"So, when were you going to tell me that you were picked to be our captain?" Eric asked with an amused smirk as he sat down next to Flare, the two of them sat alone at a table away from everyone as the redhead blushed slightly before shrugging.
"Um, right now, I guess? Sorry about not telling you."
"Oh, you don't have to be. I'm actually proud that my girlfriend was going to be the captain. I could have bragged to so many people about it." Eric spoke with a grin and Flare rolled her eyes with a smile as she took a sip from her wine.
"So, why didn't you take the offer? That would have boosted your chances tremendously to be in the next S-Class Exams."
"Well, at first I was going to since Guy wanted to say no initially, but I felt like I wasn't on the level needed to keep up with the rest of you guys."
"Now, that's a lie. Yes, you're not strong enough, but you turned Hair Magic from a simple support magic to one that excels in offence, defence and support all at the same time. You definitely have far better control and technique than most of the guild…bar Bacchus, but that's just because he's a monster in human form."
"Hello, pot. Should you be talking like that about kettle?" Flare asked with an amused smile, giggling as Eric rolled his eyes with a smirk.
"She does have a point. Most of us in the guild are strong, but you and Bacchus are on a completely different level compared to us." Warcry spoke with a smirk as he sat down, with Guy, Bacchus, Screecher and Leo sitting down with him around the table as Flare offered her seat to Guy before sitting down on the amused Eric's lap as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
"That's only because I trained with him for most of my first month here."
"That's our point. No one has gone for more than a week training in physical prowess under Bacchus and yet, here you are, still doing his hellish exercises a year later."
"That…is true. Most of the wild guys here don't have what it takes in them to keep up with my full insane training." Bacchus agreed with a nod, to which Eric just sighed before nodding.
"Fine, Bacchus and I are monsters. Happy?"
"More than happy. So, what are your plans for the next two months?" Flare asked, to which the five main members gave a shrug in unison before turning to their exasperated captain.
"Hah, I was thinking of us six going to the Deadman Badlands, where we'll stay for a month and three weeks before travelling back to Crocus and resting our bodies for the week before the GMG."
"Sounds good. What are we mostly focusing on?" Screecher asked, to which Guy hummed as a series of holographic screens & a keyboard appeared floating in the air in front of him.
"The first week will be nothing but pure physical training to get our physical stats up and prepare us for the rest of the training trip. The next two weeks are going to be where we focus on both training our magic and creating new spells for our respective magic. The fourth and fifth weeks after that are where we'll be focusing purely on physical combat, sparring on a daily basis against every person in a round-robin tournament format. Then the two weeks are simply going to be a combination of all three of the past training regimes, where we will do single physical training at dawn, magical training at midday and sparring until late in the evening. Of course, we'll incorporate resting & break times and every seventh day is going to be a resting day to let our bodies rejuvenate and recover. What do you all think?"
"…I'm so glad you're our captain." Leo spoke with wide eyes, the others nodding in agreement and Flare giggling as Guy rolled his eyes and saved the training file to his memories before dismissing his Archive screens.
"I'm glad to hear that. Now then, we depart tomorrow so why don't everyone enjoy their day? Also, Eric, we're going by train as training for your motion sickness."
"…Flare, do you want my position on the team?" Eric asked with a pleading stare, groaning as she giggled and shook her head while Guy rolled his eyes as he stood up.
"Don't be a crybaby. Now, we'll leave you lovebirds to yourself?"
"Wait, really? I just got comfortable~" Bacchus groaned, grumbling as he slowly stood up while the other shook their heads as they stood up and walked back to the counter, Eric letting out a sigh before blinking as he heard Flare humming.
"What are you so happy about?"
"Nothing~ With you leaving and since we don't have any missions~" She trailed off with a sly smirk, the dots slowly connecting in his mind before Flare giggled as gravity around the two of them disappeared.
"Then what are we still sitting here for? The apartment awaits~"
"Land~ Sweet still land~!" Eric groaned as he fell face first onto the coarse sand of the desert, Guy just shaking his head as the others chuckled.
