Sebastian looked down, and she was right, the badge was glowing a soft red.

  He had only had a limited amount of time to study the rules and routines before they left Celder, but it was all fresh in his mind. The red

  glow meant a high priority message to all command staff in the company.

  Since he had finished eating anyway, he stood up and thanked the

  villagers before retiring to his tent.

  It was similar to the vice captain’s tent in a lot of

  ways, only smaller. The tent opened directly into the office, so he took

  a seat at the wooden desk and unclasped the badge. He placed it on the

  desk and injected some essence into it causing the red glow to

  intensify.

  A red screen projected into the air above it.

  Urgent message to all divisions of the Wandering Wolves Corps.

  The Wandering Wolves Corps has secured a full scale, priority 1 contract.

  Lumeria has reignited their

  campaign in the east and the Profound Sky Sect, located on the border,

  has commissioned the Wandering Wolves Corps to aid in the defense of

  their lands against the Lumerian assault.

  All divisions are to gather, in full, in Sudllar on the Eve of Summertide.

  Any and all ongoing contracts that could interfere with this priority 1 order are canceled, effective immediately.

  Signed,

  Captain Artur Cirera

  Sebastian stared at the message suspended in the air.

  What the hell? The war is starting again, and we’re being sent to fight…

  I knew that mercenary companies were

  occasionally hired for the war but that was usually the ambitious ones.

  I specifically chose the Wandering Wolves Corps because they mainly

  handled smaller things. Well damn…

  Sebastian could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He

  took a deep breath to settle his heart rate. He grabbed the badge,

  dismissed the message, and injected some essence into it. After placing

  it back on the table, Sebastian leaned back in his chair and waited.

  A few minutes later, Marion walked in.

  “Sir,” she said as she nodded.

  Sebastian tapped the badge on the desk, opening up the

  captain’s message again, and spun it around. He gestured toward the

  floating screen, which she read in silence.

  “We go to war then,” she said somberly.

  Sebastian put the badge away. “Seems that way. How long

  will it take us to get to Sudllar? Or no, correction, how long do we

  have to complete our current contract before we to leave in order

  to make it there in time?”

  Her eyes narrowed and she took a moment to think.

  “Sudllar is far, it’s on the opposite side of the federation. Even if we

  hurry, we'll have to leave in a matter of days to guarantee it. Maybe three days, sir.”

  “And how long will it take us to get to the bandit camp on foot?” Sebastian asked.

  “ If we run, about a day, sir.”

  “So, two days there and back, that leaves us with just

  one day to spare." Sebastian let out a sigh and shook his head. "I don't want to abandon these villagers to fend for themselves. Not if we don't have to. Have everyone prepare, our margins of error are next

  to non-existent.”

  The entire unit was up at dawn.

  Staying up late into the night, drinking and eating until

  they physically couldn’t take another bite, wasn’t much of an issue

  when you had the levels to deal with the consequences. A few hours of

  sleep was enough to recover.

  Marion had everyone gathered in one of the tents. When

  Sebastian walked in, the murmuring stopped. He sat down on a chair

  prepared in front of his unit, by the right hand wall, as had become the

  standard for their meetings.

  “I’m sure you’ve all heard rumors. Some of you know what a

  red message means, and yes, last night, Captain Cirera sent out a

  priority message to all command staff in the corps.”

  The new recruits all had a look of confusion on their

  faces while the veterans turned serious. Priority messages weren’t

  common, any time they were sent it meant something big was happening.

  “The message was short and simple,” Sebastian continued.

