Team Exercise - Part 1

All their mentors standing outside their door ready to leave made them all quickly get on the right shoes and their belongings, mostly it was just Samuel who collected his weapons since he also fought using weapons compared to his teammates who relied on magic alone, although it seems like they had daggers just in case.

Not that they would do much most of the time, but they definitely had their uses if one was smart about it. Out of the four mentors, two of them also used weapons to fight, one was the dragonkin Sarmah who mixed magic with martial arts always carrying her greatsword on her back while the other mentor was Bregane who fought with many light blades mixing it in with his shadow magic. Which oftentimes made him seem like an assassin.

The mentors did not fail to notice the good mood on Ulma's face and the shocked faces of Sonya and Erica, while Bregane almost visibly flinched when he saw Samuels lighthearted expression. "You guys okay?" He asked quickly. Sonya and Erica found themselves unable to reply and just started stuttering excited gibberish and pointing between Sam and Ul.

Tere smiled sheepishly and patted each of them on the head before snapping her fellow mentors out of their dilly dallying. She quickly motioned for everyone to follow her and from there she led them all the way to the house of dimensions, the huge teleportation chambers of the mage city.

Samuel walked along hoping to test one of his new basic swords, ever since his first one had been broken into several shards he had hoped to find some new ones. He had found out that he could get swords for free as a student, so he had picked up two basic swords from the college student armory. (Of course he was meant to return them or their value in cost if they broke)

Unfortunately first year students did not really make any money, although it was a bit different for the candidate students. Whenever they followed their mentors on missions they could be paid in silver depending on job. Otherwise they had to wait until the second year when they apperantely students could take on easy jobs that the school was requested to do from the mage council or the coucil of senators. Most jobs they were tasked with shadowing a professional mage and rack up some experience at the same time, but since Samuel was still a first year he had quite some time left before he could apply for his own jobs and was stuck at Bregane's side until then.

"So where are we going?" Ulma was the first to ask considering the others were pretty silent, Tere motioned for her to be silent by holding a finger over her mouth, which silenced Ul's further questions as they continued their brisk walk. They had quickly entered the house of dimensions and Tere had given a small letter to a guard that took them to a small sideroom and left them alone in there.

Tere quickly made adjustments to the teleportation circle by rotating some of the circles on the floor, when finally done she nodded for everyone to join her on the circle. Once everyone was on she tapped the floor twice with her foot, making the runes light up and slowly start dancing around in arcs around them.

When they all opened their eyes next they were standing in a forest somewhere and they all walked out into a small clearing, the trees shaped an almost hidden cove for the teleportation circle. "Now you might be wondering why we are all here?" Tere spoke up and walked in front of them. "You all lack experience and you are here to improve on it." She snapped her fingers and made a small map appear in her hand.

"We have news of a secret new bandit base being set up not too far from here! Normally the Rejuan rangers would deal with that, but you all need experience... battle experience and taking life experience." Tere's voice was unusualy cold and it made them all stand tall and twist a bit while Erica and Ulma looked really worried.

Ulma had fought for survival but never going so far as taking lives, while Erica had fought against monsters but never taking humanoid life. Sonya twisted a bit but did not seem as uncomfortable, while Samuel was hard to read. Tere knew most things they had been through, but not everything. From experience however she could tell that Ulma and Erica were both very inexperienced. "The mission is simple! Get in, neutralize the bandits either by killing them or capturing them for the rangers to bring in later. You may go about this mission however you see fit, as long as you do it as a team." Tere continued her briefing which made them realize how serious it was.

Erica and Ulma stood there mostly wide eyed trying to get their mind to comprehend what they had to do. "Here is the map for you to use!" Tere handed it to Sonya who instantly opened it to check while Samuel looked over her shoulder to get a lay of the land.

"So we go in as a team and we clear the place out as a team?" Samuel quickly asked to confirm the objectives to which Tere nodded. "We will be watching closely and ready to step in, in case something goes wrong." She gave them a wink, Samuel and Sonya took a look at eachother and shrugged. They both looked at the map which revealed how the cave looked like on the inside as well.

