Chapter six

An hour before we met Lisa's group, I had called Luke to a corner as Dylan and the others were questioning Lisa on her group.

"There's something more to this"

"Yeah, she smells fishy" Luke replied in a weird manner, was he jealous? I ignored his attitude.

"No, why would anyone drop two groups at different points?" I asked.

"So that they won't know each other and consider the other side an enemy" Luke replied.

"Yes, I believe the Principal is watching us, and if there is more than two groups he'd probably want us to fight each other, even to death, just to reduce our numbers"

"What would we do if that happens" Luke asked.

"Simple, we survive and in a case we get ambushed, tell everyone to use back flash and scatter themselves and meet back at the camp" I replied.

* * * *

Luckily for us, the rest of their group didn't want to fight us because we saved Lisa but Reuben and other three guys still persisted. I gave Luke a quick nod, he smirked knowing exactly what I meant. He clothed his sword in a thick mist, "Sword Aura" only those of 4th class and higher can use it.

"How can you use sword aura? You're just a low class" he yelled before striking at Luke, who easily dodged and went immediately for the head but stopped before he could cut it off.

I wanted to help Luke but the boy with the spear dashed at me, I later found out his name was Aaron while the other two behind shot arrows, they were twins, names unknown.

Aaron moved towards my stomach before aiming for my head and different parts of my body, I barely managed to block all of his attacks, he was moving at a fast pace and with arrows being shot at me, I couldn't keep up.

I decided it was time to get a little serious, I removed one of the rings in my hand, oh I forgot to mention I was wearing rings in all my fingers except from one.

Aaron smirked "Don't bother giving it to me, I collect it from you when you're dead"

Eight arrows came flying right at me, I used my sword to cut all of the arrows and Aaron became alarmed.

"Be careful guys, looks like this one has been using a limiter" he charged at me but this time I was ready, I parried his attack, dodged his next attack, before using my sword to hit his handle sending it flying into a tree, then he tripped, hit his head and fainted.

Another set of arrows came at me, they stopped mid-air and went right back at the twins, piercing their bodies, hitting vital parts, they fell and died, "Thought, you'll need some help"

I turned to see Arthur, a member of my group, he had used wind magic to reverse the arrows.

"Thanks a lot…"

"My pleasure…, now where are the other members?" He asked.

By now the other members of their group had already left

"They've left" I replied, I searched for Luke, he was standing on Reuben's body which seemed to be dead because of the sword on his chest.

Luke seemed different, he had a different aura and I had never felt something like it before from Luke. It made him look deadly, it carried weight, almost choking me. Then all of a sudden it disappeared, guess that's what you call killing intent. Luke came running to me,

"Are you okay?" he asked with a look of concern.

"Don't worry I'm okay, no need to stress yourself" I smiled then dusted myself.

"Besides why did you come Arthur?" Luke gave Arthur a questioning look.

"Hey, don't look at me like that, I didn't come here to interrupt your boy love" He replied, Luke blushed and started yelling.

"We're not gay, we don't see each other that way"

"Yeah right, I've seen the way you look at him" Arthur teased Luke.

Luke hit him hard in the head "Idiot, I'm just looking after him"

"Alright you two" I stopped them before things got out of hand.

"Arthur, it's not what you think, we're not gay, Luke is just keeping an eye on me since I'm still learning about this demons and god's stuff."

"Fine, I came because everyone else in our group is worried about you two" Arthur seemed to believe me.

"So what are going to do with him?" He pointed to Aaron who was still unconscious.

"I guess we kill him, we have to unless he will become a disadvantage since he has seen us fighting"

I had forgotten about him, I walked up to Aaron's body, I took my sword, it trembled in my hand, I raised the sword to cut his head off but Luke stopped me, he took his sword out and swiftly sliced his head off clean.

Arthur looked away while Luke tapped my shoulder, I couldn't bring myself to kill a human. I signaled Luke that we should start heading back. He nodded and we all started going back to the camp.

The whole way there no one spoke, I couldn't but think about how wicked the principal was, making students kill each other, if I ever survived it, I was pretty sure it would remain a trauma but I couldn't behave scared in front of everyone, I had to accept the fact that this was war, not a survival test, anyone caught off guard would be dead, it was time for strategies.

When we finally got to the camp, everyone was waiting for us, they hugged us and some even hit our backs and congratulated us for not dying.

"Damn I actually thought you guys had died, you kicked their ass right?"

Dylan and everyone laughed as he hit me hard on my back.

"Yeah totally did but…" I replied.

"Huh?" Dylan and everyone else stopped laughing, "I think we shouldn't journey anymore"

"Wait, what do you mean?" Sophie asked.

"Yeah, what do you mean? We can't just stop here, we finally have the map unlocked" Everyone had complaints, and they stated to protest but Luke silenced them.

"I hate to say this but I agree with them, Theo" Luke added.

"Everyone hear me out" I stood straight and faced them.

"We have a five groups that's a whole seventy-one students, coming for our heads, you really think we have the power to face all of them"

They all looked at each other, I was making a point.

"We should stay here, make a base, cultivate our divine energy and train, get a constant supply of food and water, and we will take turns in patrolling the area, while we are doing that, the other groups we'll be finishing each other off" I paused for questions, there was none.

"From what that vine messenger guy said, he met us last which would mean, every other group are ahead of us, they would probably start heading back to finish any other groups, they encounter on their way. We have a good advantage here and we are going to use it to win" Then I raised my sword like I'd seen people do in movies, "I promise to give my all to make sure we all get to the Academy alive"

They started cheering and clapping while Dylan, Luke, Harry and Nick, put me on their shoulders, it seemed like everything would be fine.

* * * * *

Later that night when everyone was asleep.

Arthur opened his eyes to check if Theo and the rest were fast asleep, once he was sure no one was awake, he left the camp, he wandered deep into the forest. After making sure he was out of sight and hearing, he removed an orb from his sub-dimensional ring. It was plain with red markings, Arthur carefully placed it on the floor before bringing out a knife and he cut himself on the finger letting the blood drop on the orb. After some while it started glowing, then a hooded figure appeared on its surface.

"Finally, I was beginning to think you had forgotten all about me" the hooded figure spoke with intense force and overpowering aura.

"My apologies, my Lord, just had to observe a little longer" At this point Arthur was already on his knees, with his head on the earth.

"I suppose you did, now tell me, have you found out who is His son?"

"No my Lord, it's proving... difficult" as Arthur said that, the hooded figure mood changed.

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing my lord, I'm still looking for him" Arthur replied.

"Well then I trust you, but if you don't step up, I'll have to deal with this myself and you know what that means my dear contractor" After those words, the hooded figure disappeared and the orb stopped glowing.

Arthur picked the orb and said to himself "Yes I do, Lord Asmodeus" and with that he returned to the camp.