“Everybody is here?” A cultist asked Mahon as he eyed the hundreds of people grouped in front of them.

“I think so.” Mahon answered.

Mahon’s interlocutor was an inner cultist, and with a few others, they were in charge of the attack on the no-dream pill storage. It was the first operation big enough Mahon actively needed to order cultists around, as he was now part of the leading group.

“Pass the word then. We’re leaving in three minutes. Make sure everyone has the necessary equipment to burn the place down and fight his way out.”

Mahon nodded and walked between the groups of cultists waiting silently in one of their biggest hideouts. He moved from one group to another, passing the order to men and women whose eyes were burning with fervor and enthusiasm, although Mahon noticed some sweaty hands and shaky legs.

Most were nervous and yet the mood was so full of camaraderie it made Mahon want to kill them all right now. They were excited as if they were going to do some enjoyable activity, but they were planning to sow chaos in the city and murder anyone who would try to oppose them.

Unless they were killed first.

“Mahon!” A woman called him. “I’ll be at the rear with you.”

“Selphie, right?” Mahon asked.

“Yes!” The cultist answered. “We need to make sure everyone goes in the right direction… And deal with any problem chasing behind us, that’s it?”

Mahon acquiesced. The woman had joined the inner cultist in the batch before him, and from what he had heard, she was one of the few competent fighters. Together, they ordered the nearby groups of cultists to get ready, and a minute later, the group left their hideout and started running through the streets, towards their target.

They were too numerous to hope to escape the city guard patrols, but with their number, they also knew they could quickly overwhelm any guards thrown their way. Still, they tried to be as silent as they could in the beginning to avoid unnecessary complications.

Mahon watched the cultists run in front of him as he closed the convoy with Selphie. The students had planned to ambush the cultists as soon as they got out of their hideout, as it was the safest way to avoid collateral damages. Since Mahon knew their exact path to the no-dream pills’ storage, it had been easy to find a street where they would be able to trap the whole troop.

The cultist ran unknowingly towards their death, showing the same enthusiasm with which they planned to destroy Ratho. Soon, a clamor was heard from the front of the convoy, and Selphie grew nervous. The ambush had started. They didn’t see it directly, but the cultists in front of them stopped moving forward.

“What’s happening? It’s too big to be just a patrol, right?” Selphie started to worry. “Do we need to find another way?”

Alas, she didn’t even make two steps backward that a group of Pine Hill students appeared behind them to block the cultist’s escape. The location of the ambush wasn’t random, and the students had trapped the cultist in a section of the street with no perpendicular streets. There were only two ways to go, and both were now blocked by armed students.

“The Pine Hill Institute!” Selphie quickly understood what had happened. “They knew we would pass here! There is a snitch… Mahon, the whole operation is compromised! We need to escape and warn the other group!”

She threw a determined look at Mahon, hoping they could pull off a miracle together and pass through the student’s barrage. Mahon looked back at her, emotionless, and walked towards the students, his sword still in its sheath.

“Mahon?” The cultist asked, unsure.

“Mahon!” Zac called from the approaching group of students.

Without waiting for an answer, he threw his duo his spear and First Green badge. Mahon grabbed them as the cloth wrapped around his weapon started to unfold, showing the sharp blade hidden underneath. He hooked the badge over his clothes and finished unwrapping his spear before turning to face Selphie.

The inner cultist’s face changed into a hideous grimace as understanding dawned on her. “It’s you! How could you betray us like that? You swore to the Fada!” The woman started to yell. “You’ve signed your death warrant. There are more than three hundred of us! You will not be able to trap us here for long. And then you’ll regret turning your back to us. We’ll torture you and kill all your relatives slowly in front of you. We’ll…”

Mahon spear whipped at the frenzied woman. She took a step back reflexively, and it saved her. The shining spear brushed her throat, a few centimeters away from ending her life.

“You’re not strong enough to make such threats.” Mahon eyed the cultist with a merciless look.

With her left hand, Selphie touched her throat where the spear had grazed her. The hand came back bloody. Mahon saw a drop of sweat rolling on the woman’s face as her face twisted into a heinous grimace.

“I’ll kill you!” She yelled as she charged straight at Mahon.

She never reached him. Mahon stabbed straight at her, forcing the woman to dodge to the side. She avoided the strike in a swift move, only to be smashed by the back of Mahon’s spear. The little metal rings reinforcing the wooden hilt crushed her knee inwards, and she collapsed.

The woman didn’t have time to realize what had happened that the spear’s cutting edge came back in a flash and pierced through her throat. She was dead even before she touched the ground, her sword ringing out loud as it fell on the pavement.

Further away, some of the cultists had started to turn back and witnessed the scene with a stunned look. Mahon turned to face them, unfazed, as the Pine Hill students grouped with him to block the cultist’s escape. Zac walked to his side, the sword Mahon had brought him from the armory already unsheathed and pointed at the cultists.

There were approximately twenty students at the rear to prevent the cultist from running away, while Jorik’s main force slaughtered the cultist at the front. All in all, seventy students were facing more than three hundred cultists. The numbers weren’t in their favor, but the students had trained together for months at the Pine Hill Officer Institute. They were ready for this.

