As morning approached Caligo seemed to be in a more content mood. He hadn't completely gotten over the fact that Raven wasn't his mother and the fact that his actual mother had been killed by her.

But he knew he had to leave that behind.

For now at least.

Once he grew stronger he would come back to the Branwen clan and get the truth out of Raven. That he promised himself.

As he got off from the ground he noticed a gauntlet on his right arm the one strom had promised.

In the distance strom used his semblance to wither away the walls around them. As the walls began to disappear, a howl was heard in the distance.

Hearing the howl everyone got up with their weapons in hand except Caligo who wasn't able to grip his sword with his right hand. He instead held it awkwardly in his left hand.

As soon as the walls came down a beowolf leaped towards Rain who impaled it with her Spear.

But the assault didn't end there.

A dozen more beowolf began running towards them.

Strom creates spikes from the ground in between them and the beowolves to block them from running straight through.

"We need to escape, after yesterday's fight I don't think we can handle an onslaught of beowolves" Flare said as he sent a few flames forward charring the ones that managed to pass through the spikes.

"Ok Ellie and I will go forward with the kids while you guys keep the vanguard strong" Strom said, "You three come along"

Violet, Earl and Caligo followed Strom and Ellie as they tried to make their way out of the grimm infested forest.

Any beowolves that came towards them were quickly dealt by Strom and Ellie and if any managed to get past Violet and Earl would finish them off.

Eventually after running for a while they managed to reach the safety of a village. They waited for a while outside until Flare and Rain managed to catch up to them.

"Guess we're finally safe" Earl said as he looked at the village.

It seemed to have guards stationed outside the big gate. Most likely to keep an eye out for any Branwen clan raids.

That's probably the reason why this place wasn't attacked yet.

The bunch of them headed towards the sentry.

"State your business" The sentry said as he looked towards them.

"We're huntsmen students who came here to complete a mission. I think you remember us from before" Flare said as he took out some sort of ID.

"Huntsmen students. I do remember seeing you before but I don't think there were this many of you"

"There weren't these are some students that the huntsmen academy sent to us for backup"

"Is that so?" he said as he looked towards Caligo, Violet and Earl.

"Yeah that's right" Violet said, stepping forward as Rain slipped something into her hand.

She showed the thing in her hand to the Guard.

It was another ID.

"Well then I guess i can let you in. Sorry for the incessant questions"

"No No it's okay you were just doing your job" Violet said as she stepped back.

Then they all stepped into the village.

"Do you guys have any money?" Flare asked as he stared at the former branwen clan members.

"Sadly I don't, anything I had I left back at the clan" Caligo said.

"What about you two"

"We didn't manage to get any back with us," Earl said.

"Well I guess it's guys did help us after all and a room isn't much to compensate for the help you provided us"

"I feel like you already paid that debt by getting me out of there but nonetheless thanks" Caligo said.

"No thanks necessary. In 3 days we'll be returning back to Haven Academy so we'll need you guys to decide on what you plan to do before that. I apologise for the rush."

"No it's fine I think a day or two should be enough for us to decide" Earl said.

"I'll go book you guys that room while you discuss" Flare said as he walked away.

"Do you guys have anybody back home you could contact?" Caligo asked.

"I don't think so. I can sort of remember where I lived from my childhood but I'm not sure where we stayed" Earl said.

"I'm in the same boat. I can remember a relative of mine but no name or location. How about you, Caligo what do you plan to do from now on?" Violet said.

"That's a tough question to answer. All I have is battle experience so the only occupation I could reliably perform would be to be a mercenary. Though I'm also not that fond of death I'd have to leave this continent first"

"A mercenary huh.." Earl said.

The three of them spoke a bit more on the issue of what to do until Flare returned.

"Your rooms booked here's the key" Flare said as he tossed the key over to Caligo.

"Thanks," Caligo said.

"No problem. Me and the others will be out doing some training so if you need to speak to us you can head on over there"

"Wait, I'd like to join you," Earl said as he stepped forward.

"That's fine I guess having more people does help, what about you two?"

"I think I'll join as well," Violet said.

"So that's two. How about you Caligo, want to put those skills to the test?"

"As much as I want to accept the offer I'll have to deny, with the way my right arm is I don't think I'll be able to wield my sword properly. Also I need to catch up on sleep so I'll head on over to the room"

"That's fine too. Earl, Violet you two follow me, see you later Caligo"

The three of them walked away leaving Caligo behind.

They walked for a while until they came upon Strom and Rain fighting each other.

Strom created a number of projectiles and shot them towards Rain who blocked them using her barrier.

Ellie stood at the side watching the whole debacle play out.

"Hey I'm back" Flare said as he joined the two of them.

They stopped their battle and turned to Flare.

"So can we get starte- Are they going to be joining us as well?" Rain said as she pointed at the two newcomers.

"Yeah I felt it would be helpful. Plus more people are always better right?"

"Sure that's fine," Strom said.

"So how do we help?" Earl said.

"I think a mock battle would work well how about the two of you vs any two people from our team" Flare said.

