Extra's Descent

At the end of it all, he couldn't do anything.

All he could do was wait until whatever was about to happen.

However, he had hope.

Hope that Jin's prophecy won't come true.

He shouldn't be omniscient, right?

In the first place, how does Jin even know?

The only reason Brandon believed him was because he knew he was the strongest.

Not Lucian, but Jin.

But...

"Who exactly is Jin?"

There were so many questions regarding his character.

But despite that, he knew he would get no answer.

The Primordials,

...They were an enigma.

A group so covert that the only one who knew about them was him, the novel reader.

As he continued pondering, from a distance, he could see two familiar figures, seated on the gazebo.

Cyrus Rosewill, and Julie Watson.

Right, for whatever was about to happen during the incursion, all he could do was pray.

For now, he had to focus on what was on his plate.

The upcoming Teamfight Tactics, and...

"No."

He shook his head.

At the moment, he was still too weak to confidently infiltrate the syndicate.

The experience with that figure from back then had brought him to a reality check.

But that was when he realized.

"Zed!"

He had forgotten about the man.

What happened after that night?

Did Zed win?

He was unsure exactly just how strong Zed was.

However, since Rachel was able to bring him to the hospital, then Zed should've been strong enough to occupy the figure.

Much less, even defeat him.

And with such thoughts...

"Guys, wait. I need to call someone first."

He turned back around and walked to a more discrete location.

Retrieving his phone, he scrolled down his contacts until he could see the familiar contact.

[John Smith]

He hadn't changed his contact information yet.

"And I don't plan on changing it anytime soon."

That being said, he dialed him.

Ring... Ring... Ring... Click.

--I was wondering when you'd call.

"...."

Brandon too wished he could be as lively as the way Zed spoke.

There were too many problems in his mind.

And so, he cut to the chase.

"Zed."

--What? And don't worry, I've cleaned it all up. The police are off our trails at the moment.

So he did win.

Now he had some kind of assessment of Zed's actual strength.

The figure from before... Brandon could definitely say that he was strong.

He was caught off guard and completely beaten to a pulp.

That was the first time he had ever lost like that.

And now he began to wonder...

"Who was that guy?"

--An old mate of mine.

Ah.

So that meant...

--One of the Heads of the syndicate.

So that was the case...

Then did that mean...

"How strong are the other Heads?"

It was at that question that Zed began to debrief them on the Heads.

There were a total of twelve heads within the organization. Much similar to the Primordials.

Apparently, the Head's strength was mostly jumbled. Some were well within the S category, if they went by the guild's standards. While some were below mediocre, an average of a C rank.

But what made them Heads in the first place, was the ingenuity that came with them.

In other words, they were smart.

"Who's the strongest Head?"

--Not too sure. But ten years ago, it was me.

"...."

--....

There was no way that was the case.

"If you're that strong, then why couldn't you have taken down the organization by yourself?

It was a good question.

There shouldn't have been a need to involve Brandon. As much as he hated to admit it, he was nothing but dead weight.

--The Leader is leagues above me.

Oh.

"How strong are you exactly?"

--If we go by the guild's ranking category, I'd say I'm an S-.

"So this Leader of yours, what about him?"

--An S+

So the Leader was on par with Evelyn.

Crazy.

But in the first place.

"What am I needed for, exactly?"

--You said you wanted to climb the rankings. I could use you to peer out information with the Leader.

But that didn't make any sense.

"Aren't you close with this Leader?"

--Yes, but the syndicate has a strict confidentiality matter. If you become his subordinate, you'd get access to much more information that would usually be let on.

Fair.

"How are you so sure I'd get that close to the Leader?"

--Your methods.

That was it.

No followup whatsoever.

However, now he could see a clearer picture of the puzzle.

"Alright. But Zed."

--What?

"I'll get stronger first. I'm not too confident I could even save my own skin."

--That's alright. We'll take things slow. This is a long term plan after all. However, there's a bit of a problem.

"What?"

--A summit has been called upon. The Heads are all instructed to attend.

So soon...

--If you don't want to join the meeting, then that's fine.

This was an opportunity.

However, as things were, Brandon's thoughts were a mess.

There was no such time to even infiltrate the organization at the moment.

Truly, it was a waste.

However, that was only for the moment.

For what was to come if and only if the incursion indeed does fail, then he had to get stronger.

Even stronger than Raven himself.

