"It won't be long now before they appear. Are you certain this will work?", Asta stared into the distant horizon, enjoying the beauty of the world as he gave voice to his doubts.
"I'm specialized in this field, I can assure you it'll be enough. They just have to follow my instructions.", Lucas was meditating on the hill, trying out the technique he learned from Asta not too long ago.
"I've done my research on him. If this doesn't work, we run.", Lucas was confident, but things rarely went the way he wanted. Preparing a back door was the only logical choice.
Asta nodded, "It's not a bad idea. If things go according to plan, I have some things to add to your idea to make it better. Also, you're not going to improve your core here. You'll need higher quality mana, you won't find it here."
"It was worth a shot."
Asta grabbed something out of the air, revealing a few high level mana crystals. Throwing them towards Lucas, "Although not perfect, they can work as a substitute."
Inspecting the crystal in detail, Lucas noticed that it was of a lot better quality then the ones he had in his ring. Taking them out, he compared them side by side.
"They are low quality, the energy is only good for refilling your core."
Lucas felt happy to have Asta tell him everything he wanted for free. He even gave high quality crystals away like it was nothing. He knew Asta was trying to create a debt so he could ask a favor, but he didn't like the freeloading.
Had it been someone else, he would take advantage of whatever he could get his hands on, but with Asta it felt wrong to take and take, never to give something back. So, rummaging through his collection of arrays he found in the Underground, he pulled out the one that looked the least complex.
"Here, take it.", shoving a piece of paper in his hands, Asta was a bit overwhelmed. To him, he wasn't even trying to help Lucas out that much, he just did what he deemed as normal. "I don't need your poorly made arr-", Asta stopped in his tracks as the words got stuck in the back of his throat.
"What is this!? Where, no, who gave you this?!", Asta felt cold sweat appear on his back as he inspected the array. Lucas didn't understand a single thing of it, but felt extremely happy to see Asta freak out.
"Hahaha, look at you, it's just an array, you know. I've a couple of others as well.", he pulled out his other sketches and showed them to Asta. He would have no cards left to play, but he didn't even feel bad about it. Instead, he felt elated seeing Asta's expression.
"WHAT!?", Asta's face showed extreme distress. Sweat had formed on his forehead as his eyes darted over the paper at a rapid speed.
Lucas laughed out loud as his pure joy overflowed. The shock and surprise on Asta's face was more than worth losing these cards. In fact, he knew Asta wouldn't let it sit.
Asta was analyzing each written down symbol and rune, the lines that served as connections for mana to go through, the perfect order at which the array would activate the runes and many more details instantly shot out.
Time passed as he stood still, reading over all the intel while Lucas absorbed the mana from one of the crystals. Letting it circulate inside his core, he could see small improvements and a small part of a first rune appeared on the core. Finally making progress again, Lucas enjoyed his time meditating.
Asta, on the other hand, had to lower the papers and grab his head to stifle an upcoming headache. The information influx was too much to handle.
Eventually, he broke out of his statue-like posture. "Lucas. Do you know the value of these arrays?"
"Hmhm, sure I do.", keeping his eyes closed he responded jokingly. He had some inkling as to how much it was worth, but putting a price on it wouldn't be possible. Array specialization was never his field, instead he studied the structure of spells and combat skills.
A modern painting would be sold to some for millions and others for pennies, it all depended on the one who could see the value. The same was true for Lucas, he had no idea what these arrays meant, he just knew that it would be worth something.
"No you don't, you idiot!", Asta cursed him out as he stored the pieces of paper into his own spatial storage. "Otherwise you wouldn't just give them away so freely!", he had calmed down a bit, but was still heated.
He was given such precious items for free, he wasn't able to stop his own emotions going a bit haywire.
'Dammit! How am I supposed to get him into my debt now? With just one of these arrays I can barely ask for anything back even if this whole plan works out. I... I'm in his debt now?'
Asta was well aware that he was capable of duping Lucas or play it off as something insignificant, and while he knew Lucas wouldn't fall for it after his outburst, he also didn't want to treat Lucas that way.
"Haah.", heaving a long sigh, Asta thought of what he could do to repay Lucas. There were some things he knew, but had no access to at this point in time. If he wanted to truly repay Lucas, he would have to face his past, and he needed Lucas for that as well.
In the end, he found barely any way to truly repay him. "Lucas."
"Yes?"
"I will pay you back, I promise. It might take a year, decade or century, I'll pay you back for this.", his voice filled with a certain determination Lucas hadn't heard in quite some time.
"I'll look forward to it."
