Will followed Anton out of the fort, and they turned left from there.

Will looked, but didn’t see Mason outside, and a smile slowly crept over his face. He felt satisfaction making that bastard lick dirt.

“Hey, stop daydreaming and follow me. We have a long way to go.”

“Huh, oh, yes sir, sorry sir, I’m coming.”

Slapping his face once, he started following Anton. He had heard many stories of Anton’s success and had always wanted to meet him.

After all a person who had titles associated to his name like The wall or the Giant, couldn’t be a simple being. Everyone knew that Anton had very high earth affinity, and his defense was out of this world.

In his five years of service in Wild sword mercenary group he had completed over 100 successful missions, which included complete devastation of 10 bandit groups, major scouting for the nobles of the empire, coming out alive from the monster horde five times.

His exploits list was so long that people stopped counting when he and his team successfully came back alive from the hole of death, an ancient level dungeon on the far east of the continent with 97% mortality rate.

*****

Will followed behind Anton as they quickly travelled the dirt road and entered the jungle. At first will followed him easily, as they were just walking, then Anton started jogging.

‘Maybe the place is some distance away.’ Will thought.

They jogged at a casual speed for half an hour, but then Will stated facing problems.

Everything was fine until the next half an hour. Though the jog had some time ago turned into a run, but will was able to keep up, but when they crossed the one hour mark, Anton raised the pace once again and will had to start a fully fledged sprint.

Well, Will was the one who had to sprint, while Anton still looked like he was jogging. This fast paced running continued for another half an hour and Before Anton For the first time looked back at will.

The faces will was making and the fountain of sweat that was dripping from his head, plus his huffing and puffing clearly showed the great condition that he was in.

Anton laughed looking at him and asked,

“What do you say, shall we stop? How about a drink, want some water?”

Yes, Will had quite a lot of stamina for someone who was a scout, but to wills stamina was no where enough to run a three hour marathon which Anton was making him complete. Though the idea of some water to quench his thirst sounded like angels bugles to him, but he knew that Anton was testing him and nothing more.

‘He is probably trying to gauze my abilities.’ He thought

Looking at his senior officer running backwards without even looking at the front in the obstacle full jungle gave Will quite some shock.

Will knew that if he stopped now, then he wouldn’t have to go through that mountain, but to admit defeat in front of his revered captain. He didn’t want to do that.

So he snorted and continued running behind Anton. Even when his body forgot to breathe for a second and he almost chocked, he still kept on running.

Anton looked at the boy and inwardly nodded his head.

‘Well, he at least needs this much will if he wants to grow.’ He thought and with the twist of his foot turned to face at the front.

“No water for you then.”

The hell course of full blown distant running continued for another hour before Anton stopped. Will saw him stopping, everything that was keeping standing flew away and he just let go. His body crumbled like a dead burnt tree and he slammed face first onto the ground. His nose once again started bleeding, but he just squirmed on the ground to get some air.

Will had no idea how he had continued to follow behind Anton in his half dead state, but he was happy that at least he was able to follow behind him.

But what he didn’t know was that if Anton hadn’t slowed down in the last half an hour to an almost crawling speed, then he probably would have really met with god by now.

His clothes got dirty from the mud and dirt, but he didn’t care about such a thing because he had more important matters to attend to, like breathing.

*****

Anton whistled in a unique rhythm and after it echoed in the forest for two times, the same yet somehow different sound came from somewhere some distance away in the forest.

Following that, four healthy looking young adults came running from the forest. Anton saw that and squinted. His demeanor changed and the smiling and caring face turned stiff.

“Vice leader Rae, where is your team leader Ren?

And a 5ft 4’’ girl person stepped out from the lot. Wearing Black clothes which seemed to absorb light, and a Grey Safa which covered her face completely, she spoke to Anton in a soothing voice, full of respect.

“Reporting sir, team leader Ren is out in the woods to hunt some Day spiders, and Scout Rusty has gone to call him back.”

“Oh, He is able to hunt those damned spiders alone now?”

“Yes sir. Some day’s captain Ren’s poison reached Intermediate level, and the spiders poison has stopped working on him.”

Anton nodded his head slightly hearing that.

“Okay, be at ease member Rae.”

“Yes sir.”

“So how have you been? I hope you lot didn’t have any difficulty working with each other right?”

“To summaries it in one sentence I’ll say and other will surely agree with me, that this has been a really fun three months sir. We learned and have built up on our team work and that’s not all, as most of us are already above level thirty and captain Ren Is just a level shy of reaching 40.”

That surprised Anton. After all just three months ago they were in the upper twenties.

“Well, good job. I didn’t expect that much progress, but like they say it’s only the matter of taking your first step and rest follow.”

Smiles bloomed on all of their faces, while Will curiously looked at the Vice leader of the team whose members didn’t look much older than he was.

“Okay, so I am here to give you your first mission.”

And their eyes sparkled like puppies hearing that.

“Yes!” They silently bumped their fists.

Will looked at them like an outsider and saw how composed and disciplined they were. A tinge of jealousy poked his heart, but he controlled his emotions.

He stood up and walked till he was standing behind Anton, but no one looked at him.