"Well you better get going! You have only six hours to complete this task otherwise we will automatically fail you!" Tere nodded them in the right direction for them to get a move on. Samuel took point and the rest followed, Samuel could see the unease in his teammates eyes but he did not know what he could say to assure them.

They finally got far away enough from their mentors and close enough to the base that he had them stop temporarily to make a plan with his teammates. "We can count on there being at least a dozen!" Samuel quickly said while laying out the map on a flat stone. "We need to work together and watch eachothers backs! I will be the first line of defense while Sonya should be the one watching our backs!" He said which made them all look at him inquisitvely to which he sighed.

"Since this seems to be serious I am gonna be honest, I have killed before... and I fight with weapons which means that my experience and swordsmanship leaves me as the best front line, while Sonya also seems to have some experience fighting which means she is the best to watch our backs." Samuel took a deep breath and started making marks with water magic to show where the bandits could be gathered and attack from, at least from a logical perspective.

"Erica has proven to be a great support under pressure! We fought a monster before and she helped distract it really well for me. Unfortunately I do not know much about your skills Ul!" He gave her a nod. "But you seem to be the best out of us all with life magic, which means you can take on the role of healing us if we get injured!" Samuel said and left the three girls shocked and wondering where the usual Samuel that often failed at magic and seemed so aloof had gone. This was someone who had described their abilities almost perfectly and taking into account their experience in their formation, he showed a tactical mind he had never shown before.

"Why can't you always be like this?" Sonya said with a small chuckle after a while, she considered his plan to be better than any she could come up with. "Also if you hesitate in battle you might lose your life!" Samuel quickly said making the other girls stomachs churn a bit.

Sonya took a deep breath, she would guard their backs and not hesitate to incapacitate anyone who came at her with harmful intention, Samuel put all his trust in her being able to do so much was all she could think in that moment. In reality Samuel only trusted his gut feeling and did not actually know if she had killed before, but he saw in her eyes that she was prepared.

The same could not be said for the other two, Erica showed some restraint, probably because she had been in life or death scenario with him before. Whereas Ulma was showing great unease and could not be still for a single second. So Samuel proceeded to explain where they were likely to run into bandits.

After a lot of time running over details and planning they continued their trek deeper into the forest. Using the sun to guide himself forward, Samuel soon found the small caves and hills they were meant to go into, so he motioned for all of them to be as quiet as possible and they started sneaking forward in the formation agreed upon.

It wasn't long before Samuel saw the cave opening and two bandits sitting by a small campfire outside of it with their swords next to them. He looked at them and then looked Sonya in the eyes and received a nod, he turned to Erica and although her gaze was shaky she gave him a nod after a deep inhale.

He finally turned to Ulma whose eyes were jittering all over the place and her gaze was very unsteady, so he flicked a finger on her forehead and placed a hand on her shoulder forcing his gaze to remain steady. He saw the pain that haunted her eyes, but forced himself to remain strong at that moment, she clutched his hand for a sense of safety and eventually gave him a shaky nod.

Meanwhile the mentors were monitoring the situation each from their own point. Before they had split up Bregane had asked "Is this really the right thing to do? I am all for getting them prepared for life, but they are still first years even if they are candidates Tere!" Both Terec and Sarmah had looked shocked not because they had the same question on their minds but because of the fact that Bregane the coldhearted monster hunter had been the one to ask the question.

Tere nodded at him. "You are right, but times are changing... there is an evil on the horizon that is coming and I want my children to be prepared for it! This is the only way to steel their resolve fast." She gave them all a smile, "Besides dear shadow walker, you will be staying close to them using shadows ready to intervene if necessary!" Tere gave him a small hug and nodded to the others to get to their positions.

Meanwhile the team was sneaking forward and got as close as they could comfortably and as quietly as they could. Samuel put a hand on one of his blades and got prepared.. so he signaled his group with a countdown on his fingers... 3...2...1.. GO!