The special forces team all turned to look at Dana with smirks on their faces.
“Oh, they’re preparing for the next Archmage are they? An Idol’s career is notoriously short, and her attitude is shit, so they’re going to have to replace her sooner than expected. Don’t get me wrong, her power is top-notch, and she will be one of the top Elites for a long time, but as an Idol, you can’t be that horrible to your fans forever.” One of the special forces team members laughed.
“Does everyone just know everyone, then?” Dana asked as the soldiers laughed.
“Well, there is only one Academy for the Elite students, you see. Other than the Team Leader, who is a bit older, we’re all about the same age, so we were in school together. Once you’re through the first year of crammed classes, you’ll find that there is a lot of time to socialize and get to know each other.
The most popular people in school become famous outside school as well, and there are only a hundred or so of us per year who graduate at Ascended or higher. You’re both reaching Awakened in your first year, so you’re almost guaranteed to be part of that group, and you will know a lot of soon-to-be famous people, that’s just how it is as an Elite.”
That made sense. Only one Rank above Ascended was Commander, and they were the sort of powerful people that everyone in their hometown would know by name. Either because they became politicians, or because they were so fantastically wealthy that they owned half the town.
The Lithium Mines had a Commander Rank warrior who took the experimental treatments during development of the Serum as the Mayor, but most towns only had a few elites stationed there for security. Between the government stipend for powerful elites and their connections, it wasn’t hard for them to get wealthy in only a few years and live in luxury wherever they had been stationed.
Other than the two that were on duty at the door, the rest of the special forces team gathered to ‘secure’ the two young elites and drink coffee while they waited for the main force of the army to arrive.
“Did you find anything stronger than a Common monster here?” The team leader asked as he got up to pour another cup.
“Just one Irontusk Boar that was clearly awakened. If there was a leader among the Goblins that wasn’t at the Common Rank, I didn’t notice. They’re a bit difficult to tell apart in the dark, especially with the fog, but I don’t recall any of them surviving a direct hit.” Karl replied.
“Why did you choose to cover the town in fog anyhow? Wouldn’t that just make your job harder?” One of the special forces team members asked.
“Not really. It makes it harder for the Goblins to see where they’re going, so they’re attacking blindly until they’re almost on us. But I’ve got a Hawk as part of my Class skills, and he’s great at hunting in the fog. You see, if it stays close to the ground, he can see down into it, while they are looking forward and unable to see much.” Karl explained.
“Oh, so it is like the Druids that have an animal companion instead of a beast form?” One of the others asked.
“Sort of. It’s a Windspeed Hawk, and he’s just made Awakened Rank.”
“An actual magical beast, not just a Hawk? Now we’re talking. That would explain your confidence in hunting in the dark. Those things are a menace.” The man grumbled, remembering a time when his team was attacked by one.
They all sat and waited until the team’s radios announced that the trucks were reaching the town limits, and the army was spreading out to do a full search of the town.
“Well, that’s the end to happy fun time. They will want us all on standby in case they find something. They’ve got rifles, but they’re not Elites, so they will call for us if they find anything more than a lone injured Goblin.” The team leader explained.
Then he led them all out into the open area in front of the building, what Karl had deemed to be the town square, which he now realized was actually used as an open air market, but all the stalls had been packed away until its next open day.
Today was Sunday, the usual off day for most labourers, so it would have likely been opened, if there were anyone left in town. But the empty space had made it much easier to fight last night, and eliminated most of the good hiding spots for the Goblins to sneak up on them.
[More Goblin corpses here. Requesting sanitary cleanup.]
[Goblin cleanup at sixth and main as well.]
[And at seventh and main.]
Karl smirked as the reports of bodies strewn all over town came in, and the special forces team tried not to laugh.
“You really did just set a Windspeed Hawk loose in the fog, didn’t you? There are dozens of them here, which makes sense for two elites fighting together, but there are random bodies all over town, one at a time. You would have to be pretty sneaky to get them like that without alerting the others.” The team leader commended them.
“It was an excellent tactic. With Dana’s fog, not only didn’t they see Hawk, they didn’t see the bodies of their tribesmen either, so they just kept doing what they were doing until he had time to get to them.”
A few minutes later, the Command Vehicle, an armoured sedan car, reached the centre of town, and promptly ran over a goblin corpse, spreading the stinking blood all over the undercarriage.
“I hope they don’t want us to get in that. The smell is going to linger for days.” Dana muttered.
“Don’t worry about that, you will be returning with us to the Academy. I already sent for approval from your teachers.” The team leader whispered.