6. Run
With the sun setting fast and just encountering an unknown creature Rhode picked up Clarre and the items they obtained during the day and is sprinting through the swamp back to the safety of there camp he could feel many eyes on him luckily for him none of them had any blood lust or hatred towards him so he just kept running clarre was staying very quiet and holding on tightly to Rhode and the items, the sun was almost completely set and they still had a way to go Rhode dug deep and put everything he had into his speed and breathing just as the sunset the tree came into view and rhode felt relief but with the sudden sense of relief he let his guard down and was too late to feel the sudden dense feeling of bloodlust hurdling towards him he had enough time to throw clarre to the base of the tree and turn to be face the darkness but see nothing until he was struck in the chest and knocked to the ground he couldn't see anything his mask vision was little after being struck by arass on the first day, he drew his blades and backed into a defensive position he was in a horrible position until he heard clarre yell something to him ' LOGI BEAM ' and a huge fire lit up the night sky as bright as day to reveal the creature attacking rhode, at first it looked like a bat but it had 8 eyes and when it spread its wings it revealed it was a large furry bat like spider the light from the flame made the creature flinch the light hurt it and rhode took full advantage of it and jumped on the creature and started using his knew weapons to stab and hit the creature he did a lot of damage until clarre dropped to her knees exhausted from the spell she just used at that moment rhode looked back to make sure she wasn't indanger only to have 4 of the creatures legs pierce rhodes upper body rhode cut the legs of and fell to the ground while the creature went to deliver the killing blow a dense pressure engulfed the area and immense bloodlust came from the waters below the swamp the injured bat spider was looking around for the creature making this aura when a giant white creature came flying out of the water it was like a giant water lizard but it had silver spikes all over its back its huge jaws snapped shut hard on the creature before it could even realise what had just happened to it, it was being dragged back into the swamp and disappeared into the murky waters.
by the time clarre had caught her breath and get her strength back she seen rhode laying on the ground gasping for air she ran to help him but the damage done to him was immense she lit a few fires in the area to ward off any other creatures and bring light over rhodes body to try and help heal him, he took his mask off to try and breath better but it only made clarre more upset to see his face 'rhode you liar you said your face was disfigured you just wanted to hide your face so when the exam was over you could easily hide from me' rhode brushed off the words he knew she was just trying to be nice since he was going to die soon he went to thank her for being his friend but all that came out was a cough and alot of blood, clarre began dragging rhode into the base and up the huge tree it was a struggle but she did it she layed rhode on the makeshift bed and went to get water to clean him up, rhode knew he was done for but was just happy to have someone caring and trying to save him he went to close his eyes to drift off but the mysterious box he found was open all of a sudden he reached over to look into it wih his remaining strength but it was empty he laughed and muttered to himself ' of course its empty that's my luck' as he was losing conciousness warrik and alrhyse burst through the base door and both had a look of panic and fear on there face 'rhode say no, whatever you do even if you die you say no to every offer it makes promise us rhode ' rhode had no idea what they meant and suddenly lost conciousness.
"do you want to live, do you want power, do you want fame, i can give you all of this plus more all you have to do is say yes and you'll live a full life with fame and glory"
rhode felt like he was sinking in thick black tar while staring up at a unusual looking man in a black suit and red tie his face was pale hes hair was slicked back and black his eyes were black at the top floating above his head was a blood red crown.
"what is your answer boy ive seen your past and you've been treated worst then my kind and your innocent from the moment you were born you've been abused and mistreated and for what your social status say yes to me and i'll give you everything"
the man reached his hand out to rhode who was waist deep in the thick tar but the man got an answer he did not expect.
