-Strategy Meeting-
[An essential part of any Hunt, a meeting
held multiple times as new information is
found, discussing the plan going forward.]
"So, strategy," Oroske started as soon as we walked into the hotel room, moving straight to the dining table to put the bags he was carrying. We had stopped at a restaurant on the way back to the room, and gotten it to go, with the plan being to eat while we discussed. "I guess we should first review everything we've learned and information we have. Kared, mind relaying what we learned from the city council?"
"Of course," She took on a very serious and formal tone, "We first heard the updated rumors. I'll skip over some of the less major stuff for now. The main thing is a rumor that someone saw someone, perhaps a Necromancer, enter into the Old City Library where our target Restless were residing. There are apparently four separate accounts of this, as they all differ slightly. The only consistent details were the person's appearance, and that they are only active at night. Further evidence towards a Necromancer's involvement was also reported. More specifically, multiple graves belonging to a specific family were dug up. The people whose graves were dug up died within the last three months. As mentioned before, there were a few other minor adjustments to the rumors, but nothing too major."
Sounds like it's just confirming what we already know. The stuff about the dug up graves was interesting though.
"I see," Nadred said, thinking on the information, "Considering the bodies belonged to a single family, do we have any leads on the Necromancer's identity?"
"We do," Oroske confirmed, "There is a student at the Academy, who while they are from a different family, reportedly had close ties to the family. We don't know for sure, but we believe he was in a close partnership with one of the members of the family." Having concluded his confirmation, Oroske turned to me, "I believe Jarou already has received training on stuff like this, but I want to hear your thoughts so far Kuro. Give us a run down of what was found at the site, and what you make of the information we've given."
I gave an acknowledgment, and took a moment to gather my thoughts. So, we know for sure there's a Necromancer involved, because of the black Aether stuff, and we know for sure again because people have seen them. From what I understand, Necromancers bring people back from the dead. It sounds like maybe this family that had their graves dug up were important to the target, maybe he tried to revive them due to them being close to him? As I was thinking, another question popped into my mind, Don't we also bring people back from the dead? What's the difference between us and the Necromancer we're hunting? After formulating my thoughts, I relayed them to the group, including the questions regarding our Clan.
Nadred gave an approving look, "Very good, you'll have to be able to reach these kinds of conclusions often in our work, so it's good that you have a good mind for it." He took a moment to compose himself to answer my questions. "As for why we can bring people back from the dead but hunt down Necromancers, the answer is actually quite simple, if a bit controversial. Our mission, as given to us by the Guardians themselves, is publicly to hunt down Necromancers and the Restless, while also doing the intermediary duties the Half-Demon Clans are known for. However, the more formal wording for the mission is protecting the natural balance of life and death, and the protection of the Ethereal Realm. And in exchange for us upholding this mission, we have special rights to skirt this balance ourselves. When we get back, Oroske and I will show you how we manage this.
"There is another reason," he continued with a pronounced ahem, "that we fight Necromancers. It's not a commonly known fact, but the Tsumi Clan and the Guardians are the only ones with knowledge on the method to full, proper Necromancy. Many Necromancers have good intentions, and are dismayed to learn that the form of Necromancy that is available to them is an incomplete rejoining of body and soul. If we're lucky - or unlucky, depending on how you look at it - you'll get to see what I mean. But this incomplete form brings the subjects nothing but excruciating pain." He leaned back in his chair, having finished his explanation.
I understood most of what he was saying, and I supposed I would be able to fill in the blanks by seeing for myself. "So the difference is we just have the protection of the Guardians to practice this proper Necromancy, and the people we Hunt don't?" Nadred nodded, "That's the short of it, yes."
"Now that you're done exposition dumping on the poor kid," Kared spoke up, who looked somehow both relaxed and composed at the same time, "Can we talk about our actual plan of attack?"
"A good idea," Oroske conceded, and stood up, "So, the basic plan I had in mind is that we would have Kuro and Jarou be our frontline fighters, with their first priority being taking on any Restless that are present. As for me and Kared, we'll be in charge of distracting the Necromancer. Nadred, I'd like you to join the blue coats." He paused and looked sternly at Kared, who just smiled with a hint of smugness, and said "I want Kuro and Jarou to have experience directly fighting Necromancers. Please, do not kill the Necro immediately, got it?" She groaned and agreed. "Good. Now, according to our contact, the library was likely chosen as the Necro's den because even today in its current state, the library is used to store a lot of old, morally ambiguous research. Necromancy included. The target is supposedly a student of the School of Towers, so they'll be very skilled with magic. As such, we all must be on guard when facing them.
