"It should have been a rank D mission from the start," Mildred sank into her chair, exhausted.

As the adventurers' guild magic instructor she wasn't usually called upon to tend to the wounded, but today was an exception. The situation was

so severe, healing magic ran out, and anyone available had to chip in holding bandage and salves.

She had been at it all day. The threat level for clearing goblins nests in the goblin warrens had already been adjusted upwards, but they were still receiving the bloody results of the previous batch.

"I was mistaken." Linel said harshly.

It was his first initiative as the new guild master and it proved a spectacular failure. His tone of voice betrayed a desire to blame anyone but himself.

"Your reports said the threat of the warrens came from the hobgoblin led militias and traps. An elven guide should have circumvented all danger."

She threw up her hands, in no mood to argue.

"Thee hath underestimated the powers of ruination." The elf that had come with the latest group of victims spoke up. She had kept to herself on the balustrade above, but when hobgoblins were mentioned she came alive. "Each attack has been intercepted by the Brood Knight. She does not patrol, she finds us, every time."

"And she controls the hobgoblins, does she?" Linel asked.

The elf nodded. "Thou hath promised us that we could rid our forest of these hobgoblins. For that, we must kill Harkness."

"Then we are aligned." Linel grimaced.

"Hold on," Mildred protested, "didn't we agree that the goblin masters served a purpose reducing goblin aggression? I mean, Papa Scratch-"

"Papa Scratch is one thing." Linel insisted. "Hobgoblins and Harkness are something else. The hidden village is in that forest, do you expect elves to suffer the presence of hobgoblins?"

"Of course not but..." She didn't know how far to push it. The thieves' guild had an interest in maintaining the warren's power, and she currently had to obey the thieves' guild, but not at the cost of betraying her delicate position. And anyway, it's not like she *liked* any of them.

Linel interrupted her train of thought. "The trouble is: where will we get any?"

"Huh? Any what?"

"Rank D adventurers. If we're no longer letting rank E's do the clearing, where will we get our volunteers?"

"Oh, uhm, the knights?"

He gave her an annoyed look. If he let the army in on this, they'd take all the credit. In a time when the guild and the lower nobility were in an ever closer battle for recognition as the realm's protectors, that was a bit like letting your enemy land a free blow. Still, it was not like he had many other options.

"Any word on Laurus?" He asked the elf.

"Thou will know before we," she sighed, "he goes where there is need of him."

"It's best to focus on the nests we did clear," Mildred suggested, "shore up the defense before she-"

"If it's necessary..." Linel smacked, "I'll kill this 'Brood Knight' myself. I know that I can find her if I go there myself to... what was it they called it?"

Mildred massaged her temples. "Langley's group said it's called 'the Promise', but we've evaluated them as untrustworthy."

"I can go to this Promise myself and slay the Brood Knight. That would allow the culling to continue as planned, won't it?"

"By yourself?"

He grinned. "Subhumans are naturally vulnerable to enchantment. I am a bard, I have an advantage."

Underneath the promise, but above the forges, was the wolf den.

The expansion of the underground had made it big enough to get lost in, but the sunstone lanterns had made it halfway pleasant.

Even humans weren't completely averse to spending their free time in the underground anymore. The light allowed for soft patches of moss to survive, and one could actually see further than a few paces when the wooden casings were folded open.

It was greener than most of the immediate surroundings on the surface, which had been logged of trees and stamped into mud by constant traffic.

Huddled together for warmth sat two windwolves, a pack of warg wolves, and the currently most notorious individuals in the region: Lydia

Harkness, the Brood Knight, and Scratch, the Goblin Patriarch.

She had her legs draped over a wolf and her back against another, which gave him the reach to comb her growing hair.

"Have you looked into the weapon yet?" She asked, tracing her finger on a small parchment strip with a simplified map of the region.

"I've been twisting Lacrima's arm about it, she's indulging me this afternoon."

"She is conceited. She has lost most of her power as a Thieves' Guild leader. And yet she pretends she's too good for us."

Scratch laughed, "look at it from her perspective. She all but enslaved us with her magic, but instead of just putting us to work she keeps having to do us favors."

She moved her head, but he tugged at her hair to keep her in place for his bone comb.

"She's not... a danger is she?"

He tutted. "Lacrima is a known factor. We know what she wants, we can negotiate with her."

"... Unlike the Ravenous Lich." Lydia said.

"Exactly. Would you like to twin tails?"

