Author's Note:what's up peeps? another chapter coming later.

As always reviews,ratings,Recommendations,Corrections,Questions and comments are greatly appreciated

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Chapter 4: Ceremony of blood.

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The objective of the goblin extermination had been to let the heroes blow off some steam. Instead of returning less angry and more energetic they returned depressed. Their bodies aching at levels of pain that made it appear on their faces. P.E was nothing compared to the exercise they had just gone through.

The royal family had received them at the gates.

Markusy turned towards the heroes

“Everyone,please return to your rooms and wash up. while I go speak to the king.”

Nobody argued as they dragged themselves to their respective rooms.

Even for Elden —whose body had been accustomed to such heavy labor—his muscles screamed with pain.. He opened the door to his room and waiting for him inside were his two maids Terra and Liandra. He raised his arms up and the girls approached him and began to take off the armor. Although this was generally the work of a squire the heroes weren’t classified as “knights” and so the task fell on to the maids.

His maids then led him to an already filled bathtub. He took off his clothes and entered. They scrubbed his body and cleaned his hair. By this point he had been accustomed to this routine and was no longer embarrassed or awkward.

The blonde Terra washed his hair while the red-haired Liandra washed his body leisurely. After 30 minutes he had finished and was now drying off when the door was knocked. Liandra went to open the door. A butler accompanied by 2 other maids brought in trays and set it up on the table that was in the middle of the room.

“Hmm? What’s this?”

“It’s dinner, sir.” said the Butler as Elden removed the cover of the tray.

Such extravagant food!

“What’s the occasion.”

The last time they gave food like this was on their first day afterwards they had to eat at the chow hall.

“Well it’s a reward from his majesty for the Goblin Extermination.”

Elden accepted this lie easily.

“But why not have dinner together with everyone else?”

The Butler showed a professional smile as if expecting such a question.

“Well this way you can eat and relax in your own rooms.”

In truth Elden was the only one receiving such exquisite food while the others had to go down to the Military chow hall to eat something. It was a ploy by his majesty to isolate Elden from the rest of the heroes. Making Elden have to rely on the royal family while giving him constant rewards for his merits. Like this the royal family would win him over and so Elden suspected nothing and enjoyed his dinner.

◇

The next day they headed to the Adventurer’s Guild to register. According to Markusy the Adventurer’s Guild had been established 20 years earlier and had just recently had a great spurt in growth. So the class spent most of the day registering. Of Course it was more of a parade as the Knights escorted the heroes to the Guild. It seemed many people wanted to catch a glimpse of them, It took most of the day but they had all registered as adventures.

The Kids were walking back to the castle together.

“Oh man I wish we could eat what we ate yesterday everyday.” said Elden while he held his arms behind his head.

“eh? really? Did you like it that much?” asked Michael. he thought it strange as they were served grey gruel yesterday that had a bland taste.

“Ofcourse!” answered Elden excitedly.

“Hmm.”

“What’s up Ganesh?”

“Oh nothing just looking at the adventure plate.”

After they had registered everyone was issued a copper metal that could be pinned on to your person. It had the basic information and served the same purpose a dog tag would besides also showing an adventurer’s rank.

It classified people into 7 ranks.

Rank 1: Copper

Rank 2:Bronze

Rank 3:Silver

Rank 4: Gold

Rank 5: Platinum

Rank 6: Diamond

Rank 7: Black

Naturally one would accept missions depending on their ranks which showed their levels of experience. It also was not uncommon to find lesser ranked adventurers who had better combat capabilities than higher ranked ones.

After the registration they headed to the king's court as the King was going to conduct some ceremony. It seemed they had finished their so called training and were now going on their adventure to subjugate the Demon Lord. And so all 32 students of the class stood in their armor and equipment in the royal court room. They looked elegant with their armor and dresses while carrying weapons and staffs.

"Everyone please kneel." Asked the king. They hesitated naturally and began to take a knee when they heard commotion outside.

Sounds of slaughter and screams of pain. They all turned to the great door that was the entrance to the courtroom. It was connected to the main castle gate.

The Large wooden door was blown off its hinges while the figure of a large 8ft man -with a single horn slanted to the right- entered.

"They you all are!" Said the giant with a large voice.

"Demon." Muttered someone in the room.

The "Demon" smiled and showed his large teeth.