"Was it like this when you guys came back?" The model asked as he turned to Bacchus and Screecher, who both grinned as Screecher took out his recording Lacrima.
"We have a video of it and before you destroy it, Flare already has a copy." Screecher spoke with a smirk as an azure glow covered Eric's hand, to which the dragon slayer grumbled as the glow around his hand disappeared and he stood up.
"You know what? I'm too dizzy to deal with this." Eric spoke with a huff as he crossed his arms while still swaying slightly, to which the others rolled their eyes before Leo spoke up.
"So…in which direction are the Badlands?" Everyone turned to him before turning to Eric, who rolled his eyes as he snapped his fingers.
"Ah, so this is how zero gravity feels? A bit weird if I have to admit." Leo spoke with a frown as he felt his body becoming weightless, Guy & Warcry nodding in agreement as Screecher & Bacchus chuckled while Eric smirked.
"If this is weird, then get ready for the next part."
"What part is thaaaaatt?!" Leo exclaimed as Eric sent them flying forward at a blistering pace, Eric cackling in glee as the others gritted their teeth before their eyes widened as the dragon slayer spoke in their minds.
'I'm doing this as inertia training so we're going full speed. Hang on!' And before they could ask, sonic booms echoed throughout the sky and the ground trembled as Eric accelerated even further, a wide grin on his face as they flew towards the Deadman Badlands.
'Ah, training is going to be so much fun.'
"What the hell are you doing back here?" Eric blinked at the question that came from a familiar Rune Knight captain as soon as they landed, the others looking confused as a grin spread across the dragon slayer's face and he opened his arms wide.
"Captain Fowley! How have you been?!"
"Commander Fowley now, Creed, and my life was peaceful & quiet before you arrived." Fowley spoke with a roll of his eyes, though he did hold out a hand that Eric shook with a chuckle before turning to the others.
"Guys, this is Commander Fowley, the Rune Knight in charge of the barrier that keeps out the beasts from Fiore. Fowley, these are the S-Class mages Warcry, Guy and Bacchus. Along with them are one of the two new S-Class mages of Quatro Cerberus, Screecher, and Leo Lyonas."
"You said two S-Class mages? I assume he's the other one?" Fowley asked with a frown, to which Leo chuckled & shook his head negative before pointing at Eric.
Fowley glanced back at the smug grin on Eric's face before shaking his head as he turned to the other mages.
"I pity you all for having to hand him that important of a role."
"Eh, we're used to him pulling shit out of his ass that somehow works."
"Oi! They are delicate works of art that take my full concentration and hundreds of seconds in order to fully provide us with the perfect plan to perform the mission efficiently & safely."
"Most of your plans involve blowing stuff up to mask your presence and those are the ones you actually feel like working on." Warcry responded with a smirk, to which Eric just huffed with a grumble as the others snickered before turning to Fowley as the commander cleared his throat.
"While it's nice to see you all here, but why are you actually here? You most definitely are not supposed to be here after what you did."
"What did you do?" Bacchus asked Eric with a raised eyebrow, who scoffed as Fowley smirked.
"Nothing much. He just annihilated the entire Vulcan kingdom living here."
"They tried to force my girlfriend to marry their so-called King. I wasn't taking any prisoners and besides, you didn't complain when we cooked the juiciest ones."
"We were starving and our supplies were taking too long. Of course, we're going to eat whatever is offered to us."
"Was this before or after the Wyvern meat was mysteriously devoured in the span of just a week?"
"What kind of monstrous shit do you get up to when we're not looking?" Screecher asked with a shake of his head, to which Eric gave an unashamed shrug as Fowley snorted before turning to Guy as an orange glow covered his hand.
"Well, before you ask, here is our permit to be in here for the next two months."
"Ah, so you're training for the GMG, huh? I'm on vacation at that time, so I might come and see you kick some ass with the wife & kids."
"Wait, you're married? Damn, you don't look like it."
"Fuck you, Eric." Fowley muttered as he signalled to the guards on the wall, who nodded as they slowly opened the barrier while Eric smirked as the others just glanced at each other.
