"KILL EM ALL!" The Monster Empress shouted and the chaos began.

*WITH ICHI*

  Once Ichi heard his queen's orders, he took off on his steed towards the panicking trolls. With his treasured gifted sword he took the lives of any nearby trolls large swings. He slaughtered through the weak and defenseless trolls until he was stopped by one of the few fighters the village held. The towering troll held a log as a weapon that was as big as his own treasured weapon.

*ROOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRR*

  Ichi stared down his loud foe. All the training his queen has given him won't be put to waste. He refused to fail her, even if his instincts were telling him to flee as fast as he could, he trusted in his queen. She wouldn't give him a task he couldn't complete. Even through he was shaking like a leaf during a storm, Ichi pointed his blade towards the troll and comforted his mount who was even more afraid than he was. Ichi whispered soothing words into the ears of his deer and rubbed its side. The troll charged at the two and posed with an overhead strike with his log.

  Even though they were still shaking uncontrollably, their resolve to stand and fight for their queen and themselves were stronger. Li, Ichi's mount, hopped towards the incoming attack and Ichi swung his equally as large weapon upward towards the Troll's attack. The force of their clash made the ground beneath them crack apart. Ichi and Li were forced to sink into the ground but Ichi wasn't losing out in the contest of strength with the troll. Ichi could see the surprise and shock in the troll's eyes. He grinned and realized that maybe these trolls weren't as terrifying as he thought.. He used mana to increase his muscle strength and sliced through the troll's log.

  The troll defender staggered back in complete shock and Ichi took advantage of this. Li hopped forward and Ichi pierced through the troll's heart.

  Ichi slowly pulled out his blade and raised it to the sky before shouting a victory screech along with Li who just screamed. After basking in the afterglow of success, the two continued to slaughter more fleeing trolls.

*WITH NI*

  Ni held an excited grin on her face as she sliced open her wrist with her nail and formed a blood tendril from it. Her role in this was to capture as many enemies as she could for food and recruitment. The queen said it was time for them to have a nice reliable source of food soon. She didn't understand what that had to do with capturing trolls but the Queen knows best. Ni saw some fleeing panicked trolls and began her part of this attack. Her blood tendril extended and captured any trolls she saw, forcing them to be dragged behind her fire deer. The trolls desperately tried to rip the chain-like blood but even with their powerful innate strength, it wasn't enough to overcome Ni's magical prowess. If one of the trolls had some knowledge in magic, they could perhaps break the blood chains but they didn't have someone like that among the ones Ni captured.

  After capturing a good portion of the weak trolls, she saw a troll with a strange accessory on top of his head shouting and directing the rest of the fleeing trolls. She put on a wide grin and would have loved to chuck a blood spear at his head but creating something like that would drain her of her remaining mana and freeing the trolls she captured already. She didn't know what to do and was about to retreat with the ones she captured but then she saw her ray of hope.

San!

*WITH SAN*

  San was tasked with preventing any trolls from escaping by placing 4 barrier runes north, south, east, and west around the village. Once he finished with that task he went in to give Ichi and Ni backup if they needed it. He could only place 1 more rune before his mana ran dry but it was still something. The young kobold then met up with Ni dragging behind her deer pile of trolls who were being choked and had red chains around their throats coming towards him. He didn't know what he felt when he saw her with such a pure adrenaline-riddled smile on her face but he did know that he wanted to protect that smile. His face suddenly felt flush as she started talking to him about capturing the troll that looked like the chief of the village. He responded back to her in a low and shy manner saying that he would take care of it.

  He had the two snowmen attack the shouting troll while he placed a defensive rune on himself just for safety. San waited for the perfect time to attack as the two snowmen tried to claw the troll apart. The troll used its staff to bash the snowmen into piles of snow and didn't realize that they could put themselves back together and suffered a terrible claw wound on its back. It shouted in pain and swiftly dismembered the two snowmen again with a circular swing and then started to chant something.

  While the troll was fighting against the two snowmen, San was creeping into his blind spot and once he saw the troll chanting and gathering some mana for an attack, he swiftly shot into action. His horned deer shot out from behind the troll and impaled it through the back and knocking him into the ground. The troll tried to push himself up to see who attacked it and San desperately bashed the Troll in the head with his book. But it did little to stop the troll who was determined to get back up and kill its assailants. San repeatedly bashed his book against the head of the troll and regretfully wished that he placed an offensive rune on his book instead of a defensive one on himself.