  “The Lumerian Kingdom has reignited their campaign in the east. With

  that comes new orders. Captain Cirera has signed a contract with a sect

  on the eastern continent, bordering the kingdom, to help defend them

  against the Lumerian invasion.” The news shocked everyone. Even the

  veterans hadn’t quite expected the message to be quite so big. “Our

  orders are to gather with the rest of the corps in Sudllar on the Eve of

  Summertide. The first day of summer is just a couple of months away and

  Sudllar is far from here. That leaves us with just a few days to complete this

  contract and help the people of Rotherick before we need to leave to

  make it on time. If we can’t get it done in that time, our orders are to abort. We'd have to cancel

  the contract and leave. That also means that we can’t follow the

  original plan, we have maybe a day to clear out the bandit camp. There

  will be no bounties collected, no looting of any kind—other than what you can grab without slowing you down, of course. We wipe them out.”

  Sebastian took a moment to let his decision sink in, not

  just for the other members but for himself. He had killed before, but

  mainly in self-defense. Ordering other people to kill was another thing

  entirely. He found it didn’t bother him as much as he thought it might.

  “We’ll be going on foot, non-stop,” he continued, once

  everyone had finished digesting the news. “Anyone who doesn’t have the

  Movement Skills to keep up stays here to prepare for a quick exit once

  we return.”

  In spite of the shock, everyone went to work. The support

  mages, Víctor and Aric, both stayed behind, as did Cisquell, the beast

  tamer. Four of the remaining members stayed, as well.

  Sebastian and the rest of the Valyan Claw, including both

  Safi and Gawen, left for the Canlac Woods immediately. They had no time

  to spare.

  Since everyone else was under level 40—by quite a large

  margin in many cases, Sebastian had to hold back so as to not leave them

  all behind. He debated actually leaving them all at the village and

  dealing with the bandits himself, but he was a leader now. If they were

  going to stand any chance to make it as a unit in the long run,

  especially in a war-zone, they had to continue taking every opportunity

  to learn to work together. He couldn’t just do everything himself.

  As they traversed the deciduous forest, Sebastian couldn’t help but reminisce.

  It had been over a decade now since he traveled through

  the Silvervale Woodlands. The terrain here was nowhere near as varied,

  or as treacherous, but it was still a vast forest with a great deal of

  uneven terrain to navigate. It brought him back to when he learned how

  to do just that. The others were so slow that Sebastian could afford to

  let his mind wander during the day and a half it took them to make it

  through the Canlac Woods.

  When they finally arrived, everyone except Sebastian and Marion was exhausted.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  The group stopped behind a cluster of trees. A wooden

  wall stood up ahead. It was a tall vertical log wall. The tips of the

  logs were sharpened, like massive pencils.

  “Boss, this doesn’t look like a simple camp. Are we sure our information is accurate?” asked Ferran, one of the veteran members.

  “There were supposed to be about a dozen bandits,”

  Sebastian said. “I do agree that this looks pretty big for a camp of

  just a dozen people. Wait here, I’ll take a look.”

  He used his [Fleeting Cloud Step] to its fullest potential to silently approach the camp and ascend a tree.

  From a branch, Sebastian had a clear view of the so

  called camp. It was more like a small fortress. There were several

  wooden buildings spread over an area the size of a football field,

  walled in on all sides. About a dozen men were walking the grounds with

  signs of more being inside the various buildings.

  Sebastian’s Movement Technique was effective and silent,

  barely leaving any traces of movement behind, but it wasn’t a true

  Stealth Technique. The manual didn’t have any Techniques for hiding your

  presence, and Sebastian hadn’t exactly prioritized learning anything

  related to stealth during his time in Celder. He couldn’t get

  any closer without alerting them.

  He did, however, activate his [Mind’s Eye].

  Over the past 10 years, he had improved his range. It

  wasn’t quite double what it was, but it was getting better. When he

  pushed himself, he could extend it to just over 35 meters in every

  direction.

  Although he hadn’t extended the range to any crazy

  distances, what he had done was master a new application of his

  Technique-Skill-combo. He could manipulate its shape. By lowering its

  range behind him, he could extend the range in front of him. It wasn’t a

  1 to 1 exchange, though. His record was about 50 meters in one

  direction.

