Home & Attack!

"Finally! It's time to go home and take a proper shower! I miss warm water so much!"

"Princess if you told me you wanted warm water I could have gotten it prepared bef-"

"No! I don't want one of my friends to act like a helper! I can do things myself! If I couldn't even deal with a couple cold baths then what kinda princess would I be!"

Kaylee let out a huff, it was clear she despised when people would act subservient towards her.

Meanwhile Ryder had been looking out the window of the carriage as Daki and Kaylee spoke. Many thoughts were racing through his head.

'Where should I even begin to get those herbs?'

'What should I do with my fighting style? I feel like the more I use my claws the more I dive into Cain's instincts… my sword is also too long, every time I use it in tandem with my wolf stance it feels clunky. It doesn't have the speed that my claws do… should I get a different sword?'

'What are these feelings… why is it that any time I look at Kaylee my face gets hot a little and my heart feels like it's being tugged on!'

'How should I go about getting stronger from now on…?'

These thoughts constantly went through his head. Sometimes he would even be hit with a headache if he dived to far into his emotions.

Currently his hand was twirling a strand of his hair in thought as he pulls his sword up to get a good look at it.

"What you doing Ryder?"

Jacob casually said sitting across from Ryder.

"Huh? Oh, I was just thinking about if I should change my sword or not… when I was training with master I was only allowed to use this sword… I don't know why, maybe it's something like he wants me to master a single weapon before going to others?"

"That makes sense, I have heard from my father in the past that mastering 1 thing will help make similar things much easier before… maybe they know something we don't?"

"It's possible… however I think if I want to get more comfortable with my fighting style I should change my sword…"

"I agree, a lot of the reason why I could fight you to a stand still before was because of the slower speed of your attacks. All I needed was to place a fire ball or my spear near the path of your sword and you would be forced to jump back or reposition yourself which gave me many openings"

That's when Ryder went back to thinking, he went over many of his previous fights trying to analyze his movements before he looked out the window with a fire in his eyes.

'I will correct this no matter what!'

With that the group spent a week heading back with minimal hiccups on the road.

Most beasts close to the city are weaker, bronze rank to at most silver rank since gold will either be killed by guards or leave for stronger prey.

These beasts followed their instincts and just feeling the power of the humans would scare them off especially with so many.

As the group was finally arriving near the dynasty a large caravan of people had already been waiting at the gate backing up all the merchants and or civilians towards the back of the line in front of the academy caravan.

Many of the groups in the front looked annoyed. It was clear that each of them didn't like the fact they had been stopped her.

Yet that didn't matter to the academy students. Instead the caravan went to the side passing many people as they head for the gate.

Many wanted to complain but upon seeing the apex academy crest they shut up. However not all people were like this.

The ones who didn't care for the crest just looked on in anger while the caravan in front had people standing up watching with hate filled eyes.

'Why do they get to pass us when we are clearly the stronger party!?'

'These kids get to go into the city while us diplomats have to sit here waiting to get checked!?'

Thoughts like these were common amongst the people. Many of them however didn't look like diplomats at all!

Instead each of them had different tattoos all across their bodies. Many different races could be seen in their group but all of them dressed like bandits! Some resembled barbarians but this was only slightly better.

There was only 1 tattoo that all of them had in common. It was the symbol for the Sanctus Kingdom!

This immediately intreged many of the students including Ryder. He had never seen anyone from the west side of the continent besides the ones who had raided them.

A part of him wanted to get out of the carriage and force one of them into telling him about where his mother is.

Yet he didn't go, he knew getting into a fight with them would only cause political issues between the kingdom and their dynasty.

So he sat and waited for them to go through the gates.

"Halt! The gates are closed for everyone even if you are from the dynasty!"

This caused many of the students and teachers to look at the guard in shock!

They weren't allowed to go home right now? Why? What could be going on that the whole city is on lockdown!?

These thoughts went through many peoples minds, yet only the teachers stepped forward.

"If you don't mind, may I ask why we are being stopped?"

One of the many teachers said curious as to what could be happening to stop many noble children and even the princess from being able to go inside.

