Azura wasn’t sure how adventurers got by without cleaning enchantments on their equipment. The latest batch of weak monsters had been a few Mudmucks, not dangerous, but definitely gross. Jackson had gotten some on his equipment, but didn’t seem all that bothered. Azura on the other hand had been the one dealing with them, if his equipment wasn’t enchanted to prevent things sticking on it he would be an absolute mess. “Next time you can deal with any slime type monsters. That was disgusting.”
Jackson laughed. “I don’t know, you’re all clean, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to deal with them? I don’t mind a little dirt, but too much would weigh me down.” He sighed. There was no arguing that he was the one better equipped for that particular job, which only annoyed him more. He didn’t use fire magic that often, but he would definitely be using it if he ran into any more slime types. He’d turn them to ashes before their goo got anywhere near him. “Besides, I get the feeling my dance partner is getting pretty close, so best I save my energy.”
He sighed. He of course sensed the incoming beast, but had been holding out hope that it might still go in another direction. It hadn’t been going straight towards them after all. Whatever it was it had taken plenty of detours and was going at a pace that could easily be described as meandering. “Any idea why it’s been moving like that? It’s more irregular than the rest of the odd monster behavior We’ve encountered out here.” They had been out here for a few days already, and so far have just been stuck with the annoying cat and mouse. They had to sleep in shifts due to the monster attacks continuing into the night, so neither of them was particularly well rested.
“My guess is that the goal is to keep us high strung waves of weaker monsters that keep us from peak condition, and the presence of a stronger one that keeps us in check.” It made sense. Neither of them could afford to waste energy, which made dealing with the weaker ones far more difficult than it had any right to be. Either way, the monster was almost upon them, so hopefully that strategy would be done after it’s dealt with.
“The monster is probably a rank-5 or 6, that would make the commander at least a rank-6, maybe even a 7 right?” Obviously given that ranks were assigned by people and not the monsters the rule didn’t always hold up, but in general commanders were ranked based on how powerful the monsters under their sway are. Of course some powerful monsters have low resistance, and there are weaker monsters that are extremely resistant, so there are plenty of exceptions.
“I’m not sure about the commander yet, but the incoming one is a rank-6. Well that or it’s one of the extra dangerous ones that can hide its powers.” That seemed unlikely to him, if it had the mental fortitude to conceal its powers than the commander would have to be at least 2 ranks above it, and if it was really a rank-7 or 8 than they would need to retreat right now, because they might be able to beat this monster, but a rank-10 commander was well above their pay grade.
“I doubt it. They were using it as a threat to keep us on guard. What use would hiding its powers be?” Well then again they had already talked about the alien mindset of monsters. Well he supposed it didn’t really matter. There wasn’t any point to speculating they were going to find out pretty soon after all. “Besides, if it comes down to it our retreat path is almost entirely clear.” He had been focusing on that more than anything else. It was important that running away was always a viable option
***
Despite the complete dread the thought of arriving in the capital brought him Azura’s copy actually found himself enjoying the trip there. An airship big enough to carry the hundred or so first years was a pretty impressive luxury. It made sense that the school would be able to secure something like this. They probably didn’t even pay for it. If he had to guess it would be the city of Delford itself that paid for it. After all, the more of the students the city could convince to ally with them the more powerful Delford would become. The graduates of Grand Forge tended to be the best of the best after all. Still he was jealous of the other copy. The other one won the coin toss, and so got to be the one to stay behind and enjoy the library and the forge.
He sighed, while the airship ride had served as a good distraction he knew their arrival in the capital was near, and he was definitely not prepared enough to deal with it. At least all the engineers on the ship had been willing to talk shop with him. He had learned a lot, and even helped out with some of the enchantments helping to make sure the ship would continue to run smoothly.
“Wow you’re still brooding huh? I thought for sure getting to play around with the ship's enchantments would cheer you up.” Lily like Katy had yet to ever meet the princess, as such she had no idea the horror that awaited him and the other nobles ‘fortunate’ enough to meet her regularly.
“It did, for a while anyway, but the time of arrival draws near and I once more find myself anxious.” Lily gave him a blank stare. He realized his nerves had led him to reflexively revert to the noble stance and manner that had been drilled into him since he was little. “At least this time I have some human shields.” He forced himself to relax, and tried to add his usual smug humor.
