Do not underestimate a slayer!

Truth be told, Mercury didn’t particularly care for having to actually act in the capacity of a superior. It was one thing to be a guide and a mentor to the members of Silver Wolf, especially those of her Scholar branch that spent much of their time in the labs and library with the ace there to help them solve educational enigmas and decipher magical artifacts. It was another entirely to have to reprimand a member of the guild for reckless behavior. Most of the time that wasn’t really an issue with the guild, as most of its members were fairly mild mannered and more interested in their work than on causing problems, but apparently they had at least one troublemaker in their midst, one that was drawing some negative attention from the wrong people.

Normally, Mercury would have preferred to pass along a task like this to Leona, but the guildmistress was out on a job that day, leaving Mercury the only one in charge. Not a day went by that the Xocili didn’t wish Aspen and Theo were still around; Aspen at the very least would have been more than happy to handle this particular scenario, but alas Mercury had responsibilities and this was one of them. After having received both the message from Clarence and the notice that Reina was requesting an evaluation, Mercury sent a note to Miss Darksteel requesting that she meet with her in one of the offices.

Mercury tinkered with a magical artifact at the desk while she waited until Reina arrived. “Oh hey, come on in!” she greeted the woman, giving her a friendly smile and setting the device aside. Not being much for formalities, the ace invited the mage to take a seat and jumped right into it. “I got your request for your evaluation. Leona and I will get that put together for you soon, I’m just waiting for her to get back from her job so we can finalize the details and then we’ll get you squared away.”

“Before we do that, though, there is something else I needed to bring up with you real quick. I’m not gonna drag this out, but we’ve been getting a lot of reports about some destructive actions on your part lately. Honestly, we tend to look over a bit of mayhem here and there. It’s not like we’re the most law abiding guild in existence. But it’s important that we remain an independent guild that’s not viewed as a threat to the Magic Council, so we can continue doing business without being hounded by the Rune Knights and shit. And unfortunately, it seems like some representatives of the Council took exception to a few things you said and did while out in Joya.”

Mercury shrugged a bit. “Whatever is going on, I’m not going to sit here and try to tell you what you can and can’t do in your free time. But, I do need you to start being a bit more mindful about getting caught and bringing that negative press back to reflect on the guild as a whole. We’re not interested in risking being put on some list and having our every move watched like a dark guild. So just try to cover your tracks a bit more, would you?”

Oh ho ho! This was a feisty one.

Reina went on quite the self absorbed rant after Mercury finished what she had felt was a very reasonable and casual confrontation. She had never really met or worked with Reina directly, though her position as second in command of the guild meant that Mercury certainly did her research into each new member that came along. Mercury knew that Reina had a bit of an obsession when it came to dragons, and believed herself to be a descendant of one. And from what she had gathered, pretty much the only person in the guild that Reina seemed to get along with was Yuvon. But reading reports about the behaviors of certain guild members and witnessing those behaviors with her own eyes were two completely different things, and it seemed that Reina thought so highly of herself that she felt she had the right to call the shots and make demands over her superiors.

Mercury was silent for a brief moment after Reina finished speaking, having let the woman talk on and on about herself without interruption, despite how much Mercury wanted to giggle at the comment about Mercury smelling even more abrasive to Reina than her “kin”. Though it was impossible to tell merely by looking or interacting with her, Mercury wasn’t human or even from Earthland, which was probably why her natural scent was more irritating to Reina’s nose. However, Mercury managed to keep her humor in check. Her emerald eyes were narrowed slightly on the guild member with an even and studious expression that did little to give away Mercury’s inner thoughts on the outburst, though there was a slight sharpness to her gaze. The tension would build for several long seconds, and most people in Mercury’s shoes likely would have gone off the rails at the disrespect and arrogance.

However, the Silver Wolf ace was not like most people. She thrived on conflict, and there were few things she enjoyed more than putting people like Reina in their places and taking them down several pegs. So instead of being overwhelmed with anger or indignation, Reina would instead find herself being greeted with a very friendly and accommodating smile. “Yes, of course. You’re right! How silly of me to keep a mighty dragon waiting. We can certainly proceed with your trial right away, and I think I have just the test in mind. Please, follow me.”

