Tess exited her tent and looked around. She was currently on the fifth floor of a dungeon, surrounded by dozens of separate camps. The war against Alacrya really started several months after Arthur left, when by order of the council and with the cooperation of the adventurers guild. Large units comprised of dozens of adventurers were created to start clearing all of the dungeons in the beast glades.
Several months after the search and destroy campaign began, Tess finally was able to convince commander Virion to allow her to join the fight. She was given her own team and assigned to the Trailblazers unit, where she has served clearing dungeons for the last two years.
Tess walked away from her tent to her team's joint camp fire, at their joint campsite. Despite all the teams for the most part getting along, Tess' team was exceptionally close to Claire Bladeheart's. Even though unintended, it brought a degree of comfort to Tess to have one of her close friends in the same unit as her, as well as Theo, who was also part of Claire's team.
The struggle for Tess to be accepted in the unit was very real, as when she arrived many saw her as only a spoiled princess, including her own teammates. However through combat she gradually won almost everyone over, and those that weren't kept their mouths shut and stayed away, with fear they would end up like the only group to underestimate her.
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It had been a month since Tess had joined the Trailblazers, and she and her team had just returned from another productive day of killing off mana beasts. While her team prepared some food, Tess decided to wash up at the small pool of water in the cavern. She walked into the makeshift stall and with a washcloth removed the day's blood, sweat, and grime. As she left she was stopped by two teams of adventurers.
"Hey there princess," a middle aged adventure said with a look that made it all to clear what he was up to.
"Hello, excuse me, I'm on my way to get some food," Tess replied as she tried to walk past them, but another side stepped to block her.
"I must admit, it's very generous of the commander to send you to us," the same adventure said as he was checking her out.
"Generous?" Tess questioned as she began to reinforce her body with mana. She had heard rumors about how some male adventurers were about female adventurers, and wasn't going to leave her guard down.
"That's right, I mean, you're young and beautiful, going into a sweaty disgusting place like this with no bodyguards? Clearly he wants to ensure your bloodline survives. So why else send such a pretty thing be here, other than to keep the troops happy by satisfying their urges."
The man's words made her stomach turn. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see they were trying to surround her. Her thoughts then drifted to Arthur and what he would probably do right now, causing a smile to form on her face.
"So I was right," the man said confidently.
"No, I was just thinking what my boyfriend would have done if he was here," Tess replied as she drew her bladed staff. "He no doubt would have castrated you," Tess gestured to the man who was speaking. "And if any of you other guys were able to overcome the fear he put in you and attacked, he probably would have killed you all mercilessly."
"I guess it's the hard way then," the man said with a displeased expression.
Two men came up trying to jump her from behind, but a quick plant spell left then tied up with vines. Two more came with swords drawn, Tess parried one and dodged the other. She punched the first in the throat, leaving him choking as she ducked below the seconds sword and kicked him in the side of the knee. Three of the remaining tried to charge in, but two were forced to the ground by gravity magic, while the other was able to keep standing, but was otherwise immobile. The man who was talking was about to charge in, but was stopped as a narrow blade came to his throat. The one who was still standing was then grabbed by the throat and raised up effortlessly, before slammed into the ground, rendering him unconscious.
"I could have handled them," Tess commented as she finished off the two she was fighting, while the other two hung motionless after being choked out by the vines.
"I know, but friends stick together," Claire replied with a smile as she pushed her blade a little harder against the man's throat.
Theo then came up and grabbed him by the back of the head and forced him to the ground face first. "We are fighting a war here and you're talking about harming one of our own? You disgust me, and don't deserve to fight alongside our people"
Theo was about to slam him even harder into the ground, but was stopped by Claire. "No Theo. As much as I would like to see scum like him suffer, we aren't executioners. Him and his men need to be turned in to the captain."
"What? So he can just let them back into the fight?" Theo scoffed.
"The captain won't do that," Tess said walking up. "If anything were to happen to me the council and my grandfather would be searching for answers. The captain would probably be executed if he allowed these guys to just get off the hook."
The eight men were taken away later that day by Dicathen soldiers, and were never seen again. The captain took the opportunity to inform everyone why they were arrested, without mentioning Tess, and that that behavior would not be tolerated.