“Good luck with that, you’re not mean enough to use anyone that would just accept it, and the rest of us are more than willing to throw you to the wolves just to see you flounder for once.” He rolled his eyes. Lily’s feral grin told him she was 100% serious, and he wasn’t super pleased with that revelation. Not that he could say he was surprised.
“That about checks out. So other than my impending suffering that you all will enjoy far too much, looking forward to anything else in the capital?” The princess really was the only reason he hated going there. Otherwise the capital was an amazing place. It was huge, with buildings packed in leaving only a little space between them. There was just about every kind of shop imaginable, and there were several great libraries. That wasn’t even counting the crafts district. There were all kinds of tools for rent, and you could even buy materials in bulk for surprisingly cheap.
“Well the old lady mentioned that we would be sparring the royal knights, so that sounds fun.” He flinched at the casual, not to mention rude address of the headmistress. He didn’t like the woman, but he could at the very least acknowledge that she deserved respect. A right Lily very much did not afford her. Aside from the casual disrespect he understood the sentiment even if he could safely say he wasn’t as happy for it as she was.
“It won’t be someone at a level we can beat, you know. Their goal is going to be to show that they have the resources to make us even stronger after we graduate, and to convince us that this is the place we’d want to go after we graduate. I wouldn’t even be surprised if we were facing Lux.” He shivered. The strongest of the royal knights had earned that title. Even worse he was fiercely loyal, which would normally be great, but when the one he was serving was the princess, well suffice to say despite being a super nice guy Lux was still someone he didn’t want to interact with more than absolutely necessary.
“That’s what makes it exciting. I can’t wait to face someone strong like that. Besides you said their fighting styles were super defensive right?” I don’t care if I lose, but I want to break their guard at least once.” He sighed, a part of him regretted calling her out on the shy act she had initially put up. After all, once she had dropped it completely it became increasingly clear that she was a battle nut like none other. She regularly beat him in their spars, and was always annoyed he wasn’t going all out against her. No matter how much he told her he was. Not counting the extra resources he had stored away he was fighting at his best.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“No I said Lux’s fighting style is super defensive since his job is to protect the princess, the rest of them are a total grab bag. Also don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not going to break Lux’s guard unless he lets you. Lux once tanked an all out blow from my father. Of course he lost the spar badly, but even blocking that one attack is extremely impressive. I would have been turned to ash in an instant. Not like anyone would be left to notice since it probably would have vaporized half the continent.” The worst part was that he wasn’t even exaggerating. Lux had asked to see Tiamat’s full power, and he had gotten it. Azura was just glad Lux had managed to block it or Delford and beyond would be a smoking crater.
“Maybe not, but I’ll be damned if I don’t give it a shot. Besides I doubt if we fight him that he’ll be going all out on students, I just have to catch him by surprise.” He just chuckled. Lux wouldn’t be going all out because the knight didn’t have to, and it wasn’t like Lux didn’t have experience sparring people around their age. Lux was after all the princesse’s chosen knight. Which of course meant the knight was often a tool in her game of messing with the nobles. Himself included. Like it or not, he was fairly confident at least a few of his secrets were going to be forced out into the open on this trip.
***
Azura was currently eating his words. He was at least right about the monster not hiding his strength. Which was especially important for his pride because he was wrong about everything else. The weak monsters weren’t to keep them on edge, they were to draw them in. The stronger one was merely a distraction so they would walk right into an ambush of more stealthy monsters. They weren’t terribly strong, but there were a lot of them. Jackson was doing an admirable job of keeping the giant orc occupied, but Azura was starting to falter. The blade mantises which made up the vast majority of the fight were a difficult foe for him to handle in big numbers like this. He had already given up on keeping several tricks under his sleeve and had already made his 2 copies.
Unfortunately even 3 of him was definitely not enough to deal with the seemingly endless number of his rank-4 foes. The bug-like creatures were roughly a head taller than him, and their long scythe-like blades were sharp and sturdy enough to cut through steel with ease. He wasn’t confident enough in his enchantments to think they’d withstand a direct hit from them, so he was forced to parry and dodge mostly. Which was getting increasingly difficult as the swarm continued to grow. He wouldn’t be surprised if there were more than a hundred of them, and he had already killed 13 of them. The fight between Jackson and the orc was ironically enough the only reason he hadn’t been overwhelmed. The monsters gave it a wide berth, so he was using it as a means to keep them from surrounding him. Of course that meant he had to focus on both fights, but now that the mantises weren’t cloaked anymore his clairvoyance was up to the task.
