"You're... You're lying!" Shouted Oliver with passionate eyes, "They were killed by arrows, and you don't have an ability!"
Lachlan walked right up to Oliver, who still laid slumped against the tree, and showed him his watch, which now no longer had a zero on it, but a two. Indicating that he had an ability.
Oliver's eyelids trembled with shock when he saw this, and his mouth unwittingly opened, "H-h-how!" he stammered, "How did you hide your ability!"
Lachlan looked into Oliver's eyes and said, "It's a long story, and I'll tell you all of it, I promise, but now's not the time," he redirected his eyesight towards the dead students' and added, "They're dead, so their watches are already broadcasting their location back to the academy, and a search team will be here any minute. So we must hurry back, lest we get blamed for this.."
Oliver still felt shocked and terrified at what had just happened, but hearing Lachlan's words, he realized he was telling the truth. It was one of the primary things every student was told on the first day of check-in in the academy— and he had just forgotten briefly after what he had witnessed.
Now aware that if he stayed here any longer, he would be in a lot of trouble with the academy and probably blamed for the students' deaths. He decided to throw his complicated thoughts to the back of his mind and get up from the tree.
He used every ounce of strength left in his body to lift himself from the tree, but unbeknownst to him, his body was filled with gashes and bruising, all of which came from the previous fight.
The adrenaline had kept him unaware of his body's dreadful condition, and now that it had worn off— his body was hit with a sharp pain that spread throughout his muscles and bones.
He began falling towards the side, yet before he could collapse to the ground, an arm coiled around his waist and held him up.
"You can't walk with those legs, can you?" said Lachlan with a friendly grin, "I'll help you out."
Seeing Lachlan's smile and his arm around his wrist, he responded, "Thanks…" with a faint smile, yet shortly after, his smile quivered as he said, "How am I supposed to run in this condition?"
Lachlan didn't seem conflicted and answered, "It's fine, I'll carry you," as he lowered himself for Oliver to jump on his back.
"A-Are you crazy!?" he yelled, "I weigh a lot and you're only a crippl—"
Oliver choked on his words, and Lachlan looked at him sheepishly when he saw this.
He was still reluctant, but shortly afterwards, he decided to jump on Lachlan's back, albeit grudgingly.
When he was finally on, Lachlan didn't immediately dash from the scene but fiddled with his fingers in the air instead.
"What are you doing?" asked Oliver after seeing this.
He didn't get a response, and before long, he could see faint green lines traveling up Lachlan's exposed neck. Though as soon as it appeared, it vanished, and he began sprinting away from the scene in a flash, before Oliver could ask any questions regarding the greenish lines.
As he ran, Oliver's emotions felt complicated and jumbled. He had just witnessed a group of students get murdered in front of him, and he was riding on the back of the person who had murdered them. It made his heart squeeze just thinking about it, but he couldn't think about it too long before his eyelids began drooping and eventually closed from exhaustion.
—-—
"G-Gamal," said a young women as she trembled, "W-Who could've done this?" she asked as she looked at the grotesque scene before her.
Gamal, who was crouched on the ground next to her, looking at the same gruesome picture as her, responded, "I don't know," with knitted eyebrows, "I've never seen something this grim before, not in all my years serving the academy…."
Instructor Gamal was shaken, but he still retained his firm exterior, only showing a little bit of emotion on his face, which was in stark contrast to Alyssa, who was stammering and sweating profusely. This wasn't odd though, this was her first year as an instructor in the academy, and she hadn't seen the brutality of the world yet— so her reaction was to be expected.
Especially so when met with this picture before her which was exceedingly grotesque!
Suddenly, the sound of heavy footsteps approached from their backs, followed by a booming voice that ordered, "Instructor Alyssa, and Gamal, you two will circle around the perimeter and search for the culprits. You can see from the marks on the trees and on the ground that there has been a prolonged battle here, meaning both sides should've suffered injuries; they couldn't have gotten far."
Hearing their Lieutenant's voice boom from their backs, they turned around as quickly as they could and straightened their backs, following it up by responding firmly, "Yes, Sir," in which then they sprinted into the darkness of the forest.
The two Instructors were jumping from tree branch to tree branch in an expeditious manner, leaving almost no sound to be heard from their descent and landing. It was almost like they were owls, silent and deadly— in search of their prey.
After a rough check of the immediate periphery and not finding anything, they split up to cover more ground and went further out in hopes of finding a single clue to link a potential student to the crime. But, unfortunately, neither of them could find a single trace of activity, like the scene of carnage was isolated from the rest of the world.
There were not even blood trails or a couple of footsteps, like whoever had done this had vanished like ghosts…
They both felt shaken after not finding anything, and after a while, Alyssa spoke up in her communicator, "I-I can't find anything…" in a destitute voice.
Instructor Gamal, who was on the other end, responded, "Neither can I…"
"Then what do we do!" she blurted, feeling forlorn. This was her first post in the military, one of the most acclaimed jobs she could've gotten— especially so for her age, but only after a few days of getting employed here she was met with a disastrous situation.
As Alyssa became fidgety and unnerved, a voice boomed from the other end of the communicator, "Don't worry Alyssa, the dean will find a way!"
Alyssa slightly recoiled after hearing Gamal's voice, and she responded embarrassingly "R-Right."
She knew she had overreacted and calmed herself down by taking a deep breath. After all, there were a lot of alternative ways to find the murderers, and she shouldn't panic just yet.
After she fully calmed down, he ran back towards the murder scene to give her assessment to the dean.
After both of them arrived, a dozen or so forensic people were working on the scene. Analyzing every inch of the scene with keen eyes. In the middle, next to their Lieutenant, stood a tall, fit man with long wavy dark hair who wore a black overcoat— It was a simple-looking overcoat with a velvet collar and had no cuffs, but something about it made it seem magnificent and different. Like it was out of this world.
The man was a stark contrast to the rest of the ensemble of people in the surrounding. Thus, making him look like a leader.
The man was no one other than the dean of the 23rd Military School, and seeing him standing there, Instructor Alyssa and Gamal walked up to him.
As they met his gaze and his charcoal eyes stared deep into their own, they felt inexplicably nervous, like they were on death's door. Because of the pressure the Dean gave out, Alyssa couldn't open her mouth, and after sensing Alyssa's inability to do so, given the awkward silence, Gamal spoke up instead, mentioning their lack of any findings.
The dean's expression didn't change after hearing Gamal's assessment, but his eyes portrayed disappointment beyond belief— which made Gamal slightly flinch, making his already white-coated beard turn even whiter.
Alyssa didn't any fare better either, as her legs began wobbling, and her face paled drastically, making her look like a wobbling piece of paper in the wind.