Chapter 8: A New Home

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"Ouch", Dean was getting healed by the healing staff in a room within the colosseum along with Helen and the pain that was slowly fading was greatly felt during the process and he couldn't help but groan, much to Serena's stern stance and scorning behaviour "this is what happens when you fight so recklessly! Don't you care about yourself at all?!" she said while keeping scolding him, with Dean having a poker face and wishing deep inside for that scolding to end.

"It's okay Serena. We just wanted to have a passionate b-" tried Helen to calm her down with a smiling face, only to have Serena's wrath falling upon her too much to her shock and dismay

"Grr and you....why in the world did you use such a spell? Did you want to kill both of yourselves?" asked her Serena in a scolding tone, with Helen looking down on the floor with sad eyes.

"I would never do that! Never...because...I-" tried to explain a nervous Helen to her, only to be interrupted by the staff.

"You are ready to return to the arena" said one of the men.

"Thank you very much" said the trio while bowing thankful and then headed out.

"Ah, good as new" commented Dean excited while rotating his right hand.

"Yeah, same here" commented a happy Helen and then, Serena touched her on the shoulder, with both stopping and being further away from Dean who was late on noticing it.

"Dean, please go ahead and we will soon come after we finish our talk, ok?" asked Serena, with Dean then walking away.

"Alright, but don't be late" he said as he was walking, leaving the two of them alone and then Serena looked Helen in the eye.

"I will ask you something and you better be honest" demanded Serena serious while looking at her "are you in love with Dean?" she asked without hesitation, with Helen's eyes widening for a moment and then looked at Serena determined.

"Yes, I love Dean! I have fallen for him at the first second I saw him fight back there. You love him too, right? Know this though; I will fight for his love and won't back down! If you love him too, let's see who will make it in the end, fair and square!" declared Helen passionately, with Serena then walking for the arena.

"I accept the challenge. I still consider you a friend but also a rival,even though you have zero chances" she said while turning her head and smiling cockily, with Helen giving a fired up smile as an answer.

Afternoon came and all the participants were at the arena as the announcer came "the Magic Knight Entrance Exams are now over. Now, the participants will be announced by their registered number and both the present and absent captains will decide if they want you or not" said the referee, with Dean and the girls being anxious "participant 1" shouted the referee, with a body coming in front but no captain raised their hand "failed" said the referee and the boy left disappointed.

A lot of hour passed, with many being those that didn't make it and then another number was heard "participant 137" said the announcer, with Dean's hair standing up from anxiety and then stepped up and much to his own and most people's suprise, the captains of Black Bulls, Crimson Lions and Azure Deer raised their hands, with most participants being amazed as it was the majority of the present Captains.

Dean then looked at the Black Bulls captain "I want to join the Black Bulls!" he announced, with the captain then smiling in excitement and doing an ok sign, with Dean smiling too along with the girls that were happy too.

After a while, the exams were over and Dean along with the girls were waiting outside the arena "it's good to be the three of us together in the same squad" said a happy Helen, with the others smiling but then, Dean had a thoughtful and curious face.

"By the way Helen, why did you join the Black Bulls? You could enter any other squad" said a realized Dean, with her becoming nervous.

"Well, the other squads that wanted me seemed terrifying and since we became friends, I decided to tag along? Isn't it great though? For the three-" she tried to say, but a boy with blonde hair and amber eyes that was wearing wearing a black or grey suit with white pinstripes and a white undershirt with a black tie and on top, he had a black tunic with gold trimmings and a bull symbol that was approaching them with a friendly aura.

"Now, i take it you are the new recruits?" The young man asked the trio. "It's nice to meet you three. I'm Kai Elio, one of the two Vice Captains of the Black Bulls." His voice was calm, warm yet casual and friendly.

"Yes, we are Dean, Serena and Helen. Nice to meet you too sir Kai" said Dean while introducing everybody and then had a curious look while looking around "um, excuse me, but where is the captain? We were told to wait for him here" said Dean a little bit confused by the captain's absence.

"Knowing him, he's probably grabbing something to drink or gambling." Replies with a 'meh' tone to his voice, giving the feeling its a regular occurrence for the captain. "You three give off a good amount of magic power, I'm curious to what i missed while handling some matters. Of course captain doesn't recruit just anyone."

"I hope we won't disappoint you sir, but you are a vice captain and you show such a warm and yet fierce aura that I highly doubt we will seem impressive to you at all" replied Helen politely with a tone of uncertainty "shouldn't we try to find the captain though? If he is still as drunk as he was at the exams, then maybe something happened to him!" she said concerned, with the others sharing that feeling.

Kai let out a small chuckle after hearing the new recruit's concern. "Well thank you for the compliments. As for the Captain as drunk as he was, eh, he's most likely okay so don't worry too much. If you think i'm strong he's a whole other class." Kai says before turning around and facing another direction. "His magic power is radiating from this direction so he's not too far."

"T-This is his magic power?!" wondered Serena who became shocked upon sensing it, sweating in fear and trembling "if this is it with him being casual, how monstrous it can become when fighting?" she wondered in woe and despair, with Dean touching her on the shoulder to calm her down somewhat, even though he sweated too upon sensing it..

"This is how it should be though" said Dean "from what you say, he seems way too carefree for a captain but if we want to become stronger as Magic Knights, having such a powerful captain can be inspirational" he said while looking at the captain's direction and then looked at Kai in the eyes "sir Kai, I want to know, how it feels to be in Black Bulls? I heard many times that you are a squad of failures that only mess things up, but judging from you, there must be something good in all that darkness whether it really exists or not" he asked dead serious to the suprise of the girls.

