On the walk back to the guild, Ichika pulled Althaia and Kanna along in magical chains, the whole time they stared at each other with contempt. Finding their actions weird, I simply ignored them until we finally reached the door of the guild building.

“Asayo, it’s time to go, we got the rest!” Stepping inside, Lena called out to Asayo.

Walking inside myself, the first thing that I noticed was a long time friend of mine. Standing next to him was a tall attractive woman, and near them, sitting at a table, five other Paladins were eating and drinking. The rest of the guild hall was in shambles with broken chairs and drunkards wandering around.

As I approached the table where my friend was standing, I called out his name while lightly pushing him, “Shyvielle!”

Turning around, Shyvielle looked surprised to see me and went to hit my shoulder. I quickly dodged and put him in a headlock.

“Oh shit, hey Leone, I thought you were still in a coma!” Shyvielle replied with his characteristic smile after recognizing me.

“I woke up fully a few hours ago, I can’t believe that I was out for that long.” I responded.

“Well it’s good to see you are back with us.” Shyvielle replied while breaking free from my grasp.

“So… How are your missions going? Do you like your squad?” I asked him as I took a glance at who I assumed were his squadmates.

“It’s been a good time, but most of my squad are already Grandmaster or above, so I have a lot of catching up to do. In fact, my squad leader is already an Archpaladin!” Shyvielle spoke with great enthusiasm.

A part of me felt annoyed seeing this, we were supposed to create a squad together, after all. However, I knew it wasn’t exactly his fault due to the circumstances. I also knew Shyvielle well, so I knew that he was simply excited at the prospect of adventure and growing stronger. In many ways I was the same.

“Mr. Solaris, I have your new badge for you!” Mary yelled out from across the room.

Shyvielle ran over to the reception desk to grab his newly created rank badge. Before he slid it into his pocket, I was able to catch a glimpse of the rank on the front: CAPTAIN. I took a quick look at my own badge in my pocket, in bold letters it displayed RECRUIT. Lena rested her hand on my shoulder and leaned her head towards my ear.

“If you want to catch up, we should probably get going on our first mission.” Lena whispered.

“Shyvielle, I think my squad and I are going to leave for our mission now. It's been a while since the mission was assigned because I had to gather my… well… rowdy teammates. Anyways, I'll catch you later.” I said to Shyvielle before making my way towards the exit.

As I reached the door, Shyvielle called out to me with another uselessly bright smile, “Leone, good luck out there.”

“Thanks man.” I responded as I pushed the door open.

As me and my squadmates walked out of the guild hall, Lena stopped me. “Wait, Leone, I have something cool that I want to show you.”

“Oh shit, she’s gonna do it!” Kanna yelled as she backed away—the others followed suit.

I turned back to look at Lena as she began chanting in a completely incomprehensible language. Suddenly a dense gray cloud formed in front of her hands.

“Leone, I want you to go first, all you have to do is touch the cloud and just let the spell do the rest.” She explained to me.

I was apprehensive to approach the cloud, but I trusted Lena so I touched it even against my better judgment. Instantly, a strange yet powerful sensation coursed through my entire body. Then, after a brief moment, I felt as if my being was compressed into an ethereal structure.

“This is the fun part!” Zahra cried out.

Before I knew it, I felt like I was being launched at hypersonic speed and in the next moment, I was slammed into the ground. However, rather than being hurt, I only felt a little disoriented as crackles of electricity danced around me. Standing up, I looked back and saw six bolts of lightning barreling towards me. When they landed, my squadmates burst forth from them with much more grace than myself.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I looked towards Lena with surprise and asked, “...Uh, where are we?”

“The mission site, dumbass.” Althaia scoffed.

“Well how the hell is he supposed to know that? He’s never done that before.” Ichika said as she lightly hit Althaia in the back of the head.

“All of this is besides the point, we should probably head into the catacombs and deal with the real problem.” Lena said.

“Zahra is ready!” Zahra cheered excitedly.

“Think fast!” Kanna yelled before tossing a short sword towards me.

Catching the spare blade with my quick reflexes, the Cat Dragons and I began to walk towards the entrance of the catacombs. As we approached, I noticed that the stone entrance had a massive hole broken into it. Stepping through, I could feel a massive pressure weighing down upon me.

