The hive

'We're getting tired...'

Upon hearing a familiar voice coming from behind him Frederick turned around. Only to see Archibald Grimwold, a heavily armored knight and leader of the skilled mercenary group 'Cinderella' which was a strange name considering their occupation. Something that Frederick still was curious about, and wanted to ask for some time now. However considering where they were and what was going on he still didn't got the chance to actual inquiry Archibald about it.

Together with this group and a band of mages they were send out to the small farming settlement of Haywood. A village located in the Serene Cliff and mostly inhabited by peaceful folks like farmers, and some hunters. People whose daily life was so mundane that most of them still couldn't fully grasp what was actually going on.

For the last three days the town was heavily under attack by a massive group of goblins, small humanoid creatures whose only reason to exists was to create chaos. Normally when these pests were spotted they would be immediately dealt with, only to make sure that their nest would grow so large that the goblins were forced to to venture away from their normal territory. However this time that was not the case, for years there had been a nest in these regions that had escaped the Rune Knights sight. And in those years the creatures had the chance to spawn extremely well, that their numbers eventually grew in the hundreds.
This however meant that local wildlife wouldn't be enough anymore to sustain them, so the creatures weren't left any other choice then to attack the nearest settlement.

'Yeah, their attacks are irregular' replied Frederick. 'They seem to attack whenever it pleases them, it forces us to stay on our guard during night time as well'
Frederick who has been here for three days already started to feel it too, the small amount sleeping hours plus the continues fighting started to take it's toll on him and the others around this place. However there was hope, later on this day a small coalition of guilds, among which his own guild Sabertooth, would send more mages to help and defend this place.

'When they new mages arrive here we need to form some sort of plan, something better then just sitting here and defend ourselves' said Archibald trying to keep the conversation going. 'We need to find some way to break through their lines and send a small strike force into their nest and kill their queen.'

'Goblins don't have a queen, they have some sort of shaman who functions as the brain of the nest. Something with more intellect then these other pests'

"Goblins... This important job has me on my way to deal with some midget goblins...?" Cirven grunted out as he traveled in a cart with two other Sabertooth mages that he had come to know some during their trip. Riya was a red-haired girl with an attitude that matched her hair. She seemed to be pretty selfish about most things and already had gained a dislike for Cirven and his constant talking. The other mage was a older man named Vire who wore a cloak that covered most of his body with a face that looked to be aging well for how old he was. He read over the paper that told him of his assignment as he continued to speak. "It just sounds like something that they should have been able to deal with already, right?"

"Cirven! I'm trying to rest here! Shut up!" The redhead yelled out as she laid her head on the door of the cart. On the right side of her neck was a symbol for Sabertooth that matched her hair."He is right though Riya. It is weird that we were called together in such a way to deal with a problem that is usually pretty simple." The older man of the three spoke out before Cirven could yell back at the girl. "Damn it Riya! You have been resting this entire time! Wake up and talk some. Its so boring otherwise in here." He flicked the paper around in his hand as he yelled back at her.

"Now, now children. Calm down before I put you both in time out." Both Cirven and Riya took their focus off of each other and projected it towards Vire after his comment. "Shut up!" Both of them yelled at him then gave each other a scowl and ignoring each other. Cirven went back to reading over the job again while Riya closed her eyes. Vire stayed silent as they neared their destination.

The moment the small group arrived at the settlement they had the chance to gaze upon the destruction the goblins had caused. Most of the farm lands in the surrounding areas were destroyed, and the buildings itself definitely had seen better days. The sty's weren't even sty's anymore, their entire purpose of holding cattle was being replaced to that of a barrack. So that the mages that were already present had some place to rest. And the only thing that kept the settlement itself separate with that of the Goblin Horde was nothing more then a poorly made palisade wall.

The moment the cart entered the encampment, a merc soldier would immediately walk up to them. Just like Archibald he wore an heavily plated armor, only his was more grayish and didn't had and distinctive colors.
'Sabertooth mages huh, Lord Frederick did say something about that. Anyway he and Archibald are probably near the barracks, they'll provide you with the necessary info...'

As the neared their destination the cart slowed down so that it could maneuver around the debris caused in the attacks that had not been picked up yet. Some of the things blocking the way were dead cattle. Cirven stared out the window with a concerned look for what he saw. "Looks worse than the job had said. Almost like a major storm came through here and caused havoc for the residents. That wall doesn't look like it can hold much back at all."

