Liam thought he was very lucky with how things had turned out in the end. During the tutorial he learned a lot, not only about the work as a guard which actually felt very rewarding to him as a former police officer but also a lot about the system. That was how he knew about the different types of classes that existed in the system. Even with the tutorial giving him and his comrades a lot of information. He felt like he knew only the most basic things, it was still important to know because fighting against a smith and a swordsman were very different situations when one could only use their real strength while crafting. He found that out during a few brawls in the system-created town he spent his tutorial in.

  Well there were also severe limitations that came with being a guard but with Ethan freeing them from that bald prick’s command he could finally see a future again. Where he was useful to people not mind controlled slaves. He talked with his companions, all of them coming from a similar background like him. Policemen, soldiers and security guards for the most part. They decided to go with Ethan, for one he saved them from this city. While they liked the job the person in charge was the problem here and their methods. Now they might be able to find a proper place to call home without someone mind controlling the population.

  The thing that convinced Liam wasn’t the prospect of freedom or a cozy home but Ethan himself, the man had this look in his eyes. Like he was driven by something, it was hard to spot especially since looking into those pale blue alien eyes unnerved him but he saw it. Ethan, at least that was his best guess, isn’t doing this for personal power or because he wants to command people around. That weird announcement they saw a while ago wasn’t his declaration to wage war but came directly from the system and seemed to be forced on Ethan. He looked more like a curious scholar wanting to read books all day than a warmongering fighter looking for the next bloodbath.

  Still there were unknowns he had no answers for so while he wanted to support Ethan there was still trust to be built between them. Especially after the current fiasco he wouldn’t throw his close knit group of guards into another bad situation. While he wanted answers for now he had work in front of him that needed his attention. After Ethan left to do his magic stuff, at that time Liam organized the guard. With their classes being the same, focused on fighting and keeping the peace, there were skills every guard possessed which would come in handy in the current predicament.

  With around three hundred and fifty guards split into groups of five men that gave them seventy squads to work with, which would still be less than he would have liked. While it sounded a lot there were around four thousand people here, while a part of them were running against the wall most of them are still underground, spread over the sprawling cave network underneath the town. With one of his lieutenants organizing the capture above ground the second one was taking a few squads to station them as scouts on the walls. The city wasn’t protected by system magic anymore so there would be monsters to fight off when those beasts realized they could cross the border.

  Liam was torn between what he should do, he could take some squads of men and enter the cave system but they could be overwhelmed as there were enough people to literally bury them. So for now he would help out with pacifying the situation in front of him. As the guard captain and warden of valor he had the right tools for the job.

  Taking around half the men still stationed near the mansion he took the left side while his lieutenant took the right. They formed a shield wall, their swords staying on their hips as they equipped wooden batons wrapped in leather. In lockstep they slowly approached the people throwing themselves against the frozen slopes.

  “Guards! I hope you’re ready for some action, remember capture over killing like always!” “Yes Sir!” Came the answer and half of them thrust their hands forward while the other half guarded them with their shields. Orbs of light flew from their palms and hit the townspeople, the light split in two and moved down their arms and legs, there it formed into ethereal looking shackles. The guards stepped back, protecting the others while they used the same ability.

  “Good, move forward and encircle!” Liam yelled while gesturing to his soldiers. Another squad that wasn’t attached to his formation ran down the streets towards them. All of them carried ropes or large leather bags over their shoulders. “Great job and quick thinking on your part, you know what to do.” “Yes Sir!” they dropped the rope and bags, the sounds of metal hitting metal could be heard from the bags. One spilled its contents over the street and revealed metal shackles.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  The guard formation made up of multiple squads had moved forward until they surrounded the captured people, single squads were let inside, binding the people with ropes or shackles and gathering them in a circle before binding them all together so one person would have to pull the weight off everybody if they wanted to move.

  “Flawless work men, time to clean this town up!” The men saluted by hitting their batons on the shields and continued with capturing the people. It was overall a good strategy where the guards protected each other while using their [Ethereal Shackles]. Usually the people they caught were also attacking them but this time their targets weren’t even focused on anything other than reaching the cult leader.

  So they worked through the people, group after group was shackled, surrounded and captured. Repeating the same manoeuvre over and over again until they meet the lieutenant on the other side. Both sides worked together to capture the last group. After that the squads got split up to watch the prisoners or reinforce the walls.

  Liam approached his second in command and they nodded at each other. “Well Harris, that was nice work, flawless and clean as always. Anything to report?” The man, Harris was around forty and sported a cleanly trimmed blonde mustache. He shook his head. “Nothing, it’s a lot easier when they don’t attack you and your men. So what comes next?”

  The captain’s good mood vanished and he looked to the mansion. “I don’t know my friend, the mage, Ethan said he wanted to try something but as you know magic isn’t my thing. I prefer to handle every situation straightforward, magic sounds too complicated for a man like me.” Harris laughed and grabbed Liam’s shoulder. “Don’t undersell yourself all the time, come let's see if our new friend figured something out.”

  Both men walked back around the stone formation and up the stairs towards the courtyard. The gate was open but that didn’t mean it was unprotected, silent ice sculptures that looked like two meter tall men wearing full plate mail armor stood in their way. Interestingly, the armor was only suggested and vaguely depicted instead of a refined replica. Something that might change when the man controlling them got better with the skill.

  When Liam and Harris entered the courtyard their faces turned into shock and disbelief, there not far from them sat Ethan on a block of ice, his face turned away from them as he stared at a mangled piece of flesh that was surrounded by a circle of red. Liam rushed to the mage and grabbed his shoulder, turning the tall pale man around to him. What he saw were cold eyes, a face covered in blood and the mouth pressed into a thin line.

  “Ethan! Ethan!? What happened here, is…was that a person?” Liam pointed at the corpse and shook the elf’s shoulder. “Talk to me, did you kill him? What happened?” Harris walked over to the corpse and looked it over, his face was a mask of stone as his eyes wandered over the body. “Looks like he exploded, I saw stuff like that when I was overseas…”

  The elf slowly nodded and stood up. “Yes, that's exactly what happened to him, I tried using a ritual to get rid of the mind control. While cleansing, healing, or whatever you might call it isn’t my field I never thought this could happen especially since I didn’t focus on something specific the ritual was just some basic runes for a basic cleansing. Then…he exploded, no screaming, no struggling just…blew up.” Ethan rubbed the blood away with his sleeve, the enchantment already working on cleaning it up.

  “Liam this is bad, like really bad because I can try to do more rituals but I think, I think it will just end up like this again. This isn’t your run of the mill mind control, this goes deeper, deep enough to take over their subclasses and I’m no expert far from it. I don’t know what can change classes to such a degree other than the gods or the system.”

  Both Liam and Harris took a step back, they looked at Ethan, at each other and then back to the mangled corpse. “Well fuck…so what now?” Harris asked and walked over to the cult leader who was still held in place through it all. Despite the horrific scene he looked indifferent to it all. There was no emotion on his face as he stared straight ahead.

  “Have you tried using him? He is their so-called mayor after all, maybe we should kill him and find out if that frees them of the influence.” Ethan stopped next to Harris and looked down at the bald man. “I didn’t think it was wise if what he said was true. Because if he speaks the truth all these people will die or go crazy.”

  “This shit is getting better by the minute…can it get any worse?” Harris sighed and before he could speak another word a loud bang sounded out over the courtyard, followed by a second moments later. A member of the guard rushed through the gate. “The people…the people below us are trying to get out of the caves.”

  Liam grabbed Harris' shoulder. “You had to say it, didn’t you?”