Captain of Wolf Squad?

“Well, well, well, I guess I don’t have much of a choice now do I.” Chuckling to himself, he makes his way to the field as he sits his sword in front of his chest pointing it towards the ground before making a slight bow. Layrn smile grows wide at what she witnesses.

“You even know of the mercenary greeting, heh. Don’t hold back, I’m hoping to get a challenge out you my dear Joshua.” A devious grin creeps across Layrn’s lips as she follows in suit to the greeting as they both raise their blades to the sky before getting into their battle stances.

----------------

As this is goes on, back in the commandants office a conversation is being held between him and Andric. “How goes your project my friend?”

“Very well. Pretty much every creature I’ve requested has been gathered. And with all the funds and resources you’ve allotted me everything should be finished before the black suns rising.” Andric smiles with a deceptively cunning look in his eyes.

“I’m glad to hear that... I’ve been meaning to ask how the preparations to the training camp have been going. It was a sight to see years ago, especially with how most of the wildlife turned hostile. And don’t get me started on those erratic weather patterns. I think it will be good for their growth; they need to see how quickly things can change.” The commandant chuckles aloud while taking a sip from his mug.

Finally, Andric responds himself, however his voice lacks any energy. It seems cold and lifeless.

“Almost all of the preparations are complete Ghislaine, I finished restoring the sigils in the perimeter recently, as well as testing all the gates physical capabilities. Everything should be ready after I check a few things in the underground area.”

“I'm so ready to end this damn place,” Andric thinks to himself as a faux smile rests on his face.

“Thank you, Andric, I will leave you too it then. After all you’re the only reason I know that the black sun will be rising anyways. It never has had a set pattern. It had such a beautiful red corona the last time it shined.”

The commandant breathes out slowly reminiscing while looking at a photo from years ago. Its two young men and a woman sitting around a campfire dressed in black military wear. The two young men pose while holding up a large stag.

“Of course, Ghislaine, but I’ll be honest with you, my friend. I think the black sun this time around will so much more special than those of years past; good day.” Andric bows before walking off.

Shortly after a little hawk peaks its head out of the window before taking off. Soaring majestically back to its owner. “Oh, my dearest Gail, you’re going to be so surprised, and I can’t wait to see the look on your face.” Andric laughs devilishly as he makes his way back to his office.

Back to the top of mount Shiraia, Joshua and Layrn finally begin their sparring match. “Show me what you’ve got Joshua, I’ve seen how hard you’ve been training and pushing your yourself. I have very high expectations of you.”

Layrns sclera shift colors again as she gets into her natural fighting stance her blade resting atop her shoulder, her knees slightly bent and her body lurched over. Instantaneously she lunges forward aiming for his throat. Reacting just in the nick of time, Joshua bends his neck out of the way, her blade missing by a few inches.

“Just as I had hoped.” Layrns thirst for battle bubbles over. Joshua jumps back a few feet steadying himself as he begins to pour aura into his blade. “Don’t take this lightly kid, she’s out for blood, I can tell from those eyes.”

“Understood!” he mutters to his dragon mentor.

His eyes blast open as a mist of bloody red aura seeping from his pores. Joshua's first two aura nodes fully unleash as his squad mates look on in awe.

“His aura is just like father and Dialos…” Wilhelm responds almost immediately seeing its red hue. Joshua pours the aura into his steps as he dodges the next flurry of strikes from his captain.

Twisting around he swings his blade towards her left side, however after avoiding his strike she swings down at him as he catches her blade against his cross guard. The two of them instantly begin exerting an increasing amount of force.

Throwing a kick trying to knock Joshua off his feet, Layrn pushes forward as he jumps back biting his index finger and drawing a fire rune in the air with his blood.

Before he could realize what, he was doing, the rune ignites with power catching Layrn off guard and leaving her surprised. “What was that?” Vilhelm asks aloud.”

“That’s the runic language. How does Joshua know it?” Susanna responds, looking at him with avid attention.

Feeling the heat of the fire singe her skin, Layrn re-grips her blade and launches towards Joshua again this time with even more ferocity. Pulling up his blade to block he gets sent back a few feet, digging into the ground he pushes her off of him swinging downward as he sends a blast of concentrated aura her way.

Following up with that he draws another rune on his palm electrifying the air around them as their hair slowly starts standing up. “Kid, you think continuing to use runes is a good idea. I feel your heart rate spiking?”

“I don’t have a choice.” Another massive blow comes barreling his way as he swings down into the ground blocking her blade as the air sparks at the force being exerted.

Her eyes are completely bloodshot and she’s smiling ear to ear in a crazed state. Leaping over her with a front flip he spins around barely avoiding another strike. “What the hell.”

