Where we first left off...

Jason and Lilly were facing off against two warriors wearing suits of magical armor. Previously a moment ago, the odds used to be stacked against the Knight and Assassin's favor when the mail their enemies wore protected them from all sorts of physical harm. The only way to deal any sort of meaningful damage was to sling attacks made of mana, namely Super-Techniques.

However, our brave warrior didn’t have access to such things and thus, he was at a great disadvantage and couldn’t do much to help his partner. Fortunately, things had quickly changed for the better, as the energy within him (a.k.a. his mana reserves) has been awakened and activated by a mysterious entity/force. Not only that, Jason got a total of four Super-Techniques implemented into his move set to work with; he was now ready to take on whatever new challenges await him.

With that relatively brief recap out of the way, let’s continue on with the story.

“Hey Jace, do you mind if I can get the first strike?” Lilly asked.

“Not at all, go for it.” allowed Jason.

The ninja cat-girl smiled in response, “Thanks.”

Lilly twirled her chokuto around and then pointed up to the air; a black smoke-like energy appeared, quickly enveloping the blade of the sword. Along with that action, the assassin then turned invisible once again. However, the two armored knights (let’s just call them Iota and Lambda) activated a Super-Technique called Detect Presence: an ability that is normally reserved for the Mage class. Glowing eye symbols appear above the heads of Iota and Lambda; the eyes themselves move their pupils around in order to locate and pinpoint where their target is at.

Unfortunately, that action they took was too little, too late. The two armored warriors felt a sharp pain from their back and stumbled around trying to maintain their footing. Jason joined the fray by activating Rising Slash; the colors in his vision immediately turned gray and a small message appeared at the top-right saying to him: Please select up to two targets.

Obviously, the knight chose both Iota and Lambda and as such, two crosshair targets appeared on his enemies. His blade glowed red and swung it in an upwards motion; right then and there, Iota and Lambda suffered significant damage and fell straight on their backs.

Lilly magically reappeared beside Jason. After that event, the current situation at hand was quiet, a little bit too quiet.

“Don’t relax yet Lilly, this fight is far from over.” her partner warned.

“I know, guys like these shouldn’t be easy to take down.” the cat-girl opined.

Suddenly, a green-colored energy emanated from their enemy’s armor. Rather quickly and somewhat unnervingly, they unexplainably floated off the ground and landed back onto their feet, ready to fight once more. Jason was hardly surprised by this twist, due to the fact that he played a considerable amount of video games back in his shut-in days; he knows more than enough gaming tropes to find where this is going.

Moving on, Iota and Lambda’s eyes glowed red through their helmets. The weapons they were wielding lit on fire, indicating an uptick in seriousness.

“Damnit, if we don’t defeat these guys, they will get their health regenerated over and over again,” Lilly cautioned, “Sooner or later, they’ll eat up all of our Ability Counters!”

“Yeah, I get that,” Jason acknowledged, “At this moment, they’re trying to play attrition, so we can’t afford to goof around; we need to beat them, fast.” he recognized.

“No kidding.” the cat-girl remarked, before gripping her sword with both hands.

Iota and Lambda came charging for the duo. Using some quick thinking and reflexes, the Knight, along with his companion, managed to swiftly dodge their vertical and horizontal slash attacks; he responded with Blade Sting. Jason’s sword glowed red and stabbed Iota with it; the effect temporarily stunned the creature.

Jace noted that while dodging their giant claymores that they’re not really much in the way of being severe threats despite their appearances. Despite having higher-than-average strength and endurance, both of them have surprisingly underwhelming speed, intelligence, and perception. Besides the special armor and the two attributes mentioned in the former, there’s not really much for Jason to write home about in terms of sheer danger and difficulty.

As for Lilly, she really wanted to close the gap in this fight as soon as possible. The assassin reached into one of her pouches and pulled out a blue gem; it had a few sparks of electricity emitting from it. She inserts into her left gauntlet and immediately, the small sparks become large surges of lightning. This rather rare and valuable object in particular is named the Gem of Storms; it allowed its user to manipulate and utilize the element of lightning. Along with that, it also permitted the owner to cast electricity-based Super-Techniques regardless of class restrictions.

However, there are two drawbacks, which will be explained briefly: Firstly, it could only cast Super-Techniques of a specific level in which the gem was upgraded to. Currently the Gem of Storms was at Level 3, so Lilly can only cast Super-Techniques at Level 3. Secondly, the object could only be used a limited amount of times once per day. Right now, the gem could only be used 4 times per day; when those run out, you can’t use the object until it fully recharges. This restriction essentially demanded you to use this item sparingly.

The Darwinian was fully aware of the risks and decided to just use the gem anyway. She raises her chokuto straight up into the air; a flood of surging lightning siphoned from the gem to the blade and it was soon engulfed in raging electricity. Lilly then aimed for both Iota and Lambda; she swung her sword and spinning wheels of lightning were released from it, zipping through the air for the two enemies.

The attack successfully connected. Deadly amounts of electricity entered the bodies of Iota and Lambda; they shook uncontrollably from the immense jolt. The armor they’ve worn is burnt to a crisp and actually doubled the damage; as a result, they’re on their last legs.

“Jason, end it now!” Lilly pleaded.

The knight saw the opportunity and carried out his friend's request. Jace focused his mana into his sword and pictured in his mind a tornado. His blade glowed red once again and got into a spinning motion; strong air currents surrounded him and quickly formed into a tornado made of a crimson energy. Jason then launched the cyclone at the two severely weakened opponents; it instantly consumed them. The whirlwind relentlessly slashed and pummeled at them over and over again, not giving them a single chance to escape or recover from it.

