Loud slap breaks the monotonous sound of marching feet. The origin of the sound is the man wearing leather armor paired with long pants and boots. He carries a hulking sword in his back and is slapping at the insects that is biting his exposed skin. "Man, Forest are the worst. So many insects flying about. Grrr… Die!" He complained as he tried to hit the insects bothering him. "Rebeccah, cast one of your wind spells on me too. These buggers won't leave me alone." He asked the woman standing on my left.

"What a surprise! The great Durga asking someone's help? Do these little insects bother you so that you finally ask for my help?" Rebeccah covers her mouth with her hand in an effort to fake an impression of being shocked. "If I remember correctly, your words earlier are 'I am a Fire-mage. I don't need help from some Wind-mage and a woman at that'. So what happened big strong Fire-mage? Can't burn those pesky critters with your flames? Oh right! You might accidentally burn the Forest and alert that the Elven Rangers and ruin the mission." She exclaimed as if the thought suddenly dawned on her. Eliciting the response she is looking for, she continued to mock him. "Look at the poor little Fire-mage, can't kill these little bugs to save his life. Have fun getting your blood sucked by insects. This frail Wind-mage will not help you."

"Rebeccah, just shut up and go cast wind armor on Durga. No more distractions. I need everyone to be focused on our task ahead." I need to succeed. That damned Mariam. Just because she is from the Great Noble house of Frey and have the backing of Elder Maximillian, she thinks that she can do whatever she wants? Coming back to our hideout whipped like a dog after failing her mission. It serves her right, that bitch! Using her wind magic to throw me around and humiliating me, I would have the mind to report her but I have a better idea. I will succeed where she failed! I will destroy the party who defeated her and capture the One. That will show her who's the better Mage! After that, I Christopher Esclaire, will take my rightful place as the true up and coming talent of the organization and one day I will be on the very top!

I can still hear the imbeciles grumble and argue with each other. These two idiots clearly don't respect the chain of command. I didn't bust my ass to climb up the ladders of the organization to babysit brats, but beggars can't be choosers I guess. Durga Morphius Straud and Rebeccah Elwyn Frost. If only they weren't sons and daughters of noble households I would've whipped them all till they are half dead. But since the organization needs their parents' support, I am stuck leading a bunch of good-for-nothing, arrogant, spoiled brats. At least some good comes with having them on my team.

A slender figure wearing full leather armor and a short sword in her waist jumps down from one of the tree branches and landed in front of us. She is Weylin Vale, an elite scout chosen by the parents of that oaf Durga to be a part of our party. Upon landing, she quickly kneeled in front of us. "Scout Weylin Cormine reporting in." She said with a deadpan voice.

Always the professional, this woman. But that is part of why I like working with her. "Claude, could you get us some chairs to sit on?" I ordered the Earth mage from Rebeccah's employ. He used his magic to raise the earth and create chairs for us to sit on. One we were all seated I turned back to Weylin who refused to take a seat and remained kneeling. "Stand." Only after that order did she deemed to stand. I then continued. "Report what you've found."

"I have located the camp of the One's party." She reported.

"Well that was quick. I expected to track them down after two or three days. Good work on quickly finding them Cormine." Truly, I thought we would need to track them down for days.

"Truly a great work. It is only what you would expect from a woman from my employ." Durga Straud bragged.

Visibly irritated, Rebeccah Vale retorted. "Well if we brought a scout from my family, they would be found a lot sooner." She clearly don't want to lose against Durga.

"Shut up you two." I ordered the brats. I then turned back towards Weylin "So tell me, where are they?"

"They are staying at the clearing where they fought Lady Mariam days before." She answered in monotone.

What? They haven't moved? "Why did they not move their camp? It doesn't make sense. Did they think we will not come back again to take the one?"

"Apparently they are prepared an ambush for us. There are traps scattered around the camp." She declared.

"What a bunch of pussies. Afraid of a fair fight so they rely on tricks." Durga huffed. The battle hungry idiot. If we are outnumbered, I would lay traps too.

"Of course you would think that. You only know how to wave your sword around and throw around that small candle light you call flames. If you use your brain even just for a second, they know they can't escape so they are prepared for a last stand." Rebeccah mocked him.

Although Rebeccah likes to make fun of people, she is still calm and collected. The only problem with her is that she is lazy and has no desire to climb up the ranks. She would sooner order her subordinates to complete missions assigned to her by the organization while she just laze around painting art or something. The only reason she is here is because her parents ordered her to and threatened to disown her if she don't. They also assigned her subordinates under my direct command so she could not shirk her duties by sending them in her stead.

