A month passed since the students and Noboru both began their training. All of the students back at the castle had managed to acquire both Avatar and Summon Weapon, along with a few other abilities. Noboru on the other hand had failed to acquire either of those abilities, but made up for it by acquiring all of the other available abilities for heroes. His stats and level training from before and these abilities had taken him to a new height of power, one where he would be able to run toe-to-toe with some of the strongest on the frontlines of the war. He was still lacking compared to established fighters like Gaharad and Junior, but he was still a force to be reckoned with. Noboru pulled up his stats on a stat orb.

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Name: Noboru Tobe Age: 18

Level: 20

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Attributes:

Strength: 300

Agility: 340

Perception: 400

Intelligence: 385

Stealth: 200

Fortitude: 240

Vitality: 240

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Skills:

Hand-to-hand combat: Master,

Weapon Combat: Master, Combat

Strategy: Expert (Low-tier), Mapping:

Novice, Survival: Novice,

Elemental Manipulation: Adept

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Abilities:

?????, Sprint, Endurance, Sense

Presence, Muffle, Reinforcement

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With the exception of his abilities, his stat page was impressive, especially for his low level. This meant that at his max level his attributes would be well over one thousand, an almost unprecedented amount.

Junior looked at his stats from over his shoulder. “Mhm.” He nodded. “You’re ready for the frontlines now.” Noboru tilted his head slightly at that statement. “I thought I was supposed to be moving to a higher level hunting ground?” Junior simply smiled at his question. “You are, the frontlines ARE the higher level hunting ground.” Noboru’s eyes widened. “Wh-What did you just say?” He had heard Junior perfectly, but his mind refused to believe his ears. A warzone, being considered a hunting ground. Such a thought couldn’t be true right? At least Noboru thought so. But his naive beliefs were shattered rather quickly as Junior just smiled at him. “You’re serious?” Noboru asked when Junior didn’t answer for a while. The squad captain simply nodded before turning around and walking towards his tent. “We leave for the front tomorrow at dawn so you better prepare yourself.”

Oh. Noboru didn’t even bother verbalizing his surprise. People in this world are something else… and not in a good way. Noboru closed his stat screen and followed Junior to the tent. If they were leaving at dawn he would be needing all the rest he could get. When he entered the tent he saw Junior putting some orb back into his personal bag before he laid down to get some rest. Noboru didn’t question it.

Meanwhile, somewhere on the frontlines, three men and a woman were all huddled together. “Looks like Junior’s comin’ back sooner than expected. That brat he’s with is a quick study.” One of the men took a drag from something that looked like a cigarette, but was actually a non-toxic and biodegradable stimulant to help people stay awake for long periods of time. “Yeah, but that’s a good thing ain’t it? We need one more for the task, yeah?” The woman snickered. “He’s a whelp, let him get his first taste of blood before we rely on him.” The last man spoke, “Yes, I would agree with her. He is quite inexperienced. We must allow him to gain some in battle before he will be of any use to us.”

“Man, I hate when ya speak, you know that?” The man took another drag of his stimulant as he spoke. “I am well aware that you find my intellect unpleasant. In fact, I quite dislike your vernacular as well, but we must put up with it for now. Once the mission is complete, I will be quite happy to never see you again.”

“Pfft.” The woman laughed mockingly. “It ain’t your intellect that we find annoyin’, it's your haughtiness.” The man raised his eyebrow in disbelief. “I do believe your conclusion is incorrect but I digress, I shall take your opinion into account. Putting that aside, when will we be seeing this “brat” as you called him.”

The man who first relayed the information spoke up again. “Three days, they need half a day to get out of that damned forest they're in, and another two days of carriage hoppin’ and walkin’ to reach the front. We should be able to see him tussle a bit then.” The four people looked at one another. They may not get along all the time, but their interests aligned for now which made them all allies. And allies would need to scout out other possible allies right? For these four, scout means something entirely different from what one would normally expect. They smiled at one another, each wearing a dastardly, devilish grin that would put even the cheekiest person’s smile to shame. It would be a rough few days for Noboru when he arrives at the front.

