Vincent returned from his flight, and unbeknownst to him, he had gained a tail.
"This is a terrible plan! We aren't criminals, Bel."
"Don't use a nickname with me Jerod, if we want to escape the country, then we will have to keep Mr. Squirms-a-lot here fed." Bella pointed at the burlap sack that she was carrying.
"Can't you just portal us to the border? Wouldn't that be faster?" Jerod asked, hoping that Bella was just forgetful and he wouldn't have to do anything he might regret.
"I couldn't even if I had the Eneru and knew where I was going, there are giant, ancient, Anti-Eneru arrays on the border that force you to go around. It would greatly help our cause if you knew anything about the country you used to love." Bella let a little annoyance slip into her voice.
Jerod didn't seem to notice. "Hmm, in that case, I guess we have to walk."
"Well no shit, and even that is dangerous since the border is guarded."
"Better than sitting on our asses and waiting for Insopr to stab us."
"Agreed. Keep up, the kid with the Windcutter is getting away."
Bella and Jerod sped up their pace and Vincent still didn't notice them.
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Vincent jumped from tree to tree, using his sub-affinity Body-Enhancement to gain height and the Wind Cutter to gain distance.
"I wish I were a pressure mage, this sucks." He said, brushing leaves off of his shirt. "I'm almost back though."
Vincent took off once more with a massive leap, making enough altitude to make it back to camp.
"Huh? What's that?" Vincent looked down and saw two little dots dash away from his gaze.
'I got a tail somewhere.' He kept his eye on the two while flying an evasive pattern. 'These maneuvers make it impossible for me to get back to camp in one leap, but maybe I can shake my tail.'
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"Fuck, he spotted us!" Bella dashed behind a tree while dragging Jerod by the ear. "We will have to follow more carefully. There is no way he will stay out here forever."
********
"It's been ten minutes, why is he still sitting in that tree?!" Bella was getting impatient. "I'm going to go capture him."
Bella used pressure manipulation to float up to the branch that Vincent was supposedly on, only to find a strangely misshapen branch in its place.
"Fuck!" A spectral chain flew out from under her arm and grabbed Jerod and the sack. "We have an issue, he escaped. Look for portals."
"Yessm." Jerod's eyes glowed purple for a half-second. "Found it, it's really sloppy work."
His hand glowed and a rift opened, showing a frantic group of young adults cleaning up, scrambling to get out of dodge before some shadowy figures show up. 8 heads turned all at once.
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"STOP IMMEDIATELY!" Devin dropped a compression sphere, leaving a large dent in the ground.
His hand glowed green as he woke some plants from their slumber.
Ben dashed at full speed at the intruders, knocking the girl out and kicking the other clear from the portal.
Vincent appeared behind him.
BONK!
The man fell forward, unconscious.
Devin circled the pair, checking them for weapons and taking mental notes.
"Alright, so either these two are prisoners from Fort Lao, or they were sent by the king to pretend that they were."
Just then, the sack of potatoes that they were carrying squirmed. With one swift motion, four swords were aiming at the bag.
Devin walked slowly towards it and cut it open to find that there was a person inside. He pulled the man out and cut his gag.
"Who are you and what are you doing in the bag?!"
"Help! These crazies tied me up! I just wanna get out of the country!" Not a trace of deceit could be found in his voice.
Devin's eyes narrowed. "You aren't a prisoner from Fort Lao. Who are you?"
"My name is Bock Gluaze. Yes, I am the king's son. No, I do not want to arrest you. The king isn't even my dad according to him, despite the fact that he witnessed my birth himself." Resentment built up to cracks in his voice.
'He's sincere alright, I've got a nose for this stuff.' Devin thought
"Why are you here then? Couldn't you just leave?"
"I was going to, but of course, the king's only strategy for loose ends is to make an accident of them. So on my way, I was attacked and escaped. Then I heard about Fort Lao through my dad's network. I was hoping to gather the prisoners to escape the country, but then those two decided I needed a nap."
The pair had been tied up already, and so Devin woke them.
"How about you two, what are your stories? Why are you chasing us?"
The girl stayed tight-lipped, but Jerod spilled his guts.
"We wanted out of the country! I told Bella that we shouldn't steal! But she wouldn't listen!" He wailed with tears in his eyes.
"Shut up you imbecile! Do you want to get killed?!" She snapped at him.
"Alright, you guys are coming with us, Ingen Meiung needs your help to get us all out of the country, and you seem to be in quite the predicament. We will untie you, but just know that we can kill you and won't hesitate if you try to steal from us."
'They are so lucky I'm still weak from the Eneru starvation I went through.'
"Fine." Bella accepted her freedom and walked alongside the group reluctantly as they marched on through Vincent's portal.
Jerod got up and struck up a conversation with Teo, one he had an interest in for some reason.
After a few hours of portaling around, the group arrived at Ingen's camp, and were welcomed warmly.