"Little midgets caused this.." Cirven mumbled out as he looked at a home that had been ravaged presumably by the goblins. The door was ripped from its hinges and the windows were all shattered. Riya looked at the destruction in silence while her face was void of emotion.

The trio got off of their ride with a new found resolve to help the people in the area more than they had felt to before. "This way, right...?" Cirven walked the way the armored merc had shown them. Along the way were the people who looked like most of them had not been able to shower in days while some looked like sleep was something they skipped out on every night. Not too long later they would arrive at the barracks and find Fredrick with the more colorful armored merc, Archibald. "Cirven Mizune of Sabertooth, reporting... Least I think that is what I'm supposed to say."

Vire smiled at the young man's comment. "Vire Lanhern at your service." Riya shook her head to Cirven then nodded to the two men with a short bow of respect. "Riya Scorcie. Here to help."

'Ah you're here...' said Archibald with a grand smile on his face, which however quickly faded away when he realized that there were only three mages. 'hmm Frederick, I thought you said your guild would be sending in reinforcements?'

Frederick, who still hadn't said anything did nothing more then glare at the three of them. Silently assessing who they were, and what their possibly potential could be. Back in the day Frederick knew every mage under his command, their age, their habits and more importantly their power. But now that he was a part of Sabertooth he barely made any contact with the other mages, so besides just some of the basic stuff he knew barely nothing.
'Well, to be honest I expected a few more as well. But if Mister Mizune here is as half as good as his sister then this is all we need to cripple the goblins war machine'

'Well if you say so' replied Archibald nonchalantly 'As long as they get the job done, then we can finally end this forsaken struggle'

'Indeed.., you three come with me' Without even waiting for an acknowledgement or any further questions from the three Frederick already expected them to follow him. It was rather rude considering the fact that he hadn't even introduced themselves to the other yet. Ignoring that, or even how they felt Frederick led them towards a smaller shed that he and Archibald's troops used a the command hub of the encampment.

In there he walked around a small round table, on which laid a crudely drawn map of the surrounding area. The map itself didn't show much besides a raw sketch of the town, and the location of the goblin's troops.
'Allright you three, what do you guys know about a goblin's nest Hierarchy?'

Cirven smiled as he felt a sort of importance in him being there. He wasn't too selfish about being the center of things and sometimes didn't like it at all but he still liked to bask in the thought of it. His view caught the eyes of the other man who just stared at him and the others. It was as if he was trying to stare holes directly through them. "Uhh.. Hello?" He waved his hand as he spoke out to Fredrick who then started to speak. "I have a feeling that I'm not going to like this guy much.."

Vire laughed at the comment Cirven made and Riya scoffed at it. "Idiot.. Do you even know who he is?" Cirven shrugged his shoulders as they followed behind Fredrick. "Nope but he knows of my sister and probably of me some. He just has a weird air about him." They seemed to forget that Fredrick was standing directly in front of them as they spoke. "He is  a member of Sabertooth who goes by the name of Fredrick. Also is an ex-head of a dark guild." Vire chimed in with a sort of synopsis.

The new information on Fredrick caused Cirven to be more cautious about him. How did a man who lead a dark guild join Sabertooth? he thought to himself while they stood around the table. "I honestly don't know anything about these goblins. I just want to get rid of the destruction they are causing and help those around us."

"Admirable but you shouldn't just jump into things. These goblins will take full advantage of that. From what I can remember they do not have a goblin leading them and take on a sort of shaman as their king. Do you think that has something to do with these attacks?" Vire again spoke out and added info that the other two possibly didn't know.

'You're right' responded Frederick to Vire 'The goblins have a very simple and easy form of hierarchy, each nest has one or more shamans, those are goblins that have shown to have more intelligence then their brethren. Who are nothing more then mindless creatures that do nothing more then scavenge around. Or occasion plunder some lonesome traveler. But under the control of a Shaman they get coordinated, and nobody knows why. But one thing is clear, when the Shamans are killed, the lesser goblins immediately fall into complete disarray. Suggesting that the Shamans indeed have immediate control over the horde, like some natural magic ability.'

