"Hey, you kid. Are you the one that used the spell that killed most of the shades?" A brusque feminine voice asked Adimir. When he turned around, he was surprised to see it was that terrifying gold rank fire mage. They had long since entered the guild by now doing who knows what and Adimir was occasionally helping out with the defense using his stone machine gun spell.
"Yeah, that's me. Why do you ask?" Adimir answered putting up his best innocent child act. He had a bad feeling about this person coming to ask about him specifically, so he wanted to get answers about why. And what's more effective on people than a small adorable child? Other than puppies and kittens that is.
"The guild master needs you. Follow me." She told him without batting an eye at his acting skills. It seems she's more resistant than he thought to cute things. How frustrating.
Watching the back of the gold ranker as she walked towards the guild without looking back to see if he was following, he couldn't help but sigh. It seems that when one is a gold ranker, they're most likely used to getting their way. Not that he'd have the guts to go against one of them when they're a small army compressed into one person. Adimir started rushing after her as fast as his small legs could carry him. When they went into the guild, they climbed a set of stairs all the way to the third floor. He hasn't been anywhere past the first floor in any guild he's been in much less all the way to the third floor so Adimir was a bit curious as to what the third floor would have.
When they made it to the third floor the fire mage brought him to a room in the back and opened it. Inside the other people that he saw walking with her when they made their way back into the guild earlier. The white-haired man that Adimir's instincts didn't like looked up to see who entered and called out.
"Did you bring him, Cass?" He asked the fire mage.
"Yup. This kid is the one that Yohan told us about." Cass answered as she closed the door behind Adimir. The room was spacious easily being 20 by 20 feet large and had a round table in the center with a map of what looked like the town placed on it. The other people were all looking at the map and some figurines that were on it. Adimir didn't pay much attention to it however as the man in leather armor set his eyes on him causing all the muscles in his body to seize up in fear as his fight or flight instinct began to take over.
"My name is Rick. I'm the guild master of this branch. What's your name?" He asked him with a reassuring smile on his face as if he realized that Adimir was panicking and was doing what he could to calm him.
"My name is Adimir. It's an honor to meet you guild master, but why exactly did you want me of all people?" Adimir replied.
"Well you see Adimir the guards, the church, and the guild are going to be cooperating to attack the source of this shade invasion and we need mages who can take out a large number of shades in one attack if we are to get close enough to the source to stop this. I'd have Cass do it or one of my assistants do it, but we'll be needing heavy hitters like them for the source. But I've heard about how easily you managed to push back the shades single handily. So, I want you to be one of the main forces to push back the shades. What do you say?"
Adimir took a moment to weigh the odds in his mind. He could accept and face a swarm of killer ghosts with the help of three different powerful forces in the city, and possibly get a big reward and get his teams name out there. Or he could refuse and lose out on all the good things of accepting. Not a difficult choice he had to admit.
"I'll accept on one condition," Adimir announced his eyes glittering mischievously.
"What is it?" The guild master asked him.
"I want my team the hellhounds to be allowed to take part in the attack on the source if we manage to clear out the shades and set up a formation that allows the rest of the adventurers to be able to handle them with relative ease," Adimir answered. The fire mage known as Cass scoffed and slammed a closed fist onto the round table.
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"Do you really think you can manage to pull that off and still keep up with us? You're still an iron rank. Know your place." She objected with a snarl. However, before she could continue the guild master glared and she stopped talking.
Albeit reluctantly based on the bitter look on her face. Rick then looked at Adimir with an amused look on his face.
"The only reason I want gold rankers on this mission is because we don't know how strong the enemy will be." Rick sternly said to the gold-ranked mage.
"If you could manage to pull off a stunt like that, I'd treat you to a meal and allow you and your team to come along with us if you think you can handle it," Rick said.
"We can handle it," Adimir said quickly with a look of determination evident on his face. Rick nodded satisfied with his answer.
"Alright, we'll be meeting up at the town hall with the other two groups. Once all the forces have arrived there, we'll need you to cooperate with the other forces mages to hold back the shade from getting into town hall by any means necessary." He declared to the others in the room.
