The wind whipped through Varre's hair as he leaned forward on his broom, the morning sky was a canvas of clouds stretching endlessly above the Clover Kingdom. Below the landscape blurred into a tapestry of rolling hills and sparse forests.
To his left Altria flew with effortless grace, her blonde hair tied into a ponytail and her grimoire tucked securely in a leather bag at her waist. She hummed softly, a light, melodic tune that cut through the rush of the air. She was humming mostly to lighten the weight of their first mission as part of a magic knight squad.
On Varre's right, Seigrain maintained a steady, unremarkable pace, his blue hair tousled by the breeze, his dark green eyes fixed ahead with the quiet focus of someone who preferred observation to chatter.
Unlike his two partners who were trying to be at as much ease as possible to keep the tension of their first mission as magic knights at bay, Varre's mind was a warzone. And no, it wasn't because of his first mission at all. The brief conversation he had back in Aqua Deer base replayed in his mind over and over, a loop of disappointment and quiet resignation that refused to dissipate.
"What kind of woman is your type?"
And Seigrain–the cool, composed Seigrain with his noble poise had paused, tilted his head like he was pondering the meaning of life and said, "A strong woman with a cute side, I suppose. Why?"
'Why, you ask? Because that's not the answer you blue-haired imposter!' Varre's grip tightened on the broom's handle, the wood creaking under his fingers. The reality that he had been trying to avoid. The reality that he was all alone in this world, in his own story, in the body of his own creation.
He glanced sideways at Seigrain who met his gaze with a polite nod, oblivious to the existential crisis unfolding three feet away. 'And the universe decided to screw me over with this.'
"Varre?" Altria's voice pulled him out from the spiral. "You have been oddly quiet. Is everything okay?" She slowed her pace slightly, falling into pace beside him. Her eyes searched his face with the familiar mix of concern and affection.
Forcing the kind of grin that usually got him out of trouble, Varre replied, "Everything's fine. I am just mentally mapping on how I am going to out-perform you two."
"You are impossible." Altria laughed, her laughter light and genuine, easing the knot in his stomach. "But seriously, if you are brooding about something you can always talk to me."
"I am good, don't worry your pretty head around me." He replied, injecting enough lightness in his voice to sell it. "Speaking of–let's race to the border. Loser owes ale when we get back."
Altria's competitive spark ignited instantly. "You're on!"
"I will pass." Seigrain shook his head. "Someone needs to make sure you two don't fly into a mountain."
"Killjoy." Varre stuck out his tongue before accelerating right behind Altria, the latter having already made a headstart on their little race.
The northern border with the Spade Kingdom emerged on the horizon like a scar on the land, a jagged line of frost-kissed pines and rocky outcrops. It was where Clover's vibrant greenery gave way to Spade's perpetual winter pallor.
The air grew colder as the three descended in a small clearing ringed by crude watchtowers, hastily stacked logs reinforced with stone and basic mana spells. A cluster of tents formed a makeshift camp with the banners of Aqua Deer and Green Mantis standing tall. The air buzzed with low conversation and occasional crackle of the campfire.
A senior magic knight from Aqua Deer approached first–a wiry woman in her late twenties with cropped auburn hair and a scar tracing her jawline like a lightning bolt. She scanned the trio before speaking up. "New joinees?"
"Yes, that's us." Varre stepped forward, extending his hand for a handshake while introducing himself and his companions. "Varre Swallowtail, Altria and Seigrain Ardenhart, reporting for duty."
The other two saluted the senior knights by bringing up their right hand to their torso with the index and middle finger raised.
"We were sent here by Captain Diavel to be a part of the patrolling team for a few months and learn the basics of it." Seigrain added, as two more senior knights; one from Green Mantis and another Aqua Deer member joined the female knight.
"Patrolling is simple for the most part." Elara, the magic knight with the lightning bolt scar, spoke up again. "Sweep the perimeter in pairs, never alone and make sure to rotate pairs on an hourly basis."
"Keep your mana output low while patrolling. Of course, you would need good control over your mana for that." A burly Green Mantis knight with a wild mane of chestnut hair and perpetual scowl further instructed. "And keep both your eyes and ears open all time. Spade has been quiet since the last skirmish a few months ago. But we all know being too quiet is never a good sign."
'With Spade? Yeah it's never a good sign.' Varre kept a straight face with his arms crossed as the senior knights explained all the basics and procedures of patrolling that are to be kept in mind and followed at all times. 'Diamond is the noisy one. Heart prefers seclusion.'
"What are your specialties if you don't mind sharing?" Elara inquired. Since the border and patrolling teams usually stayed in the borders for most part of the year, communication from the kingdom and their squad headquarters happened on rare occasions. Communication was mostly carried in case of emergencies or when something needs to be urgently reported to the higher ups.
