A troop of one hundred contracted soldiers all marced in unison towards Ginea. This was their second time marching towards the village, both times with a similar goal. They were to subdue and restrain ganrir, using the King to keep him nder control.
"Remember, He is going to try and find every loophole possible! Be prepared for that, and listen carefully to what I say." Unease rippled through the ranks. last time, they had won through luck and surprising Ganrir. But now that they were on an equal playing field, they feared for their lives.
Meanwhile, Tobias swung his legs off the side of the bed and eased himself onto his feet. "How many are attacking?" He had just found out that the King was coming to once again restrain the dragon, after he had nearly died freeing him.
"They assume a small army of contracted warriors, most likely strong enough to take on Ganrir. We will most definitely be needed in this fight." How? The only reason they were here right now was because their contracts abilities aligned with the circumstances. They stood no chance in an actual fight.
"Are There any contracted warriors in this village? They would surely be of use to protect their town." Maso shook his head.
"They have no contracted warriors. Almost unbelievably, none of them found a worthy partner." This gave Tobias an idea.
"What if we absorbed the contracts that didn't match with anybody? We could also see if there are any that value us as well!"
"We were going to do that anyway, Anton organised it as soon as learned of the army's approach."
As if on cue, Anton walked into the room and gesutured for the seventeen year olds to follow him. With only thanks and an exxagerated bow, he took them to an arena like structure, with cages lining the walls, filled with creatures of all different colors, shapes and sizes. there was nothing higher than a ember in the cages, unfortunately.
"We have free access to all these? I feel like it's too many, if I'm being enitrely honest." Indeed, Tobias agreed with Maso entirely. There were hundreds of contracts, lining the walls stacked one atop another. At first glance it looked inhumane, but their cages extended into back rooms, they were just in here whilst Tobias and Maso were in the arena.
"Not at all! You saved Ganrir and you also spoke with him, something that hasn't happened in a very long while. This is the least we can do." Now that he thought about it, he remembered that Ganrir was hundreds if not thousands of years old, surely he must know something about the Pure Ones? All he had heard so far was that they were a mythical generation of contracts that were the strongest to ever live, but how much of that was true. But now, they needed to search for matches.
"How long do we have? We need to know how much time we spend with each contract." Sometimes it wasn't obvious that a Contract was a match, so they had to spend some time with them to verify.
"We don't know. I recommend you find one that can attack well, as gord seems to be a single target defensive contract, which will not be useful for this fight. Maybe even a healer, so you become unstoppable in defense." Both choices seemed like good ideas, but as Tobias looked around, he didn't see any of the sparks that contracters normally saw when they looked at a potential partner.
"There's none here that I can contract with, unfortunately." Tobias clenched his jaw at his misfortune. There were hundreds of contracts here, how could none be a match?! Tobias walked up to one at hundred and glared at it in frustration. An army was approaching, and they needed all the hope they could get!
"Got one! This one right here, their a match!" Maso called out ecstaticly, having found a Crimson Phoenix. It was at the ember class, and was proudly protruding it's chest in a regal fashion.
"Lucky you!" Anton called out and walked over. "Are you going to contract with it? Please do, we need all the help we can get." Maso performed the contract, and he Phoenix accepted. Suzie crawled off of his shoulder and slithered to the bird's feet
"Suzie meet... How about Yerin?" Yerin bowed her head, and spread her dark red wings around to signal her acceptance. "Then let's see what type of weapon you are!"
Maso knelt down in front of Yerin and issued the command "Transform!" Because he didn't specify who to transform, both Suzie and Yerin turned into liquid, Suzie an orange yellow, Yerin a larger pool of blood colored liquid. Suzie turned into her normal yellow and orange bow form, whilst Yerin's liquid form started moving on the ground.
"She's probably a gear type, they generally transform on the owner. So just let her touch your skin and she'll become some type of armour." The liquid slid across the floor till it reached Maso, and then in a sudden burst of speed, it rushed to his waist and went behind his back and under his shirt.
"Ah! Ah! What's happening!?" Yerin stopped at the midle of his back, and began growing outwards from with his shirt. The shirt began ripping at the edges and eventually tore off completely, revealing a pair of wings that glowed crimson, with flames etching out feathers in the sides.
"You two are remarkable contractors... I must say, you two must have strong souls to transform them into such strong gear!" Tobias agreed, they were stronger than when they left, by a large amount.