When it was 5:245PM, the Shinoa squad took a break by a tunnel. They figured it was a good hideout spot and the orange lights were bright enough to detect if any opposing teams were coming on the other end of the tunnel. But either way, the team leader assigned Kimizuki, the twin blades user and Mitsuba, the gigantic axe user, on the other side. That way, they can fix any consistencies in their plan as they stayed by the tunnel. The purple haired girl sighed as she took another sip from her water bottle. People don't get hungry nor thirsty in 'Seraph of the end' but it just felt realistic as she came from a gymnastics team in real life. She glanced to her side where she heard bickering between her two comrades.

"Awww Mika, you drank from my bottle again!" Yuu complained as he lifted a grey bottle in the air. Mika fixed his gloves and gave him a questionable look.
He drank from Yuu's bottle? Uh no, he was pretty sure he was mistaken. Well, he had to tell his friend about it or else teams would find this place due to his noisy complaining. But that's what funny with Yuuichiro, he was so obnoxiously loud for no apparent reason. It may not seem apparent to the boy himself but whenever he was being dumb like usual, it made his whole team smile.
Well it couldn't be helped, Mikaela could already feel Shinoa throwing dagger-like looks to him from behind if he didn't get Yuu to shut up. Pointing at the bottle, Mika said: "Uh no? That's my bottle, look again."

Yuu whined and turned the bottle to show a ribbon sticker, Mika's eyes grew wide and his cheeks flushed in deep red. "We all agreed that green would be my colour! See? You drank from my bottle!" He opened the cap and tilted the bottle upside down to reveal that little droplets were the only thing remaining.
By the way the blonde saw it, time seemed to stop and that those droplets were the small pellets of sand slowly dropping down to the empty side of an hourglass. There was an awkward silence between the two boys as Mika began to laugh in embarrassment. "Oh whoops, that's my bad! I didn't mean to, Yuu-chan..." he muttered that last part.

The black haired boy sighed and put away his now empty bottle back in the team's ressource bag. It was usually carried by Kimizuki but as they were on break, he had set the bag down for everyone to refresh themselves. Mika shook his head to himself and approached the book before pulling out the bottle—his bottle, the one with the light blue sticker and handed it to Yuu apologetically.
"I'm really sorry for drinking out of your bottle, here you can take mine." He told the boy. Staring at the given bottle to him for a few moments, Yuu's smile rekindled and he gladly grabbed it. "Thanks Mika!" He chimed and opened the cap of it. Mika just kind of laughed seeing his friend drink out of his bottle.

Shinoa stood you and began walking to the centre of the cave. "5:30PM everyone." She told her team quietly, she took out the satellite scan and earned a few interested looks from her team members. Yoichi put his binoculars down and gave Shinoa a sorry look. "What does that mean again?" He wondered. Well it was to forget honestly, in a place like 'Seraph Squads', the heat of the battle mattered the most and you always had to keep your eyes peeled in case anyone here tried anything funny. Kimizuki though, wasn't having it. "Did you seriously forget? That's when scan starts." He responded impatiently but didn't bother to turn his head to look at Yoichi. One wrong move and someone can end up attacking them, he had to be on the lookout.

Yoichi wiped his forehead as Shinoa too, started looking at him with a disappointed look. "Sorry.." he apologized with a small smile. The purple haired girl shook her head off as a "whatever" gesture and opened the scan up to view the world map. The pixels loaded up and when the results came in, they didn't look any different than what she imagined, no changes were drastic enough to make her panic. "So first of all, Progenitors seems to be going after us." She claimed. The one who immediately reacted was Yuu, he lowered himself down to get closer to the shown map. "Huh? Why do you think that?" He questioned. Shinoa pointed at their dot on the map then slid her finger down to all the way where the Porgenitors team was, she crossed several pieces of pathways. "We've closed off some distance but see look how their dot is the closest to ours." She made a good point.

