“Get into positions!” A youth roared as he leapt to the ground.

Just as he fell the tree that was behind him was smashed to the ground by a huge figure that was just as tall as it.

“Pawooo!” The huge figure’s trunk rose as it blasted a booming sound while it trampled the ground that the youth was just standing on a moment ago.

The huge beast was a Stone Elephant, due to the nature of its tough thick skin, yet the skin that this Elephant prided in was covered in blood and still pouring down from its abdomen. Raising its long trunk it grabbed the bits of the broken tree and swung it towards the youth that had just jumped aside.

The youth stared aghast as the trunk hurtled towards him: “Boom!”

Dust rose to the sky, however just as the Stone Elephant was about to stampede towards the youth, several arrows came flying towards its hide.

It roared in pain, turning around its bloodthirsty eyes darted around searching for a target.

Two youths, both female crouched under the cover of the leaves of the trees looked at each other: “That should’ve given enough breathing space for Sira and Andrew.” One of the girls quietly whispered and then quickly moved to another position as she shot another two arrows towards the Stone Elephant.

Just then the dust in the air scattered revealing a huge shield, the broken piece of the tree now fragmented into even tinier pieces. Behind the shield, there was another young man holding onto the shield protecting the youth from certain death.

“Thanks, Sira,” the youth said to the young man holding the shield as he slowly gasped for air, he couldn’t help but tremble from the fact that he had nearly died.

The appearance of the young man was partially hidden by a mask covering the lower half of his face; it was the same for the youth on the floor, though the parts revealed were his brown eyes, healthy complexion and blonde hair.

“If you’re fine then get up Andrew,” Sira said as he pulled Andrew to his feet.

The huge shield on his right hand folded down again and again until it was a flat plate that covered the back of his hand.

Sira brushed his blonde hair aside, his gaze staying on the backside of the Stone Elephant: “You did well in distracting the Stone Elephant long enough for Leader to prepare the ballista.”

“Thanks…” Andrew replied, however, there was a slight uncertainty in his voice.

“Just say what you want.”

Andrew nodded: “While baiting the Stone Elephant I noticed that it wasn’t as strong as described by the Academies Task Hall.”

“You’re implying we have the wrong target?” Sira asked in deep thought. “Now that you’re saying this it does make sense…” But before he could finish a huge projectile flew towards the Stone Elephant.

“Bang!” The projectile shredded through the Stone Elephants skin leaving a gaping hole in its abdomen, it died without even realising what killed it.

“Leader did it!” A girl shouted as she jumped down to the ground from a nearby, at the same time another girl jumped down from a different tree.

The two girls placed their bows on their back, they were both dressed in white with leather armour protecting certain vital parts of their body, the lower halves of their face were covered with a mask, and they both had a short sword resting on their right hip.

“I didn’t think that we’d get through the mission this quickly,” The girl that spoke earlier once again started speaking excitedly.

“Older sister please act properly while we’re still on the mission” Sira voiced with an apprehensive tone, the two were twins and looked extremely alike with their blonde hair standing out.

“He’s right Sara,” the other girl replied said as she walked closer to the corpse of the dead Stone Elephant.

Sara could not help but pout, because the battle was easier than expected she was more relaxed than normal.

At that moment a youth who looked to be around 16 years old rushed through the trees with a huge bag on his back. His white hair was messy and his frame was on the more fragile side, even his appearance was average making him look meek. In contrast, his jet black eyes were deep, sharp and domineering similar to that of an eagle overshadowing all his physical discrepancies.

“Oliver.”

“Leader!”

Oliver looked up at them and nodded: “Let’s start separating its body,” refraining from small talk he ordered them to do so, his tone was formal like he was speaking to a stranger.

Sira and the rest nodded, moving as they drew the short swords from their waists.

As this was happening Oliver had a thought that had been crossing his mind for a while. From the moment that they had lured the Stone Elephant to him killing it, he was able to watch the entire process from a distance, at the same time gaining a prime view of the situation.

Suddenly the ground started trembling, his eyes opened wide as realisation struck him: “That’s the child!” His roar immediately caught the attention of his companions.

They were all confused, however, as it dawned on them they understood why they felt that the information that they were given and the target were completely different in terms of strength.

Right then and there an enormous Stone Elephant stampeded through the trees to reach them, its skin was an even darker shade of grey than the dead Stone Elephant.

The moment it saw the corpse of its own offspring, its eyes gained a tinge of red while its trunk rose to the air.

“PAWOOO!” A violent explosive boom echoed through the forest, scaring the living daylights of the group in front of it

“That’s its mother…” Andrew murmured in fear.