Rose, Delilah, Dion and I walked through the forest with fifteen others as silently and as stealthily as a group of armed students could.
It took an hour to form this group of ours, during which Delilah and I argued over how to split the students between the two assault groups. Though, I tried to pick a few students with useful abilities. But if I was being honest, they were all mostly fodder.
Especially since, most of the ones with useful abilities wanted to follow Alistair and Fabian, forgetting that we also had two top rankers in our team.
Speaking of the two top rankers, my mind went back to what happened in the briefing hall.
I had asked Rose why she had my graphic mirror.
But all she did was offer a flat; "On that day, you left it at the banquet hall."
"Oh." I had replied. The engagement day, and the day I was exiled. My drunken self had most probably left it there.
But it still didn’t explain why she took it. Rose and I had an unspoken rule, she didn’t touch my things, and I didn’t touch hers.
"I only took it after you were gone." she then added, as if noticing what I was thinking. I realized what she meant. She only took it after I was exiled.
Anyway, we were about four kilometers in, so I turned to address the group one last time.
"Everyone, we’re two one kilometer away from where I got ambushed earlier. So listen up..."
"Listen up? You listen up." A voice scoffed.
’Why am I not surprised?’ I thought turning to the blue haired girl holding a war bow.
"What problem do you have with me?" I squinted at her.
"I don’t have a problem with you, I have a problem with what you’re trying to do." she countered.
"And what is it that I’m trying to do?" I asked perplexed.
"You’re acting like you’re the one with the authority in this group." she retorted.
’Ah, I see where this is going.’ I mused. She was upset at having to take orders, or even suggestions from me.
"I am though." I looked at her.
"What?"
"I’m the one with the authority in this group, after all, I’m the vice commander, am I not?"
"W..what, that doesn’t..."
"It’s not by institute ranking, and even if it was, You wouldn’t be the one with the authority, it would be her." I pointed at Rose.
Before she could retort however, Rose spoke.
"You both have been annoying me with your petty squabbles since earlier today." she said softly. However, her eyes were nothing but the opposite. "If you continue this, I would be more than happy to send you both on your way." Her aura took a chilling turn, all while she still had a soft smile on her face.
Spoiler alert, mad Rose had awakened.
House Darkfell has always been a weird one, from their predecessors, to the current generation. From the emperor himself, to Asher Darkfell the crown prince, Ariel, Emmett, Rose, and even our cousins.
Underneath all that stoic and calm appearance, they all had an episode called Mad Mode. In that state, they genuinely do lose reason, a little provocation was all it would take for them to unleash hell upon the one or ones who triggered them.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t seem to have it, as I have never displayed any nuances of it all my life. Mother had said I had most likely evolved beyond it.
If Rose were to go berserk in this place, she wouldn’t care about any mission, or mock exam, and she would try to eliminate both Delilah and I at all cost.
And if that happened, while I could escape, Delilah was most certainly going down. I had once triggered Rose before after all, and Ariel had to save me.
"Hehehe," I chuckled nervously. "Don’t worry dear sister, we’re good." I mimed zipping my mouth. Even Delilah had a nervous expression on her face.
Now that I think about it, House Darkfell was famous for its rather mad reputation, and Delilah surely knew that, yet she keeps trying to get on my nerves. Isn’t she afraid I’ll go all mad mode on her?
Surely she couldn’t have known I didn’t have it, which meant she was just looking down on me. The audacity of this bitch.
"Fine then, let’s go." Rose’s stoicism came back.
’Phew.’ I inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. Why was I scared you ask? There were a lot of things bad memories do to the psyche.
After that, I continued my speech, and Delilah made no move to interrupt me further.
Rose was to be the vanguard, Delilah would be stationed at the back for support, while Dion and I took the flanks. As for the rest, they were divided the same way as we were. Those with combat abilities were stationed at the front, and those with useless... I mean non combat abilities were at the back.
I also told them about the archer with the exploding arrows, and also about Levi.
We soon reached the place where the archer attacked me, but there was something wrong. It was almost eerily silent. The kind of silence that was usually present when something was wrong.
Just as I had that thought,
whiwhiwhiWHIWHIWHI!
A spinning sword suddenly shot towards our group, but,
Clang!
Rose’s sword intercepted it. The sword spun around hers for a moment, before she flicked it back at the tree where it came from.
But instead of the sword hitting the tree trunk, a figure caught it’s hilt, then shot towards rose with a overhead slash, but Rose blocked the sword firmly.
Kraaaaang!
The sound of their swords meeting rang through the air like a bell chime. They stayed still for a bit, the purple eyed youth still suspended in the air, with his entire weight being held by his sword, and the ground beneath Rose’s feet cracked in a spider web pattern.
But the stalemate didn’t last long, as pure golden flames poured from the hilt, and up to the blade of Rose’s blade, before exploding towards the youth in an instant. But alas,
Crakakaka!
The youth flickered away in a bolt of lightning, before the explosion could touch him.
The entire exchange from when the sword came spinning to now, was barely three seconds.
"Shit!" I cursed. They were waiting for us. I didn’t know how, but this wasn’t the time to think, after all, more enemies were approaching from behind the trees.
"It’s an honor to meet the famous prodigy of the Darkfell empire." The purple eyed youth said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Forgive me though, your highness." he smirked. "This is a battle I must win."
"We’ll see about that." Rose muttered as the air in the atmosphere became visibly hazy.
"Attack!" Levi commanded, and then chaos ensue. The students of class 1–Beta rushed at us like moths to a flame, while he and Rose clashed.
"Kill them all!" I also shouted. Two more of me appeared, before all three of me exploded into a fleet of specters, each in different directions.
My first encounter was with a girl who blasted a wave of water at me. But it only caught my afterimage. The next moment, I was before her, but she didn’t panic. Instead a dagger came down her sleeve, which she raised to parry my sword.
Clang!
But she was in for a surprise as our weapons met. Instead of my sword being parried, it was her dagger that was knocked out of her hand.
The next moment, my sword bit into her shoulder in a dazzling display of blood. But before she could even let out a whimper, she disappeared, as if she was never there in the first place. The only inkling that she had existed, was the warm blood still dripping down my face.
’How chaotic.’ I thought. But I liked it.
At another place, Dion was standing suspended in the air, but if one looked closely, one could see near invisible strings beneath his boots.
As an enemy approached him, strings extended from his finger tips and shot at the enemy with stunning speed.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sounds of the enemy parrying the strings sounded as if steel swords were clashing. It was almost as if the strings themselves were made of steel.
Though the enemy was only having some trouble parrying five strings, the moment Dion used his other hand, there were now ten strings he was fighting against.
One of the strings managed to snake through his defenses and pierce through his left lung. Once that happened, the fight was as good as over. Dion used that string to impair the enemy’s movement, and soon after more strings embedded themselves in other parts of the enemy’s body. But just as the last string was about to go through the enemy’s heart, he suddenly disappeared.
At another place was Delilah was shooting waves of wooden arrows. Though some could avoid or parry them, some simply couldn’t. Because Delilah’s wooden arrows were special. Unlike the archer who fought Damon briefly, Delilah’s arrows didn’t explode in flames. Instead, the moment they were embedded into anything, the arrow head would explode, sending splinters of wood inside the body.
But of all the fights, the most dazzling one, was the one between Levi and Rose.
************
FINALLY, ACTION IS BACK PEOPLE!
DON’T FORGET MY POWER STONES THOUGH!
200→ 1 extra Chapter on next release.
500→ 2 extra Chapters on next release.