After detecting that the Shinoa squad would be in the city, Siga Madu decided rather foolishly to go after them. Then the wild goose chase began. Shinoa knew that something like this would happen from all the times that they've been followed during personal missions so she immediately decided to move locations to earn some distance between the two teams. "Then in that case," started Mitsuba as she twirled her axe. "We need to prepare ourselves for battle." She said, thus Shinoa nodded without another word. Mika, who was on Shinoa's other side, pointed at the Progenitors' spot. "But they're still in the forests and plus, they're only four members. We're six. We can totally outnumber them." He said confidently.

However, overhearing his claim, Kimizuki shook his head. "No that's incorrect, we're just two members more than them but I can already tell that they're a clever team for making it this far into the tournament." The pink haired boy replied. A small 'Hmm' was heard from the blonde boy before his finger tapped on the 'Progenitors' dot. His suspicions were raised when a particular number popped up near the words: "teams killed". There was zero, Siga Madu's team had participated in zero killings so far, it made Mika laugh as Kimizuki's statement was technically false. "Bunch of cowards, if you asked me!" He replied to Kimizuki as the latter turned his head around for the first time. It was for context—to see how the embarrassing number popped in his view, plus, it was rather quick thanks to his far-sight glasses.

"Maybe they didn't come here to kill teams." Shinoa stood up and practically defended Kimizuki's case. Yuu tilted his head as his team leader began to speak. "Eh? Then what's the point if you don't kill teams? Isn't that what SS is all about?" He questioned. Shinoa shook her head at that. "Not entirely, SS could be taken in many different ways around here. We came here to let out our blood rage on virtual players and work on our teammate as well,"

"It's your fault that the coach yelled at us again! You should have listened to what coach said about your position in the routine!" scolded a teenaged Mitsuba several months ago—when she first met up with Shinoa and the rest of the gymnastics team. The purple haired girl who wore a bow, got up from the ground and shook her head with a desperate look on her face. "No Mitsu! I did! I just—I think I didn't get enough sleep last night..." Shinoa apologized. A few minutes into their argument, the coach returned with water bottles for everyone. "Hey, try playing a game all together, one that requires teamwork!" The coach winked at the two girls.

"There's other players who have come here to improve their skills,"

Rewinding the clocks a bit into this competition, a boy, quite short that he was the height of Lest and Krul, turned his head back and faced an individual who was pressed behind a tree the entire fight. "You know Chess, you could have shot too." He mentioned. With a disappointed look, "No, that's okay. Maybe next time." She whispered, putting away her binoculars.

Shinoa took a deep breath. "There are also players who are just here to play against friends of theirs by being in different teams. Or maybe betray them,"

In an alleyway at the start of the evening, A sigh escaped a black haired man as he brought his hand forward to shake Ferid's. A relieved smile was fixed on the eccentric man. "I'm glad you agreed to help me out!" He chimed happily. But the other man shushed him. "Quiet, someone can hear us. Now, explain to me the plan." He ordered sharply. Ferid let go of his hand and bowed down dramatically. "You'll love it, Guren. Really."

Feeling as if she lost her comrades' attention with this tedious point of hers, she chuckled and shrugged amusingly, "But there's some teams who I don't know what the hell they're doing!" She laughed.

Yuu and Mika looked at eachother before nodding, well that was the end of that little ramble. Guess the black haired boy learned never to mention pointless questions like these ever again or else Shinoa will give them all a small spontaneous presentation of her own. It was funny honestly, how she was so confident and less awkward whenever she presented them something in game than in real life. Changing the subjects a bit, Mika stood up and walked over to the other end of the map, it was in a forest. "Speaking of which, theres Krul's team who is still alive." He mentioned to everybody.

Yoichi shivered deep down as the murderous KFLC came up in his mind. When his team had encountered Krul and Crowley in the first SS, the small vampire queen had terrified him so much that day, until of course he met the lovely woman wth braided pink hair one day along with his gymnastics team. He didn't expect that the woman: Krul Tepes was as deadly as the pink devil herself. Sure they had the same names and same appearance but still...
"Do we really need to fight her?" He asked. Mika and Shinoa blinked again the question. If they weren't gonna fight Krul, what's the point? Half of the reason why they registered was because they wanted to fight Krul Tepes again.