Back at the castle, King John was in a rather jolly mood, at least, as jolly as an old stressed king could be. The summoned heroes were all progressing very quickly, he especially had his eyes on two of them. One of the boys, Orochi, had quickly taken to his summoned weapon, the dagger. His skills in stealth and assassination had shown themselves very quickly and were being honed by the castles very own covert squad. He quite liked this boy’s particular direction of growth, especially since the look in his eyes was one that the King liked. The other person that the King was watching was the exact opposite. Where Orochi specialized in his weapon, this hero had acquired almost all of the abilities, and was proficient in all of their uses. The hero was Yuriko, and while she could accurately shoot a bow, her summoned weapon, her real strength lay in her versatility. She trained to be able to adapt to any situation as quickly and effectively as possible. However, the King disliked her attitude. She did not listen to the people at the palace, she simply did what she needed to in order to get stronger. There was no respect or loyalty to the castle, and the King did not like that. That was why he called Grand Cardinal James to his quarters.

“James, it’s time to use Speech. We’ve separated them from the tenth, but their attitudes and loyalty are still not there.” James looked up from where he was bowed and bit his lip lightly. “This will make me unable to cast any other spells for the entire duration, and it could take months. Are you sure about this, Your Majesty?” King John nodded. “Yes, I hate to do this to you. I know it takes a lot out of you to constantly cast, but we need them to be absolutely loyal to the crown. Do it.” Cardinal James re-bowed his head, “Yes, Your Majesty, I will begin at once.” King John waved his hand, dismissing the Cardinal.

James left the King’s chambers and heaved a sigh. He understood the decision, and if he were in King John’s place he would have made the same call, but that thought didn’t make his coming task any easier. “To constantly cast for over a month straight… Will I be able to do this?” He wondered aloud, unaware of the presence listening to his self speech from the shadows. The King sat down on his bed as James left. The smile on his face just wouldn’t falter. All of his plans were coming to fruition, everything was going his way, or so he thought until someone materialized from the shadows in front of him.

“I heard your plan. I want in.” The figure spoke with a smirk on his face.

In the heroes’ barracks, Akane was having a nightmare. She was floating above an endless sea of black, that surged forwards and collapsed everything in its path. The very castle that she resided in was in the path of that sea of black, but there was nothing she could do but watch as that blackness slowly got closer and closer. Only one figure stood between the castle and the darkness, valiantly he stood and he drove the black sea to retreat. But before he could deal the final blow, he collapsed, a knife stuck in his back. When the blackness overtook his corpse a huge shadow arose, covering everything in its darkness. The sea of black and the castle both fell into shadow as it consumed all until nothing was left. And then it consumed itself.

Akane awoke in a cold sweat. She remembered that dream vividly, and her still heavily beating heart told her that she should not forget it any time soon. But just what does it mean? She asked, just before she caught herself. Wait a minute, why am I expecting a dream to mean anything. Just because we’re in a world with magic doesn’t mean my dreams suddenly mean something. Stupid Akane, stupid.

She closed her eyes to try to sleep, only to find that she wasn’t tired at all anymore. Groaning, she got up and went to have a midnight snack. A snack would help her calm down, though it wasn’t good for the figure to eat too much at midnight. When she got to the kitchen connected to their rooms, she saw Yuriko already sitting at the table, with a tired yet thoughtful look on her face. When Yuriko saw Akane approach she smiled and pushed the chair next to her out slightly. Accepting Yuriko’s invitation, Akane lightly pulled the chair out further and sat down. Yuriko pushed some of her snack towards Akane, it was a seasoned grain, similar to cereal, that Yuriko was eating on its own. Akane took a handful and leaned back in her chair before speaking.

“You couldn’t sleep either huh?” Yuriko shook her head, it seemed that in contrast to Akane waking up in the middle of the night, Yuriko hadn’t slept yet. Akane quickly picked up on the reason as to why. “You miss him huh?” Yuriko quickly looked up at Akane after that question was asked, before blushing slightly.

“Yeah.” she said in a quiet voice, looking away from Akane. Akane chuckled lightly at her embarrassment. “Yeah me too.” She said, in comfort. “Hey, do you wanna sleep with me tonight, I don’t want to be alone right now.”

Akane offered that half for Yuriko’s benefit and half for her own. She felt that Yuriko needed someone there with her in order to take her mind off of Noboru, and Akane was scared of returning to that dream that she had just awoken from. Yuriko nodded her head. “Please.” she said softly. Akane got up and offered Yuriko her hand. “Let’s go.” Yuriko took her hand and nodded slightly before rising from her seat. The two slept in each other’s arms, Akane had no bad dreams and Yuriko had no worries about Noboru.