Chapter 3: The Super Squad

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The banging on our door continued. I stuck my fist out, signaling my teammates to stay quiet and still, hoping to fool the intruder into believing that our room was not occupied at that moment. Despite my clear hand gesture, Imbeseel clicked his finger to command the blue blobs of magic that had just placed Stump's bed down to swing the door open, revealing Ivan and his three friends: Goon No.1, Goon No.2, and Goon No.3, our archnemesis, more formally known as the 'Super Squad’.

Ivan wore polished silver armor, seemingly shinier than mine. He was the unofficial leader of the Super Squad. Despite our obvious excellence, the Super Squad was crowned as the most efficient and proficient team in the ADMI Academy. Ivan and his teammates enjoyed spending a ridiculous amount of their time and energy defaming our team and crafting a false image of the Eagle Shield as incompetent and unqualified. I knew that they were secretly afraid of us. I found them as bothersome as an anger provoking younger sibling armed to the teeth with insults.

I could never remember the names of the other insignificant members of the Super Squad. That’s why I just called them Goon No.1, Goon No.2, and Goon No.3. Goon No.1 was expertly talented at archery. His unparalleled skills allowed him to hit a bullseye with the first arrow and split the arrow with the second. Goon No.2’s specialty was pure brute strength. He carried an oversized spiked mace with two extra longswords on his back and had a smaller spiked mace strapped to his waist. Goon No.3 wore no armor at all. In his hands was a meter long hammer with a blunt cylinder of iron at the tip. On his belt hung nine throwing knives. He relied on his swiftness and precise hammer strikes to take down an opponent without getting hit on his defenseless body. Despite his unimpressive stamina, I considered him the most deadly of them all due to his speed and agility. His Wac-A-Mole skills were legendary.

“Hello, little Pigeon Shield, what a great day to harass you pathetic dim-wits!” Ivan said, smirking.

I gritted my teeth and spun around.

“Sup’, Super Suckers. We are not dim-wits, except for Imbeseel,” I replied, annoyed.

“Still cocky, I see.”

“Still stupid, I see.”

Ivan burst into gales of laughter. “You really think you can insult me, prick. Do your worst.”

I growled. Behind me, Imbeseel scratched his head and wondered why he was considered a dim-wit.

“There is something I want you to know. You see,” Ivan continued, “there is a new quest coming up and it seems pretty cool. Due to our expertise and competence, we were chosen to execute this mission as our first real assignment.”

“What is it? Perhaps some kind of damsel in distress? Perhaps a dragon which needs slaying?” Urf asked eagerly.

“We are assigned to it but we have no desire to execute it.” Ivan drawled, ignoring Urf.

“Huh, so it seems that the Sucker Squad does not have the guts to pull off one single quest!” I said in distaste.

“Would the Pigeon Shield like to take our place and handle the task then? I am sure we could pull a few strings to let you complete the quest in our place.”

“I would like you to wipe that stupid smile off your equally stupid face but yes, indubitably.” I replied. Completing a mission that the Super Squad feared would successfully create an image to other people that we were superior to the Super Squad as we truly were. For once, the Super Squad was actually doing something to our advantage!

“Okay, deal. So that we do not get any second thoughts, let’s pledge on the oath of Votumptus.”

Votumptus was the Shadowlord of Oaths. Breaking any promises under his oath would cause incurable madness. It was incredibly risky for both parties. However, I had no choice but to agree. Getting teased by Ivan for chickening out would be far worst than losing your mind.

“I, James Dolan, swear to maintain this agreement till the grave. I pledge in the name of the Oathkeeper, Votumptus.”

Ivan repeated the pledge and we shook hands. A blue flickering ring of magic circulated around our joined hands and formally sealed our agreement.

“So….how do you plan to kill Alyximeme?” Ivan asked.

It took several seconds to comprehend what he had just said. First, there was confusion. Then there was shock.

“What? That is the quest? But how can that be? There is no way trainees in the ADMI Academy could be assigned such a dangerous quest!” I exclaimed in surprise.

“Ha… maybe your little pigeon’s brain is too small to remember the Prophecy.” Ivan snorted.

That was when it dawned on me. My initial confusion and shock turned into a wave of overwhelming rage.

“You snake-tongued bastard, you set us up!” I screamed. An attempt to kill Alyximeme was a synonymous with signing your own death certificate.

“Whatcha gonna do ‘bout it, tattle to your mommy?” Ivan replied in a childish voice.

I roared in rage as I drew my sword and lunged forward. Ivan simply sidestepped and tripped me. My teammates grabbed me and held me back before I could rip Ivan into pieces.

Alyximeme was a dangerous dark sorcerer. He started off as the first and only sorcerer director of ADMI and became known as the most powerful mage ever. Then one day, he suddenly disappeared. There was no trace of him. The only thing they found were remnants of powerful dark magic. It was believed that he passed through the Ravenwall to the Dark Realm for unknown reasons. The leading theory was that Alyximeme was corrupted by Dark Magic and he built a fortress in the Dark Realm to plan nefarious plots against the Light Realm. After his disappearance, The Ravenwall had been moving bit-by-bit towards the Light Realm, destroying large chunks of our land, strengthening the evidence of Alyximeme’s suspected corruption.