She didn't clue in to the joke nature of the suggestion, "no. A ponytail. I''ll do it myself."

He gave her the hair clip and she sat up straight to tie it.

"So you will be here when we're charging the edge?" She asked.

"If the weapon is any good I can be with you in a minute, Wendy can sprint there like... well like the wind. Is it really necessary?"

She nodded. "This isn't a revenge mission. The none of the colonies will be safe with an adventurer base nearby."

One of the wolves grunted. Scratch nodded in agreement. "Don't you think Aimone and the guys should be part of this?"

She hesitated, "I can't ask that of them. They're here to protect the bandit camp, not the goblins."

"You can't? Or...."

"Most of the kids are on their level anyway. You've seen how much they've improved."

He played with his eye patch. "Bree is occupied herding trolls. You mean Ada's fire magic?"

She turned to face him and grabbed his hands to be extra sincere. "Ada's fire. Jasper and Constantine's healing. They're tremendous Scratch!

I've never seen any warrior learn so quickly. I really believe they can be leaders. All of them."

"Honey, that's great, but-" he couldn't very easily pull his hands out of her strong grip, "they *are* children. Okay? The other day I had to explain how a mirror works, I need you to be their better judgment."

She was a bit taken aback. "Of course. I'm there to take command."

"That's not what I mean... Just," with his hands locked in place, his habit of speaking with gestures manifested as wiggling elbows, "every time you fight an elf and you almost die, you just heal up and then it's like it wasn't even close you know? But it was close. It just doesn't register."

"What are you saying?"

"I don't know. Just that the kids are knuckleheads, they don't understand how close they get to dying if you don't explain it to them. Me and them, we're the same, we don't feel fear the right way, and it's dangerous. It makes us reckless."

She nodded. "I understand. Elves are dangerous. But we're not letting ourselves be caught off guard anymore. Have you seen these?"

She showed him a bundle with various barbed stakes.

"We call them Thistles. They all have a curse of weakness. And they can't be easily removed. Once the enemy is stabbed, they're out of the fight."

He pulled a pained face.

"You can be surprisingly squeamish." She commented.

He averted his eyes from the weapon. "I just prefer killing to be painless."

"We don't have to kill them. The thistle can be cut out using-"

"Okay, okay!" He waved his arms to get her to stop.

She laughed at him.

"You're trying to hit all of them in one night, aren't you?" He said more calmly.

"They'll be less prepared for that."

"Second is also out there. They've seen him going around with a bunch of orphans attacking humans, I don't know why. Be careful."

"I will."

She bend over and he stood on his toes so they could kiss. Which they did for a long time.

"The kids are turning out great. Want to make more of them?" She whispered.

"The house is full, where would we leave them all?" He joked.

"Fill up the forest, take over the world." She tried.

"We can't do that."

"You're right. We can't."

There were more magibats in the underground cavern these days.

Cyclophan had occupied himself more with monster evolutions and the wildlife of the dungeon was steadily becoming more exotic.

But due to his agreement with his dungeon master, they posed no obstacle to the daily life of smugglers and bandits that did their business in the cove.

That afternoon, Lacrima had found several nesting in the attic of her new home.

But instead of being able to deal with them, she had to deal with the head goblin of her forge workers coming in with more questions.

"Well?" The witch put her hands on her hips impatiently.

"It's magic, isn't it?" Scratch returned the gesture.

Between them stood the latest gift from the Ravenous Lich. An shining bronze gauntlet, ominous spikes protruding from every segment of the finger guards, and a large gemstone on the back.

"It's not cursed, if that's what you're asking. Where did you get this?"

He chewed on his cigar. "We have some smuggling contacts...."

"Never mind, I don't need to know." She sighed.

He was hesitant to divulge information on their relationship with Ritter, but she already knew the Promise was build on top of a dungeon. Dark magic was expected.

"So it's safe to use?"

She glared at him. "I never said that. I said it wasn't cursed."

"What's the difference?"

Extending a long finger, Lacrima tapped the gem at the back of the item. "It's nothing more than an oddly shaped spellrod, the effect will be whatever is engraved in the gem."

Using the smoke, Scratch consulted with Cyclophan. *She's telling the truth?*

Nothing but. Then the weapon is safe! You said that just because I determined the description of its effect was true, that didn't mean there weren't any side effects. Here you is your proof there aren't any side effects.

I can't just accept that, there has to be some kind of angle. "Can you tell what it does?"