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Tess sat down by the fire next to Claire with the rest of their teams. On the other side of Claire was Theo, who looked like he was staring into the fire like he wanted to fight it, but was actually watching Darvus, the ax wielding augmenter on Tess' team. He was lazily lying on the ground looking bored out of his mind. This behavior was constant for him, when he wasn't fighting or trying to flirt with girls, and ultimately got on Theo's nerves. Caria, the mousy gauntlet wielding augmenter also on Tess' team was beside him eating some dried fruit while watching Theo to make sure he did not attack her crush while he wasn't looking. Despite Theo's dislike of Darvus, he and Caria got along rather well, as they both had similar fighting styles and were able to learn from one another. Claire and Tess had gotten the closest to Caria, mostly due to being the only girls. Claire had become closer as she had seen Caria as a kindred spirit, as they both suffered from a longing to be loved by guys who didn't seem to notice their love.
Next came Stannard, a ranged augmenter on Tess' team, who fired beast cores containing powerful spells that he launched from a crossbow looking contraption. Beside him was another member from Claire's team, Thomas, who was watching Stannard clean his weapon. He was a war hammer wielding augmenter, but had a true passion for inventions, but due to his family, was forced to study combat instead of artifacting. Next on Claire's team came Jerry, who was a quick striking augmenter with his twin daggers. He was considered a goofball and joker, as he often enjoyed playing harmless pranks on people, but his favorite target was Thomas due to his over the top reactions.
"Enjoy your nap?" Caria, the teammate who woke Tess up asked her.
Tess didn't respond, but instead stared into the fire while messing with the leaf charm on the necklace that Arthur gave her.
"Tess?" Caria said in concern, getting some of the others attention on her too.
"Hmm?!" Tess replied, finally noticing people were talking to her.
"Are you ok?" Claire asked.
"Mhm," Tess replied and stared back into the fire.
Claire sighed as she saw Tess messing with the charm. "The dream again?"
Tess closed her eyes and nodded. Claire wrapped her arm around her as Caria moved to her opposite side to do the same. Everyone was looking concerned, as Tess usually didn't look like anything could make her look like this, and none of them knew anything about a dream. In fact Claire and Caria were the only two she even confided to about it, and only after several times of the dream repeating itself, making her relive the last time she had seen Arthur.
"It's been a while hasn't it?" Caria asked.
"Two years right?" Claire asked.
"Two years, three months, give or take a few days," Tess replied.
Theo looked away and shook his head as he remembered the significance of the time, as he too missed his friend.
"Everytime I visit my family I ask Adler if he's heard anything, but I always get the same answer, he'll be done when he's done," Tess replied, trying to impersonate Alder's voice at his response.
Darvus groaned and rolled his eyes as he went back to resting, while Stannard poured his attention back into his weapon's maintenance, both knowing what this was about.
Word of Arthur being taken by the Asura for special training spread throughout Dicathen, making him seem more like a legend than an actual person. Then added with how Tess practically raised him up on a pedestal, Darvus just wanted to fight him. He accepted that Arthur might have been stronger and that he might not be able to win, but he was confident that he was strong enough to tarnish his legendary status a bit, just enough to show he wasn't that great.
Stannard on the other hand held no resentment towards Arthur, and felt he was probably a very nice person. His problem was that he had fallen hard for Tess, but she was clearly in love with Arthur. He knew Arthur and Tess were technically dating, but no one would blame her if she left him for someone else after so long, and Stannard wanted to be the guy to sweep her off her feet. Stannard however lacked inner knowledge of the elf mind set, but he was seeing first hand, that not only are they patient but loyal. Despite the time apart, Tess wouldn't just leave Arthur, as long as he was still alive she would wait, even if it was for her whole life.
"You know, I've heard that sometimes dreams are actually premonitions. Maybe it's a sign he'll be back soon," Caria suggested.
"I've been reliving that memory pretty regularly since he left. I swear I can remember every detail of that dream," Tess replied.
"You know, I remember that summer break we all took together. And how one morning while I was doing some stretches before I started training, I heard someone moaning Arthur's name from your tent," Claire had a devilish smirk on her face. "I bet you wished you had that dream regularly since then."
Tess buried her now bright red face in her hands, as the guys looked away to hide their attempts to keep from laughing, while Caria just couldn't help but wonder what was happening in that dream.
"Tessia?"
Tess' head shot up and looked in the direction she heard her name called, and saw Helen and the rest of the twin horns walking up.
