After reassuring Dorian and his group the soldier lead them down the streets. Dorian still had not gotten over the fact how large a city in the empire actually was. According to what he had heard the city had at least 20 million inhabitants. That was a number that Dorian had trouble imagining. The city itself was huge aswell. Yet still small compared to the capital. It made him wonder wat a gigantic entity the capital would turn out to be.

Walking in the dark of the night among the tall buildings, the silence hanging around them like a shroud. It felt as if one shouldn't talk, the dark in the city had something different to it altogether. The silence in a place filled with people was a bit eerie. He was surprised with how empty it was at night here. He would have thought that a city of this size would still be bustling in the night.

The soldier told them that there was generally a night curfew among civilians. This was implemented to discourage illegal activities that would normally happen at night. It had sounded like a good idea when the governing factor of the city had decided upon it. Weeding out criminals and outlaws in the daylight would be a much easier task.

Or so they thought. In a city this big how was one to see who was a criminal and who was not. Criminals in a city this size could easily meet each other in the broad daylight and stand on the corner of a street talking about whatever job they had planned next. Who was going to listen in on one of the several hundreds of thousands conversations after all. Nobody had time for that.

That is how criminals had created a new system for themselves, working out the plans in daylight and in the dark they would carry out these plans. Despite the several changes in the guard rosters and patrol paths the criminals still knew where the patrols would be and when. Corruption in the ranks leaking out information like that.

The city guard ofcourse had counter measures against that aswell. They sent patrols out on random paths aswell. That way they might run into thieves doing their work in the night. They also had people working undercover in stores and organisations across the city. However the city was simply to big to be able to handle all the crime. They simply did not have the manpower to be everywhere.

Criminals knew this and that is why alot of them gathered in the cities and started making underground organisations like the one they had stumbled across.

This also explained why there was so little crime out in the country. It was a lot easier to capture a criminal in a small village where everyone knew eachother. Thus those with criminal morals and ideas headed to the cities. A gathering of the lowlifes and degenerates, the cities sewers had turned into a cesspool of the cities scum.

After walking for an hour or two they had finally arrived at their destination.

“And here we are, our personal headquarters lets head inside.” On the outside the building looked just the same as all the ones around it. On the inside however it looked a bit different. Once you opened the door you there was a hallway with a door on either side. Right after entering however there was a staircase that led straight down into the ground.

That is where the soldier entered. The staircase was incredibly long by now they had been descending for a good 10 minutes. Eventually they entered an underground passage way that was connected to several other staircases. It seems the way they had entered was not the only way into this underground facility.

The passage way descended even more untill they were finally in a large underground area. All around the area there were p[people training. There must have been at least 200 people here, some were sparring, others were practicing their bowmanship. Others were fighting unarmed flowing from move to move landing punches that even Dorian thought he would have trouble countering.

Each and every one of the people here was extremely skilled. You could sense it in the way they walked, the way they flowed through their movements. The speed of the draw, and the fluidity of pulling back the string of their bows. The clearly defined and well-trained muscles on the half-naked bodies of the unarmed combatants.

There was an area where a couple of mages were practicing their craft. Meditating calmly the air around them sizzled of the mysterious energies. This was the first thing that had caught Lalin's attention. The mage was looking at the energy around those meditating with interest, Dorian somehow felt that she was taking mental notes. The difference in weapons that each of the people here used was huge aswell. Greatsword to rapier, crossbow to composite longbow. Scimitar, claws, chain wips, butterfly swords. The vast diversity made it obvious of the specialization of these people.

They were all proud and accomplished warriors and mages. He now felt the formidability of the organisation that they had been asked to join. He gave the soldier a better look now noticing the way he moved and carried himself. He now was pretty sure this man was a master at handling the sword he was carrying. Dorian somehow felt that he could not yet defeat the man, his expertise was beyond Dorians.

The soldier lead them through the area and through yet another door untill they entered yet another hallway. At the end of this hallway was a single door, they entered through it and found themselves in an immaculate room. Everything here was stacked neatly, it was all very organized, giving it the feel of professionalism.

In the back end of the room there was a dark wooden desk with behind it a man with cropped grey hair. He was marking things down on a piece of parchment and seemed to be engrossed in his work.

When the man looked up after finishing whatever he was working on a stern face looked up to them. The calm confidence in the eyes of this man gave Dorian the chills, he immediately knew this was a man he should not mess with.

The way the man held himself had an aura of command to it. This man held authority with his presence alone. He was the kind of man that could walk into any particular place and gather all his attention to himself without saying a word.

“So you have finally brought that group here Augustin.” The man spoke, his voice was deep and his voice like the man itself held a certain weight to it. “I assume my man has already told you that i would like to offer you young ones a business opportunity?”

Dorian stepped forward and looked at the man. “Yes we have been told that is why we were offered to come here, the details of this... job. However we have not been told. Although that we have been invited due to our combat skills is apparent.”

“Yes, well let me explain to you wat we do here.” The man said standing up. He was surprisingly small measuring out at barely 1.75. His size did not diminish the mans presence in the least however. “We are cleaning out the scum in this city.”