"Now let's head out and begin coordinating the adventurers," Rick added before walking away to carry out his plan. As the group of formidable fighters and mages left one of the adventurers in full plate steel armor with a dragon insignia on the chest plate stopped and looked down at Adimir. He then patted his shoulder.
"You've got guts kid I'll give you that much. Good luck." He said before following the others. Only when the others leave the room did Adimir release the grin he was suppressing. He's managed to secure his team a spot on the forces to end this entire disaster which would undoubtedly raise his team's fame significantly if they managed to stop the shade invasion.
The only problem was that he needed to figure out a way to not only kill as many of the shades as quickly as possible, but a way to keep on pushing them back without him being present to take them out. A simple machine gun spell would not be enough to do the trick. He'd need more information on these shades before starting to formulate any concrete plans. And who better to ask than the knowledgeable Mira when it comes to something as important as this?
She's proven reliable thus far when it comes to worldly knowledge like this. Not to mention she already knew about them to the extent she'd be confused about why they'd attack during the daytime in the first place. He then rushed down the stairs of the guild and out of it to search for Mira. And after a bit of searching, he managed to locate her and Tauna taking a break and eating some sandwiches while taking a break.
Seeing him rush over slightly panting from the mini marathon he just ran Tauna raised an eyebrow while taking a bite of her sandwich. Mira, on the other hand, took a more direct approach.
"Hey, Adimir. What's the rush?" She asked him tilting her head slightly. Taking a moment to compose himself he asked her his question.
"Mira tell me what do you know about these shade things? Anything you know is fine. No matter how small it is." This made her look at him oddly before she nodded.
"Alright. I don't know much, but the shades typically attack during the night since that's when they're hardest to spot when they actually try and use the stealth, they're so famous for. They also usually show up when large amounts of people die in battle or in other agonizing ways. Shades are also classified as undead and are ghosts comprised entirely of mana. Why do you ask?" She informed him.
"Simple. If I can come up with a way to hold back the shades effectively our team can go with the gold rankers to stop the source of this threat! Imagine how well known our team could become if we succeed!" Adimir exclaimed grinning.
"Woah, Woah, Woah. Hold it. Going on a mission that takes gold rankers is near impossible for us! Mira and I are only steel ranks for crying out loud!" Tauna exclaimed with an incredulous look on her face.
"Well, the guild master said that they didn't know how strong the enemy is so there's a chance we're capable of handling it. Besides who said we have to solve the problem. We could just help with dealing with the enemies that pop up along the way and that would be enough." Adimir shot back.
"That's pretty shameless of you to suggest." Mira pointed out.
"Sometimes a bit of shamelessness can help out a person's career." He replied with a sly smile.
"Well, I suppose your right. Not every battle can be won fairly. As you've shown us in the past." Mira admitted with an identical sly smile. Meanwhile, Tauna was looking back and forth between the two with an appalled expression.
"You have got to be kidding me. Am I the sensible one for once? That is not natural." Tauna wondered aloud. Mira ignored her and leaned forward with a fire in her eyes.
"So, do you have a plan for taking out the shades?" She asked. This question turned Adimir's sly smile into a full-blown downright devilish grin.
"I think I might just have one. I'll let you know later what it is." He answered her. Mira nodded.
"Everyone gather around! We will be marching out towards the town hall! I want all our damage soaking adventurers on the outside holding back the shades! Mages will be the center while everyone else is in between the damage tanks and the mages." The guild master shouted out orders as he walked towards the front line.
"That's our cue to start heading out," Adimir said with a smirk before heading towards the center of the circle formation that was being formed by the adventurers.
Because they didn't have any formal training in these formations it took a good five minutes for everyone to get together. But when did they through the mages casting various spells to clear out the shades in their direct path and the warriors forcing back the shades from every other direction they made for a fearsome foe. It sort of reminded Adimir of tanks with how the shades relentless assaults couldn't even slow down their march. Now all Adimir needed was to finish up planning his counterattack against the shades to wipe them out to a sufficient degree. Things were already crazy in this town, and if everything went according to his plan they'd only get crazier.