“Yes, well no time for that,” Alistair said calmly as he carried the unconscious Kyle back over to Yuliah while the remaining Psionbats were still surprised by his sudden appearance. “You take care of this one and I’ll see if I can’t clean up the neighbourhood a bit, shall I?”

“That would be great,” Yuliah replied, a small smile creeping over her face despite the stressful situation. Once upon a time Alistair had been a skilled Adventurer himself but he had retired a few years ago when he had lost an eye to a particularly powerful monster. Alistair was currently working at the Adventurers guild as a manager, which meant that he made sure that the Adventurers who frequented the establishment didn’t get too out of hand and was well-known for his ability to settle disputes, by force if necessary. He was also known as an excellent information dealer because of his connections within the Church of Larchius which he was a middle-ranked member of.

The students who were also familiar with the man who had taken a couple of classes on the responsibilities of Adventurers and rules that they had to follow in certain situations started muttering as they hadn’t heard that the bookish looking middle-aged man had once been a respected Adventurer.

“Is Kyle alright?” Fi asked in a panicked tone of voice as Alistair placed her partner down in front of Yuliah and Hal who was also looking over Alistair’s shoulder with a worried expression nodded his agreement.

“Yes, he’ll be fine,” Yuliah replied. “He might be unconscious for a while though.”

“Oh, thank goodness!” a high-pitched voice interrupted, and everyone present turned towards the source which was the tiny winged woman who had stepped out of some sort of portal with the man’s companion but she ignored their questioning looks as she flitted over to Alistair’s side. “I’ll help you defeat these monsters, it’s the least that I can do.”

“Wait, what are you doing here?” asked a bewildered Hal who recognised her as the strange being that had apologised to them in the Dungeon. “Actually, scratch that, what the hell are you?”

“Well that’s complicated,” The winged woman replied. “Let’s just say that I’m here to help and leave it at that for now.”

“Alright Puck, you can help,” Alistair sighed. “Just try not to make a bigger mess of the situation than you already have please.”

“Heyyyyy,” Puck whined as Alistair turned towards the remaining Psionbats that were beginning to regroup. “Not cool.”

Alistair seemingly ignored her response, although it was difficult to tell since his face was covered in what appeared to be liquid shadow like the rest of his body and instead made a quick gesture that caused several tentacles of the same shadowy substance to erupt from the ground and spear two of the monsters. Seeing that she was losing her chance to show off Puck flew upwards before turning towards the remaining three Psionbats and showering them with obsidian needles that penetrated their bodies with the same ease as a hot knife through butter.

Seeing how easily these two dealt with the monsters that had caused them so much trouble was quite demoralising for many if the students present but they soon realised that they didn’t have time to worry about that when a loud screech echoed overhead.

“Oh boy, how did this one get through?” Alistair asked rhetorically as he looked up at the massive shape swooping down towards them. He instantly recognised this new monster as a Thunderbird and leapt back as one of the lightning bolts that gave it its name crashed down where he had been mere moments before. His companion immediately Identified the monster and sent the information Alistair’s way. As it turned out this Thunderbird was a Level 42 boss class monster which made it much more threatening than any monster that Alistair had killed so far today. Incidentally that also made it the most powerful monster that he had fought in almost 10 years which made a smile cross his face, not that anyone could see it as it was hidden under the magic that covered his body.

His skills had been getting a little rusty recently; not many people wanted to cause trouble in the Guildhall when he was around, not since the time Alistair had removed a man’s right hand when he had assaulted one of the receptionists in the Guild before proceeding to beat both the man whose hand he had cut off and the members of the man’s party who had taken offence at the sudden attack to trembling wrecks with his bare hands so he was looking forward to even the slight challenge that this new monster posed him.

Seeing the new attacker Yuliah instantly cast one of the most powerful defensive spells that she could to protect the students and the people inside the school building from any stray lightning bolts and swayed slightly from the depletion of her MP before turning back to the unconscious Kyle. Like she had said he was going to be fine when he woke up but there was something that she could do to try and speed his wakening, She didn’t have much MP left now but there was a channelled spell that she could cast with what regen she had that should help him

Kyles’ friends watched on as Yuliah placed a hand on his forehead and started muttering a prayer to her goddess repeatedly before looking out towards the strange glowing white building that now covered them, this was the form that Yuliah’s defensive spell which was called House of the Goddess had taken. It was a strangely fragile looking thing but even those who hadn’t unlocked the Mana Manipulation Skill could feel the power radiating off of it.

“He’s always doing things like this,” sighed Sonia as she looked down at her friend.

“Yeah,” Hal chuckled weakly. “But that’s part of what makes Kyle who he is and besides if he wasn’t like this then you wouldn’t be here today.”

“True,” Sonia admitted. “But that’s why it hurts so much to see him injured like this.”

“This is what he wants you two,” Fi told them quietly. “He made the decision the night that we met that he wanted to be someone who would risk his lie to protect others and he made that become a reality today.”

“Yes, he did very well,” Yuliah agreed as she stopped chanting to take part in the conversation and regenerate some Mana. “You all did.”