Dorian looked at the man surprise in his eyes. “Wat do you mean exactly.

“I mean exactly wat i said, we are killing and removing the criminals in this city from the imagined position of power they believe to have.”

Dorian just stared at the man dumbstruck, just kill all the criminals? What kind of plan was that, killing everyone who breaks the law is way to over the top. But.... We did kill all those men that had something to do with the kidnappings. Dorian thought to himself, people who do the kind of things they did to other human beings. Letting them live was not something Dorian could do.

He exchanged glances with Gladiel, who gave him a short nod. It seemed Gladiel was in with this mans plan, well he had always had a surprisingly passionate hatred for criminals. He then looked at Vor and Blaitz, Vor was thinking pencifully and Blaitz looked rather excited. He had been excited ever since he had seen the expertise of the warriors in the hall. Blaitz was probably looking forward to clashing with the best warriors. The thrill of the battle, he was the kind of man that enjoyed such a thing.

Jorin looked Dorian and seemed to be running the same train of thought as him. How many people would they eb able to save by joining with this man. The city was so large a priest could only do so much. Helping all the people in this city by making it a better place to live. Just calculating the amount of people they would help it would be a lot more efficient to do this than heal and help the people as victims one by one. After all wasn't it better to stop a crime from happening in the first place rather than just helping those hurt by said crime?

Lalin on the other had a rather bloodthirsty aura around her. It seemed her hatred of these criminals was even greater than Gladiel's. She was totally on board with wiping these people from the face of the planet. Dorian looked back at the man and thought it through for a few seconds.

“I cannot decide for the others, the path they choose is their own. I for one will be taking your job offer.” Dorian said determined once he had made up his mind.

“I would like make those pay that have inflicted suffering on innocent people. The strong must protect the weak, that is the kind of man i am hoping to be.” Gladiel said stepping forward with a grim determination on his face.

“I would love to fight those warriors of yours, i think i can learn alot here!” Blaitz said with a battle eager grin on his face.

“I for one have decided to follow my friend Dorian on this. I am not aware of human customs but the way those people were treated enraged a fire in my heart i did not know i possessed. I would like to mete out judgement on the people responsible.” Vor said sincerely audible in his words.

“Working from the shadows to illuminate the dark. That sounds like the kind of thing a priest should be doing in the first place. I believe there are many people i can help in this way. I aswell will join.

Jorin said joining the rest of the group.

Lalin just looked eager to get started and also stepped forward. Viyella joined her with just as much of a bloodthirsty face in her eyes as Lalin. She grabbed a piece of parchment of the desk and passionately scribbled on it.

I will be joining aswell. I owe these people my life and i would like to join them in their fight. I want to repay those have done this to me with their own blood. Most of all i want to become strong enough so something like this never happens to me again!

Last but certainly not least Shiela stepped forward. Joining the rest of the group with a beaming smile.

Dorian stepped to her and looked down. “It would not be a good idea for you Shiela. You can stay with us but you should not be joining us in this kind of work.”

Shiela stubbornly shook her head. If the others were going to be training to use their weapons and preparing to clean the underground than she wanted a part of it to. She had just a good reason to join as the rest. If not a better one.

Dorian looked at her darkly. “I refuse to let you live a life so unlike a childs. There are things you can study, you can be anything you want. I don't want you steeped in this darkness any more.”

Shiela just kept staring at him stubbornly while shaking her head.

“Well the young one seems to have made up her mind. Wouldn't it be best to atleast let her train here with the rest of you. She will spend a longer time learning because we will not send anyone out there before they have reached a certain age. If she stays with you she will be with people she trusts and she will easily be able to take care of herself after we are done with her.”

Dorian looked from the man to Shiela and grunted in frustration. “Fine!” he said looking at her. Training is hard though you will have to work hard so these people won't regret training you!”

Shiela gave him another of her beaming smiles and nodded. She then clutched his leg again and looked back at the aged man. Dorian rolled his eyes and shook his head, guess he did not have that much of a say in the girl's life after all.

“So it seems all of you will be joining, perfect! My name is Graham and i will be your commanding officer from now on. Your centurion will get a message saying that you have been transferred. We may not seem like it at first but we are a part of the government. Although the operations that we do here are not legal we have the governments consent. If we were to be found however they will deny their involvement.” Graham stated looking at his new recruits.

“But i doubt any of you care about that seeing as how you already went and meted out your own judgement on those that had taken your freind. We will be looking for traces of your freind aswell. Eventually we will find her and then we can free her from the bonds of those that would hold her.”

“Untill then you will be here, training will commence right away. After that you will be lead to your dorms. It will take a full year for us to turn you into full-fledged elite soldiers. Now be on your way and lets see wat you are made of!” Graham said motioning for them to leave. Augustin lead the way through the door where they were once more lead to the Training Area.

The people who had been training before had not stopped. The sheen on their bodies and the glare in their eyes proved both their dedication and concentration. Now that they were on the same side it felt reassuring having such highly skilled people watch your back.

“Each of you will probably feel an affinity to a certain weapon. Here we do not train in group frontline combat like they do in the legion we are specialists. We specialise ourselves in one particular combat style and spend our lives training to reach a level were we could call ourselves masters. So tell me your weapon preference and combat style preference and we will get started. First of we will start with you.” Augustin said pointing at Vor.

