Spirit Realm The Beginning

First encounter with an Outsider

We were all waiting for Molten to arrive for our last class of the day. Today would be the first day of our official team meetings so I was both excited and a little scared as well. "What do you think he'll have us do today?" Lilly asks worriedly.

"If what a third year told me in my first year, it won't be any good or easy." states Karoo.

"Karoo is right." Molten states as he enters the room "We're heading out right away to deal with a low rated Outsider. For the first years in the team, every Outsider is assigned a rank from common to mythic just like the spirits are. This is to prevent a ranked rare spirit from going against a ranked mythic Outsider. However since I want to see how you all perform as a team plus if you guys have figured out what your spirit given abilities are, we will be taking on a common ranked group of Outsiders. This should give you enough of a challenge to see your true talent while being easy enough to prevent deaths."

"Are you underestimating us professor?" Marge asks.

He smirks at her "Of course not but you need to remember that this group has three first years in it who haven't had nearly as much fighting training as you and Karoo have so we're going to go against commons just so I can see what their fighting strengths, their ability to work together, and what other strengths they will have."

"So this is just so you can evaluate how well we do?" I ask.

Molten nods "Exactly. This will help me decide what to focus on for each of you between our missions. Now here's the location. I'll be watching from the main base nearby so have fun." He walks away after handing Marge the paper with the location of our mission on it. We all looked at each other and shrugged a bit before heading off to the mission location. When we got there, we saw a few little Outsiders that looked like blurry sized children.

"Those are Outsiders?" Kent asks, confused by their human-like shape and size.

"Some are bigger but they all pose a threat if they make it past the borders. That's why we, Guardians, are tasked with dealing with these before they can make it past the borders" Marge states.

"Then let's get this done" I state and we all separate to take on an Outsider each.

Meanwhile, Molten watches this all from the border base closest to where they are with Backster beside him. "They're doing pretty well but they are only facing common ones...do you think I went too easy with them?"

Backster growls "Of course not! This is nothing more than a test to see what they are capable of doing against an Outsider."

"True...after today we can do the harder missions" Molten smirks a bit.

"You know you're a cruel bastard right?" says the guy sitting in a chair messing with some controls to keep an eye on the fights. This man was Tim Broker. He's a smallish almost feminine type male however his power was pretty decent, being able to manipulate the earth itself thanks to his spirit partner, a super rare earthen lion.

"No one asked you, Tim," Molten states as he glares at him.

"Come on boss, we both know you're cruel to the bone." Tim smirks "It's why you're so good at your job, both jobs. You're ruthless enough to scare people but you care enough to fight for people's lives." Molten scoffs a little as he looks at him petting Backster.

"I'm just biding my time nothing more" he states before noticing the horrified look on Tim's face "Why do you look so terrified?" Tim points toward the screen causing Molten to look at it and he freezes in shock. His team is laying on the ground as a giant sized Outsider stands there smirking at them.

"W-What is that!?" Tim asks.

"If I knew I wouldn't have let them get involved in this one...find out it's rank, NOW!" Molten demands, causing Tim to start typing onto the computer board.

"I-It's a myth one..." Tim whispers looking up at Molten with wide frightened eyes.

"Fuck..." Molten growls dashing out of the room shouting "Call for reinforcements!"

Meanwhile with the team, I struggled to stand up. This Outsider had come out of nowhere, knocking all of us onto our stomachs and backs in a matter of seconds. Even our spirits were laying down in pain. "I've never seen anything this strong before" Marge groans looking up. Winters whimpers beside me in pain but it almost sounds like a growl as well. Somehow I knew that Winters wasn't ready to give up so I struggled to my feet.

"It doesn't matter...we can't give up!" I state shaking a little.

"Max is...right" Kent says as he barely manages to stand, Howler following him. Lilly and the others struggle to their feet.

"Marge you're the oldest so you take the lead" I say, chancing a glance at her but she shakes her head.

"No...you'll take the lead. Something tells me that you're more suitable to lead than I am." Marge says calmly, gripping her arm a little. I nod, takes a deep breath and glares at our opponent.

"Attack!" I shout "Marge, put some gravity on it and bring it down!"

"On it!" she shouts back using her gravity manipulation to try to force it down to the ground but when it's fist comes down right toward her head she jumps landing onto Tric's back as it dashes past. Tric slams into its side with its horns as Marge continues to try to bring it down with her ability. Karoo dodges with his increased agility while using his telekinesis to throw nearby items at the Outsider. Jag runs beside him, dodging and slashing with his claws at it. Lilly and Night dodge using daggers and claws to hack away at its side or anywhere within their reach. I run attacking with double daggers with Winters beside me slashing with claws as he jumps from the Outsiders arm to my shoulder and back again. I was also hoping Drag would hear the fighting and come to help. Kent suddenly dashes out from under its fist seconds before it could squash him, seemingly reappearing behind it unscathed. I didn't have time to question it as the Outsider turns around too fast and goes for him again. At that moment, Howler lets out a bone chilling howl seconds before thousands of wolves come streaming from nowhere joining in the attack giving us a few precious seconds to catch our breaths.

"We're...not losing" Karoo pants before squeaking as he jumps out of the way as its fists come down once more. We were all tired and running out of steam when a loud roar broke through the air before Drag slams into the Outsider seconds before Backster jumps onto its stomach, claws tearing into its side.

"Drag! Give it some fire!" Molten shouts "Backster back off!" Backster jumps off of the Outsider landing beside Molten growling angrily.

Drag growls "I do not listen to you!" yet he breathes fire onto the Outsider anyways. As soon as his fire is done, Backster attacks once more followed by Molten's sword. The combination of the two myth ranked spirits plus Molten caused the Outsider to stagger.

"Don't just sit there!" Molten snaps at us "Help us defeat it!"

"R-Right!" I nod in agreement before launching into another round of attacks with the rest of my team and our spirits. Finally the Outsider was beaten, laying dead on the ground.

"Good job little angels" Molten says smiling at us "You all head back without me. I'll finish up here." We nod and head back to the academy tired and exhausted.

Meanwhile while they head back to the academy, Molten looks at the Outsiders body and smirks. "Well this will be interesting." he whispers to Backster before looking over his shoulder as a woman approaches "Zephyr, take this to the research facility and see if you can't figure out what caused it to become a myth level Outsider."

"Yes sir" the woman says bowing before she and the dead Outsider disappear in a small flash of light.

"Come on Backster, let's get home as well...this year will be very interesting." Molten smirks cruelly.