Chapter 108: He Found Them

The Next Morning!

Lord Damon was standing in the middle of the wreckage in post 6 and was covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve.

"Dammit..." He muttered.

The air was already turning sour as the spilled blood and rotting flesh was beginning to smell terrible.

He did not expect it to be this bad. The ground was soaked with black blood, and dead officers were scattered everywhere.

Broken limbs, neck, torn flesh filled everywhere.

Damon suddenly felt guilt deep in his stomach. Looking at the cruelty of the scene, he realized he had messed up big time by teaming up with the Malpas tribe.

He used to be a military officer himself once. Seeing men who wore the same uniform he used to wear slaughtered like cattle made him sick in the stomach.

He shook his head, as he tried to push the shame down. ​"I was only trying to do the right thing..." he murmured to himself. "I was just trying to avenge my son’ death. That is all this is."

​He looked back at the slaughtered bodies.

​"Even without me... the Malpas tribe would have still found a way inside the perimeter," he muttered quietly to the cold breeze, trying to convince himself. "They would have still invaded here anyway. And these officers... their fate would have still been the same."

​

Still keeping his sleeve pressed to his face, Damon sighed and started finding his way through the bodies. He stepped over torsos and pooled blood, as he carefully inspected every young face.

He really want to confirm if the Starweaver boy was really not dead.

He checked the last young officer face.

But nothing.

Lord Damon closed his eyes as a a deep breath left his nose.

Where could they have gone? They were on foot or injured? Maybe they could not have gone far.

He tightened his jaw and then snapped his eyes open. "Even if you escape this attack, Reynold Starweaver... in this life or the next, I will hunt you down. I will avenge my son."

Behind a thick trunk of a tree and a short distance away, Evan and Gideon froze hearing Damon’s word.

Their eyes went wide as they stared at each other in total shock.

They only come out early to hunt for wild boars so they could make a hot pot of soup with it. They never expected anyone to be here.

At first, when they saw a the figure from a distance, Gideon had actually felt a little bit of hope. He thought the message bird he sent to the main camp already got to them fast and an officer had been sent to check Post 6.

They never imagined it was a a previous military officer swearing to murder Reynold to avenge his dead son.

Evan took a nervous step back.

CRACK!

The dry branch under Evan’s boot snapped.

Lord Damon’s head snapped instantly toward the sound. "Who’s there?!"

Gideon’s blood went cold. "Shit!" he hissed and grabbed Evan’s shoulder. "Run!"

They turned and rushed into the trees as fast as their legs could carry them.

Lord Damon did not hesitate. "Survivors..." he growled.

If there were survivors, the Starweaver boy must be with them!

Damon rushed straight to his dragon and jumped on it. The beast roared and launched into the air.

Dammit!

Evan and Gideon ran for their lives.

The thumping of Lord Damon dragon was sounding close to them.

"Dammit!" Evan yelled as he dodged a low branch. "We should have come with my dragon!"

Gideon tilted his head back. Through the gaps in the leaves, he saw Damon’s dragon ready to release fire.

"Rollover! Now!" Gideon screamed at the top of his lungs.

Evan did not ask questions. He threw his body to the right, while Gideon dove to the left.

BOOM!

Fire blasted down right where they were standing a second ago.

The heat even scorched the back of their clothes, and then turning the dirt and bushes into ash immediately.

Gideon scrambled up and looked over at Evan who was still flat on the ground.

"Get up! Keep running!"

Evan let out a painful groan as he pushed himself up.

They started running again. but this time they did not run straight, they started running in a fast zigzag pattern through the tree trunks.

Gideon knew they would not last long like this. He jammed two fingers into his mouth and let out a sharp whistle that sounded in the forest.

Instantly, the trees rustled.

FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!

A swarm of forest birds, hundreds of them erupted from the treetops. They swirled together and rushed straight at Lord Damon and his dragon in the air.

"Fuck off."

Damon shouted in rage as the birds began diving wildly into his face and battering his dragon’s eyes and snout.

The dragon thrashed his head, and was roaring in frustration as it tried to shake off the the birds.

Evan stopped running when he saw it. He bent over and rested his hands heavily on his knees while he breathed fast.

Seeing Evan stop, Gideon stopped too.

Evan looked up at the wild storm of birds trapping the dragon, then turned his head slowly to look at Gideon. His eyes were wide. "You... you are the one doing that? You are a fucking Nature Mage..." Evan swallowed.. "This is really cool..."

Gideon wiped the sweat from his eyes. "There is no time to waste! It won’t hold them off for long!"

"Sure, sure!" Evan spat, and both of them started running again.

...

Inside the underground safe space, West was sitting on the edge of the narrow bed where Nymeria was lying unconscious.

He was talking in a soft voice, and telling her silly stories.

Across the room, Reynold was sitting on a wooden block. He was pulling out long strips of dried meat from the bag Gift mother had packed for him before he left.

He put aside half the stash on a small wooden table. They will add it to the wild boar meat Evan and Gideon were supposed to bring back for the soup.

Near the corner wall, Nyx was helping Niya arrange dried wooden sticks.

BANG!

The door was kicked wide open!