Knowing that this all might be a lot to take in at once Frederick stopped for a few seconds, only to look at every one of the mages. They seemed like an odd group, three mages that had nothing in common with each other. And definitely not in sync with each other. However, they did seem capable enough to pull this off.

'So after all this talk about the shamans' continued Frederick 'You three can probably already guess why you are here' Frederick waited again for a few seconds, this time not to see if they could keep up but to immediately point a location on the map. A grayish area that was named 'Goblin Nest'
'Right here is were the goblins reside, their nest so to speak. And in about two hours we will charge at their front door and attack them head on. This might sound foolish to you, and even unnecessarily dangerous. But it is to draw out as many goblins as possible, only so that you three along with a few mercs as back up can infiltrate the nest and take out the Shamans'

Frederick knew that this might be a difficult task to perform, and maybe even to much to handle for these three. But he couldn't send in anymore people in with them, everyone else was needed at the front line to fend off the goblins buying as much time as they possible could for them.

'Are you three up to this? Because if you are not you tell me immediately, because I need you guys with full determination to go in there. If there is any doubt that will lead to failure, and failure equals death.'


OOC:
Allright, I think it seems clear what the goal is of your exam. So the rest is now entirely up to you, I maintain a 2000 word count for a B rank up, but you can do it in one post, or divide it over several. So give me a fun read, and forget to take in account the npc characters.

Cirven and the others listened to Fredrick's explanation of the situation at hand and what their plan was to do next. It was weird for Cirven not to speak out randomly causing Riya to look at him with the expectation that he would say something when his words were not needed. Vire did the same and listened in silence.

"Yo think we would come all this way to just leave?" Cirven pointed to his right shoulder where his red Sabertooth tattoo was. "I'd have to rip this off my arm if I did something like that." He then turned away from Fredrick and moved to leave. "One goblin shaman coming up for you, old man." He waved his hand as he walked out. "Hey idiot!" Riya called after him. "Stop trying to act all cool now!" She continued yelling towards him as she stormed out. Vire shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "This looks like fun for me, right?" He chuckled his way out of the room after speaking.

Cirven and the others wandered around aimlessly for some time until finally finding help with a place to eat and rest. One of the men that was part of the soon to happen assault had helped them with finding a place among the barracks. The three of them sat at a table with plates of food in front of them along with the man. The man had dark black hair that fell down in front of his face and covered his eyes. He wore regular clothes which was weird for someone about to participate in an assault but wasn't so weird seeing the three he was with. He also looked to only be a few years older than Cirven. "Good thing we found this place, right? I was pretty starved." Riya's eyebrow twitched. "Yeah good thing that you got us lost for a whole hour looking for food when all we had to do was ask.." Riya tried to speak in a low voice so not to yell again. "He isn't lying though, Riya. If it wasn't for him being so oblivious to the area we would never have gotten help from Xaven." Xaven smiled nervously at Vire. "I..I was only helping you guys. You are the ones who should be ending this destruction for us after all." Xaven sighed. "I do want the my home back to the way it was.."

Cirven had ate his food almost as fast as a person would breathe in air as they spoke. "That was good!" Riya, who had been eating in a much more sophisticated way looked at Cirven in disgust. "Pig.." Vire laughed at the sight of the sixteen year old.

"Xaven." Cirven looked directly at the man until they locked eyes. "We will save this place. Its pretty much the thing we do best. Thanks for the food by the way." Cirven then started to use his finger to pick his teeth of the food he had ate to Riya's disgust. "Ugh.."

After relaxing some and eating their food the three along with Xaven moved towards their positions. Cirven and the others were made to wait in the back of the group with three others including Xaven. "So you get to come with our group, huh Xaven?" Xaven nodded. "Yes. I pleaded with Archibald to let me come with you. I want to help you complete your mission and save my home here along with the others." Vire smiled and placed his hand on Xaven's shoulder. "Glad to have you aboard." Cirven shot a grin to Xaven. "Yup. Happy to have you along for the ride, Xaven." Riya sighed. "Didn't need your two cents to be added in idiot.. Can we go now?"

