Chapter 6

The sun woke Noah up the next morning. The others were nowhere to be seen but Gemma seemed to be packing up her stuff. 

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty" she said jokingly. The others will be back soon. 

"We'll soon set off but before that, how about I give you a tour." She said with a smile.

The two left the camp and headed to the nearby woods. The woods seemed scary because it was too quiet. There were no singing birds or rustling leaves and there were no sounds from small animals either. 

It was dead silent. The both of them headed deeper before finally arriving at a river. The river was crystal clear and cool. Gemma pulled off her boots and socks and then put her feet in the water. Noah followed her lead and did the same.

"This is my favorite place in the world. It's so beautiful even though there isn't much beauty in what the world has become." Gemma said.

Looking at the river brought back memories of his sister. They often played in the water together when they were younger. Lilian loved the water. He could almost hear her laughter in the water. He suddenly felt sad again but he pushed down the feelings. He would mourn later, after her murderers were dead. 

As he looked at his reflection in the water he saw the mark on his neck. The symbol looked familiar but he couldn't remember where he had seen it.

"What are you looking at?" Gemma asked. Noah instinctively lifted his collar to hide the mark. 

"I was just looking at the river. It's been so long since i last saw a natural body of water like this" He replied.

"No need to look so gloomy. We're going to have a lot of fun. I promise." She said with a bright smile.

Noah sighed. 

"I can't do that because i still have to get revenge for my sister." He then proceeded to tell her all about his sister and what had happened to her. Gemma glanced at him again.

"You're not the only one with a story. I also want to get revenge. I also lived under a noble family. This family had a son. A piece of trash who only knew how to eat and drink. The bastard thought that I'd be easy to bully. that I'd stay quiet but I showed him. 

I stabbed him again and again and again. He bled so much. It's a shame he didn't die. He survived and his family found out. I had to run away to save my neck. Once we find a way to stop the monsters, we'll be powerful. We'll be the ones stepping on them. No one will dare to bully us." She said and paused and seemed to think about it before asking 

"Do you know that there is magic in Arcane falls?" Noah was shocked and Gemma laughed at his dumbfounded expression. I come from the far west. There is magic there, both powerful magic and weak magic. The elders apparently used some spell to give humans abilities in order to give humanity a fighting chance."

She then looked at the sky. 

"It's getting late. let's go." She said.

Noah felt his neck begin to itch. He scratched it but it slowly became worse.

The two walked out of the woods and headed back to the camp. The itch slowly turned into pain, burning pain. He could feel himself changing into something. His teeth getting longer, sharper. He was awakened from this strange state by some sounds.

From far away they could hear screams and sounds of fighting coming from the direction of the camp. They both increased their speed. By the time that they arrived, the fight was almost over. There were dead bodies. Both human and monster on the floor. 

The two searched for the group and quickly found them.

Matthew had transformed into some sort of creature and was fighting two monsters at once. The creature that he had transformed into was reptilian. He was very big, even bigger than the monsters, with long and sharp claw on all five fingers. He also had gigantic bone spikes on his back and a long muscular tail that swung and smacked one of his opponents. 

Nicholas was throwing invisible wind blades that kept the monsters away from the group. Meanwhile the monsters around Crane were fighting each other. Clearly, they were stuck in an illusion. 

The three looked like they were struggling against the monsters.

When Noah and Gemma arrived, Nicholas gave the order for everyone to retreat and leave the camp.

After they successfully got rid of the monsters attacking them, they fled the camp.

As soon as they were at a safe distance away from the camp, Nicholas turned around and glared at both Noah and Gemma.  

"Where the fuck were you two, huh?" He asked angrily. 

"You two idiots almost got us killed. We would have left that place long ago if you two hadn't decided to take a stroll. The next time you pull this kind of shit again, we're going without you. Do you understand? He asked again." 

"Yes." Both of them replied said softly. 

"Good. Now set up camp. It's too late to begin our journey now. We need to recover from this." He said.

All the members of the group were seriously injured. Crane was mentally exhausted and she had small wounds all over her body. Nicholas was the same. Matthew however was greviously injured. He had a huge gash on his chest. He wound was so deep that you could see his white bones. there was blood all over him. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, everyone felt pain all over their bodies. 

Gemma quickly headed to Matthew to heal him before proceeding to heal the rest. The group set up a makeshift camp. the sounds of screaming and fighting had stopped by now but they couldn't be sure if the monsters had left the camp or not.