Soon, faint lines began to appear on his arms, and his blood boiled as his anger grew.
He got out of the shower, dressed and got into bed. He felt exhausted emotionally and physically and tried to get some sleep but after laying still for minutes, he couldn't relax or clear his head. He tried relaxing by shutting his eyes but images of Hork's rigid face kept appearing in his mind and no matter how hard he tried to brush the image off, nothing worked. After series of twists and turns, he gave up trying and decided to try a different approach.
Walking through the halls of Raskinth, Sora could feel the harsh weather dry his throat. The leaves and flowers had fallen off the trees in order to survive the harsh winter as well and the air had dark and smoky smell, like the heady aroma of burning pinecones in the fireplace, the aroma that pervades and clings to your hair and skin.
The crimson color that marked Raskin
At the exact moment the sun set the next day, Sora, Kain and Z set out of their quarters walking side by side with Z in the middle fully dressed in their uniforms. Sora had taken the time to cut his hair and restyle it to reveal his scar. Seeing his reflection in the mirror earlier had helped erase the image of himself as a powerless mage and made him feel more worthy of himself. Now as he walked, he realized his uniform was starting to get a little tight around his torso but he simply straightened himself and made a mental note to get a new set when they got back to the Academy. Z on the other hand, looked as clean and put together as always. She let her hair down tonight and the wind swept the layers effortlessly over her shoulders, down to her back. They weren't expecting to get into a fight tonight, only to inspect the covens so she decided to let her hair stay down tonight. Kain walked with his shoulders high
They walked a short distance through the woods and came to a stop at a cave and walked in. "I traced a soul eater from the city to this location." "What an awful smell?" "Should be from the body. I left it here last night." They walked further into the coven as Arden led the way and stopped at a room where the smell was the strongest. They moved further into the room and Arden pointed to a body covered on a stone table. "That's it." "We'll check around." Sora said as he moved ahead checking the room nudging Kain to do the same "Z, can you check for the burn mark?" "No way I'm not touching that… I got my manicure done before we came." Arden stepped forward towards the body, "What should I be looking for?" "Any sign of burns." Sora replied as he kept searching for anything out if the ordinary. &n
Saq's red energy glowed brighter than before as he drew water from the air. This one move threw the Hunters completely off guard and before they could process their thoughts, his energy hit them again and with no shield up to guard them this time. Sora struck, deflecting his energy but Saq's was stronger, making Sora fall backwards. Saq sent more strikes with red energy their way and Kain's hard shell deflected the strike but the weapon in his hand wasn't strong enough to take Saq's hit, making it shatter into droplets of water that faded into the air and he fell to the ground covering Z with his body. Arden who was the least affected by the hits from the angle he stood was quick on his feet and jumped in the air throwing out a lasso glowing with his energy at Saq but Saq cut his lasso mid air and sent an energy charge at him making him drop to the ground. Arden laid there unable to stand. "He's strong." Z sa
Putting her hand to the wound, Deki channeled her energy to her hands and they flowed from her hands into Z till her entire body began to glow. "She has lost a lot of b-blood." "I don't care. Heal her." Kain demanded as he watched Z remain unconscious. "I'm trying but she's far gone." "Pull her the fuck back!" Kain held on to Z hands which were now very cold. Finally, Deki withdrew her hands from Z's body, filling Kain with anger; " Why are you stopping? She's not awake yet." "I tr-tried." Deki bent her head. "Try again!" Kain demanded as he grabbed Deki by the hand. "T-There's nothing m-more I c-can do." Kain let go of Deki and grabbed Z into his arms. Her wound was closed now but she remained unconscious. "Come back dammit!" Kain yelled as he drove his fist through the floor ma
“Who”“Zavok.”“He was there?”“Yes. They waited for him to come do the ritual. Only he could do the rituals.”“I didn’t see anyone… We didn’t see anyone. Are we just supposed to take your word for it? AGAIN?” Z demanded.“I am not lying.” Deki glared squarely at Z. “I lied before because I didn’t want you to think I was a follower of Hix and leave me there or worse, kill me.”“I could
Sora and Z stared at each other for a few seconds. Sora glanced at Hork who was once again buried in the reports on his table .Z took a step closer to Sora and whispered quietly, “Do you want me to stay?”“Hork said—”“Fuck Hork. You can leave if you want to.”“But—”“You’re answerable to Tydinn, not him.”Sora sighed deeply before nodding to reassure Z he was fine. “I’ll be fine, thanks.”“I’ll be outside if you need me.”
