◆ CLIFFSIDE CO-OP ◆ (Magic Training/DOPPO/Shane Stern)

Brows furrowed as he shielded his eyes from the blinding sun, Shane looked around him with a frown. There was nothing but flatland as far as he could see, the shimmering waves of heat reflected back from the ground causing a slight distortion to his view as he turned his head left and right to watch the proceedings. Rune Knights were everywhere on the barren landscape, grouped together with the general attention being paid to a makeshift stage to one side of the site, while they mingled around. The entirety of the Rune Knights here was either of the Combat Corps or the Special Ops, two groups of soldiers entrusted with different missions.

As far as he understood, they were merely specialized branches of the Rune Knights, without any notion of one being superior to the other. While in the past, missions had been carried out by a full team of members from the same division, the higher ups were finally willing to explore the feasibility of a cross-division team. A combination of Combat Corps and Special Ops personnel within a squad. Personally, Shane thought it would be a more efficient way, but anything new was still required to be tested out before applied to the field.

And this gathering here today was for that exact purpose. An obstacle course where they had to navigate as a squad, complimenting each other’s strength and compensating for the weaknesses. The higher ups had set it up to be a competition among multiple teams and as the announcement for the reward to the winner came up, the shouts and hurrahs arrived reached a booming crescendo. The atmosphere was infectious and Shane found himself grinning as well from the energy that was pouring out of everyone.

The only other eye-catching person in his squad was a redhead who, despite the raucous atmosphere, was appearing to be very calm. Shane recognized him from the invasion on the Rune Knight headquarters. He had been one of the few he had fought alongside. The silver-haired mage took it on himself to reply his question.

“So, we win this,” Shane replied in equal measure, in a very casual tone. “I don’t know if you remember, but we’ve met during the whole HQ invasion thing. I’m Shane Stern, Spec Ops.”

As they completed their introductions, Shane looked around again, observing the other squads taking up their starting positions. All of them were raring to go, like racehorses waiting to be released from their starting cages, ever eager to dash forward. The higher ups had mentioned that it was allowed for squads to deny other squads from finishing the challenge, that it was more than just a time-based event but lethal force was not allowed.

“Any ideas on how we are gonna proceed with winning this?”

466 / 2000 words

Shane wasn’t a really particular person that he would mind being called the wrong name if the person was doing it accidentally. In fact, he had been called plenty of times by a variety of variations on his name ranging from Shen to Shawn. And he decided to just play along with the guy, to see if he was doing it on purpose or he really had such a hard time remembering names.

“Nice to meet you too, Suzy,” Shane replied to the redhead and then nodded in response to the other two members of their team. It was a well-balanced squad in terms of their divisions, two from the Spec Ops and two from Combat Corps. But as far as how their magic would work in relation to each other’s or even basic cooperation, there was more to be seen. A bang reverberated through the entire landscape as the cheering suddenly came to a halt. Discipline had overtaken all the excitement of the moment, changing everyone into professionals once again.

The obstacles course was a gargantuan maze made entirely out of gray earth. The walls stood as high as fifty feet into the air and there were ten entrances that Shane could make out from where he stood. The squads could choose which entrance to take.

“Let’s go,” Shane suggested as they moved randomly towards one of the entrances. However, before they entered, Shane had purposely lagged behind the squad. A magic circle appeared in his palm and he flung two beams of light into the air. One was crimson while the other neon green. And then he followed his squad into the maze.

Up in the air, the two beams of light flashed into two winged creatures, large dragon-like creatures of folklore and legends, readily injecting fear into the wicked or inspiring courage in the brave, should they be seen. The crimson light had manifested into a red plated, winged wyvern which resembled a dragon in every aspect while the green light gave birth to a black scaled, winged wyvern as well with neon green streaks running through its body. It resembled a winged insect more than a dragon, but looks ferociously dangerous as well.

The two wyverns parted ways, snorting at each other but maintaining a certain sense of camaraderie despite their previous conflicts. On the ground, Shane’s eyes glowed red and then green for a second, easily missed by anyone not paying attention. The connection between the wyverns and him were complete. It was extremely disconcerting at first when he switched between the different views in only one eye, but if they were to come out of this maze as the winner, he would have to deal with it soon.

In the entire squad, Chiyuki was the only person who knew what he was doing and Shane tapped him on the shoulder when they reached a T-junction.

“Suzy, I’ve got aerial support and a bird’s eye view of the maze. We will meet with two teams currently battling it out if we go left. Going to the right will require us to take a detour around the outer wall of the maze before we can get back into the inner layers. Your call."

[1003 / 2000 words]

His head dipped slightly in a nod as Chiyuki took the lead to the left, straight into the fray. Personally it would have been his choice too, but he had never expected it from Chiyuki. From their first run-in at the Rune Knights HQ, it seemed that the man was capable of making more rational decisions and would often weigh out risks first. Regardless, that was that, nothing to waste his time thinking about further. He needed his mind to focus on the matter at hand.

They approached the ongoing battle, blasts of magic impacting against the walls and ground shaking the entire section of the maze. Despite choosing this route, the squad was keeping it cautious, silently edging over the walls to observe the battle between two squads. There was insufficient space for all of them to get a good view, and Shane withdrew to the wall. Closing his eyes, he then reopened, only for both his eyes to glow a dark crimson. He now had an aerial view of the entire maze, a few hundred feet above the obstacle course.

“What do you see?” a gravelly voice sounded in Shane’s mind.

