Grace was seething. Her golden hair whipping behind her, she stomped through the forest while muttering several obscenities towards her dearest guildmate Raiden. She didn't see the need for her fellow mages to blame themselves when others got hurt.
Shouldn't they have been trying to get stronger so they could properly protect their friends if they met the enemy again?
Her blue eyes widened as she realized she must have made her way near the city. There were sounds of explosions that nearly shook the earth itself, and thanks to her long years living with wolves she was able to detect the faint smell of sulfur in the air. The scent was vaguely familiar: after all, it was present whenever Jakkura was at the bar.
She cursed. What could go wrong this time?
(Really, she shouldn't have been asking that. Infinite Bloom mages had a tendency to defying expectations when it came to unfortunate circumstances. Curse her luck.)
Grace quickly summoned a giant bear spirit, and although it looked somewhat translucent when she pressed her hand against its skin it stayed solid. Her magic wasn't perfect: after all, she wasn't fully trained in the magic after her...family's demise. She pushed the thought away, finding it too uncomfortable to deal with as she nimbly climbed on top of the bear and commanded it to take her into the city.
Perhaps taking a giant spiritual bear into the city wasn't the brightest thing in the world to do, but Grace was always known to be an impulsive but straight to the point person. Subtility, despite Isaac's nagging ("You'll jeopardize the mission and make it harder on me-") and her other two teammates' exasperation, was never her strong point.
When she neared the East edge of the city she was surprised to see the outlines of several of her other guildmates.
Jakkura, the sadistic bomb mage, was setting off explosions left and right. He was smirking delightedly at the panicked cries of their enemies. Jakkura was a strange person, and even stranger looking. He had dark brown hair reaching down to his shoulders, and jutting from the top of his head were ears that resembled an animal's. His nose was small like a canine's (after all, Grace could definitely distinguish animal-like characteristics) and he even had pointed teeth and a furry tail.
Most dared not to question his appearance, sans Chase. Most of their guild's S-Class mages were not to be questioned with. Alucard, Jakkura, and Raiden were their three S-Class mages, although Grace was sure other talented mages who fit the requirement of S-Class would arrive.
Of course, the division between S, A, and even B class was not too discernable. After all, the magic world was just beginning to get organized and had created the classifications of mages only several years before. The only thing required for you to become an S-Class mage was to be recommended by several A or S class mages to the master and meet the guildmaster's approval.
Most of the mages at Infinite Bloom were A-Class, although they could probably have become S-Class if they wanted to. There were several reasons why they didn't. Some, like Kei, were simply too lazy to take on the additional responsibilities of being S-Class, like going on special missions. Others wanted to stay on their team, because usually S-Class mages were distributed evenly among the teams. Or, others liked it when their opponents underestimated them because of their class.
Grace could really list a multitude of reasons that she had gathered from talking with her other guildmates in between training. She wasn't sure why some like Isaac, who was too silent that she never got any information out of him, stayed A-Class but she supposed there were reasons.
Besides, their skills spoke for themselves.
"The hell?" She muttered under her breath as her muscles tensed, preparing to jump into the scene if there was any trouble. Her blue eyes narrowed as she searched for Jakkura's other teammates.
Rather than the bomb mage, Team 4 had several other people. Marcus, their de facto leader who was extremely smart and slightly charismatic, was protecting the citizens from any dangerous spells that managed to fly their way. Marcus was a Lightning Mage, like Raiden, and the two often worked together when their teams helped each other on a mission. There were two other members: Victoria and Gizma. Those two girls were born inventors, who loved to mess with trinkets and frequently went around with Chase creating inventions and whatnot.
Grace hopped over to Marcus's side. "What's going on?" She asked the Lightning Mage, eyes darting concernedly at Victoria, who was currently fending off one of their enemies with her hands, which had transformed into claws. Marcus had spiky black hair with gold highlights and obsidian black eyes, and even though he didn't have a regular outfit as most of the mages did, he was willing to wear the Infinite Bloom cloak, which was a forest green cape usually worn by older members who didn't need to stay in their teams.
"We were just about to head off on a mission when those guys intercepted us," Marcus explained. "Kei and Ava happened to arrive in town the same time that they instigated the battle, although those two managed to find and confront the leader. Whatever happened left both of them...panicked, if those two could even panic, and they told me they'd get back-up at the guild."
Grace took in this information and nodded in thanks, but Marcus's attention was already focused elsewhere. "Shoot, Victoria! Fall back!"
Taking advantage of the mage's distraction, several enemies surged forward towards Marcus in a motion to defeat one of the Infinite Bloom mages, but before they could, there was a loud growl. Grace blinked in surprise as she saw a giant...animal that seemed like some kind of breed between a tiger and a snake. "What is that?" Grace blatantly stared at the cross-breed.
