Chapter Nineteen: Squad Part Two

As soon as I enter the Guildhall, I’m practically ambushed by George,

“Good to see you mate, but no time for idle chatter, we got a schedule to keep!” He says rapid fire as he grabs me by the arm enthusiastically and tries to pull me forward. But, surprised at the sudden movement I try to jerk my arm away, but he doesn’t let go, so I shake my arm up and down trying to get him to let go. But, all it does is cause him to move with my arm, sending him up and down like a hopping rabbit. I get ready to get violent but remember that George is the one on my arm so I sigh and look at him curiously.

He smiles a little bit and points forward. So I give him a shrug and let him lead on. He leads me over to the other two, that are sitting in front of a clerk, that I barely remember… Curtis, I think? Bytheway, Damon actually isn’t sitting, he’s standing a foot or two behind Julian, looking like the personification of stoicism and looking ready to put a knife into anybody that comes within a foot of his master. Julian on the other hand, is sitting in the chair buried up to his nose in a book and as relaxed as can be with a stack of them floating next to him. The clerk Curtis is sitting nervously, and tremblingly pretty bad in front of Julian as Damon’s death glare occasionally come down on him if he looked at Julian too long, and practically suffocates himself sighing in relief when he sees me. Which I start to crack up at, which gets the other two’s attention before George can say anything, not that he could since he’s laughing along with me at Curtis.

As soon as George and I calm down he claps his hands together with a broad smile. “Alright, Mates! I got him over here, now let's get down to business!” And grabs a chair to sit down. I follow his lead, and notice Julian give me a nod causing his long hair to ripple and shake, Damon on the other hand barely acknowledges me, other than his eyes wandering over to me for a moment.

I notice Curtis looking down for a second, sighing and muttering, “Thank the stars and those that guide them, that he finally got here. I swear another minute of that would have given me a heart attack.” He then looks back up a moment later, with a polite, but trembling smile, and says calmly as he seems to be able. “Alright George, now that all your friends are here, how can I help you today?” Though calm, I can hear his heart hammering in his chest, he wasn’t kidding.

George leaps out of his chair like a wild beast, and slams both hands down on the clerk’s desk howling, “I want to form a squad with my mates here!” And swing his arm out at us gesturing. As Curtis falls out of his chair, with a soft thump.

I get up to put a hand on Georges' shoulder, but Damon beats me to it and jerks him into his chair, and says quietly “Cut that out, you want to get the Guildmaster down here?” He shakes his head, and Damon returns to his post. Poor Curtis, no one cares about your poor heart, speaking of Curtis he raises shakily from the floor, but looking no worse for wear and sits back down calmly in his chair, before turning to George and saying politely. “George.”

He turns and looks at Curtis “Yes? Oh! Sorry about, that got a little excited.” He says sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

Curtis looks a little taken aback but lets out a soft breath. “Nothing, just, please don’t surprise me like that….” He takes a moment to collect himself and dust himself off. “Alright, you four want to form a squad?” He looks at all of us, and we each give a nod.

“Ok then, if you all want to form a squad, you need to pass certain requirements. Like having four members, which you have, ok, next since you’re all novices you have to have beaten or gotten acceptance from your trainer,” He looks at me and George.” And other than Atlas and George, here I can’t say I have heard of you two passing yet-” Curtis gets cut off as Julian lifts a dainty hand up and his Guildcard is conjured into being and then snatched by Damon who hands him two blue and silver cards, and Curtis goes white. “N-nevermind, I see you four all meet the requirements… Oh! Atlas and George would you mind lending me your cards for a couple of minutes.” I give a shrug and begin to summon my card out of my being.

Holding my hand up I begin to focus on my guild card and a second later, I have some silvery fluid pours out of the palm of my hand, then raised into the air congealing into my guild card. As large as my palm, with a perfect rectangle shape and navy blue body with a silver outline around it, my guild card is fully formed.

I move to hand it over to Curtis, but then something catches my eye on the card.

Name: Atlas Mule Height: 6’8 ft (203.2 cm)

Age: 16 Weight: 313 lb's (142 kg’s)

Gender: Male Guild Rank: Rank Three

Progress to next Rank: 10%

Class: Novice - Everyone has to start somewhere, and this is where you begin. Though a Novice isn’t that impressive, they are not supposed to be. Being a Novice is about being a student, and a student is supposed to learn as they grow and grow as they learn, so that eventually one day they’re the one doing the teaching.

Class Bonus: Fifty Percent increase in all physical abilities and mental capabilities. Class Progression: 20%

I hadn’t seen Guild Rank before, but then again I didn’t check my card much lately, and class progression… Interesting.

I took a look at the other thing that’s catching my attention, my Ability Set and Traits tab on the card is practically alight, so I open it.

Ability Set: Atlas Method: A set of abilities being created by Atlas Mule.

Rest: Never had trouble getting to sleep have you? Well, now use it to your advantage, and be able to recuperate and recover faster to lower the time needed to rest and sleep! Ready to be activated.

Traits and Talents -

Large Bodied: Born with a large body has given you better strength and vitality, but in exchange, you’ve lower dexterity. Aura User: You’ve awakened your Aura and can now manipulate it.

My eyes go wide in shock, I flip off the Ability Set tab and hand it over to Curtis. I’d think on this later, gotta focus on the now. He looks at my card for a moment with Georges, and his eyes go a little wider but say nothing.

A moment or two later, he looks back to us and asks. “Alright, I’ve got you guys set up as a Squad, and your squad name is NBT12SQ43435. Sorry if it’s a little long, but since you guys are still novices you don’t get naming rights on your squad yet. So, I’ve got to ask this now, and it’s an important question, who’s the squad leader?”

