As Willem returned to the forest outside the Army Training Grounds, a peculiar scent wafted over his magical perception. From a distance of two hundred yards was the smell of a creature that Willem had yet to encounter in his life. This unique creature stood on two legs, thick like tree trunks, but the knuckles of it's hands dragged across the ground gently.

"Some sort of large Ape creature? How did I not see it in the compendium for magical beasts within the forest? Perhaps no one has gotten close enough to identify it yet..." Willem could feel the strength of the beast from even this distance away and was confident that perhaps not even a level seven or eight magical beast could defeat it.

This creature was worlds apart in strength compared to the Hellboars or the Astral Spider. More peculiarly to Willem however was that the Ape was within the shallow part of the forest where level four magical beasts could be found. This led Willem to think of three possible reasons for this: one was that it came out here to feed, two was that it was chased out of it's territory and three was that it possibly sensed Willem's strength and came to see for itself.

Whatever it's reason for being here, if it continued on it's path it would be heading to the Army Training Grounds. While the Army now has strong magical armor and weapons to deal with advanced threats, it still might not be considered enough to fight against this particular beast.

As the Ape wandered around aimlessly, it seemed to sense Willem's presence and rushed over to find him as quickly as possible. As it's powerful hind legs thundered and crashed against the soft earth, it's arms beat wildly against it's chest.

When it came into view, Willem finally saw what his magical perception had previously vaguely shown him. The Ape squatted at a height of eight meters from the ground, with coarse brown hair across it's body and a small stripe of yellow from it's nose to the back of it's head.

As the Ape drew closer to Willem, it's speed slowed from a full blown charge to an awkward stagger as Willem stared it down, ready to confront it.

The Ape, as it closed the distance, began to walk on all fours and trudge along the soft ground with it's eye line matching Willem's. When it was within twenty feet of Willem, something miraculous happened.

"Strong... Human?" The Ape spoke!

"You are sentient? How is such a thing possible!" Willem retorted in shock.

In all his information of magical beasts from the Great Library, he had not once heard of a sentient magical beast. Fundamentally, the difference between a magical beast and a magical being is the presence of conscious thought. The magical beasts possessed no noticeable intelligence and seemed to rely purely on instinct when dealing with anything.

"I alone... Always fight, always kill." The Ape pressed it's thick arms against it's chest as if to mimic defending itself.

"Why are you so far from your territory? You come from deep in the forest, do you not? Willem could not believe he was having a conversation with a magical beast.

"Evil Dragon... Burn my home, killed my babies." The Ape mimed a tear flowing down it's face.

Though Dragons used to be classified as level ten or higher magical beasts, they became part of the magical beings when the Magical Beings came into power so long ago. Some ripped ancient parchment had sparse details of a deal between Dragons and Magical Beings as the former were worshiped as the closest thing to The Fallen Gods.

"I run many moon, every beast run away. No home, no babies. I sad." The large Ape lowered it's head in front of Willem.

Willem cautiously approached it, though he had already quietly casted several shields in order to deflect an attack if this was a trap. The Ape did not seek to oppress him, but still approached him. This meant that the creature understood exactly who was more powerful during this exchange of words.

Willem considered something before he made a promise to the Ape.

"Tell me where your home is, and I will gift you vengeance."

If he is correct in his thinking, deeper in the forest is where the magical beings should be setting up their forward position in order to siege against The Bastion of Hope. Since he intended to kill them anyway, no harm in garnering favor with an intelligent beast in the process.

He considered this promise the price for the information he received from the Ape.

"Vengeance? This, means?" The Ape looked up confused.

"I will kill the Evil Dragon for you." Willem smiled at the Ape.

The innocent smile of Willem was a silent promise between the two of them. In that moment, above what any words could say, they had an agreement that would not be broken.

To have the strength of a possible level nine magical beast at his side and only require doing something he already intended to do, was the best possible deal he could make.

Of course he could make that kind of a promise easily.

The Ape emulated Willem's smile, though it looked incredibly stiff and awkward. It began to punch the ground in excitement, causing the nearby trees to fall over and the ground to shake heavily. Swarms of birds began flying away from the scene.

Willem stood at the center of the quake and laughed gently. In terms of intelligence, the Ape would only be around four or five years old. Though it had incredible strength, it was not bright or overly perceptive.

Potentially it could be another trump card in the upcoming war.

"Come with me, I will show you something amazing. Do you have a name?" Willem gestured for the Ape to follow him.

"No..." The large Ape slowly followed behind Willem.

"Then, I shall call you... Zira? How does that sound?" Willem walked beside the Ape as she continued to look down at the ground.

"Zira..." She pondered as she obediently walked with Willem. "I, Zira."

"Good, then I will introduce you as such." Willem lead Zira, the large Ape, back to the Army Training Grounds.

When Willem and Zira came into sight of the guards protecting the perimeter, many alarms were sounded to defend the gates. Willem was too far away for the guards to properly see who it was, but they could clearly see the large Ape's figure behind a boy.

A team of fifty soldiers in beautifully decorated armor came out with weapons drawn, ready for the battle of their lives, five minutes later. From the advanced warning, they knew they would be fighting a large Ape and did not know how strong it was. This was the first time they had even seen an Ape come out of the forest.

