In the following month, the 10 teams of 3rd years at Rouclier were taught the basics of survival and how to operate in a team of 5. All this was to prepare them for their first few missions, in which they would be tasked to kill for the first time in their life. Though it would be a monster or beast of either F-Rank or E-Rank, and not another human being, it nevertheless would be the first time for some among them to witness the death of a creature, something they needed to get used to if they were to be sent to fight in the war.
Seeing as Corvo's team managed to get through the month without problems, today would be the day on which they would receive their first mission of this nature by Kassandra Lambert.
"Alright, Team 6! Since you managed to get through training without much of a problem, I think it is time for your first mission. You will be able to choose one from two missions of different rank, and I would advise you to be careful with your choice. Are all of you familiar with the ranking system of creatures in Merdelum?", Lambert asked into the round, with all but Mira and Brom affirming that they knew about it.
"No worries. Usually, only those with parents in the military or similar work would know about it, so let me bring you up to speed:
The monster rankings, or, as it is officially known as, the National Threat-Level-Index, is a list on which monsters and beasts are ranked according to the threat they pose to our settlements. the rank of a creature, also known as its threat-level or danger-rating, indicates how much damage a single individual of its species would be able to cause, with groups of the same species often receiving a rank of their own. The ranking of monsters and dangerous beasts is done by government officials who received information about these creatures from soldiers and mercenaries who encountered them. If the information is considered to be both yet unknown and reliable, the one who reported it would usually receive a reward befitting the rank of the creature they provided information on.
The different ranks creatures are ranked in are in alphabetical order, with threat-level F being the lowest and A the highest.
F-Rank creatures would only be able to pose a threat to a individuals or small groups of people, such as Slimes, Lesser Elementals, and the lowest of undead.
E-Ranks could endanger small settlements and villages, with examples such as Wolves, Chromatic Wyvern and Mantas, as they are the two weakest species of the dragon genus, and Goblins.
D-Ranks are considered a danger to larger settlements and cities. In this rank, one would find most humanoid monsters, such as Ogres, Minotaurs, and Trolls, as well as Water-, Wind-, and Earth-Elementals.
C-Ranks pose a threat to multiple cities and entire regions. It is within this rank one would find most other chromatic variants of dragons and high-rankling undead beings.
B-Ranks are seen as national threats, a rank dominated by powerful infernal monsters such as the Akephalos, Fire-Elementals, and the weakest of the Behemoths, including Garudas and Fenrirs, among others.
Lastly, A-Ranks pose a danger to multiple nations. Among these treats are metallic variants of dragons, the most dangerous of behemoths such as the Urterra or Blue Phoenixes, and Ankous, the most powerful undead creatures known to us.
We all know that there are monsters which surpass the A-Rank, though within Merdelum, no one saw a need for including these creatures in the official ranking, as there is nothing normal knights would be able to do against them, even if an army of them was sent to fight them. Among these continental-level threats are black-scaled dragons, for example.
By the way, a similar ranking system exists for members of the Heavenly Tribes, and is used for criminals and elite soldiers, but since only 4th-years are allowed to take on bounties, we will leave it at that.
Everything clear now?", Lambert concluded her lesson, and they all nodded in unison.
"Nice. Let's talk about the missions. The first one is an F-Rank subjugation request from a merchant in Caelum, who asks for the meat of 5 Kounelli-Rabbits, which can be found within the Foretblue forest. They are quite aggressive, though considered more of a nuisance than an actual threat, so they should be perfect to test your survival skills.
The second request is of E-Rank and comes from Relier, a nearby village. The planes between Caelum and Relier are currently terrorized by Coureur Lizards, a reptilian roughly the size of a horse, which coincidentally seems to be their preferred prey, causing them to attack merchants and travellers alike. That is, however, only if they are accompanied by horses when it's not currently their mating season, which thankfully was back in spring. The city-lord of Caelum will pay a small sum for each corpse delivered to the city.
Well then, have you decided who among you will be the leader of your team?", she asked, and Sean spoke up.
"Leader of Team 6, Sean Riddar!"
"Good choice. Supporters such as bards often have a good grasp of their team's strengths and weaknesses, and since they are usually not actively involved in combat, it is easier for them to give orders during battles.", Lambert praised the decision, though as she did so, Mira, who wanted to be the leader of the team instead, started to huff and turned away, idly digging a hole into the ground with the butt of her spear to vent her anger.
"Well then, Team-Leader Riddar, which shall it be?"
"I have already discussed it with my team earlier today, and we decided to try the harder request."
"Are you sure about that? Though the request itself does not have a fail-condition attached to it, I will consider it a fail if your team does not manage to deliver at least one lizard before tomorrow, and there will be a penalty.", Lambert warned him.