"I'll have to decline at the moment."

--Alright. I'll attend and debrief you about what was discussed. Just so you could get references for the future.

"Sure."

That much was fine. At the end of it, he had still gotten a shadow broker, and an informant out of Zed.

He was useful. Much more so than he initially thought.

As per Zed's words, it was a long term plan.

But that would only entail if the future was still there.

--If that's all, I'll be ending the call now.

"One last thing."

--What?

"What's the Leader's name?"

--....Lancelott.

Shortly after, the phone call ended from there.

With this, Brandon now had a brief idea of Zed's plan for the long term.

"Lancelott, huh?"

A code name?

But in this situation, Zed wouldn't hide things.

Then,

"His real name."

It made sense.

They were a group of orphans after all.

The syndicate was the start.

And the next was the Primordials.

Organizations he would join sooner in the future.

But for the meantime, the syndicate was first on the agenda.

With that being said, Brandon returned to the gazebo and his two classmates greeted him.

In the middle, sat Brandon. On each of his sides were Cyrus and Julie.

The discussions started from there.

Once again, they began to discuss their current strategy for the upcoming Teamfight Tactics.

Brandon would act as support, while the two acted as vanguard.

With Brandon's connections to Evelyn, they were given the opportunity to train in a more private training ground.

After all, the public training ground was currently full at the moment.

Most of the students started training there as well. Since most likely, they were given the same Teamfight Tactics task on hand--albeit--from a different Professor.

"Julie, go!"

"Okay."

Julie nodded and the earth below her erupted. The ground below contorted into a giant boulder, and headed towards Brandon.

"Cyrus."

"Okay."

And at his instructions, Cyrus began his own attack. Water materialized from where Cyrus stood and had shaped itself into a whip.

The water immediately coiled in the air like a snake, and had managed to wrap around Brandon's leg.

Unable to move, boulders immediately neared Brandon.

However...

Flick--!

With a flick of his finger, black flames ignited and the boulders blew into cinders.

Swoosh--!

The water-like whip pulled Brandon's leg and hurled him closer towards Cyrus.

But that was when...

[Aeolus Blessing]

Kicking the air, Brandon twisted sideways and aimed to kick Cyrus.

Thud!

With his quick reactions, Cyrus managed to block his attack on time.

"Good."

Brandon nodded.

"...!"

But from behind him, Julie grabbed the scruff of his clothes and pulled him back.

"What the--"

Despite her small stature, there was a certain strength that came from Julie, as she managed to pull Brandon back.

Swoosh, swoosh--!

Having no time to react, water bullets headed towards Brandon. Julie skidded to the side to avoid friendly fire.

Crossing his arms, the earth protruded from the ground and instantly blocked the water that neared him.

Splash!

Instantly, the water dispersed and splashed down on the ground.

Rolling over, Brandon immediately recoiled and got up.

Nodding his head, he instructed.

"Okay, enough."

"How was it?"

The first one to speak was none other than Cyrus.

Though the tension from Julie was nowhere to be seen, she still remained quiet.

It was a shame.

She seemed like a lively girl, from the way she interacted with her friends.

But it was understandable.

The three were mostly strangers at that. Just that, Brandon had some interactions with Cyrus.

"The teamwork was good. However, the offense department is quite lacking."

If Cyrus was able to improve his mana control, the water wouldn't have dispersed as soon as it met the rock.

Instead, it would've been able to cut through the rock and pierce Brandon.

Brandon was by far, not a genius when it came to mana control.

Just that, with the help of Evelyn, he was well above average compared to his peers.

Scanning their faces, they seemed disheartened.

"Don't worry. I'm only saying that, but this is actually enough for tomorrow."

"Really?"

It was at that moment, when Julie finally spoke up. Her eyes lit up, and she seemed to be looking from validation from Brandon.

"Yes."

He nodded.

"Just the fact that you two were able to work together, despite it being the first time, means we could definitely do well for tomorrow."

He paused and scanned their serious expressions as they listened to him attentively.

"I'll be there to support you guys, so let's win."

"Alright."

"Yeah!"

Cyrus nodded and Julie clenched her fist in the air.

Since Brandon had all the basic elements, he could definitely fix up the synergy with the two.

After all, water and earth were quite hard to synergize together.

But with the affinities at his disposal, Brandon could definitely make it work.

But that was if he could get himself together.

At the moment, they were a mess.

"Haa..."