Slowly opening his eyes Dell would wake up, feeling every muscle in his body cry out in pain. "At least I'm alive" He said aloud.
"Yea by some sort of miracle" A familiar voice would say.
This didn't take Dell by suprise. Since he woke laying on a bed it made sense someone had to have brought him here and it wasn't completely unbelievable that someone would keep watch. What was shocking was who the voice belonged to.
Sitting up and looking to the corner of the room where the voice came from Dell saw the hulking silhouette of Axil.
"Axil?"
"The one and only"
"The fuck are you lurking in a corner for?"
"I dunno, added effect?"
"... What?"
Axil stepped out of the dark corner taking a seat beside Dell's bed.
"Who knows. Anyways, I have some questions for ya"
"Can it wait? I almost died I should be-"
"Resting in bed and answering the questions that the guy who trained you wants to ask"
"Tch"
It was only fair in all honesty and Dell knew that yet he couldn't help but feel bitter about being told what to do. It simply made his skin crawl.
"Wait" Dell thought. "Why am I so bothered over this? Axil isn't someone I peticularly dislike, yet I wanna break his fucking nose for ordering me around. Fuck he's not even really ordering me around"
Dell would rub his face and sigh, noticing this Axil would ask.
"Actually before we start, are you even ok?"
"I've no serious injuries I think-"
"No you smart-ass. That must have been brutal even for a hunter, you wasn't prepared for down there so I imagine it would've been abnormally stressful"
"I think I'm fine"
"Well, my first question"
Axil would pull a bag from under the bed and open it, revealing the metal plates that Dell planned to take with him.
"How'd you get these?"
Dell was in an awkward position. He couldn't tell the full truth since that would expose Zephyr. But he wasn't a peticularly talented liar so he would probably make mistakes if he tried to spin a web of lies to get out of this.
"Half truths, I'll go with half truths" He thought.
"An infected wore armor and I wanted to use the plates to make my own."
"How come you only have the plates and not the clothes?"
"It got torn beyond use"
"Then how come you don't have a weapon?"
"Like before, in the shit situation I got disarmed near the end and wasn't in the mental state to remember grabbing my weapon on the way out"
"Yet you grabbed the armor"
"Yep"
Dell's cold eyes met Axil's noticeably kinder eyes.
"How the hell did you survive down there? Teams of four hunters have been noted to not come back yet you did"
"I was either luckier then them or simply stronger, nothing more to it"
A man in brown and green clothes would come crashing into the room.
"A-Axil! We checked down there and... Not a single infected is left down there!"
Axil would raise an eyebrow.
"Explain that one for me Dell"
"Fuck"
While Dell was unconscious Vie had sent a squad of six experienced hunters, including herself, to check the sewers purely out of a hunch she had. And what they fount, or more accurately the lack of finding anything, brought more questions then it answered.
"Dell that place was crawling with infected and as far as I'm aware you're the only one who was down there. If you managed to clear that entire area on your own you might want to explain how you pulled it off"
"I..."
Dell would sigh, and in a stroke of genius would say.
"Take me to the training grounds, I'll show you"
Axil granted Dell's request without much thought. He had no reason not to trust Dell and he couldn't help but be curious. The training grounds was a large garden behind the main building. They had various training dummies and areas dedicated for exercise and sparring.
Dell knew he was much stronger then before, and if he demonstrated that strength and acted like it was an awakening gifted from Zelith maybe they would believe him.
Walking up to a wooden dummy he would place his hand straight out, his finger tips touching the dummy. Going from that position to a quick one inch punch would tear the dummy to shreds and make a loud
BANG!
Turning to Axil he would say.
"I'm still sore and tired so I'd rather not have to demonstrate further, but do you understand? I believe at some point down there I had an awakening like other hunters have had"
Axil stood in disbelief. To destroy a wooden dummy with such a small movement, even he would need a full wind up punch to manage the feat.
"Man.. you've surpassed me by a long shot. I don't think I have any reason to question it further. You go get some rest and I'll explain to Vie so she doesn't give you an earful"
"Appreciated"
Dell would walk past while Axil simply looked at the blown apart dummy. Other hunters saw this and couldn't help but stare at Dell as he walked away.
Walking back to his room Dell would stretch and enter, sitting down on his bed and reach into his pocket.
"Thank fuck they didn't search me"
Pulling out the envelope Dell would sigh in relief. He wanted to be the first to read whatever was inside.
Slowly opening the envelope he would look at its contents. A metal card the size of his hand and a folded pice of paper like material.
The metal card read.
"Official invitation to Lord Zion's homestead"
"What..."
Dell hoped the folded paper would provide more information, but it ended up only being a map. An outlined square of land was labeled 'Lord Zion's homestead' and on further inspection Dell fount the Blue divisions base, a near by Iron divisions base, a good chunk of the surrounding city and the farm. It seemed Lord Zion's home was way past the farm.
"So I can either cut through the farm or go all the way around"