It did hurt him a little thinking that no one was giving him any attention, as they seem too engrossed listening and talking with Anton, but he didn’t lose heart and kept standing there staring at Rae whose eyes he found too attractive.

“But let’s wait for Ren and Rusty to come back before I divulge you the mission.”

“Yes Sir, they will be here in a minute or so.”

And just as Rae spoke, a somewhat tanned man with spiky red hair and multiple piercing on his left ear came running out from the forest. He was almost 6ft tall and from the long sword behind his back he was clearly a swordsman. Wearing a simple but effective iron chest guard and a bracelet covering his right arm he clearly meant business.

His attire was lacking in defense but maybe that’s just how he was. Moreover the red undershirt and black leather pants gave him a wild look. He looked fit and fine to slice someone‘s head off.

Maybe Will expectations were a little too much or he was expecting a knight wearing shining armor to come running out. ‘How is he the leader of this team?’ he just couldn’t understand.

Following him was the team scout. Wearing light green cotton shirt which had laces instead of buttons for and brown muddy pants, he adorned the lightest attire of them all. His sleek face and squinted brown eyes gave him a mean look. Maybe his attire wasn’t fit for fighting, but his first job was scouting after all, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t carrying any weapons. He had a short bow in his left hand while a dagger hanged from his waist.

Ren and Rusty gave their pleasantries and stood in the line smiling at the other team members. While Rae stepped back and Ren took he place as their team leader.

They were waiting to be given their first mission, but Anton’s next words stunned them and they hurriedly moved back.

“Now that you are all here, then let’s spar a little and see how strong you have really gotten.”

And as if that was clue, all six of the team members present spread across the forest. The Scout whose official class was archer jumped and climbed the tree; one magically manifested a shield and jumped back covering two girls who seems to be too concentrated on something and mumbling to themselves.

Rae took out her dagger and stood behind Ren who smiled at Anton and removed his sword from its sheath on his back.

His sword shined and a drop of sweat dripped from his chin and as it hit the ground and dispersed into multiple fragments, he moved.

*Clang* *Clang*

He chopped toward Anton’s ribs, the sword sliced through air creating howling sounds, but all his chops and slashes were stopped by Anton’s glowing hands, contact with which created crisp metallic sound.

Ren saw his attacks fail, but he didn’t step back and instead pushed forward. His sword glowing in silver light, he performed the newest skill he gained when he had reached level 40.

“Mana strike.” He shouted.

But Anton saw it coming from a mile away and dodged it by shifting his weight on his left leg, but so much for his dogging. Just as he moved a shiny dagger come from his shadow aiming directly for his thigh.

“Trying to take out my leg; you are too young for that Rae!”

He shouted and he rotated over his left foot, and used the built up momentum to kick the handle of the dagger.

“Ahh!!”

Rae’s hand couldn’t hold on to the dagger and it got air born. It flew through the air and stuck the ground passing from between Will’s legs.

*Gulp*

Will hurriedly moved back. The sudden attack to his manhood scared the shit out of him, and he instinctly stepped back.

“Good, good. No hesitation, the one and only thing you need to remember is to have no hesitation.”

Anton spoke to the Rae who had already placed a new dagger in her empty hand, and was trying to aim for his back this time, which was open and defenseless. All the while Anton didn’t forget to inform Will to move back, “Hey kid step back for now, this place is going to get rowdy. Opps..”

Just as he turned his face towards Will a barrage of arrows came somewhere form the forest and hit Anton’s back.

“Sir!” Will cried out, but Anton did nothing and the arrows collided directly with his back.

*Ting* *ting* x5

“Don’t stop Rusty, keep firing.” Ren shouted while he tried to slice Anton’s back with his glowing sword.

But as if Aton had eyes on the back of his head, he dodged the attack by jumping forward. But he didn’t forget to hold Rae’s hand which was sticking out from his shadow and pulled her out.

He not only did that but also sent him flying back toward Ren who was too engrossed in attacking him.

“Oh Ren!!” and they collided.

Anton didn’t let them rest and conjured a stone projectile over his palm and fired it toward the warrior who was coming to help them.

*Boom*

“Gwah!!”

The stone bullet stopped Raymond in his tracks. With his feet buried in the ground and his kite shield trembling awfully, he slid across back to his initial position.

Meanwhile a fire ball almost the size of a human chest went flying over Raymond’s back and collided with Anton.

*Boom*

The attack created a lot of smoke and Rose who had fire the magic smiled, thinking that she had succeeded, but then the smoke subsided and Anton came out unscathed.

“Good enough.”

And he conjured a dozen of those stone bullets, one of which was enough to seriously press their team warrior down and entirely take him out of the fight.

And he fired.

*SHU* x 10

The bullets flew at break neck speed. Ren and Rae who were at the front had the most difficulty dodging them. But because Rae had Thief class, which mostly emphasized on agility and dexterity, she was able to avoid them all. She jumped; Cart wheeled as stones passed through her arms, rolled and once again jumped using her hands to dodge past all four of the projectiles which had come her way.

She went straight flying toward Anton with a new dagger in her hand.