"I...believe that it's the result of one of Victoria's experiments," Marcus said weakly. "She loves to cross breed animals. Remember that time when some of the guild began freaking out because of some weird animal? That was her kitten and shark hybrid."
"Marcus," Victoria acknowledged as she hopped next to them, hazel eyes flashing with curiosity. She reached for something in her toolbelt that was wrapped around her waist but stopped when she realized what she was doing. "What is the matter?"
"You have to stop being reckless. If I hadn't stopped you, you might have used too much of your magic and collapsed. Besides...hey, Victoria, are you listening to me?" Marcus sighed in exasperation as his teammate wandered off in her thoughts. Grabbing onto her and making her look into his black eyes, he said firmly, "Stop. Being. Reckless. And can you figure out a way they might have gotten into the city even though the Master had set up a barrier to stop those with ill will?"
Victoria still seemed dazed off, but her mind seemed to focus enough for her to catch the last request. "Yeah, got it," she mumbled as she adjusted her goggles, which pushed back her fiery red hair. Unlike Marcus, Victoria's outfit was intricate and reminiscent of the 'Steampunk Era' about fifty years ago in one of the countries surrounding Fiore. She wore a long, leather coat that was patched up in several areas, along with several buckles and belts which she had left recklessly loose on the coat. Her leather boots clanked against the cobblestone path resoundingly, although Marcus had long ago gave up on making her change her outfit.
But, of course, the most unusual thing about Victoria rather than her dreamy personality and ADHD was her arm. It was a complete metal prosthetic, made of copper, bronze, and some kind of gold metal. The arm was covered with gears, cords, pipes, hoses, and windows that showed the level of various liquids, and it glowed faintly blue when it wasn't spewing puffs of steam.
The girl pulled out a piece of paper and pen from her toolbelt and started muttering things to herself, sketching out something. After a few tense moments in which Grace and Marcus stopped anyone from attacking the working girl, Victoria looked up from her drawing and smiled triumphantly. "Done."
"I gotcha' covered," Grace whispered towards Marcus, nodding towards Victoria. Marcus would be the best to take the information Victoria figured out and create a plan, so she'd have to be the brute strength for now.
"Spirit Summon: Bear."
Jakkura smirked as he snapped his fingers, detonating a mine that he had set up on the cobblestone street beforehand. The street had turned into a mirage of colors and light, destroying nearly everything except the places that were protected by protection spells set up by Gizma, their last teammate.
"Jakkura, Gizma sees a wave of enemies from the East side," Gizma intoned, looking through a telescope that she must have made herself. "They are approaching quickly despite the barrier. Gizma believes that they will cross the border in about ten minutes."
"Tch," Jakkura muttered, literally jumping on the walls of the buildings as he reached the said location in less than a minute. "Bomb Orb."
A sphere encased the Dark Mages, who were trying to send spells to break the sphere with no avail. Jakkura took a step closer to the orb that was pulsing with dark energy, and with a single tap of his finger, everything within the sphere was obliterated. A cruel smile wormed across his face as he turned around, walking away smugly.
"Jakkura!" A voice called out, and he looked over to where the source was. It was Marcus, dragging along Victoria as they rushed towards him. "We've figured out how they've gotten in and how to stop the attacks."
Jakkura did not press him to go further, but Marcus must have been used to the man's relatively silent state as he continued, "There's a very likely possibility that the attackers have a new kind of magical weapon simply called the Breaker. It was created in Bosco, according to Victoria, but not many people know about it because of its specific use."
"To counter this, we'll need to create an invention that can nullify the Breakers. It runs on highly concentrated magical energy that is able to focus on to a single point of the staff. They have a lot of them, so it would be easy for them to break down the barrier," Victoria added.
Just then, Gizma joined their group as she gave them all a nod. It was unusual for them to see her so serious, because Gizma was usually the clutz of their group (although Victoria came to a close second). "Gizma and the team just needs to create something that can draw the flow of magic to our device instead of theirs, so the object needs to have a strong magical attraction level, correct?"
Marcus and Victoria nodded.
"Victoria and Gizma, can you two work on that? Jakkura and I should help Grace out." Marcus glanced over to his golden haired guildmate, who was starting to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies targeting her. The two girls nodded, Victoria working out some formulas and distractedly sketching out a blueprint and Gizma using her magic to form several parts of the machine.
Unlike Chase, Gizma could only create machines and weapons that already existed, which was a slight drawback. However, that meant that she didn't need to use as much magic, and it was easy to create the parts that Victoria pointed out were crucial.
"Jakkura, you take the West wing. I'll take North, and Grace will take South. We need to hold the fort until there's more backup." Marcus gave him a quick nod before heading off.