The Ravenwall was a magical wall that separated the Light Realm and Dark Realm. The Light Realm was where humans, elves, dwarves, and Light Shadowlords lived. The Dark Realm was overpowered by evilness and was inhabited by Dark Shadowlords and monsters such as wights, dragons, chimeras, and banshees. The powers of love, hope, willpower, and compassion pushed The Ravenwall from our side while razing parts of the Dark Realm. On the other hand, dominances of greed, hatred, fear, and anger pushed the Ravenwall towards our side, destroying sections of the Light Realm while extending the Dark Realm. The ultimate objective of the Dark Shadowlords was to push the Ravenwall to an extent that the Light Realm would disappear from the face of Raventopia. It was believed that if the Dark Realm succeeds in destroying the Light Realm and unifying Raventopia to a terrible regime, the Dark Shadowlords would not only control Raventopia, but also all of mankind in other dimensions. The mission of ADMI was to protect the Light Realm against invasion from Dark Shadowlords, and also effectively safeguarded mankind.

“If Alyximeme were to be dead,

The one who shall kill will have much to learn,

Men who strive to sleep better in bed:

Then Alyximeme’s death must be well earned,

Excalibur will eat the Dark Mage’s bled.”

This prophecy was muttered from the dying lips of a Shadowlord and predicted that only a trainee of the ADMI Academy armed with the legendary sword Excalibur could assassinate Alyximeme. No wonder the Super Squad, a team of mere trainees, was assigned the task rather than a more seasoned professional like the ADMI Director, Jonathan Watari, or Duke Dubois. ADMI had sent thousands of trainee knights to face Alyximeme. All of them had failed and the outcome was fatal for the knights. The only survivor of these missions was an individual named Jake Armstrong. He had returned from his quest five years ago, stumbling around in the woods that surrounded the ADMI Academy. He was dressed in rags and had an expression of shock and madness in his bloodshot eyes. He kept muttering something about hiding Excalibur in a booby trapped castle and a set up. Presently, Armstrong resided in the dungeons below the ADMI Academy due to his fear of Alyximeme being able to strike at the surface. The fear and shock that spread through Raventopia as a result of Armstrong’s survival suggested that his survival was deliberate, planting seeds of doubt in the enemies of Alyximeme.

“Well then, since you are running around with your tail between your legs, let's make another deal.” Ivan said slyly.

I seethed in rage. I wanted to punch his obnoxious grin off his face.

“If you can beat me and my squad in a competition, then we will keep the quest and kill Alyximeme. If you lose, you guys will have to try to kill him and most probably die in the process. Don’t forget that you are already bound by oath to take on the quest. So you only have two choices: carry out the quest or beat us in the competition.” He continued, smirking.

“What kind of competition,” I asked, clenching my fists.

“A Daryyl duel.”

A Daryyl duel was a type of duel that was fought in a virtual world in the competitors’ subconsciousness. In order to link the competitor’s minds together into an arena of their subconsciousness, the competitors had to share the consumption of a potion known as the Daryyl juice. The Daryyl juice was made up of various magical ingredients together with the saliva of each of the competitors. It was the most disgusting liquid for anyone to ingest. After drinking the Daryyl juice, your physical body would fall unconscious while you mental body would appear in the virtual world. Due to the duel taking place in the fighter’s mind, you were allowed to kill one another in that virtual world. After someone dies in a Daryyl duel, they would snap back into reality while their virtual avatar would fade away in the opposition's subconsciousness.

“Don’t agree.” Urf pleaded, “They can beat us. They will also humiliate us before they send us to our own mental and physical destruction. Maybe there is some other way for us to get out of the quest.”

I ignored him.

“Deal.”

“Great! Lets meet after lights out at the weapon storage room to carry out the competition. It’s gym time now but I advise you that you better not use up all your energy for training today. See ya at the gym!” Ivan said as he and his teammates walked out of our room towards the gymnasium.

“What in the world were you thinking?” Urf raged, “Not only will we die, we will be shunned! Disgraced! Have you not heard what I had just said?”

“Well, we do have an extra teammate so the stakes are significantly lower,” I replied, gesturing at Stump.

“You idiot! Ivan was part of the Frague City Rogue Dragon Affair so he will be getting a squire as well! We are going to be annihilated! Massacred!”

I froze in the realisation of my mistake but I calmed myself with the self-assurance that the Super Squad was no force to be matched against the real talented professionals: us.

“We’ll still beat ‘em!” I said confidently.

Urf covered his face with his hand and groaned, unconvinced.

“Your hubris will be our downfall, James. The Super Squad is a force to be reckoned with. There is a reason why they are known as the cream of the crop and we are not.” Urf sighed.

Imbeseel, who was aimlessly walking back and forth in the hallway, rammed into me. Imbeseel did not notice the heavily armored individual whom he just caused to collapse onto the hard wooden floor and promptly stampeded over me before I could get a chance at replying at Urf’s scandalous retort.

Click here to continue to Chapter 4: The Daryyl Duel