SO FEW MINUTES AGO.
As the sun's rays cascaded down the clouds and upon the earth, three carriages led by two horses each marched their way to the Eastern-Western Border. With a purpose in mind, and a goal to accomplish, they continued their journey despite their lack of escorts.
The requirent of rcenaries along the way was to keep bandits and lingering demons from attacking them. It didn't occur often, but when it did, it was quite catastrophic.
At the mont, Malen led the others to their destination, with not a particular single thought in mind. He simply folded his hands and listened to the wind as it whizzed past them.
His helper boy sat next to him, holding the reins and controlling the horses on the right path. His gaze had constantly flickered between his boss and the road since a while ago, but he couldn't bring himself to start a conversation.
Luckily for him, Malen picked up on things like this. "What is it, Junior?" He asked with a disinterested tone in his voice.
"Oh, it–it's nothing" he stamred and stared away embarrassingly.
This caused Malen to shift his gaze towards him, as he asked again. "What is it?". His tone was more stern than before.
The boy gulped and scratched the back of his head, contemplating how to ask his question. "Um, Sir? How exactly are we going to complete the Red Peacemakers mission?" He asked, evading his gaze from Malen, who sighed at his question.
"You do not need to worry about that, little boy. All you need to do is focus on the road and take to where I'm supposed to be" he replied with a shrug. He remained silent for a mont, but then turned towards the boy and said. "The Red Peacemakers must never be ntioned in public again".
The boy, Junior, nodded in understanding and simply kept quiet as their journey comnced.
Ironically enough, Malen had been thinking about the sa thing. The Red Peacemakers had given him a direct order. Take the goods and equipnt to the Eastern Army to continue their war. It seed like the Red Peacemakers, contrary to their na, insisted on prolonging the war for a bit longer.
'If they're insisting on prolonging the war, then it ans they're not done with their preparations for what is to co after the war'. He thought while he looked up at the sky.
The goods were initially ant for trading with the Eastern refugees, who had lost their hos due to the war. It seed like the East were dealt a heavy blow, and lost a good number of lands to the West.
'....The whole thing is a ss. A political propaganda, in fact, but it doesn't matter to '.
It was simple really. All he had to do was deliver the goods as he was instructed, and the rest would play out as it should.
He was unlucky enough to get paired with so skilled rcenaries, which beca a hurdle in his plans, but the Eastern Duo was supposed to take care of that. '.....but that man showed up as an anomaly and hindered the rest'.
It was a sha. The Red Peacemakers had gone to great lengths in trying to use the Eastern Frontiers, a band of revolutionaries, to fight for them and incite the war. But their plans were quickly diluted by the appearance of one figure, Kael.
Malen's thoughts were clouded with the scene he witnessed when Kael was fighting off the demons on the walls beside them. 'He was skilled…..and dangerous'.
He sighed at the thought. He couldn't help but be glad that he found the Mountain baby and devised a plan to use Cruz to get away from the rcenary.
'....they should be dead by now….' He thought and slowly shifted his gaze forwards, at the incoming dirt road that almost seed like it was without purpose. But, in a day or two, they will arrive at their destination.
Or so he thought until the loud voice rang in his ears like a wake-up bell.
"THE RCENARIES ARE COMING!".
His eyes bulged open in shock as he glanced at Junior, who had a similar expression on his face.
He quickly dismissed his surprise and stood up, turning towards the wooden construct of his carriage, and climbing up to get a better view.
His eyes narrowed down in confusion as a loud tremor spread through the ground, reaching their carriages and horses with a mild intensity.
"What? Where is he?" He wondered as his eyes constricted to get a better view.
Five seconds passed and he was finally able to imprint the mory in his head. "Are you kidding ?!" he wondered in surprise, as he could see the vivid image of a shirtless boy approaching him with an intense speed.
"How do you even cover up that much distance by running?"
He wondered as he sat back down in his position. "I'll take the reins, Junior. Ensure those pesky rcenaries don't get near".
Junior handed the reins to him and pulled out a bow from thin air. He was actually putting on a storage ring on his right index finger.
He quickly stood up and climbed the carriage, using his legs to anchor himself to the carriage. Looking at the horizon behind them, he could catch a glimpse of the figure approaching, but the longer he stared, the more confused he got.
"Um, Sir? Who's that?" He asked out loud in confusion.
"It's Kael, most likely without his mask", Malen replied, and for a mont, he remained silent while his thoughts reeled in. ".....he's a 9th star now…be careful".
His warning rang in the boy's ears as he widened his eyes and stared at the approaching figure.
He found it nacing that he was able to run for such a distance, not to ntion the 7th-tier Grand Demon they had prepared for them just in case.
'I can see why Sir wishes to get rid of him'. Soone as powerful as him could definitely call the shorts and hinder their plans.
He slowly glanced at the two carriages behind theirs. The first was led by the Eastern indigenes, Neuj and Rafi, and then he glanced at the third Carriage, which was led by Colby Marier.
His eyes narrowed slightly and then opened up as an imaginative figure of a bulb lightened up above his head. He turned towards Malen with a smirk.
"Sir"
Malen looked up, curiosity in his eyes when he noticed the boy's gaze. He recognized it well. His helper boy has a plan.
****
As the ground reverberated with the speed of an incoming figure, clad in black, and bare from his trunk upwards, dust arose.
The dust had ford a smokescreen behind Raph, causing the rchants not to see the approaching beast behind him.
After all, it wasn't in Raph's intentions to let them know of Elsie's presence.
The boy simply continued to run towards the Carriage, picking up pace and closing the distance at a quick rate.
'What a sha. I could have just taken Elsie and avoided all this from the beginning' he thought, when He noticed so movents from the third Carriage.
'Doesn't matter. She's here now'. He thought as he suddenly bent backwards, dodging an incoming arrow that whistled past his face in the blink of an eye. It exploded into a wave of water, large enough to form a small pond, and fell forward towards Raph.
"Interesting" he muttered and drew out his long sword.
The terrain, unlike before, was quite spacious. There was a distinctive road which was ant for carriages, and beside it was a plain, barren field of dust and stones.
A wave of water like this would do this terrain justice, and Raph had that in mind.
'The skills I can use….are limited' he thought as he continued his pace forward. He had expected Elsie and the others to safely find a way without getting mixed in the attack, and with Elsie leading the way in her wolf form, he had expected such.
So, without worry about the others, he simply imbued aura into his half-long sword, causing a stream of highly concentrated aura to explode, elongating the blade by two folds.
He jumped into the air and spun around to face the wave while maintaining a constant speed.
He stabbed his sword into the ground, and pulled it upwards, imbuing aura en masse into the blade, causing it to surge upwards in a pool of concentrated, blue aura.
"Aura Strike".
It is a basic use of aura, but when used by a deadly Master of the 9th star, its excellence is shown.
The pool of concentrated aura exploded in contact with the water, causing the wave of water to implode into droplets like a water balloon, causing a rain of water to fall.
Raph simply landed on the ground, spun around using his feet like a flowing dragon to maintain his pace while moving backwards, and jumped up lightly to change direction.
He continued his chase while the droplets of water fell like rain, causing the dust to settle.
At this point, the purpose of the dust had been lost, and Elsie, with the others, would be revealed soon, but at that mont, the purpose of hiding them was lost.
A bald figure, the helper boy of Malen, was currently standing on top of the third Carriage with two tied-up bodies placed on both his shoulders.
Raph didn't need to look twice to figure out the identities of the two bodies. He smirked as he said.
"Found them".
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