The Serpent Bites

Ouroboros
"Hm…" A voice pondered in the middle of an extremely large room: within this large room, it held features that made it even more dauntingly large upon the viewer. It was dark...very, very dark; alight with only a few small candles across the entirety of the, approximate, 100 meter space. This darkness was filled by nothing more than 10 chairs, each ordained with a beautiful, melancholic painting that belonged in the medieval era, so-to-speak. In the middle of this dark, beautiful and expansive room was an orb. It was a large orb; very, very large orb in fact. It was colored a beautiful silver...and suddenly, a face appeared.

Menacing. That is all it could be described as; and as it was looking downward, a curve formed upon its thin lips. It was menacing; like the grim reaper's scythe was adorned upon a human's lips. And then, it spoke, "So it appears...we may now prepare for our first mission." The voice was, undoubtedly, masculine. It held an air of contempt; it was regal...yet oh so very frightening. And as it echoed, another man laughed:

"Heh! Finally!" The man brazenly announced, his silhouette appearing on the giant orb. "Oh but wait...wasn't my mission the first one?" And with that…a cloaked figure had appeared on the screen. Their golden eyes penetrated the simple words that they said, and the first man to talk, chuckled, "My my Nosferatu, are you eager to prove your authority?" to which he replied, "Oh but of course...Master Albion."

"Oh shut it." The other man said, as his silhouette turned sidewards in irritation. "Now now Sebastian, fighting won't do among guildmates." A female voice, rather alluringly, said. "Indeed, it is not very professional to do so." Another man said, whose silhouette held a small girl behind him...whose teeth even glistened in the unbecoming darkness.

"As to a matter of importance," The first man, named Albion, had said; causing others to be silent. "There are a few available options to us, depending on how we wish to psychologically torture Desperados: firstly, we can attack one of their own; secondly, we could attack one of their affiliations; thirdly, we could raid the Magic Council candidates and blame it on them."

"The third isn't a good idea." The man known as Nosferatu had said, before continuing, "The Magic Council candidates, though not powerful, have resources that they can exploit. On the other hand...Factis Academia has few."

"I believe you're forgetting about the Nine Circles of Hell, Nosferatu." One of the other men said, as Sebastian then exploded, "Oh who gives two shits! They're all old and saggy anyway!" Albion then calmly thought among the chaos in his guildmates, "I believe...targeting the newer members should suffice."

"Oh?" Nosferatu asked in curiosity, to which the others had to oblige. "You see, targeting them means that we don't have any actual enmity with only a few of the guild; we want them destroyed, utterly and completely. That is what this mission must accomplish."

"If it is Luna and Almos...Lennart and I can definitely go." The female voice said, to which Albion responded. "What a perfect choice; Ariel and Lennart, thank you for volunteering." The Master said with an unusually delightful tone to his voice, as two of the ten figures suddenly disappeared from existence.

Gambling for Treasure
"So...you took me because you thought my Probability Magic could lead you to your treasure? And...now we're lost…" Luna sighed as she made a fool out of herself in this mission. And it was only a few hours ago that Almos had begged Luna to come onto this mission, which she now regretted wholeheartedly.

"So...no technology, no magical map because you're an idiot, and no compass. Well, time to keep walking then." Luna commanded Almos, who grudgingly followed with a sigh on his face. He really wasn't pleased by this development.

But it wasn't as easy as it sounded; they were surrounded by an enormous rainforest with a variety of waterfalls, large trees, shrubs, flowers, various animals, vines, and everything else you could put into a rainforest multiplied by one hundred and one. But it was a beautiful place, the serenity and liveliness of the area made a contrast that a human could perhaps see once in a lifetime.

But while Luna admired the environment, Almos only scavenged for treasure. While his initial goal couldn't be accomplished, he was sure to find something of high value within the area, no matter what type of value it actually was; as long as it wasn't intrinsic. Alas, Almos had tragically bumped into the pole of a tree while his mind was wandering, and as he fell, a coconut dropped and hit his stomach.

"Ugh!" He cried out in pain as he began to cough somewhat hysterically. He looked towards Luna, who looked backwards and sighed at his incompetency. Removing the coconut off his body quickly with her hair magic, she signed for Almos to grab onto it; as he did, Almos was pulled up and put up on his feet.

"Focus, we're not finding treasure. We're getting to a place where we can circumnavigate to the guild." Luna reprimanded Almos, whose adventurous passion was quite easily removed. "Right, let's move." She said, before suddenly the area was dimmed by an unorthodox darkness, which both Almos and Luna were trapped in.

"What?" Almos thought to himself, as he attempted to find Luna within the darkness. "Luna, Luna!?" Almos reached out, to which he sensed another presence behind him. But...it wasn't as intimidating as he thought it would be.

"Heh. Surprised?" The young man said; silver hair trailed down his neck, while his lean figure adorned a skin-tight yellow vest and baggy blue jeans, along with a strangely shaped sword. "The name's…Lennart."

"Hesitating?" Almos thought to himself, before drawing his own Fan Knife in response to the recent threat. As if on cue, the boy known as Lennart dashed towards him, before swinging his sword with no real precision in numerous directions towards himself. Almos quickly reacted based on his sense of hearing; at least the wind could be felt. He parried the majority of the boy's swift strikes with the wide horizontal blade acting as a shield.

While doing so, he used his other hand to draw his Sword Cutlass, aiming it towards his own approximation of the boy's position. "Au revoir, young one." And as he shot it, there was no impact. Almos was stunned, and was about to be defeated in one fell swoop before there was a "crack!" sound that appeared in the space between the sword and Almos, at which he quickly took two steps back.

"Such a horrid Shadow Field spell? I expected a bit more." Luna noted, and though she was confident, she was still tired; Almos could hear it in her breath. "Almos, I need you to close your eyes for a moment. This will be a bit bright."

And as she told him, he closed his eyes, hoping he wasn't making a fatal opening for himself. Luna then smirked slightly, and drew a card from her deck. "Sun." She merely chanted, as a fierce light of ecstatic orange magical energy raised in a column from her surrounding her, breaking through the thick Shadow Field, before dissipating the entirety of the spell.

"Almos, open your eyes." Luna told him, tapping him on the shoulder as he got into his stance. "These two...they're formidable mages. I'll fend them both off; find communication, and tell the guild to get here...now!" Luna glared at him, with Almos responding with an equally strong glare.

"I'm not some -!" Luna wrapped him in her hair before throwing him a considerable distance away, before saying, "You're not useless. But I need you to leave, now!" Luna exclaimed, at which Almos gave a slight tear before immediately running off.

"You're not going -!" Lennart was immediately interrupted by a fist of hair punching him in the gut, causing him to spout blood and remain unconscious and on the floor. "Lennart!" The other woman called out, before conjuring three shadows to intercept Luna's attack.

"You…" Ariel hissed towards Luna, before she smiled with a wide grin. "Prepare for some torture, girly." Luna only smirked towards this reply, lifting her right index finger and pointing her elaborate ring towards her, suggesting her to come forward. "Let's get this started."

Fin