Rise of the Strongest Soul Mage

Chapter 11 Not a Mage

It had been four days since the Ivy Meeting but everyone still seemed tense. Mages walked in smaller groups and avoided being out long before dusk. Once the safest place in all of Namyrs, the Ivy had now become filled with so much anxiety and fear.

Hunters still stood guard at several locations in the Ivy, and their presence gave some sort of comfort but it wasn't enough to rid people of their anxiety.

As expected, words didn't go out about the new death. The Hunters had kept it hush, the masters would probably know too. Seeing as everyone was already tense, it was probably a wise decision to not share the information.

Ryo and Sora walked into the Dining Hall, and headed straight for the serving stand.

They caught Konan's eyes as they walked, Sora straightened his hood over his head but Ryo seemed completely unbothered.

They had barely sat down to eat when they were approached by another Hunter. When on duty, the Hunters' had a black form fitting uniform with their rank badges on them. This one was a level two mage.

All Hunters had an air of calm mystery to them, but this Hunters was different. He wasn't calm, he kept looking everywhere in the room but he spoke to Ryo.

"The Hunters are meeting in an hour."

Ryo seemed surprised. "Why? Meeting isn't until much later tonight. Did something happen?"

"They'll explain things at the meeting."

"Alright."

He only took two steps away from them when he returned.

"Take the route in the woods."

"Why?"

"Orders." He looked to Sora. "And bring him along."

Ryo squinted and a frown formed across his forehead. Sora's face seemed more puzzled than Ryo because his lips were slightly ajar.

"Him? Why?" Ryo asked.

"Just orders."

Ryo nodded and the Hunter left.

Sora couldn't understand. First, he was never invited to things. He didn't have the qualifications to be a part of any meeting, more so, a Hunters' meeting. Something was off but Ryo didn't say anything, so he kept quiet.

"Errr….Ryo, haven't we taken this route twice already?"

"Can't be. I know the way."

After they finished at the dining hall, Ryo led them into the woods. This path to the Hunters' area was a secret only the Hunters and top masters knew about. The location was revealed only when a Hunter had completed his training to mark the beginning of their missions outside of the Ivy.

When Ryo completed his training, he, along with eight others, had been shown this route into the Hunter's area and they were to begin missions but when the Ivy started getting attacks, it was put on hold. Now as they walked through the woods, Ryo seemed unsure about his directions but he kept going.

"I know that tree." Sora said, pointing to the weirdest looking tree around. It's a Fennantia. There's only one of them in the Ivy and I've seen it twice now."

"We're not lost." Ryo responded although he sounded unsure.

Sora stopped moving.

The absence of the sound of his footsteps made Ryo stop too. Ryo looked back to see Sora standing akimbo with a blank expression on his face.

"You know you can admit we're lost, yeah?"

"Okay, fine. Sora, I think we're lost."

"Okay, what do we do?"

"We can try retracing our steps."

"Alright"

They turned and began retracing their steps but no matter how many times they tried, they always ended up at the same tree.

"I think we can give up now." Sora said as he sat on the ground and rested on a tree.

Ryo sat too "I'm sorry"

"It's alright, I probably needed the exercise."

"The meeting is soon, more Hunters will take this route and they'll help."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"We just have to wait."

And so they waited. Sora shut his eye for a while and sleep took over.

Strong wind began to blow and the weather became colder.

Sora opened his eyes to find Ryo pacing back and forth. Sora pulled his hood over his head and got up to talk to him.

"It's been a while, the meeting should have started by now but no one took this route."

Sora turned and looked in all directions. "Ryo, I don't think anyone is coming."

"Someone has to. You heard him when he approached me right? You were there, you heard him."

"I know.

All of a sudden, a dark cloud formed above and Sora felt a piercing chill burn his skin. Ryo must have felt the same because color drained from his face instantly. They looked dead at each other and started to survey their surroundings.

Soon, the Hunter that had approached them at the Dining Hall appeared from behind trees and walked to them, stopping at a short distance.

Relief flooded their faces at the sight of another person.

"What took you so long?" Ryo asked

"The view was nice, I had to savor the moment." The Hunter replied.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it was fun playing with your minds and watching you walk aimlessly. Tell me, how did it feel going around in circles? I must say, it was easy to trap your minds." He asked with a grin on his face.

Ryo and Sora looked at each other with baffled expressions "You did that? How?" Sora asked.

"Oh it's easy to play with the human mind. Just pick a picture of their desires and paint their minds with it. In your case, you wanted to get to the Hunters area, through this route, that was your desire. I simply kept you locked in it."

"Mages can do that?" Sora looked to Ryo

"No. Mages do not mess with people's minds." Ryo stood staring directly at the Hunter.

"So he's not a mage?" Sora was beyond confused.

"He is not." Ryo's words were filled with so much certainty.

"If he's not a mage then what is he?" Sora asked Ryo.

"Get behind me Sora." Sora looked at the Hunter, he had a deadly expression on his face that scared Sora from within so much he couldn't move

"Now!" Ryo yelled as he pushed Sora behind him.