A towering stone fortress rose from a jagged black cliff, set against a cold, fog-covered landscape blanketed in snow. The winding path leading up to the entrance lay buried beneath it, and snow clung to the rocks below.

The citadel itself carried a dark design with tall cone-shaped towers, narrow windows, and walls thick as fortresses.

The obvious route to the towers was through the single entrance, but with the fortress resting on a cliff, Leomaris and four others took a less obvious approach altogether.

They made their climb from down the hill. Over thirteen feet of cliff, and yet the height wasn’t the problem, the cold was. The remaining four had strength-enhancement abilities, so frozen fingers and the threat of frostbite were hardly their concern.

For Leomaris, who climbed on nothing but his own strength, it was a different matter entirely.

Leomaris, however, was keen on this matter for reasons of his own. This wasn’t about passing a test or being a great leader, it was about familiarising himself with the environment.

The real threat was only a few days away, and this simulation had been carefully chosen to reflect the Great Citadel of Elisha, which also sat atop a mountain and rested on a cliff.

One goal sat in his mind now: identify every possible way his life could be taken.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’The citadel only has one way in. I can only assume their easiest way to kill me would be to throw me off a cliff, but that’s too obvious for someone who has stayed hidden since day one. That’s why I must kill them before they kill me.’

Through the agony, they managed to reach the walls. Unlike the cliff below, there were no jagged edges to grip, but as thieves, they had come prepared for exactly that.

Leomaris turned to one of the cadets. "Dagger."

One was tossed over without a moment’s delay. Bracing himself, he used the narrow spaces between the stone walls to his advantage and drove the dagger in with sheer force until the blade had disappeared with only the hilt remaining.

"Another."

Using the firmly placed dagger to boost himself, he took another and repeated the process. Before long, he was up on the wall, lying flat along the top to avoid being perceived. The remaining four used the path he’d created and pulled themselves up after him.

"To be safe, I’ll repeat myself. We lack chemistry, but it’s not your fault... we’ve never worked together. The closest we’ll get to it is if you mirror my movements."

Leomaris muttered, flat against the wall. His mates responded positively, which caught him off guard, he hadn’t exactly left a great impression on any of them.

But it didn’t matter. They clawed along the floor and made their way into one of the towers, where, at his command, one of them began sketching everything in sight. It was good enough, but they needed more.

That was what panicked Leomaris.

He carried a curse that would draw anyone or anything hostile straight to him. Even his own allies turning on him would make him a target, and moving among creatures that were nothing short of hostile made his work as a thief more than just a predicament.

Even so, there was no choice but to try, and soon enough, something came to him.

"We’ll use the towers as pivot points. Circle the fortress, get a clearer view of the structure, and then I’ll get inside the fortress."

A darkened expression fell over the cadets, almost as though they were genuinely worried for him.

"But Calamity Leomaris, if you draw them out, doesn’t that spoil the whole surprise attack?" the cadet with the jagged teeth asked.

Leomaris smirked. "Don’t worry about that, Dickball, it will go exactly as planned."

The cadets exchanged glances, suspicious ones, but said nothing more. At his command, they set about doing exactly as he’d asked, and surprisingly, none of the creatures sensed his curse or came after him.

From this, Leomaris gained a little understanding of how the curse might operate. Either it functioned as an area-of-effect attack, or it only activated when he was within a hostile individual’s line of sight.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"The rest of you, head back to the first tower near the entrance. I’ll meet you there."

The cadets didn’t argue and soon crawled their way back. Once they’d disappeared from his line of sight, Leomaris drew a breath, made his decision, and slid onto the premises.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

To make this attack possible, they needed to understand what creatures they were up against and just how highly ranked the lord of this citadel stood.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’If the lord is Elite rank or higher, it would send one of its minions after me the instant it senses an intruder.’

Wall to wall he moved, quietly searching for an entrance into the citadel.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’But I doubt it’s higher than Elite rank. If it were a High Lord, it would have sentinels. Since there are none, I believe all the creatures are inside protecting the Lord as it absorbs malevolent energy to grow stronger.’

Before long, he found an open window. He examined it carefully before slipping through into a room that held nothing but dust and darkness.

’A High Lord has human intelligence. It would have already optimized this room for better use.’

Before he could open the door, footsteps reached his ears, and he assumed his stance, dagger in hand. Fear should have taken hold, but instead, his attention fixed itself on the creature’s movement.

The footsteps didn’t belong to any hoofed creature. Instead, they came out as a scraping, squawking sound against the compacted floor.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’This sounds like webbed feet. It could be... no, wait. A penguin.’

Taking the mountains and snow into account, it was the most immediate conclusion he could reach.

Any creature that could survive this level of cold, however, was a monster, and when it came to monsters of the snowy mountains, there was one he feared without quite knowing why.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’I need to confirm this.’

He waited until the footsteps had moved past the door before carefully cracking it open. But the moment he did, chills ran through him as the weight of his mistake became clear.

The wooden door gave out an irritating groan that carried through the corridor, and immediately, his eyes locked with the pitch-black eyes of a penguin with two small horns on its brow.

Almost instantly, the creature turned hostile, unleashing a screech that sounded frighteningly like that of an apex predator.

Leomaris’s heart skipped a beat, but he moved almost instantly, his blade cutting across its throat in a single, precise motion.

His heart hammered as the dark blood trickled over the floor. He knew this was a simulation, but seeing a creature nearly four feet tall with devilish horns wasn’t something he’d ever quite gotten used to in his previous world. His body had moved on instinct alone.

"Haaa..."

He exhaled.

Not wasting a breath, he hauled the creature’s corpse back into the room and locked the door behind him.

"I need to find out where the lord is, and then this will be over."

Like a shadow, he moved from wall to wall, hoping to avoid any more creatures. Unfortunately, he came across them anyway, and just as the curse demanded of them, they grew incredibly hostile. Even so, he killed all three.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’I see it now... they’re many, and the Lord... it’s huge.’

After killing the third, a chorus of chirps and honks led him to a balcony. Below stretched a large hall, with more than five hundred penguins within it, and at the centre lay the Lord, nearly nine feet tall, with young devilish horns jutting from its brow.

—

Dozens of spirits lingered in the fogged skies, and leading them was a six-headed dragon whose body stretched to nearly twenty feet. White, with the fur of what looked almost like a bear, the creature carried Alfred, Ace of the first-year Calamities, on its back.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

While Alfred’s team commanded the skies, below stood roughly twenty cadets in perfect formation. At their head was Raine, dressed in black armor and a black sword in hand, with Lucius beside her, his spear resting cautiously against his shoulder.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The tanks stood behind the knight faction, led by Warner, whose creature had a single jagged horn and wore armor.

It looked almost human: red hair, jagged canines, and a slightly reddish tint to its skin were the only things that said otherwise.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The casters stood before the tanks, most gripping their staves and wands. Their leader, Charlotte, stood among them with both hands tucked in her pockets.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Before long, the thieves appeared over the hill, rushing down with Leomaris leading the charge. At his command, a yell loud enough to reach the very last caster in line, those in the sky were the first to strike.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​