Actually I am thankful that she have no aspirations to rise up in the ranks. If she did, she will be another fierce competitor for the few times she had the urge to act, she showed abilities that is equal to me, or even greater.

"I said quiet you two. You are free to fight each other once the mission is over. But as long as we are in the mission, I am your superior and you will do as I say." Rebeccah shows disinterest but Durga looks like he wants to fight. I am not afraid of fighting the fool. I moped him on the floor many times already. He should know his place, and if he do I would just beat him up once more. But as much as I want to put the insufferable brat in his place, I don't want to deal with his parents. So I will just let this pass with just a threat. "You know, a simple report from me will be enough to get you disowned. So either follow my orders or get the fuck off my team and go home."

After hearing that he might get reported to his parents, Durga quickly went quiet. Even with his strength and top notch underlings, he failed most missions assigned to him apart from kill missions. This is due to his impulsive nature and violent tendencies. When he is on a mission to guard someone from attacks, he focusses too much on the attackers that he didn't care for the one he is defending, which results to the death of the one he is supposed to defend. Capture missions is impossible for him for he kills the one he is supposed to be capturing. Retrieval jobs always ends up in failure as with other missions that doesn't require killing the target. His lack of achievements and mountain of failures should've been enough to expel the guy from the organization if not outright execute him for his blunders. Only the influence of his father is what separates him from certain doom. Thus his parents are desperate for a successful mission for their son and put him back to the graces of the organization.

If it was up to me, just don't give the man leading jobs. No matter how you look at it, the brat has no head for leading people. He is always meant to be used as a lackey.

I turned towards Weylin once more. "You said you found traps. Can you disarm them so we can pass through unharmed?" I asked.

Still with the monotone voice. Her face looks blank and emotionless, but I know she is serious with her job. "From the looks of it, it is dwarven made. So disarming it is out of the question. Even slightly touching it might cause an explosion."

Dwarven huh. An artificer most likely. It seem I will get more than just recognition here. "So disarming is out of the options. I assume you know how we could get to their camp?"

"Yes. There is a spot where there is less traps and a trail we could follow to get to their camp safely. As long as you follow my steps correctly." She stated with no change in her facial expression. Although I can feel some arrogance in her tone. Nah. Maybe I just imagined it.

"Okay. So we have a way in. Mariam reported of an Elf. Is she in the camp? Did you find other Elves within the area? Although the reports said that there are no sightings of the other Elven Rangers in the area, you could not be too careful." There must be chance of failure. My chance to rise up the ranks and finally overtake that damned Mariam rides on this. Maybe even an Elder would take me in as their protégé, then I will rise up faster than before!

"Too many questions all at once. But I will answer them nonetheless." She answered. "First, the Elf is indeed in the camp. She has a sharp eye but I believe she didn't saw me. Second, I found no Elves other than the one in the camp. I scoured the area with my Mana sense and found no one."

"Are you sure?" I asked once more.

"Yes I am. If you doubt my words then you probably have to find yourself another scout. The one who is better at doing my job." Although it is delivered in monotone and a blank facial expression, I can sense some hostility coming from her. A professional have their pride I suppose.

"I apologize. I don't doubt your abilities." I then turned towards the men and women around me. "The reason we were assigned with this most important mission, is because each and everyone here are the best the organization could offer. By combining all of our abilities, I know that we will succeed, and once we come home riches and glory will be ours! We just need to stretch our hands and take it! Now who's with me?"

The response to my rousing speech is as I expected. With only Durga being ecstatic, Rebeccah uninterested, and the others clapping unenthusiastically just so that I won't get embarrassed. Oh well. Not that I expect much from servants even as talented as they are.

"Let us tarry no longer. We will march towards their camp and claim our destiny." I declared. Then I turned towards Weylin "Lead the way."

We started walking towards the camp following closely behind Weylin. We took a lot of twist and turns around the camp, apparently avoiding each trap laid by the dwarf. Although I want to take home one of the traps with me, I am afraid it could wait until we finish the mission. More importantly, there is a pile of dwarven items and equipment just waiting for me to take them. The golden ticket to the top and dwarven artifacts as bonus! I can almost not stop myself from shivering from excitement with every step I take, takes me closer to my goal that I can almost taste it.

"Don't step there!" Weylin shouted while sporting an uncharacteristically worried look on her face.

I turned around to see what the fuss is and saw Durga stray from the path. That moron! He must've stepped on a trap! Weylin quickly grabbed the idiot and jumped away from the trap that is increasingly accumulating mana at a terrifying rate. It's going to blow! But before it blew, one of Durga's men quickly jumped over the trap and covered it with his body. Decreasing the strength of the explosion enough that we were not affected but also reduced his body into bloody mist as bits and pieces of him flies of to every direction.