  His senses passed over a few of the closer buildings and

  fortunately they were mostly empty. Only a handful of people were

  inside. Still, those were only a few buildings. He quickly moved around

  the wall and sent his senses in to scan building after building. With

  his speed, it didn’t take long. After just a few minutes he had an

  accurate count of the bandits, and so he returned to his unit.

  “The estimated numbers were way off,” Sebastian said.

  “That’s a small fortress. If I were to guess, I’d say that several

  bandit groups have merged to form some organization. In total, there’s

  about 50 bandits in there.”

  “Sir, protocol states that—“

  “Yes, Marion. Protocol states that in the event that the

  scope of the contract escalate beyond the established parameters, we

  return to the client to renegotiate the terms of the contract. In this

  case, that’s not an option. Our hands are tied. We only have two

  options—either we abort and cancel this contract, or we adjust and

  handle the change in circumstance.”

  Everyone looked around nervously.

  “I for one, have no intention of letting these bandits

  go,“ Sebastian continued. “I won’t force anyone to continue given the

  circumstances. If you do, the plan is simple. We storm the front. I

  blast through the wall, and we rush in. Don’t worry though, I’ll handle

  most of them myself. So long as you take out one, you will have pulled

  your weight.”

  Sebastian looked at the 9 mercenaries under his command.

  In particular, his students. At this point, both Safi and Gawen had

  taken human lives. Just like for Sebastian, however, it was in self

  defense. As both a teacher and a leader, his instincts screamed at him

  to stop them, to protect them from the reality of the life they followed

  him into. But he couldn’t do it. They made their own decisions, and

  worked hard to accomplish what they set out to do.

  No one was confident about the situation but not a single

  person pulled out. Marion seemed excited, thrilled even about

  Sebastian’s decision. Though she hid it behind her usual stern look.

  They settled some logistics, made something that resembled a plan, and made their move.

  It only took them seconds to reach the wall.

  The logs used were quite thick and driven deep into the ground for stability. It wouldn’t make a difference.

  Sebastian stood in front of the wall with his unit behind

  him, at the ready. He got into a wide and deep stance with his left

  hand slightly extended and his right clenched into a fist, held at his

  side. He took a deep breath and circulated his essence to activate his

  [Shattering Strike] Technique. With a powerful twist of his hips, he

  punched the wall.

  BAM - CRASH

  The wall exploded into tiny splinters that pelted the bandit camp.

  Three bandits stood in range of the blast, as Sebastian

  had planned. Only one of them survived, but he was in no shape to

  partake in the fight.

  Sebastian and his unit rushed in.

  Every bandit in the camp heard the explosion and came running, but the mercenaries were ready for them.

  Their quick planning took the bandits’ response into account.

  Sebastian had breached the wall to the edge of the camp.

  When they rushed in, they effectively separated the bandits into two

  sides. One with only about a dozen bandits who were already off to the side of the camp and another which contained the main force.

  Sebastian placed himself with his back toward the smaller

  group and let his unit deal with them while he faced the majority of

  the bandits, alone.

  The fighting behind him began almost instantly.

  Sebastian, however, just stood there, relaxed with his sword held

  casually to his side. Bandits were running toward him. He just watched,

  his heart rate steady as he mentally projected the hatred which had quietly

  fermented within him for a decade at these bandits. They may have been

  unrelated to the Lumerian Kingdom, but they would serve as a proxy.

  As the bandits came closer, Sebastian gripped the hilt of his sword and steeled his gaze.

  His essence circulated, powered by the Core in his Sea of Essence.

  The air around him trembled, as though his energy could not be contained.

  Essence coursed through him. Every fiber of his body grew

  stronger. A faint, dark red aura surrounded him, invisible to the naked

  eye, but if the bandits had access to their spiritual senses, it would

  be as though he was set alight by a blood-red flame.

  The closest bandit was upon him and struck down with an axe.

