The Lightning Mage

3 | The First Commission

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Lyn peeked her head above the bushes. In front of her was a giant dome-like hill made from a combination of sand, mud, and tree branches. The ants that patrolled the nest were twice as long as Lyn was tall, and their shiny, black exoskeletons looked especially sturdy and intimidating.

"Alright, that is the ant nest." She turned to her team behind her, grinning ear-to-ear. Excitement overflowed in her heart; after all, this was her first commission after leaving her old guild, and also her first commission as a team leader.

Irene seemed eager as well. Her favorite hoodie was haphazardly tied around her waist, and her charcoal skin looked as though it was steaming hot and ready to burn anything and everything. Millie, on the contrary, was more done up than usual. Her curly hair was meticulously styled, matching the tanned tones of her skin. Raph stood to her side, his thick eyebrows furrowing in worry. He was carrying a small knapsack, probably filled with magical potions and items.

And then there was Cydney, standing at the side and fidgeting about, but still looking as cute and sweet as ever. Lyn gave her a quick wink before addressing the team.

"Essentially, our goal is pest control. These giant ants are a hazard to people living in the neighborhood, so they want us to get rid of the colonies. The fastest way to do this is to kill the queen; once the queen is dead, the entire colony will move away to another ant nest somewhere else, hopefully, one that is further away from here. It might take us a while to find the queen, and we will be attacked by other ants on the way, but these ants are magicless and should be relatively easy to take down."

Lyn beamed at everyone as she continued, "So this is a good first quest for us—it's easy and straightforward, and we get to practice using our magic before we move on to higher-level commissions. Any questions?"

"So all we gotta do is to just go in and kill some insects?" Irene smashed her hands together. "Easy."

Lyn nodded. "Millie and Raph, you two stay close to us. The three of us will fend off any attacking ants. Millie, I'll leave you in charge of tagging our paths so we don't end up running in circles. The inside of an ant nest is like a maze to humans."

A thought occurred to her, and she cast a mischievous look at Irene and Cydney. "Hey, you know what? To spice things up, let's have a friendly match among the three of us to see who can kill the most ants."

Irene's eyes lit up, as Lyn expected. "You're on," she growled as she started stretching her arms.

Lyn smirked and turned around. Seven worker ants marched in front of the nest. She raised her hands towards the sky—and slammed them down.

As if following the motion of her hands, seven streaks of lightning struck down from the clouds. In a blink of an eye, where there used to be giant ants, there were now spots of smoking black marks.

Patting her leather jacket, Lyn faced her friends again. "I got seven."

Cydney's mouth was wide open in awe. "Wow! That was- That was so cool!"

"You think so?" Lyn's heart fluttered, her grin widening like an idiot.

"What a show-off." Irene snorted. "Don't be too impressed by this, Cydney, she's a thousand times weaker indoors."

"Hey, I got to flaunt it while I can, you know?"

"Whatever, my turn." Irene rolled her eyes and jumped over the bush.

Apparently, Lyn had made quite a spectacle that the ants had rushed to seal off the entrance to the nest. That did not stop Irene at all, however. With a loud explosion, Irene blasted the seal open, knocking out two ants that were near the entrance.