Way of the Knights

“You guys, I just received orders from HQ. Gear up, we’re about to move out again.”

“Finally! Damn, I was starting to get bored.”

Inside a small room within the barracks, a few people could be seen moving around in response to the message. Included amongst these people were Vanessa, Richard and Jeanne who enlisted for the war.

It’s been a two weeks since their last dispatch and frankly, sitting around while doing nothing here was starting to get stale.

“How many do you all think we’ll face today?” Vanessa asked her squad members.

“I have no idea.” Jeanne shrugged while refilling her vials of poison.

“As long as there’s more than ten of them I’d be happy. It’s not fun if there aren’t much.” Richard replied.

“What if there’s less than ten but all are peak-Empyrean Knight in strength?” One of their squad member interjected.

“Even better then…” Richard replied, “It’d be more fun that way.”

“Alright. If that happens then we’ll let you fight them all at once.” Their captain interjected all of the sudden.

“Cap, don’t be like that.”

The squad chuckled at this exchange all while still getting ready for deployment.

It didn’t take long for them to get ready. Most of their stuff were already prepared plus is common disciple for soldiers to be ready at all times so they were done within a couple of minutes.

Once they’re done, they immediately left their shared room and went towards the HQ office to receive briefing for the mission.

Ellen wasn’t there, instead her assistance was there to give their briefing in her stead since apparently, she’s occupied with something.

“Squad 6, here’s your coordinates.” The assistant handed them a device which displayed the coordinates for their mission. “You guys wait there and confront the incoming enemies. You’ll be facing three squads in total. Think you can handle it?”

Squad 6’s Captain stepped forward and replied: “Yes, Commander. Squad 6 will return victorious.”

“Good. Remember to pay attention to your safety, if anything happens, don’t hesitate to call for reinforcements, we have a lot of people vacant right now who wouldn’t mind a share of action.”

“You’re dismissed, Squad 6. Godspeed everyone.”

“Godspeed.”

After they’re dismissed, Squad 6 immediately went towards their ship to head for the coordinates given to them by the HQ.

“…three squads huh. Should be interesting.” Vanessa murmured as she sat down upon entering their ship.

Beside her, Richard was vibrating with excitement.

“More enemies for me, yay. I should be able to save enough to buy the Origin Water Essence this time around.”

“You know, Aunt Ellen would gladly give that to you if just asked her.” Jeanne told Richard.

“Oh I know.” He replied, calming down and resting his back on his seat. “But I don’t like doing it that way. Plus, my pride wouldn’t allow me to give Dylan something I basically got for free. He wouldn’t like that either.”

Richard has two lovers; Dylan and Alice. The two weren’t in frontlines since they are too weak to he drafted so instead they stayed behind to assist with the war efforts and provide support for those who are on frontlines.

Dylan was half-step away from breaking through. Unfortunately, with his accumulation so far, it would take him at least 50 years before it becomes enough for a single attempt.

50 years isn’t too long for cultivators but it isn’t short either. According to what Richard knew, Dylan had been stuck in this stage for so long so he decided to help him but giving him resources.

Knowing his lover though, Richard was aware that Dylan wouldn’t accept anything for free. He never liked the feeling of owing someone and would much prefer to work for it instead.

What Jeanne said was true, all it takes is for Richard to ask and he will have access to virtually unlimited amounts of resources thanks to his heritage. However, Richard wasn’t doing this for himself. He’s doing it for Dylan so he has to put in some effort.

“Brace yourself, kids. We’re warping in.” The captain’s voice sounded from the cockpit of the ship,

The squad members fixed their seating position and braced themselves for the upcoming warp.

The Warping Function isn’t something that is exclusive to their ship. It could only be accessed with the HQ’s permission. This function was derived from observing how the Realm Door operated and it became one of Raven’s mission back then which is now functioning properly.

Although it isn’t powerful enough as the warping that the Abyssals have, it’s sufficient since it can deploy their ships faster.

There was an audible countdown before the warping initiated. Squad 6 had experience this multiple times so they’re used to it by now.

Once the countdown finished, everybody felt a strong pull for a few seconds before its gone. In a blink of an eye, they’re already far from the campsite.

The coordinates given to them was quite far from the campsite and the warp only took their ship close to the exact location. They still have to manually navigate to the position and it would take a day at most for them to reach it.

“Alright, Kids. Same drill. Be on alert and the moment you see something amiss, don’t hold it in and tell us.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Begin your rounds then.”

The moment they stepped in unknown territory, order must be observed. It’s one of the strict rules that soldiers have to follow to ensure the success of their mission.

Squad 6 is composed of 7 people. There used to be 10 of them but the other 3 were on vacation and won’t be returning until next month. Which is fine given that there’s a lot of soldiers who really are on stand by.

Still, even if there’s just 7 of them, their fire power didn’t truly lessen. It more or less stayed the same.

From here on out, everyone has to be on alert. They’re far from home and anything can turn hostile here. The squad members had to patrol the vicinity of ship in rotation to maintain alertness all over and make sure that they’ll be able to respond at the first sight of hostile approach.

“You guys stay here, we three will take the first round.” Richard offered.

“Sure. Stay safe out there.” Their squad members replied and accepted the deal.

Just like that, Richard, Vanessa and Jeanne flew out of the ship to begin their patrol.

“I’ll watch our back. You to decide which side you’ll be.” Vanessa stated as soon as they got out of their ship.

In the end, Richard watched their left while Jeanne watched their right. There’s no need for anyone to watch the front since their captain is already doing that.

Vanessa put a kilometer’s distance away from her and ship. Before scanning her surroundings. This distance was just enough for her to react proper and still be within ship’s communication range. She can go farther of course but there’s no need to do that.

“Cloudy, come out here. It’s patrol time.” She said softly to herself.

From beneath her clothes, a purple smoke emerged which turned denser and denser until it became a cloud. Vanessa smiled and petted if for bit before the cloud dispersed itself and covered the entirety of the ship.

The cloud turned itself into a cloak that hid their ship including a kilometer’s distance around it. The cloaking was impeccable too, Vanessa had used this trick to ambush many enemies in the past and it always worked.

Cloudy was originally an Spiritual Origin Raincloud that once descended to baptize her, it was attracted by Vanessa’s inborn providence and wanted to establish a connection with her to hopefully ride her coattails.

Sufficed to say, this cloud is a Spiritual Entity itself.

However, Raven saw through its intentions as well the many others who, just like this cloud did, descended at the same time of Vanessa’s birth. Raven didn’t want them to touch even a single strand of hair and he’s too strong for them to antagonize so they could only leave in defeat.

To cloudy’s luck though, Vanessa took a liking to it.

It is absurd to believe that a Spiritual Entity would be willing to bind itself as a familiar of a human child but this child was the daughter of the strongest man alive so it wasn’t so bad.

Plus, Vanessa was a dear and blessed with an obscene amount of providence. Just by staying on her side, Cloudy already benefitted a lot so it didn’t hesitate to form a bond with her.

Of course, Raven also had a hand on this. He personally improved the cloud using runes to protect his child. Since he can’t really afford to pull this cloud away from her daughter’s grasp, he might as well make sure that it is strong enough to protect her.

That’s basically what cloudy has been doing all this time. It is one of strongest tools in Vanessa’s arsenal but it’s duty is to ensure her safety.

With its abilities, Vanessa could more or less survive any encounter she’ll face so long as she remains careful.