[Etherum Warrior Academy]
Etherum Warrior Academy was one of the most powerful institutions in Etherum. Its legacy of producing B-rank, or even A-rank warriors could not be attributed to noble status, unlimited funding and long-lasting history alone. They selected their seeds, not just on bloodline, but also on talent.
"A gate overflow...now out of all times?", one of the Etherum students shouted in shock.
From a distance, a group of experienced hunters was tailing them. Leading them, the leader with grey-dyed hair and a large snake tattoo on his arms started to light a cigarette.
"I know he told me not to summon them, but they sure are efficient"
It was none other than Leon, who had used the expertise and strength of the [Doom Legion] as backup. It only took them a couple hours to find the tracks of the careless warrior academy students.
Although they could go down and help with the situation, Leon never cared about the lives of regular inhabitants of district 77. He only cared about his own interests. The murlocs in the streets were strong enough to give him, a D-rank gunner, trouble. He wanted to see how this group of students would fare. If they were too weak and died in the process, then topside (also known as the inner city) would bleed. The hatred ran deep in the undercity, and Leon was not an outlier. If he could hurt them, he would do it with joy.
If the murlocs needed a little help, then the presence of the Doom Legion would serve their purpose.
Morals? Consciousness? Fear of higher-ups striking back?
At the end of the day, the Etherum Warrior Academy and its graduates never bother to come down to the lower districts, even during times of gate overflow, unless it was of difficulty above D-rank. However, even when they moved, they never did it out of compassion or valuation of human lives. They only did it because boss monsters could threaten the runic arrays on the inner walls.
Just like inhabitants of Etherum did not consider the humans in the wastelands as equals, the inner circle nobles never considered the lower districts as part of the same species. To them, the lower districts were human shields for the monsters of the wilderness and gates spawning in that area. If not for the precious resources like mana cores on monsters, there would not even be a single guild in the lower districts.
The Etherum students were quite experienced too. As soon as the alarm rang, they entered in a formation. Their leader, a warrior, held a huge shield and clearly held the role of a tank. Three swordsmen supported the flanks and the back respectively, all of them protecting a yougn woman with a noble family's crest.
Leon could not recognize it, but it was actually that of the Rienfield family, one of the minor noble houses from topside. Even if it was not one of the seven major noble families of the inner city, it was earning increasingly more influence. The patriarch, an A-rank mage, was one reason and if it were not for his old age, the family might have had the ambition to become the eighth major noble family of Etherum.
But none of that mattered. Mages were rare, and their formation was solid. However, D-rank gates were not so easily cleared. Greem had gone through the trouble to train nine subordinates for the single reason that gates could not be cleared alone. Otherwise, he would have never shared the experience and resources from spawning gates.
However, a single mistake was fatal.
A single mutant monster...could lead to death if unprepared.
[Fireball]
E-rank mages could cast spells, and it seemed that the Rienfield mage was specialized in elemental magic, and fire happened to be if not the strongest, at least the most destructive.
However, despite those assets, the group was getting tired.
From a distance, Leon smiled. He could see more murlocs crashing onto them. It was not a small number. Ten, no...twenty. Even the dark legion would have trouble defeating them, not to mention a group of E-rank Etherum students and a single D-rank "genius".
*SPLASH*
A murloc, suspiciously fast, moved forward and surprised one of the swordsmen with a throwing dagger. Although it did not hit a vital organ, it did not stop here and lunged forward with its spear, this time targeting the head.
The student did not have time to do anything.
He had died, just like that, and the shock was just too much for the exhausted Rienfield mage. She fell onto her knees and broke down, the terror of a real battle, her first one most likely, being too much to handle.
"Grrr, take Emma and run", their leader shouted as he faced the mutant murloc who seemingly grinned at him.
The other two swordsmen were likely seniors. Although they were visibly shaken, they had not dropped their weapon upon the gruesome death of their teammate.
Leon could help them, save them. But he did not. Worse than that, he took out his rifle, and shot them all. Murlocs, etherum students. He did not aim at his targets. He just fired aimlessly.