Ben, Bella, Mira, and Elfman get ready to attack the Dark Guild's lair. The lair is a mansion with a tall tower where the bell is located. There shouldn't be any mansion here, so the Dark Guild built it themselves.
They can just bombard the mansion and destroy it. But it will also destroy the stolen magic items. Their priority is capturing the Dark Mages and finding the stolen magic items.
There are 13 Dark Mages inside and 4 Dark Mages patrolling outside. Ben tells Mira & Elfman to take down one guard each, while he will take care of the other 2. Bella will just tag along with Ben like usual.
They approach their targets stealthily to not alert them. Ben is used to moving stealthily because he is a hunter. Wild beasts & animals have a keener sense than humans, so Ben's stealth skill is very high.
Bella is also good at hiding her presence because Ben has trained her. She needs to be able to do it because she always tagging along with him. So at least she needs to be able to hide her presence even though she won't fight.
Ben can get closer to his first target easily without the target's knowledge. Ben approaches the man from behind and chop his neck strongly to knock him out. He hides the man behind the bush before taking out the other guy with the same method.
Mira moves slower than Ben because she is not used to moving stealthily. But she can get closer to her target after moving very carefully. Surprisingly, Mira doesn't attack frontally, she uses Sleep Magic on her target and makes him sleep easily.
As for Elfman, he has the hardest time getting closer to his target. His body is big and he has a hard time hiding behind trees & bushes. His movements alert the guard and make the guard goes to check it.
The guard checks the bush where Elfman hides. When the Guard opens the bush, Elfman attacks him with his partial take over. He uses Black Bull Take-Over on his right arm and grabs the guard's head.
Elfman then punches the guard's stomach using his left hand. The guard can't scream because his jaw is being held by Elfman's bull arm. Elfman punches the guard until he fainted.
The four of them then gathered and tie the 4 unconscious guards. Mira then uses her sleep magic again on the 4 guards. Ben is surprised to see her using sleep magic.
"I thought you only know Take-Over magic," says Ben.
"I know more magic than you think," says Mira smugly.
"Ho, then maybe you can teach me some of it. I like to learn magic and have collected many of them," says Ben.
"Sure, le-let's find a time for discussion later," says Mira shyly.
"Alright," says Ben while nodding.
The group then focuses on their job again. They will enter the mansion stealthily again to not alert the enemies. There are 13 mages inside, so they won't attack frontally and try to defeat them one by one.
But suddenly, Ben senses the 13 dark mages move. He tells Mira & Elfman to hide while keeping their guard up. They all look at the mansion and then see 13 people are coming out.
"COME OUT! WE KNOW THAT YOU'RE HERE," shouts the man in the front.
Ben & co just keeps silent to see what the dark mages will do. The Dark Mages try to find them by looking around, but they failed. Then they take a green lacrima ball and activate it.
"There," says the Dark Mages who use the lacrima ball while pointing at Ben's group location.
The Dark Mages immediately use their magic to attack the spot where Ben's group hides. Ben & co don't have another choice but to get out and avoid the attacks. They finally get exposed to the Dark Mages.
"A magic item to detect magic power?" asks Ben while looking at the green lacrima ball.
"Hehe, you're right. That's why hiding is useless as long as we have this magic item," says a woman.
"2 boys, a girl, and a cat? What a strange setup," says a middle-aged woman.
Ben looks at the 13 Dark Mages. They all wear & hold magic items that look to have high qualities. They look very different from the 4 guards that wear casual clothes & normal magic items.
"You don't seem to weaponized your guards that well," says Ben.
"Hmph, they're just weaklings, so there's no need to give them expensive things," says the woman.
"Enough, how long will you talk with these brats? They must be mages from the legal guild that are tasked to find us," says the man in the front that looks like their leader.
"They sent these brats? Is their Guild Master stupid?" asks a man in disbelief.
"No, they're underestimating us. They think we are weak and can only use magic items to get stronger. That's why they sent some brats who haven't grown their hair down there," says the leader.
The Dark Mages get angry hearing that and look at Ben's group with hatred. Ben & co are dumbfounded seeing what happened. These people assume it themselves and get angry by themselves.
The Dark Guild's leader grins seeing his subordinates' reaction. These guys are too stupid & hot-headed that they get baited with such a thing. He just said it to make them angry and go all out.
This guy knows that the Legal Guild & Magic Council aren't stupid enough to send weak mages at them. He knows that even though Ben & co are still young, they must be strong enough to take this job.
That's why he makes his subordinates angry so they won't underestimate Ben's group. He is a very cautious man that won't even underestimate a baby. His cautiousness is also the reason why his plan to steal the magic items could work well.
"Mira, Elfman, be careful. They have many magic items with unknown abilities," says Ben.
Mira & Elfman nod and they get ready for battle. They all know that this will be tricky because of the magic items with various abilities. Furthermore, the enemies have a higher number than them.
The Dark Mages suddenly start to attack Ben's group. The first to attack is a short man with blue hair. He throw a circular saw blade toward Ben's group. The saw blade spins and creates a sharp wind that will cut everything that it touches.
The man controls the blade to attack Mira, but Ben suddenly flashes in front of her. Ben covers his right hand with gravity magic and catches the blade. Ben's strong gravity magic stops the spinning blade and his hand does not get cut at all.
"Heh, it seems you're still not proficient at using your magic items," says Ben while smirking.
Everyone gets surprised to see Ben caught the spinning blade easily. Even if the man is not that proficient at using the spinning blade, it shouldn't be an easy thing to catch the blade.
Now the Dark Mages know that they really can't underestimate Ben's group. They know each other's strength and power. All of them except their leader have similar strengths. So they know that Ben who could catch the blade easily is strong.
Ben uses his Requip magic to store the spinning blade in his pocket dimension. He does it so that the enemies can't use the spinning blade again. It is the best method to stop the Dark Mages from using the magic items again and also taking them back.
"Listen, you two. Use your full power from the start and don't hold back. We can't let the enemies understand our power and strength. They have a higher number, so they can fight longer. We need to finish it as fast as possible. Longer battles will only tire us out," says Ben.
"But how about the magic items? If we go all out, then we might break them," says Mira.
"Let's think about it later, our priority is defeating them," says Ben.
The 2 siblings nod and they get ready for the real battle.
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You can read up to 30+ chapters ahead of this fanfic novel & the other one on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.
I've uploaded:
1. Chapter 122 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater
2. Chapter 133 of Transcended as Lord Buggy
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)