"Helen!" Tess exclaimed, happy for the distraction away from her, and jumped up and walked over to them.
"I thought that was you," Helen replied, the two of them giving each other a hug.
"Why don't you join us," Tess offered after breaking the hug.
The twin horns walked over and Tess introduced everyone. Darvus of course sprang right to his feet at the sight of Angela and attempted to flirt with her, only to be shot down by her calling him a cute kid.
"So what have you all been up to?" Tess asked as they all sat down.
"We just finished some time defending the wall, and now with Jasmine back I guess they wanted to put us in a dungeon for a bit," Helen replied.
"Back? Jasmine, where did you go?" Claire asked.
"Training with my uncle."
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One month after Arthur left
At one of the many outposts in the beast glades the Twin Horns were unloading their wagon after another successful dungeon dive.
"Angela you go sell the beast cores, Jasmine and I will take the skins and pelts, Durden, Adam you two have the bodies," Helen ordered, and the team started splitting up.
Jasmine throw a bag full of pelts over her shoulder, renforcing her body with mana when an old man walked up to her.
"Excuse me, but are you Jasmine Flamesworth?" The old man asked.
Jasmine looked at the man, his hair was brushed back and held tightly back in a ponytail, even his beard appear to have been brushed. He wore a brown leather jacket with a white button up shirt underneath, black pants, and black riding boots.
"Yes."
The man smiled nervously. "My name is Pasta, Pasta Bloom. I was hoping I could have the chance to speak with you."
"Bloom?" Jasmine asked as she tilted her head at the familiar name.
"That's right, does the name sound familiar?" Pasta asked hopefully.
"I think that was my grandmothers family name before she was married," Jasmine replied.
"Her name was Abigail right? She was my little sister," Pasta replied.
"Is there something I can do for you? She died a long time ago so if you were hoping to see her I'm afraid you're too late," Jasmine replied.
"We weren't very close. Our father saw to it that I wasn't able to get anywhere near her after I left the family. There was something I wanted to speak with you about, something kind of important, at least I feel it is."
"Left the family?" Jasmine inquired.
"A long story, but basically I had a falling out of sorts with my father after I started some trouble with another family, or ended it depending on your perspective."
"I see. I'm a bit busy right now, but we can speak after if that's ok?" Jasmine replied, curious about the prospect of having more family other than the house of Flamesworth.
"I'll be waiting for you at the pub," Pasta replied, an excited smile on his face before the two parted ways.
About an hour later Pasta was nervously sipping some tea, not understanding why people said tea calmed their nerves, while he was on his third cup and was not more calm than when he started. For him normally alcohol calmed him, but he wanted to be in his right mind for this talk, as well as make a good impression.
Soon Jasmine and Helen walked in. Jasmine spotted Pasta and headed over to him as Helen joined the rest of the Twin Horns.
"Thank you for meeting with me," Pasta greeted as he stood up. Jasmine simply nodded and sat down across from him. Pasta sat down, clearly still nervous. He had wanted to meet Jasmine as soon as he learned they were family, but now he was almost terrified. "Tea?" He offered as he lifted the kettle to another empty cup.
"You said you wanted to speak with me about something?" Jasmine replied, coldly, just wanting to get to the point.
"Yes." Pasta took a handkerchief out and whiped his forehead. "I must be honest, I had this all planned in my head, but now it seems so much harder."
"Are we family?" Jasmine asked, getting straight to the only point she cared about at the moment.
"Yes. I'm your Great Uncle, although I'm sure I don't seem that great right now. It's actually the Bloom family where you get your wind magic from."
"My father disowned me because of my wind magic, because I couldn't use fire magic," Jasmine said remaining calm.
"I've heard, and I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you. After my service to the royal family was over I left Sapin and have lived in the beast glades ever since. I was very selfish and angry at the time, but if I had known of the troubles you were going through believe me, I would have sought you out sooner," Pasta replied with a sympathetic tone.
"So why now? Why after all this time did you come looking for me?" Jasmine asked.
"In my old age I've come to realize that despite my hatred towards my family, my father really, family is important and should stick together." Pasta took a deep breath as he maintained his composure. "I know it's a little late, but I'd like to be family now. I want to pass on the Bloom family skills that once made us great."
"My blood family abandoned me before, why should I expect you to be any different?" Jasmine asked as the memory of her father stung.