Jakkura surveyed the enemies in front of him with mild amusement, looking the way a predator does whenever they knew their prey was doomed. Something about the look in his eyes must have scared them, for they took a step back. He only said three words before beginning his attack, a wide smirk spreading across his face. "Scream for me."
"Isaac, there you are," Grace said with relief. "Where's the other backup?"
"Giving recall orders to all mages on missions near Bosco." He gave a look around the almost clear area. Perhaps she was getting stronger, because even amongst his teammates, Isaac only took note of the strong. "Where are the most enemies?"
"You shouldn't go looking for them, idiot," Grace scoffed.
"I will take on any amount to get stronger." The sword at his side was a reminder of that.
"Well, I think you're rushing this path to power way too much." Grace observed her teammate. Isaac had messy black hair and hazel eyes that seemed to cut straight through her soul. Attached to his hip in a sheath was his sword, which she had learned was called Void, or at least for short. Isaac never really offered any other information about it. He was wearing his tight grey pants and black overcoat over his white shirt, and it was obvious he had been training as his feet, which were always barefoot, had traces of grass and dirt. "What ever happened to enjoying nature?"
"Enjoyment is not a practical option. Only strength will help you achieve your goals." The man was looking elsewhere, as if he was remembering something.
"Well then, work with me for now to clear up this area. It's beneficial to the two of us and we can move on to the next group of mages," Grace offered. The only way to get Isaac to work with anyone was to point out the benefits it did for him.
The man tilted his head in thought before giving a nod. Unsheathing his sword, he said, "Soul Slicer." He slashed the sword in the air, and Grace could literally see pink waves of pure energy cut the enemies into pieces.
She blinked. "Actually, I've been wondering about this for a while now, but why pink?"
Isaac did not answer.
"Maaah, recall orders? Already?" Chase swung his legs on the side of the bed, puffing out his cheeks. "Well, isn't that going to be just dandy? And right when we were beginning to get to the good stuff."
"Recall orders?" Rae glanced up at Chase distractedly, having been crafting a puppet out of wood. Chase, Rae, and Uriah were all sitting in the inn room, waiting for the others to return from their town outing. "Well, that's interesting. Why, though? Stopping through a mission halfway through is going to damage Infinite Bloom's name. Master wouldn't be reckless enough to do something like that for no reason."
Uriah looked up from his position leaned against the wall. "Didn't you guys already mess up your mission, though?"
There was a beat of silence in which both Chase and Rae began to sulk in the corners of the room as Uriah blinked surprisedly at their reaction. "We do that a lot…" Rae muttered, glancing at her teammate. "Especially thanks to Chase."
"Huh? No way! It's usually your fault because you always want to check out the bars at the town and draw attention to our team," Chase countered.
"...says the guy who dyed our employer's hair pink with such strong dye that it didn't wash out for a week," Rae said dryly. At that statement, Uriah's eyebrows raised in slight curiosity and confusion as he watched the two with amusement.
"It turned out that he was going to rip us off," Chase pointed out. "I just gave us an excuse to leave."
"And," Rae said sweetly, golden eyes narrowing as she continued. "You also managed to put us on probation for a month without missions. Not to mention you also earned us classes with Master of how to treat our clients."
"But after that we managed to give our clients decent enough service that they sometimes gave us tips. Everything worked out in the end, right?"
Rae groaned, leaning back on the beige sofa as she looked mournfully outside of the window to where Ames, Mars, and Alucard were. Of course she was stuck with Chase again. "It doesn't matter the end result, but if you keep doing stuff like this one day-"
"So it doesn't matter about the end result?" Chase repeated, eyes sparkling mischievously as Rae resisted the urge to smack him or something of the like. He knew he was pissing her off and was doing this all on purpose.
"I give up…" Rae groaned, sinking deeper into the sofa as she turned to Uriah. "What are you going to be doing from here?"
Uriah shrugged, contemplating her question. "I'm still looking for my sister, and that's my number one priority right now. But…"
"Then why don't you join our guild?" Chase offered, giving Uriah a bright grin. "It's really fun, and I can relate to wanting to take care of your sister. If you take a lot of missions, you get to go to a lot of places, and who knows? Maybe you'll find her at one of those places."
"It would be a shame to let your skills go to waste," Rae added. "Not to mention your magic reminds me of a girl that's my roommate. Remind me again, what exactly do you remember about your sister?"
"She has bright blue eyes and should be around seventeen or eighteen years old. She could get angry pretty easily, especially if someone she's protective about is hurt. We got separated...about seven years ago? Give or take. She's a mage like me." Uriah recited this all with a grim look on his face. This was all he remembered about his sister.
Rae and Chase exchanged glances before having a hurried situation, cutting the other off as they exchanged ideas.