Once the powerful Super-Technique dissipated, Iota and Lambda came crashing to the ground. They laid on the ground, absolutely defeated and their armor damaged beyond repair. It looks like they’re not coming back from this anytime soon.

After the dust settled, Jace received this notification window in front of him; it shows the following:

Quest: Trial of Awakening - Completed!

Reward(s):

4,000 EXP (for you and your partner) 900 Pedazo 1x Attribute Crystal 1x Double Attribute Crystal

Message: Excellent work, keep it up!

“Wow, these are some hefty awards.” the knight commented.

“You bet, my friend.” her partner concurred.

Then, the corpses that were Iota and Lambda disintegrated into particles of white light. They quickly rose up into the air and gradually disappeared into the sky, never to be seen ever again. Standing before the tumultuous and dramatic scene were the thugs Antonio and Emanuel, reacting with nothing but shock and awe.

“Holy shit, that was awesome!” Antonio praised.

“Truly something else.” Emanuel added.

Lilly spotted them and was prepared to throw two shurikens at them, however, Jason stopped her right before she was about to fling them.

“It’s okay, I got this.” her partner assured.

Knowing his abilities, the Darwinian agreed and then backed away to let her friend do the talking.

Jason put away his weapons and approached the two thugs.

“Alright look, I’m kind of spent and I don’t really want to fight,” Jace disclaimed, “Instead, I would like to ask you this: Is making ends meet the reason why you chose the life of racketeering and thuggery?” he queried.

“Well, that question you’ve asked is pretty much our Modus Operandi on making a living.” Emanuel confirmed.

“Not surprised by the answer you’ve given me,” Jason remarked, “However, I won’t go on a tangent that there’s more to life than being criminals, reformation by convincing you to pursue a more legitimate occupation, or flat-out threatening you to stop; I won’t do any of that.” he said.

“Then, what do you have in mind?” Tony asked.

“It’s actually pretty simple, I’ll make you both my warriors; you can give your old boss a 2-week notice.”

“Eh, 2-week notices are not really necessary; we can quit whenever we feel like it.” Antonio said.

“But here’s the thing, what’s in it for us?” the Berserker (Tony) asked.

“I’ll give you 300 to 400 Pedazo a day; in exchange, you’ll help me raid dungeons.” the knight proposed.

Antonio and Emanuel reacted with amazement. That’s way more than their old employer has paid them, which was not very much.

“Awesome, you got a deal, new boss!” Antonio agreed with elation, as he shook Jason's hand.

And from here on out, Jace’s personal army began to slowly grow.

-------------------------------

We come back now to Maxon and Rena. If you, the reader, honestly forgot that these two have even existed, that’s okay. I, the narrator, have almost forgotten these characters even appeared in the story until I reviewed my notes; so it’s all good. With that minor tangent out of the way, the two soldiers of Soulwind Forces were making their way through the foggy forest, now with a handful of specialists walking alongside with them.

A few of them excelled in hand-to-hand/unarmed combat, some were proficient in magic and healing, some were great at stealth and the elimination of high-priority targets, and the rest have a strong background in utilizing physical weapons like swords and polearms. Now that the many problems the previous team were now addressed, they’re effectively ready to take on practically any problem.

However, despite all of these advantages, Rena couldn’t get rid of this ominous feeling in the pit of her stomach. It’s almost as if a horrible conspiracy was brewing among the squadron and then some.

“Hey, Maxon?” the cat-girl witch called.

“Yeah, Rena?” he responded.

“Do you ever wonder if things turn out well in the end?”

“I don’t really know how to answer that question,” Cortez confessed, “On one hand, you have this feeling that things will go swimmingly based on the things you have and the current situation. On the other hand, there are numerous elements you don’t really notice until they start blowing up in your face.” he attempted to explain.

“Yeah, I guess. When things are going super well, the things you overlooked tend to ruin you when you least expect it.” Rena concurred.

“Here the thing though, being prepared for something only shares a moderate size of the pie relating to your survival; there are other factors that contribute in meaningful ways like attitude, skill, knowledge, the people you’re with, and of course, luck.” Maxon opined.

“Totally, that’s pretty much the core of fighting to live another day,” the cat-girl agreed, “It feels like even after two years when my grandfather died and I became a soldier in his honor, I’m still learning new things everyday.” she spoke.

“That’s the spirit sweetie; just keep going at it and you’ll get to the top someday.” Maxon encouraged.

After a short while, they arrived at the point of interest that was theorized to be the origin of the mysterious and eerie fog via paranormal scouting devices; this place dating back several millennia ago is none other than the giant, imposing, and possibly haunted Fortress of Sarkov. This location in particular was considered the final resting place of Demon King Oranius and his affectionate servant, Vampire Princess Mel’zae.

The atmosphere is rather dark and otherworldly, teeming with ghostly and ghoulish energy radiating from the fortress. Even though the fortress is very old and somewhat obscured by the fog, it still looks rather intimidating thanks in part to its strange design made with unknown materials that were more than likely lost to the ravages of time, but still gave the building a rather eldritch and otherworldly flare to it. It’s a place you really don’t want to be in, unless you have a dauntless heart and a powerful thirst for adventure and discovery; the raid team that Maxon and Rena were a part of was almost exactly that.

With all of those aspects considered, let the dangerous and strange, yet intriguing dungeon raid begin.