Burning Bridges [D-Rank mission, Solo]

“Nickolas Krossley?” Came the mans barking question. Nines was in the praetorium of the new Magic Council HQ in Era, it only made sense someone would come to give him orders. Nines couldn't wait till he had some sort of rank. Sadly the majority of seekers never have rank, the council left ranks for paladins who stayed in one place for an extended period of time, not those who moved around to hunt for the dark guilds. Nines grabbed the 2nd floor balcony and dropped to the Praetoriums ground floor. The 2nd floor was a library and he was holding a book he rather liked. He saluted the man in front of him, An officer by the name of Wellington. “Today’s mission is yours Krossley, at ease.”

“Thank you sir” Nines replied dropping the Salute and adjusting his armor on his left shoulder, it was kinda digging into his muscle, it did that when he saluted or stood at attention. He’d have to adjust the strap later.

“You will go out and find a group of trouble makers who recently burned down a mans house, they have a penchant for fire magic, and are known to have done this over the last few months.” Wellington stated. “Bring them in and we will do the rest. Your allowed to use force, but nothing lethal.”

“Yes sir, any tips on where they are?” Nines asked with a bow.
“Thats not my job Krossley, thats your job, off with you” Wellinton waved his hand away from him. Signalling Nines to leave.

Nines bowed again before leaving the Praetorium.

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Didn't take long for Nines to leave the HQ of the Magic council in Era. The grounds were the largest part of the complex but easy to navigate having no walls. After that it was a few miles from the complex to the actual town. He looked at the piece of information he was given, a simple map of where the mans house was located in town within a folder. It wasn't much help, or any help at all really.

As Nines walked he thought about how these three went about their business. From the report the man filed, they used not only just setting a large area on fire, but also direct force made of flames. So an Area mage, and a few fireballs would do it. The man saw three people at the time of his house catching on fire, before he fled the scene. Reading through the majority of info gathered on the other cases of pyromania within Era, there seemed to be no motive other than setting things on fire. He thought about that for awhile trying to figure out where this group would be. Their motive was setting things on fire, and they were doing it to bigger and bigger things within a certain radius of the main gate. So they could be from out of town. Smart way to do random bullshit crime like this.

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Nines figured two of the mages would be designed for combat, and the area mages just set a huge area on fire. Interesting way to do magic really. They had formed a small group like a guild, except of trouble makers. Nines raised an eyebrow out that. Magic wielding citizens didn't normally form groups of specifically three. Criminals normally formed a group of two, riots were a bunch, protesters were five or more. Nines smelled Dark Guild bullshit behind this. Which meant even if these were small crimes, which was a silly notion in Nines’ mind as a man literally lost his house to these jerks, something bigger was behind it. But why would a Dark Guild encourage a group to burn down buildings of the people. Dark Guilds thrived off making the people fear the three main Guilds, as well as the Magic Council. That way they got new members.

Nines walked through the town gate and headed towards the library, it was at the tallest point in town, the best place to look around for clues, or smoke. He approached the large building as the sun set behind him. He raised his gauntleted hand above his eyes to block out the glare of the sun, he saw no smoke from a fire. Which was unfortunate he was hoping to have this under wraps today.Unlikely if these assholes weren't setting things on fire today.

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He turned around with a sigh, sliding his hand back into his pocket. He saw three Magic Council members at the side of the library crouched over and drawing in the dirt. He raised an eyebrow, that was curious. They wore no position symbols, so they were recruits? From the cut and finery in their uniform they were from the Era complex. Even more curious, Recruits weren't allowed out of the complex this late at night, there was a curfew if you didn't have a mentor. Since none of them wore the symbol of a paladin, or a seeker, he knew there was something wrong. He decided to investigate.

“Evening recruits” Nines said walking up to their small group, getting a reaction of panic as the three of them formed a line and saluted him. Their stand at attention act was shitty, they were even saluting him with the wrong hands, not to mention their stance was messy. They were failing at the basics, something drilled into Recruits everyday sense the moment they join.

“Evening Mister Paladin sir” said the fake recruit in the middle.
“At ease” Nines replied enjoying this little game, he should have ended this here, but he found this amusing. He smiled as they dropped their salutes, and looked amongst each other with beaming smiles. “So what are you three up too this late? Theres a curfew for recruits.” Nines asked, hinting that he knew something was wrong.