"Hold together!" Sir Kris led the march with his defensive Squad standing closely behind him. " Quarter-moon Form!"

The Squad slowly shifted from a five by five square formation into the shape of a quarter moon. The twenty five soldiers that did not enter the same formation stood ready to charge in at any moment. They were led by Sir Rowan, dual wielding daggers with a distinct red and blue aura.

As Willem drew closer to the gates, the archers on top of the wall loaded their crossbows and fired upon him with a volley of sharp bolts. As they reached within five feet of Willem, he used his tendrils of darkness to hold them in air. As if a large shield of black surrounded him, the bolts floated, stuck in place.

"Archers, withdraw!" Fearing the bolts would be sent back with equal force, Sir Kris ordered a retreat from the wall. The soldiers listened and withdrew from the top of the wall in a scramble.

Not knowing what the enemy was capable of, Sir Kris made the best call he could at the time, neither advancing his Squad nor giving any space for them to enter. The quarter moon formation perfectly protected the only entrance to the Army Training Grounds.

"See Zira, this is interesting, right?" Willem smiled while looking at the Ape.

"Yes?" Zira was unsure how to respond. If she was in his position, she would charge at them all and smash their heads into the ground.

"These humans are the ones who will help me kill the Evil Dragon. Please be nice to them." Willem responded to her question.

"..." While she said nothing, Zira placed her massive knuckles on the ground silently.

"Let us go talk to our companions." Willem began slowly walking as the black tendrils continued to float around him. Zira matched his pace as they continued on. The closer he drew, the more he could tell the soldiers blocking the door were sweating in fear.

Being afraid was fine, as long as they did not lose their cool and continued to act as part of the formation.

The bolts in the black tendril shield slowly disappeared as he placed them into his Spatial spell. He dissipated the black tendril shield and continue walking forward towards the Training Grounds.

Finally, he was within view and Sir Kris could properly identify who he was.

"Company, attention! The Grand Mage has presented himself!" Sir Kris called out to his allies.

Many of the soldiers let out a sigh of relief and saluted as Willem approached.

When Willem arrived, standing behind him was a large and completely docile Ape.

The soldiers looked at the Ape quizzically but dared not speak out. However this was still an unprecedented moment as no magical beast had ever entered the Training Grounds alive since it was created.

"Zira, greet your new companions." Willem nodded at the Ape.

"Greet, humans." Zira spoke out while patting her chests gently with her fists.

The soldiers stood in shock as the Ape spoke. In complete bewilderment, a soldier accidentally spoke out.

"Whaaaat...-" The soldier understood the error of speaking as he held his breath, hoping no one had heard him.

The entire Squad turned to look at the soldier with his mouth agape.

"- An amazing magical beast. Haha... Ha..." The soldier barely strung his words together before letting out a small laugh and shutting up completely.

"I am different." Zira acknowledged as her knuckles pressed upon the soft dirt.

"You are special. Zira has given us intelligence on the position of our enemies. Get ready to move tomorrow at dawn, while I go report this." Willem had to move the timetable for the assault up again once her learned of how close the magical beings actually were.

Previously they had been proceeding based off the intelligence that the magical beings were almost at the edge of the other end of the forest, as they had received this intelligence from the torture of some magical beings. However it seemed to be inaccurate and based on old information.

"Also spread the word, Zira is a part of my personal Squad and will be respected as such." Willem spoke to Sir Kris and Sir Rowan while the Squad watched on anxiously.

"By your command!" The Knights that were present saluted and sent scouts to inform the compound.

Willem removed the bolts from his Spatial spell and returned them to the archers. Though they felt stupid, no one spoke or apologized. Willem would not expect them to either, for defending their home from a previously unknown threat.

After returning the bolts, Willem traveled to the Private Quarters of Sir Gehrig alone, and was met halfway by an attendant whom was also heading in that direction.

Zira chose to stay with Sir Kris and Sir Rowan, whom had given her various foods to eat while they conversed with her. While she felt a little overwhelmed by the amount of humans briefly, she still felt it was very interesting.

When Willem arrived, the attendant entered first to announce Willem's presence to Sir Gehrig.

Sir Gehrig ran outside and greeted Willem.

"My apologies, Grand Mage, for not greeting you sooner." Sir Gehrig saluted.

"I have new important information, let us speak inside." Willem gestured for Sir Gehrig to enter the Private Quarters, where Willem filled him in on the information.

"So... Not only must we fight with the magical beings, but have confirmed they have at least one of the Dragon Race, whom is stronger than a level nine magical beast. Will we really be okay like this?" Sir Gehrig was hesitant in asking but felt it necessary.

"I will deal with the strong enemies, I only need the Squad to deal with the large amount of magical beings. Even if all they can do is stall for me while I fight the stronger ones, that will be enough. It is important we maintain an upper hand in certain fights if we want to win this war." Willem answered.

Sir Gehrig nodded along while he wrote down the information Willem provided. When he was done, he sealed the missive and placed it into his pocket. At the same time, he removed the list of family names that he was told to gather earlier.

"This is the information you asked for." Sir Gehrig passed the information to Willem.

"Well done, I will take my leave now, but I will return at dawn tomorrow for the assault. Make sure the Squad is ready by then, alright?" Willem nodded as he accepted the information.

"By your will, Grand Mage." Sir Gehrig stood up and saluted.