“There is a shit ton of magical energy in here.” Lena remarked calmly as she studied the environment.

“I'll go deeper into the catacombs to scope out our enemies, you guys come up with a plan until I get back.” Asayo announced in her usual emotionless voice before transforming into a cat and jumping into the shadows.

‘Well, didn’t know she could do that…’ I thought to myself.

“Since he’s the leader, I think he should decide the plan of action.” Althaia said while glaring at me with a cruel smirk. It seemed she doubted my capabilities and wanted me to fail.

“First off, I don’t even know any of your capabilities, I didn’t even know Asayo could just disappear into darkness. Before I can make a plan I need to know what all of you can do.” I responded.

Althaia scoffed at me, acting like I knew all the powers of people I met only thirty minutes beforehand.

“Fine, I’m a naiad, so naturally I can control water, heal, and purify dark forces with any water under my control.” Althaia spoke in a condescending manner.

“Zahra can generate fire, absorb heat, and fly!” Zahra proudly shared while producing a spark of flame from the palm of her hand.

“As a dragon, I can change into my true form, although I don’t like to as I find it ugly. I can also manipulate the weather as a descendant of the Storm Dragon Lord, Shachi. I also have a strong magical capacity and control over magic.” Lena explained as leaned up against a nearby wall.

“Onis from my tribe have the ability to enter a wrath state that increases our overall physical capabilities. At my level, I can easily become three times as powerful, although it is hard to control. I am also skilled with any polearm weapon.” Kanna bragged while brandishing her brilliant naginata with golden embellishments.

“I’m an eight tailed kitsune so I have a variety of abilities, but my main combat ones consist of increased speed, magical fire, life force absorption and minor space-time manipulation.” Ichika told me.

Listening to all that information was a lot to take in, but I slowly began to form a rudimentary plan within my mind.

“Lena I want you to lead up the front as vanguard. If you are able to form any kind of clear barrier spell that would be great. I’ll stand directly behind you and Ichika will stand to my left, preparing her magical fire. Zahra, you will stand to my right and do the same thing as Ichika, while Kanna will stand directly behind me incase of an ambush. As for Althaia, you will also stand at the back next Kanna and prepare to heal. When Asayo joins us, she can flank our enemies, using her darkness ability and mobility to cut off their escape.” I explained my idea.

However, before we could discuss any further, Asayo came flying out of the darkness she had disappeared into earlier and was smashed into an adjacent wall. Behind her, a strange spectral being pursued with immense speed.

“Asayo!'' I yelled as I ran towards the phantasm.

With practiced finesse, I swiftly swung my sword across the undead’s torso, however, my attack completely passed right through, much to my shock.

“Leone, DUCK!” Lena yelled as the haunting creature turned its attention towards me.

Immediately after I lowered myself to the ground, a destructive bolt of lightning flew above and struck the spirit, causing it to dissipate. I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten the first thing my father taught me about the undead—their different classifications. Phantasms can only be killed through magical means, explaining why my attack failed.

‘How could I be so stupid?’ I reprimanded myself within my mind, before quickly recollecting my focus.

“Althaia, get to healing Asayo. The rest of you form a circle around them, the undead know we’re here.” I said.

Looking down the long torch-lit stone hallway, I saw several skeletons approaching from the left turning point, followed by three ghouls and a large mass of vaguely human shaped flesh on the right. From the central path, a massive phantasm suddenly appeared and waved its hand, causing the flames on all the torches to dissipate.

In anger and without thinking, I sprinted into the wall of undead that was approaching us. In response, the floating mass of spectral energy waved its hand once again and sent me backwards through the broken door of the catacombs.

Landing on the ground harshly, I could feel my heart racing, knowing that I had to get back in there to defend my squadmates. I tried to push myself back up, but my left arm fell limp. After a bit of struggling, I was finally able to stand up on my legs and immediately rushed towards the door, my limp arm hanging behind me as I ran.

When I entered, I could see most of my squadmates holding off the large phantasm with their magic, while Kanna and Asayo were fighting the skeletons with their naginata and kunai respectively.

Although things seemed to be going well for now, I could tell that their coordination was awkward at best. Knowing that anything could happen in a battle, I ran towards the horde without hesitation—only killing intent was on my mind.