"Lucas.", suddenly Asta sounded a bit more serious as he stared into the forest. "They dismantled one of my detection arrays. They are better than the previous group but still lousy when it comes to magic. To not even notice an obvious alarm planted in the middle of an array, pathetic."
"Cool your head.", Lucas took his time to stand up and stretch his back. "So we're not going to face trainees this time? Hopefully they at least make it somewhat interesting."
"As per our agreement, we'll split the cores 70-30 in your favor. But seeing how I'm in a terrible debt I want to change it to 100-0."
"No thanks. I need you to pull your weight, and if you're not being rewarded, you'll slack off."
"Excuse me? You doubt my skills and honor?", Asta felt attacked, even if their entire banter was purely to joke around, he felt that his abilities were put into question, and if there was one person he didn't want to doubt his capabilities, it was Lucas.
"Fine, you can leave the entire group to me.", raising his head and placing his palm on his chest, he declared. "Hahaha, can't have that Asta, they have to underestimate our powers, not overestimate. If you decimate them without showing some kind of weakness, they'll send in the big ones."
Asta wanted to say he would handle those as well, but against a Rank 3 even he would be in big trouble. "Either way, I've prepared what you asked for. They can act when I give the signal."
Lucas nodded in response, cracking his neck and knuckles, he mentally prepared himself. "I'll get Jacob, time for him to show his worth.", Asta chuckled slightly in response. They both knew what was going to happen next, so hiding it like so was only for appearances. While he didn't know who was eavesdropping, it was pretty obvious when he thought about it.
'Then again, not everyone is as smart as me or him. I guess we'll be fine if we show some wounds. I know I should have faith, but if things go wrong, I can't be certain that I'll make it out in one piece.'
It didn't take long before Jacob was brought to the top of the hill. Being almost forcefully dragged there, it wasn't as if he had a lot of choice. "What do you guys want from me? You've already doomed our village."
Lucas patted him on the back, perhaps a tad too hard as he took a step forward. "Not exactly. The first group was on their way to this village in the first place. Here, I looted this from the leader of that group.", revealing a letter, it contained basic instructions to visit the village and eradicate it.
Pascal had to read it multiple times to see if his eyes weren't deceiving him. "What? What is this?"
"You can't read?", Lucas questioned, "It's a basic order to remove anyone from this place. This town is in enemy territory and is a thorn in their side. No matter how much you protest, saying that this place doesn't hold any combatants and you don't care about allegiance. Why would they ever trust what an enemy has to say?"
"But! But! We even wrote them letters! We never wanted to fight!"
"Indeed, and if you had a certain group of people constantly insisting that they weren't combative and didn't want to fight, would you truly believe them? It might not look like it, but most of this country is in war. If they believed one another simply because you insisted on it, we wouldn't have to fight in the first place."
Pascal's eyes were glued to the paper's contents. He couldn't refute Lucas and while basic reasoning, in the entire front, this was the only place that wasn't conquered yet. Even if they contested that they weren't dangerous, what kind of risk taking would that be? For all the enemy knew they were hiding a bunch of powerful mages here, ready to attack from behind.
"Spreading all those rumors of a Rank 3 mage being here just made you a target. The fact that you guys never bothered to fight or set boundaries, just prolonged the inevitable. They could simply take care of you when the other outposts were in control. The first group was just to check if there even truly was a Rank 3 here."
Pascal was distraught, he felt his heart race as his mind went blank. His precious town would be taken over? All the work they put in trying to stay peaceful only backfired? It didn't make sense.
"When you're ready to fight for your village, come to us.", Lucas and Asta moved away as they walked down the hill towards the oncoming enemies. There were still some traps to set, and Lucas needed to get a lay of the land they were going to fight on.
"There was no letter, was there?", Asta commented calmly.
"Hmm? I don't know what you're talking about. All I've done is give someone some encouragement."
Asta chuckled slightly as this was all a big play. Asta lured them here, and Lucas provided the necessary proof. Lucas might've made the entire scenario believable, but it was all set up. As long as they worked together, nothing would escape their grasp. "You've gotten better at acting."
"And your planning and connection skills have also grown.", Lucas wasn't throwing out random compliments, he truly was impressed by what Asta had achieved.
"I have to step up my game if you're going to keep improving."
They both smiled as they awaited their next targets.
----------------------
In the woods, squadron 24 and 27 were walking next to one another. Each consisting of 50 men each, they were a miniature army that were capable of taking care of most issues. The squadrons were close to each other in numbers, yet the gap in strength was still noticeable.