Scooping up the documents, she placed them in one of the locked drawers on the desk and led the way out of the small office down into the labs and work spaces where only the guild members were allowed. Picking a large room with lots of space that wasn’t currently being utilized for any research or experiments. “I would rather not waste anymore of your valuable time, and with your talents I am sure you would breeze through anything I put before you with little effort, so we’ll make this real easy and simple. After all, for someone as exceptional as yourself, this is really more of a formality than an actual challenge.” With a quick scan around the room, Mercury selected an item at random – a large magnifying glass – and set it on an empty table in the middle of the room.

Then, she took a few steps away toward Reina before standing at ease between the dragoness and the glass tool. “Alright, so all you need to do is just get past me to pick up that magnifying glass. You can utilize any of your skills or as much of your magic as you’d like to do so. Just take that glass, and I’ll consider it enough to bump you up to the next rank of mage, simple as that. Oh, and just to make things more interesting and give you a chance to really shine…” Reaching into the leather pouch that was belted to her thigh, Mercury withdrew a large orb made of pure iron and tossed it gently to Reina. “If I recall correctly, you have some affinity with metal, so feel free to use that however you see fit.”

Ah, so she was a slayer. How interesting. Mercury watched, her deep curiosity veiled by an impenetrable poker face of geniality as Reina accepted the bauble of iron, albeit with irritation. The redhead rebuffed Mercury’s words, stating that she needed no assistance with showing off how mighty she was, as dragon kin were allegedly above all. Mercury hadn’t spent too much time around any dragon kin save for Serilda, so the data she had to compare such claims were minimal. Then again, Serilda was pretty much the only person in the entirety of Earthland – maybe even the whole universe – that Mercury was scared of due to the woman’s insane power that put her on par with even gods… but Mercury had a feeling that the Rune Knight’s power had little to do with her lineage and more to do with her disciplined training. So, it was difficult to know how Reina would truly compare, and to that point Mercury was more than a little excited to find out.

Reina consumed the sphere, which was packed with a lot more power than she seemed to be expecting. At first it seemed to have some kind of ill effect and Mercury wondered if she had just poisoned the woman by accident, a possibility that the lavender haired woman honestly wouldn’t have been that choked up over. However, it seemed that Reina’s body just needed time to adjust to the overwhelming might of the orb’s influence. Within moments, the state known as dragon force overcame Reina, her flesh hardening into scales as a dull grey aura began to surround her. The eyes of a predator found their way toward Mercury once more as Reina expressed her understanding of what Mercury supposedly wanted: to be put in her place. And with a brilliant display of dragon shaped ethereal energy and a roar, she demanded that Mercury tremble before pressing her attack toward the Silver Wolf Ace.

Unfortunately for Reina, not only was Mercury much stronger than she let on, with certain genetic traits that allowed her to process the world around her at computerized speeds, but she also had spent the last couple years training with people that far exceeded Reina in both power and discipline. Mercury simply let the blows land without resistance, her body calculating the strength of each impact and the speed between strikes, running the literal numbers in her head and reading them on her internal HUD. And to Reina’s credit, they were impressive strikes for a woman of Reina’s skill level. She was certainly not a novice… but frankly, she wasn’t worth all the bluster she gave herself either, as far as Mercury was concerned. While the Xocili certainly felt the blows, and they were painful to a point, it wasn’t anything she couldn’t endure and the strikes didn’t even force Mercury to move, her feet grounded to the floor.

Thus would she stand, patient to wait out Reina’s barrage and to see how she would react. Would she change tactics once she realized the assault was doing next to nothing to her opponent? Would she simply keep attempting to pummel Mercury until the inevitable fatigue from her force state kicked in and reduced her to the strength of a piece of wet tissue paper? Either way, the results would be enlightening to say the least. “Yes, very good! Keep it up. You’re doing great.”

Well, this was not going at all how Reina wanted. The dragoness had been throwing blows at her for nearly a full minute only to pause, winded, and observe that her opponent was no worse for wear. It was by this point that the shoe was beginning to drop and there was no need for Mercury to maintain any false pretenses about it. As such, when she spoke up to “encourage” the woman, there would be simply no mistaking the condescension in Mercury’s voice. Unsurprisingly, this only made Reina all the more angry from being mocked, and nine times out of ten people like her in this position would react erratically, furthering only to make themselves look more the fool.

The woman attempted to kick Mercury with added reinforcement from her magic, but the ace stood her ground, unmoved by the attempted trip attempt. At that point the dragoness at least attempted to throw Mercury off by slamming her fists together hard enough to cause a physical reverberation in the room that broke the window where other members of the scholar department had long since gathered to observe and take notes of the fight. To Reina’s credit it was quite loud, and given that Mercury was a slayer herself her hearing was quite sensitive, causing her to wince, though the expression was more out of annoyance than pain.

