4.7 Travel companions

Shu XinYi wasn't very patient for their response, seeing that Luxin was still reluctant Shu XinYi said "I will take this hand one way or another. You have 10 seconds to make a decision. Would you like to fight an unknown enemy, or lose one hand and get this dagger?"

Still gripping Luxin's hands Shu XinYi started a countdown. Witnessing the scene of the man being unscathed even after being engulfed in Pure flame, both Luxin and Eclipse had realised that this man was unpredictable. It won't be beneficial at all trying to fight him in this small room, while all the gaurds were asleep.

"3..2..-"

"Okay! okay. Do it. Quickly just do it." Luxin said turning his face away from his hands. Shu XinYi looked at Eclipse for affirmation. Eclipse also nodded and looked away. He didn't come forward to help but Shu XinYi didn't mind.

WARNING (Gore)

Shu XinYi raised the dagger and positioned it on top of Luxin's forearm. Very calmly, Shu XinYi rubbed the sharp edges along the jade white skin, turning it blood red in no time. The fresh hot blood continuously poured out and at one point the blood started spraying like a shower. Shu XinYi had cut a nerve. He didn't stop moving the blade even though Luxin had started to struggle fiercly which only made the cut worse.

Shu XinYi didn't warn him that it would be more painful, the more he struggled. He just focused on running the blade through the arm. The blade came to a stop at a point, indicating that Shu XinYi had reached the bone. Shu XinYi softly sighed and this time he cut the whole forearm off in one swipe. Shu XinYi skillfully didn't get a single drop of blood on himself, except his hands.

Luxin was finally free but he had fallen down in his own pool of blood, crying silent tears. It was too painful. He couldn't even use the blue form to mask the pain. Luxin wanted to die at this moment. It was Eclipse who came forward with a cloth and tied it around his arm stopping the blood flow and said to Sceptor "Drop the blade and leave."

END OF WARNING

"Clang!" Shu XinYi obediently dropped the blade but instead of leaving, he walked further into the room and started to collect the items he wanted. The maps, the notebooks, the samples of rocks. Eclipse was trying to help Luxin so he didn't notice for the first few seconds. But when he saw Sceptor casually taking things that he and his team had spent ages trying to collect, he lost it.

"What the hell are you doing?" Eclipse asked in a cold tone. He was standing in an offensive stance, about to attack any second.

Shu XinYi was evaluating a beaker full of blue liquid, thinking whether he should take it along or not. When he heard Eclipse he didn't look at him and just leisurely replied "Shopping."

Eclipse gave his last warning "You will pay for this."

Shu XinYi looked at Eclipse saying "Oh but ofcourse." he then took out a few bucks that Sceptor carried in his bag and threw them on the ground. Then he continued to inspect stuff. Both Mira and Xiao B silently laughed thinking, big boss really is cool.

Eclipse had enough, they already had the blade. If Sceptor had silently left then he would've let him go peacefully, but now that he dared to look down on me like this, I will make sure you regret it. Even though Sceptor seemed strong and unpredictable, Eclipse himself was a battle hardened warrior.

With a speed of lightning Eclipse moved towards Sceptor, his hands had now transformed into sharp claws. With those claws placed directly beside Sceptor's neck, Eclipse said "You should have just left when I allowed you to."

Shu XinYi looked down at the sharp claws that could slash his throat open any second and thought, thank God I took all the things I needed or I'd have to perform another drama. Shu XinYi performed his final act "Oh no, please don't kill me. If only someone could save my life." Shu XinYi said in a dramatic tone.

Eclipse realised in a second that he had f*cked up, but he was a second too late. Whoosh! with a rush of air, a black shadow passed in front of Eclipse and something stabbed through his rib bone, somewhere he was already badly injured. Eclipse's hand transformed back to normal as he fell down clutching the impacting area.

Shu XinYi looked up to see a beautiful innocent face with emerald green eyes. He said "I thought you didn't want to follow me."

A sweet but firm voice spoke "I changed my mind. Let's go."

Ariya was now in her full body form, all her wounds had healed and she looked more like a person. Still it was not her original form. Like although her wings were black, they lacked the luster. It's okay, slowly all of us can heal and progress, Shu XinYi thought.

"Let's go," Shu XinYi said as they escaped, more like leisurely walked out of the encampment. Mira quickly transformed into a bird and they traveled north. They didn't fly for long and settled down to make a small camp. Shu XinYi hunted some meaty eatables, collecting some fruits and spices to make a delicious meal. He didn't want to task Mira with this simple thing, moreover Mira seemed tired right now.

He lit a fire and began to cook diligently. Shu XinYi had sensed that Ariya had been fidgeting since Mira had transformed into her bird form. Shu didn't say anything to solve her dilemmas. He wrapped up the meat in some leaves and cooked it on a low flame, meanwhile he made some sweet dishes with what he had.