"He really doesn't know the influence he has, does he?" Bacchus whispered to Guy, who smirked as he nodded.
"No, he does not, which is good. The power might go to his head."
"Gentlemen, welcome to my humble abode." Eric spoke with a grin as the six of them entered a rather large cave, proud at his & Flare's little home away from home and chuckling as he saw their impressed looks at the wooden furniture and grassy cushions before turning to Guy as the mage chuckled.
"Used Archive to build these, huh?"
"No, I just used Archive to calculate the exact measu-Wait, how is that possible?"
"You're not connected to the Fiore Archives?" Eric just blinked in confusion at Guy's sigh, not understanding what his fellow archive mage meant.
'I know that there's supposed to be that Super Archive used by that former chief of the Magic that lets him access confidential information across the entire world, but Archive could do that too.'
"That's how we get most of the important messages to the guild. They sent it across the Archive network to Guy and he in turn relays it to the master seeing as Master trusts him with the more finer details of the guild."
"Ah, I guess it makes sense. I only learned how to create my Archive and I did cut our training short since I didn't need the more refined parts of it." Eric muttered with a nod, to which the others hummed before Guy shrugged as his Archive screens appeared around him.
"Well, that's actually a boon. Let me tell you that information gets updated every single second so I had to mute that part before my brain got fried."
"Huh, good to know."
'Yep, I'm fine with just my information and besides, I don't know if it's just selective information that I could load up to the Archives or if every bit of information I know is uploaded the moment I connect to it.' Eric might be a bit of a glutton for information, but he's not enough of a gambler to risk having his memories of mostly everything in this verse being made public to the villains to this world.
That and he would like to keep the rule34 memories to himself, thank you very much.
"Okay, Eric! Give me a scan of the area within the next five kilometer radius using this cave as the center." Eric simply nodded as his eyes shone brightly behind his blindfold, the world around him zooming out as he swiftly scanned every nook & cranny as Guy requested before shaking his head as soon as he zoomed back into his body.
"We're clear! The only thing to worry about is a scourge of wyvern flocking about 4 kilometers to the south-south west." Guy nodded at that before everyone blinked as a large holographic map of the area appeared in the air in front of them.
"Good! Now, listen closely for this is how we're going to be training for the next week. This cave is the centre point and we're going to walk to the three kilo mark. Then, Eric, you're going to increase gravity around each one of us to the point where we can just barely move. After that, it's a simple ten laps around the cave. Once everyone has done their ten laps, it's five hours straight of Bacchus' Physical Training with the gravity still activated. At early evening, Eric, you will dismiss the gravity and we shall do stretches before finally finishing off with a nice meal and a good night's rest. Tomorrow, we just repeat the process with lunch added into the schedule."
"Wait, you mean make a different zone for each of us and then increase the gravity for each one individually?"
"Yep, you're starting your Magic Training early since this will help you figure out how to affect different points of gravity at the same time while your body is under stress as well."
"Not bad." Eric muttered with a nod, watching as Guy shrugged before turning to the others who just looked at each other.
"Well, what are we all waiting for? Let's get this show on the road!" Eric chuckled at Bacchus' shout and watched as the man jogged out before the drunk groaned as Leo pulled his sake gourd away from him.
"No drinking while training." Guy said with a raised eyebrow, Eric smirking at Bacchus' grumbles before following Guy out as the man lead them to where the three kilo mark was.
"Okay, here we are. Eric, if you will."
"Don't mind if I do." Eric spoke with a smirk as he rolled his neck, reaching up to his blindfold before taking it off as a deep scarlet glow appeared in his eyes.
'Activating Archive…Scanning bodies…Calculating gravity shift to accommodate height and weight…Final Calculations complete.'
"Gravity Shift." Eric chanted as he held his hands up with the palms facing the others, an azure glow covering all five of them along with Eric before the dragon slayer grit his teeth as he felt himself being forced into the ground.
Slowly increasing the gravity around all of them, he waited until everyone's legs were nearly buckling at different points before taking deep breaths as he slowly settled the gravity zones.
"E-Everybody good?"