Unfortunately for Reina, it wouldn’t be even close to enough to gain the upper hand on the guild leader. As the redhead charged Mercury, the ace waited until the opportune moment before she finally made a move other than simply standing there and tanking the attacks. Stepping to the side, the lavender haired ace snapped out both of her hands at lightning speed to counter Reina’s attempted grapple. The first hand slapped one of Reina’s arms out of the way, deflecting the limb entirely. In the same motion, her other hand reached out and snatched Reina’s second arm by the wrist, pulling her back and using the dragoness’ own momentum against her to yank her off her feet. With a quick spin, Mercury twisted around in a single complete circle before releasing her, hurling the woman effortlessly across the room back where she had started.

As Mercury stood there, watching Reina with a studious and amused expression, one of the scholars outside the room utilized some magic to speak to her through the window asking if Mercury could help them run some tests to help them collect data while they watched. Normally Mercury would make an effort to get permission from someone before using them for research, but the ace wasn’t feeling particularly giving toward Reina at the moment. The slight smirk on her face widened into a grin as she smiled at the other members gathered outside. “I do love multitasking. And I think I have just the thing to show you. Pay close attention now, everybody..!”

Reaching into her pouch, she withdrew a single dagger that had a black and white damascus design to it, the blade a mixture of holy and unholy based steel that she knew for a fact Reina would have difficulty with should she attempt to consume it. The real question was: how much did Reina know about her own dragon slaying powers… as well as her limitations? Twirling the blade expertly between her fingers like a drummer with a stick, she waited to make sure Reina was back on her feet before flinging the weapon toward her, eager to see what the woman would do. It wasn’t thrown at Mercury’s full strength, so there was a possibility that Reina could catch or deflect it somehow, rather than just dodge it. And while Mercury held some theories as to how Reina would respond based on their interactions thus far, she was keeping an open mind to see if the woman would surprise her or not.

Mercury tossed the dagger in Reina’s direction and then waited to see what would happen. Predictably, the woman recognized the weapon as metal and consumed it without a second thought for its appearance, which told the ace everything she needed to know. Reina took a step as if to continue but then had to stop, leaving the researchers to scramble for some explanation of her reaction. Mercury simply waited patiently for the shoe to drop and it did so in the form of Reina collapsing onto her hands and knees with a metallic clang until she began to retch the contents of her stomach onto the floor.

“So! Who can tell me what happened here? Anybody?” she asked pleasantly, turning to the scholars on the other side of the glass and electing to treat this as any other academic endeavor. After a brief pause when no one could give her an answer, Mercury continued. “Well, let’s look at the data, then. Reina here is a metal slayer, as all of you are no doubt aware by now given the way she deep throated that dagger. Specifically, she is a dragon slayer, which allows her to create metal based spells and consume most items of metallic origin. Most.”

The ace turned to look back at Reina as the woman continue to hurl blue color bile onto the floor for a solid minute, giving Mercury plenty of time to educate the members. “Dragon slayers are indeed quite powerful and they are a force to be reckoned with, but they are not the only kind of slayer out there – and compared to other types of slayers, dragon slayers are really quite basic. They can consume their respective elements to gain power, yes, but only if those elements are in their natural forms. In Reina’s case, this means traditional metals like the ores you would pull from the ground, or even natural metal crafted from magical spells. However, metals that are imbued with the magic of gods and demons – holy and unholy magic as it were – those kinds of metals are simply too much for a mere dragon slayer to handle. As you can see, it acts like a poison to them. Not a fatal one, typically, but a poison nonetheless.”

Reina had slipped and fallen into the puddle of sick she’d made on the ground, causing Mercury’s nose to wrinkle in disgust. For all of Reina’s earlier claims that Mercury smelled, the ace was actually a woman that kept herself almost meticulously clean, who showered every day – sometimes twice a day – and absolutely hated to be covered in filth. So the sight of someone else caked in their own bile was quite unattractive. She watched in calm silence as Reina did somewhat impressively drag herself back to her feet, drained and ragged. Now would be the telling moment. Would Reina submit? Continue to fight? For all that Mercury knew the woman wasn’t a match for her, the ace had spent her entire life for as long as she could remember being dragged through the darkest and cruellest corners of the universe under the banners of war and tyranny and oppression. She had fought and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people directly, and was responsible for the loss of more lives than she would ever be willing to admit…