  Sebastian took a step. With a slight flick of his wrist,

  his sword passed through the bandit as if he wasn’t even there. Two

  halves of the man fell to the ground. Sebastian glanced back and thought

  back to the kobolds he fought years ago. That’s all these bandits were,

  enemies. Monsters. No different from any other he’d killed.

  With his extraordinary senses, honed further through his

  extreme focus, it was—almost—like the bandits were moving in slow motion

  as they rushed toward him.

  He leaned forward and dashed ahead with his [Fleeting

  Cloud Step], swiping his sword across every bandit along the way. The

  scene was almost surreal. The ground, the dirt, the dust, even the wind,

  none of it even registered that a man had dashed across the field.

  Everything remained perfectly still. The only exception was the bandits

  who didn’t even notice that they had been cut into pieces until they

  collapsed. Their bodies hitting the ground was what finally disturbed

  the area. Dust plumed and blood splattered as they fell.

  In the stunned pause that followed, Sebastian observed

  the dozens of bandits grouped up ahead of him. He swiped his sword

  horizontally through the air in front of him. As the blade passed

  through the air, a dark crescent of essence, with swirls of red energy,

  materialized in its path. It stayed there, unmoving in the air, until

  Sebastian’s swing was complete. Then, the crescent launched forward. It

  shot out and cut through a half dozen bandits. It traveled several

  meters behind the group before it dissipated.

  To the bandits’ credit, they weren’t discouraged. They

  showed a resolve that Sebastian hadn’t quite expected from simple

  thieves and robbers.

  They kept attacking, and he kept cutting them down.

  One managed to flank him by jumping down from the roof of

  a building. Sebastian took a step back and on sheer instinct used his

  [Shattering Strike]. All that was left of the man was a pink mist and a

  thick, red rain. Fortunately, the force pushed it all away from

  Sebastian, but a handful of bandits weren’t as lucky. They were covered

  in their companion’s blood. Even so, they didn’t stop.

  Sebastian couldn’t understand where their resolve came from, but he didn’t need to. He just kept swinging.

  Back home, he was never a big gamer, but when he did play

  video games, he always enjoyed mowing down hordes of fodder. Some

  people thought that was repetitive and boring since there wasn’t much of

  a challenge, but Sebastian always liked the feeling of being

  overpowered. That feeling came back in full force for the first time in years. A deep

  satisfaction.

  Unknowingly, a smile crept up on his face as he was cutting down the last few Bandits.

  Even the boss hadn’t been much, approaching level 40 but

  not quite there if Sebastian’s senses were accurate. He fell with the

  rest.

  Sebastian looked back at his unit to see how they were

  faring. They were mostly done as well. Safi had a slight tremble to her

  and her head hung low. Gawen, however, was beaming. It seemed he had

  thoroughly enjoyed himself.

  Sebastian looked around at the result of his massacre. It

  was odd. He knew that his cultivation affected his mind as well as his

  body, forging it anew and stronger than ever, and he also knew that he

  was resolute in his decisions, but he thought he would feel… more.

  There was no remorse to speak of from killing all these

  people, and while he had never had an issue with gore in his past he

  would at least have flinched at the sight of something so extreme. Now,

  he didn’t feel much of anything as he took in the scene. Nothing except a

  slight lingering joy from reveling in his own power and a certainty

  that in time, it would be Lumeria’s upper echelon he crushed to a pulp

  beneath his heel.

  Marion approached him as he reflected. “We’re all done here, sir,” she said. “No bandits got away. Contract complete.”

  He noticed an unusually soft expression on her face, as

  though she shared his sense of satisfaction over killing these bandits,

  even if it stemmed from different experiences.

  “Excellent. Any injuries?”

  “A few cuts and bruises, one broken finger, but nothing serious.”

  “Good, we’ll have Víctor and Aric treat them when we get back.

  We’ll return to Rotherick and leave for Sudllar immediately, no need to

  hang around here.”

  Thanks for reading!

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