*STAB*

  Blue blood spurted onto San's face and he slowly looked up to see a smirking Ichi and a troll with a large sword in its head. Ni cheered for Ichi and Ichi danced in celebration on the dead troll leader's body. San cursed his luck and will definitely place runes on his book next time that would be able to smash through any troll's brain so that Ni would congratulate him instead...

*WITH MONSTER EMPRESS*

"You did Mama proud! No fatalities and we got ourselves some food and slaves." The Empress said.

  All three of the kobolds and their mounts started dancing once more. The two snowmen looked at the other monsters and started waving their arms in the air as well. Monster Empress's eyes almost bulged out of her head.

'Can the snowmen learn!? They acted like nothing more than mindless killing monsters this entire time! I'll have to make a few tests…' Monster Empress thought before patting the heads of the dancing kobolds and deer.

'They're so cute despite being so ugly…'

"Okay let's head on home. We got to make sure our new toys are in tip top shape before we expand our territory even more. I'm going to take this entire troll country over for myself and then take over the others! You five are going to come along with me and help me." Monster Empress told to her minions and new resources.

  Monster Empress began heading back to her village with a large group of old trolls, woman trolls, children trolls, and handicapped trolls being dragged behind Ni's fire deer. San was practicing his penmanship while on his mount and Ichi was still basking in the afterglow of victory by swinging his sword over his head.

*WITH PRIMA*

'It's been a week since I been in this village and this is the first time I'm seeing the oppressors visiting.' Prima thought as she and the village chief stood in front of the armored horse-riding soldiers looking down on them.

"We received word that you encountered bandits but it seems that it was a false alarm." The head knight said.

"Ah y-yes. It was a mistake." The chief lied just as Prima told him to.

"Try not to waste our time too much. We are busy men. How are the crops coming along? Are they ready to be transported?" He asked, getting to the main subject of this visit.

"Actually.. we won't be giving anymore of our crops away…." The village chief mumbled.

"What did you say? Speak up fool." He ordered as his men snickered behind him.

  Prima stood in front of the village chief.

"We won't be giving the baron anymore of our crops. We will be an independent village from now on and not be requiring the baron's services nor his men." Prima said loudly and proudly.

  The soldiers laughed loudly for a few moments until they realized that Prima was quite serious. The leader soldier pointed his steel lance at Prima's face.

"Don't make jokes woman. Stay in your place and let the men talk. Isn't that right Chief Fool?" He said looking smugly.

'This son of a…'

  Prima whipped her leg into the head knight's horse and it crumbled to the ground with a whining neigh. The surrounding knights became alarmed and couldn't react in time as Prima held the head knight in a headlock.

"How dare you!? If you don't release me this instant, you can expect this entire village to be burned to the ground by the baron!" He shouted confused and angrily.

  Prima knocked on his helmet and produced a vibration that muddled up the leader's head, dazing him momentarily.

"Quiet down. The adults are talking. Now, gentlemen, if you want your little captain back safe and sound I need you to deliver a message to the baron for me." Prima said as the village chief looked on in horror at her actions.

"W-What do you want…?" A soldier asked.

"Tell the baron that this village will no longer be under his thumb and will be considered its own land. If he refuses, please tell him to come and have a heart to heart talk with me in person." Prima said while slowly crushing the helmet of the captain.

"OKAY OKAY! WE WILL LISTEN! DON'T HARM OUR CAPTAIN ANY FURTHER!" He pleaded.

  Prima softened up her grip and looked at the soldier's nice equipment.

"Pfft. Lame. Couldn't you soldiers use weapons besides swords? So boring.." Prima chatted.

  The knights were confused but then Prima continued.

"Okay drop all your equipment and weapons and I'll let your captain go." She said innocently.

"You're robbing us!? You villain! The baron will definitely not tolerate such a dastardly villain in his land!" He shouted.

"I'm not robbing anyone. This is a wholesome exchange of goods. You get your captain and I get some pieces of metal. How is that not a fair deal? If anything I'm the one on the losing end of this deal you know. A life in exchange for scrap metal."

  The soldiers starting murmuring about how it doesn't sound as bad when it's put like that until the loud soldier interrupted them all.

"You cannot trick us with your wily words! You are robbing us and covering it up with a veil of lies!"