Sean looked behind himself, and, seeing as the rest of the team nodded, signalling that they were okay with this possibility, he turned back to Professor Lambert and accepted the request.
"Very well. Since you are still in training, I will accompany you throughout the mission, both to ensure that you don't cheat by buying a corpse from someone else, and to prevent you from losing your lives. However, I will only interfere if your lives are in immediate danger. If you get hurt, that's on you. Are you ready?"
"Team 6, ready to deploy.", Sean announced with a salute, and the others lined up next to him, following his example.
"Then lead the way, Team-Leader Riddar.", Lambert said, and the group made their way to the western gate, as its road connected Teles with Caelum. After showing their ID-cards to the guards at the gate, they left the city, and started to move along the road.
"Ah, this always reminds me of my first mission back when I was just starting out as a young mage.", Lambert sighed, sunken in nostalgic thoughts of the past as they traveled.
"Oh yeah, Professor, you used to be a Court-Mage, right? That's the highest government position a mage can have, if I remember correctly.", Corvo asked her.
"Yep. Though it's not as grand as it sounds. It's mostly bureaucratic tedium, such as approving the curriculum for magic academies, sorting out requests made from magi across the country, negotiating with the Magician's Guild, that kinda stuff. If it wasn't for my personal student, I would have been bored to death half of the time.", she explained.
"Personal student? You taught others before coming to Rouclier?", Corvo inquired.
"Only one person. Couldn't really shoot down the personal request of the Duke of Balmung, right?"
"Wait, Balmung? Not Merdelum?", Mira, who had listened in on the conversation as she was interested in the past of their instructor as well, blurted out in confusion, which caused the rest of the team to now pay attention as well.
"Oh yeah, Calros makes sure to omit where I used to work as a court-mage to not spark distrust in Rouclier. I really got lucky landing this job, seeing as the higher-ups not only saw past the fact that I was a beastman teaching magic, but also technically from a nation that opposes Merdelum. By the way, it was the previous emperor himself who recommended me for the position of instructor in Rouclier after he found out I was both court-mage in Balmung and the personal tutor of Lorelei Sangdracon."
"The emperor himself? You are even more amazing than I thought!", Mira exclaimed in astonishment, causing Lambert to blush.
"Aw, stop it, that's long in the past now.", she mumbled as she lowered the rim of her hat to hide her face in embarrassment. However, this raised a question from Sean.
"Professor, I know you said being a court-mage was boring at times, but why did you leave Balmung to become an instructor?"
"A number of reasons. The biggest one, however, was the passing of my own teacher, who took me under his wing after my family fled from Domitor to Balmung. After my parents died, he was the only family I had left, and once he too left this world for the next, I could not bring myself to stay there. At the funeral, I was approached by Salazar, who had been a close friend of my teacher and visited often while he was teaching me how to use fire-magic properly, who said that he could put in a good word for me with the emperor, who still owed him a favour. Since there was nothing in Balmung that held me there, I took the chance and left for Merdelum."
"Oh...sorry if my question brought up some bad memories.", Sean apologized, but Lambert waved him off.
"Don't worry about it. Like I said, it's all in the past now. I may not look it, but I lived for quite some time now. It's as they say: Time heals all wounds. Let's change the subject. Have any of you ever seen a Coureur Lizard?"
"...Do they have green and yellow scales, and spikes from their head along the spine all the way to their tail?", Eleonora asked, and Lambert nodded.
"Sounds about right."
"Then we got about three of them ahead. About 100 yards south-west from us."
"...I see. Well then, what will you do, Team 6?"
"Hm...what do you guys think? I know we said we were going to do it, but taking on three at once sounds a bit much.", Sean asked the others.
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"I agree. We have yet ta know how they's act. Taking three at a time could be ta last thing we did.", Brom confirmed.
"...How about we try to lure one of them away from the others with some bait?", Mira proposed.
"Not a bad idea, but how do we make sure just one of them goes for the bait? We should probably ask for more information first. Professor, do you know anything about those lizards?", Corvo decided to ask Lambert, who just shook her head.
"Sorry, but I can't give you more information than what was on the paper."
"Well, it was worth a try...Say, what if we try to scatter them instead of luring them? If we manage to get them to run away from one another, we could focus on a single lizard without having to face them at the same time.", Sean contemplated.
"True...aren't most beasts afraid of fire? I could burn the grass next to them with a few
"Sounds like a plan. Everyone in agreement?"
They all nodded.
"Alright, let's go with Corvo's plan then. As soon as they start to panic, Brom will draw one of them towards us with the [Taunt] skill, and we will attack the lizard just like we practized. If something goes wrong, Eleonora will use one of her smoke bombs, and we will escape like we planned it during training. Everyone ready?"
They were.
"Alright, let's get a bit closer first."