"I propose we infiltrate the den through the upper floors. From the report the field team gave, there is likely a large number of Restless patrolling the building. As we near the bottom three floors," Oroske rolled out a map of the building that showed a central room that spanned three floors, "The target will likely already be aware of our presence. Kared and I will split off on the third floor, and enter this central chamber from opposite sides. Then, we jump down and distract the target. Meanwhile, you three will enter shortly after and begin removing Restless from the upper floors. Kared, Nadred, and I have RTD enchanted weapons, so the scrolls can all be used by Kuro and Jarou. Once the Restless have been eliminated, Kared and I will switch out for Kuro and Jarou. At that point, we will only interrupt the fight if it begins looking dangerous for them. How does that sound to everybody?" He rolled out the plans so concisely and quickly, it took a few seconds for everything to sink in despite how intently I listened.
Kared quickly voiced her general approval, lamenting she won't get to go all out "as usual." Nadred took a moment, seemingly considering other options of approach. Eventually he agreed, as did Jarou. I still had yet to get proper experience, so I didn't even know what other plans we could possibly go with, so I of course agreed.
"Good, good," Oroske continued on, "Next is timing. I know I said on our way back 'we attack at midnight,' but we actually have a few different things to consider. First," he threw a handful of small strips of paper with a picture of a guy in a suit of armor in a small square on the side onto the table, "the Tournament of Towers is this week. This is the biggest event for not only the Academy, but the entire city. And, coincidentally, our theorized target withdrew his registration for the Tournament a month ago. If I were to do something big that I wanted to go unnoticed, I'd do it while everyone's attention is on the event. Tomorrow is the first day, the day it's the most packed, second only to the grand finals in three days, though that has its own time slot. It seems likely that if they're planning on doing something big, that's when they'd do it."
"How would anyone notice them doing Necromancy anyway?" I asked, to which Nadred responded, "Necromancy requires a large amount of Aether to perform. Skilled mages would be able to sense a large influx of activity like that from across the city." He thought for a moment, "The Tournament is going to have a huge amount of Aetheric activity throughout the entire thing, so it stands reason to believe an additional burst of activity could easily go unnoticed.
"More importantly," Nadred switched topics, adopting a very stern tone, betrayed by a hint of excitement, "Oroske, why do we have tickets to the grand finals?"
Oroske laughed before responding, "It's extra payment, the Headmaster themselves have been handing them out to Hunters in the area recently. Said he would like us to attend if at all possible."
"That's odd," Nadred commented, to which Oroske nodded in agreement, "Seems out of character for them to not only invite us, but to practically request our presence there."
"I have a theory why," Kared commented. She refused to elaborate when asked for details, saying we would have to wait to see for ourselves if she's right.
"Fine, be that way," Orosked said with a hmph, "Moving on. If we want to attend, which I'm sure at least Nadred does, that leaves us with two prime opportunities; tonight and tomorrow night. Tonight would allow us to catch them completely off guard, and throw an early wrench in any plans they may have. Meanwhile, tomorrow night may give us an opportunity to catch them in the act, and they'll be distracted by that. I personally don't mind either option, but if we went tomorrow that would give additional time for training and practice, as well as general prep time."
Everybody nodded in agreement. "Let's do that then," Kared said. We decided that for the night, we'd focus on training and preparing for the coming day.
Oroske led me outside to the park area behind the hotel. "Alright, today's training is going to focus on using scrolls to use magic. It's important for tomorrow that you understand how they're used." He instructed me to bring out one of the lightning blade scrolls I got from Lyen's shop. I unrolled the scroll, curious to see what was inside it. It was covered in large circles, inlaid with very intricate designs. I had no idea what I was looking at. I asked Oroske, and he had no idea either. "I'm not very familiar with the technical side of things like this, but I can tell you how to use it effectively. Of course, if you really want to know, I'm sure Nadred could tell you. But let's get to using it. Before I tell you how though, I want you to use the Lightning Blade in our sparring match after, but I'd also like for you to use it in the fight against the Necromancer. As such, when it activates, try not to get too surprised so you can keep it active." I showed my understanding and he continued with his instruction. "Using scrolls is surprisingly very easy. I may not know the specifics of the designs on the scroll, but I do know they handle the commands for the Aether to follow. So, to use it, all you need to do is hold it in your hand, and command Aether to flow into the scroll. And as long as you maintain that flow of Aether, the spell will stay in effect. So, with that in mind, channel Aether into the scroll, and maintain the flow. Once you've done that, we can spar."