The small group of mercenaries and other fighters moved to the area of the nest and quickly started fighting against the goblins. Cirven and his group took the opportunity to move the long way around the fighting in an attempt to quickly get to the Goblin Shaman as planned with Vire leading the way according to the map they had seen earlier. To everyone's surprise the man lead them the exact way they needed to go even though he had only seen the map for a short time. The route they were taking had a group of goblins guarding it, each carrying a spear-like weapon. "Hmm.. I thought this area would be unguarded now with all of the fighting. Only five of them so it looks like we have to fight earlier than ex-" He was cut off by the sound of flames erupting. He looked back to see that Cirven had used his magic to quickly move towards the goblins. "Couldn't wait for us at all." Vire shook his head and moved to help with the others. "That idiot!" Riya spoke out in anger as she followed behind Vire.

Cirven used the speed given from his spell to strike one of the goblins before he could react with his weapon with his katana blade. He stopped his movement just behind the the goblin he attacked and used the surprise of him appearing to his advantage and attcked another of the goblins quickly dealing with it also. A flame came flying from behind Cirven and crashed into another of the goblins while a blast of air came out of nowhere to hit the last two. "You idiot! We could have dealt with them in a better way than just rushing in with our magic! I wanted to save my energy for later but you forced me to save you with my fire!" Riya ran up to Cirven and smacked him on the back of the head. "OWW! Damn it Riya!" Cirven rubbed the back of his head with both of his hands. "You even made Vire have to use his wind-make magic on them."

"Its OK, Riya. It all worked out in the end. We need to keep moving though." Riya scoffed then shook her head to Cirven. She started to step forward but suddenly stopped. "Ugh.." She fell to a knee and reached for the back of her neck. Cirven looked at her confused. "Riya?" Vire then dropped to one knee in a similar way and reached for his neck. "Whats going on guys?!" Cirven moved to help Riya up but was met by a fire ball flying at him that her barely dodged. "I know you are mad at me but that doesn't mean you should attack me!"

A blast of wind came flying towards him and sent him flying into a near by tree. He coughed up some blood from the impact of slamming into the tree. "Vire, why?" Cirven looked at his two friends and the others move closer to each other, their faces looking lifeless. All except Xaven's face. "Haven't figured it out yet? You really are an idiot aren't you?" Xaven then laughed while the others crowded around him. "Xaven? Whats going on?!"

"I'll make it simple for you." Xaven spoke over his laughing at first but then stopped. "I set this all up to take control of each of you. You managed to move away before I could use my puppet magic on you which is fine now because it just lets me use everyone to kill you." A twisted grin formed on Xaven's face. "But your home and the others? why would you do this?!"

"Why not? They treated me like trash so now I decided to treat them in a similar way back by destroying everything they ever had and then taking their lives. You and your friends were just in the way of my plans with controlling the Goblin Shaman but thats fine. I will have you die here and then use the goblins along with your friends to deal with the resisting forces against me. Sounds pretty good, right?"

Cirven shook his head. "Do you honestly think that you could get away with this?" Cirven pulled back out his katana from his side and pointed it towards where Xaven stood. White flames danced their way up to the tip of the blade. "I'll stop you."

"So threatening!" Xaven pretended to be scared and jumped back. He then looked to Riya. "Deal with him now." He turned around with the rest of the group and walked away.  

A balle of fire flew towards Cirven from Riya's hand but he managed to dodge it and close in on her. "Riya! Snap out of it!" She didn't listen and threw more fire balls at Cirven causing the near by trees and area to catch fire. Cirven tried to not attack the girl and just dodge her. He feared actually hurting her.

"Idiot boy! Attack her already! Aim for weak points but don't hit her with anything lethal. If you want to save them you need to incapacitate her. Now do it!" Inuki's voice echoed in his mind after hearing the doubt in Cirven's mind. "OK. Thanks gramps." Cirven moved towards Riya using his speed while dodging more of her attacks. He stood in front of her finally but Riya was ready and released a huge mass of fire into the face of Cirven but he sucked the flames up and shot them back out at the girl. Riya was sent back flying and rolled on the ground. Cirven ran towards her and placed his flipped his blade around so that he was using the blunt end. Riya stood up from being attacked but was met with a quick attack from Cirven aimed at neck to knock her out.

The girl crumbled back down to the floor from the attack. Cirven looked at her face first in the dirt and thought of leaving her like that or not. He grunted at what he was about to do and moved her to a tree where she could be hidden. "You owe me." He spoke out knowing she wouldn't hear him and then ran to try and find Xaven and the others.