“We uh, we” The first Fake recruit panicked as he tried to lie his way out of the situation.
“We got lost sir, you see we’re new and we headed into town to get some Lacrima with our monthly stipend, we have no idea how to get back” Said an older fake Recruit, who obviously had some knowledge of how the Magic Council worked.

“Is that so?” Nines asked, “I’d be happy to show you the way back, even pardon you for your breaking of the curfew”

“That would be wonderful sir” Said the older Fake Recruit saluting again.

“Just a few things, one you don't salute with your right hand. We salute with our left, two you're not actually Recruits. Most notably is three though, i’ll escort you back, in chains.” Nines said with a smile. “We can do this the easy way, and you put the anti-magic handcuffs I have on, or I could beat the tar out of you violently, forcing you” He said pointing at the one in the middle, the older one, “To lose a few teeth and talk funny for the rest of your life” He pointed at the one to his left, the first one to speak up. “You’ll break the bones in your legs, which will never heal right again without medical help, due to the fact you're in prison, and probably get called Potato, due to it” Nines gestured at the last one, “And you're the pretty one, so you’ll have to deal with that. Come in nicely and i’ll give you solitary confinement.” Nines smiled at them as he put his hand back in his pocket. “I’ll let you think it over.”

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The three fake recruits looked at each other for a moment before grabbing the cloaks over their right shoulders and ripping them off, revealing a purple matching guild tattoo. “FOR SHADOW HEART” Screamed the one in the middle as the area around him glowed. Nines reacted as fast as he could both summoning the rest of his armor and throwing a shielding spell around him for good measure, then everything caught on fire. Literally everything. Everything within a two meter radius burst into flames.

“Not shadow heart again, seriously how big is this group” Nines asked as the fire around him burned. He grabbed the hilt of his knife and pumped his mana through it, the seal around the blade and its sheath unlocked allowing him to draw the blade. It was in the nick of time as well , as he cleaved through a fireball with the small blade. The third and pretty mage was charging in on Nines from the side, Nines kicked out with his armored foot catching the man in the gut, he had to make sure to harm the man without making him ugly. He did make a promise after all. He twisted stepping his foot back down as the man caught his breath, and turned his upper torso and clotheslined the man, knocking him on his ass. The impact with the back of his head and the stone rendered him unconscious quite nicely.

The other two were playing it safe after seeing their friend go down so easily. Nines flipped his knife around and caught it by the blade, chucking it at the incoming fireball thus dispelling it. Within seconds he was on the fireball casting mage. “No. None of that. Shame on you.” Nines yelled as his armored right hand grabbed the mages face and pushed backwards, and dropping forwards with his weight and his armors combined. Landing on the mans face causing impact with the ground, under his hand. Nines stood up and looked at the third mage, as he drew a wicked looking sword.

“Damnit they didn't say this would happen” The man said, as the sword started to crackle with black energy.
“Oh you have a boss?, Do tell” Nines said a smile appearing on his face.
“JUST DIE” The man said swinging the sword at Nines.

there was a sickening silence in the air as the sword went downwards. Nines expected magic, so he was already dodging but what happened boggled what he was expecting. For one he couldn't hear shit again, he was really sick of being deafened by magic. Second he came so close to death there he saw a white light. the blade crackled with black lightning. However no matter how bad Nines had it the man who had the sword had it a lot worse. he was on the ground clutching his ears, as they bleed. Obviously the sound from the magic bolt of lightning that shot at Nines blew his ear drums. Nines was pretty sure the man was screaming.

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Nines sighed after his hearing had recovered. He had already cuffed the three mages, and tied them together with rope. He had rented a wagon, and had chucked them into the back of it in a sack. He didn't even care about his promise anymore with the three. Nice guy that he was. Instead he was staring at the place the sword dropped, the dark blade crackling with lightning. “Its a really interesting Holder item, and i'm curious what it could do, there's probably something the council could do….but at the same time….I feel it needs to be destroyed.” He muttered as he pulled out another pair of Anti-Magic handcuffs. He brought them up and down on the blade, repeatedly until the sword broke under the barrage of attacks. The handcuffs had fared no better. He resheathed and sealed his knife on his right shoulder, and dispelled his armor, before climbing in the wagon and driving back towards the Era Magic Council HQ.

The amount of paper work he had to do when he got back was utter bullshit. He did get a nice bonus from the dark guild members he captured though. All in all, it was a good day.

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”Mission Details”: