Shambala looked up as he suddenly realized the source of the disquiet he felt in his spirits as he sat, looking at the young man. After the initial loud bang, two others sounded. And while he tried to rally the young men around to face their enemy head-on in an organized fashion, a fourth bang sounded, and the building they were in began to crumble.In the manner that he had taught them, they quickly took a headcount, despite the dust and chaos, and realized that every single person, including all the cooks, had gotten out safely.Krystal tried to look at the whole camp from his vantage point and saw that the hall in which they had been sitting a few seconds ago had crashed all of a sudden. There was a little more than rubble left of the building, which was attached to their living quarters.He was proud of his team because it was obvious that some of them had gotten out of the collapsing structure by using their skills. They all escaped the collapsed building's chaos and came out succ
As they shouted loud battle cries, a niggling thought kept coming back to Grover’s mind. “Why was Shambala quiet?” “Did it have anything to do with his use of words earlier when he said they would “defeat the enemies... ‘Eventually’?”Before he had time to process that thought, he was overwhelmed with rage. Everyone else around him also exploded in rage, but for Grover, Krystal, and Vladimir, the rage was beyond comprehension. First they were enemies, then they became friends, then they became prominent comrades, and now they were brothers. And they would rather lay down their lives than lose a brother.Krystal looked at the perimeter that had been formed around him, and even as he felt anger course through his veins like hot water, he felt several other emotions as well. He felt guilt at the fact that he had brothers who were willing to trade their lives for his. He felt gratitude for the fact that he even had this kind of family in the first place. And then he felt deep-seated rage.
At first, after the figures had gone, some hot-blooded guild members thought that the best thing to do was to follow them immediately. They began to try to regroup to do so, but ignored their teacher. Though he tried to talk to them, they did not want to listen to Shambala. They were so upset that they were not ready to listen to reason.It had to take Grover and Vladimir stepping in to make them see reason. It took some time, but after a while, they successfully stopped them from going after the figures. They also used the opportunity to warn them not to go against Shambala because he had their best interests at heart. Besides, there were always consequences for such disobedience, even if Shambala did not punish them for it.When they had eventually calmed down, they settled on the ground, ready to listen to Shambala. There was no hall to go back to, and the entire camp was in shambles. Having relaxed, Shambala saw how tired and defeated they looked. This was not a time to beat them d
The members of the guild sat on the ground in a semicircle, and Grover had gotten up to address them. After having laughed at Grover’s quip, and after the latter died down, Grover kept on talking.“I am not surprised that our teacher noticed my little trick, though I tried to be discreet about it. I had noticed early on that this battle was not going to be one of physical prowess alone but also mental capacity, so I reserved some of my energy for battle. That proved to be a very wise decision because, with that incapacitating sound, I would have gone down fully. “The sound mainly affects those using the highest form of energy exertion at the point the sound is made, so it is one’s ability to remain calm despite the pain caused by the sound that robs it of its power, like an endurance test. Hence our teacher’s invulnerability to it.”There was a sound of exclamation all around as the others finally figured out why they felt intense pain and fell to the ground, but Shambala remained sta
The entire guild stood ready to fight but had missed the fact that they had left Shambala, Vladimir, and Vancouver behind them, and all three of them had very amused looks on their faces. Shambala chuckled softly and asked them. Won’t you want to find out what is behind the wall before you proceed to attack it?“At this weird question, a few of them relaxed their distance and waited for whatever it was that was behind the wall to show itself. And much to their collective amusement, they discovered that this was no enemy. The villages, who had acted as cooks for them all as well, suddenly came out of hiding, and attention that had built up in the company was suddenly diffused.Apparently, these gentlemen had decided to hide when they saw the caliber of the enemy they had come against them. They could deal with men. But figures such as those from the organization are left to the members of the guild. When the diabolical sound and the three figures have been released, these poor villages,
That morning, as they got up at first light, they began preparations for the journey. Grover and Vladimir had a discussion with Shambala. The teacher was assigning duties and told Grover that he was going to be in charge of leading the group to the hideout of the organization. Vladimir, who was not affected in any way by that decision, simply nodded and was comfortable with it. Grover, however, protested because, though he had worked with Krystal to participate in leading the group, he had never been solely responsible for the direction of the guild.“I could simply tell you what direction we ought to go in, and then we will all follow you. There is really no need for me to be the one to lead the team. You are a teacher and a leader.“ He said it was near desperation.However, Shambala would not be moved and had made up his mind. “I already told you what I have had the privilege of thinking about through the night. There is no other way for us to be really sure of where we’re going if y
Grover had pointed at a particular spot, saying that this is where the others had disappeared and that his birds were here. He had been observing that spot for awhile before he made the declaration, but whatever it was that he saw that made him come to that conclusion, only he could see it.The group was shocked by Grover's words because, at that time, they had gone through several parts of the forest, which they had never even been to before, and were in a place that seemed more like a desert. But then, at the same time, they knew he was not going to joke about matters like this and thus believed him, though it did not seem like it.Shambala, who had somewhat drawn off to the side, came back to the front of the company and asked Grover, “What next?” Grover nodded at him in acknowledgement of his question and proceeded to wave his hands in the air in front of him, and out of nowhere, a flock of birds appeared. All of them gasped in shock because they didn't even notice the birds. It
Following the suggestion by one of them, they fired at the barrier until a building started to reveal itself in bits as they hit it. And as they persisted, the whole building was shown to be a gate. At some point, no matter how hard they hit, the building wouldn’t budge but continued to reflect their energy against them. It’s only made him get tired faster.Shambala had come to the front of the company and was able, after some time, to interpret the inscription on the door. He voiced out the words in the old tongue and then translated them into their language as “the gates of doom." As if the literal meaning of the words was not terrifying enough, the horror on his face as he said those words made a chill run down the spines of his men. Some of them, who had invariably been to close the door, moved further away from it.Of course, they knew that they had no choice but to go in knowing that Krystal was in there, and they would not leave without him. Seeing these things only made them he