The next morning they were woken by one of the instructors. It was time for the strategic meeting, they would plan their attack beforehand. They followed the instructor to one of the bigger rooms of the underground complex. What made this particular room so special was the large heavy oaken table placed in the middle. The table was a sight quite of itself, it was at least 8 meters long and about 4 meters in breadth.
What made this table so special was the many magical spells which had been engraved. This magical masterpiece could create simulations out of the light. One could recreate a city in the light, then mark buildings or sending images of the supposed troops through the streets. It was really an incredible invention. Today would be Dorian's first time seeing it but he had heard about it from the other soldiers.
All the members of The Table were present. The commander looked over the room from the slightly elevated platform that he was standing on. There were two of the mages beside him that would control the magical table to form the images. “Today it will be time for one of our largest operations to date. According to our information sources the criminal organization we are fighting against today have a total of 1734 thugs employed. They outnumber us four to one, so it shouldn't be too hard!”
The on looking soldiers laughed, indeed for these people being outnumbered four to one was a generally easy match-up. However all of them knew they should not let their guards down. Even they would die if they got themselves surrounded and were then peppered with arrows.
“There are four buildings above the ground that we can enter through. Here, here, here and here.” The commander said pointing to images of buildings on the map that had been recreated with the light. “We will have four teams of 18 members each attack these buildings. Teams Six through Ten will be the ones doing the building assault.”
Dorian nodded now really paying attention, according to what he had heard from Gladiel last night they had been placed in team 8. There were some soldiers accompanying them, but the rest consisted of Dorian's team.
Dorian’s team would be taking the building on the corner of a dark street at the edge of the city, it was near the city walls. Most of the buildings there were shacks instead of actual stone buildings. The edge of the city was the most criminally active district. Dorian doubted they would have a lot of trouble from the local populace however. The people there had been fighting to survive their entire lives. Most of them could instinctively know how dangerous people were.
Dorian analyzed the building and the surrounding streets, memorizing the lay-out and any entrance/escape routes. “Dorian you will take lead of Team 8, you up for it?” The commander asked him.
Dorian looked up in surprise before nodding with determination. “Of course commander.”
“Good, once the teams have cleared out the buildings you will move through the underground sewers to meat up at these gathering points. The rest of the teams will be entering through the sewer entrances, there are 13 of these in total. In the end we will have surrounded the underground auction. Once we move in on the underground auction, team six and fourteen will move to secure the slaves.”
“The rest of us will make sure the auction is cleaned up, the auction itself will be where the fighting is thickest. We will use the Rune mages network to signal the start of the attack. Each group will have one rune mage. However you will only have one when you have gathered at one of 5 entrance points. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir!” was the response of the crowd as they focused on the memorizing the strategy.
“Once we get inside it will be chaos, be careful to pick your targets. Not everyone inside is an enemy, we have a few informants on the inside. Subdue if possible, kill only if not given any other choice. That was it for the meeting, Dismissed!”
The soldiers left the meeting room and headed to the training area. Dorian raised his voice “Would the members of team 8 please follow me!” He wanted to get to know the team he would be commanding as soon as possible. They may be elite soldiers but every person had their own quirks, especially in an organization such as this. All of them were people used to working individually but now they would have to work together.
Dorian headed to a separate room he had prepared beforehand, he knew the number of members in his team before hand and had wanted to get to know all of them. He had not known he was going to be in command of the team however. He entered the room and took a seat at the end, his squad sat themselves down closest to him. The rest of the team followed suit and sat down on the remaining chairs.
In the end all of them had taken a seat, Dorian took a look around the table to see the team he would soon be commanding. Before he could start however Shiela burst in as well. Dorian should have expected it but she jumped on his lap staring at the other people around the table. Dorian felt the blood rushing to his cheeks, he had wanted to build the image of a strong confident leader with the soldiers he had not yet got known.
The soldiers looked at the girl and then at him for a moment. Then the whole lot of them burst into laughter, Dorians squad wasn't any better even Vor was hiding a grin behind those huge shovels he called hands. Dorian sighed and rubbed Shiela's head.
“Well I thought we ought to get to know one another before we commenced the mission. Seems the little one wants in on the chat!” He said smiling, trying to make the most of the situation. “Well this is Shiela, and my name is Dorian. I will be the commander of this team, nice to meet the lot of you!”