So she knew that right here, right now, was when Reina was at her most dangerous. She was a wild animal backed against the wall with nowhere to run, seemingly powerless against her opponent. How many times had Mercury herself been in this exact situation, against an enemy that had every intention of killing her, and through unpredictable desperation she had found the strength to overcome the seemingly insurmountable and prevail as the victor? No, now was not the time to take Reina lightly. Mercury was confident, sometimes even arrogant, but she knew better than to count her winnings before the chips had finished falling. She had no doubt in her mind that at this point Reina would try to kill her. The dragoness’s pride had been absolutely torn to shreds in a matter of minutes, before a live audience no less, and given how little regard Reina had held for Mercury or really anyone up until now the ace simply had no reason to believe that the redhead would hold back in what was surely her final stand.

Consumed by her loathing, Reina shrieked out Mercury’s name and charged, one of her arms tripling in size with layers of iron that had formed a sharp point at the tip. And while Mercury was inclined to counter the charge and simply knock the woman out right there and then to keep things from getting out of hand, the scientist in her simply was far too curious to let things play out. As ill advised as it was, she couldn’t help but want to see what Reina was capable of in this broken and desperate state. So, rather than strike back or stand her ground, Mercury simply dodged the incoming charge, deftly stepping out of the way and forcing Reina to have to adjust to follow her. She continued to do this for a minute or two, soaking in data like a sponge as Reina came at her with a full arsenal of spells and abilities. She even allowed a number of strikes to hit her so she could analyze the woman’s strength in this state. And while plenty of it certainly hurt more than Mercury would state outloud, the strikes appeared to do very little to her in the long haul.

When Mercury was satisfied with the encounter, she determined that it was time to finally put things to an end. Waiting for an opportune moment, the second the ace saw an opening to strike she took it. Without any outward or visible displays of magic, Mercury utilized one of her own spells to strengthen her body. Then, with a sudden burst of blinding speed, she snatched Reina by the fist as the redhead took a swing at her, gripping down so tightly that the woman’s limb would be practically locked in place by a vice, the weight of it threatening to crush Reina’s hand. With a deft pivot, Mercury twisted the limb to force Reina down to her knees. Rearing back her other arm, Mercury torqued her entire body from hip to shoulders and drove her fist right into Reina’s sternum with enough power to break her ribs in one blow, likely knocking not just the breath out of her but her state of dragon force as well as the broken bones pierced into many other nearby organs to cause an alarming amount of internal bleeding.

Transitioning smoothly into her next attack, Mercury continued her offensive by completing the twist on Reina’s arm and breaking the limb at the wrist and elbow. Then, she crossed her arm over her chest and backhanded the dragoness across the face, sending her broken body flying across the room so hard and so fast that she would likely break through several walls before coming to a stop in a pile of rubble and dust. After waiting a beat to see that Reina wasn’t making any effort to get up, she zoomed her sight in on the dragoness, swapping her vision to its x-ray setting to see her through the debris. Her internal sensors analyzed the woman’s vitals, the radar’s in Mercury’s head feeding numbers to her that caused the ace to sigh. “Well, that was sufficiently disappointing,” she lamented.

Turning toward the remaining scholars, Mercury began to brush some of the dust off her clothing. “Would one of you go retrieve the nurse, please? Reina needs to be taken to the infirmary. We’ll also need the cleaners.” Luckily anyone who worked in the labs was used to the space being heavily damaged on a regular basis, so a few broken walls really wasn’t much to scoff at. Testing unknown magical artifacts often caused far worse damage than this, and Silver Wolf was prepared with both members and artifacts that could easily repair the damage in a matter of minutes. Mercury would wait to make sure that Reina was brought to the guild’s infirmary and stabilized before heading up to her room to shower off. She was feeling entirely too grimy after all that.

Several hours later, once there had been plenty of time for Reina to get patched up and recover consciousness, Mercury decided it was time to pay her a little visit. Locating the room where Reina was, she knocked twice on the door to announce herself before opening the door and strolling in as casually as if they had just shared breakfast with one another earlier in the day. “Well!” Mercury said with a small but cheery smile as she shut the door behind her. “You’re back among the conscious, I see. For a while there I was starting to think I hadn’t been holding myself back enough.” Perched on her shoulder was Bandit, her companion crow. The large black bird hopped a bit back and forth where he stood before leaping out into the air and flapping his way up to roost on one of the beams near the ceiling to preen himself.

