Narrator: Grey Zoria
The lightning bolt is charging towards us at a high speed. There is no time to react. Even if Adelphia left me now, the lightning bolt will hit us, before my leg touched the ground. That's how fast it is.
Just when I thought I am a dead man, a cloud of dust appeared in front of us preventing me from seeing clearly. I squint my eyes hard trying to see in front of me, but it was of no use until suddenly my vision becomes clear as if the cloud made of dust became was just a handful of dust thrown by a little kid, but the rest of my body grew weaker.
The sight in front of me was more terrifying than the lightning bolt itself. The hooded man is standing between us and the lightning bolt raising his right arm in front of him. With a flick of his arm the lightning bolt, which was big enough to hit a group of at least five people, changed its direction and flew upward in the sky while shrinking until it disappeared completely.
Adelphia let out a deep relaxed sigh as she left me and fell idly on the ground. I fell too and tried immediately to stand up, but I can't. My body is paralyzed. I can do nothing but stare at the hooded guy with terror in my wide eyes. My breath grew fast, and I could feel as I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.
The lightning bolt is fast enough to catch me in the air before I fall if Adelphia left me, and that hooded guy is fast enough to cover about 10 meters in half that time and even changed the lightning bolt's direction with a flick of his hand. But none of these matters. What matters is what came after that. I could feel a strong aura crushing me and it was strangely clear that it came out of him. My fast breath grew hard, now. I started taking a deep breath after the other to provide my lung with air or otherwise I feel the air getting sucked out of my lungs.
Pathetic. I'm staring at him with terror, struggling to breathe, paralyzed in my place.
PATHETIC. What will fear to help me with? This aura is weaker than, no it is incomparable with King Leon's killing intent.
I have to resist fear. I have to move. I start my moving my arm. It took me a few seconds of struggling to move it, but it moved. Even if my body started trembling, I can do it.
I start moving the rest of my body now. I managed to stand on my two trembling legs, but I immediately fell on my left knee.
I rest both of my hands on my right leg and uses all my four limbs to stand up.
I finally stood up. Even if I'm trembling, I'm standing up.
I raise my right hand to my back and spoke with the highest voice I could muster "Come to me." It came out very faint that maybe only Adelphia and the hooded guy could hear it.
The string linking me with Bo solidifies once more and I begin to hear cracking sounds behind me. Although I'm not looking it's obvious that it's Bo moving through the ice wall. After a few seconds, I hear a powerful breaking sound, before Bo comes flying at me and his grip lies exactly in my hand.
I place Bo in front of me as my trembling grew a little lighter.
Now what? I don't know what he wants, why he saved me, or what would happen if I fought him. Of course, I mean if I will survive or not. My only option is to observe for now.
The hooded guy is still facing the direction in which the lightning bolt came from and raising his arm in front of him.
I look in that direction too to try figuring out where did this lightning bolt come from. I find it coming from the forest where my attack threw Tom minutes ago. There three or four broken trees arranged in a line behind each other.
WAIT! Were these trees broken because of my attack? I was angry and attacked subconsciously, but was it that strong?
Just when I was lost in my thoughts, I could see Tom flying toward the hooded guy, until his neck landed perfectly in his hand. The air that was pressured by Tom's body continued moving in the same direction, causing the hooded guy's hood to fall. He has long blonde hair that fell on his shoulder, but I couldn't see his features since he was giving me his back.
The hooded guy is raising Tom's face to be on the same level as his face, preventing Tom's legs from touching the ground.
"Didn't the mayor warn you not to kill anyone?" The hooded guy stated. What does he mean? The mayor said that we will all die if I lose. Then, why will he order Tom not to kill us?
Tom holds the hooded guy's hand with both of his hands, trying to free himself from his grasp, but with no use.
"If he couldn't defend himself to such an attack, he won't be worthy to pass the test," Tom said with confidence regardless of the situation he is in.
"You are not the one to decide his worthiness." The hooded guy said, still holding Tom in his hand.
Tom frowned in anger at the hooded guy's words, as a "tsk" escaped his lips.
The hooded guy left Tom's neck, causing him to fall, but Tom managed to stand on his legs instead of falling on the ground.
"I will make it just a warning this time." The hooded guy said, putting his hood up again, before walking to the mayor's side again.
He didn't feel threatened with me holding a sword to his back. No, he didn't even glance at me. He doesn't treat me like a threat at all. I saw only a glance of his power, but I think I understand why. He is on a completely different level from Tom and Adelphia.
"Grey, calm down," Gerrard said while holding my trembling hands to stop them from trembling.
"It's over, you can rest now." Gerrard continued.
I took deep breathes from my mouth I calmed down. My body began to stop trembling and the mana closing my injuries became stable. I didn't even notice that the mana was unstable from my fear.
As t feels tired, I bury Bo in the ground and lean on him, before switching my gaze to Gerrard
"Thanks, Gerrard," I said between the deep breathes. Then, starts to study my surroundings.
Gerrard is next to me with just some dust on his clothes. Behind me, Adelphia is sitting on the ground with one leg bent, while leaning on her arms. In front of me, Tom is rubbing his neck, while ignoring the huge diagonal injury coming from his torso all the way up to his shoulder. That's definitely going to leave a scar. To my left, Nuri is on the ground trembling, and even further to my left the mayor and the hooded guy looking at us.
These two are impossible to read. The hooded guy is wearing a hood preventing us from seeing his emotions, especially since he doesn't talk to any of us, but the mayor is different. He is not wearing anything to cover his face, but simply his expressions don't change. Like right now, he is smirking while rubbing his big white beard.
I finally look at myself to find out that my favorite white T-shirt is now red with blood.
"What now?" I asked as I returned my gaze to Gerrard.
"We will figure it out any moment now." Gerrard answered quickly. To anyone else, Gerrard may seem confident of himself, but I know that deep down he is nervous.
I nodded firmly to my friend. Then, we both walked towards Nuri. I leaned forward offering my hand to her. She hesitated for a moment, before giving her trembling hand to me. I helped her stand up before Gerrard start talking "Nuri, there's nothing to fear. No one here will hurt you anymore. So, please calm down. And if you feel like you are still afraid you can just leave the talking to us and stand to our back."
THAT MORON! He stole the spotlight. I have to look cool in front of Nuri.
"I promise to explain everything later, but for now stay behind us as Gerrard said," I said as I put my hand on Nuri's shoulder, which catches her off guard, as her head moved away from me. However, she nods hesitantly at both my and Gerrard's words.
We moved forward towards the mayor with both me and Gerrard in the front line and Nuri behind our backs.