"Nice to meet you, Caelus." Said Jack.
"Mhm! Mind if I sit next to you?"
"Sure."
Caelus sat down beside Jack, and the two of them watched as the platinum-ranked instructor faced off against a low-class mage in the arena.
"Well, now that I've introduced myself." He said with a grin. "How about you two tell me your names?"
"Allow me to introduce us!" she declared proudly. "This is Jack, and I'm Alette, his manager!"
"We never agreed to that."
"Well, it's good to finally meet some friendly faces." He said with a grin. "Most of the others around here aren't nearly as pleasant as you two."
"Eh, tell me about it." Aletted added.
"Sparta...long way from home, are you?" Jack asked.
"Yep!"
"Wait! So where's Sparta?" Alette asked.
"It's in my homeland, Hellada. Sparta is a city of great warriors, trained from birth."
"That's somewhere in southeastern Eurasia… right?" Jack asked, narrowing his eyes slightly as he tried to recall his geography.
"Yes."
"That's quite the journey you've made." He said thoughtfully. "So… what exactly brought you all this way?"
Their conversation was cut short by a heavy thud. They snapped their heads toward the arena, where the mage had fallen at the platinum-ranked instructor's feet. The crowd roared in approval as healers hurried in to carry the defeated challenger away.
Standing firm at the centre of the arena, the platinum-ranked instructor lifted his head and bellowed. "Next!"
As the arena settled once more, Jack and Caelus resumed their discussion. Alette hovered nearby, listening closely to Caelus's answer, her earlier excitement replaced with curiosity.
"Well, my task was to find that three-eyed entity."
Jack and Alette both stiffened at his answer.
"You're talking about that entity… right? The massive one, with four antlers, two horns… and no legs? Besides the three eyes."
"Wow… you described it better than I ever could." He blinked, the realisation hitting him. "Wait. Don't tell me, you've seen it too?"
"Jack was the one who saw it, not me." She clarified quickly. "Did that thing… show up in your country as well?"
"Aye… it came riding a beast so vast it swallowed the sky. From it poured swarms of monsters unlike anything we had ever faced, drowning our homeland in chaos."
His jaw tightened.
"And worst of all… it simply watched. From atop that flying monstrosity, it watched as my brothers-in-arms were massacred."
Jack and Alette look at Caelus, feeling bad about what he went through.
"So my general tasked me to track that entity or discover where it came from. I'm the only superhuman alive in Sparta, after all. The clues I tracked led me here… to Britannia."
"So you believe joining the guild will increase your chances of finding it?"
"Yes, and I also need money."
"Eh, valid point." Alette added.
"What about you two, Jack and Alette? Did you come here for the same reason?"
"I do. Alette insisted on coming along with me." Jack said. "And I'm sure we're not the only ones with the same goal. Some of them want to put an end to this new nightmare."
He glanced toward the warriors gathered around the arena. In their eyes burned a quiet vengeance against the new monsters that had descended upon the world, until Caelus interrupted his observation.
"Back to the topic, how are we going to beat that platinum-ranked instructor?" Caelus asked, resting a hand under his chin thoughtfully.
The trio turned their attention back to the arena, watching the two warriors continue their fight.
"Well, one thing's certain." Jack said. "You don't hit the shield. Anything that touches it gets absorbed, and then thrown right back at you."
"That's right!"
"Ooooh, Jack! I've got it!" Alette exclaimed. "Freeze his whole body first, then finish him off with hellfire!"
"What? No way," Jack said with a small sigh. "I'm not about to give someone frostbite, nor burn them to a crisp. That'd be overkill, and it's only a sparring match."
"I know! We should strike where he least expects it!" Caelus suggested.
"That'll work."
"Eh, whatever."
As their conversation came to an end, the current spar in the arena concluded. The platinum-ranked instructor raised his voice and shouted. "Next!"
"Haha, who's going first?"
"Well, Caelus," Jack said as he stood up. Alette rose into the air beside him. "I'll be going first."
"Alright, good luck out there!"
Jack leapt down into the arena, the crowd's attention shifting toward him. Alette darted after him, hovering nearby as he landed and rose to his feet. Across the arena, the platinum-ranked instructor watched calmly as the two approached, ready for their spar.
"Whoa there, this is supposed to be one-on-one."
"Oh, she's a healer." Jack pointed at Alette, who was right beside him.
Alette waved at the platinum-ranked instructor.
"Ah, I see. If she's a support class, she should speak with one of my colleagues. They'll interview her about her abilities and skills. Though I have to admit, I never expected a fairy to join this guild."
"Aww...but I won't get to see Jack's action."
"Don't worry, it'll take a moment."
"Go ahead, Alette."
"Aww… fine." She sighed. "But don't end the fight too fast, I want to watch you in action!"
Jack chuckled. "Alright."
"This way." The platinum-ranked instructor said, guiding Alette toward a gold-ranked mage seated on a bench near the back entrance of the central hub. He watched her fly past before turning his attention back to Jack, still wondering what the fairy meant about not ending the fight too quickly.
The thought lingered in his mind as he studied Jack more carefully and thought of himself.
"Not ending it too quickly, huh, is he stronger than he looks? Judging from his sword stance and his posture, he must be a knight from one of the houses. He could either be a sword-master, sword-mage or a superhuman. Tch, so many possibilities that my mind couldn't stop thinking about as he is about to hold back for this." He grinned. "But I like to see what he got up in his sleeves, and what it takes to be a part of the Vanguard."
"We can begin whenever you're ready." The platinum-ranked instructor told Jack.
Jack nodded, and both warriors settled into their battle stances, facing each other as the audience watched closely from around the arena.