Meanwhile Ren used his sword to deflect the two which had reached him and slid across while charging his sword with mana to perform another mana strike.

Both Ren and Rea timing their strikes perfectly and because they were just some meters away from Anton, he couldn’t see what was happening behind them. But Anton looked at them smiling and moving his arms to break their resolution once and for all by taking their weapons away by give a chomp on their wrists to cancel their strikes.

But at that time, Rae vanished into the shadows and Ren jumped left with a Grin on his face, his teeth showing out and his.

Anton briefly looked at his smiling face, he couldn’t understand what they were going away after having come so near him, but then saw a huge ball of fire just two meters away from his face and his eyes opened wide in shock.

*BOOOOM*

That wasn’t the end though. Ren Put weight on in right leg and pressed down, his sword glowing bright he used all of his strength and slashed it in one smooth motion from left to right at Anton’s neck. But when his sword got stuck somewhere he understood that he had failed again.

Fire covered Anton completely, but after a yellow glow from his body the fire quickly subsided.

And Anton once again came out unscathed of the fight. Ren’s sword was grasped tightly between his teeth and his right hand which was straight and facing forward was giving smoke, while his left hand had once again found its target and was holding Rae’s wrist who was actively trying to shake it off.

Anton let go of Ren’s sword and spoke, “Okay, that’s enough.”

Hearing that Ren didn’t sheathe his sword at first, but then bowed and went back to where Raymond and Rose were. Rusty came out of the forest and gave Raymond an injection filled with red liquid to help him with his health regeneration.

*Clap* *Clap*

“Good job guys. That was excellent work. Now, I have no qualm about your ability to attack or about your team work, though Ren you should use your warrior more effectively. But you Raymond,”

While Raymond just stayed there in his crouching position. It had proved to be too difficult for him to constantly defend his party mage against the barrage of stone bullets that Anton had fired, but he had endured it somehow, though his bruised and blue arms, told his story clearly.

“Though as the main tank of your party, it is your duty to be at the front lines, but it is also important to protect your party mage and the highest damage dealing individual form damage. Good work.”

“Ren and Rae” they lifted their heads, “I didn’t see when you actually gestured for Rose to fire that supersize fireball and you Rose...” Rose pointed at herself and smiled wearily, “Who else. You actually went forward with the attack without questioning their ability to dodge. I can see why vice leader Rae said that your team work has improved. Good job everyone. You all did a splendid job, and I think you all are ready for your first mission.”

He patted their back and then looked back at Will who was starting at kids like mad. Then he looked back at the team and smiled.

“Now, I know that other than the mission you lot are also intrigued about who that boy is, right. Okay, Will come here.”

Will heard his name being called and he suddenly came out of his trance. He shook his head and then moved to stand just behind Anton.

“Okay will, introduce yourself to them and them what you saw today.”

Will stood up suddenly as if some had pushed a nail up his ass. He looked at the faces of his seniors and saw that though some were eagerly waiting to talk to him, others furiously staring at Anton. He took a deep breath and moved forward.

“Hello everyone, my name is will. I am a scout. Though this is my first time meeting you all, but I have to say you guys are fantastic.” His eyes sparkling and his fists clenched, he shook his head, “No, you all are too good! Especially Sir Raymond...!”

Raymond’s ears perked up, when he heard that.

“You know, I got goose bumps all over me when I saw that stone projectile colliding with your shield and I even thought that you were stupid for not dodging, when that absurd amount of bullets came your way…!” but then his voice got stuck in his throat, as his own spoken words circulated inside his head.

“No, no, I mean that you not moving, even in the face of danger, was a very commendable thing. If it was me, then I would have run away a long time ago. I’m sorry please don’t hurt me, you are a very brave person, I’m just a little scout and I don’t even taste good.”

Rae, Ren, Rusty and even Raymond giggled hearing that, and Anton had to stop him from making a fool of himself.

“Okay that’s enough introduction for you. Now tell them about the explosion.”

Hearing that it was finally time to know about their mission, they suddenly stopped laughing. Their eyes completely focused on Will, he again saw how serious this group was.

*Gulp*

And he recounted the same thing he had told the commander.

“So, it is a scouting mission, huh.”

Rae spoke when Will finished speaking.

Anton heard that and not denying her, finally gave them their first mission.

“Yes, auxiliary team no 8…” they all stood straight like posts, Anton recovered a white envelop secured with the seal a sword on fire and gave it to Ren who officially accepted it.

Anton nodded his head and spoke, “At this time you have been officially given your first mission. The time limit is three days. You have to report to the commander or me within the next three days with information regarding the site, cause, and observation and the result from your investigation.”

He then looked at Ren and seriously spoke, “Mr. Ren this mission is to investigate the cause of the disturbance. Will will move with you as your official scout. But remember This is not his mission, understand.” Anton, seeing that he had said all that he wanted to say, asked one last time, “Any doubts?”

“No, sir.” They replied back.

“Okay.” Anton smiled, “Then it’s time for me to go back.

Anton went back after giving them some useful suggestions.

For his speech as their superior officer, he said, “Sometimes It’s better to retreat in the face of death, than to die and burn all bridges for a successful revenge.”

He then smiled and vanished into the darkness.