They were surrounded by beautiful huge trees that gave off golden light from within. The trees were shaved off of leaves, so the purple moonlight easily slipped through. The three people were perfectly bathed in different lights. Except for the crackling of fire and the distant voices of grumbling beasts, the night was serene. The air was gradually wafted with the scent of freshly cooked meat, and the 3 individuals all had anticipating looks on their faces.

Shu XinYi cut the meat into 4 equal pieces. He kept one for himself then offered one to both, Mira and Ariya. Mira politely accepted. Ariya, who was sitting separate from them, just backed off further and sat hugging herself. Shu XinYi couldn't force her, so he came back to his place.

"Give it to me, let me try." Mira said to Shu XinYi.

Shu XinYi gave her the serving and let Mira do as she liked. Mira walked over to her and bend down offering her the deliciously cooked meal.

"You will become weak if you don't eat. I will join you for a meal. In the circumstances we live in, every meal is worth being thankful for. And I am thankful that I am able to have this meal with you today." Mira carefully constructed her words.

Ariya only raised her head to look at Mira and didn't do anything for the next 30 seconds. Mira patiently sat in front of her, waiting for her response.

Ariya said after solving her inner dilemmas "I am Ariya, thankyou for helping me."

Mira's eyes widened as she looked at Ariya, carefully scanning her memory. Ariya.. Ariya.. Ariya.. why do I feel like this name means something?

Ariya didn't miss the look of scrutiny on Mira's face and released a sigh that she had been holding for a long .. long while. She looked carefully at Mira, stating "You are Mira, right?"

Mira thought that she was overthinking, when she felt like she had recognized the name. But when Ariya said her name, her doubts were dispelled as she asked "We know each other?"

Ariya smiled innocently, looking at Mira and said "If you saving my life and helping me preserve my mother's body, counts as us knowing each other. Then yes."

Mira had a look of clarity in her eyes as she asked "You are Mrs.Lain's daughter? Oh my God. I.." Mira tried to formulate words, but she couldn't. Mrs.Lain had been her teacher for over a decade. When the crisis fell, Mira had signed up for the rescue team without a second thought. The person she wanted to save the most though, died in front of her eyes while she couldn't do anything. That day Mira decided to protect her daughter as long as she lived, but in war anything can happen at anytime. Finding that Ariya, that little girl Mira had saved, was now alive and all grown up. Mira didn't know how to express the happiness and grief she felt.

Ariya only looked young but she had lived for about 700 years, she had realised later on that Mira was one of her mom's students in training. She didn't know why but she still comforted Mira saying "It's been an okay journey for me. I arrived with the third batch and changed planets 2 times. I am thankful to you for saving my life. And.. I am glad you are alive, Mira."

Mira looked at the beautiful, innocent face and said, wiping her watery eyes "I am sorry, thankful. I just never thought that we would meet again. Let's not dwell on the past anymore. This man here is my boss. He is really capable and he is trustworthy. Boss is also very kind. Atleast until you have fully healed and you have found a direction, can you travel with us?"

Ariya seriously questioned "Do you feel responsible for me? Or do you pity me?"

Mira smiled lightly then honestly said "To me, I am more pitiable then any of us here. As for responsibility, I once did hold myself responsible for you, and I failed miserably. So now I just want a travel companion. That is, If you agree of course."

Ariya rested her head on her knees and looked up at Mira's face for about a good minute, with a smile on her face. Then she said in a very low voice "You are still as beautiful as ever."

Mira thought she heard wrong since Ariya spoke in almost a whisper, so she asked with slightly disbelieving eyes "What did you say?"

Ariya stood up and wiped dust of her body, she offered a hand to Mira saying "I said, let's go be travel companions."

Mira took her hand, standing up in daze. They walked back to where Shu XinYi was and sat down around him, near the fire. Shu XinYi still hadn't started eating and only when Mira and Ariya ate, did he actually start to eat. He also birthed pure flame for Xiao B. Lots of it. Xiao B's appetite was growing, so Shu XinYi had to be more efficient in utilizing the reserves since he would need to use 10% reserves during the white moon. As of now he had 67% left for the golden form.

It was not the first time Ariya had seen Xiao B, but it was the first time Ariya had seen it absorb pure fire like melted chocolate. "Um, Boss. This thing. Is it your pet?" Ariya asked curiously, closing in on Xiao B.

Shu XinYi replied without really looking at Ariya "You'll know in 4 days. I will too."

Ariya asked while eating her meal "Boss, I have to ask. You gave those scum bastards the dagger. You do know that they are trying to kill LóngFéng with it?"

Shu XinYi finally properly looked at Ariya and questioned with curiosity "You know Xuval?"

