She wished she was as pleased with the client as she was with the mission. When Knight had told them it was an escort mission, Sophia had gotten excited. A C-Class escort mission meant some trouble along the road, most likely bandits and thieves.
None of Team Dylan had expected to be protecting a bridge builder. A drunk one at that who insulted them and didn’t believe that they are capable of performing their duty and protecting him.
Lak Point was a village in the southern part of the Laera Kingdom. It was an island in the high tide and a large land that connected to the town of Treellen in the low tide. Anouk, the master bridge builder from Lak Point was a drunk, slightly miserly, grouchy old man, that disliked everyone but Major Dylan and kept insulting the younger Knights.
Sophia had to repress the urge to strangle him every time he said something along the lines of a girl being a Knight and how she should just quit and find a man to settle down with. Just
There are three types of Knights in the association: (1) the High Knights who were the ones closest to the royal family of the Laera Kingdom; (2) the warriors, the Knights who received missions from the High Knights through the Head of the Knights Association, and; (3) the mentors, who mold the Knights for three years into strong, capable warriors. Major Dylan watched horrified as his students charged at the water clone. Leon created dozens of his own which dog piled the Aidan water clone. Sophia, Zain, and the real Leon ran around the wiggling mass of magic clones and shot towards the real Aidan holding him captive. He had told them to run away! They were no match for a rogue Knight like Aidan. If they tried to fight him they would die. Major Dylan didn’t want to watch any more of his comrades die. Especially not the team he was supposed to be teaching to become great warriors. Leon had made more clones to act as a line of defense as the three Knights bore d
To be honest, it was too hard not to give away her secret under her teammates and mentor’s scrutinizing eyes. She had to be amazed at all times when she basically had seen all the techniques they showed from Elijah. She didn’t know how much more she could convince them that she had no knowledge of anything yet other than her by-book brain. Just like now. Sophia feigned a suitably impressed face when Major Dylan walked on water as easily as if he was walking on solid ground. All she could think of was how amazing it would be if they could not only walk on the water but also move around it… play with it. “All right, Sophia. This is the same concept as the tree climbing exercise, but more complicated and more advanced. Give it a try,” Major Dylan said from his place on the water’s surface.
Team Dylan had been in the village of Lak Point for a week before Aidan came after them. Just the night before Leon and Zain had finally managed to master the training Major Dylan put on them. Zain had joined her and Major Dylan on the bridge for babysitting duty as she had dubbed it. Leon was back at Anouk’s house recovering from exhaustion, both physical and magic.However, the sight that greeted them at the bridge was not one Sophia was used to. The few workers that hadn’t quit on the old man in fear were injured.‘So Aidan and his partner are here.’Sophia took a protective stance in front of the bridge builder, gladly letting Major Dylan and Zain take charge of this battle. Her hand-to-hand combat still wasn’t good enough to fight Aidan in a hand-to-hand combat fight, even if she had a nearly endless supply of needles.Hopefully, she would be able to let Major Dylan handle this and defend herself and Anouk if the need ar
“Hey, Sophia, you can release your barrier now.” Sophia sagged in relief when she heard her mentor’s voice as he rapped on her rock barrier. She released the magic and fell into Major Dylan’s waiting arms. She looked at the carnage that had occurred while she couldn’t see. Aidan and Eleazar were both dead, their bodies placed next to each other. At the far end of the bridge were more bodies she didn’t recognize, but she figured one of them was Richard. The citizens of Lak Point had shown up, hold an assortment of weapons. She gazed up at her mentor’s face. He was still wounded and there was drying blood everywhere. “Where are Leon and Zain? Are they okay?” Major Dylan gave her a soft smile. “Leon’s just fine. Zain
Major Dylan was once again late to the meeting he called at the bridge. Sophia was getting fairly annoyed by her mentor’s attitude. Why call a team meeting if he was going to be late every damn time?Of course he appeared just as tensions were running high and her patience was fraying thin. He completely derailed any possible breakout of a fight between Leon and Zain by announcing he had nominated them for the High Knight selection exams.Leon took his application eagerly and hugged their mentor until they fell on the ground. “I love you, Major Dylan!”“Anyway,” their mentor grunted as he got up, “this exam is dangerous especially for you, young and inexperienced Knights. It’s up to each of you if you want to actually participate. If you do, take those papers to the Head Office of the Knights Association tomorrow morning.” And then their mentor was gone.Sophia knew she was going to take the High Knight sele
A huge cloud of smoke formed in the front of the room. It dispersed to reveal Commander Hades and two dozen or so High Knights in sleek, white uniform behind him. Oh dear lord! Is he going to be proctoring this exam? Sophia panicked in her mind. “Thanks for waiting. I’m Commander Hades, the examiner for the High Knight selection exam’s first test.” Sophia wanted to bash her head against something hard. So she did. There was no way this exam wasn’t going to be torture if he was in charge. For Laera’s sake, he turned a simple D-rank painting mission into a nightmare with a single question. “There will be no fighting without the permission of the examiner. Even if permission is granted, killing your opponent will not be tolerated.” Was he trying to psych them out, because if that was his goal he definitely succeeded? Every Knight in the room swallowed their saliva. Were they going to be fighting already? “Those pigs that disobey
Team Dylan hurried to get their scroll and pick a gate. Sophia pointed out that the best gate to pick would be one that was close to the river. The map that Major Laina had shown them depicted the river going right under the tower at the forest’s center. They would be able to follow the river to the tower and would always have a supply of water on hand. As soon as the instructor threw open the gate, the member of Team Dylan dashed through and took to the trees. Sophia was surprised how quick flying their first two days in the forest were. From what Major Laina had said, she expected to never have a moment of peace from the second they stepped through the gate. But aside from some giant ferocious wolves, a colony of blood sucking bats, a patch of deceptively innocent man eating plants, vines that tried to pull them into the ground and strangle them, a colony of venomous spiders taller than the three of them, and a pack of horses with six legs that tried to stampede th
Sophia jerk herself upright when she realized she had almost fallen asleep again. She and the rest of her team were currently taking cover under the upraised roots of a large tree. Her eyes fell on her two unconscious teammates. She replaced the clothes on their foreheads with new ones she soaked with water from her canteen. Leon was still unconscious from magic exhaustion. Zain had somehow managed to get bit by a poisonous snake. His face was even paler than normal, contrary to the raging fever he had. She would let them rest for another hour in hopes that Leon would come around and help her with Zain. If not, she would use the earth magic to move them closer to the tower. However, she really hoped Leon woke up soon. She didn’t think she’d be able to handle it if they were attacked while she was the only one that could fight. She was weary from keeping watch all night. “Heh, up all night?” Sophia snatched up a dagger. How did people keep snea