She raised an eyebrow and picked up the gauntlet. It wasn't especially large, but still a few sizes too big for a goblin, and a woman's hand fit in just fine.

"W-Wait." He protested.

She was pointing it almost directly at him.

A sickening shrill buzz tore through the cavern and electricity crackled over the bronze. With a snap a bolt of lightning burst out of the palm, causing him to flinch.

But it never left her grasp.

The crackle had coalesced into a ball of lightning, suspended between the glove's fingers.

Lacrima moved them and the objects danced on top of her hand like a marble being rolled around.

"It seems like it converts mana into a mote of elemental lightning, which can be thrown as a weapon."

As you well know.

"Is elemental lighting different from just regular lightning?" Scratch asked.

"Don't be daft," she swung the magic around dangerously, "of course it is. It's an object, isn't it? Non-magical lightning can't be captured and put to work, would you ask if elemental death is the same as regular death? One is a phenomenon, the other is an element."

"Is it dangerous? To the user I mean."

"No more than any other weapon. Not that it matters, you can't work up the mana to use this, not with one mana leech."

"Then you could tell it wouldn't hurt me when you activated it."

"Haha, I didn't say that." Before taking off the magical weapon she chucked the mote into the sea, where it spread through the water and killed two dozen fish in an instant.

During Scratch's argument with the witch the rest of the family was out, looking for adventurers around the outer colonies.

"One cursed arrow downs a human, but an elf can fight it." Felix explained with the understated confidence of a lifelong expert.

"That only happened once." Piers said.

"It can happen. We will not be so complacent in the future." Lydia told him.

She was in front, and the only one leading a horse. It was an old black Frisian by the name of "Gray" that contributed by carrying their countless weapons and contraptions.

"Okay," Ada concluded, "so shoot the elves twice. What does an elf look like?"

The hobgoblins were much younger than they looked, and even now they still caught their mother off-guard with sudden gaps in knowledge.

"Elves? Well... I think you'll know when you see one."

"But how?"

"Their ears are pointier."

"What?" The daughter whined. "I gotta look at the ears? They'll shoot me before I get a look at the ears!"

"Just shoot everybody twice." Trevor suggested jovially.

Lydia turned around to walk backwards and continue their talk. "More important than the arrows. Is working together. I don't want you bumping into each other anymore."

"We're not going it on purpose," Will protested, rubbing a bruise from colliding with Trevor's long staff, "if I could decide not to bump in anyone's way I'd have done it already."

"Just. Think about what your siblings are doing. If you put yourself in their shoes you can anticipate their movement, okay?"

"Anti..."

"Predict."

From far away a series of short barks could be heard.

They all perked up.

"Is that-?"

"Yeah, we should grab our weapons, huh?"

-

The next closest person to hear the signals of the warg wolves was an adventurer.

'Adventurer' not being a legally protected title, it could even refer to a farm girl keeping dutiful guard in an outpost less than a day's travel away from where she was born. Which was the least adventurous activity she could imagine doing with her time.

But there weren't much other rank F quests out there, so it came down to standing guard or begging her parents for an allowance. Perhaps she could learn a trade, or try to rank up her adventuring level...

The rustling sound of wolves shook her out of her deliberations.

From between her part the half-completed barricades she could barely make out the movement of beasts in the nightly dark.

The girl straightened her back.

This job wasn't inapposite, there were real dangers in this forest. More serious adventurers than herself had died claiming even the little ground that they had.

There were hobgoblins here, and a horrible brood knight leading them. So it wasn't enough just standing there like a scarecrow scaring away the animals.

She readied her weapon.

Two years ago she had proudly bought a dual scimitar after the Adventurers' Guild aptitude test had told her she was a duelist.

It was a bit of personal identity. Many of her childhood friends were registered adventurers, but she was the only one wielding dual scimitars.

The forest gaped at her with an empty dark silence.

A minute ago all sorts of animal sounds could be heard from beyond the torchlight, but now...

Before she knew it, a gloved hand covered her mouth from behind, and a chorus of boyish laughter followed, as more than half a dozen hobgoblins hopped over and about the barricades into the base.

They were armed.

Armed with claws, halberds, whips, and a whole other range of weapons.

And holding up tall shields of thatch to protect themselves against arrow fire.;

"Ssh." A woman's voice hissed into the guard's hair, demanding the silence of her subordinates as much as of her captive.

Lydia Harkness, this area's boss, now called the Brood Knight.