"Follow me, we have to approach opposite from the wind's direction, or they will notice us getting closer.", Eleonora explained, and took the lead.
Moments later, once they all were in position a few yards away from their prey, Corvo started to charge a
"VOLARE", Corvo yelled out, releasing the spell, which landed between the Coureur Lizards and set the grass around it on fire.
However, instead of scattering, the Coureur Lizards started to stand on their hind-legs and looked around. As soon as they found the origin of the spell, the started to run towards Corvo, who looked at them in shock, not able to move a finger.
"CORVO! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!", Sean called out to him with through his bard-skills enhanced voice, which bestowed upon the shell-shocked mage the status-effect known as courage, which counteracted all negative effects befalling one's mind, both natural and unnatural, for a short period of time, as Brom jumped in between the 3 lizards and the frightened mage.
"THE LIGHT PROTECTS!", the dwarf yelled out as he drove his kite-shield into the ground, and his entire armour started to glow in a faint golden light.
As the first lizard reached Corvo and Brom, it ran head-first into the shield of the paladin, which, due to the miracle known as {Divine Protection}, led to the lizard knocking itself out, as the effect was the same as if it had just tried to run into a solid wall.
Seizing the opportunity, Eleonora jumped at the downed lizard and stabbed the lizard in its neck with one of her daggers, killing it in the process.
Corvo, who had regained his senses thanks to Sean, immediately started to cast another spell, though this time, it was the strongest one in his arsenal,
Seeing one of them being killed by the soldiers in training, the remaining Coureur Lizards became enraged, with one of them sprinting towards Sean, and the other one lashing out at Brom as it tried to get past him and attack Corvo and Eleonora behind him.
"[Mira, become as swift as an arrow!]", Sean commanded, which granted Mira the [Haste-buff], accelerating her movements and causing her spear-swing to strike with enough force to push the approaching lizard away from him.
"I'm your opponent, you green punk!", she taunted the beast, before running after it and striking it in it's side with her spear.
Shortly after, Corvo managed to finish his cast, and aimed his
"Adolebitque!"
The mass of radiant fire collided with the head of the horse-sized creature with enough force to throw its body back a few yards, and, as it did so, exploded into beautiful golden flames, which quickly spread across its body. As soon as the second lizard was downed, both Corvo and Brom sank to the ground in exhaustion, while Eleonora headed towards Sean and Mira to help them.
However, there was no need for her to do so, as Mira had just managed to pierce the massive beast's heart, thus finishing the fight.
As the five gathered back together to take a short rest, Kassandra Lambert could not help but be impressed by what she had just witnessed, which was why she let them bask in the feeling of having successfully finished a mission for the first time.
"Congratulations, Team 6. You successfully managed to win your first real fight, though there are quite a few things you did wrong, especially considering the precarious situation you have found yourselves in because of your decision. First off, let me ask you if you yourself realized what could have gone better during the mission. Raise your hand if something comes to mind.", she asked into the round, and Sean was the first one to raise her hand.
"I think we should not have attacked the first group of lizards that we have found, at least not right away. Observing them for a while could have given us a clue of how to deal with them more easily."
"True, for some missions, observing your target could lead to an easy conclusion of how to finish your mission. However, I do not believe that it would have made much of a difference in this case. Anyone else?"
Eleonora was next.
"We could have looked for a smaller group or a single individual to test out its abilities first."
"Another well made observation, though Coureur Lizards are rarely found in groups of less than 2 individuals, and though exceptions to this rule exist, finding one could have taken the entire day."
"Hm...we should have probably tried to get some more information about those lizards before attacking them.", Corvo followed up, which seemed to be the point Lambert wanted to make.
"That's exactly what I was waiting for. You see, if you want to successfully complete a mission, information is the be-all and end-all. I was not allowed to help you myself, but you could have asked the guards at the gate, or even some of the merchant who were attacked by the lizards to learn more about their behaviour and how to deal with them. If you had done so in the first place, you would have known that Coureur Lizards have evolved to become highly sensitive to magic and will always look for the source of any spell cast near them to take it out before it can harm them. Additionally, they are afraid of loud noises, such as fire-crackers, and can be blinded with a strong light-source, which temporarily paralyses them completely, and they are rather resilient to fire...though only to regular flames, as we saw with that one over there.", Lambert mentioned, and pointed at the charred corpse of the lizard burnt by Corvo's spell.
"Be it as it may, though this was probably your biggest mistake, there is one more, rather large oversight in your judgement that you have yet to mention. Anyone?"
After a few seconds of contemplating, Brom took the word.
"Aye, we's forgot that we need ta carry em back to the city for it ta count, innit?"
