Dream Team

The lights turned on in a mere moment; the room was a massive open space, but it was trashed with papers on the floor and the walls. There was a single person at a desk writing papers. She had short red hair under her chin; she wore the same commoner clothes as Sorin and Ino did. But most importantly.

She doesn't even spare us a glance; her work must be pretty important.

“Chikaru!” Ino put her arms on her hips, a small frown forming on her pale face. “You're supposed to introduce yourself; we have a new team member. He is the hero!”

Finally, she glanced up, taking in Sorin's form and the staff he held before staring back down at her piece of paper. “I'm Chikaru.” Her hand kept going faster now; she clearly wasn't in the mood to talk.

How does someone like this even survive with a beast like Ino… These two are complete opposites.

“I'm Sorin. I will be joining your team today by Ino’s request, but more for personal benefits than anything.” he walked to the desk in the back of the room, the empty room, avoiding all the pieces of paper on the floor, and then extended his hand.

I'm going to learn staffless magic and save my reputation with her help. I only don't like how much actually relies on her, which is basically everything. Her motive is clearly to continue her bloodline tradition, which makes sense, but she's just so wild and crazy that I don't know what's right anymore.

Chikaru looked up at his extended hand and just lowered back down to the paper piece. “I don't really like physical contact.”

He gave a small nod and followed her gaze down to the paper. She was drawing what seemed to be a jumble of lines and circles; actually, it was all shapes in various combinations.

“I'm nearly done with the transportation network. It won't be ready for this mission. Maybe the next.” Chikaru stood from the desk and went up to Ino. “Just go already; his stare is annoying me.”

Ino sighed out almost in a laugh before turning to Sorin. “I didn't know you had an eye for women. I brought in a womanizer! But clearly someone here really, really hates you. But let's ignore them!” She gives a quick wink to Chikaru, who walks away into a secluded corner where tons of papers with symbols reside.

The illogical shapes, the amount of different lines that seem to be similar, though on each paper. Its patterns almost.

“Their seals, the thing I used on your robe during the trial. She's almost like the only designer in the world since you all decided to abandon it, but they can be used as stagnant traps. They caused tons of trouble. Let us teleport to the surface!”

If she is a designer of such things, then it makes sense how Ino managed to plant the seal on my robe, which she then triggered towards the judge. If anything, it was only possible with this reclusive girl.

Chikaru quickly yanks around, “I told you it's not done; all I know is that you might teleport just outside the city. Or even on the east side…”

“Yap yap, we did plenty of testing; not once have I gone that far away!” Ino quickly grabbed a piece of paper away from Chikaru.

“Give it back.” Chikaru’s face turned dark as Ino quickly ran towards Sorin before stretching out her hand.

Sorin's gut triggered instantly. “We haven’t even discussed the plan, I refuse to just leave like this!”

A white light shone across them as the next time Sorin blinked, he was in an alleyway; the surrounding area seemed rather messy and dirty. While the flooring was uneven, the sky, however, was bright.

“Next time you do that. I wont ever go with you go again.” Sorin just slumped against the wall, looking up, his face a mixture of emotions. “What even is the point of going to your base if we're going to leave instantly?”

Ino feigned thinking, “It's obvious! I wanted to introduce you to Chikaru, and also because her teleportation network stuff is an important part. No need to be so stingy, I will keep your threat in mind...” She spun around, looking at the end of the alleyway. “Today we will cause some chaos! That's all we can do anyway. Fighting mages. Disrupting their day, that's the usual stuff we do while we wait for Chikaru.”

“Is she also part of your bloodline? Seals are forbidden as you said before.”

Ino shook her head. “I gave her the knowledge, and ever since that day she has been really, and I mean really, reclusive.” She walked down the alleyway, taking a look out. “We're in some random alleyway. Shouldn't there be a delivery early in the morning? They always come around this time.”

“You learned our supply structure. That's pretty impressive.” Sorin joined near her, looking out into the main street as people were brushed to the sides as a full carriage filled with boxes passed.

Ino then pointed to the various mages stationed around the carriage. “We get rid of those guys. I'm not sure if you're the killing type, but I don't mind what you do. Then we throw supplies to the commoners. We will build public support pretty fast; you people aren't the most liked after all, and these people need food anyway.”

“It's not like we oppress them or anything; they are just jealous they weren't born with any magic. That's all.” Sorin revolted back; it was obvious they were jealous.

Ino just sighed out, “We're living in a city that is half blocked for non-magic users and forces them to work not only hard labour but also gives them no say in anything that happens. That's enough to justify you guys abusing your power.” She then shrugged slightly. “Focus on the mission. Let's get the supplies and throw them to the others!”

“I want to talk about this later.” Sorin frowned, but she was right; it wasn't time for this.

Ino storms out from the alleyway with Sorin; they both rush towards the carriage. Sorin, with his staff in hand, concentrates his magic, taking in the wind around him into a small needle before shooting it out at a mage too shocked by the sudden ambush to react. He was sent over twenty meters away into a wall.

Following up on that, he concretes on the ground and lifts his staff to form a huge wall of earth in the middle of the main street; the back was completely cut off, leaving the guards behind the wall to use their own wind and earth spells to try to get over but Sorin caused the earth wall to jag outward in pillar shapes causing them to plummet to the ground.

Ino, on the other side of the carriage, jumped onto the mage, punching him once before using earth to trap his body like it was a warm-up. “They really are too comfortable nowadays."

She jumped on top of the carriage, overlooking everyone. The commoners all fled into their homes in fear of the scene, but their curiosity still made them look out.

“Everyone, come and grab even if it's not a lot. Just grab! The common person deserves all of this compared to the mages. Feast tonight. We will all be equal soon enough!” She winks at Sorin, who then gets up and starts throwing the crates out of the carriage in the middle of the street.

People swarmed in from everywhere. “Thank you!” they shouted, or even “May you be blessed”. One young boy in particular looked up at Sorin.

Sorin averted his gaze down, hoping not to get recognised, but the boy said one thing, “You're a real hero. He then took a crate for himself, rushing off into his home. A small genuine smile appeared on Sorin's face, but it quickly subsided.

“Sorin, we were dealing with bigger fish in a second. We need to hold them off until the supplies are all gone.” Ino took a look upwards, seeing the orange-hued bridges appear as figures in black robes rushed down.