"Well if we do manage to run into them, that is." spoke Mitsuba from her end. Shinoa and the others, including Yoichi turned to her. What was that? Abandon everything and play the game as if Krul and her tomates are just a deadly team you happen to know about? Receiving confused looks, the pigtailed girl laughed at their stupid faces. "What? We can't force it if we don't bump into them." She explained with even more laughter. As arguments happened between Yuu, Mika and Mitsuba, Shinoa frowned and twirled her finger around their own dot. It captured Yoichi's attention and he asked what's wrong.

"My question is, why did the Progenitors stop in place? Why didn't they continue to head straight for us? They're just sitting still in the middle of a forest."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A bit lower down in the map, in the forests, there was gunfight going on. "Bahahah! Just go easy on them, they don't know what they're doing!" laughed a man with spread seraph wings. He was standing in the middle of the open, with opened arms. He was not at all armed, there were just plasma grenades dangling down from the side of his robes. Judging from his enemies, they could easily shoot down those grenades and make the whole team explode. However, the pair the Progenitors were fighting against, couldn't find themselves capable of shooting those small spheres.

"You are my soldiers, go forth!" continued Siga Madu as he stretched an arm forward and pointed at the two players hiding away in the bushes. Siga Madu had two soldiers, a tanned man with dirty blonde hair as well as a pale man with misleading black eyes. "Um, why did you only allow us to kill them with our vampiric cursed gear set? We would have finished the job quicker if you gave us all of our guns." Rigr Stafford pointed out with a big smile. Cursed gear was different from vampiric cursed gear. Cursed gear was for some reason préférée by the Narumi, Guren and Shinoa squad, saying that it's not as overrated as vampiric cursed gear. That set is composed of many weapons, such as katanas, blades, bows, scythes, axes, spears and tridents. Cursed gear practices magic and is response for the talismans, wards and gear created entirely by magic.

Now for the latter, Mika actually owns a vampiric cursed gear sword. It's called a "Blood Rose" sword, as a rose's torn is wrapped around the blonde's hand. Vampiric gear works very differently for any weapon actually since they are strengthened when the weapon eats away at the player's HP. The swords are made differently, the blade size and how it pierces down on the user's HP. About that, Crowley, Ferid and Lest owns vampiric gear except they call their weapons "photon swords" or "lightswords" since it's more practical and short to say. It was obvious now that most teams liked vampiric cursed gear.

Explanations aside, Siga Madu was exhausted by Rigr Stafford's endless yapping. It was always him that talked back whenever Siga Madu gave orders.
Whether it was in real life or in game, the boss was tired of it. Looking Rigr straight in the eye, he narrowed his eyes and the latter could have sworn his eyes go fully white,

"If you do not stop right now, I will personally kill you off and that way, playtime will be over for you."

"Okay I got the message First-"

Ky Luc, the trainee, had no idea whether to say something or not, however by the sigh that Urd Geales gave him, he remained silent. It was best not to interrupt Rigr Stafford and Siga Madu whenever they were as deadly as snakes right now. The brown haired boy was about to examine his vampiric cursed gear, a regular sword, he was halted by his team leader's beaming voice.
"You better keep your mouth shut next time. Now then! The enemy looks easy to beat, go ahead." Siga Madu snickered.

The battle they were fighting against was with a team called "LR", a duo between two pale men, one had blue hair and the other had black hair with a kind of emo-look. Urd Geales looked at them indifferently as they continued to shoot bullets from their AK-47s' at the Progenitors. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Rigr prompted his brother and the trainee to charge ahead. Ky Luc looked nervous and kind of unprepared? What was he supposed to do?

He was called by his boss Siga Madu onto the game one evening and until now, they didn't have any battles. The man looked at Siga Madu apologetically, "M-M' lord...F-Frankly, I-I don't know what to do!" He laughed to make things seem less awkward. Urd and Rigr both looked at the trainee, both with different expressions. Urd was neutral and Rigr was smiling, like the creep he was.

"How do you feel right now Ky?" Siga asked.

"I-I'm about to pee my pants right now!"