Their camouflage was definitely solid, but they couldn’t hold it up while they were doing anything strenuous. Which didn’t help as much as he’d like with the veritable sea of them closing in on him. He winced as Jackson took a nasty looking hit. He had wondered why Jackson hadn’t really bought any combat equipment, but it would seem like The guide's magic was based on returning damage that was dealt to him, which would explain why he said he wasn’t well suited to fighting weak monsters. The Orc, while easily twice the size of Jackson, was the one who crumpled over after the blow was dealt.
He didn’t have time to celebrate the current success of his temporary partner though, too busy barely surviving the onslaught of his own foes. He took a deep breath and was very thankful for his friends when he gave the signal for the familiars to come to his aid. He’d have to make sure none of them got hurt, but they were all better suited for this particular fight than he was. Reign and Callum reigned fire from the sky where the monsters couldn’t reach, and It turned out to be a good thing that Argent had been able to come along after all, because his mobility was severely limited in this fight anyway. Gaia could regenerate any mass she lost, so was proving very effective at binding up the enemies so that Reign and Callum had easier targets. Phantasma was pulling her weight by making illusions of all of them disorienting the monsters even further.
It proved to be a very good decision to bring them out too, because apparently the Orc had learned that hitting Jackson was damaging itself more than the guide, because it was rushing at him now. Argent was made of tough stuff, but he was still young the full might of a rank-6 would do some real damage even to the platinum serpent’s scales. A magic circle appeared under the orc forcing it to kneel under the sudden pressure. It’s knee slammed into the ground causing cracks to spread from the point of impact. The gravity spell didn’t hold it for long, but it was long enough for Jackson to get back in front of it before it stood up.
“Nicely done kid, sure would have been nice to know you had so many tricks up your sleeve!” He rolled his eyes. Technically speaking only the copies were his trick, the familiars were borrowed, and the gravity spell was nothing too special. It would have been useless if Jackson hadn’t already inflicted so much damage on the orc.
“I’m heading to World’s End! I feel like having a few tricks up my sleeve could be safely inferred!” He had definitely made the right call with the guide. As much as he wanted to hide his abilities, if he had walked into this ambush alone he’d be a fine bloody mist by now. Despite Jackson shrugging them off, it was clear that the orc had some serious power behind his swings. With the familiars out he finally had the time to actually observe the orc and not just sense it with clairvoyance. It was an ugly thing, a tooth on each side of its mouth extending over its upper lip like tusks, and its face littered with scars and hideously deformed by human standards were certainly unpleasant to look at. If you ignored the face and the pale green skin it would almost look human. Only taller and buffer than any human he had ever met.
Jackson didn’t say anything back, which was understandable given his current task got much harder now that the orc was wary of hitting him. Still it seemed Jackson didn’t lack regular offensive actions, because the guide seemed to have no trouble keeping the orc on the back foot even now. Azura focused back on his own battle. The familiars had done an excellent job, the horde had been cut down significantly. There were probably a few dozen left, and they were all scattered and confused. “Thanks for keeping them off me Argent, I’m going to help shrink into a ring again ok.” The serpent hissed in what he took as agreement. Argent hadn’t quite mastered size manipulation, but a few enchantments along his scales allowed Azura to help guide him through the process.
Once Argent was safely wrapped around his finger again he got back to work culling the mantises. Now that they were disoriented it was much easier to take them out. Their blades were tough enough to go toe to toe with his enchanted sword, but that didn’t hold up with the rest of their bodies. He was able to get past their defenses and deliver killing blows much easier now. Between the familiars, his copies, and him they were able to clean up the rest of the mantises easy enough, which made him appreciate the familiars even more, because rank-4s were not easy opponents. In this case their rank was earned more due to the fact their ability to hide made them exceptionally good at ambushes than their individual strength, but even aside from the stealth they were stronger than any typical rank-3s.
He wasn’t surprised to see Jackson delivering the finishing blow to the orc while he was mopping up the remaining monsters. Although he can safely say he wasn’t expecting said finishing blow to be yanking the orcs heart out of its chest. It was a valuable crafting material though, so he could only assume Jackson had read the notice, and intended to sell him plenty of materials which worked just fine for him. Hopefully things were going more smoothly at the academy.