Joshua breathes aloud as he jumps to the side avoiding a whirlwind strike. Immediately like a fencer, he extends his arm outward leaving himself vulnerable, but finally drawing blood from her left shoulder.

“WE BELIEVE IN YOU LITTLE BROTHER.” Wilhelm screams aloud with a cheer. The other two look at him strangely for a moment before joining him in cheering on their vice-captain.

Joshua realizes that he’s in a tight spot and asks for some assistance. In an instant one of his eyes morph into something draconic. The eyes remaining blood red but with long slits running down and a scale like pattern forming along the whites.

“At your service kid.” Draxis replies with a mental smirk. A second wind comes over Joshua as his movements become more fluid. Somehow able to react and dodge attacks he was struggling with before. “My eyes will guide your movements from even the slightest twitch of your opponents.”

“That seems pretty convenient, but my body feels off now.” Joshua comments aloud.

“You don’t have much time. I’d finish this soon If I were you.” Draxis ignores his comment rushing him instead.

Launching another counterstrike towards Layrn he clashes blades with her before spinning around and as he batters at her again knocking her sword arm back, he nearly losing his blade in the process.

Knowing that this may be his last opportunity, he takes the opening. Leaving himself exposed one last time, he draws an explosion rune point on his left palm and collides it with her taped yet exposed abdomen.

It instantly launches her over fifteen feet back into a stone wall nearly unconscious. Walking over to her and holding his blade towards her neck he calmly retorts “Do you yield captain.”

Coming back to her senses and seeing the state both Joshua and her were left in she nods. “Very well, vice… I mean new captain of wolf squad.” Stretching her muscles and cracking her neck she stands back up to offer a hand to the victor of their spar, but Joshua collapses to one knee.

“Oh yeah, using my power puts a huge strain on your body. Should have probably mentioned that earlier.” Draxis laughs off his retroactive warning.

“Really man…” His eye returning to normal and his aura completely dissipates his body going completely limp.

The rest of his squad get up and rush over to him, however Layrn stops them. “Let the boy rest, I honestly didn’t think he’d have it in him to push me like that.” She starts to laugh as her pupil raises a question.

“How was he able to use sigil magic?” Both Vilhelm and Wilhelm look on confused as one can’t use both mana and aura at the same time.

“Yeah, Susanna I don’t know how he can do that, but it’s almost as if they were being used with aura rather than mana.” Layrn rubs her sore abdomen and hobbles over to where she dropped off her cloak off and drapes it over herself, some of the tape on her body having been burned away.

Beckoning the three of them towards herself she calls out. “Come here squad, I’d like to have a chat with you all. Hopefully he wakes up soon or you’ll have to explain it to him, I don’t have a lot of time, I wasn’t supposed to spar with you guys.”

Layrn looks to them with a cheeky smile as the rest of wolf squad sweat drop and follow Layrn’s to their makeshift communal area.

“Take a seat, this may take a while.” She nods towards the three as she herself takes a seat across from them before beginning.

Almost an hour later a voice rings in Joshua’s ears. “KID, WAKE UP.”

Stirring himself awake he attempts to stand only to collapse to his knees. “By Serox, what is wrong with my body.”

Joshua begins making deep and raspy breaths. Looking around he eyes his blade resting against a nearby rock. “There we are.”

Making his way towards his blade he crawls on all fours until he can grasp its hilt using it as a makeshift cane as he stands himself back up. With one arm he holds himself upright and with the other he clutches his right eye, a searing pain shooting through his head.

“Draxis, what is wrong with my body.” A short silence ensues before the dragon speaks up.

“This is the price of using a dragon’s power, I’ve only ever seen effects like this once and that was by Durand himself.”

“I don’t care about that part, tell me why.” Joshua whines clutching his side.

“Okay then, when you asked to borrow my power I allowed it, giving you my Draconic sight. It increases your reaction speed tenfold and allows your body to react instinctively and move much faster than normal to almost everything happening in a close vicinity."

Draxis pauses letting Joshua comprehend his words. "The price is well... extreme pain, weariness, and temporary blindness. However, it looks like you can still see, so you got lucky.”

“Lucky my ass; Is there a way to use your power without a price?” Joshua asks curiously his body aching.

“If I had my actual body then yes, but as it stands no. The only work around is for your body to get stronger so it can handle the side effects better.”

“So, you’re telling me not to ask for help unless I have no choice?” Joshua replied with an exhausted sigh.

“Pretty much.” Draxis replies.

Thinking back to last night’s experience he remembers his aura network getting sent out of whack. “That’s why I had side effects from you helping me earlier when I lost partial control of my bodies functions.”