"No! My o-organs…are currently b-being pulled…to my ass! N-Not good at all!" Screcheer gritted out, to which Eric chuckled as he heard Bacchus cackling.
"Then it's working! Now, come on dipshits! Time for some good ol' Bacchus-style training!"
"W-We're not going…to b-be alive after these…t-two months, are we?" Leo wheezed out as he took his first step and Eric just gave him a grin as he struggled to give a shrug.
"E-Either we live…or we die! N-Now say it with me! Wildddd…"
"FOURRR!"
"Eric! Bacchus! Go train over there and leave the rest of us normal folks to our normal exercises!" Guy spoke through gritted teeth as he & the other three did their pushups, Eric and Bacchus doing one-handed pushups before Bacchus shrugged as he walked away.
"Eh, just a bunch of cowards, I tell you. Come on, Eric."
"Hah, what makes you think I want to go with you?" Eric grumbled, but did as was asked and walked after the drunk man.
"No, no! Your barriers are tied to your physical strength, so the more I increase gravity around you as you do pushups, the more you will be able to block." Eric spoke with an excited grin as he slowly reset Leo's gravity, who just stared at the dragon before shaking his head as he stood up straight.
"Eric, I am not doing weighted training under five times gravity just to help you train more. Go and bother Bacchus for that."
"Okay, Eric is not allowed to train his Hell Fire while we are still around." Guy growled and Eric gave a sheepish grin as the others looked at the curtain of hellfire slowly dying in the sky above them.
"I did say clear out."
"Then, why the hell did you fire it towards us?!"
"I can still see you, Screech! Focus more on vibrating yourself to match the ambient ethernano instead of trying to simply just hide yourself away."
"Right."
"…Should we all be worried?" Bacchus asked as he kept shattering Leo's barriers, to which Guy looked at where Screecher and Eric were training before shrugging as he turned back to help Warcry analyze their fight.
"Eh, I'm sure it will help us better in the GMG."
"Okay, did not know that Guy was this strong." Eric muttered as he stared in shock at the sky, Leo & Screecher just as shocked while Warcry looked amused as Guy and Bacchus clashed in the sky.
"Yeah, let me tell you. Being hit by seven different spells from numerous directions is not for the weak."
'Yep, I'm definitely copying everything I'm seeing.'
"Okay, Bacchus and Eric are not allowed to fight each other ever again." Guy muttered whilst pinching the bridge of his nose as he stared at the bonfires, gaping craters and deep crevices scattered all around the cave, the others nodding before looking back at where the two fighters were lying on the ground.
"Hah…almost…had you…"
"You…wish."
"We're not leaving until the end of the trip, are we?"
"I have to admit, this trip was quite nice. The clean air was refreshing and getting to train with you guys was fun."
"Yeah, and this area was good for us to just cut loose and be as destructive as we wanted to be."
"Yeah…you guys want to do this again?"
"Fuck no/ Hell no/ Never again/ I'd rather die/ No." Eric just groaned at everyone's answer, the others just shaking their heads before Guy turned to Eric.
"Get us out of here before I actively try to destroy the place.
"Fine, I swear people these days don't like fun. Get ready, everyone. Next stop: Crocus."
A/N: Okay, so this is just a quick note to clarify some things since I think the newer people missed them.
Firstly, I've said it before(or I forgot to), but there is a reason that everyone is as strong as they are in this universe. You will all find out why in the next arc(The GMG arc)
Secondly, I can't remember the reviewers' names, but they told me that my math on the timeline was wrong and I thank you all for that. I went back to look and man did I mess that up, so I'll be fixing that...somehow. Just need to figure out how old to make Eric and we should be good.
Finally...shameless P-plug like usual: Pat. C. om/KingCrimsonNova, where you can read up to seven chapters ahead on this story(We're at Day 3 of the Grand Magic Games and close to the explanation that I mentioned in the first part) and ten chapters ahead on the Unholy Wolf. As usual, if you want to, you can, but even if you don't, I'm thankful to everyone that reads this.
Anyway, as always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one...
Ba-Bye~!