"Hi, I'm Gravis, and I will be part of your squad from now on!" Gravis introduced himself politely to a group of four beasts sitting in front of him.
"Hello, Gravis," a friendly but demotivated chorus came from the beasts.
Gravis only laughed when he heard that demotivated echo. "Oh, come on! Show some more spirit!" he said encouragingly.
Instead of answering, most of the beasts remained silent. Some of them even sighed.
"Gravis, I'm happy to have you in my team!" a small silver wolf said from in front of Gravis with friendliness as he stepped forward. "Don't mind the squad's lack of enthusiasm. We simply had a rough patch for the last couple of years with a lot of deaths. But hey, bad things can't keep happening forever! At some point, our luck will turn for the better!"
This was Gravis' new team.
The whole squad was made out of previous mates to the Empress. This meant that every single beast in here was mighty. Some of them were barely able to fight two levels above themselves in the King Realm. One had to understand that fighting two levels above oneself as a King was way more impressive than fighting two levels above oneself as a Lord.
So, even when all of the members were made out of previous mates to the Empress, not every member of the group could fight two levels above themselves. However, all of them could jump one level.
This was the Empire's elite striking squad. The squad would travel to one defensive line after the other and attack the enemy's defensive line together with their own defensive line. Of course, the sea beasts also had several such striking squads.
This squad was under the leadership of a silver wolf with the lightning element. The wolf was a level three King, and he could fight level four Kings without any issues. He was pretty powerful.
In the last couple of years, this squad had had a lot of casualties in the fights. Because of that, all the members were disheartened. They didn't want to stay in this squad anymore, believing it to be a place of death. Yet, they had made their choice, and they needed to go through with it.
The critical lack of success of this striking squad was one of the reasons why the Empress had sent him here. With Gravis' power, the success of the squad should turn for the better quickly.
"I've heard of how the past few years went, so don't worry, I can understand," Gravis said with a smile. "Don't worry, with me here, the success will surely turn for the better!"
Humans might find such words to be arrogant, but beasts didn't mind them. Additionally, weren't all of them the most elite of beasts? After all, they had all been mates to the Empress in the past. This was the best proof of Battle Strength.
"Stop being so self-absorbed with misery!" the silver wolf shouted at his squad. "We just got a new member! We need to be happy for every new member we get!"
"What's the point?" a red lizard said from the side with an annoyed tone. "We have had so few successes in the past several years, and someone always dies. There's no reason to get close to someone who will soon die too."
The silver wolf groaned. "Oh, come on. It's not that bad," the silver wolf said.
"Yes, it is," the lizard answered. "I'm the most senior member in this squad, excluding you, and I have only been in two raids. Everyone that has joined this squad before me has already died. Chances are that I will be the next one."
The silver wolf found it quite difficult to establish a positive atmosphere with all this depression polluting the atmosphere. His squad needed to be motivated in order to bring out their full strength!
"I will prove it to you in our next raid," Gravis said. "I'm not confident in keeping everyone alive, but we should be able to get through the next raid with only one death."
Yet, the group didn't echo Gravis' sentiment. They felt like beasts that had lost their will to fight. It was like they were on death row.
"Anyway, Gravis!" the silver wolf shouted, trying to distract the squad from their negative thoughts. "How powerful are you?" he asked.
"I think I should be able to fight a level three King, but I haven't had the opportunity to confirm that thought yet," Gravis said.
Something was wrong.
Any person or beast that knew Gravis would know how he would normally answer such a question. He would say something like that he had a 50% chance of killing a level four King or that he was confident in fighting a level four King. Yet, Gravis had said that he only thought that he SHOULD be able to fight a level three King. This was not how he normally spoke.
Gravis' lightning grumbled a bit when Gravis said that. It technically wasn't a lie, but it also wasn't stating the whole truth. This could be seen as a small form of soft manipulation.
Yet, the more powerful Gravis grew, the closer his connection with his lightning got. By now, Gravis was able to transmit quite some complex concepts to his lightning, and it also became more reasonable in its demands. The lightning knew why Gravis said that and accepted Gravis' soft form of dishonesty, but only because of the current situation.
The silver wolf seemed quite impressed. "Not bad! You're not underestimating the powerful Kings. That's a good quality to have! I would have almost believed that you would say you would be confident in killing a level three King," the silver wolf said with a laugh.
Gravis only shrugged with a helpless smile.
"Anyway," the wolf said as he turned to the rest of the squad again. "It just so happens that we got a mission for a new raid!"
Instead of being happy about the tempering, the atmosphere became colder and more depressing. The members believed that at least half of their members would die again, this time. The death-rate was way too high for them.
When the silver wolf saw their reactions, he sighed. "I know that you don't want to, but we have to do our jobs. Think about it this way, the more dangerous the mission, the better the tempering for the survivors. A lot of beasts would be envious of our tempering opportunities!"
No beast answered him as they simply looked to the side with disinterest.
Gravis saw this and also could only sigh. 'There is really no fighting spirit left in the whole squad. The squad leader is the only one who seems willing to fight,' Gravis thought.
"Get your affairs in order. In one day, we will leave for the battlefield!" the silver wolf commanded.
Two of the beasts left while the other two just stayed there. It seemed like not everyone had companions outside the squad. The two that left were probably the only ones with companions outside the squad. They were probably telling their companions what they should do in the worst-case scenario.
The two beasts returned quickly, and a day later, everyone left.
It was time to attack a defensive line!