This was the reason why they were mostly unaware of the new additions in the squads after the magic knights entrance ceremony.
"Me and blueberry over there are both combat-type mages." Varre replied, jerking his thumb towards Seigrain who just nodded, looking somewhat skeptical with the unusual nickname he just got. "Meanwhile Altria here is slightly better than us, considering she has both support and combat-type spells."
The first few hours passed without anything significant happening in the border and surrounding areas. The newbies patrolled in pairs with the senior knights and often the senior knights exchanged stories with them. After a while, all of the knights returned to the base camp area, to take a break from all the flying and walking around.
Then all of a sudden the air shifted.
Before anyone could send an alert to others, a dozen figures in Spade's dark uniforms erupted from the thick treelines. One of their grimoires flared open, the mage conjuring a barrage of ice lances and fired them with lethal precision. Few of the knights fell from the sudden attack, the ice lances having pierced them in various places.
"Ambush!" Thorne, the burly Green Mantis knight yelled, already manifesting a thick thorn barrier that intercepted the incoming projectiles.
Another Spade knight formed a multitude of shadow spears which emerged from the shadows of Clover knights, impaling them severely, which included Thomas as well. The attack from their own shadows was unexpected to anyone who took the hits.
Altria already formed a barrier around herself and the injured knights, preventing them from more harm. She even avoided the shadow spears with the use of her barrier.
Conjuring several mana bullets in the air, Seigrain launched them at the Spade knights, his spells having superior speed compared to those of the Spade knights.
'Just when we were catching a break.' Without hesitation, Varre propelled himself forward with a burst of speed, both his palms open by his side as his grimoire started floating in front of him. A pair of twin shortswords materialized in his hands before he used them to cut through an incoming icicle lance.
[Frost Magic: Glacial Spike!]
Varre sidestepped in the nick of time as the spike embedded the ground with a crystalline crack. Closing the gap in blink, he swung his swords to slash his arm and torso before jumping back at the last second as Elara's water whip knocked the spade mage out.
[Heavenly Body Magic: Meteor!]
With a layer of bright yellow mana covering his entire frame, Seigrain flew through the entire field at a superhuman speed, knocking out multiple Spade mages in his path. He kept his flying pattern erratic making it impossible for the mages from Spade to steady their aim.
Altria launched a volley of light spears to counter the barrage of shadow spears incoming at her. Her battle against the Spade shadow mage had got into a stalemate as their affinities were polar opposites of one another. Still she held the upper hand given that Light magic was effectively faster than Shadow Magic. The Spade mage wasn't too happy being on the defensive.
"Devil Power: 5%"
The whisper hung in the air as Seigrain was hit mid-flight by a pair of dark razor winds, sending him crashing onto one of the Clover watchtowers. There was a sudden heaviness in the surroundings making most of the knights from both sides fall to their knees.
Two Division Commanders of the Spade Mage Defence Force emerged from a spatial portal. Both had black markings on their skins and the grins on their faces sent shivers down everyone's spines. Their magic level was amplified to a suffocating degree.
"Devil powers? How did humans come to possess the power of devils?!" Licht's voice echoed inside Varre's head. There was no way the elf wouldn't recognize this nasty presence.
The other Division Commander summoned boulders above the Clover forces before raining them down on them. Altria quickly created a large barrier above the entire group but still couldn't cover those who were far away from her. The shadow mage seeing her distracted attacked with shadow vines at her, piercing through her defenses.
"Altria!" Varre yelled before speeding towards the Shadow mage without a second thought or care.
"Watch out!"
Licht's warning came a second late, as a boulder crashed onto Varre's right, knocking him out of the way. Despite that Varre managed to reinforce one of his shortswords with mana, giving it enough speed and power to pierce through the shadow tendrils of the shadow mage and pierce through his neck.
Varre then rolled on the ground, ignoring the pain on his right shoulder as he glared at the two division commanders who had just flipped the tide of the entire battle.Some more of the Clover knights tried to stand up against them, but none of them were in any good shape.
"Switch with me." The elf's spirit urged. He had no intention of seeing his host body or his companions meet their end this early. "I can end this quickly."
"I know you can but I am not going to risk it." Varre replied, dispersing his shortsword as the pages in his grimoire fluttered. He then pulled out the demon slayer, grabbing the hilt with both hands.
The sword was heavy and the pain in his shoulder wasn't making it easy to keep proper balance with the sword. Yet he knows he has to manage it right now.
"The devil powers are really amazing." The Spade Division Commanders were enjoying the new surge of power that they were feeling from the contracts that they had formed with the devils. It amplified their powers to a higher level.