Further on ahead was the central depot of the base, where the rest of the building materials and supplies were kept. A roofless set of walls in the manner of a giant crate. Some higher ranked guild staff was there to guard it, but at this rate the Brood would get the element of surprise.

Three of them were lining up crossbows. The elven archer clearly in their sight.

Recognizing the critical nature of this moment, the farm girl, born less than a day's travel away, gripped her blades and spun around.

The Brood Knight could easily dodge the attack and kick her in the head in one fluid motion, but she had been forced to take her hand off her mouth and since she had done that, the girl hadn't stopped screaming.

"ALAAAAARM!"

As soon as she had made her sound, an arrow trailing green light shot at the woman's neck.

It was caught in the tangle of a tower shield, but then exploded into green cinders, which alerted everybody to their presence.

Now Lydia had to give up on her captive completely, turning around to focus on the real threat.

She nodded at Felix to take her place with the guard, as she began directing the others on navigating the open field towards the enemy.

-

The first thought the guard had, seeing the group breeze past her so easily, was I hope I still get paid.

The second, If he doesn't kill me.

The hobgoblin opposite her had a threatening manner, he was swinging his weapon and grinning. He wasn't there to keep her in place indefinitely, once she was dispatched he could join is family in the raid proper.

She decided not to show her fear. "I-I'm a duelist you know, this is my playing field."

"Come on, play." He said.

Hobgoblins were threat level E, she was still rank F. Protocol was to flee, but that wasn't an option here, so...

She slapped at his weapon to get it out of the way and close the distance with her other scimitar.

With a quick turn of the wrist he moved the halberd out of the way of her scimitar and back again, still blocking her from coming in. He then thrust it forward, forcing her to block with both weapons.

Her left scimitar got caught between the two prongs and he twisted it out of her hand.

She jumped backwards, out of the reach of his next thrust.

Felix laughed. "You're not supposed to block with your weight, you're supposed to redirect it, try again."

He lifted his weapon and gestured at the guard to pick up her other blade.

She hesitated, eying the menacing spikes on the end of his.

He was toying with her.

But if she could do something unexpected, she could still win. One serious wound and she could escape with her life.

She dove onto the scimitar and once she had grasped it continued into a roll, coming out of it with both weapons slashing into his thighs.

"Woah-ho-ho." He blocked it with the back of his weapon, but when he pushed her back she spun around to slash him from the other end like she'd been trained.

They were skirmishing close together now, where his weapon was at its least effective, and her at its most.

She was in her element now, twirling around him, using the momentum of his own pushes against him. It seemed like it was only a question of time before she would manage to seriously wound him in the arm or neck.

"Stop." He let go of his weapon and grabbed her wrists.

The difference in power between them was simply too great. He had instantly and unilaterally decided when the spar had to end and then seized her.

His grip was like iron. She had already let go of her swords.

She whimpered as he brought his face close to hers. But his expression had changed.

He was breathing heavily now, taking in her scent.

They fell over. Him on top of her.

Their legs interlocked and she could feel his growing lust. Instinct had seized the young hobgoblin. Not much thought of battle remained as he began grinding up against her.

His hands loosened on her wrists, moving in over her arms to the sides of her flushed face as his lips inched closer to hers.

With her free hands she could reach towards the grip of her blades, but she came just shy of grasping them.

In a second she'd be-

A loud bang of magic an shouting emanated from the depot.

Felix's glazed over eyes suddenly cleared and he jumped up.

He flung her weapons over the barricade into the forest and picked up his own.

"Don't come after, you're defeated."

He then ran towards the commotion, leaving his opponent panting on the ground.

-

The situation around the depot was a bit more evenly matched.

Most of the human guards that had rushed in where already out of the fight, paralyzed by the cursed bolts. But maintaining line of sight with the elven archers was dangerous, and the hobgoblin crossbow users were critically hit before the elves were.

Now the attackers had put their shields together to heal the wounded and their advance had slowed.

The closer they got, the more easily the defenders would be able to find a line of fire around their defense. Losing the element of surprise had thrown their whole plan into disarray.

"Is everybody alright?" Lydia asked.

Jasper just took his hands off of Piers' neck, where he had healed a punctured artery. "Not dead, but not alright."

The younger brother coughed up some blood that had seeped into his throat. He was in no fighting state.

"Would you have done better without us?" Will asked his mother.

She shook her head, "I could have started a fire. But not kept it burning. We have to rout the adventurers. I-"

She stopped due to a sizzling sound.

