The Modern Standard

"Of course there is a problem Mr Fake Captain... but what did you expect?? Not everyone can be as organised, understanding, or as tactful as our boss", Merlin began with undisguised sarcasm, something that Darius expected but was still annoyed by, "Why is it that you expect my group to do all of the hard work while you get to hog all the glory by killing off the boss?? I didn't work hard to get to level 3 just to get bossed around by some lecherous glory hog I have never met who is clearly still high on his fake status as a leader", Merlin mocked even more blatantly with a frown.

"You've raised two excellent points, Merlin... The potential workload of the Rotation unit and the transition period of the Main task force which I dictate will be heavily situation-dependent and may require me to step in to kill the boss... However, rest assured the party was designed this way to allow all members, myself included, to switch priorities and roles at any given situation", Darius explained without missing a beat, "In your words... I wouldn't be hogging the glory but rather would bench myself from the boss battle depending on the situation", Darius finished off with a simplification of his overall plan.

"Do we have any more concerns to raise or does anyone else need me to hold their hand and walk them through their role on this team??", Darius asked openly, not bothering to hide his clear implication that Merlin was incompetent. After the silence built up a bit as Merlin bit back the temptation to cuss Darius out since he technically wasn't making a bad call with team rotation, "Now that we have all of the miscellanies out of the way I have something I believe should be settled before we even begin... The leadership in this party", Darius said.

"It is clear that the belief still hangs that Enemy Soldier is the rightful leader of this group and as such should run this little operation I hired your group for... Since the operation is making use of mostly your party members anyways your belief that your party leader should be in charge is even more reinforced", Darius stated more than asked, "With that in mind I am impressed by the loyalty Soldier and disappointed that such a minor social nicety is allowed to disrupt the efficiency of the operation I hired you all for", Darius continued.

"the initial members of the party showed their contempt by holding back and putting in enough effort where I can't complain, but not giving it their all even if I demanded it, this includes Enemy Soldier himself... The newcomers though were a lot more open and direct with their contempt, using Merlin who likely is known for dealing with situations like this to voice their opinions and attempt to bring me down a peg like only she would know how", Darius noted out loud before taking 3 steps back to the end of the bridge that led to the next field zone. 

"I believe that of all the methods of protest, Weaponised incompetence is by far the most demeaning and unprofessional of the bunch- Especially when I haven't been given any reason to believe you all are anything more than 3rd rate players with a 4th rate set-up", Darius added with disappointment branded on his face. "You introduced yourselves as technique generators, which is something you likely take pride in... So let's have a little showcase of abilities", Darius suggested with a smile.

"Anyone who isn't satisfied with my leadership is free to form a group... I won't use my sword to attack, I won't dodge or go out of my way to rush at any of you... Attempt to make it past me and into the next field zone and if even one of you can succeed in breaking past me within the next 2 minutes I will willingly step down as leader and pass the mantle onto anyone the lot of you acknowledge", Darius suggested as a grin tugged at his lips. "What a relief... Here I thought I would have to play the long game and gaud you into embarrassing yourself... Who knew you would hand yourself on a silver platter to me", Merlin responded with a grin as she stepped forward for the challenge.

Joining her were Void, Mensah, Daiya, and Soldier himself. The rest either acknowledged him as a leader or saw no benefit in challenging him when he hadn't made a bad call so far and simply wished to see how he would handle this. "Feel free to come all at once... just start whenever you feel like it", Darius prompted before drawing Bone Shard with a playful grin tugging at his lips.

A few moments passed before two arrows shot out at Darius' eyes, though he cut them out of the sky in one swift motion before blocking a mana bullet with Riot head-on and taking no damage from either. Void and Mensah rushed forward to gauge Darius' skill with basic attacks first, unbeknownst to them Darius was already using 'Overload' to slowly chip away at their speed of attack. Mensah switched to using a technique that launched 10 attacks in a second ignoring the rebound effect of attacking an opponent with higher defence than yours. 

Yet even after using the technique 5 times in a row, Darius' defence did not waver and not a drop of damage was done to the Former Military man. Void backed away and Mensah joined him so Soldier and Merlin could unleash a barrage of ranged attacks that did no damage just for Darius to twist and launch a kick towards his right launching Daiya, who tried sneaking past amid the barrage, towards the edge of the bridge on the right and knocking her off. But with just enough force she caught herself and stopped herself from falling.

Void tsked and rushed at Darius just to have his attack blocked anyway, this time the recoil of having a lower attack hit and Void took 30 damage. Void sheathed his weapon suddenly and a barrage of 5 sword slashes struck Darius' shield and pushed him back despite not doing any damage. In the moment that Darius' shield was knocked away Merlin and Soldier released another barrage of ranged attacks with Darius slashing Soldier's arrows out of the sky and being struck by 3 of Merlin's 10 Magic bullets head-on taking a total of 17 damage per bullet.

