Nocturnio (15.4.9979 AS)
“So, how is school going?” Tristan asked Ai with a teasing tone just to receive a glare from his friend.
“What’s with that question? You know all too well, that I’m not even allowed to go to school yet!” Ai said while puffing her cheeks. “Although, you promised me a school, where they teach you how to use difficult spells, I get to learn theory all day long! They even sealed my magic powers for the time being! And all I learn at that so called school is how to behave in the demon’s society!”
“And do you like it?” Tristan asked once again.
Ai deflated her cheeks and looked all shy. “I love it! Even though, I’m not even learning magic yet, everything I lean feels so exciting. Also, it’s crazy how this world uses magic for everything, you even got those portals all over the city to get from place to place!”
“Yeah, they are pretty practical, but please don’t go using them when it’s too late in the night, for some reason the ‘Clanless’ are going nuts recently, they even canceled our patrols for more than four months!”
“Yeah, yesterday I read in the newspaper they attacked a girl coming home late from a party, luckily she was a student at the Guardian Academy and managed to fight them off all by herself. But yeah, I shouldn’t wander alone through the city when it’s dark.” Ai stated concerned.
“Well, that incident caused the academy to change their attitude towards them and to also send us the youngest course to try and help dealing with them. For that reason, I won’t be able to visit you anymore as often as I usually do, at least till the ‘Clanless’ go back behaving normal once again.” Tristan sounded apologetic.
“Oh, that’s cool with me; I mean, that’s a great opportunity to gain further fighting experience and that will help you grow stronger, won’t it?” Ai answered sounding a little jealous.
Tristan just nodded. “Well then, I guess I should get going then, see you around” He said hugging Ai for a goodbye.
***
“I hope you know why we are here.” Sabrina said, walking up and down in front of a Tristan and his teammates. “I hope you are fully aware of the dangers of today’s mission! I don’t want any solo runs by any one of you. And yes, I especially mean the two of you.” Sabrina glared at Tristan and Laura who were sitting next to each other.
“All you have to do is follow my and Cait’s orders, nothing more nothing less. If we say let us behind and run, then you run, even if that means our death.” Sabrina said while she continued walking up and down, causing her raven black hair she had tied to a pony jumped up and down.
“Yes, Sir!” Her protégés answered in unison.
“Now to the details of the mission, Cait would you mind?” She smiled at her best friend.
“Yes, I do mind, thank you very much.” Caitlyn murmured before she walked in front of the group. “We located most of the hideouts the ‘Clanless’ are using and so today we are striking simultaneously all their hideouts at once. So, they don’t have any chance of escape.”
Caitlyn waited a little to see if someone had a question and then continued. “We are not allowed to let anyone of them escape; they aren’t very strong, but still crazy people willing to do anything to destroy the order of our society. Thus we will build two teams, one vanguard, and one will stay behind intercepting anyone that wants to escape.”
Sabrina clapped loudly and walked next to Caitlyn. “Very well, Oriana, Annie, Laura and Tristan you are the vanguards with me in and the rest of you are with Cait. So, now let’s go and check on our equipment and talk about some in team strats.” She pointed at her team and signed them to leave the classroom with her.
As Tristan was about to do the same, she held him back. “Don’t do anything stupid this time ok? I don’t want to cause aunty any grief by telling her youngest died because he was a cocky idiot.”
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Tristan rolled his eyes. He knew Sabrina was one of the few people that cared for him, but sometimes she was just annoying him when she tried to be too overprotective of him. “Don’t worry, something like that won’t happen ever again.”
“Good, now let’s go and check our equipment.” Sabrina said, smiling like the morning sun.
***
After taking quite a few Portal rides they finally reached the farthest district in the west of Nocturnio. None of them had been there before, but one could feel the difference between the city center and this district. There were no skyscrapers in sight, and many of the houses looked very poorly built.
Many children stared at them with big eyes, when they noticed they had come through the Portal no one had used in months.