Valric, captain of the 24th, was tired. He had just come back from a scouting mission and encountered one of the Colors. His intuition told him that those monsters in human disguises had to have noticed them, yet they left him alone.
Each passing night and day, he had been so focussed on not getting spotted or getting away as quickly as possible that his mind didn't have the time to rest. Now, he was immediately send out again.
At least this time, he was certain to not have any problems taking care of the problem. Two rogue mages were nothing in front of a hundred men. Or so he had hoped, instead, he was paired up with the ambitious captain of the 27th, Orlen.
"You know, as my senior you should be telling me what to watch out for. Yet all you've done is having one of your men lead us forward. You haven't done anything but mope around. I think you should straighten your back and lead us forward. That way I can also learn from your experience."
'What a pain in the ass.'
"Look at the state of my troops for a second. I think they're all doing fine, but I when I compare them to yours it feels like your soldiers have more dignity. Do you know what I'm saying?"
Olren couldn't keep his mouth shut, as Varlic would put it. In the entire duration of their travels, he hadn't said a single word, yet had heard at least half of the dictionary from his supposed colleague.
Leading the charge was a scout from Valrec's team, a talented mage who worked his hardest, but was human in the end. Behind him were the two captains and then their troops following them at a steady pace.
There was no march or neat formations, they just walked in groups and made sure to stick together. Having nothing better to do they talked a bunch.
"Hey Elara, you don't have to worry about any monsters with me around! I'll protect you.", one of them declared with movements filled with passion. The recipient didn't look all that interested, but she didn't have the heart to turn him down.
"C'mon Gar, shut yer trap in front of the lady. She ain't interested.", one of his buddies in the 24th said. "Elara is a specialized healer, even if she is from a lower ranked squadron, she won't have eyes for you, Garric."
"You all just don't know how powerful love is! It transcends languages, borders, the world! What can a mere difference in squadron do in front of such passion?", he almost yelled out.
Elara hadn't said a word as she tried to hide her face behind her slightly waving hand. She had long brown hair down to her waist and a typical priest's clothing. She was a member of the Order of Light, but was allowed to join the army fighting against the Holy Kingdom.
Most people first thought she was a spy. Even if that couldn't be further from the truth, you simply had to know her. Her religion, no matter how pious she was, wouldn't blind her. She lived her life in Frigus and got along well with its inhabitant. Now the Holy Kingdom wanted to go war with the entire country because of a few bad apples?
She couldn't find the righteousness in that. Thus, she conscripted herself, landing instantly in quarantine and multiple interrogation chambers due to her affiliation. A bad move initially, but eventually she convinced the people around her, letting her join.
A friend of hers wrapped her arm around her neck and pulled her close, whispering, "You better not get too close to him, he's a bad influence. He even tried to ask me out."
"Hey! I heard that, I would appreciate you not defaming me! I only asked how to get close to your lovely friend, you misinterpreted my statements!"
"Hah! Like that would ever happen, I know what I heard.", they butted heads for a while before Elera spoke up.
"I.. I'm not ready for such a thing.", her voice was soft, but everyone heard it.
"Oof, Gar, you got rejected! Too bad mate, we'll drink your troubles away when we're done here."
"No, no amount of alcohol or poison will heal my broken heart!", playing up the theatrics, everyone laughed.
"Hey, Elara, you actually spoke back to him, good job. I still remember when you first joined and wet yourself in combat."
"Clara!", Elara's face got beet red as she punched Clara's chest and shoulders, pushing her away. All the men were surprisingly quiet as they stared at Elara and imagined her in that state.
"Stop it!", Elara burst out, making everyone laugh out loud. Breaking the laughter, Garric spoke up once more, "No matter how dirty, my maiden will stay as radiant as ever, even if you couldn't hold yourself back, do not be ashamed! I still love you as if I met you for the first time again!"
From the front a deep and groggy voice spoke up. "Garric.", it was a simple command that was instantly well received. "Yes, sir! My apologies.", Garric posture and response were all perfect, but the men around him could only laugh.
Simply by mentioning his name, Valric put Garric in place. Heaving a deep sigh, Varlic couldn't help but think why he ever accepted such a strange man in his team.
"You know, love on the battlefield is supposedly a lot more powerful than when you fall in love during your time at the academy. Should you not allow them to have some fun together, for all we know this might help the relationship between our squadrons. Speaking of love, do you believe that love is something emotional or something rational? You see, I have this theory that...."
Through the storm of words, Valric could only sigh again, 'Aren't we there yet?'