After the battle with General Lucious Morningstar, Ashen Vanguard
had to wait two months before the next semester began. In the interim, they had to finish tasks, so they took on a significant quest to advance to a silver rank party.
Cairo is in charge of the hunt; they must kill a Flamebear in the forest west of Flamguardia.
Aurella stalls the bear while Serene positions herself well, and Zayn covers her.
Flamebear strikes the ground, and lava begins to break from the ground. Serene and Zayn are struck by the impact, hitting a tree.
Aurella's explosion created an opening, and Cairo decided to run and cut its arms."
When the Flamebear roared, Zayn stood back up and used lightning magic to shock the bear, killing it as he zapped his way through the middle. "Did you guys see that?" yells Zayn.
"That was incredible. Well done, everyone." Cairo noticed that the group was ready to enter Ignus Arcanum Academy as he looked up at the sky.
It was an easy task for Ashen Vanguard, and as soon as they entered, their fellow adventurers cheered for them because they are the fastest party to reach silver rank in such a short time. Cairo wanted to check on Maevis because she had mentioned that she had to attend to something and couldn't join the big mission.
Cairo climbed up to the roofs once more and saw Maevis sobbing.
Cairo asked, "What's wrong?" Maevis replied that everything had changed so quickly and that her life had gone from doing assassination tasks with Nightborne to being accepted into the most prestigious academy in the kingdom.
"I've always wanted to live a life like this; I wasn't born in the lap of luxury. I had to do everything I could to get by and ended up joining a bunch of assassins."
Cairo replied, "Well, isn't that a good thing? Why are you so caught up in your emotions right now? We're having a celebration downstairs."
Maevis wipes her tears and hugs Cairo, "Thank you for including me in Ashen Vanguard." Cairo hugs back and recalls that Marcus Duskbane, the ancestor of Maevis, was also emotional on the rooftop when they were announced as Flamguardia's 10 Greatest Heroes.
The next week, the Ashen Vanguard took on another mission, this time deep within the mountainous regions of Flamguardia. It was their first assignment as a Silver-Ranked Party, but the mission's difficulty far exceeded the norm.
Their target: a dragon.
Not just any dragon, one of immense size and power, a creature so ancient and dangerous that it was once considered an Adamantite-Rank threat. Despite the risk, they accepted it.
But now, things had taken a dark turn.
The strategies weren't working. Each spell, each coordinated strike, they all failed. The terrain gave them no advantage. Their stamina had run dry. One by one, their attacks lost strength, and their morale with it.
Now they were cornered.
Aurella's voice trembled slightly. "The spirits say… this beast isn't like any other. It's from the old world. No one in Flamguardia could defeat it. Not even the academy. Only someone like General Lucious Morningstar could handle a monster like this."
Everyone froze.
But Cairo stood firm, fire in his eyes.
"No," he muttered. "We can beat it. I can beat it."
Because deep inside, he had something the others didn't.
A memory. A power.
Not just strength, but the legacy of the Rank 1 Hero of Flamguardia, Robert Flamesworth. A master strategist. A legend in both combat and fire magic.
Cairo wasn't there yet. His body hadn't caught up to his soul. But something inside him clicked.
He could feel it.
He could use it.
Everything aligned.
The air around him shimmered with heat. He knew what he had to do. The skill surged from deep within, a lost technique of old, a deadly art once wielded only by Robert himself.
"The Fifteen Fire Slash…" he whispered. "The Fire Dance."
"Everyone, back up," he said firmly. "I'm taking it down."
Zayn blinked. "Take it down? What are you gonna do, burn it? It's a fire dragon, Cairo. We already hit it with everything we had!" he said, voice laced with sarcasm.
Cairo didn't argue.
"Just believe me."
He let his shield drop to the ground. Held his sword with both hands.
Closed his eyes.
And then, he moved.
So fast that the eye couldn't follow.
Zayn's jaw dropped. He'd always been the fastest in the group until now. Cairo moved like lightning, bouncing off the air itself, forming a blazing pattern in midair.
Suddenly, an eruption of slashes.
Fourteen blows landed in mere seconds.
Then came silence.
And Cairo was high above the dragon, sword raised overhead his entire figure glowing with a crimson aura.
He dropped.
The final, fifteenth strike came crashing down.
In a flash, the dragon's head was severed. The body followed, carved into sections, each limb scorched with residual flame. The beast let out a dying shriek before collapsing in a heap of smoke and burning ash.
All of it done in under twenty seconds.
Ashen Vanguard could only watch.
"If Cairo had used that move during the trial against General Morningstar... the battle might have ended before it even began," Serene said.
Cairo slowly rose from his kneeling position. He smiled faintly, like nothing had happened.
"Good work, guys."
Zayn stared in disbelief. "Good work? That's it? Are we not gonna talk about what you just did?"
Cairo laughed. "It's called the Fire Dance. I've been working on it for a while."
It was a lie.
The truth was... it was the first time he'd ever used it. He hadn't trained for it. He simply remembered it was one of many fearsome techniques from Robert Flamesworth's arsenal.
Robert wasn't just a warrior. He was the Crimson Strategist.
Even Maevis stood frozen, realization dawning in her eyes.
Cairo Flamesworth...
He might very well be the strongest warrior Flamguardia had seen in generations.
We are about to change the power scale of the kingdom, this group is something else.
And she was beginning to believe it. And everyone else in the kingdom would follow.