Summer Break

Chapter 13

The party walked down the downward tunnel to the first level of the dungeon, if not for their three fire mages creating some fire in their hands it would be near impossible to see. They were walking in a diamond formation, Arthur was taking point with Feyrith and Lilia walking behind him, then came Tess and Claire, followed by Elijah and Kathyln, and finally Curtis mounted on Grawder taking the rear. This formation was decided upon before leaving Xyrus, so that way they knew how to get into formation quickly. Curtis did complain a bit at first, stating that due to his and Grawders heightened senses that they should be in front to keep a lookout for attacks. Arthur understood the logic, but argued that those senses would be best served at the rear so they could give a warning of attacks from the rear.

As they walked further down into the dungeon, instead of feeling colder as they had expected, the air actually got warmer and more humid. Kathyln brought the temperature down a little, and had Lilia create a little breeze to spread the cooler air around to everyone. Everyone enjoyed the little reprieve from the hot humid air. Although insignificant, Arthur was curious as to why Kathyln didn't ask Tess to help. While at Xyrus Kathyln barely spoke to many of them in the first place, but seemed to get along with Tess to a degree that he would have considered them friends, whereas Lilia she almost never spoke with. However over the last few days Arthur had noticed that Kathyln had been going out of her way to avoid Tess. Normally Arthur wouldn't care about this kind of behavior and write it off as childish drama, however they were in the beast glades now diving into a dungeon, so any problems with team cohesion could lead to someone getting hurt, or worse.

After a few more minutes they could see a dim light up ahead, marking the entrance to the first level.

"Alright everyone get ready, the first level is just up ahead. Just like how we trained, leave enough room to fight, but don't spread too far out. And under no circumstances are you to break formation," Arthur reminded everyone as if he was the leader of a military unit.

Nobody replied, but they didn't need to, they all knew what to do, and Arthur knew that. Most of them did find it a little annoying that he went over this again, but they all understood. During the training on one of the practice fields at the academy, Arthur drilled these same directions into them often. The last time they were really truly annoyed at Arthur for this was when Curtis and Grawder were constantly pulling ahead of the party, and several of them were ready to oust Arthur as leader, maybe even from their summer plans.

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Three weeks ago

"STOP!" Arthur yelled from atop a tall rock.

The group was running through formation movement drills on one of the group combat practice fields in preparation for their summer in the beast glades. For the most part everyone was doing well, except Curtis and Grawder who were still pulling ahead too far.

"Now what?" Curtis groaned as Arthur jumped down from his rock.

"You are all suddenly under attack from a giant mana beast! Tess, create a wind barrier around the party!" Arthur said sternly as he walked to Curtis.

"Arthur I can't, Curtis is too far away," Tess replied.

"Create the barrier, just protect as many as you can. Hold it for five seconds then release," Arthur replied in a softer tone yet still loud enough for her to hear, just as he arrived at Curtis and Grawder.

Tess did as she was told and a swirling vortex of wind surrounded the rest of the party. Five seconds later the barrier dissipated.

"I'm sorry everyone, but Curtis and Grawder are dead. The mana beast was too powerful and overwhelmed them," Arthur called out as he glared up at Curtis. "Get back to the beginning and do it again. This time Curtis, stay in formation." Arthur instructed before using wind magic and jumping away.