It was another Monday, all the occupants of class 1A were already seated in the class waiting for Argus when the Headmaster barged into the classroom.
"You will be assigned to your first mission this week".
The class fell silent, some faces showed excitement, some shock. Levi was in fact very thrilled to embark on his first mission.
"The seven of you will embark on this mission as a group, the location for this mission will be the outskirts of the school.
There has been reported sightings of demons in the woods outside the school. You are expected to terminate these demons and return at once to the school".
He concluded and left the class.
"Demons?" Lisa couldn't believe "what are they doing near the school?" she continued, asking no one in particular
"To think we got our first mission this early" Percy commented
"Yeah, the thought makes me want to leave immediately" Percy chanted excitedly.
Levi slapped the back of his head
"Ow, what was that for?" Percy pouted in a childish manner. A slight roar of laughter erupted round the room.
"You shouldn't be too eager to run into problems" Levi cautioned.
"When do we leave?" Jake asked
"Tomorrow" Argus answered as he walked through the door. All eyes turned to face him.
"Hey guys, I reckon the Headmaster just left here"
"A few minutes ago" Levi confirmed
"Then I guess you've been briefed. You will embark on your first mission tomorrow, in the woods about three miles south of the school.
You will be allowed to take the rest of the day to prepare whatever you will need, but I'll give you a few tips.
The storage room will be open to you after you exit the class, you should pack a few foldable tents because you might have to Lodge on the woods.
Also, you should take any weapon you can handle best.
Scouts have confirmed there to be about three demons, all level five demons so you should be okay. Get rid of them and return to school immediately. Alright?"
"Yeah" a few chorused.
"Why all of us?" Anna asked
"You need to learn to work as a team, from here on out you should see everyone here as a member of your team, you have to be able to watch each other's backs.
"Makes sense" Kayla muttered.
"I'll leave you to proceed with preparations"
Argus also concluded leaving them to decide on what to do.
There was a slight murmur in the class after Argus had left.
"Guys" Levi suddenly called out, drawing their attention, we already know what each person is capable of, so we'll go straight to the storage to pick the things we might need"
Levi was usually goofy and joked around a lot, but it was times like this that brought out the leader in him.
He easily took charge and commandeered everyone and he was quite good at it because no one ever complained or disputed his instructions.
"We will take two of the foldable tents, one for the guys and one for the girls, in order to reduce luggage.
We wouldn't want anything slowing us down. We will leave for at thing in the morning and if possible we'll return the same day, but if we can't we might have to spend the night, so we'll take whatever we might need in the night. But, we must try to keep our journey as short as possible.
Any questions" he asked.
There wasn't any, they had all understood perfectly.
"In that case, let's head out"
With Levi taking the lead, they filed to the storage room.
It was open just as Argus had promised, the storage was arranged in an orderly fashion. It was the first time they were even allowed near the storage, on other days the instructor usually came out with whatever they needed.
Inside the storage were shelves to the left, right and back of the room.
At the left, on the first shelf, bows hung low allowing easy access, beside them were a bunch of arrows. Arrows of different shapes and lengths, some had a pointe head with four edges and two steps, some were arrows with just a single step while some were just plain normal arrows.
Anna went to the shelf and picked some of the normal arrows with pointy heads and slim streamlined bodies. They seemed the sharpest and smoothest of the normal arrows. She packed them into a quiver and continued looking around the storage.
The rest of them strolled in, browsing the shelves. Levi picked a sword while Lisa picked an Iron baton.
Tony picked a bow and some arrows. Kayla felt she had no need for weapons because she was specialized in healing and not combat, Percy was just so confident in his fire.
"You're not taking anything?" Anna asked Jake, he was simply staring at the equipment and weapons there without touching any.
"I have something of mine" Anna nodded in understanding
She as well has only picked some arrows since she already had a bow, her special bow which was a gift from her father.
After they had picked their weapons. Levi picked five camping bags and distributed it, only him and Jake were left without one.
"Percy, pack the foldable tents and the mats, and anything else you know we will need in the tents. Anna and Lisa, grab the food supplies.
Stick to only what we might need, the bag shouldn't be too empty. Kayla, get whatever you might need and Tony, your bag will be used to pack personal stuffs from the room". Levi instructed, they immediately fanned out in different directions engaging in their various tasks at once.
Levi grabbed a compass from the shelf and slid it into his pocket. "Come on Jake, let's inspect the supplies"
Jake followed closely behind him as they went from place to place picking whatever they felt was needed.
After they were done, they went back to the hostel to pack their personal items. Tony already had an empty bag for that.
The boys chatted idly about what their first mission would be like. An idea came to Jake's mind, it was the time he usually went to train and he preferred to go alone.
But he thought it would be better if they all went, at least to make sure they were all in gear for the task ahead.
"Levi" Jake called him to a corner "why don't we go train? It's the least we could do to get ready, don't you think so?"
"Why not, such a splendid idea. Jake" Levi's face brought brightened
"Guys let's prepare, we leave to train in an hour" he announced, still clapping Jake's back in appreciation for the idea, he only just realized he was quite rusty after his recent encounter with Jake.
Tony wasn't entirely excited about the thought, but he knew they had to work as a team, so he had to oblige.
They walked in pairs of twos and three toward the field. Anna and Tony had left with bows and arrows and were trying to hit the target from a farther distance than usual.
Lisa and Percy were not too far away trying to over come each other with their different elements, Lisa knew she was at a disadvantage seeing as air is weak against fire but she did her best to keep up.
Kayla didn't have much to do, so she sat a little distance away observing the two groups.
Jake and Levi had isolated themselves from the group, they had both come with swords, swinging it with much enthusiasm at each other.
Jake had discovered that Levi was quite skilled with a sword, Levi had managed to drive him into a corner but Jake not wanting to believe that Levi could beat him twice in a row, maneuvered his way out of the tight corner. They both went at it for quite a while without getting tired.
Jake had managed to knock Levi down twice and had equally gotten knocked down twice as well.
It was getting dark and they lunged at each other, trying to win the last round, their swords clashed, they both jumped back at the same time as of it was a practiced stunt, then Levi looking to take the advantage dived forward, his gleaming sword reflecting the light of the setting sun pointed straight out, aiming for Jake's shoulder, Jake twisted with an insane speed sending the flat of his sword to Levi's exposed back.
Levi made an impossible turn in such position, escaping the brunt of Jake's attack.
Once again they stood apart, almost six feet separating both of them, Levi gave Jake a knowing smile which Jake replied in kind.
They were so caught up in the excitement. They didn't notice the rest of the class walk up to the edge of the clearing where they fought.
They were about to lunge at each other again when an arrow struck the floor between them, immediately drawing both their attention.