The black haired man as well as the team leader laughed at the trainee's comment.
"There there, it's alright, you can sit this battle out if you want." Siga suggested. What? Sit this battle out when they weren't fighting since the past hour. Ky didn't exactly know what to do, but he didn't want to sit out on his first ever fight.
"No no! I'll help them out!" He gulped and raised his blade to glare at the two enemies. Inside, he was laughing at himself. 'What have I gotten myself into?' He thought.

Siga spread out his massive wings and with a 'shoo' gesture, "Right, well, I'll leave you to it. Those two look easy so I won't step in." He said, walking off to take cover.
Well, not a place in which he is shielded from the fight completely. He wanted to see his team in action and correct their faults after the battle. So it was better if he hid behind a tree or something. Despite his massive wings sticking out, he knew that "LR" wouldn't go after him when he's protected by a trio of staunch soldiers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I think I'm running out of bullets." said the one with black hair in the most monochrome voice someone could ever imagine. This was René Simm, the one who looked foremost like an emo. They were the ones up against the progenitors and those who carried around those AK-47s'. Luckily, his comrade in front of him, handed him a spare magazine. It was Lacus Welt, the blue haired player. "Here, it seems that we have a tough enemy on our hands." He claimed quietly.

René nodded as he refilled his gun once more with the magazine that Lacus handed him. "They aren't charging or anything. The one who's just boasting around is that man with the fat wings." He said. Lacus continued to shoot at the three players who chose to stand perfectly still. "This is boring, why aren't they attacking?" He muttered as he adjusted his aim.

'Bang'

A swift bullet missed Ky's ear by a hair's breadth. The victim squeaked quietly and Urd shushed to stand still.

"Hold the line."

"But he almost shot my face!" Ky whined back.

Rigr yawned and brought his vampiric cursed gear to his hands and wrapped it around them. They were solid sharp chains. "Well I agree with the newbie, I don't wanna die by a glorious shot of theirs." He started before looking at his two comrades, in which one was his brother. "I want Siga Madu to praise me for killing those two over there." He laughed. There was a minute of silence, well honestly, the two felt uncomfortable.

Rigr Stafford was laughing to himself, muttering possibilities that Siga Madu might praise him if he finished the job off rather quickly. But it wasn't just that, his eyes were widened out and a big smile covered his face. Urd inhaled and pointed at the two enemies hiding away in a bush.
"Alright then, let's fight those two already." He decided and Rigr replied with a short: "Awesome! I knew you'd come around, brother!"

So then, the three players from Progenitors charged straight for Lacus and René, swords in hands. To be honest, Ky Luc had no idea what he was doing but with hitched breath, he followed his superiors. 'Alright..I can do this..' he thought to himself as he felt the adrenaline run wild inside of him. It may just be a game...but the way that it's designed—the amusphere, he means, if just makes everything seem so...real...supernatural, even?

"Oh crap, René! They're coming!" panicked Lacus as he began to shoot at the sprinting three. Urd glared at the muzzle of the enemy's gun and ran even faster. He clenched his sword's handle and with unforgettable words, "Sword, drink my blood." He whispered.

A red aura flashed from the blade in Urd's hands. Siga Madu, who was watching afar, looked at the top left of his screen where he saw Urd's HP slowly decrease.
"Oh haha! There he goes!" He exclaimed in excitement. Urd leaped up in the air and with a striking blow, he slashed the bush in front of Lacus and René. The two looked absolutely mortified as the enemies' talents exceeded before them.

The bush burned into debris and Urd and his team walked through the flames preparing to fly to the red-lead skies.
But Lacus and René didn't give up despite the deadly eyes shot at them by the other team. They pulled themselves back, earning a bit of distance between the enemy team and themselves then the trigger was squeezed, they began firing once more. A rain of bullets was up ahead but the team seemed stoic compared to these tiny futile things.

"Ouch!" cried Ky Luc as a bullet jabbed into his stomach. He tried to block it with his sword however, but failed to. Urd, who immediately stepped in front of his injured comrade, asked from front. "That's okay. Are you alright though?" He inquired. Was he alright though? Usually in real life, a blow to the stomach was the most painful thing one can imagine. It was quite the vital spot as well but here in 'Seraph of the end', Ky didn't feel himself dying from the shot though. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll just apply a medkit." He replied.

