The Call to War

Chapter 2

Tess exited her tent and looked around. She was currently on the fifth floor of a dungeon, surrounded by dozens of separate camps. The war against Alacrya really started several months after Arthur left, when by order of the council and with the cooperation of the adventurers guild. Large units comprised of dozens of adventurers were created to start clearing all of the dungeons in the beast glades.

Several months after the search and destroy campaign began, Tess finally was able to convince commander Virion to allow her to join the fight. She was given her own team and assigned to the Trailblazers unit, where she has served clearing dungeons for the last two years.

Tess walked away from her tent to her team's joint camp fire, at their joint campsite. Despite all the teams for the most part getting along, Tess' team was exceptionally close to Claire Bladeheart's. Even though unintended, it brought a degree of comfort to Tess to have one of her close friends in the same unit as her, as well as Theo, who was also part of Claire's team.

The struggle for Tess to be accepted in the unit was very real, as when she arrived many saw her as only a spoiled princess, including her own teammates. However through combat she gradually won almost everyone over, and those that weren't kept their mouths shut and stayed away, with fear they would end up like the only group to underestimate her.

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It had been a month since Tess had joined the Trailblazers, and she and her team had just returned from another productive day of killing off mana beasts. While her team prepared some food, Tess decided to wash up at the small pool of water in the cavern. She walked into the makeshift stall and with a washcloth removed the day's blood, sweat, and grime. As she left she was stopped by two teams of adventurers.

"Hey there princess," a middle aged adventure said with a look that made it all to clear what he was up to.

"Hello, excuse me, I'm on my way to get some food," Tess replied as she tried to walk past them, but another side stepped to block her.

"I must admit, it's very generous of the commander to send you to us," the same adventure said as he was checking her out.

"Generous?" Tess questioned as she began to reinforce her body with mana. She had heard rumors about how some male adventurers were about female adventurers, and wasn't going to leave her guard down.

"That's right, I mean, you're young and beautiful, going into a sweaty disgusting place like this with no bodyguards? Clearly he wants to ensure your bloodline survives. So why else send such a pretty thing be here, other than to keep the troops happy by satisfying their urges."

The man's words made her stomach turn. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see they were trying to surround her. Her thoughts then drifted to Arthur and what he would probably do right now, causing a smile to form on her face.

"So I was right," the man said confidently.

"No, I was just thinking what my boyfriend would have done if he was here," Tess replied as she drew her bladed staff. "He no doubt would have castrated you," Tess gestured to the man who was speaking. "And if any of you other guys were able to overcome the fear he put in you and attacked, he probably would have killed you all mercilessly."

"I guess it's the hard way then," the man said with a displeased expression.

Two men came up trying to jump her from behind, but a quick plant spell left then tied up with vines. Two more came with swords drawn, Tess parried one and dodged the other. She punched the first in the throat, leaving him choking as she ducked below the seconds sword and kicked him in the side of the knee. Three of the remaining tried to charge in, but two were forced to the ground by gravity magic, while the other was able to keep standing, but was otherwise immobile. The man who was talking was about to charge in, but was stopped as a narrow blade came to his throat. The one who was still standing was then grabbed by the throat and raised up effortlessly, before slammed into the ground, rendering him unconscious.