Evan and Gideon rushed inside, their faces covered in sweat.

They slammed the door shut behind them instantly, and throwing the wooden bolt across the frame to lock it tight.

Everyone in the room froze.

West snapped his head and stood up quickly from the bed. "Why are you two running like that? What happened?!"

Evan and Gideon leaned against the door frame with hands on their knees, and panting fast.

Nyx’s brows pinched. "Did something happen outside?"

Niya looked down at their empty hands.

"They... didn’t bring any meat.."

Evan slowly raised his head. His eyes went straight to Reynold with anger.

"You fucking killed Lord Damon’s son?!" Evan yelled.

Reynold paused as he furrowed his eyebrows. He was looking completely lost.

"Who...?"

Gideon took a step forward as he looked straight at Reynold. "We saw Lord Damon at Post 6! He was checking the bodies to see if you were dead! Cadet... you better start talking right now. Why did you kill his son?!"

West’s mouth dropped open as he turned slowly to stare at Reynold.

Even Niya and Lyra stopped what they were doing, their eyes glued to Reynold in shock too.

Reynold’s mind was racing as he racked his brain to figure out what they were talking about.

Seeing the genuine confusion on his face, Nyx walked over quickly. She reached out, gently taking his hand in hers. "Reynold... Lord Damon is Hektor’s father. The boy who died back at our academy... rhe school used the Blood Seeker Orb to find the killer."

The moment he heard blood seeker orb, the memories came back.

He had buried that ugly afternoon deep down in his soul just so he could sleep at night without screaming.

Dammit!

His worst nightmare was crawling right back to him.

Evan threw his hands in the air. "You better start talking, man! Because that Lord Damon guy is ready to tear this forest apart to hunt you down!"

Reynold licked his dry lips. He looked around at their intense faces and swallowed hard.

"It... it was an accident," Reynold stammered. "I... did not know I was A Two back then.... When my magic first burst out at night, Hektor was just... he was unfortunate to be standing there... My power went wild and it killed him because I could not control it."

He paused, and swallowed another lump in his throat.

"When I saw him dead on the floor... I... I panicked," Reynold said quietly, looking down at his boots. "I buried the body in the bush without telling anyone... because I was terrified."

He stopped talking.

Reynold did not tell them the whole truth. It was the only way to protect Nymeria. If anyone ever found out that she had altered her collar magic and helped him wipe the memories of the students in the pit that afternoon, she would be dragged to the Enclave Facility and locked in there forever like the rest of the mind users.

Reynold kept his head down as he stared at the floor.

Even after all this time, he never forgiven himself for that afternoon. It was a heavy guilt he would have to carry for the rest of his life.

West was the first to let out a long breath. He rubbed the back of his neck, murmuring, "Thank the Flames... for a second there, I thought you were a cold-blooded killer."

Gideon sighed and shake his head.

"Taking an innocent life is bad... but if your magic just burst out uncontrollably, no one can really blame you for an accident."

Niya shrugged casually. "My magic burst out when I was little. My scream threw my bully straight into a campfire. That was how my family found out I was a Sound Mage."

Evan let his shoulders drop and then blew out a quick breath. "Good. At least I don’t have to worry about sleeping next to a murder suspect."

Nyx did not say a word. She just stepped closer and wrapped her arms tightly around Reynold’s waist, and pulling him close.

SCREECH—BOOM!

A loud, terrifying roar sounded.

Gideon reacted first, as he rushed over to the small window.

From the window, they could see the outside clearly, but no one on the outside could see them.

Gideon peeked out, and his face went totally pale. "Fuck it... he found us!"

Evan immediately moved to the far corner of the room. He slammed his eyes shut, and started chanting under his breath: "Drakvor shul... Fafnir!" Fafnir is his dragon name.

West turned to him confused. "What are you doing?!"

Evan snapped his eyes open. "I’m calling my dragon! I told him to attack!"

West, Niya, and Gideon all rushed to the small window slit to watch.

Evan’s dragon was clashing with Lord Damon’s dragon! Second later, Reynold’s dragons joined the fight.

Lord Damon himself was already hiding behind a tree while his dragon struggled against the other three.

"We can not do this! I can just go out there and talk to him!" Reynold said.

"Are you fucking crazy?!" Gideon barked. "That man wants blood! He teamed up with the Malpas tribe just to track you down! That shows how badly he wants you dead!"

"We don’t know that for sure!" Reynold murmured. "Maybe he had nothing to do with the post attack! Maybe it was just a coincidence!"

Gideon glared at him. "No way in hell! The only way those Malpas Golems could slip past the perimeter that was if someone tampered with the magic bridge codes! Lord Damon was a high officer who can get his hand on those codes!"

"I still have to try and speak to him!" Reynold insisted.

Evan turned from the corner. "Are you tired of living, man! He helped monsters kill officers, came here specifically to check if you were dead, and you think he wants to have a peaceful chat?!"

While they were arguing, Nyx eyes went back to the window.

Her eyes widened.

"Guys..." Nyx called out. "Guys, look... he is not behind the tree anymore. He is gone."

Before anyone could process her words.

THAM! THAM! THAM!

The wooden door shook violently as something smashed against it from the outside!