"Magic users are something aren't they", Darius commented as he saw Daiya leapt back onto the bridge and meet back up with Void and Mensah who had backed away once more. Soldier had 30 chipped arrows and 20 pristine arrows left, while Merlin had about one more barrage of Magic bullets left before she had to start relying on her Basic Energy Conversion skill to power her attacks.

At this point in the fight just over a minute had passed and the assailants were rethinking their approach to this fight, they knew that this guy was connected to the Etherium guild somehow, but they didn't expect him to be such a monster that he could genuinely hold his own under the conditions he set. Hell, he wasn't even just holding his own anymore, he was somewhat pushing them back- As badly as this sat with them, they realised that they might have underestimated this fan-boy who had the nerve to take on the name of Eternum's second Vice Guildmaster.

"I'm disappointed... I thought that with how you all talked yourselves up you would be able to force me to use number 3 at least, but you can't seem to even do that", Darius commented as the grin on his face disappeared and he sheathed his sword, "Go train a couple more centuries and try again... Maybe then you might be able to survive a few seconds against me at half power", Darius mocked blatantly before walking past the group that accepted the challenge.

Soldier gripped his bow tightly with a frown but had nothing to say, at the end of the day he knew the archer class wasn't known for its damage and that he would likely need to forge his weapons to get bows and arrows good enough to make good on his skill. Even if he did use the techniques he had developed for the Archer class, those would only affect the weight, speed, and form of the arrow respectively, the damage done would still be the same; in this case the lack of damage done.

"The lot of you rest up and gather your strength for now... I will run a full inventory in a few minutes before we head into the next field zone as that is where we can expect to find most of our targets and the monsters I will be paying you to help me hunt", Darius ordered before stepping aside to take a look at what the party had so far, he reconned that discussions on the new distribution of items could be decided after a total inventory is done as quite a few of Soldier's arrows were destroyed in the challenge he had just set up. 

Though he would never admit it himself, Darius knew that the challenge was both childish and unnecessary. He knew he was much better than them going in and set up those conditions to force them to realise as much when he really didn't need to go so far. Now not only was he dealing with potential disharmony in the team, the Parties ranged power had been cut down significantly thanks to his need to one up a bunch of randoms he would likely never encounter again after this.

Before Darius could get to the actual inventory though Soldier walked up behind him with Merlin in tow asking for a word. "Did the two of you need something??", Darius asked half dismissively as he had decided to stick with his current approach, the way he saw it the damage was done and the only thing backpedalling would do now is make him seem soft or weak. Disappointing as the whole thing was on his part he was on the boat now and fully planned to triple down on his decision simply because it was him who made the decision. "We are willing to drop our share of the rewards gained on this quest", Soldier said straightforwardly, "Not only has my ranged ability been nerfed thanks to the little scuffle we just had, but you have proven yourself to be more capable alone than the 4 additions to the party combined", Soldier admitted with a defeated look on his face.

"And why is she here for this conversation??", Darius asked turning towards Merlin who looked embarrassed about the whole incident, "Because the whole approach our Party had towards receiving your commission was my idea... As the Vice Head of this party it is my responsibility to ensure that my decisions don't negatively affect those who follow me in any avoidable way", Merlin answered after cutting Soldier off. "That doesn't answer my question, why are you here for this conversation about the Commission rate that your Party Leader initiated??", Darius asked again to clarify. "I am here to ensure that my party doesn't draw the short end of the stick in these negotiations due to my orders", Merlin responded resolutely.

"Its not up to you... If you want to make yourself useful to your party then return to the Iron Bastion to sell the material we have on hand and collect any worthwhile bounties we may have... I will tally the expected cost but I assume an alleged leader wouldn't be stupid enough to screw her team further by messing with the operation finances", Darius said slowly as he shooed Merlin off dismissively and turned to Soldier once more. Only once Merlin was out of ear shot did Soldier finally speak, "Listen and Listen well... I can understand you shafting us in terms of benefits because of how we handled things with you initially, but these are my people and you will treat them with respect", Soldier demanded as his grip tightened around his bow handle.

"Is that right?? Do tell me though... What exactly do you plan to do if I choose to ignore you", Darius refuted dryly not bothering to reach for his weapon or raise his shield, Both of them knew very well that Soldier couldn't touch Darius if he wanted to, Darius wasn't going to stand there and pretend he was actually a threat in any sense. Soldier gripped his bow furiously despite his face not showing before he took a deep breath and loosened his grip, his gaze washing over with a focus Darius had only seen from the guy in an annoying fight when he knew what to do but wasn't certain on the result.