Pulling up a chair, Mercury dragged it over to Reina’s bedside and swung a leg around to sit backward on the seat, her arms lounged comfortably over the back of the chair. Her emerald gaze roamed over Reina’s face with a studious, somewhat unreadable expression before she spoke up again. This time, her tone was more sober than before, not necessarily gentle or compassionate but certainly still genuine without any of her teasing mannerism. “So tell me, Reina: where do we go from here? I have some ideas, of course, but I would very much like to hear what you have to say, first.”

Mercury didn’t need her internal sensors to tell her that the dragon slayer was distressed by her presence. Granted, the machines that Reina was hooked up to perform the same functions as Mercury’s sensors, the gentle ticking increasing by a noticeable pace to indicate Reina’s raise in pulse. There was a time in her life, not all too long ago, that Mercury would have gotten more than a little cruel enjoyment out of knowing that someone was so terrified of her. To a point it was still something that pleased her, she supposed, but the feeling was far muted from what it would have been even only a couple months ago. Instead, she brushed any fleeting and petty feelings aside to focus on the guild member before her, wanting to make sure that they reached an understanding, one way or another.

So she asked her question about where they would go from there, the ace honestly not sure if Reina was even capable of speaking or not. Reina watched her in wary silence for a moment before letting out a small groan, the only verbal response she could muster. After a beat, Mercury nodded gently to convey her understanding toward the woman’s state and that she wasn’t going to get much of an answer at this time. That was okay. It was more important anyway that Reina think about the question for herself, not so much for Mercury.

“I think it goes without saying that you did not pass your exam. You are a powerful and capable wizard, Reina, but to be perfectly up front with you: your arrogance is not merited. I’m not saying that to put you down or insult you. I’m telling you this because you need to understand that there will always be a stronger mage out there. In fact, after our little fight today I’d wager that more than half of our member base is more powerful than you currently are. To varying degrees, of course. But the fact remains that you move and behave like everyone here is beneath you, to the point where you are shamelessly casual about disrespecting not just your peers within the guild but also its leaders. It is not a behavior that will be tolerated.”

Mercury fixed her gaze on Reina, the stare of her emerald eyes hardening – not necessarily in a threatening manner, but more so in an effort to make sure Reina was listening and understood that Mercury meant business. “When you came into my office before, I was content to simply ask that you be more mindful of your actions. I like to think myself a fairly lenient ace, and it’s not really my style to throw my authority around and make demands when a simple conversation will do. However, your blatant disregard for both myself and the expectations we hold of our guild members must be addressed, and since you refused to hear me when I politely asked for your consideration earlier I’m simply going to make it clear how this is going to work from here on out.”

“You will exercise more respect for your peers here within this guild, and I don’t just mean when it comes to the way you talk and interact with them. I also mean how you behave out in the rest of the world when you are serving as an example of Silver Wolf’s member base. I earnestly couldn’t give a single shit what you do with your free time or how you handle your affairs, except when it comes to your actions being a reflection on the guild and its members. Silver Wolf is not a legal guild by any means, but we work very hard to make sure that the Council does not view us as a threat or danger to society. If we get marked as a dark guild, that will complicate our ability to operate efficiently, and neither myself nor guildmaster Leona will permit that.”

“So if you want to run around killing people on your jobs and flaunting your power toward those you think yourself better than, fine. But either start operating that way under an alias that is not openly affiliated with the guild, or learn to be more subtle and more mindful of how your actions will affect us… because if you start drawing the attention of the Magic Council and the Rune Knights, no one here will protect you. And just to make sure you understand how serious I am: The field marshal of the Rune Knights Serilda Sinclair and her fiance Mythal Ragnos, second in command of the Knights, are both Gods of Ishgar; two of the four most powerful mages on the continent, if not the world. And, they are my future brother and sister-in-law.” Raising her left hand, she made sure that Reina could see the emerald studded ring on her finger that indicated that Mercury, too, was engaged to be married. “If you continue to risk Silver Wolf’s status as an independent guild, I will not hesitate to deliver you to them both, personally. And their power and capabilities far exceed my own.”

If Reina thought Mercury was intimidating, she was but a candle against the inferno that was Seri and Mythal’s combined might. And more than anything what Mercury felt Reina needed to hear at that moment was that for as powerful as the Silver Wolf ace was, even she was outclassed by a number of other wizards out there. Lowering her hand, she made sure she held Reina’s gaze as she calmly asked, “Do we have an understanding?”