Hal nodded his agreement with Yuliah’s statement. He was also pleased with how the students and Sonia’s friends had held up under the attacks of the monsters but soon his thoughts returned to his unconscious friend.

Unlike Kyle it had never been Hal’s dream to become an Adventurer, he was happy to train and fight monsters but what he really wanted to do was create weapons and armour for those who were better at that sort of thing than he was. People like Kyle, in fact it was Kyle that had given him the idea in the first place.

Hal had always had difficulty making friends with the other kids in the village because he was usually helping his father in the forge but one day, he had come across a much younger Kyle who was being attacked by some of the other village kids. As far as fights between kids it was pretty normal if surprisingly one sided, Kyle had been training with his father for several months by this point and was able to fend off the four kids who were trying to beat him up much better than Hal himself would’ve been able to. When Hal had asked what was going on two of the other children had decided that he was trying to get them to stop attacking Kyle and had started moving towards him.

Now even back then Hal was larger and stronger than any of the other kids in the village so he hadn’t been too worried about the threat of violence from the less intimidating boys but even he was taken by surprise when Kyle had wrapped his arms around one of the boys which drew their attention back to him and he had ended up with two bruised eyes and a bloody nose by the time he and Hal had fought the other boys off while Hal was almost untouched. This wasn’t because he didn’t take part in the fight but rather because Kyle had continuously taken the brunt of the attacks from the other boys. Naturally both of their parents had been quite upset with them when they had made their way back to Hal’s home but a few days later when Hal had asked Kyle why he had tried to protect Hal when he could’ve quite easily just finished off the other two boys that had continued to attack him and run away.

Kyle had stared at him silently for a few seconds before replying that the four boys that they had been fighting had attacked him and Hal had just got wrapped up in the fight by accident. As far as Kyle was concerned that meant that he had a responsibility to make sure that Hal wasn’t injured because of him. A bemused Hal had shaken his head and replied that he hadn’t thought of things that way and thanked Kyle. After that the two boys had talked more and more often before eventually becoming friends.

Once they had become friends Hal asked why Kyle was so good at fighting, Kyle had then explained that he wanted to become an Adventurer like both of his parents and Hal had decided to ask his parents’ permission to train alongside him. Naturally his parents had been hesitant at first but eventually they had caved and allowed it. Bernard had even helped out a bit when he wasn’t working in the forge.

Eventually most of Hal’s other friends either stopped hanging out with him or started training with him and Kyle. Later on, Sonia herself joined them, she was a very quiet almost frightened girl when Hal and her had first met and it was spending time with him and Kyle’s other friends that had caused her to grow into the vital young woman that was the centre of attention wherever she went. Hal had no regrets about any of the decisions that he had made regarding Kyle who had turned out to be a loyal friend and a better person than most of the other people that he had met over the years.

The group did have a few run ins with the guards over the years but due to their relationship with Kyle and his family but even the most fanatical of Denzel’s guards weren’t able to prove that they had done anything wrong in any of those situations (which they hadn’t) and Warren had put his foot down and told them to stop which had only increased the tension between Denzel and Kyles’ family.

And seeing his friend in the state that he was in now only firmed Hal’s resolve to become the best blacksmith (and more recently leatherworker) that he could be so that his friend could be as safe as possible despite the dangers of his desired profession.

Meanwhile outside of the glowing white building that Yuliah had conjured Alistair was letting the Thunderbird wear itself out by keeping its attention with some weak spells while dodging the powerful lightning bolts that the massive monster launched at him. Normally dodging lightning bolts was all but impossible, even for someone with Stats as high as Alistair’s were right now with Puck buffing them and while he had his Nightstalker’s Shroud (which was the shadowy energy that covered his body) active. The only reason that he could do so was that the thunderbird’s metallic blue and gold feathers crackled with electricity immediately before it launched an attack. This was part of the reason that Alistair was convinced that this Thunderbird was a ‘wild’ monster as opposed from a former resident of the Dungeon.

“Hey Alistair, maybe stop messing around, if more monsters start showing up that would be a pain,” grumbled his companion.

“Yeah I was just thinking that Rick,” chuckled Alistair as he conjured a tentacle of darkness from his hand that pulled him up towards the monster that was flying overhead and landed on its back before conjuring more of the shadowy tentacles that wrapped around the Thunderbird’s body and pinned its wings to its sides.

Once the Thunderbird’s wings were pinned the monster fell out of the sky somewhat slower than was normal, this was because the Thunderbird like most oversized flying monsters used magic to increase its ability to stay aloft, this subconscious use of magic wasn’t enough to keep it aloft by and only aided its ability to fly. It was however enough for the Thunderbird to avoid being badly injured by the fall.

Alistair, who had ridden monster all the way down then started to cut away at the Thunderbird’s plumage, with two knives that crackled with obsidian energy as they emerged from the shroud of magic that coated his body. This was one of the effects of using Nightstalker’s Shroud; when active the spell allowed melee weapons to ignore some of the defences of anything that they were used against. Nightstalker’s Shroud also had several other effects such as allowing the user to teleport between shadows short distances which would usually require them to cast a separate spell, increased Stats like Dexterity and Agility and allowed the user to ignore a certain amount of most types of damage. Nightstalker’s Shroud was one of the most powerful spells that could be learned by a Priest of Larchius, although as it was the spell that he specialised in Alistair would contest that it was in fact the most powerful. If anyone could see the way that his knives were cutting through the monster’s metallic feathers they might even agree.