An arrow had embedded into the shield held by Will, still displaying some sort of bow magic.

"Will!"

That's when the loud bang occurred, blasting the whole shield wall apart and sending Will flying backwards.

He cried in pain. One of his forearms had a piece of bone sticking out.

With their shields torn apart, the attackers now defenseless in an open field.

Lydia threw a fan of knives as suppressive fire, hoping to slow down the elves' reloading. And Ada put her hands on the ground to cast magic.

She had learned how to draw in moisture from the soil, and she had learned how to heat matter with a touch. These two arts combined to summon a cloud of steam around them. In the dark of the night it was enough to conceal them completely.

"Abominations!" Not slowed down at all, the elves fired into steam blindly.

More hobgoblins screamed as the arrows hit Jasper and Constantine in the legs and stomach.

"Attack! Get them before they get us!" Ada shouted over her mother, and the remaining hobgoblins burst out of cover.

-

Three elves were standing on the depot wall.

Three hobgoblins were sprinting towards it. Jasper, who had immediately healed himself, Trevor, who had cast aside his crossbow and now held up a bolt like a stake, and Ada in front.

The the distance was such that trying to close it between the drawing and nocking of another arrow would be a gambit even against a regular archer. But in the chaos of the moment the elves weren't so coordinated, and all three fired upon the same attacker.

Three arrows hit Trevor dead on. Two in the throat, one in the heart.

He didn't fall over.

In his death throes he kept standing and took a last step forward, gesturing threateningly, though no sound came out.

This spooked one of the elves enough that he lowered his bow.

He didn't raise it in time to prevent his two allies from being tackled by the last two hobgoblins.

Ada's thorny whip wrapped around a defender's leg and pulled it out from under her. She tumbled down, hitting her head on the way.

Jasper had clawed himself up the wooden scaffold with his steel claws and a helping of adrenaline. His target had seen him approach but hadn't account for the speed at which he had jumped up to his level. The wrist mounted steel was more painful than deadly, but the bow offered no defense and wielding just pain was enough to work the elf to the ground.

The two downed elves received cursed thistles in their torsos, keeping them down.

The last remaining elf regained his composure, to avenge one of his fallen friends at least, but he had taken his attention away from the front and paid for it with a short sword in the back.

Lydia Harkness had joined the final push and gotten the drop on him.

"You killed my son." She said coldly.

It could have sounded dispassionate and business-like, but she made her feelings known by withdrawing her weapon and, with a twirl to build up momentum, hacking it violently into his neck, so that the head completely separated from the body. Thereby desecrating the body of an already defeated opponent.

-

"We won!" Piers cheered through the pain of the arrow still sticking out of his body.

But nobody cheered with him.

On the ground, now sunk to its knees, sat Trevor's dead body.

"Angus," Jasper shook him. He didn't even realize he was using the wrong name.

Felix had caught up and embraced him.

"I should've..." Lydia stammered. "I'm- I'm sorry." She buried her face in her hands.

None of the younger hobgoblins had ever lost somebody before, and they were still too hopped up on adrenaline to realize what that meant. But they followed the mood and kept quiet, Will clutching his arm, Constantine lay down on his back, and Piers looked down at the grass.

"Will we still... are we going to do the other ones?" Felix asked.

Lydia didn't answer.

"Not like this." Ada said.

From the perspective of a Wind Wolf mere seconds away, was the victim's father. On his hand the weapon that could have ended the whole battle in a moment.

The reason no mote of elemental lightning had put a stop to the fatal shooting was because the goblin in question, and the wolf he had been riding, where hanging upside down suspended in a complex snare trap, binding multiple limbs.

He hadn't gotten news of any tragedy.

For now he was simply annoyed at an inconvenience.

"What are you doing buddy?" He sighed.

Second had a stone tipped spear pointed straight at his eye. "Saving everybody."

Magic Creation

Adventurers with the "bard" class may occasionally receive divine inspiration. It is the only class with the power to spontaneously manifest new abilities during travel.

Divinely inspired music is considered a gift from the gods, not dark sorcery, and can be freely used.

Adventurers are not obligated to share the sheet music of their creations with their guild office. Original creations may be monetized, and can be sold to mages for refining into proper spells.

Adventurers with the "mage" class may not simply take up the hobby of refining divine music into spellcraft, only spellcrafters vetted by the crown have this legal right. Unlicensed research into magic creation is highly illegal.