Wynd Academy
On the road

Roisin, Ashe, Dex and Victoria were out in the woods again, patrolling for any Fiends, Dex was playing with a penknife, while keeping his eye out for a possible ambush. Roisin and Ashe were sharing a chocolate bar they bought from the village shop, Victoria was ahead of the others, with her Rapier out of it's sheath.

"You seem on edge today, Vic" Dex said as he caught up with Victoria, he put his penknife back into his pocket.

"You always need to be constantly vigilant in enemy territory" Victoria replied, without looking Dex's way.

"But, we're not in enemy territory, there hasn't been any sightings since yesterday... we're basically just doing this sweep to assure the villagers that the threat is gone" Dex explained.

"That is all well and good, but these woods are large, and our enemy could be around any corner" Victoria sighed "You three have a lot to learn. Victoria stopped and turn around to face Ashe, she pointed her sword at Ashe "You most of all, you reached second year, but somehow yesterday you nearly got yourself hurt."

"I'm not used to fighting these... creatures, we were only trained to fight creatures like Wyverns and the like, not frickin' spider-bears" Ashe shrugged "before last month these 'Fiends' didn't even exist."

Victoria rolled her eyes, she put her rapier away "That's no excuse, you need to do better... all of you" She said as she gave Dex an angry look.

"Listen here Little Miss Pyre Academy, I don't know how they did things back there, but here, we actually try to get to know who we're fighting with, so we can come to rely on each other" Dex said loudly, almost shouting.

"Whatever, big ears" Victoria sighed, and began walking ahead.

Dex was shaking with anger as he got tears in his eyes, Roisin hugged him.

"Don't listen to her, she's just some rich cow from a rich city, her dad probably paid for her crappy weapon too" Roisin hugged Dex tighter, Dex returned the hug and smiled.

"Thanks Ros" He said, before the two nearly fell over as Ashe joined in with the hug, the three of them laughed, as Victoria walked ahead, at that moment, a loud animal like cry came from the skies above.

The four of them got into battle positions as they stared up at the sky, they noticed a large black crow like bird fly over head, it had to be the size of a millennia old oak tree. It quickly spotted the group and began to dive toward them, the team quickly attempted to dodge, as they did a loud bang echoed over the whole forest, a huge gust of wind rustled the trees, and two... no, three more bangs were heard from the skies above, the creature flew back overhead, but this time it was different, it wasn't flying, it was falling!

The group gathered again and looked up as a massive Dreadnought sized airship flew overhead, bearing the Crystech logo.

"Crystech? What are they doing out here?" Victoria pondered as she watched the huge ship fly over.

"They can go die in a ditch for all I care" Dex shrugged and walked on ahead, Roisin and Ashe followed. Victoria sprinted to catch up with the other three after looking down and noticed them walking away.

"How can you say that? They're on our side!" Victoria said angrily as she caught her breath.

"On YOUR side, maybe, not mine, not since they allied with the Araneians" Dex growled.

"But they're doing it to try and restore order! If they succeed, the Fiends will be history!" Victoria angrily replied, Dex turned around to look her in the face.

"Figures you'd have no problem with them working with the Empire, you racist bitch!" He shouted, Victoria backed away, stunned.

"I... uh" Victoria stuttered.

"Don't you even dare deny it, it was only a minute ago you made that snide dig at me about my ears... well here's a snide dig at you; why don't you run off back to Pyre and die in a fire, maybe they'd throw a parade for the poor little rich girl" Dex continued.

Ashe and Roisin looked at each other, they knew better than to try to calm him this time, he had every right to be shouting, Victoria had been giving him strange looks throughout the whole journey. Dex sighed, he looked toward Ashe and Roisin.

"I'm sorry you had to see me like that again" He said as he looked down.

"I... I'm sorry, Dexter" Victoria looked down, she had tears in her eyes "I guess... I'm not used to non-humans, I'll try to do better..." Dex walked over to Victoria, he took a deep breath, he could tell she was being sincere.

"Thank you, for apologizing, Victoria. It takes a lot of guts to back down... I didn't mean to get so angry, it's just, with how everything has been lately, it feels like, us three vs the world" Dex gestured to Roisin and Ashe.

Victoria nodded, Dex smiled and stretched as he walked ahead.

"Come on, lets head to the next destination, I hear it's much bigger than the village" Dex said as he pulled out the map.

"I hope the beds are better at the tavern there" Roisin joked.

"I hear they actually have a proper hotel there, and a lake!" Ashe added. Victoria watched the others and smiled slightly, she looked up at the sky, the looming airship was still visible in the distance, she couldn't help but worry that something bad was either going to happen, or had already happened.

A few hours passed and it was nearing dusk, the group was nearing the town now, but they couldn't quite see it on the horizon though, only the orange glow of the street lights, there was a wintery smell in the air, almost like the bonfire festival, but it seemed a little to early for that.

Roisin was walking ahead of the group and was the first to see the town, however, when she did, she just stopped and stared.

"Roisin, what's wrong?" Victoria asked, the group ran ahead to catch up, that is when they saw it... the whole town was ablaze, with Fiends running rampant across the streets.

The four of them looked at each other and nodded, they all drew their weapons and ran toward the town.