“No wonder they could hide for so long around here, it looks like we are the first patrol they’ve ever seen in their lives.” Annie noted as they walked the unfamiliar, badly paved streets of the City they thought, they knew.
“Yeah, but who would have thought, there were parts of Nocturnio that looked like this.” Oriana answered, keeping all her senses sharp.
The amount of houses they passed by, decreased steadily as they continued walking towards the west until the paved ground finally left place green almost endless seeming hills.
Sabrina smiled as she pointed towards one of the hills. “That one is our goal, now get ready guys. On my signal we jump into action.” With a nod Caitlyn gave her team a signal and they started spreading around the targeted hill.
Annie and Oriana casted some buffs on Tristan, Laura and Sabrina. “Sorry, we can’t do much more, but we have to save up our mana for the fight.” Annie bowed to Laura. “No problem, don’t worry about something like that, we have our own means of buffing up ourselves.” Laura answered with a reassuring smile to her friend.
Laura took out a piece of paper from her pocket and poured mana into it. By doing so, she had summoned two bastard swords. After spending the past months training with Tristan she had got used to fight with the swords, she had just summoned as weapon.
After, almost an eternity, or at least that’s how it felt to Tristan and his friends, Caitlyn finally used her Commu to give them the signal, that their preparations were done.
“Good, now follow me if you can!” Sabrina shouted with a happy tone, smiling as bright as a hipster when entering a thrift shop.
“You bet we can” Tristan and Laura said, disappearing simultaneously into thin air. Although, Laura was still faster than Tristan, Tristan had managed to be able to keep up close behind her. They passed Sabrina like a flash, leaving her with big eyes.
“I knew the cutie pie was fast, but I didn’t know Trist was so fast….” She muttered to herself, before realizing they were going too far ahead of her. “Hey, wait, wait for me! And that’s an order!” She screamed behind them in a half serious voice.
But all her objections weren’t heard by Laura nor Tristan, both of them were running at top speed as they encountered the first ‘Clanless’. No question asked, Laura knocked him out by hitting the back of his head with the hilt of her sword.
“Well, done.” Tristan effortlessly parried the fireball a ‘Clanless’ had sent him with his sword. Once again Tristan disappeared into thin air just to appear in front of the ‘Clanless’ who had attacked him and with one kick he sent him flying causing him to lose consciousness.
Meanwhile, Laura was already taking out the next ‘Clanless’ that attacked her. “They are too weak.” She pointed out disappointed.
“I know.” Tritan answered as he threw his sword at the ‘Clanless’ that was trying to escape the scene to warn his comrades and pinned him down on the wall of the cave inside the hill.
“Ahhh, YoU DoN’t GeT, WhY wE dO WhAt wE dO-“ The screaming man, that had one of Tristan swords piercing his left hand pinning him down, was forcefully shut up by another ‘Clanless’.
“They don’t need to know why we do what we do.” The woman said as one of the tattoos on her hand started glowing in red, and a mass of wind started blowing at Tristan and Laura. Tristan summoned a sword pierced it to the ground, so the wind wouldn’t blow him away.
Laura active her active and threw her one of her swords at the woman. She had infused the sword with her mana before, so it was able to flight in a straight line despite the strong wind. The sword pierced the woman’s abdomen and sent her flying for a few meters.
“Impressive.” Tristan honestly praised her. And Laura reached at her sword that came back to her hands.
“You guys are fast!” Sabrina said as she finally reached the two of them. Sabrina survived the room and looked impressed. “Well done guys now let’s split up and see if we can catch more of them.”
Unluckily for Sabrina there was they didn’t find any other ‘Clanless’ in the cave system, although, it seemed like the cave was being used by a lot more ‘Clanless’ than the ones Tristan and Laura had eliminated.
“Looks like some rats got away before we arrived.” Sabrina pointed out with a serious voice. “What a letdown! Makes me feel sick, Annie hurry and come here, your big sis needs her dose Annie!” Sabrina said, jumping towards her little sister, who hid behind Tristan.
“Help!” sShe screamed and ran out of the cave looking for Caitlyn to save her from her cruel fate.