[Riser POV]
I felt underwhelmed that the whole reason they were attacked was that Ulick, as I learned, was a playboy with an ego and a short fuse.
When Erza declined to go out with him, he felt challenged, and my comment tipped him over the edge.
Luckily, Viola got lots of useful information from him, including the location of their fian's base, the high-ranking members, and a few other useful tidbits. I'm sure my parents could easily get or pay for that kind of information, but it feels good getting it myself.
While I likely won't be kicked out of the family unless I become a terrorist or something, it's nice to know I wouldn't be completely helpless.
Another benefit from the mind reading was that Viola managed to get a copy of all of Ulick's magic knowledge.
It wasn't a lot. Honestly, the guy only knew like 5 spells. Most of his strength came from his troll blood. At best, he was mid-class, and tapping into his troll blood pushed him to high-class, but it also dulled his brain.
I wasn't exactly scared of him, though, even though he was stronger than me.
Ignoring my bloodline magic, family influence, or even Erza right beside me, Ulick wasn't a threat.
From Erza's description of the fight, the guy was a one-trick pony, which, according to Viola, was what the 6th Brigade specialized in. There were over 2 dozen members, each of whom usually focused on their combat specialty and took it to the limit. It sounds impressive until you learn most of them are meatheads who think making a bigger version of the same spell is the peak.
Ulick focused on training his body, pushing his muscles to the limit. His shillelagh amplified his strength by giving him a tool to focus all the force into.
Owen and Oscar specialized in a unique 'twin magic.' It looked pathetic once I learned what it was. You remember how Naruto couldn't control his chakra properly, so he created clones to help him form a Rasengan? Yeah. The two were exactly like that. Their oh-so-special twin magic was literally just both of them learning part of a spell because they were too dumb and unskilled to learn anything entirely.
There were some benefits, like a shared energy pool for spells, and it was impressive that they could do it in the first place, but it was disappointing nonetheless. They were so pathetic that they literally couldn't be separated, or neither could use magic.
Of the group, Kieron was the least pathetic. His whip was a family heirloom, and he became really proficient with it, eventually adding lightning magic to boost its power. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't very talented magically, so they relegated him to the 6th Brigade.
In total, there were 7 brigades, all led by the Flaith, or lord usually referred to as captain by foreigners, with the fian led by the Ri, or regional king.
Working backward, we start with the 7th Brigade. This one is the largest, made up of over 150 people. These were the rank-and-file members. No special abilities, no powerful magic, all in low-class. Each only has a few spells. The only reason Oscar and Owen weren't placed there was that their twin magic allowed them to cast spells at the mid-class level.
Next was the 5th Brigade, the intelligence group, led by Gerald Sullivan. All of them had some movement-based ability that, whether for speed or stealth, made intelligence gathering easy.
After that came the 4th Brigade, which degenerates, like Ulick liked to call it, the 'brothel brigade' or 'women brigade', led by Siobhan Quinn. Though fian were originally male-only, a few decades ago one of the Ri who didn't care about tradition figured adding women would bolster their manpower. Other fian followed, and they never went back, but each one decided to reserve a brigade for any women who joined.
From there, the 3rd Brigade served as the mages and researchers, led by Patrick Bryne. Since they required human calculation magic, the 3rd Brigade made new spells that the rest of the fian could use and learn from. This was the second-smallest group, with 9 members.
The 2nd group had the fewest members, with only 3, but they were of much higher quality, each being sacred gear wielders. Their leader was the oldest, Flannagan Finnegan, who wielded the sacred gear Mary's Lost Lamb. It was an independent avatar gear like Canis Lykaon; it could turn into armor like Regulus Nemea and gave the ability to create and control wool.
Lastly was the 1st Brigade, which, alongside the 7th Brigade, was led by Teague Redmond. The 1st Brigade was undoubtedly the strongest, filled with elite fighters, 6 of whom were high-class. The other flaiths were high-class, but Teague was the strongest among them.
After Viola reversed the peeping mind technique to show me the Cuige Laighean fian's internal structure, I had to say I was thoroughly impressed by her abilities, which already proved greater than what I was familiar with.
It wasn't too surprising why.
Because of how the Dressrosa arc unfolded, she only needed to use her powers a few times to support the Straw Hats, and her few 'combat' appearances showed little, so people considered her weak. However, as a New World native, the daughter of a physically powerful king, and a pirate, she was anything but.
After a few minutes to digest the information Viola beamed into me, I ordered Erza to wake them all up.
I was curious what they'd do after losing so badly.
*WHACK*
*WHACK*
*WHACK*
*WHACK*
Four crisp smacking sounds rang out, a large, red handprint on each of their faces.
I don't think Erza remembered she was wearing her gauntlets...
Or maybe she did and didn't care.
Either way, the four men quickly came to from the fresh pain on their faces. Ulick woke up first, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"GAAAAHHH!"
__________
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!