“I need you to fly lower, hover above my location. I need to see the battle,” Shane replied through their mental link. At his instructions, the large red wyvern which had been soaring above the obstacle course in a clockwise direction, at opposite sides of the circular orbit with the other wyvern, began to dip lower and then spread out his wings wide to stop his descent, resuming its soaring state. The wyvern’s huge form cast a shadow on the particular area of the maze, but the people beneath were too occupied to notice.

Shane watched from an aerial perspective. A female Rune Knight had been sent flying out of the group combat, hit directly in the face but a misfired spell from her own teammate. The girl crumpled against the wall, unconscious while the battle raged on. Not wanting to wait for the battle to end and also not knowing Chiyuki’s intention for waiting, Shane terminated his mental link with the red wyvern, which resumed its higher altitude, keeping an eye on the whole maze.

Inhaling and exhaling deeply the moment the link was broken, Shane took a second to reorient his senses and then spoke to the team.

“I’m going to try something. They will most likely be stunned from this, but I need you guys to take care of the ones that don’t,” the silver-haired Rune Knight said to his team in an exhausted tone before closing his eyes. Shane then tried again to link with the other wyvern he had summoned. His eyes were luminous green this time, the moment he connected with the insect-like wyvern.

“What do you want?!!!” the wyvern boomed. It was particularly hostile against Shane, but had no means of resistance due to their summoning pact. Unlike the red wyvern, this particular one had submitted unwillingly to Shane, hence the aggression. But Shane chose to ignore it. He would find the time to slowly thrash it out with this testy guy after this test.

“You’re gonna like this. You see that two groups fighting in front of me? I want you to swoop down and shower them with lightning. Just enough to stun them,” Shane ordered.

“Heh, that’s more like it,” the green wyvern scoffed before carrying out the orders. Unlike the red wyvern’s gentle descent, the green one was in full attack mode. With a flap of its wings to break out of its soar, the green wyvern then angled his body downwards, wings tucked to his side as he divebombed towards the ground. Green lightning crackled around his body, most prominently his wings, and at the very last moment, the green wyvern fully extended his wings, arresting his fall and subsequently raining down bolts of green lightning on the Rune Knights locked in combat.

Boom after boom erupted in the section of the maze on the side of the wall as they were bombarded. Shane watched through the green wyvern’s eyes as the beast pulled up from its dive before making a turn in the air and swooped back down. But this time, it was merely for surveillance. The sudden onslaught had managed to take out a few of them, but there were still three more Rune Knights that were either lucky or possessed quick reflexes still standing. The rest were all on the ground, remnants of the lightning bolts crackling through their bodies.

“Go go go!” Shane urged the moment he returned from the mental link. He stumbled backwards from the mental strain, leaning against the wall for support before straightening back up to join his squad.  

[791 words]
[Total WC: 1791 / 2000]

It didn’t escape Shane’s notice that Suzy had stayed back. A cursory glance told him that his squad member probably had a plan of his own, with him moving purposefully and around the battle that would soon to erupt. Despite having only worked together once, Shane knew that the redheaded mage would have his own strategy to contribute to their battle. What really warranted his attention was the incoming team of three Rune Knights, the leftovers from Asthalos’ attack, the green lightning wyvern that had been summoned by Shane.

Charging straight into them with equal ferocity at the trio, Shane was engaging them in melee combat. Somehow one of the three were strong enough to take on his other squad members, forcing Shane to take two. The three of them traded blows, with Shane constantly on the move to keep the battle moving and to avoid giving them any opportunities, but as the exchange of blows continued on, the two opposing Rune Knights would find their fists start to sore as though they were punching at trees.

However, in this case, they were punching at scales. Scales of diamond-like shapes were layered upon Shane’s clothes, the toughness of the scales absorbing the impact. Aside from using the wyverns as summons, Shane was also capable of using them with Takeover magic, allowing him to take on their partial properties of the wyverns. Two loud report thundered out and Shane urgently looked in Doppo’s direction.

He was relieved when he recognized it was a rifle in the man’s hands as the latter began reloading with a lack of urgency. In the moment that Shane had been distracted the two Rune Knights attempted to clothesline him simultaneously. But a mental voice had warned him.

“Keep your eyes on the battle, Stern,” the red one growled lazily as he swept above the battlefield, casting a great shadow upon them.

“Thanks for the heads-up,” the Rune Knight replied gratefully, the scales extending from his upper arms down to his fingers, talons forming at his fingertips. Shane grabbed both their outstretched arms by the wrists with his clawed fingers, letting out a sly smile as the two of them were caught by surprise. Shane braced himself, still holding their two arms as they failed to stop their momentum and ran past him comically with only their lower body moving forward while their upper body jerked to a stop.

With a growl, Shane tightened his grip on their arms and lifted them up into the air before slamming them back down into the ground. His entire upper body was now covered in scales lined with yellow cracks, giving him a bestial appearance.

The other Rune Knights that had been shocked by Astalos’s rain of lightning never got up, succumbing for unconsciousness.

“No time to lose, let’s go. We got a race to win,” Shane called out towards Doppo. He was disregarding the two other members of his squad. They were out of their league, and all they had to do was make sure they could cooperate well with Shane and Doppo. As he said that, the larger of the two wyverns, the red one swooped down and landed behind Shane, tucking in its wings as it approached the team.

“Get on,” Shane said to Doppo. “You are going to need a better vantage point if you want to keep at using that weapon. He will carry you into the skies above us where you can provides us with better cover fire.”

[Personal WC: 2375 / 2000]