“Exactly.” Joshua attempts to nod as he starts to make his way slowly to his squad mates wondering where exactly in the camp they were.

After about twenty or so minutes of hobbling around he finally finds them conversing. As he makes his way over, he catches a look from everyone for covering his eye. “Glad you could make it Joshua, right on time.” Layrn beams.

As she continues her explanation, a hawk finally finished with its recon lands on her shoulder.

Nuzzling its head into her neck, it places a shoddily written note from its beak into her hands. “Your hawk can write?” Susanna asks in surprise.

Petting its head Layrn smiled and continued speaking. “Yeah, we were bonded when I was little, so I spent time teaching him how to write once he got used to me telepathically speaking to him.” “Can he speak back?” asks Vilhelm.

“Sadly not, it probably something to do with a hawk's mind, but he understands all of my commands perfectly.” Still clutching his eye Joshua asks, “What’s on the note?”

Looking down to read her companions shoddy writing she notices a few key words, Ghislaine, Andric, black sun, and different.

Putting two and two together she comes to the understanding that the two of them were talking about something called the black sun and Andric said this time is going to be very special. And the fact that the commandants name is Ghislaine.”

Everyone nods at the new information, but they were wondering what the black sun is. Joshua raises his hand signaling everyone to listen to him.

“The black sun is strange phenomena that has apparently occurred around here occasionally. The sun turns black and all the wildlife become increasingly hostile. It lasts for an unknown length of time.” Joshua smudges the truth a bit, not going into the details.

Layrn nods in agreement, his statement matching what she had been able to gather on the subject. “Yeah, and apparently it’s extremely dangerous for anyone to leave the main camp once it starts.”

Wilhelm raises a question in response. “What about us then?” Almost instantly Joshua answers that their camp has been reinforced with barrier runes that are comparable to the ones inside the walls and gates at Blackwood.

“How?” asks Susanna. “Runes should be impossible to use without mana, much less utilizing them at such a capacity.” Joshua blinks a few times before continuing.

“They’re called blood runes, they’re different than the ones utilized by mana users. Rather than drawing upon ones mana circles or whatever is inside of elves, it draws on one’s life force.” He points to his fingers and the shadows under his eyes, showing the temporary damage.

“How did you learn such a thing?” Layrn eyes the new captain of wolf squad.

“I’m not allowed to say, I made a blood oath to my master.” "Roxanne?" Susanna thinks to herself. The other members of wolf squad stare with awe and concern, but Layrn isn’t convinced. She nonetheless acquiesces.

“Well then,” She shakes her head before looking to Joshua sternly.

“As I was telling the others, from this point onward, you are the new captain of wolf squad, I expect you to take great care of your new title. It was not given lightly.”

“C-captain huh, but I j-just became the vice-c-captain recently.” Joshua stutters out

“Not only did you best me in a spar, this was the wish of the commandant anyways. He wants to see what you all are capable of without me. Besides that, if you didn’t take the title, you would have been left under Andric's supervision.” Wolf squad shudders at the mention as Joshua continues. “Does that mean that I have to have meetings with him then?”

“You shouldn’t since you’re not allowed back in Blackwood for the time being. Just continue focusing on what you have been doing and helping your squad mates with their training and there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“Gotcha,” he looks to the rest of wolf squad as they bow slightly to him understanding their situation.

“Well then, I guess that’s settled. Vilhelm fill him in on what he missed. I’d love to stay and re-explain everything but I’ve got things I need to do before sundown. Take care you four, I’ll be looking forward to all of your future growth.”

After finishing her speech Layrns gaze turns towards the new captain of wolf squad as she signals to her whistle necklace, Joshua catches on quickly remembering the whistle she gave him to summon her hawk. “She wants me to send her updates periodically by letter, I understand.” He nods in response before everyone starts commenting on their new situation.

Stretching her arms out, Layrn starts to walk away as Susanna follows from behind. “What’s her deal?” Wilhelm questions as he points towards Susanna.

“Probably something to do with the personal training Layrn has been doing with her. Either way we have a lot of work to do.” Joshua lets out a loud yawn as for the next hour Vilhelm and Wilhelm sit around the fire pit explaining to him the details of his new role and any other details Layrn left out of their conversation.

“Okay then,” Joshua nods his head in understanding as he stands back up and starts readying himself to go back to his quarters.

However, upon reaching his ‘room’ he has the realization that he still needs a door. Shaking his head he grumbles aloud. Continuing to use his sword as a cane he makes his way back to Wilhelm as he commands him to follow along as he may need a bit of help.

"Coming, captain!” The bulkier of the twins makes his way over to Joshua quickly and they immediately head out of the barrier into the nearby forest leaving Vilhelm and Susanna in camp.