The cultists’ frenzied faces showed no hint of fear as they charged the students while yelling profanities. The students broke into duos and started their work. The only advantage of the cultists was their number, and the students had already neutralized it by engaging in a small street and blocking their ways out. The massacre just started.

A group of frenzy cultists immediately went to attack Mahon and Zac, and the duo held its ground, ready for the assault. Exchanging hand signals, Mahon communicated with Zac on their strategy just before the cultists reached them.

Zac parried an incoming sword and immediately counterattacked with a piercing strike. He aimed for the heart, and the cultist didn’t even see it coming. Zac froze for a second as his sword cut through his opponent and ended the cultist's life in a single strike. Even Zac had expected more resistance than that.

Alas, the cultists weren’t trained soldiers. They didn’t train day after day during Slander’s harsh lesson, nor did they benefit from Mahon’s personal tutelage. At this point, Zac was nowhere near the level he had when he had met the Fada cultists with their First Red roommates. Only months had passed since then, but Zac's fighting prowess had grown at least tenfold.

Yet, he still froze at how easy it had been to kill a man, and if not for Mahon, it could have cost him dearly. Mahon had seen death at every step of his life, and he knew how to deal with it. He pushed back the dead cultist with his foot, freeing Zac’s sword at the same time. He stabbed forward, and his spear found its way to another cultist, ending his life in a single strike.

“Focus, Zac. We’re not training anymore.” He said to his friend, and Zac quickly recollected himself.

He fixed his posture and parried another strike aimed at him. Mahon repeated his simple stab forward, forcing the cultist to block. Zac jumped on the opportunity and finished the man in one swift strike. The cultists were numerous. Alas, they weren’t fighting together as the students were.

They acted like a bunch of individualists grouped together. They didn’t look around or try to help or pair with their comrades. Instead, they threw themselves forward without a care. The students, however, fought with grace and awareness. They knew they had to rely on their duo and the whole group to survive through this fight.

Against the cultists, they were an impassable deadly wall, pushing back every single attempt with their teamwork and expertise.

Mahon kept an eye open to his surroundings as he fought alongside Zac to block the cultist’s escape. The longer the battle lasted, the more fanatic the cultist grew. They started to realize they were fighting for their life, and even though they didn’t face many opponents, they could all die here.

They grew furious, raged and yelled. They tried to push as hard as they could or group to launch bigger attacks. In the end, they all died the same. The students were killing them with an eerie efficiency, crushing the cultists’ hope a bit more with each repelled assault.

Here and there, an inner cultist with slightly more skills managed to hold its own a bit longer, but they always ended up joining their dead comrades on the ground. Against a trained duo, even an inner cultist couldn’t do much. The students showed no mercy for the cultists, as per Ravatoris’ order not to make any prisoner.

The only valuable targets were Belanor, Maïa and Oncith, but only because Ravatoris wanted to kill them himself. The rest wasn’t worth his attention, and for their crimes, they had been deemed to die.

At some point, the students started to move forward to reach the last cultists trying to hold their ground in the middle of the street. The fanatics fought until the end, but the students had been too much for them. Mahon’s group, tasked with holding the rear, met the main force of students dealing with the front between piles of corpses as an eerie silence marked the cessation of hostilities.

“Good job, Mahon.” Jorik said as he saw him. “Ready to run to the next battle?”

Mahon looked around him as the few students that got hurt during the fights were taken care of. There had been no deaths among their ranks.

“Do we even need to go?” He asked. “Given what happened there, the same fate awaits the cultist at the factory.”

“You said the stronger cultists would be at the factory. Even if they’re not that good, it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Jorik retorted, and Mahon resigned himself to another slaughter.

Massacring cultists hadn’t bothered him, given what they had done and plotted, but it still wasn’t something he was fond of.

“Stay there and burn the bodies while we join the second operation.” Jorik ordered a First Yellow before gesturing to a few people to follow him.

A group of twenty students ran alongside the First Black in the direction of the no-dream pill factory. None of them were below First Green.

Mahon glanced at his side, and Zac smiled back at him. His friend looked exhausted but determined. They both knew they needed to end it. In a sense, it had started with them and their First Red roommates months ago, and it was only fair that they were the ones dealing the final blow.

Halfway to the factory, a student went forward to meet them, as planned. They needed to maintain communication between the two operations, and some students acted as scouts going back and forth. As soon as the scout saw Jorik, she went directly to him and ran to their side while reporting the situation.

“We have found the second group of cultists on their way to the factory.” The woman reported. “Approximately four hundred cultists, and given their pace, you’ll be able to reach them before they attack the factory.”

“Perfect.” Jorik answered. “Have you already localized the main targets? Belanor, Maïa or Oncith?”

“Not yet, First Black. There are too many people. But we did find the perfect place to trap them. A similar location to the one we found for the first ambush. It’ll be a piece of cake to block them there and kill them all.”

“Perfect. Lead us there so that we end this once and for all.” He ordered, and the group followed along.

Mahon glanced at Zac, and he could see in his friend’s eyes that he shared the same uneasy feeling as him. They had dealt with cultists before. Mahon and Zac had spent hours deciphering the Fada cult to better understand them. In a way, they could say they understood them. And something didn’t feel right.

“Isn’t it a bit too easy?” Zac voiced aloud what they both thought.