It was thanks to these devil contracts that they were able to take over the position of Division Commanders from the previous commanders, the commanders that refused to form contracts with the devils. They were foolish and their thoughts were outdated.
"Looks like a few of them haven't learned their lessons." The other commander sneered at the Clover mages who were still standing or well trying to stand up straight. He stomped his foot on the ground and spiked stones emerged from the ground, racing towards the Clover mages.
Racing right in front of the incoming attack, Varre swung Demon Slayer sword at full force, stopping the attack midway. The attack was cut off entirely. The spell was effectively cancelled.
"Hey! How did he do that?!" The Boulder mage complained, summoning a rather large boulder and hurled it at the direction of the fallen Clover mages, only for Varre to jump in the line of his attack again and this time he sliced the boulder in two.
Despite having some difficulty in handling the heavy sword due to its weight and Varre's own injuries, he was managing himself pretty well.
Well enough to annoy the hell out of the two Division Commanders.
"I am going to cut your career short, punk!" The other commander fired another volley of black wind blades at Varre who used Demon Slayer to block them at once and severely pushed back trying to stop them all at the same time. A few grazed his knees, arms and abdomen as he wasn't able to block them all.
[Boulder Magic: Rock Hammer!]
By the time he noticed that the boulder mage wasn't beside his companion, it was already too late. The mage had jumped right above him, the former raising his hand as a big hammer made of rocks formed in his hand before he swung it downwards.
"Shit!" Varre swore as he raised Demon Slayer above his head at the last minute to save him from a big impact but still got crushed under the weight of the hammer.
"Swallowtail!" Seigrain called out, his eyes widening at the sight of the Spade Commander who continued to hammer at Varre, in the hopes of crushing him to death. 'Please be on time.'
[Weapon Creation Magic: Reaper's Halberd]
As if to answer his prayers, a spinning azure halberd cleaved through the boulder mage's torso, sending him flying back. The halberd stuck on his torso as the mage fell to his knees glaring at the direction from where the halberd had come flying. He howled at the sight of the caster of the attack landing in front of the fallen Clover mages. A few more Clover mages, all dressed in Aqua Deer robes walked out from a spatial portal.
"I think you have bullied my squad members enough." The caster conjured a bow of azure energy in his left hand before three azure arrows appeared as he pulled the string. He then released the arrows towards the sky. The arrows multiplied even large numbers in the sky before raining down upon the Spade Mages.
"Retreat!" The Spade mages hollered. Despite them pulling power from the devil contractors, it was nowhere enough for them to avoid damage from the barrage of arrows. And the non-contractor mages were also getting injured from the spell so retreating was the best course of action.
Clover had already brought in reinforcements so there was no point in dragging this any longer. With that thought in mind, they quickly withdrew, some inside spatial portals while others just jumped back into the frozen landscape after the boulder mage managed to create a wall of boulders to help them escape.
"Vice-Captain Roy! We have casualties on our end."
Roy's grimoire closed and settled on his belt as he turned around to check on the conditions of both Aqua Deer and Green Mantis knights. His eyes met Seigrain's and he worded. "It was a good call on your part, rookie, calling in reinforcements at the right time."
Seigrain nodded before glancing at Altria who had rushed at Varre in the meantime, ignoring her own injuries and helped him sit up.
The knights that had accompanied Roy quickly got down to tending the injured and then gathered the knights who had become martyrs in today's ambush. In the battlefield, there is bound to be loss, this had become a norm for the magic knights who were always fighting in the frontlines but that didn't make this any easier.
Roy scanned the survivors and when his eyes landed on Varre, a subtle smirk made way on his face before he quickly put on a neutral expression. Yet his eyes held a condescending and predatory glint in them. "Not bad for your first mission rookies. You all did good."
The moment Varre's gaze met Roy's, his world titled as a headache along with a flood of memories, definitely not his own clawed at his head. Accompanying those memories was a feeling of fear and submission. A feeling that was constantly telling him to not to challenge the man in front of him.
"Once we are done here, all of you head back to the base." Dismissing Varre for the time being, he turned to the rest of Aqua Deer knights. "Me and my team will be taking over for now. You all head back and report today's events to Captain Diavel."
"Yes sir!"
"Varre, are you alright?" Altria's voice of concern and worry once again brought him back to reality.
"Yeah, I am alright.." He winced in response as he struggled to stand up even with Altria and another knight's help. "Definitely going to feel this for the next couple of days."
'Another pain in the ass I did not account for.' Sparing a quick glance at the Vice Captain of Aqua Deer, he turned around the following rest of the knights, leaning on Altria for support as they prepared to head back to the Aqua Deer base.
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