Pasta bowed his head. "Please, give this old man a chance before he dies."
"Dies?" Jasmine questioned as she looked at him. "How old are you?"
"One hundred and five and still going strong," Pasta replied proudly.
"You don't look that old," Jasmine replied skeptically.
"Why thank you, I attribute that to plenty of exercise, and my white core."
"White core?!"
Jasmine stared at Pasta in disbelief. She had never met a white core mage before, and thought only the Lances had ever achieved that.
"Jasmine, I can tell you are one of two types of people. The type that wants to regain your family's love, or to protect the new family you've obtained. I can see that you're at the light yellow stage, that's impressive for not being formally trained. With your level, by the time you're done with my training you'll be well on your way to a light silver core, and be the most powerful wind and sound augmenter since me."
"Protect the new family I've obtained," Jasmine repeated in her head as she thought of the twin horns, both current and past, as well as her "little brother". She knew he didn't need her to protect him, he had already surpassed her, yet just two months ago he had asked for her help. With this training she knew that she could be of more help to him, and be there for him when he needed her.
"Jasmine. I don't mean to use this as leverage or as a means of pressuring you, but there is something else you should know."
"What?"
"The whole continent will be learning about this soon, but war is coming, as a matter of fact it's already here."
"What?! Has the council turned on each other all ready?"
"Hahaha, no," Pasta replied, before becoming more serious. "That would make things more simple, but that's not the case. Dicathen will be going to war against this new continent."
Jasmine's eyes widened in disbelief. "How could we be going to war already? We just sent a ship to meet them."
"Apparently they've been at this for a while already. I'm sure you've heard of those mutated mana beasts, the ones that become more wild than normal with the horns on their head." Jasmine nodded as she remembered the three bearlike beasts she faced in the Ant Hill with Arthur and his friends. "Well that's their doing. They have a way to turn normal mana beasts into those abominations, and turning our dungeons into death traps. Just a week ago I was asked by the council to take back up my old duties, and lead the adventurers on a search and destroy mission to clear every dungeon in the glades." Patsa spoke with an uncharacteristic level of pride and resolve, before returning to that of a lonely old man. "So I ask you Jasmine, will you join me to protect our continent, our loved ones. Will you become my disciple, and if you come to trust me, my niece as well?"
Jasmine looked away at the twin horns, her surrogate family, then back up at Pasta. She then picked up the tea kettle and poured herself tea into the cup, then raised her cup before him.
"I will join you, Master."
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"So how far along is your core now?" Tess asked.
"Just a hair away from mid silver," Jasmine replied, hiding the pride she felt in her progress.
"Oh wow, that training Pasta is putting you through must be pretty intense," Tess commented.
"What, Pasta? As in general Pasta Bloom?" Theo questioned.
Jasmine nodded.
"Is it true he's at a white core?" Darvus asked.
"Yes."
"Shit, being trained by him you'll probably reach a white core too," Caria commented, feeling a little jealous.
Jasmine was about to say something back when a loud whistle was heard.
"All teams! Prepare to leave immediately!" The unit captain yelled.
With that announcement everyone got up, grabbed their weapons and began walking to the exit, all ready to finally clear this dungeon.
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Steel met flesh as the adventurers cut down one gnoll after another. Dozens of the doglike bipedal mana beasts ran towards the unit to wipe them out. Spells and arrows flew through the air, raining down on the beasts as the tanks shielded the conjourers and archers.
Being two of the strongest there, Jasmine and Tess ran through the heart of the beasts, killing or delivering serious injuries to every beast in their path. Both were supplementing their blades with wind spells to try and create some distance. At close range Jasmine's wind blades were strong enough to completely cut through a target, and continue on to the next. Due to her training with Pasta, her wind blades created a vacuum as they cut, completely closing off the blood vessels and preventing blood splatter.
Tess on the other hand was using a combination of wind and plant spells. Thanks to what she learned with Arthur during their summer break, to make her plant magic more effective Tess carried around a variety of seeds that she could grow extremely quickly. She carried the seeds to fruits, healing herbs, and to several other plants that would be very effective in battle. Currently she was using the seeds of thorny plants, and threw them out as she fought against large groups. Within seconds of the seeds hitting the ground the seeds sprouted and began entangling and killing, in this case, gnolls. As for her wind magic, although not as powerful as Jasmine's, Tess' bladed staff only had to penetrate the skin just a little bit to completely cut a body in half.