“Bloody nice to meet you cap'n!” A dwarf piped up from the end of the table. “Yea cap'n don't worry about the little one, she already almost be taller then us beardies!” Another dwarf said who was sitting next to his friend, On inspection the two were nearly identical, twins presumably?
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“Me name is Axe! This is me brother Snax!” The dwarf told him, both of them had incredibly long beards. Braided in those complicated dwarven patterns. They had those golden rings intertwined in their beards as well. Probably a dwarven custom of sorts. “Both of us be axe wielders, you chaps need some'ting sliced up, we be your dwarves!” Axe proclaimed enthusiastically.
“Well if siblings are to be the ones who do their introductions first, My name is Farial, and this is my twin sister Firial” This time it was an elven man who stood up to introduce himself. The man had long blond hair which he had hanging loose. His sister looked the same as him except for the slightly more feminine bone structure. Her hair however was black compared to his blond.
They gave a synchronized bow and then sat back down. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. We specialize in the traditional elven longbow and twin short swords.” She finished for the both of them. Dorian looked at them surprised, he had two sets of twins in his team? What were the odds of that, not to mention Elves and dwarves usually did not have many children. Twins were even rarer, they lived longer, they always had someone to look after them which made them stronger.
Either way it was a question that Dorian would save for another day. After the introduction of the twins Dorians friends stood up to introduce themselves and their abilities. To which Dorian noticed that he had not told them his abilities yet. “I just realized I haven't told you guys what my abilities and specialization is.” Dorian said standing back up.
“There will be no need for that, you are Shun's pupil. You are well known amongst us, most of us saw your fight as well so we are aware of your abilities.” A young man with a neatly done buzz cut told him.
“I am Cern, and these are Wazel, Bopul, and Mins. The four of used were a squad of legionnaires until we got into a fight with an underground gang, we were recruited when we killed the gang with just the 4 of us, and if you need a front line we are your men! Pleasure to meet you all.” The rest of his squad stood up with Cern and smacked their fists to their chests at nearly the exact same moment.
Then they sat back down and everyone looked at the last 3 which had not yet introduced themselves. One of them stood up, he was an elderly man who seemed to be blind unless Dorian missed his guess. He had long hair tied neatly into a complicated braid. He had a beard cut close to the chin.
“I am called Thol, unarmed combat is my specialty. My combat style is called Sung Fi I can swiftly and quietly disperse of our enemies.” After the short introduction the elder man sat back down.
Dorian looked at him a bit in surprise, he was pretty sure this was the same elder that had been teaching Lalin unarmed combat. He quickly looked over to Lalin who nodded, confirming his suspicions.
“I am called Olgrin, I was Vor's instructor and am also a dwarf of the front line!” The dwarven instructor said. Dorian remembered Vor telling him that he had been unable to even move the much smaller dwarf an inch when he started his training. The dwarf certainly felt like someone you could trust.
“I am called Yiglif, and I am a mage of the north. Ice would be my specialty. If you need some deep-frozen steak leave it to me!” The slender blond woman told them. The joke rang true with the group, causing a few under the breath laughs here and there.
“We also be hopin' you could keep our ale nice'n cold!” Axe said, or was it Snax. Honestly Dorian was uncertain the two really did look identical.
“As long as you are willing to share it would be my pleasure!” The woman replied with a smile.
“Axe me boy, I think I she may have takin' me heart!” Snax loudly proclaimed. Causing more laughter across the table.
“me bro”?
The way the members talked to each other really made Dorian feel a bit more at ease. If they got along well it would be a lot easier. After the introductions had been finished he let the group keep talking about himself. It was about lunch time so he invited everyone over to lunch.
“You really should come.” Lalin told her instructor. “His cooking is exquisite, I have never before tasted its like.”
“Girl I was planning to come either way, make haste. My stomach be a rumblin'!” The blind old man said suddenly imitating the dwarves who had head him.
“Looki here Snax, The elder be a dwarf on the inside like us!”
“Well ain't that just splendid, I bet here old man would like some taste of our ale as well.” Snax replied slapping his brother on the back.
“Please, it would fill this elders belly quite splendidly.”
After his words the twins ran off to actually get a barrel of ale. Which Yiglif actually started cooling with her ice magic. Once again Dorian was sure he had gotten the weird people in his team. But he didn't mind at all, the diversity was what made everything so much fun!
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Im working on improving my writing, to make it better it will take some time. There will probably be 1 day delay between now and the enxt chapter. Sorry!
Again edited by Sk8late!