"Well we are what we are. Just a bunch of wild idiots who no one can stand except for each other. We're indeed all failures. But in defeat and failure comes experience and strength." Kai responded kindly as he is used to hearing such claims. It was no secret how the kingdom viewed the bulls, but he didn't seem to mind it in the slightest. "Frankly no one else, Crimson Lions, Silver Eagles, not even the Golden Dawn can compete with what we are." He then looked at all three of them. "Let's find the Captain, shall we?"

The four of them were walking, with their direction having a lot of people roaming despite the exams being over and then, Dean began talking "I'm thinking what you said and I don't care much about public appearances. If the Black Bulls is a place we can call a new home and family, then I don't care if it is seen a gathering of delinquents, even though we will try hard to not soil it's name further" he said while ending up having a warm smile and then, the four of them stopped at their destination, a local bar, bustling with loud noises as if their throwing a party with many coming out heavily drunk, barely able to stand on their feet. Waiting outside of the building was a tall, slim and attractive woman with gold eyes and black shoulder length hair wearing pink lipstick and has smooth skin that could be considered attractive or even beautiful with a rather luscious curve with an almost hourglass figure body wearing a highly revealing and open fur collared long coat that mostly covers over her breasts and reaches down to her legs with the bottom part cut in half, with heart shaped buttons, very short shorts with a heart on it, and thigh high boots while also wearing signature robe of the black bulls. The woman turns over to their direction and notices Kai.

"I'm assuming the Captain is in there?" Kai asked the woman not all that surprise of their Captain's whereabouts. "Guys this is Alana, she's a fellow member of the Black Bulls. Alana these are our newest recruits."

Helen then stepped up "I'm Helen and this is Dean and Serena, thank you for having us ma'am!" she exclaimed while bowing after introducing herself and the others, with the others also bowing in respect towards their senior.

Alana looked over to the new recruits and bowed her head towards them. "A pleasure, I'm the captains aid and assistant." She included in her introduction. She then looked over to kai. "Yes I'm afraid he is. He got thirsty and came for a drink, i tried to pull him away to meet the recruits but he insists there's plenty of time for that. Now he's drinking more and flirting with the waitresses while he's at it. Honestly I think that's the most multitasking ive seen him do." She says turning over to the building.

"He sure knows how to enjoy his life it seems..." replied a nervous Helen who couldn't believe how easygoing and carefree the captain was. "However, since we are finally here, can't we finally meet him? Since he can multitask, I believe he can meet us while enjoying these...hobbies?" asked Helen.

"Ahhh." Kai groaned as waled forward. "I'll go get him, Alana watch the kids." Kai orders before walking into the bar.

Dean and the girls were anxious to finally meet the captain up close, with their anxiety growing as they were hearing the footsteps of three people coming "this is it" said Dean prepared for anything.

Kai came out of the building, struggling to drag the Black Bull Captain out by the arm as a tall muscular man with red messy shoulder-length hair which appears wavy and slicked back and has sharp, narrow black eyes with three scars across his left eye and a stubbly beard. His clothing is all torn and rugged lacking any grandeur of high class which includes a long, black, high-collared and tattered cape over his shoulders, a white colored shirt which is only half buttoned, leaving part of his chest exposed. As the captain of the Black Bull squad, he wears his banner differently as his own banner with the Black Bull insignia placed on the center of his cape, is dragged out of the building. "Hahaha, don't go wandering too far, ill be back another time, unless you want to finish this at my place hahahaha! hick." He says to the waitress that followed them out heavily drunk as he chugged more from the cup he had in his spare hand. The waitress giggles at his comment and walks away to return to work. "Geez kai, why'd...hick, why'du pull me out like that? I was this close to scoring with a real hottie!" He whined to his vice captain barely able to stand on his feet.

"For one, its her job to find what you say entertaining so you spend more. Secondly we still have all the new recruits still wanting to meet you old man." Kai replies as he continues to pull the drunk captain out from the bar. "You recruited them, time to actually get to know them."

The captain looked over at the new recruits "Hmm?" and squinted his eyes trying to see them accurately through his dull vision. "Hahahaha ah i get it." He said after bursting out from laughter and quickly gulped down the rest of his booze. "Gahhh!" Once he finished he tossed the mug away and stood up straight to face his new recruits. "Sorry about that, I get carried away when i see women like these. Hahaha! Anyways, nice to meet ya newbies, my name's Korag Gildamesh and from here on out i will be your captain." He informed them in serious yet confident mood, completely opposite from the drunken state he was in seconds ago.

Dean and the girls were tense when they saw him up close and personal, only to smile and having a serious stance "thank you for having us,Captain!" they shouted full of  honest enthusiasm.

"I think ive kept you waiting long enough. Lets take you to the base." He insisted and looked over to Alana "Alana." He signaled to her. Alana pulled out her grimore and flipped over a few pages until it stopped at a certain page. The book glowed and opened up a spatial gate. "Alright lets head in." He said as he went through the gate followed by everyone else. On the other side was a dark forest with an old castle. The castle consists of multiple stories made entirely out of stone bricks that appear to have been worn out for centuries. It has a large number of windows and a single wooden gate for an entrance. "Welcome to the headquarters of the Black Bulls."

"So this...is the Black Bulls Base"  murmured Serena amazed at the castle's view "it's quite a sight"

"Not that bad for a new home, right Dean?" asked a smiling Helen while ending up looking at Dean whose gaze was fixated on the base.

"Are you kidding me? It's so cool!" he exclaimed with an unusual for him level of excitement "it has a feel of epicness as it is a castle but at the same time, this visible on it age has a mix of coolness and romance. Now this" he said while raising his hands wide in the air "is a new home!" he declared happy, with the girls smiling.