As he ran he saw some of the others who had been with them fighting against some of the resisting villagers. He managed to quickly knock them out like the Riya earlier. He then found Vire using his wind magic to blow away some of the combating villagers and mercs. They yelled at the man in an attempt to find out why he betrayed them but didn't get a verbal response and instead were met with blasts of wind.

"He is being controlled!" Cirven yelled out and jumped in the way of one of the blasts so that he could use his katana to cut through it and disperse it. "I'll deal with him. Worry about the goblins." He ordered the others and then charged Vire. "Sorry old man!" Cirven slashed the blunt side of his blade down towards Vire when he was close enough but was stopped but a gale of wind. The gale held his weapon in place with a deadlock at first but then gained strength and forced the weapon out of his hands. Wind then formed around Vire and exploded outward all around him slicing up the area surrounding him and hitting Cirven in the process.

Cirven was sent flying back and now had cuts all over his body from the wind blades. "I didn't know he was this strong.." He thought to himself as he pushed himself up from the ground. Vire then moved as fast as the wind and grabbed Cirven by the throat and slammed him into the ground causing it to crack around him. "GAH!" Cirven let out as he made impact with the ground. Vire's face stayed lifeless through all of this.

Vire rose from where he had slammed his teammate and started to summon up more wind around him again like earlier. Thinking quickly Cirven channeled his flames into the crack along the floor below Vire. "Lustration!" A blade-like pillar of flame exploded out from the crack but Vire jumped back to dodge it. Cirven then used his flames to propel him at Vire and grabbed him by his clothes. "Expurgation!" Flames exploded from Cirven's hand and engulfed the older man.

Cirven let go of the clothes and let Vire fall over unconscious. "Sorry old man.." Cirven was breathing heavily from the fight but managed to quickly make his way to where his blade was to retrieve it. He then made his was to the near by goblin made building that looked to be made by pieces of debris from the destroyed village.

Cirven moved inside the building wher ehe found Xavan standing next to the controlled Shaman. "So you lived, huh? Maybe I should have just taken control of you earlier when I had the chance." Xaven looked Cirven up and down and smirked. "No matter though. You look too worn out to deal with me." Xaven motioned for Cirven to come at him. "I told you I would stop you!"

Cirven charged in towards Xaven and slashed down towards him with his blade but missed. Cirven then swung his blade at Xaven again but was dodged just as easily. He then swung at him multiple more times all ending in the same way as the earlier ones. "Getting tired?" Xaven's leg quickly swung into Cirven's chest and made contact. "I'm not as weak as your friends." He spoke out as Cirven keeled over from the pain. Xaven then brought his knee up and hit Cirven in the jaw, sending his head back.

Cirven stumbled backwards from the knee but managed to keep his footing. Xaven rushed in and swung his fists to hit Cirven in his jaw and chest over and over again. He ended the flurry of blows with a kick that sent Cirven  into the wall of the building. "Completely out of my league." Cirven spit out blood and then broke out into laughter. "You are laughing at me?!" Xaven got angered by the sight. "Yeah. You hit like a girl." Xaven's eyes widened in anger and he charged at Cirven. "Don't make fun of me!!"

Cirven smiled and channeled his flames into the Kukan and caused the blade to shine in a blinding white light while he charged at Xaven himself. "Agneya." He spoke out as the Kukan changed form to its slayer mode. Flames then erupted onto the blade and covered it completely. Before Xaven could react he used his propulsion spell to launch himself forward and slashed Xaven sending the flames on his blade off and crashing into Xaven. Xaven was taken by the flames into the Goblin Shaman and into the wall where the flames exploded.

Cirven fell over exhausted from all the fighting and looked to the ceiling with one of his eyes closed. "Did.. It.." He mumbled out. "Looks like you did do it." Vire's voice rang out from behind him. "Sorry about being so late and attacking you like that." Cirven pushed his head up to look at Vire and smiled. "Good your OK." He then moved his head back down to focus back on the ceiling. "I will have to deal with the rest. Not that there is much left. I will also be the one to explain things seeing as you and Riya might not be able to do it well enough. Have to say I am surprised you-" Vire stopped speaking as he noticed the boy had fallen asleep. "And the hero rests.."

OOC: Pretty sure that sums it up. I suck at endings sometimes but I think you should like this.

Nice story, and good plot twist XD. Approved