"Hey, doesn't that sound like-"
"No, but I'm pretty sure she was an only child-"
"Shouldn't we check?" At this proposal, both mages turned expactantly towards Uriah. Rae was thoughtfully rubbing her chin as she examined Uriah's facial features, most likely trying to match it up with whatever guildmate she was thinking of. On the other hand, Chase's approach was much more blunt.
"Do you recognize the name Grace Arc?" Chase asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared at Uriah. The black haired mage was standing stock still, and faintly Chase could see his hands trembling.
"...I recognize the name Grace. I...I'm not sure about Arc, but Grace sounds familiar." Uriah couldn't find a way to describe the feeling that overwhelmed him. There was a possibility that his sister was just out of his reach, yet something about this situation didn't feel right.
"Chase," Rae hissed, pulling the boy closer to her as she whispered furiously, "What if she's not her? You can't just bring up Uriah's hopes like that. Can you imagine what Uriah must be feeling right now? He's unable to help his family right now and has been letting his sister fend on her own. You can't-"
"Actually, I can," Chase said, firmly looking away from Rae's surprised look. "...I can relate."
There was a beat of silence before Rae cleared her throat awkwardly, looking away. Her cheeks were burning as she inwardly chided herself. Rae knew that Infinite Bloom mages were touchy about their pasts, herself included. She had stepped over the line, even for Chase. "Sorry."
"...yeah, it's fine." Chase relented. Glancing at Rae and Uriah, he shrugged nonchalantly. He could tell them. "Not like there's much to tell. I have a little brother who's seventeen, two years younger than me, and a younger sister, who's fifteen. My sister...she has a disease that can't be cured right now. My parents were able to find a doctor who could cure her, but there was a misunderstanding and they were killed, while the doctor went into hiding again. And, well, you know...stuff. Other stuff."
Rae took in the information seriously, nodding her head solemnly. Even though she usually saw him as Chase, there was something about him that could both light up and darken the atmosphere depending on his mood. He set the mood of their team, and although Rae was sure most of their other guildmates didn't realize it, Chase was smart. Extremely smart, and he could be serious when he needed to be.
Chase's aversion to the subject was blatantly obvious. Uriah himself was shifting awkwardly in his seat, somewhat able to relate but probably feeling a little out of place with the two teammates and Chase's sudden reveal.
"My family knew Kei's family," Rae spoke up, bringing both boys' attention to her. She wasn't all sure why she was explaining this, but she knew she could trust both of them "We were a group of mages that guarded his aristocratic family. The travelling caravan chain we were guarding was attacked by mages dealing on the more...darker side of things. Kei wasn't there, but I was, and when they attacked...all those who weren't killed were sent to Bosco, the country North of Fiore."
"Why Bosco?" Uriah asked.
"...Bosco's economy is extremely high thanks to its extensive use in the slave trade," Chase explained, eyes darting towards Rae every once in a while. "Although slavery is basically illegal in Fiore, in Bosco it's different. I heard that they have a casting system, with slaves at the bottom. But illegal slave trafficking? From another country? Why would they do that?"
Looking at Rae's grim face, Chase amended, "Never mind. The atmosphere's too heavy right now, so let's all chill and do something else." Plastering on a bright grin on his face, he said, "I'll be in the lobby. I want to be the first to welcome Alucard and the rest back." He quickly exited the room.
Rae and Uriah sat in silence. "Hah, well we'd better get ready to head back to Malba City." Rae tried for a weak smile as she stood up, walking close to the mage. Sitting next to him so that she was at eye level, she said quietly, "We don't want to force you into a decision, but I know that our guild would love to have you as a part of our family."
"No one is really alone in our guild," she continued, "Even if they want to be. Some of the guys like Alucard, Isaac, or Jakkura might deny it, but us guildmates are there to look out for each other. The guild isn't completely white, after all, every guild has its dark secrets, but I consider it the closest thing I have to a home."
The only sound in the room was the sound of the fan, buzzing faintly. There was the clitter clatter sound of shoes hitting tile, heading closer in their direction from outside of the door.
"I...I'll go." Uriah said finally. "I'll join."
"Perfect!" Chase bounded back into the room, dragging Ames and Mars by the cuffs of their sleeves while Alucard trailed behind the trio. "Because it was really going to be a pain in the ass if we had to kidnap you and bring you home." Chase shot him a goofy grin.
"You've helped our teammates," Mars said slowly. "And because of that, we already consider you a part of our guild."
Ames added, "And, by default, you're part of our family." Although Alucard did not add anything, by the lack of disagreement, they knew their teammate was fine with that.
"Welcome to the guild, Uriah," they all chorused, smiling brightly.
If only that brightness could last.
A/N: Well, I updated again. Look at that! :)
Can anyone see where the plot is going from here? Haha, this is going to be fun. And, as always, thank you for your support! I really get motivated whenever I know someone has read my works. Thanks for reading~