"So we get to choose?" Violet asked.

"Yeah"

Violet and Earl whispered for a few seconds.

"We've decided we'd like to fight Flare and Ellie," Violet said.

"Fine then let's begin"

While the others were training Caligo was back at his room's bed staring at the ceiling.

Moving forward was tough. He was raised as a branwen and he had expected to also die as one but with what he had learnt his mind had changed.

But now he was left without a goal.

The emptiness and the lack of purpose made him feel emotions he hadn't felt in years.

Fear, Anxiety all bubbled up in him as he began to forget what he was even contemplating.

Though eventually it all subsided and he sat upright.

He took off the gauntlet on his right hand and stared at his hand.

"Cold" He said as he touched it with his left.

The fingers in his right arm were able to move properly in response to his mind but his grip was weak.

After staring at his hand for a while he put the gauntlet back on and got off the bed.

Looking out the window he noticed it was evening. He didn't know where the others were but as each second passed his boredom was getting the better of him.

After waiting for a few minutes he left the room in search of them.

It took a while but he eventually managed to find them.

Flare shot a funnel of fire towards Earl who tilted to the side to dodge it as Violet struck at Flare with her Javelin. But Ellie blocked it with her swords and touched Violet causing her to fall to the ground.

In front of two opponents Earl surrendered.

"Caligo you want to join in?" Rain said as she tapped him on the shoulder.

"I'm not sure"

'He didn't even flinch' Rain thought as she maintained the same friendly demeanor.

"How about you head on there it seems like Earl might be in need of another person"

"I'm not really at my peak you could say with my arm being the way it is"

"Then this is the best time for you to get some battle experience rather than against an actual opponent don't you think?"

He folded his hands and thought for a few seconds.

"Yeah you may be right. I'll head on over" Caligo says as he walks away.

"Good luck" Rain waves while she smiles.

Flare looks over as footsteps approach him.

"Caligo so you came"

Caligo looked over at Violet who was on the ground.

"Is she ok?"

"Yeah she's fine my semblance at the most knocks people out for 5 minutes" Ellie said.

"That's pretty useful," Earl said.

"It definitely is useful when dealing with powerful opponents"

"So Caligo, want to test your mettle against us?" Flare asked.

"I wouldn't go that far but yeah I am interested in the capabilities of someone learning to be a huntsman"

"So you are interested. How about you take Violet's place then"

"Sure sounds fine"

"Okay then let's create some distance between us"

Flare and Ellie moved to the right while Earl and Caligo moved to the left.

"So how good is he?"

"He's good but not in the way you'd expect. His swordsmanship is subpar you could probably easily beat him but his semblance makes it difficult to land a hit"

"What about Ellie"

"She's definitely good at using her dual swords to attack and defend well better than flare anyway. Though her semblance would be the thing we need to look out for the most"

"Yeah that semblance is definitely dangerous. It probably should have some weakness"

"So how are you going to fight Caligo?"

"I've been swinging the sword with my left hand but I can only barely use it. I guess I need to go for punching with my fists for the majority of the time"

"So a beatdown then. Well I'm in-"

"You guys are taking an awful lot of time," Flare said.

"We're done," Earl said.

"Yeah we're ready" Caligo said as the two of them turned to their opponents.

"If you're ready then here we come" Flare said as he shot a flurry of flames towards Caligo.

Caligo moved to the side and dodged the flames striking at Flare's sword with his own.

"Guess you really can't use a sword that well with your left huh?" Flare said as he began striking at Caligo who kept backstepping as he used his sword to deflect the hits.

He moved out the way as Ellie's blades approached him and Earl took his place pushing her back with a swift slash with his axe.

"In a battle of attrition we'd probably lose" Caligo said as they watched Flare and Ellie rushing towards them.

"Are you saying we go all out?" Earl said readying his axe.

"If we want to win this fight,yeah"

"Well I know I don't want to lose," Earl said.

They dodged the incoming flames sent by Flare and ran straight for him.

In response Flare sent more flames at them as Ellie joined him.

As the flames approached Caligo ran in front of the Flames shielding Earl with his passive aura.

"Caligo!"

"Now's our chance Earl they probably won't see us through these flames"

As the flames dispersed Caligo punched Flare with his gauntlet shattering his aura, pushing him to the ground.

Seeing this Ellie turned quickly and went to touch Caligo with her glowing hand.

She was too close; he knew he couldn't dodge the hit.

But even after she touched him he still managed to stay awake.

He looked at her Hand which was touching the gauntlet.

Taking advantage of the surprise she experienced by seeing that Caligo was still awake Earl attacked her from the back while Caligo slashed at her from the front shattering her aura.

"We give up," Flare said as he stood up.

"I'd like to say it was a fair fight but we did have a slight advantage since we had a substitute" Earl said.

"It's fine just accept that you guys won, same time tomorrow?" Flare asked as walked towards Caligo, Earl and VIolet who just woke up.

"Sure" "No problem" "That's fine" The three ex branwen clan members replied.

"Ok then let's head back"

That night with the exhaustion piled up all of them fell asleep quickly.