  Prima was started to get irritated with this smarty pants, but it would ruin the image she had as leader of this village. She wanted to be viewed as a righteous, beautiful, smart, and powerful leader. The only two she had to worry about was the smart and righteous part. Back in her old world she was a B-C student, but acting righteous is all about charisma. Even if she enslaved a whole race of monsters or people, she wanted to be seen as the good guy! So, she had to deal with certain situations very carefully. Even inside the village.

"You horrible thieving bandits in soldier's armor dare say that I am the villain!? You have been extorting an unbelievable amount of food from these innocent villagers who do nothing but look up and serve the very kingdom they were born in from their birth to their death beds! I am giving them the freedom they deserve from the tyrannical overlords who want nothing for them but to see them starve and hand over their hard worked goods." Prima shouted.

"Guh!" The soldiers turned silent. The chief looked at Prima as if she was a shining goddess that came from the heavens to bless his village and it's inhabitants.

"That's nothing but more false truths. You sure are good with your tongue for a woman but regardless you-" Prima threw a rock at the soldier who constantly had something to say and knocked him out.

  The rest of the knights pulled out their weapons and Prima charged at them. She jumped and kicked one knight in the neck and took him out of the fight. The rest of the knights surrounded her and thrusted their swords at her, intending to pierce her dead, but she backflipped and landed on top of one knight's helmet with her hands.

"Whoa…." They murmured as she proceeded to beat the hell out of the rest of the knights and strip them of all their equipment.

  Once she was finished, the knights were dressed in nothing more than their underwear and knocked out.

"Not a bad start I guess.." Prima said while rummaging through the items.

"Prima… What shall we do…? The Baron will definitely send his elite men here and get rid of us all! Even if you're strong can you really protect everyone!? I heard that the Baron even has friends that are part of the church and some hired magicians to work for him!" The village chief panicked.

  Prima chuckled.

'He's a little too old to be acting this excited.'

"Don't worry chief. I'll make sure to make everyone is ready if the Baron retaliates. Just count on me." Prima smiled.

  Although she knew his heart wouldn't truly rest until this whole ordeal was over, it was good to give him some hope.

"Also try not to let any of the villagers know what happened. If they start panicking my plan will be way harder also try and sell these or give them to the blacksmith please." Prima asked with her hands clasped.

  He wiped his wrinkled forehead filled with sweat.

"I'll do my best." He said before taking off.

  Prima threw the unconscious knights out of the village and into the road leading to the north and the baron's city. After leaving them there, she went into in her room and used magic to materialize a few weapons for her students to practice with for tomorrow before heading off to meet them.

"Hello everyone." Prima said with a gentle friendly smile.

  They all greeted her back with smiles except for little Thalamus who still had an unpleasant look on his face. The kids are progressing quickly and Prima wasn't sure why exactly. They couldn't all be little geniuses from the same village. Their magical talents are way higher than they should be for kids who only learned how to use magic a week ago, however their physical abilities aren't anything special thankfully. If they were talented in both magical and physical arts then she would suspect something fishy was going on. They all learned how to sense mana, control their own, and use their inborn elements on the magical side. For their physical abilities they probably can't deal with an F-rank monster just yet but if they grouped up into teams of 3 or 4 they should mostly fine.

  Prima had them all start with some high intensity work outs before making an announcement.

"In a week or two, the village is going to be under attack by the baron and his men."

  The kids gasped and started freaking out before bombarding her with questions.

"How are we going to get out of this!?"

"Why would he do that?! Our parents always did what the baron asked! Even if we had to go hungry sometimes at night!"

"Tch. I'll have to speed up my experiments…" Thalamus muttered under his breath.

  Prima held up her hands to signal everyone to calm down and the kids did so and let her speak.

"There is a way to solve this." She said simply.

"How!?" They shouted at her.

  She laughed.

"You all just have to get stronger than the baron and his men before they get here."

"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" They shouted.

"I heard that the Baron's men can deal with a D-ranked monster!"

"I heard that the Baron could hire magicians to wipe out tiny villages like ours whenever they don't offer up payment!"

  Prima shushed the children once more.

"I can help you guys get strong enough to fight the baron's and his men. Or we could run away before the Baron gets here. Which option do you all want?"

  They were suddenly silent as if fighting the baron was a dream within a dream that they never even thought about.

"Isn't it obvious? We'll fight him and defend our home." Thalamus said while crossing his arms.

  The others stayed silent while either looking at the ground or at Thalamus.

"I'll fight to protect this village for raising me when I was young. I just don't want to leave debts unpaid." He quickly said.

