"So Travis, you do realize this meetings are only for the leaders right?" She said. "I don't know about you guys but I don't think it's fair to bring outsiders here."
Before Travis could even say anything, a murderous aura had leaked out of Grendolyn. The way the woman spoke straight to Travis without regarding her made it seem as if Grendolyn was under Travis's order, and that simply rubbed her the wrong way.
Jeral, the heavy armored captain shifted to face them. Under normal circumstances, the man had a body that was even larger than Ode who was a hulking figure himself. With his armor that was several inches thick and weighed a ton, the simplest of movements from him seemed powerful. Just watching him made Grendolyn feel a little nervous from his size alone. But the next words that came out of his mouth was contradictory to his aura.
"U...um... I think we should all calm down... please?..." A soft and anxious voice came echoing out of the deep helmet that was covering his head.
Grendolyn looked incredulously at the timid giant, unsure if the voice actually came from him. A heavy clanking had silenced the conversation as they all turned towards a man who carried with his a great sword that dwarfed even his own large features. This was Alos, he and Travis both held the position of infantry captain though their men had a very striking difference in terms of size and choice of weapons. "I believe that if Travis brought them here there must be a reason..."
"Thank you Alos for your..." before Travis could finish communicating his gratitude, Alos had interrupted him.
"But we do expect a reason..." He said, not hiding the hostility he held in his voice. Every captain seemed to control whole divisions of men, only he was forced to split the infantry between him and Travis. To his proud self, it was just like saying he was was incompetent at his job and needed someone to share the responsibility. Up till this day, he still had a sense of animosity towards Travis.
"Yes... I was just about to get into that." Travis replied, visibly irked by Alos's response. "I brought them here because I want to propose they take over for two of the captains."
Instantly the atmosphere in the room became even heavier as the rest of the captains let out their disagreement by showing their blood-lust while Travis reciprocated the gesture by releasing his own. All except for Jeral who was flustered, turning left and right to figure out who he should calm down first.
"What right or capabilities do you think they have to propose giving them those positions?" Alos squinted his way. His grip on his sword tightened, partially because of the atmosphere, and partially because he believed that if Travis didn't give them a good enough reason, it was an opportunity to show his lack of abilities. It wouldn't be enough to kick him out as a captain, but it was more than enough to diminish the authority of his commands at the table.
"Hey!" Finally Grendolyn couldn't take being sidelined anymore as she slammed the table to get their attention. "If you want to know my qualifications, why don't you just ask me?"
"Sure!" Tess said as she instantly moved. Her hand was so dexterous she had reached behind her, pulled an arrow from her quiver and loaded it onto her bow without any lapse in between. Between when she said the S and ended with the E of the word 'sure', she had already loaded and released the arrow, aiming directly at Grendolyn's head from just a meter away.
But against everybody's expectation, the arrow stayed in place, even after she had released it, as if the arrow was stuck in place. The string of the bow was still taut and tense, ready to launch this arrow flying at a speed indiscernible by the human eye, but even after she let go it just remained in that position.
From Tess's position, she couldn't figure out what was wrong with this. The rest of them could however as from the side, it was clear the the arrow head had been melded with the bow, locking it in place.
All of them went wide eyed, at the sight of this, as there was no physical skill that could do something like this, only magic could. But none of them had seen her chant to cast the magic, and in addition to that there was no way a mage was supposed to be able to cast faster than an archer could load her bow. Even their own mage captain would have been loaded by 9 arrows by Tess by the time he finished casting. Like this, their jaws almost hit the floor as it felt like their faces had been slapped so hard that their jaw bone had been dislocated.