"I think this is the most amount of children of mana I have ever seen assembled in one room." Zalbas said with a smug smile and turned to his friend that simply shrugged at him. "Anyway! This is my friend, Lady Vuldara - she actually belongs to one of the 13 ancient noble houses and she-"
"She can speak for herself!" The woman stood tall as she spoke with a certain pride. She had darkblue hair almost like that of a raven and the first thing Samuel noticed was a small emblem of a raven on her clothes.
She had a yellow cloak that made her stand out, she held herself as a prideful noble as she seemed to be looking at Samuel more closely. She extended her hand and raised an eyebrow while tilting her head.
She was obviously testing his reaction, Samuel knew enough about noble life to know what he needed to do, he slightly bowed down while offering the lady his hand and gently cusped her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Lady Vuldara!" He smiled as he stood tall again.
"The Ravenhill Household is pleased to make your aquiantance as a fellow child of mana." She nodded her head towards him and Samuel started wondering about her house. It wasn't one that he was aware of, which means that it was probably a small house if it was in Rejuan.
She seemed to realize exactly what he was thinking, "Ours is a smaller house on tri border of The Rejuan Republic, Kingdom of Rookia and The Sivin Principality."
"I see, well I prefer to know where my future friends are from!" Samuel replied and although she looked slightly taken a back from the statement her lips slowly curled into a smile. "I like this one!" She said while turning to Zalbas.
"Told you he seemed like a genuine sort!" Zalbas replied with a snort and shrugged in Samuels direction. Samuel still didn't know how well he could trust them, but he wanted to give it a shot, bad children of mana or good children of mana.
Perhaps the better term was just to call them people. Because people are different and unique. "Alright, since you two are going to be part of my small team it would be nice to know what you both can do..." Samuel clasped his hands together, before raising a finger.
"Oh right yes, I can cast a lot of spells and I excel at close and mid ranged combat, I can cast spells with my swords among other things!" He decided to tell them a little about himself first.
"Whats your bloodline ability?" Zalbas asked with a grin wide as a dragon. Vuldara gave him a punch on the shoulder which made him roll his eyes and look apologeticly at Samuel. "Yeah no we don't really introduce ourselves with that information, but as far as a fighting man, I punch things really hard with different elements if I so choose!"
"I can take down someone thrice my size easily, just let me hit their flow points to stop their Ki with my own. I am agile and fast at the same time!" Zalbas looked smug enough to take down a grown woman, or man with the smile alone.
Vuldara slowly pinched her nose and looked down at the floor, "Gods help me! At least you seem more sane than Zalbas." She spoke to Samuel and looked genuinely relieved that he was more normal.
"Between me and Zalbas however, he is the better fighter. I rely on a few spells granted to me by my guardian deity, The Crow." She spoke with a hint of pride still, but seemingly a lot more relaxed than before.
Samuel was confused for a few seconds, he saw the rapier that Vuldara had at her side and she was equipped in some chainmail. "So you're a paladin then I take it?" He asked, Vuldara tilted her head, "Paladin in training more like!" She replied with a monotone voice.
Zalbas started laughing loudly. "Sure is an obnoxious guy huh?" Samuel made a bit of small talk with Vuldara while Zalbas was busy laughing. A few minutes later they made up some basic strategy, but in reality it was more about just going in magic ablaze and swords drawn with a few backup strategies.
They returned to the rest of the group that seemed to be already divided into small teams, Markar quickly rejoined Samuels team and was filled in with the blanks. "Haha, Vuloc already strategized that your team would go in fully battle ready, I guess his mind isn't just for show since he guessed that correctly!" Markar chuckled when they were retelling their ideas.
Samuel gave Vuloc a nod and turned to the rest of 'his faction' and let his head sink for a moment before holding it up high again. "You have all come to join my faction, well let me start off by saying that in my faction we will never torment or bully the weak. Any friend or family of the faction gets attacked for being affiliated with us, then it is the same as a personal attack on any one of us."
"In this faction we will stand strong together and fight together. Here we protect our own, if you dislike that method of thinking then you are free to leave!" He ended it with a little bit of silence, speeches had never been his strong suit.
All of the ones assembled nodded their heads and looked pleased with his words however, so he sighed out of relief inwardly. "If you are still here then, let's go hunt some scum!" He yelled out the last part and all of them instinctively clenched their fists or grit their teeth.
They all moved out out the manor just being a couple of minutes behind Khazans group. They would surely arrive to a bit of a fight, but together they moved through the city without arousing suspision as they headed toward the wharfs on the northern parts.
A few passerby people indeed did give the small group werid looks because they looked pretty armed and ready. But they also looked like college students so people preferred not to get involved.
The neverending streets finally started to thin out and instead open port areas with a ton of empty cargo bays were all that remained, it was truly a cargo depot that stretched quite far. Vuloc made sure they were on the right track and kept checking his map from time to time.
"We should be there really soon, you all know the plans!" He spoke to the group and the teams started splitting apart from the big group. Until only Samuels team was the one walking straight with the others on the sides.
They finally reached the huge compound where their target was supposed to be and Samuel instantly grew cautious. No enemies, none of Khazans people or Khazan himself. It was quiet and empty, all they could do was sneak closer to the huge building.
Samuel looked around to make sure before running closer and stopping by a nearby metal door that was slightly ajar. While the rest of his faction started sneaking up on the building from different angles.
He saw that most of his people started getting into position so he nodded slowly and made hand signs for them all to go ahead and he slowly opened the metal door, that creaked open slowly which made him frown the entire time hoping for it to be quiet.
He could have casted a spell to make things more quiet but since he had no idea if anyone would have felt that, he decided against it. The door was finally open enough for him and the others to sneak in, and so they did.
There was almost no lighting and it was mostly just an empty dark corridor that seemed to lead into a larger hall. As Samuel stepped inside he could hear muffled voices, that grew more intense with each step closer.
He didn't hesitate and lead them through the dark corridor before stopping at an open doorway that led out into a bigger hall and what awaited them made Samuel shocked.
It was the main room of the entire warehouse, there were plenty of boxes and old crates stuffed about. But the main floor was actually a small staircase down, which allowed him and his companions to see perfectly into the room.
Samuel checked right and left quickly to make sure there was no one there, and true enough there was no one at the immediate level. But at the lower floor that looked like a small battlefield, most of Khazan's faction lay around on the floor or against the walls all bloodied, while Khazan stood in the middle.
With bolts sticking out of him and stumbling around while rasping for breath. But he refused to go down as another bolt hit his shoulder he simply groaned in pain and looked pissed. A voice suddenly broke through the rest of the noises.
"Look how the mighty have fallen Khazan!" A sun elf spoke. 'Oh great, the more arrogant versions of High Elves.' Samuel thought to himself before realizing who it was.
Vacarlo the man responsible for Emma's condition, one of the leaders of a big faction, but there were at least 50 people gathered here, which is how they had beaten Khazans faction. Although from the looks of things Khazans people had done a real number on them as many of them looked severely injured or barely standing.
"Vacarlo!" Khazan growled, Vacarlo just grinned. "To think I got the pleasure of first enjoying tormenting one of the headmasters children and now a second, all in one day!" Vacarlo laughed. Samuel realized it had been true, it had all been a damn trap to lure out Khazan.
But what seemed worse was the fact that Vacarlo had hired additional thugs or mercenaries to help him. Only about half of his people were wearing the clothing of the college.
Samuel nodded to his companions and they all started sneaking out while sticking close to the walls to remain hidden for some time while Vacarlo continued to gloat.