"Meanwhile, Rigr?" Urd called for his ludicrous brother. But was quite appalled when he received no response from behind him. "Rigr?" He called again and this time around, decided to turn around, exposing his back to the enemies. Lacus and René noticed that and used it as an advantage. The blue haired boy growled and shot at the brown skinned player's back. Well not really.

"Sword,"

"Hm! I wouldn't try outsmarting my brother if I were you!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Urd turned around just in time to completely block out the attack and cut through the swarm of bullets. "Guk!" His eyes widened to the sight of a murderous-looking Rigr behind the two players.
He snickered and lifted them up by the throat with his chains. An endless night of chains sprouting from his back.

Lacus and René were raised to the red skies and struggled to get back down.
"You bastard.." René screeched out, his gloved plans trying to untangle things such as a chain, it was merely impossible.
Rigr laughed and walked over to Urd and Ky Luc, whose health was been raised back to 80%. He messed around with the victims bound to his chains, tossing them over him and back. As far as he's concerned, he may as well choke them since his chains were wrapped around their necks. "Look brother, I saved you, didn't I?"

Ky looked at the victims, trapped in Rigr's chains, helplessly trying to break away.
He felt a bit sick to the stomach seeing how the chains were practically ripping their necks open. The screaming didn't help either, it was clear that this was the battle showcased at the bar right now.
Just look at the Progenitors, revealing their true colours out to the public. Ky was terrified for his life but was somewhat thrilled deep inside, Urd was indifferent and emotionless, per say and Rigr was having the time of his life, taunting the poor "LR" duo.

But what was Siga Madu doing the entire time? Just watching? It kind of disappointed the spectators that the team leader to this gruesome team wasn't even doing anything himself. He just chuckled and watched attentively.

"Stop that, Rigr. Just kill them already." Urd's serious voice resonated between the players present.

Rigr pouted, shaking Lacus and René with his chains, "Awww but they're having fun. Plus, I'm bored and they're better playmates then all of you guys." He gave such an excuse. Even Siga Madu and Urd Geales grew infuriated with that. As for Ky Luc, he just whimpered and apologized for his lack of teamwork in battle.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Rigr, just kill them."

Urd and Siga Madu both said respectively.
~~~~~~~~~
The black haired man looked at "LR" with a furious look before he growled. The reaction that a child would give after being scolded by family members. "Ugh fine, you guys are no fun." He told his teammates before he shrugged. His chains were raised as high as possible, which is the height of a pine tree then with his fangs beared out, "Well this is unfortunate for them!"

The chains let go of the two bodies in its hold. Lacus and René had to watch with wide eyes how they were mercilessly dropped from the skies....

and into the grassy grounds.

Blood was splattered all over as the players' heads broke open, Rigr laughed grandiosely as he walked towards his teammates among the blood rain.
"Looks like we've won!" He claimed, raising his bloody hands up in the air as if he's some saint.

Two 'DEAD' markers lit up atop their heads.

With this easy fight finished, Rigr sighed in relief. In fact, the fight was way too easy.
Urd cleaned some blood off his uniform and Ky Luc trembled in place. "Did....you have fun Lord Stafford?" The trainee questioned. The black haired man nodded, but it was to mainly fool the newbie's eyes. No, he did not enjoy this fight at all, too easy.

Too boring.
~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Hello! Thank you for reading this quite short chapter of Seraph Squads!
I didn't have much to work with since it was mainly a Shinoa squad checkup and Progenitors' first fight. Now doesn't Saito remind you all of Ferid? Hah. That was clearly my intention and honestly, the interactions between him and Urd were fun to write about. The fight too, though I felt like something was missing. In my prompts for this chapter, I wanted to show that people shouldn't mess with the Progenitors' team but I don't think that it was well written? As far as I'm concerned, only Urd and Rigr seemed the terrifying ones, but just wait until you see what Siga can do!