Chapter 22: Progress Report

Dust filled the air as it was consistently separated from the ground with each step, twist and turn that was made by the four combatants on what seemed to be a tattered battlefield. Sebastian, Corniellia, Reinhardt and Thaddeus all stood in a different corner of the field for a moment, Corniellia and Sebastian sweating and panting as if they were athletes who had just finished a marathon while Reinhardt and Thaddeus seemed as if they had merely completed a light workout.

"What are your thoughts on the boy?" Goodfrey asked, her arms folded as she stood beside Uriel who stood at the far side of the dusty battlefield.

Uriel hummed softly in thought, gently biting his lower lip before turning her gaze from the battle before him toward his superior, "If I'm being honest with you, for the past two weeks that I've been working with them and helping them hone their skills... He's made the least progress. It's almost as if he's a completely different person compared to his debut fight."

"You don't think he has what it takes?"

"That's the thing, I know he does, we saw him outperform Corniellia two weeks ago, with our own eyes. But based on my observation, combat-wise Corniellia has an upper hand. And on top of that, he hasn't tapped into Chaos at all since then. I'm starting to think it was just a one-off fluke at this point."

"So what will your actions be regarding the boy?" Goodfrey asked, slowly turning and looking up at Uriel to see his response.

"It's not like he doesn't have potential. I know it's there, I can see it. It's just that... This may take much longer than I thought," his response was concise and simple, evoking little to no physical response from him, which brought slight relief to Goodfrey.

"It's good to see our resources weren't wasted... But let's try to hurry the process if you can. I have a task I'd want to give your team. It's a rather simple one though, so I doubt your involvement would be needed," she pulled a small, brown envelope out of her back pocket and placed it in Uriel's hand, "I'll let you decide when you want to dispatch them on it, as long as it gets done within the next week there shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"The next week though? Isn't that a little bit too early?"

"You said everyone else is improving right?" she asked in a more stern voice, "Surely enough they'd be able to cover his ass if things hit the wall."

Uriel glanced down at the envelope in his hand, then over to his new underlings, a faint smile forming on his face, "You got yourself a deal." he muttered, stuffing the envelope in the side of his jacket as he walked off, dropping his hands to his sides.

"Okay, you little cockroaches! Exercise over," he said with a sinister smile on his face, "Due to a sudden change in circumstances, we're gonna have to skip a few steps of your training. Consider this the end of individual practice, and the start of learning how to fight as a team okay?"

"What do you mean by a sudden change in circumstances?" Sebastian asked, his eyes lighting up a bit as he walked a bit closer to where Uriel stood, "Does that mean we have a mission? Is that what this is for?"

"You know, I could answer your questions, or you can just improve and find out later on," Uriel responded with a cheeky grin.

"How would we learn how to fight as a team in the first place?" Corniellia asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she slowly made her way toward Uriel whose smile only grew wider.

Wasting no time, both Thaddeus and Reinhardt were in the air, both of their swords drawn with Thaddeus' glowing a dark purple. Uriel looked up at them as they hovered above him, both of which were ready to strike him down within a single movement, however, they were both caught off guard the moment he took hold of both their feet. He quickly spun on his heels and released them on opposing sides to each other.

"It seems they caught on already," Uriel said with a chuckle, "Though I did say you're gonna be learning teamwork... So what the hell was that supposed to be?"

Both Thaddeus and Reinhardt skidded along the dirt floor for a bit, sending puffs of dust into the air before they came to a stop.

"A coordinated surprise attack," Thaddeus chuckled, gripping onto his sword that was now showing off its original silver colour as the purple hue around it had faded away.

"Coordinated my ass, if I hadn't caught you too, you'd end up cutting each other down before you even get to me."

Uriel smiled softly as he walked over to Thaddeus, a hand reached out toward him, "You two did a good job though, however, we're not starting the practice today."

"Then why tell us about it today?" Reinhardt asked, his arms folded as he sported a face that screamed just how annoyed he was in this scenario, "Why get me excited about a good fight if you're not gonna cash out on all that excitement immediately?"

"Now now, no need for all that salt," Thaddeus laughed, "It's just a heads up."

"So is that all for today?" Corniellia asked, brushing her hair back just before looking up at her superior, "Am I allowed to go now?"

"Sure thing, just make sure the lot of you are back here tomorrow morning, bright and early okay?" he said with a smile.

"Yes sir," Sebastian and Corniellia said in unison, immediately taking off toward the exit together, leaving Thaddeus and Reinhardt behind with Uriel.

"Are we really about to get a mission?" Thaddeus asked, grabbing at Uriel's hand and brushing himself off the moment he stood up, "Don't you think it's a bit too early for that?"

"That's what I said too," Uriel responded as he watched Corniellia and Sebastian make their way to the exit, "But it seems Madame Goodfrey believes otherwise."

"Let me go t-"

"There's no need for that," Uriel responded, "Yes, I do think it's a tad bit early for that, but nonetheless, it's a good opportunity don't you think? Allows them to get a proper taste of the field for themselves."

"The boy is gonna hold us back though," Reinhardt said with a touch of annoyance present in his voice, "The girl is good enough to take care of herself, I don't doubt that, but he's not ready yet."

"Then protect him as if your life depended on it."

"I don't see a proper reason to though... Not like it'll affect us anyways. People die on missions all the time, plus, it would simply be getting rid of a possible threat."

"I don't think you'd like the consequences of all that," Thaddeus chuckled.

"What consequences could there possibly be?"

"He's Moe's little prodigy," Thaddeus answered, "I know you're not from around here and all, but everyone that knows him knows at least that much."

"That doesn't even make sense... He's not a witch."

"And that's not her concern, or yours either. The fact of the matter is, anything happens to him on that 'mission' and we'll of much more than an incident report to answer to."