A Thunderbird’s feathers were made of an extremely hard and relatively light alloy that was extremely good at conducting electricity, the monster created this alloy by devouring different metals, which were usually in the form of weapons that either it or its parents took from the corpses of those who tried to hunt them down. This metal would then be mixed with the monsters Mana as it was absorbed like any other form of sustenance until its body was coated in metallic feathers, as the creature aged these feathers would be replaced with ones made from a stronger and more conductive alloy.

However even the feathers of this individual were no match for Alistair’s knives when they had been enhanced by his Nightstalker’s Shroud and soon, he had shredded through to the creature’s tough skin while the Thunderbird was still stunned by its fall.

As the monster realised what was going on it started struggling against the tentacles that bound it forcing Alistair to dismount from his position so that he wasn’t crushed by the monster’s body. Seeing that he had managed to create a bare patch of flesh Puck started casting attack spells ranging from the obsidian needles that she had used against the Psionbats to beams of energy that tore through the Thunderbird’s flesh with surprising ease causing the creature to shriek in pain as its feathers crackled with electricity again which started arcing out of its body towards its attacker.

“Ah, jeez,” Rick grumbled as he raised a paw to conjure a shimmering blue barrier that blocked the lightning. He wasn’t that fond of fighting, which made sense since he had the form of a Giant Sloth and mostly focussed on support-type abilities but he did have a couple of combat abilities like the Mana Barrier that he was using now which was far more powerful than the ones that any of the students could create. “Hurry it up, will you?”

Alistair shot an amused glance at his companion just as the Thunderbird tore its wings free of the shadowy tentacles that dissipated back to nothing. Despite his advantage in terms of Levels this monster was still a boss which meant that it was far more powerful than just its Level would suggest which combined with its ability to fly made it a relatively challenging opponent to fight for him as he mostly specialised in melee combat but he had to admit that Rick was right. He had already removed the feathers on an area of the creature’s body which was bleeding freely from the wounds that Puck had created with her magic so he should now be able to hit a vital organ with a magically enhanced attack.

Activating a new spell that caused the two knives that he was currently wielding to change into two long rapiers Alistair leapt at the Thunderbird and started hopping off Mana Barriers that his companion summoned underneath his feet to avoid the attacks of the Thunderbird as Puck continued to batter the unfortunate creature with her magic before activating a Skill called Duellist’s Rush that increased both his attack speed and piercing damage for a few seconds and started stabbing so quickly that both of his arms turned into blurs as he hung in mid- air next to the monster, each stab making the wound deeper causing more blood to spray into the air and slowly turn the shadowy magic that covered his body red.

The Thunderbird faltered under the sudden and powerful assault as the attacks started tearing at the muscles that allowed it to flap its massive wings and this time when it fell it landed with the crunching sound of breaking bones and a strangled gurgle as Alistair’s rapiers finally hit something important.

Not believing that this would be enough to finish off the powerful monster Alistair didn’t stop his assault until he had chewed a massive hole in the Thunderbird’s flank and pulverised as many of its organs as he possibly could before he stopped. His chest heaved as he stepped out from the corpse, leaving a trail of blood and offal in his wake before he deactivated his Nightstalker’s Shroud.

As the magic peeled away from his body and flowed back into his shadow it left a mess of gore on the ground surrounding him that made the surprisingly plain looking man wrinkle his nose in disgust before he gingerly stepped over it.

“Not bad,” complimented Puck as she floated towards him. “I’ll be sure to let Larchius know that you were extremely helpful in my report.”

“I would’ve done this whether you were here or not,” Alistair pointed out. “That’s what Adventurers do after all.”

“Now then,” Alistair continued, the tone of his voice changing from the polite tones he had been using with the small flying woman up until now to a much more irritated one. “Do you think you can explain what you’re doing here and why you’re so interested in that young man?”

As Puck looked into Alistair’s eyes, she noticed that they were very different from each other, while they both had the same icy blue colouring one seemed to almost be lit from behind by the intensity of the man’s gaze but the other felt blank and soulless as it stared at her from its scarred socket. This was because it was made of glass that had been enchanted to allow Alistair to see by channelling a small amount of Mana into it. It also had several other enchantments including one that would allow him to ‘see’ when someone was being untruthful, not that it would work on someone as powerful as Puck. Most people didn’t even know that he had a glass eye as he usually wore glasses at work because he knew how unsettling the thing was to look at.

Puck gulped slightly, being a servant of a god she had a much higher Level than the man before her but he was far more capable in a fight as opposed to her who was extremely stealthy and skilled at illusions but had a limited repertoire of combat magic so if he was really upset with her then she wasn’t entire certain that she could stop him, not when he was within arm’s reach anyway.

“Well you see, about that.”