  The other students smiled before laughing.

"Yeah! We'll kick the Baron's butt! Just like Thalamus said." Leon, the little hero kid, said.

"If you already made up your mind, I guess I have no choice but to accompany you as well." Yu said, piggybacking off Leon.

  Then the rest started to get motivated as well after Leon's support for Thalamus's determination. Prima smiled at them all but mostly Thalamus. The little cutie is definitely her favorite student right now.

'I can't have a bunch of weak-willed students. They definitely wouldn't be able to survive the training I have in mind for them to overcome the Baron's men. They needed a goal, an imminent goal, to strive for or they would have nothing to hold on to during the worst parts of the training.'

"WE WON'T LET THE BARON TAKE ADVANTAGE OF US ANYMORE!" They roared into the sky.

"Good thing you all made up your minds. We'll cut today short after a quick spar. Make sure to sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is going to be really tough. But since you all want to defend your homes and families instead of running away, you can handle it. I believe in you." Prima smiled.

"Leon and Thalamus. Jacey and Mai. Jasmin and Yu. Len and Stacy. Jacob you're with me."

  All the kids started getting into their groups before standing a few inches before each other. Leon smiled at Thalamus and held out his hand for a friendly handshake. Thalamus looked at Leon with resentful glare and ignored his friendly greeting.

'So even with the village in danger, he won't become buddy buddy with the rest. At least he's cooperating though.' Prima thought.

*WITH THALAMUS*

  Leon was everything that Thalamus wanted. He had both of his parents, a home, talent in both magic and sword, handsome, friends with most of the kids in the village, and just as smart as he was. Thalamus hated Leon with every part of his being. He especially hated sparring with Leon because he was too strong for him right now.

'That damned smile… He's mocking me! I just know it! Underneath that damn blinding exterior is a rotten scum and I'm the only one who can see it. I'm not blind like the rest of the fools and I will expose your true side eventually and everyone else with hate you just as much as I do!'

  Prima watched as the two boys began to spar against each other. Leon with his wooden sword and Thalamus with a wooden shovel. Thalamus knew that he couldn't combat against Leon in a physical match up, even if he enhanced his body with mana. He was also prohibited by Prima from using his potions in sparring matches. So, the only things he could rely on was his brain and magically tuned objects he practiced on after being given old and broken tools from his master. After teaching him how to be something she called a magic tuner, he was able to put all those broken and useless tools to use.

  Leon aggressively attacked after Thalamus who began to dodge and block any hits he could, but he couldn't last long with this strategy or the scumbag would break through his defenses in no time. Thalamus dodged a downward slashing attack and swiftly threw multiple small objects at Leon. Leon created a magical barrier and defended himself.

"Whoa! You surprised me there Thal. If magic wasn't allowed you would've got me good there." He said with a smile.

'So we reached the stage where we're using magic huh? Good! I'll wipe that disgusting smile off your face.' Thalamus thought while conjuring mana into his shovel.

  The two looked into each other's eyes before taking off towards each other. Thalamus and Leon reached each other after enhancing both their weapons and bodies with mana. Thalamus was coming from below with his shovel, attempting to whack Leon in the stomach and Leon was coming from above with a piercing thrust downward.

  Thalamus's eyes glared even harder as he was forced to create a magical barrier.

"Not so fast!" Leon shouted as his sword was stopped by Thalamus's barrier.

  Soon after smoke started emitting from his blade's tip and passing through the barrier, forcing Thalamus to cough. With another swing of his blade, he broke through the barrier and held his sword over Thalamus.

"Good fight Thal but I won this one." He smiled.

  Thalamus finally stopped coughing and he suddenly smirked evilly.

"The fight isn't over yet." He said as Leon noticed Thalamus's shovel was missing. He was about to hop away but

*THWACK*

  A wooden shovel hit him in the head from behind and knocked him out promptly. Thalamus soon fainted soon after as well.

*BACK WITH PRIMA*

'I'm impressed. Thalamus used to get easily defeated by Leon and now he can score a tie with him? But then again they both weren't able to fully use everything they had. Leon could've turned parts of his body into smoke and avoided that last hit and Thalamus could've drank multiple enhancement potions before the spar started.'

  Prima then looked at her other students before focusing on the one she was training.

"Okay Jacob. Let's begin." She bowed.

  He bowed back and took out his serrated wooden blade.

"Please Teacher!" He responded.