Vor looked at the man for an instant and then started thinking to himself. “I think a large shield and a mace would fit the purpose of the way i wish to do battle.” Augustin nodded and then yelled at one of the surrounding warriors to come here. The warriors name was Olgrin. Olgrin came running to them, the man was a dwarf of a muscular build. He had a towershield the size of himself in one hand and a large mace in the other.

“Then this will be your instructor. Olgrin this is Vor he and his freinds will be joining our organisation. I will leave his training up to you.” Olgrin nodded and grinned at Vor.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance you oversized flower, let's get to work!” Olgrin said with fierce energy in his voice and led Vor away.

Next to choose his weapon was Gladiel. Gladiel who had been waiting for the question said he would prefer to use a rapier. A real gentleman's weapon he called it. The warrior that was going to instruct him had the most magnificent mustache Dorian had ever seen. The man did carry himself with a certain lordly dignity, only affirming wat Gladiel had said about a rapier being a gentleman's weapon.

Next up was Blaitz, He wanted to use a scimitar. A scimitar was the weapon his tribes men used and they were quite proficient in them. The man who came forward to teach him was a tiger beastman just like Blaitz, only this man was larger more muscular and was covered in scars. Other than brown pants held up with a red rope the man wore nothing.

After that it was Jorins turn, he stayed with his light element magic and his trusty staff. The one who came forward to be his instructor was an old man with a beard that reached his stomach. His white beard was braided with some golden ropes which gave him a saint like feel. He didn't speak and just motioned Jorin to follow him which he did.

Next up was Lalin, She chose the opposite of Jorins magic and went for the dark element. As for her weapon she went with unarmed. Augustin recognized something about her and seemed surprised for a while. But when prompted he didn't say why he had been surprised. He thought for a few seconds then called upon 2 separate people. One of them was a blind elderly man who would teach her unarmed combat. The other was a man presumably that covered himself in a thick black cloak.

Viyella already had an answer ready and told her she wanted to use a longbow. She asked however if she could be trained with a shortsword aswell. She didn't want to be useless in short-range combat. Augustin assured her that all archers that trained her also trained in the shortsword so it would not be a problem. The man who was called forward to train her was a blond elf covered in green tribal tatoos. The tatoos looked more like vines than anything else really.

And then they asked Shiela wat she would like to study. She thought long and hard for a moment then pointed to a man who was wielding a scythe. Dorian looked at her surprised but she just looked up and grinned. Augustin just shrugged and called the sycthe wielder over. The scythe wielder looked at the girl for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

“Okay young one lets teach you how to wield this thing.” The man said with a jovial smile. Shiela looked up to him and beamed. It seemed she liked the man.

Last one to choose was Dorian. Augustin asked him wat he would like to learn and Dorian thought about it for a few seconds. He then decided that knives like the one his dad had given him would be his preference. Throwing blades he asked to add aswell. Augustin stared at him for a moment before calling out.

“Shun!”

a whirl in the air was all the warning Dorian got. Suddenly next to Augustin a man in clothed entirely in the blackest of leather appeared. He had belts and pouches running across his tunic and below his cloak. Dorian got sight of multiple knives but was sure that this man had more.

This so-called Shun looked Dorian over for a moment and then looked at Augustin.

“Why have i been called.” The man asked with a somber voice, he almost sounded lazy.

“I want you to train him, you could probably tell aswell but the boy has aptitude for Internal magic. We have no one else here who uses it except for you. That and he wishes to learn how to use knives better, throwing knives aswell. He sounds like you so i decided you should train him.” Augustin said looking at the dark covered man.

Shun looked at Augustin for a moment before sniffing. “I do not want to spend my time teaching anyone, i work better alone. The time i spend training a runt will be time i am not out in the field. Doing wat i am good at.”

“Well i wouldn't ask you to just take him in. Test him.” Augustin said folding his hands behind his back and getting an amused look on his face. His words plus the crooked smile caused Dorian to be on edge.

Shun looked at Augustin for a moment then looked at Dorian. Without so much as a flicker of movement Shun had disappeared. Dorian reacted with lightning fast reflexes and spun around. Drawing his dagger and staring into the bloodthirsty eyes of Shun. The gaze in those eyes promised him swift death. Dorian didn't hesitate for a moment and transited the turn smoothly into an attack. He aimed right for Shun's neck.

Shun was surprised for a moment because of the sudden darkness caused by the knife. He still managed to easily catch Dorians hand though. Dorian used the grab to pull Shun to him and tried to knee him in the face. Once again shun easily caught the attack. Then with a twist of his arm backed of and disappeared back to Augustins side.

“Well Augustin, you found me an interesting one to train. No hesitation immediately moving into a deadly attack. This boy has already been superbly trained by someone. He is very near the limit of wat a human can learn. Very well, it will be interesting to push him beyond the limits.” Shun said, this time with a bit of anticipation in his voice.

“Boy, i will make you the most fearsome assassin this continent has ever seen!”

And thank you guys for reading! Hope you enjoy