I nodded and held out my left hand, holding the scroll up. I closed my eyes and focused, pouring Aether through my hand and into the scroll. I felt a surge of energy and opened my eyes. In place of the scroll, a stream of lightning formed in my hands, extending outward into the shape of a sword. It crackled back and forth noisily as Oroske offered his congratulations. He summoned a sword from his Demon Sheath, and instructed me to lift the lightning sword up as though I was going to block. He then swung down vertically. I tightened my grip and flinched as his sword bounced off the lightning. I was shocked the sword didn't go straight through it.
Oroske then summoned his own lightning blade, and demonstrated that it also bounces off. "Also, check this out." He held his blade out and focused. Suddenly, the blue lightning turned red. "With the right know-how, you can modify the color. This also works for other spells, and other elements even." He demonstrated by creating a green flame in his left hand. He extinguished the flame with a quick wave of his hand before taking up a fighting stance. "And now, we spar for a bit, using these lightning blades. Don't worry, until you up your magical output, it won't hurt me too bad."
I nodded in understanding, and skipped getting into a fighting stance, opting to instead rush him immediately. His face betrayed the shock I thought he'd feel, showing me instead he was excited by my eagerness. I unleashed a flurry of strikes, relentless as he blocked all of them. After a few hits, he found an opening where I took slightly longer between strikes, and used that to go on the offensive. I focused entirely on blocking, hoping I'd find an opening like the one he had.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally slipped up just enough for me to go on the offensive again. I enjoyed fights like these, where my magic skills left much to be desired, I was beginning to feel confident in my sword skills. Now that I was more experienced, I was curious to see what sparring against Jarou, or even Nadred would be like. Especially seeing how Oroske was really the only person I'd fought against. Suddenly, I was yanked from my thoughts by my opponent suddenly opting to sidestep one of my swings rather than block. I had just slashed downward, and he stepped to my left. So as to not allow him to capitalize on this, I quickly slashed after him, where he successfully blocked me again, before sidestepping to my left once more. As I went to follow after him, I noticed there was a large crowd of people dressed in the same uniform robes as the students from earlier, intently watching our battle. Among the group there were a couple older looking people that were dressed differently.
Oroske successfully capitalized on my being distracted and swung at my back. The initial hit knocked me off balance, and the lightning shocked my body, stunning me. I fell to the ground with a disgraceful thump. As the spectating crowd applauded Oroske's victory, I cursed his cunning. Him dodging left shouldn't have been an issue, being my dominant side. But he must have known the crowd was there, and that they would distract me enough for him to get a decisive blow in.
After a few seconds, the paralysis effect wore off, and Oroske helped me up. "Well fought, Kuro," he congratulated with a laugh, "What lessons have you learned today?"
"Aside from how to use scrolls to cast magic, I learned I should pay more attention to my surroundings, and not get distracted during combat," I said with a groan, attempting to rub my back in order to inspect where he had hit me.
"Good," He said as he waved to the spectators, "I'm glad you understood the lesson. I didn't expect to give that lesson tonight, but I saw an opportunity and I figured I may as well take it. But for the full, wordy lesson; you must always pay attention to your surroundings during combat. You never know when an unknown factor will show up, and you must be able to handle it on the fly. For example, you could be fighting a Necromancer, and a passerby could wander by. If the Necromancer is despicable like many of them, they could choose to attack the innocent. And if you see them in time, you can protect them."
Oroske stretched his arms before continuing, "Well, shall we continue training? I want you to be able to save the other scroll for tomorrow night, so probably revert to our usual menu." He looked over at the students who had moved their attention more to the two older people. "Let's see if we can give them a good show." He finished nudging his head in their direction.
I nodded enthusiastically, drawing my sword from my Demon Sheath. We proceeded to train until it got dark outside. I was nervous, but feeling more prepared to take on the Necromancer in the coming day.