Ariya waved both her hands saying "No, no. I haven't actually seen it. I just heard that it is a beast that has been living here for 500 years. I came to this planet 200 years ago so I don't know much."

Shu XinYi looked at Mira then back at Ariya asking "You came here 200 years ago? Forgive me asking, but didn't the fire spread 500 years ago?"

Ariya replied calmly "Oh that is because not all of us directly came here. As far as I am aware, there were 4 batches that went to 4 different planets. I was in the third batch, I resided in another planet for 300 years. I came here with a fleet for a rescue mission, to save our kind that got trapped here. The residents of the planet, my batch went to have allowed us to reside there with our kind. But once I came here with the rescue fleet the situation only became worse. We didn't know that the constitution of this planet weakens our kind."

Mira joined in "I was in the 4th batch. The army cheif first helped the previous 3 batches to safety and then travelled with us to this planet. After we came here all of us were weakened. We even lost our communication power. Who knows how many of us are alive right now."

Ariya questioned looking at her "The army cheif is alive?"

Mira shook her head saying "No one knows. We couldn't contact him . So much time has passed. I don't want to give you hope. Let's talk about this LóngFéng or whoever. Boss, is it beneficial for you that LóngFéng dies? Is that why you gave them the dagger?"

Shu XinYi chuckled before replying "Xuval is no enemy of mine. As for the dagger.." Shu XinYi looked at them with innocent eyes saying "Who said they will be able to use the dagger?"

Back in the encampment, soon after Shu XinYi had leisurely left, an alarm was raised. The humans and beasts were all alerted and a search party was organized. For 3 hours they tried to search around the area but they couldn't find a single trace of the people who had left.

Luxin's hand had now stopped bleeding, but he had not started the regrowth process since it would be even more painful then when it had been cut off. "Those bastards knew what they were doing. Either we have a spy on the inside or they have a really, really good insight."

Eclipse replied "The freak was also healed by him. Isn't he human like you? Then why is he helping the freaks?"

Luxin cursed "F*ck if I know. Let's just focus on the plan. We have the blade, let's hunt down that son of a bit*h and get this started. Later we can find that man man and his freaks, and do what we want with them."

Eclipse picked up the blade from the table and questioned "Are you able to make Pure flame right now or should we wait?"

Luxin took some deep breaths and birthed pure flame using all his endurance. Eclipse bought forward the blade after 2 minutes, and started heating it on the fire. 30 seconds. In just 30 seconds the beautiful dagger melted away under the pure flame. Gone. Just like that.

Luxin was the first one to react seeing this scene "T-that bastard. He cheated us. No way. He.."

Eclipse punched the wall nearest to him so hard that debris fell from the cave ceiling. Rubbing his temples, Eclipse tried to calm himself down. "The requirement is to kill Xuval using a back metal that is heated under the pure flame. It doesn't matter if it's a person the makes that black metal, of if it's extracted from the earth. Xuval is weak right now, so there are more chances of success. There is mine 10 miles south. We can take earth forms with us. Let's move in the next moon. You heal yourself in this time."

Although Luxin was tensed about the current situation, seeing a very decisive and determined Eclipse, he too made his resolve.

Shu XinYi saw this declaration of war and calmly accepted it. Xiao B was peacefully resting on his wrists. Shu XinYi obviously wouldn't allow anyone to hurt him.

"I want some help from both of you. There is a list of things I need. The area for everything is marked in the map and the appearance is also mentioned with the name of each item. If you can help me gather these things then I will be really grateful to you." Shu XinYi said to Mira and Ariya.

Mira took the notebook and the map that Shu XinYi had worked on by himself, just now. She showed them to Ariya and they discussed for a while before answering "Boss, we can collect these but it will take atleast two or tree days."

Shu XinYi reasoned "That's okay, we will set up a meeting point. 7 hours after the Silver moon has risen, all of us can reconvene near this purple tree. It's okay if you can't find some items or miss some. But please try your best. Ariya, what kind of weapon are you comfortable using?"

Ariya looked at Mira and Mira nodded so Ariya said "I can use a spear very well. My mother taught me."

Shu XinYi said "That's great. I don't have a spear currently but I will make one in a while. Remember not to put yourselves in danger. I will be adding another layer of blue form over you. It can last for multiple blows and wounds but it does have a limit so be on gaurd."

Shu XinYi then immediately got to work and 30 minutes later he had crafted a fine looking spear, that fit Ariya for her hands and height, perfectly. Ariya was beyond impressed by the workmanship. This was the most beautiful weapon she had laid her hands on. She had decided to never abandon this weapon.

Shu XinYi gave them another paper and Sceptor's bag, to carry items. He said "Here are some recipes you can use. I can't be there to light pure flame so you will have to use natural fire. Come back safe."