The Calm Before

"No wonder this was classified…" Cynthia was on her knees, out of breath. "This thing's a beast." 

Next to her stood Vincent, who was also breathing heavily. The area the two Master Mages were currently in was full of destroyed trees and craters in the ground, along with a few greatswords made of darkness sticking out from the dirt. Cynthia's jacket was cut up and her arms showed multiple wounds while parts of Vincent's body looked like they were hit with some sort of corrosive.

"What do you even want?" Vincent yelled at the adversary in front of him. "You show up everyday, just watching, but today you didn't run. What the hell is your goal?!"

[...]

The shadow creature they were facing, the Deathrider, stood there with a sword in his grip as it looked down on the Mages in its sight. Gunther had been fighting the two Mages in order to allow Zane to have his fight with Firenze. It had been easy for the shadow creature, but the two masters had been putting in effort to keep up.

'All good now Gunther, my fight's done.' 

Hearing his master's sign of confirmation, Gunther made his sword disappear as he turned around. Before disappearing, he decided to confuse the Mages even further. Maybe Zane's habits were rubbing off on him.

[You mortals need not concern yourself with my affairs. You cannot protect the son of Syne forever.]

Gunther's heavy voice surprised the Mages as he began to sink into the shadows on the ground, making his exit. Vincent's eyes widened as he began to try to gleam some sort of info from Gunther.

"You can talk!?" He rushed towards the Deathrider before it disappeared. "Wait!"

Unfortunately, Gunther simply ignored him as he left the area, leaving Vincent frustrated.

"Godamnit! When are we going to get some answers?"

He stomped on the dirt Gunther used to escape before turning back to Cynthia, who gave him a sympathetic look.

"So this is what you deal with on the daily, huh?" 

"Luckily, he only watches most of the time. He rarely acts." Vincent suddenly looked in a certain direction. Far, far away, he sensed that both groups of students were waiting at their bases, with one side having two flags. "Great, the second round's already over. If only that damned creature didn't make us take the fight so far away."

The duo began to travel back to the area where capture the flag was taking place. Cynthia decided to ask Vincent a question.

"Hey, what do we…"

"You can't tell anyone, especially your students or mine." He gave her a sharp look. "Since you encountered it yourself, you can know the details later. But now, the only ones privy to this are me, you, and the Headmaster."

"...Understood."

******

"How much longer is it gonna take?" Lisa groaned as she lay on a tree branch.

"At least we get to rest." Lanius responded as he played with the red and the blue flag, using their stems to draw in the dirt.

Just as they were about to be consumed by boredom, Vincent's voice rang in their ears again. 

"Round 2 has ended. Point to Mage Squad 6. Due to the delay, round 3 will start immediately."

The three bolted to their feet before Lanius and Zane ran back into the forest.

******

With Firenze out of commission from having used up his mana fighting with Zane, and George also weakened from fighting Lanius, Mage Squad 6 quickly won the third round as well, making it 3 for 3.

Back in the clearing, the two squads gathered along with their masters, who had removed all evidence that they had just been in a fight from themselves.

"Mage Squad 6 won all 3 rounds." Cynthia sighed. "They win, and are allowed to take on a mission once their master deems them ready."

"Woohoo!" Lanius cheered, sticking his arms in the air, with Lisa letting out a wide smile and Zane clapping for his team.

While Zane's group was enjoying their victory, Firenze leaned in to whisper to George. 

"Listen, we gotta stay outta Zane's way if we want our plans to work." He whispered into George's ear as the boy wearing a beanie raised an eyebrow. "He's probably the strongest one here." 

"...Alright."

"Well, at least their squad isn't completely unbalanced." Sally spoke, feeling bitter, making sure her words were loud enough for everyone to hear. "They got that deadweight on the right to make up for having two monsters in the squad." 

As she glared at Zane, the cheering stopped, the people turning silent as all eyes fell on her.

"You know, it's actually pretty weird that you're a shit Mage." Sally got even more haughty as she started approaching Zane, who was beginning to frown. 

During the game of capture the flag, she barely got to do anything in any of the rounds except getting caught in Lisa's spells in the second one, and she couldn't exactly go and insult Lanius or Lisa for being talented, so she went for the easy target.

"I mean, did your parents really not teach you even a single thing before getting executed?" She scoffed as Zane glared at her, his fists beginning to shake with rage. 

"I guess it must have slipped their minds while they were being held in a dungeon, getting the ropes placed around their necks, or being tortured for information." She grinned in Zane's face which had a dark look on it. "Well, were they tortured? Or you don't know?"

"Hey! You're crossing the line…" Lanius was going to stop her from continuing, with the two Master Mages following suit, but someone beat them all to it.

"Huh? Firenze, get out of my way!" Sally slapped away Firenze's hand that he had placed on her shoulder.

"Sally, trust me, you don't want to do this." He quickly glanced at Zane as sweat ran down his brow. The young Dark Mage was looking at her murderously.

"Who cares about some fucking orphan - AGHHH!" Sally began to insult Zane again when she suddenly jolted, screaming in pain. She fell to the ground and began to convulse as Cynthia and Vincent crouched down to examine her.

'Shit!' Firenze cursed inwardly and looked at Zane just in time to see his spellbook shut itself and disappear out of thin air, being the only one to notice it out of everyone present.

As everyone tried to see what was wrong with Sally, Zane looked down at her coldly in a way that made Firenze shudder. He only hoped that Zane didn't kill her.