"That's right. The name's Demon General Hnév."

Demon Generals were few in number. They never exceeded the double digits. Each was supposed the be the equivalent of a demon army.

"I've come to take these heroes with me since my Lord is interested in you lot. Which is why we didn't interrupt your summoning since that engraved circle in the town square is impossible to reproduce."

The king shook with fear. This was not the plan. This meant his kingdom only existed because the Demon Lord had allowed it on a simple whim to see these heroes. How much blood was sacrificed for his trump card. They were HIS and no one would change that.

"Stop him! You fools!" He shouted towards the knights. The knights came back to their senses and moved to protect the heroes while drawing their swords.

Hnev continued to stare and eyed them curiously. One Knight raised his sword and swiped his sword rightward. Hnev received the strike and slapped the helm-clad Man’s head . The man's head flew and landed below the King. Someone screamed and that scream was like the dinner bell. The beginning of a slaughter.

Many knights went forward and all of them were crushed. All knights if put on the same scale as adventurer’s would be a minimum of rank 3 Silver. These were the newbies and new blessed knights. Veterans were at least rank 4: Gold. Vice-captains and captains were rank 5 Platinum. Only one knight was at the pinnacle rank 6: Diamond.

Markusy went forward blocking a swipe from hnev with his Iron shield. The left hand that held the shield was crushed but he still had his sword hand which he swung. It managed to scratch the surface of Hnev’s skin.

“You insignificant wretch.” Hnev grabbed Markusy by the neck and tossed him towards the wall. Markusy smashed into the wall and had been knocked out. In less than a minute Hnev had eliminated all knights in the immediate area. Only one of the heroes moved—keisha the girl who had wanted to practice swordsmanship— and picked up a sword from one of the fallen Knights.

“SharKeisha! No!” screamed one of the girls as Keisha went forward.

She had always been tougher than most boys. She was a natural athlete and always one of the first in any sports competition. Swinging a sword wasn’t hard at all. She had seen the boys practice a dozen times and had memorized the moves,stances and techniques. She was useless as chanter. Always constantly forgetting the chants.

Keisha had been decapitated before she could even raise her sword.The girls had been standing at the back of the ceremony,closest to the door.

“Protect the girls!”

The boys moved and drew their swords. The first of the boys to rush Hnev had been Keisha’s twin brother Kaleb. Hven titled his head to the side as he ripped off Kaleb’s sword arm. Two other boys—Keaton and Tom— were up next as Hnev used both his arms and pierced each boy’s respective chest but as expected of the Kingdom's armor it had protected their chest. Hven repeated the same action and managed to pierce through with his second attack. He picked them up and threw them in an arc towards the class.

Elden had understood his Foe’s strength and so he stood there defensively standing in between Hven and the girls.

“Stand firm Guys! Girls start healing them!” he looked at the boys on the floor with holes in their chests.

“Oi! Paul!” Elden turned to Paul.

“Wh...wha… What?” Paul stuttered while keeping his eyes on Hnev,

“I’ll make an opening and you start preparing that special move you’ve practiced with Brilliance.”

Paul looked at his Great-sword—Brilliance—and nodded.

“Alright then. OK guys surround him!”

Elden stood in front Hnev and waited while his classmates encircled Hnev.

“Hmm?” Hnev scratched his head “I guess only taking one or two alive should be fine.” he said as he grinned.

Elden didn’t respond as he swung Thunder-crack sending a blast of force towards Hnev but nothing happened. Like a mountain against the wind Hnev continued to stand ,unperturbed.

Elden clicked his tongue,His strongest move useless. Edin moved forward and taking his lead were the boys as they swung their swords. Hven didn’t have to parry the blows around him. His skin and muscles served as natural armor. Like a father wrestling with his 15 sons he tossed them all aside and sent a single punch toward Elden’’s chest. Elden moved his shield to block the punch.

The shield was smashed into pieces in midair but Elden’s figure was no longer behind the shield. Hnev saw a small shine to his immediate left. He stopped the sword inches from reaching his eye and punched Elden in the chest.

“Guh!”

Hnev grabbed Elden by his waist long hair and hurled him like a slingshot towards the wall but with this Elden had bought enough time for Paul’s preparation.

“Lightning slash!” screamed Paul as he slashed the sword of lightning against Hnev’s Chest.