As they fought though, Jasmine kept an eye on Tess. She wasn't sure what Tess was to Arthur anymore, but she was determined to ensure she didn't fall in battle if she could help it. As they fought together Jasmine noticed something very wrong with this battle, and needed to fall back to leadership to report.
"Tessia, get ready to fall back!" Jasmine yelled.
Tess wasn't sure why they needed to fall back, but knew Jasmine's experience surpassed her own and trusted her judgment.
Jasmine jumped back to Tess and screamed at the gnolls. This however wasn't a normal scream, as Jasmine was using sound magic, a spell called "Sierens cry". The sound waves pushed the gnolls back, leaving many covering their ears in agony. As Jasmine completed her attack Tess took her by the arm, and the two fell back to the unit captain.
"Captain, there's something very wrong here," Jasmine informed the captain as he stood in the back with the conjourers.
"What do you mean? Everything seems normal from here," he replied.
"Look closer, they aren't charging us, they're just running in our direction, like they're running away from something," Jasmine told him grimly.
The captain focused on the beasts, and saw them running by wounded augmenters without even looking towards them, they crashed against the shields of the tanks not attacking them, but trying to get through them.
"Fuck," the captain breathed grimly. The fact that they were running from the boss beasts den, could only mean something bigger than the suspected mutant beast had arrived. And with this being an S ranked dungeon, it couldn't be good. "AUGMENTERS FALL BACK BEHIND THE TANKS! CONJOURERS, FINISH THESE BEASTS OFF NOW!"
Following that order, as soon as the augmenters were behind the tanks, a wave of various spells collided with the beasts, wiping them all out.
"Medics tend to the wounded! Everyone else get into formation, we're going in as soon as the medics are done!" The captain ordered with a loud booming voice.
As they were trained, the tanks took the front of the formation and curved around the left and right sides a bit, with the conjourers at the heart of the formation, surrounded by augmenters.
"Behind those doors is the boss beast," the captains voice softened a bit. "we hope. As some of you had noticed, those gnolls appeared to be fleeing, which means there might be something even stronger in there than a mutated S rank beast. None the less, we have a job to do, so be on guard, and watch each others backs."
As the unit approached the large metal door large dents made from the other side could be seen, as well as a gnoll arm that was caught between the two doors and was ripped off. Tess and her team were near the front, and shivered a bit at the sight. For a beast to go as far as to rip off its own arm, and the dents in the door, they knew whatever led to these had to be terrifyingly powerful.
Normally in a situation like this General Bloom would have been contacted to lead the unit, as he was moving between all the units going into AA, S, and SS ranked dungeons to help clear the boss dens. A unit this size would normally be large enough to handle an S ranked dungeon on their own with minimal casualties, but with these signs, many wondered if this was a good idea.
Theo and another gravity mage grabbed the doors as they used their gravity magic to lighten them, and pushed the doors open.
The sight they all saw struck fear into all of their heart, as the ground beyond the doors was littered with dead gnolls and severed limbs. Even the unit's captain, a man as tall as Durden, with muscles three times as big held his massive sword a little tighter. The nearly fifty adventurers walked through the cavern silently, stepping over bodies and limbs, until they saw it. A pile of gnoll bodies, over ten feet up, with the mutated boss leaned up against the pile. And atop the pile was a figure, it's blue eyes glowing as it stared at them, as it held onto what appeared to be a blue blade that was stuck into a dead body.
Nearly everyone there felt as though death itself was staring them down, as they all realized their superior number would mean nothing against this opponent. If it so chose to direct its blade at them, they were all as good as dead. The figure began to stand, causing almost everyone to flinch, all but one. As he began to rise Tess walked out in front of the tanks. One tried to grab her and pull her back, but she pulled away.
"Art?" Tess choked out, as tears began to well up in her eyes.
The figures head sharply directed to Tess and stared at her.
Tess watched the figure she believed was Arthur staring at her, a mixture of relief, hope, and fear swirled around inside her. If this really was Arthur she would be so happy, but Alder had also warned her that due to his training, Arthur might not be the same person she remembered.
"Kyuuu!"
Suddenly a white blur came out of nowhere and ran into Tess' arms.
"Sylvie!" Tess cried out happily.
Suddenly the figure lept from the bodies, and landed right in front of Tess.
"Hey Tess."