Sora walked into the training area in search of Arden. The area was filled with Hunters mostly in groups practicing maneuvers and some sparring with other Hunters.Sora walked up to the only person he could find who wasn’t occupied.“I’m looking for Arden. Do you know where I can find him?”The Hunter assessed Sora first before answering, probably deeming it safe enough to answer him.“He’s never in this area. Walk down that passage and take a left turn to the end. You’ll find him” he replied pointing the way.“Thank you.”Sora walked past more Hu
“He's here.”“Who is here? What are you talking about?” Z searched Sora’s face for answers but found fear instead.“Zavok. I don't know how but I can feel him. I just know he’s here.”“We need to get the Hunters to help out.” Z pushed.“No” Sora objected immediately. “We need to get the hell out of here.”Arden on the other hand thought they could give it a shot. “It would be dumb if we didn’t at least give it a try. Sora, think about it, there’s three of us here, we can take him.”&ldq
The stren baritone voice Sora had heard the last time he was in Warrick’s house was a complete contrast to the person before him. He had expected an equally stern man with an intimidating build and sharp exterior but Warrick was a plum and short man with a hairline that began to recede ages ago and a huge mustache he obviously was in denial about...All qualities he knew he had seen somewhere before.“Who are you?” Warrick demanded as he moved even closer to them.“Messengers—Visitors ” Sora and Aridah replied respectively.They exchanged questioning looks and looked back at Warrick with awkward smiles“Visitors—Messengers” Once again their eyes met.Warrick raised his gun an inch higher and closer to their faces. “I will not ask again, who are you?”This time Sora looked to Aridah as if to give her the floor. “Please tell him who we are.”Aridah cleared her throat and stepped forward from behind Sora, but not close enough to be in Warrick’s line of sight. “We are messengers who are vi
“Are you sure about this?” Aridah asked Farah whilst rubbing the little boy’s head gently. “There might be nothing there.”“I’m sure. There’s nothing else for us to do here, at least there’s something to look forward to now.”“You can come with us, you know. We’re not sure where we’re going yet but at least we’d be together.”“Ari, I’m sure. We will go to the Capital to find my brother.” “And there’s no way to change your mind?”Farah moved closer to Aridah placing a reassuring arm on hers. “I know you’re worried about our safety but we’ll be fine. We will travel by day and hide by night, we’ll be fine.”Aridah sighed, accepting defeat. “Alright, but you don’t have to leave yet, you can stay here till you’re ready. ”“We’ll leave in two days. I want Niko well rested before we begin the journey.” “How are you even going to get there? You can’t possibly walk all the way.”“We’ll need a carriage, or at least something that moves but I have no idea how to get one.”Aridah “There should be
The Academy was in chaos. They had barely survived the first attack and irrespective of how hard they had prepared for another attack, nothing prepared them enough for the army of soul eaters that befell them. It was another surprise attack, but this time they had taken the capital first.The Hunters rushed into the capital leaving the Academy vulnerable and the soul eaters, led by Two, seized the opportunity to attack the Academy. The number of soul eaters were outrageous compared to how little Hunters were left guarding the Academy, but they fought nevertheless and they fought hard.Z and Kain fought together, bringing down soul eaters, but her eyes always found Tydinn in the crowd and that was when she saw him outnumbered by soul eaters, his blades still went up and down slicing through the mammoth crowd but she was only a matter of time before they would close in on him and take him down.Z's eyes went wide with rage at the sight of Tydinn struggling and without thinking, she jump
Kresha’s hunters division was large, several separate buildings made up the division and most of them were already engulfed in flames. Everything was happening too fast, and within a minute or less, fire had spread across the entire landing. The hunters that had run back into the division stood at several locations trying to put out the fire with water they drew from the earth, the air, the plants and the fountain in the middle of the division but none of their efforts seemed to work.The building in front of Sora had just started to smolder in the fire and the first thing that crossed his mind was whether or not there were people inside. He thought of going inside the building and looking for some people, but the extreme heat that was coming out of the house thwarted him instantly.Sora channeled all the energy he could and raised a shield to protect himself before dashing into the building. His shield did well to prevent the flames from burning him but it did not stop the smell of f
Sweat dripped down Sora’s body as he made his way from the woods into Kresha. Running to Kresha late at night and in the middle of training hadn’t been in his plans for the night but he felt a sudden urge to find Warrick again and possibly the Hunters division too. The urge had been too strong to ignore so he dropped everything and ran without second guessing himself.As he ran, he felt the cold hit his face but in spite of the cold, his insides kept burning. It burned so much and his head ached as well, he felt the floor rise up to his face and back down as nausea hit him but most of all, his craving for souls drove him insane, however he didn’t stop running. Although he craved for souls, he felt stronger than before, his training was working but it also made his frenzy come quicker and for some reason, this felt stronger than any frenzy he had ever had. He knew it was only a matter of time before he lost complete control and gave in to his frenzy, finally becoming the beast he alway
Aridah walked quietly in front of Sora as they weaved through the streets and Sora waited patiently for a response but nothing came.He finally broke the silence. “You can’t avoid this forever.”Aridah faced him with her tongue stuck out. “I can try, can’t I?”“Aridah, why are you stalling?”“There’s a lot of people around, can we at least get home first?”Sora knew it was another excuse to get out of talking and she probably would find another reason when they got to the house but he wasn’t going to push. He would have to wait and see how things played out when they got to the ho
“Err…where are you going?” Aridah called out to Sora.He stopped in his tracks and faced her. “Home.”The word was out his mouth before he realized he had just described her house as his home but he didn’t take it back either.“We’re not going home yet.”“Why not?” Quite frankly, he had had enough of Kresha for one day and was ready to get out.“Because I’m going to work.”“Work?”“Yes, work. What people do to earn a living.”
Kresha was a mess! A total mess, and Sora’s eyes went wide with shock as he took in Kresha. The streets were filled with people moving in different directions, never stopping for the human obstacles that bumped into them occasionally, but swirling around them. Sora had never been claustrophobic before, but from where they stood, the view of the almighty swell of people made panic rise in his chest but he did his best to remain calm.He could smell them too, the people and the thick fowl air, a jumble of fresh herbs and spices from the stand next to them, body odor from passersby and fermented alcohol. That was when the heat hit him and he suddenly didn’t seem to mind replacing his shirt with a more revealing one not minding the ramifications.It was as though his senses had been amplified to the highest frequency and everything sucked.
It had been three days since he regained consciousness, since he woke up on Aridah’s floor and two days of trying relentlessly to get words out of her about Varnek, but every single time he asked, she avoided his questions by changing the topic. Her constant efforts to dismiss him only confirmed that she knew more than she was letting on which made him persist even though he was growing impatient.He grew frustrated when he tried training the next morning and realized how weak he had become. He was completely drained and could hardly lift a pin, but it got even worse when he realized he couldn’t jump either. Jumping was the only way he knew to move long distance which would make returning back to the Academy a little more difficult for him.When he asked Aridah how she moved to places, she told him she walked everyw