a punch that would've shattered boulders. But Daniel was a tank in every sense of the word. He absorbed the blow without needing any skill or his shield and retaliated with a powerful shoulder charge that sent the man tumbling.
The water snakes shot through the chaos, seeking to at least do some damage in a fight that was evidently going very differently than what they had envisioned, but James dodged them, avoiding a blow that broke the stone pavement.
The attack, however, at least managed to grant the leader some time, which he took to conjure up another blade.
Ezekiel's hands glowed a soft hue of white. He focused on Lauren, enhancing her agility and speed. Soon after, the water-manipulating woman let out a shriek. She had been silently attacked by Lauren, who deftly maneuvered around the shadows, hitting her in the back of the head with precision strike from the blunt end of her knife guard, neutralizing the threat.
Seeing the situation quickly spiraling out of their control, the young man with the ethereal chains aimed at Maria, perhaps thinking the fire mage was a key threat.
The chains lunged forward with incredible speed, seeking to bind her and remove her fiery offense. Maria, however, was already prepared. A swirling flame barrier encased her, instantly melting the chains upon contact and turning them into nothing more than glowing embers.
James glanced over at the last thug, the one with the extendible baton, who had remained on the outskirts, trying to find an opening.
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But before James could address him, Lauren had already taken care of the threat. Moving through the shadows like a wraith, she appeared behind the man and, with a swift motion, kicked the back of his knees, causing him to buckle. In an instant, she had disarmed him of his baton and had one of her knives pointed at his throat.
The thugs' leader, now almost alone and watching his teammates being systematically taken down, roared in frustration. "Enough of this!" With a motion of his sword, he summoned multiple additional energy blades, which hovered around him, ready for launch.
Unfortunately for him, this was real life, and no one in their right mind would allow him to take his time to craft his final attack. Maria took this chance to aim a concentrated fireball at the leader's feet, creating a small explosion and sending him flying back, disrupting the attack and making the blades shoot widely into the park.
The female mage, though dazed from Lauren’s surprise attack, started to gather her wits. The water from the fountain began to rise, swirling violently, forming a defensive barrier around her while simultaneously lashing out at Team Zero in an unpredictable, amorphous manner.
Ezekiel reacted swiftly, empowering everyone’s AGI and allowing them to avoid anything more than a glancing hit until she seemingly exhausted her reserves and decided to concentrate on defense.
Daniel soon found his opponent coming back for round two. While the behemoth was likely stronger in raw stats, Daniel’s experience as a tank made him versatile. He planted his feet firmly, taking on a defensive stance. The ground beneath his feet cracked from the pressure he applied, showing that if needed, Daniel could become an immovable object.
The Warrior charged, but Daniel - showing his cunning - merely sidestepped and tripped him, using his momentum against him. The behemoth crashed face-first into the ground, the sheer momentum of his charge sending him sprawling on the stone path, leaving him momentarily stunned.
James, having neutralized the leader’s secondary attempt at retaliation, turned his attention to the chain-wielder. While the man's primary chains had been disrupted by Maria’s fire, he quickly summoned more. But this time, the chains were cloaked in a dark energy.
Not wanting to take any chances, James used his enhanced speed from Ezekiel’s buff to close the distance quickly, his fist crashing like an angry bull into the Conjurer’s construct.
Knowing to expect a more powerful chain thanks to his Thakinetic Awareness, he pumped enough mana into it to cause an explosion, disrupting them and allowing him easy access. The caster staggered backward, trying to raise his chains defensively, but James was relentless. With a powerful uppercut, the thug was sent sprawling.
Lauren moved to assist Maria, who was engaged with the leader. The two battled it out in a flashy show of power as he cast more and more blades of light, which were countered by fireballs and waves of flames.
Using her stealth abilities, Lauren took advantage of his distraction and approached from behind, slashing at his legs - not deep enough to cause lasting harm, but enough to hamper his movement.
This gave Maria the perfect opportunity. She thrust her hands forward, casting an explosive fireball next to him, sending him flying back, skidding on the ruined stone painfully.
The stone-fisted giant once again attempted to stand up and rejoin the fight, but a brutal blow to the chin from Daniel sent him back down, this time for good.
With just the water mage left, all five team 0 members converged on where the liquid dome protecting her still churned, though its intensity was lessened from the initial stage.
The girl was apparently unwilling to come out and face them, but they didn’t have many options for how to deal with her beyond just waiting her out.
“I could try to heat up the water. That should make her realize it's over quickly enough.” Maria suggested, a small fireball coming into being above her hand.
James waved her off exasperatedly. “Let’s try not to boil her alive. That would give them the moral high ground after all our hard work. No, I’ll stay here with Lauren to wait until she’s consumed all her mana, which shouldn’t take too long. Ez, check on the others with Maria to make sure no permanent damage has been done and heal them up a bit if necessary.” Then, turning to the dark trees in the distance, he added “Daniel, a little rat is hiding in the bushes over there.”
With a smirk, the Tank walked off in that direction, looking very much like a big feline stalking his prey.
The others jumped to action too, rounding up the injured and, in the case of the leader, healing him to prevent serious consequences.
Lauren scratched her head sheepishly at that “I think I might have gotten a bit too excited. It’s just that it’s our first fight since we came back, so I’m still not one hundred percent in control of my new strength.”
James gave her a look, seeing her unrepentant smirk, but decided that since Ezekiel was there to patch him up, there was no need to discuss the issue further.
A couple of minutes later, the water dome was finally released, revealing the raven-haired Awakener struggling to stand up. The defiant expression on her face would have been more heroic if she hadn’t just taken part in what should have been a punitive mission, so James felt very little remorse as he roughly grabbed her, pulling her to where he could feel Daniel holding a struggling Carter.
The mousy-faced boy had apparently decided to hang around, possibly to enjoy the spectacle, but given how he was gibbering in terror, he hadn’t taken the result well.
Pushing the tired girl into a sitting position next to her unconscious companions, James finally addressed her “You realize how stupid this was, right? If you had actually beaten us up, we could have called upon our superiors, and you don’t have the Golden Sun’s protection anymore.”
The water mage remained silent while the little spy kept twisting his hands and looking around at the broken battlefield in horror.
“Well, it doesn’t really matter anyway. They were way too weak to do anything to us.” Lauren commented derisively, not having to exaggerate much.
The others all chuckled. It was true, after all. Despite being newly minted G-ranks, Team 0 had very little trouble handling what should have been a group with at least some experience. The G-ranks, at least, should have put up more of a fight.
There is a pretty stark difference between us and them. Not just in equipment, though it helps. But it’s obvious that their Guild only cares about those who climb the ranks quickly and gives minimal resources to those still in the early stages. Considering how they’ve had free rein over new Awakeners for so long, it’s not a surprise.
But things were starting to change. The AA, spurred by the Dawn Initiative’s success, would likely open their coffers to building up new teams. New Awakeners would have more options open to them in time.
Still, to get to that future, bad apples like the Radiant Guild needed to be removed from the board, and to do that, their plan had to continue.
Putting on a superior smirk, James added “It doesn’t surprise me, though. For a Guild to hold Callum Wright as the standard, it had to be a shithole.”
Seeing how hard the water mage was clenching her jaw, James felt sure the message would arrive where it needed to.
Now, let’s see if the fish takes the bait.