The week of training for the mini-tournament quickly went by with his different classes, and all the training he needed to get done.
He did not have a single moment off, since when the classes stopped, he would go train immediately. The only breaks he got, were when he needed food and sleep, sometimes he even missed those.
He had made an amazing amount of progress. His swordsman technique had been polished quite a bit since he only had one stance to practice. He was far from mastering it, but it was still at an amazing level.
He did not learn any more spells other than the ones he had, since he did not think he needed any other ones just yet.
Today was the day that the mini-tournament was taking place, so he had to meet with the class at the training field.
When he arrived there, he could see that everyone was excited about the tournament, while he could also feel the presence of all the mages there had become much stronger. This made it so Einar was looking forward to the fight.
When the teacher arrived, all of the students put all of their attention on him, since they all wanted to start the tournament.
What he said though, shocked all of them.
"I know that you are all looking forward to the tournament we should have today ... Unfortunately though, something has happened which needs all the help we can muster!" Steve's face was quite grave, which made this seem very serious. "A huge amount of monsters has come from the deadlands into our country, these monsters have killed many people, and destroyed many villages! All the academies in the country have been asked to help exterminate these monsters"
As soon as he was done talking, all of the students here were quite shocked. It was completely silent at the training grounds, no one knew what to say.
Einar was not much better off, in fact, his face was looking much worse than all the others. He was thinking back to the time when his village had been destroyed.
"Isn't that the responsibility of the military?" Henrik was the calm one here, so he decided to ask.
"It is, but most of the men that had been sent to protect the frontline at the deadlands have been slaughtered, which is why a huge amount of monsters has made it into the kingdom!" Steve answered as he had no other choice.
"So, what we are tasked with doing, is finding the monsters who made it through, and killing them? We don't need to help the frontline?" Another student, who also seemed quite calm asked.
"Yes, as soon as we have killed the monster here, you don't need to do anymore!" Steve answered again.
"Okay, I can not speak for others, but I don't mind getting a bit of experience before fighting that monster!" He said with a smile while pointing at Einar, trying to lighten the mood.
After hearing this, the rest of the students smiled as well, while also agreeing to help, not that they had any choice.
"Good, but I do have to remind you ... We will be the first there, so it will probably be crawling with monsters there!" Steve said, as he said this with a serious expression. "I would also recommend going in groups, to be safer!"
As he said these words, all of the students had serious expressions, but they still started forming groups. Most of these groups were 4 people since this was the most optimal number of people.
Many of the students in the group came to ask if Einar wanted to join them, but he turned them down, as he wanted to fight alone. He was better alone since no one would hold him back.
"Good, it seems you all have formed groups! Now follow me, and I will take you to where the most monsters are located!" Steve said.
The students followed after Steve, who took them to a flying ship. It looked exactly like the ships sailing on the sea, except it had propellers on the top, the front, and the sides.
Their class was not the only one on the ship. classes from all years and different styles were there. They were trying to transport as many students at a time as possible.
"Einar!" Suddenly Einar heard a voice coming from behind him. He turned around to see who the owner of the voice was, and to his surprise, it was Ada.
By her side, two other women were standing. It was her cousin, Adania, and her friend, Emily.
""Hey Einar"" They both said as they arrived in front of Einar with Ada.
"Hello!" He greeted back. "So you are going to fight as well?" Einar asked the obvious question.
"Yeah, of course! You want to join our group?" Ada answered immediately. She asked since she knew Einar was quite strong.
"No thanks, I work better alone!" Einar answered the same way he had done to all his classmates.
"Aaw, too bad, we would not need to do anything with you on the team!" Adania said with a teasing smile.
Einar did not say anything to that sentence, but he started to talk with Ada to pass the time before they arrived at the battlefield.
After talking with Ada, he found out that many elf villages had also been destroyed by these monsters. The deadlands they live in were once a huge forest where the elves lived.
One day though, it started to wither away. Something had been placed in the forest, and all the trees started to die. A lot of corrupted creatures also started to appear, which only made the forest rot away much faster.
The elves back then had tried to fight them off, but they were the ones that died in the end. These monsters were no jokes, and she was scared that what happened to the elves back then, might also happen to the human kingdoms if they get into the forests.
The only reason it is not spreading anymore is that there is a desert all around the deadlands. There is no explanation as to why it doesn't spread anymore, but some have come up with the idea, that it needs a forest to manifest.
So if one of these creatures gets into another forest, that forest might turn into another deadland. This would become a huge pƄroblem for the kingdom it is happening to.
This made it so Einar was even more motivated to kill these creatures. He did not want what happened to his village, to happen for a whole kingdom.