"We have orders to stop any and all individuals not part of the royal family or the 7 virtues factions. The queen has told me to hold this position until further instruction. That being said I also have orders from the sword saint. Do you have Kaylee, and Ryder in your care?"

"If so bring them forward and we shall escort them to the palace"

Some of the 7 virtues factions people had been mixed into the group of kids and teachers. This also included the sins who had to bite their tongue after hearing the guards words.

'Tsk! Is a war going on between the factions!?'

The green haired boy from before started to speculate yet he didn't get a chance to come to a conclusion before a sudden wave of power was unleashed making everyone and everything in the area feel a massive weight pushing them down!

Many teachers became shocked after feeling the pressure as the guards start to prepare for a conflict as the diplomats began to stand.

They were all in unison yet one man stood at the front.

Oddly enough this one has bright yellow hair with a dark skin tone. This man looked younger then the others but none of the men behind him dared to show any disrespect.

Slowly he walked forward, his tattoos different then other. On his skin a vibrant red could be seen as the pressure rises.

"Looks like we are late to the party boys! Go and capture as many of the brats as you can. If they resist too much just kill them"

The pressure began to get higher and higher yet some people in the groups didn't feel as much pressure as others.

PSHHH!

Ryder stood up from his seat drawing his sword only to get hit from the side!

Unfortunately for him he didn't go flying, instead a tattooed man with black hair and a vicious smile had grabbed him by the neck only to drag him through the broken window!

Ryder took one look at Jacob, Daki, and Kaylee as he was thrown out of the carriage!

As he hit the ground he quickly recovered ready for another attack.

CRRRRKRAK!

The sound of wood snapping apart could be heard as the man had grabbed Kaylee's carriage by the window frame and tore it apart just to get hit with an arrow directly in the center of his head!

PING!

The sound of metal hitting something hard like stone could be heard as the arrow snapped before hitting the ground.

"Haha! You really think a weak arrow like that ca-"

In an instant the man was swallowed by a type of space dust forcibly throwing him away from the carriage before latching onto him!

The man struggled greatly which quickly began to drain Kaylee's soul force.

However this wasn't a duel.

This was a fight for their lives!

CRRKRAK!

Another pair of hands grabbed at the carriage tearing it apart as they reach out grabbing Kaylee from behind by the neck!

Kaylee felt her heart sink in that moment yet the next second a loud scream could be heard coming from the man as a soul force infused spear stabbed into the man's arm three times in a row!

The grip was immediately released only to have the hand strike out towards the attacker.

Fortunately Jacob was out of reach as he pushed Daki and Kaylee out of the carriage readying himself.

Even though he had used a technique that will cripple him for awhile that doesn't mean he doesn't have any of his power!

He quickly inegrated with his avatar quickly lighting the entire carriage on fire with a wave of flames as the man who grabbed Kaylee was forcing his way inside!

Once outside all four of them could see many teachers battling with the stronger men.

The guards on the other hand protected the gate! They couldn't let a single one get past them!

Now only 2 people stood in the middle of the battle field staring at each other.

One was the yellow haired man, most likely the leader of this war band.

The other was Caleb, both of them seemed to be having a conversation in their minds only to see Caleb rush forward creating a rune in seconds!

This was a highly complex rune that no one could even understand at the moment before both figures suddenly vanished from their spot!

With the leader gone the pressure let up allowing everyone to move around at full speed once again!

Seeing the man still struggling with Kaylee's ability Ryder quickly leaped forward cracking the ground beneath him as he swung his sword at the mana head!

'I don't want to kill but I have to! If I don't kill them Kaylee and the others will die!'

At this moment the thought of killing someone showed him the terrified face of the man he ate before making him lose focus for a second.

Quickly a green blur showed up in front of Ryder, the figure had a dagger in one hand and a jagged short sword in the other.

These weapons looked like they were made to inflict the most amount of pain and bleeding!

The dagger had a spiral blade making it easy to stab and twist cutting up anything it can when it slams into its target.

The other had a extremely sharp edge with broken bits covering the entire blade.

Quickly the short sword knocked away Ryder's sword only to have the dagger lunge towards Ryder's chest!