" no thank you I'm good but thanks for the offer Mr suit man if i die now i die a hero and that's all that matters to me my family is safe my friend clarre is safe my life had no meaning or purpose until now so i died protecting them and that makes me happy"
the man was clearly shocked and laughed " boy i like you no matter the outcome here i am freed into this new world and i can see it has some special individuals in it but sadly you are slowly sinking into deaths clutches, you boy are lucky i took a liking to you and have more treasure then i can hope to have to pay for your healing bill might lose face with the other demons but im free to the world again, by the way my name is mammon but you can keep calling me mr suit man, good luck from here boy your life and future is about to get alot more difficult espically after our little meeting also pass a message on to alrhyse for me please and thankyou tell him to stop playing the hero he knows what he is and what he's done.
rhode suddenly awoke in a hospital bed but was in heavy chains held by 4 masked individuals he looked around the room and asked what was going on before he could ask where he was he had 4 blades drown to his throat,
"that's enough everyone if he was possessed he would have turned this room red with your blood seeing how you all weren't paying attention and let him get a full sentence out now put your weapons away he's a boy" it was Mr jekyll "rhode i swear you have spent more time in the hospital then anywhere else in the citadel do you have a crush on the nurses here? oh to be young again" rhode went red with embarrassment so did the nurses in the room.
"okay rhode time for a serious question who or what did you see when you passed out at the exam ground this is very serious and these 4 with the weapons may very well strike you down where you lay" rhode felt the hate stares though the masks and he explained what he remembers before he could finish warrik and alrhyse burst through the door "we heard rhode woke up how is he??" everyone in the room turned there stares towards the duo and they quickly refound there professional tone "rhode was just explaining what he remembers after he lost conciousness is there anything else you have to add rhode?" Mr jekyll asked, rhode remembered the message mammon asked to pass on to alrhyse and he did, alrhyses face dropped and looked more fearsome then anything rhode had ever seen in his life
the room got a thick dense feeling it was hard to breath and stay standing the nurses fell to the floor breathless when suddenly Mr jekyll slapped his hand down on alrhyse shoulder making a thunderous sound reminding alrhyse that he's in a hospital full of weak and injured people "oh my bad robert i apologies think you could check out my shoulder after this i think you broke it haha" its always funny to rhode seeing mr jekyll and alrhyse break there professional tone in front of people,
"I'm sorry i lost my temper there that message really was made just to try and break me the worst part about demons they know bloody everything and especially high up elites really makes me made but that's how demons without bodies work they pray on your weakness which makes it more unbelievable that you got a demon to help heal you for free what did you do to get that treatment?" rhode told alrhyse that he said no and was happy to die a hero and that made the demon or mr suit man like him, alrhyse had never heard of this before and just left it at that and was glad rhode made a full recovery without making any deals with demons.
warrik was glad and also had to confirm something with rhode " the reason we found you and knew the situation turned bad was my alpha creature saved you from the finishing blow from that creature it wasn't evil but still why did sterling save you hes trained to only interfere when a demonic or cursed creature enters the field, i forgot to describe my alpha didn't i at the beginning of the exam he is a quillgator but he is a rare variant of them he has grown beyond the normal sizes and still will grow because hes only a baby and for unknown reasons his body produces silver quills which can injure and destroy demonic and cursed creatures its still confuses me to why he intervened, rhode you may have something special about you that tamed beasts like lets hope to find out in the academy" warrik suddenly broke out into a cold sweat and went pale, alrhyse had an angry look on his face "thankyou warrik for stealing my congratulations and welcome to the school speech" rhode was confused technically he failed and died but was still getting let in, alrhyse explained "usually you would have failed or died but you showed you can survive the environment outside the walls but most importantly you protected someone else at the risk of your own life which is all we want from those exams you get to keep the items you found except the mystery box and the academy first day will be a week from now seeing how you slept the last 10 days you should be healed and ready by the first day of school, also write to dimmity i feel like shes been casting a curse against me for how often you get injured".
rhode was unchained and served food and water, 3 of the 4 masked individuals left and the smallest one remained rhode felt embarrassed not having a mask but his hair was long enough to cover his face to his liking once he was done eating he got out of bed and started exercising and getting ready for the academy the masked person just watched him while he trained.
"alrhyse is it safe to let him leave he could be hiding that he's a demon"
"its fine warrik if he was a demon he would be suffering from being under the holy veil but i am surprised he managed to get a demons favour"
"well lets hope while he's at the academy we can learn more about rhode and his unuaul life and turn him into a great hunter that is with us not against us".