That shakes me out of my shock, and I give it some thought and think about nominating myself but toss the thought out of my head. I’m a brute, not a leader. Then I hear two opposing shouts.

“I am!” George says with confidence.

“Master Julian!” Damon says with equal amounts of confidence.

They both look at each other in shock, and so does Curtis. Julian looks at Damon with annoyance, and shakes his head, before then saying quietly “No, I’m not. George can do it.”

Damon looks at his master in shock, or as much as his stoic face can muster, it’s mostly in his eyes. And opens his mouth, but nothing comes out, till Curtis says “I guess I’ll put George down as the leader? If anyone has any problems say them now... Atlas?”

I just shrug and say “Nah, I’m not a leader, and Julian and Damon’s are not either. George is…. The best we got, for now, I guess?” I say with as much confidence I can muster.

George elbows me in the ribs with a toothy grin, and I refrain myself from backhanding him across town. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence! But! If no other can take this glorious position than I’m afraid no other than I is worthy of it!” He says with mock arrogance.

Then he gets up to the counter, and Curtis pulls out a form, and just as George was about to sign it. Damon snatches his hand, and says “Hold on a moment.” He looks to Julian searchingly. “Do you really, want” He points a finger at George, who just smile toothly at Julian. “This thing to lead us?”

Julian shrugs and says “Better you or me... Plus he’s funny.”

Damon looks like he might scream, and says strained “Master Julian, he’s annoying and you’ve actually been trained to lead.”

Julian yawns. “I slept through that class.”

“But,” Damon was about to say, but he was cut off as Julian rose from his chair, his magic power oozing off him in waves, that form into strong, and shimmering currents of power on and around him.

The presence of his power makes my hair stand on end, and my Aura to reflexively reveal itself. The power-hitting me makes it obvious how much stronger he got, and excitement turns my blood to fire as my beastly grin appears.

Julian takes a couple steps forward and floats upward and stares Damon down, they keep eye contact for a moment before Damon gets down on a knee and breaks eye contact in submission.

It’s followed by Julian then saying deathly serious “Damon, cut your fuss and sit down. The topic is over.” He said so quietly that I could barely hear, “I consider you a friend, but I also consider George my friend too, a privilege that not many own.” Damon is shaking a little, and he looks back up at his master.

“Thank you, master, I’m not worthy of such an honor.”

“Yes, I know, but that changes nothing. But, as I was saying George is my friend and you will treat him as such, as he if he was your own friend. I’m done with this conversation, and should you bring it up again without just reasoning, I’m afraid, my friend, of what I might do.” He then pauses for a moment, then cracks a smile and pats Damon on the head “Now ease up once and while remember what out friend Atlas said about your butt and a stick?” I couldn’t but burst out laughing at that, the laughs shaking me from my very core and rattling me, slapping my knee and buckled over.

A minute or two later I was good and I notice Julian looking at me. “He’s also a friend Damon, so treat him well too.”

Damon let out an uncharacteristic snort “I wish to only protect and serve the master, I do not, however, have a death wish. I know what would happen If I aggravated that beast.”

George then stood up and walked over to Damon, who had let him go after Julian's little display of power. Scratching his head a little nervous, but still smiling with a little anxiety fluttering past his eyes. “So, we good then?”

Damon sighed with a huff and says with slight annoyance “Yeah, we are, and you should know by now about how I feel about you, but I’ll try to move past them.”

George then turned to me. “So, no gripes from you then?”

“Nah, let's get this done.”

He smiles, goes over and signs the slip.

Curtis lets out a long breath of air and says “Good, now that’s done. Did you guys want to sign up for a quest?”

George’s eyes go wide and smack himself on the forehead. “Oh! That’s the whole reason for the squad in the first place! Yes, please we’d like take the Rank Four Investigation quest in the mountains east of here.”

Curtis’s eyes go wide, and he looks like he’s about to say something, but only sighs and nods his head. “Sure, I’ve got you guys down for it. By the way, if you guys do this you’ll all rank up to rank four.”

“Awesome,” George says.

“Neat.” Was all I had to say about that.

Julian and Damon are quiet, no wait, Julians asleep with Damon once again standing sentinel if a little more relaxed.

Over the next couple minutes, George did the rest of the paperwork and other stuff. I didn’t care that much since Julian woke up and since it was about lunchtime we were pretty much thinking the same thing, and I gestured to the cafeteria, and he nodded.

Only to once again find myself on the roof but with Julian this time.

“You, sure this is the right place?” He asks in his quiet tone.

“Actually, no, I forgot that I was supposed to go down the other hallway.”

“And not to go through the window.” He smirks at me.

“Not that it stopped you from following me,” I smirk back.

“Oh… So how are we going to get down?” He took a look down the fifty or more foot drop.

I did some stretches to get ready “Well, I don’t you about you but I’ve got a hot date with…” I pause for dramatic effect. “Gravity!” I yell as I jump off the side of the building.

“Wait!” I hear Julian say as I’m in mid-air and suddenly I’m stuck in the air by some unseen force. Then I feel like some dropped a feather on me, followed by Julian saying, “I wanted to join in too.”

“Okay,” I say with understanding.

Then the forces lose its hold.

And then we’re falling again.

“Weeee!” I hear Julian say on the way down.

I hit the streets hard, and they crack beneath me. But I feel fine and look behind me to see Julian latched onto my back, and grin at him and he grins back before dropping off.

“That was cool.” He says with obvious excitement.

“Yes, but you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

His eyes widen at that, “You don’t mean!?”

I nod my head. “Yes, I can jump off higher places.”

His eyes grow serious, and he says “I’ve some calculations to run.” Then walks back into the guild, and then our stomachs growl.

“After lunch?” He asks.

“Without question,” I answer.