"Exactly, and remember: I consider the mission failed if you don't manage to deliver at least a single corpse to the city. Oh, and don't even ask if I could help you, my hands are tied here!", Lambert cheerfully exclaimed, causing the entire Team to loudly express their annoyance, as they needed to drag three rather large corpses for 2 miles.
"Well then, don't waste your time with complaining, there's still a long way to go!", Lambert chuckled, before casually strolling ahead of them towards the city.
After they finally arrived at the gates and received their rewards, they were dismissed for the rest of the day as reward for having successfully managed to finish their mission. Since it had already been past noon and they had not eaten anything for hours, they decided to grab something quick to eat from a food-stall.
After they placed their orders, a scream suddenly sounded through the street, causing them to turn around. There, only a few yards away from them, a man wearing a bandana over his mouth to conceal his face had grabbed a woman with one hand and pressed a knife to her throat with the other. Corvo and his friends immediately grabbed their weapons and made their way towards them, but before they were close enough to do anything, someone behind him managed to twist his arm with a swift motion, causing him to reflexively drop the knife. The woman was pushed outside of the man's reach, before he was quickly thrown to the ground by Martin Crevier, who held him there until the guards arrived.
As the situation was now defused, Corvo and the others were about to return to the food-stall they ordered at. However, they were soon approached by Crevier, who had noticed them trying to help the woman just as he did.
"Sean Riddar! Wait! I want to have a word with you...with all of you.", he announced.
"...sure, why not. Nice move, by the way.", Sean replied.
"It was nothing. I saw you approach as well, so if it was not for me, I am sure that you would have done something similar to save her. However, that is not what I wanted to talk about. I was looking for you ever since our third year at Rouclier started to apologize once more. This time, however, I want to do so without being forced by my father."
"Oh really now? And why's that? Are your father's spies around here somewhere, so you need to look good in front of them?", Mira asked, unconvinced by his sudden act of remorse.
"No, like I said, this has nothing to do with my father...at least not in the way you would think. The last few months gave me time to think about my actions, and how I, instead of bringing honour to my family's name, besmirched it by looking down on and insulting the citizens of Caelum and other cadets at Rouclier. Since you 4 have seen the worst of my behaviour, I want to make amends and help you going forward from now. If you ever need something, be it a sparring partner or information, do not hesitate to ask me for aid, for I will give it to you without second thought."
"Hm...I don't know. What do you guys think?", Sean asked the others.
Corvo and Eleonora just shrugged in response, and, seeing as Brom had no knowledge of what had happened last year, he just remarked that the apology sounded genuine to him. Mira, however, did not seem as indifferent.
"...I still don't trust him."
"Alright, that's 3 maybes and one no, right?", Sean summarized, before looking back at Crevier.
"I guess that means we'll think about it."
"Do not worry. I did not expect a positive response right away. If you need me, you may find me, near the training-grounds or in the library of Rouclier, as long as I am not on a mission together with my team. Until then.", Crevier said his goodbyes, before leaving.
As soon as he was gone, Mira immediately started to scoff.
"You aren't seriously considering getting help from that prick, are you?"
"Eh, he seemed genuine enough. We'll see what happens.", Sean replied, and the five went back to the food-stall to grab their orders.
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On top of the highest mountain of Grattiel, the natural border between Yhose and Domitor, upon an obsidian throne, sat, slumped over like a corpse, a lifeless humanoid creature in black plate-armour, the edges of which were decorated with streaks of gold. Atop its head sat a dark purple helmet more fittingly described as a crown. In front of the throne were two Unborn, a knight and what appeared to be a spellcaster, both of which currently prostrated themselves before this being, which exuded an aura of death and decay so dense that it seemed as if anything that were to touch it would immediately drop lifelessly to the floor. Even the air itself surrounding this creature seemed lifeless and immobile, and not a sound could be heard within its vicinity, despite a harsh blizzard raging through the mountain-range, a weather phenomena known to be accompanied by howling winds which could even be heard at the roots of the mountains.
The two undead beings currently showing their subservience before the unmoving third sitting on the throne dared not move a muscle, as they feared even the slightest offence committed in its presence could lead to an eternity of suffering.
After a timespan which felt like ages passing by, a single word spoken in an otherworldly, booming voice sounded throughout the mountain-range:
"RISE!"
A purple glimmer started to glow through the eye-slits of the being's helmet, growing ever larger until it was as if two flames made of the Fires of Gehenna themselves had been placed were one would expect its eye-sockets to be found.
As soon as the glow, which unmistakably marked the being as an undead creature, appeared, its body began to move, and assumed a proper seating position on its throne, before looking at its hands, as if seeing them for the first time, even opening and closing them as if yet needing to familiarise itself with the motion.
Upon noticing that their new master had risen from his death, the undead creatures greeted him in unison.
"All hail the Anathema of Life!"