“I’ve been there before but I didn’t know about the existence of the Phantom League to begin with, let alone where they might be hiding critical places that we could do a hit-and-run on.” Ayame replied coldly. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
“The Heralds should remain quiet.” Soren shut her down rudely. The cock-gobbler was still hung up on his daydreaming of being the leader.
“If you have a problem with my subordinate you should take it up with me.” I responded in kind, which earned a few muted curses being sent my way.
This team was already extremely dysfunctional. Ambition and I were openly at war with Selene and Cedric, Iris and I had some heavy problems that needed to be dealt with, Soren was just a power-tripping jackass, while Gragan and Abudha didn’t really wish to participate in the planning phase of the mission. At least they didn’t seem to have problems with playing their part in the execution of it.
“What’s the most we can hope to achieve with our numbers?” It was the Plump Fox who spoke up, evidently noticing that I was leading too much of the conversation. “If we assume all of us Phenom candidates to be at the strength of Lunar Adepts, and half of our Heralds to be Twilight Apprentices strength-wise with the other half being similarly Lunar Adepts, then we will struggle to overrun even a simple outpost of theirs. The one we’re in is guarded by ten Adepts and thirty Apprentices but is led by three Eclipse Enforcers. I suppose with the element of surprise we do have a minor chance of victory against a place like this.”
“We shouldn’t target military-style outposts at all. They burned down the Consortium’s drug fields from what I’m reading in these papers, so we could do something similar. It is a retaliation, after all. We are not even part of the syndicate yet, so expecting a proper military maneuver from us is just plain unreasonable.” Iris’ statement was logical. If I didn’t know any better I would’ve thought that she wasn’t insane at all. Not that she was stupid at all, in fact, based on our short encounter she was very smart and had strong senses, such as her noticing that the veil was no longer hiding the outpost and instantly coming to the conclusion that it was in my possession. It’s just that not everything was alright in that pretty skull of hers.
“I have a proposal.” I said while heavily debating inwardly if I truly wanted to utter these words or not. “We have a Pyromancer and a Geomancer in our midst. As far as I know, the two of you have the biggest destructive potential out of all of us. If our goal is to send a message we could escort you to a populated area that’s ruled by the Phantom Leauge like Braedon is ruled by the Consortium, have you two unleash a mighty spell each, and then return before their strong members could arrive to the scene.”
<Quinlan…! I don’t believe this! You’re suggesting a mass killing of innocent civilians, and in my duchy at that?!> Ayame protested in my mind, and she was right. It was an extremely soulless proposal. I just recommended we commit an act of terrorism to get the mission over with.
“Devil is a fitting alias for you, my brother.” Abudha stated with a sigh. “I refuse to participate in this.”
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“Yeah, I’m against it as well. I say we just attack an outpost of theirs and if they are stronger than expected we go out in a blaze of glory!” Gragan shouted.
“I love it!” Soren cheered happily. He would be one of the two stars of the show, so he likely thought that he would be getting good examination results from Vex.
“We have no problem with it either.” Selene stated which caused Cedric’s head to snap in her direction. Evidently the ‘we’ meant ‘I’ in their case. However, the Dumb Hound remained silent despite his obvious disagreement.
Iris and Ambition also remained silent. I don’t know where I should place Iris on the willingness meter, but the fact that my biggest supporter remained silent at my proposal can only mean that she truly didn’t like it, but out of consideration didn’t say that out loud.
“A no-go, huh…” I muttered after a short bit. Honestly, I was glad some of them opposed it. My plan would’ve resulted in our greatest chances of success- in my humble opinion at least- but it would’ve made me into a complete monster. I guess I can no longer call Iris a psycho. Or at least, I should consider myself to be of her ilk.
We spent the next couple hours deliberating but in the end it all lead to nowhere. We were still on the eastern part of the Greenvale duchy, which meant a long journey was ahead of us before we even reached Silverwind’s borders. We decided to mull on it for the time being and deliberate once we reached our new destination; the closest Consortium outpost to the duchy’s borders. It would serve as our base of operations for the duration of the mission.
With that concluded the rest of the day was free time, after which we began journeying together as a group of 8 Phenom candidates, their Heralds, and our examiner. Vex had embraced her role as a background character and remained entirely out of our way. She offered no guidance or anything along those lines.
Since our elves wanted to hide their race from the group, we lost some advantages we’ve been enjoying in the forest biome. Blossom wasn’t hiding her dog-kin nature since strapping her ears and tail down would’ve limited her combat effectiveness, and I didn’t wish to do that for the Trials, so we could at least have her strong sense of smell guide us.
However, that meant we had multiple encounters along the way since her scouting ability depended on the wind carrying the scents to her nostrils, which didn’t always happen quickly enough.
Be that as it may, with our numbers, which were exactly 32- Vex not included- most greenskins and other monsters would be quickly dispatched.
The tensions were starting to rise, however, as the days passed by. It was going to be a dangerous journey, and not just because of the presence of monsters.