Date- 26 Mar 2321
Time- 22:12
Location- Sky Blossom City, St. Raymond’s Cemetery.
Arriving at the cemetery gate I unsummoned my hoverbike and saw two shadows appear in front of me and greet, “Master” “Master”
The two shadows were Fred and Van. They seemed to have arrived at the cemetery earlier and had been waiting for me. I nodded at them and headed into the Cemetery. Walking 100 meters into the Cemetery I heard a noise from further into the Cemetery. As I walked deeper and deeper into the Cemetery the noise became clearer and louder. By now it became clear to me that a card fight was going on further in the cemetery.
I was surprised, a card fight during the night was already suspicious enough it had to be in a cemetery, whatever was going on it was shady. So I slowed my steps and stealthily walked towards the noise as Fred and Van steadily followed behind me. Upon reaching the source of noise I saw two men cloaked in black fighting against old man Ben who seemed to be badly injured and on the losing side. Ben’s whole body was riddled in wounds and covered in Blood but still, show how he stood holding his ground against card apprentices.
Not surprising as Ben was in the Card Grandmaster realm while his opponents were in the initial Card Lord realm. It was already a miracle that Ben could hold his ground till now but unfortunately, two Card Lords were a lot even for the captain of the infamous tiger squadron. Seeing the victory nearing one of the cloaked men grew chatty, “Francis did you ever think that the City lord that praised you for your loyalty and heroism one day would order your execution.”
“Ted, Don’t sully the City Lords name he would never betray his men.” Ben did not believe Ted’s words. The city lord was his Commander they have been through countless battles and bloodshed there is no way he would doubt his Commander.
“Oh, Francis this naivety of yours helps you make friends out of your enemies but it also blinds you from seeing your true enemies.” Said Ted as he knew Ben’s origin cards perks and cons. It paralysis Ben’s emotions for him to be able to smell others emotions. Though his origin card gives him an interesting ability it also broke him in exchange.
The City Lord hated Ben for being more famous and dear to people than the city lord himself. But still, the City Lord let Ben continue as Ben was the most loyal and selfless dog at his disposal. Ben never knew how City lord felt about him as his ability did not allow him to smell emotions of higher realm existence, instead, he could only smell intimidating and oppressive emotions from the people strong than him. Blindsiding him about how the City Lord felt about him.
“Even if what you say is true why would the City Lord want to kill me now, when I have given up everything and retired.” Ben did not understand why would the city lord would want to kill him.
“City Lord’s first son will be soon returning from
The southern academic city, graduating from a prestigious military university. The City Lord has decided to gift your precious Tiger Squadron, the strongest squadron the city has ever seen.” Tex explained
Tiger Squadron is the squadron formed by the gathering of like-minded people who have deep-seated hatred against Monsters and Bureaucrats equally. Whom they blamed for causing the loss of their loved ones to the monster wave in the past. These people are mostly vagabonds who did not want to serve under a government that did not consider their family’s life as important as the lives of the families of Bureaucrats and upper echelons. But their admiration for Ben Francis and what he stood for brought them together to serve under his banner forming the city strongest squadron, Tiger Squadron.
The Tiger squadron had 300 men both young and old, interestingly all of them were in the Card grandmaster realm. That is 300 silver grade grimoire, which even the current City hall could not gather even after governing the Sky blossom city for decades. City hall had tried many times to dissolve these men into the city guards but they threaten to quit if they did not serve under their captain Ben Francis. So the City hall had to give up on its idea of swallowing these men.
But once Ben submitted his resignation the Tiger Squadron was a big piece of meat that was just seating there to be swallowed by the City hall and its forces but to their surprise, the Tiger squadron did not follow the leadership of another person than their captan. Soon the strongest squadron ever turned into the worst squadron over 3 years. Until today when City lord finally decided to intervene and gift the tiger squadron to his eldest son as a graduation present. When City lord and his trusted personals were brainstorming on how to gain the subordination of the Tiger Squadron, Ted suggested that Ben would have to go permanently if they wanted to swallow Tiger Squadron.
“Ted, I did not think your hatred for me would grow to this level. But who told you that you can kill me today, Highland Troll Blood Essence.” Old man Ben though he was badly injured he still stood steady looking at his attackers. As suddenly a red aura covered him as he recovered from all his injuries in a blink of an eye.
“Francis, the hero of people I never thought that your demise would be the woman you loved. I still remembered her end how she was moaning in pain as I choked her while fuqing her brains out.” Seeing that Ben still had the will to struggle, the other cloaked man tried to agitate Ben by mentioning the final moment of his beloved.
“You! You are Martha’s temp party leader. It was you I should have known when you were the only surviving member of the party after clearing a B-rank dungeon….” As Ben said that he suddenly felt sluggish and he realised that his nervous system was slowly shutting down.
“You fool thank you for providing extra supplements for my babies and making the process faster, Behold my origin card Infection. My every physical attack are enchanted with infection soon you will lose all the control over your body just like Martha. Our party had successfully cleared the dungeon with zero casualties but I was not satisfied. So I did what I do best, I killed them all. Of course, after I had my share of enjoyment that is.” The black-robed man next to Ted let out a prevented laugh looking at Ben who had fallen to the ground.