What strength! The trap's explosion was so strong that even a fully reinforced Aura by a strong warrior was not enough to defend against it. I must have it!

"Ewww! Gavniel is all over me! Stupid Durga! Your brain is so small that you can't even follow a simple instruction? Follow the path we're walking on. That's it! Now look at me?! Your henchman's blood stained my robes! You better pay me back for this." Rebeccah was fuming. I know she can just blow away the blood from her clothes using her magic, but she doesn't since she wants to humiliate Durga for his stupidity.

Even though I also want to punch the idiot in the face for almost killing us all, we still have a mission to complete, and the simpleton still have his use. "Just use your magic to clean yourself up. We don't have time to lose. We have to continue, we are almost there." I turned towards Durga. "Now, we must all be careful. We have no more room for error so everyone must follow closely. Durga, you walk behind Weylin." I ordered him. With Weylin watching him closely, I hope she will keep him from blowing us up.

I can hear Durga grumble but he couldn't find a retort since it was his blunder that almost caused us our lives. We continued our way towards the camp with no more problem. Just a few more steps and I'm there!

Finally fame, fortune, and more dwarven artifacts will be mine!

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

A loud explosion could be heard not far from here. I put my defense up in case it was an attack from an enemy. But after moments pass, nothing happened.

"Ohohoho! It looks like me trap has caught an intruder? The sound of explosion was weaker than I expected. But it should have killed or maimed a couple of them." Ortho curiously brush his beard with his hand.

"It only killed one. A man jumped over your trap and covered it with his body. Weakening the explosion." Alora answered. Her eyes must be sharp to see that far. In the forest full of tree even. Maybe she can see through trees or is it an Elf thing?

"Just one? Oh man. I was hoping I could take out half of their numbers, at the very least a couple. That trap was expensive to make and it only took out one. What a waste." Ortho shook his head. Lamenting at the fact that he was only able to kill once.

Damn. Even the jolly dwarf is blood thirsty.

"It's fine. It's one less enemy to worry. Let's just hope we could take out a couple more with your traps." Philip raised his shield and move near Alora while Kurt moves near Ortho. A basic tactic even in games where a tank protects the damage dealer. All the while they left me alone near the cage to fend for myself.

"What needless death." I heard Kurt say. I turned my gaze towards him and see him offer a silent prayer.

"Better them than us. Either way, they started it. But we will be the one to finish this." Philip declared. Then he turns toward Alora. "So how many of them are left?"

"9 more. 4 mages and 5 warriors." Alora answered him. Her bow is ready and I can feel such intensity coming from her. Even more than when she looks at me with murderous intent.

"9 huh. Still more to my liking." Philip put his hand on his chin. Clearly contemplating about something before he started exuding confidence once more. "But nonetheless we can do it. Listen up guys! Our mission is to capture one of those bastards that took our friend from us. We need them so that they can point us to where they are keeping Mark Anthony. After that we will rescue our friend with all our might!"

"Well said lad. We will also make em pay for all the expense I made throughout this journey! I will make em pay! In gold." He then laughed as if he said something funny. Then quickly he put on his serious face. "Not even a chuckle? Ye guys are tough customers. I will tell him this joke as soon as we get him back home! Mark would get it for sure."

The Elf suddenly became alert and said "They're here! 10 seconds!" Alora then drew her bow with 5 arrows nocked.

"Ready guys! The time for us to take our revenge is night! Remember, we need to capture one!" Philip ordered as he knelt before Alora and hoisted her shield to protect them both while also allowing the Elf a clear shot to whoever will pop out of the Forest.

I can hear the sound of rustling in the bushes. After a few second a lot of figure came to sight. "So, you're the bunch who defeated Mariam. Don't ---" The tall, atlethic looking man wearing leather armor partnered with pants and boots wasn't able to finish his sentence before Alora fired her arrows, interrupting him from his monologue.

Like lightning, they hit their targets in a blink of an eye. 2 men were struck straight in the forehead and died on the spot by the surprise attack. The man who was doing a monologue, a pretty woman in robes and the female wearing a leather armor with a scary looking fellow behind her. The man was able to block with arrow with a shield that manifested from his left hand, the woman in robes deflected it with an invisible force, while the last one was caught it with her bare hands.

Surprised with the sudden attack by the she-elf, we were dumbfounded.

She nock her bow once more before stating "We only need one prisoner right?" She looks at us before firing arrows towards the intruders once more.

So bad ass. Although I must admit, tt's good that she finally found a target to shoot other than me.