Ryuzio ducked behind a giant rock after rounding to the route to the right as he got out of the cave he was running through. Stealthily, of course. He could see more than two dozen miners gathered up toward his left, all wearing helmets and unfamiliar skyguard field uniforms. Wasn't Arold supposed to distract these guys while Ryuzio went to search for Hitryel and beat up the commander guy?
A different group of three skyguards approached these gathered miners. The new group included a man with slick black hair, another with brown hair, and the last one wearing a helmet similar to the ones on the heads of the miners.
"Do not worry anymore, skyguards," said the slick-haired man. "We're here to ease your stress. Follow us to the southern mines and together we shall take care of the ambushing cavelurkers, shouldn't we?"
Ryuzio nodded to himself. 'So that's where Aro went…' He quickly put Hitryel's pairstone on top of his palm and let the pebble roll—the glow of the core of which was fading rapidly.
It leaned toward the right path. He snuck out stealthily to the route shown by the pairstone, not wanting to trouble Arold by ruining his plan. The boy seemed troubled enough.
One thing that was troubling Ryuzio himself, though, was his ability to overhear people's conversations from far away. When he was running away with Benji from the green-haired commander of Legion 88, way back when he'd first arrived in Sonas, he'd been able to hear the exchange between that commander guy and his Legion Master.
Even now, Ryuzio was able to eavesdrop on the skyguards' conversation without getting too close at all. It was something he did on instinct and that was why it was troubling him. Was this natural? Could everyone do something like this? Was it just his sensory capabilities?
A quick glance to the left showed him that the slick-haired skyguard was shaking hands with every gathered miner. To ease their stress? Anyway… Ryuzio managed to get away from here without being spotted by the skyguards, following the pairstone.
'What?' As he was pocketing Hitryel's pairstone, he noticed that despite using Ethersurge to run hastily through the caves, he wasn't wearing the aura coat just now. In the moment that followed, as if on instinct, the aura coat showed itself. 'Weird…'
###
"Don't try anything," Hitryel warned the skyguard sitting opposite to him. "I haven't forgiven you. Don't make it worse."
Tolin let the gloves rest beside him, raising his hands. "Of course."
"Did you also see those leeches, Hitryel?" Joysaleen asked. "The ones all over those miners?"
"Huh?" Hitryel said in annoyance, trying to keep his eyes on Kelty's gloves. Leeches? What in smoke was this girl talking about?
"I would assume that he didn't," Tolin said, crossing a foot on top of the opposite knee, resting back into the couch. "There's no way that a brawler like him can use anything but Allsurge."
"What in the smoke is that?" Hitryel asked, keeping the man talking. Maybe Joysaleen said something so absurd to distract the skyguard's focus.
"See?" Tolin said with a smile. "Told you so. I can even bet on the fact that he has no idea of the different kinds of Ethersurges. But that doesn't make him any less of an entertaining brawler."
'More than one?' Hitryel thought. He couldn't possibly believe this man after being deceived by him. But if he somehow was telling the truth, than this whole Ether smoke just got way more complicated. Then again…
'Ways of the Warrior,' Emerton had once said. 'Each of the five arts focuses on enhancing a warrior in a different way. A master of all five arts is sure to be one of the strongest fighters.'
Back in Arestos, the students used to compete in matches to see who was further in the mastery of an art or Way. Kelty and Hitryel, however, always competed in mixed arts matches, to see who was a superior warrior overall…
Hitryel clenched his jaw as the disappointment he had in himself deepened after he got out of this stream of thought and found Kelty's gloves in the hands of a man who could never walk down the path which would make him worthy of touching a warrior's weapons. It was Hitryel who had made this happen.
This was all wrong. He HAD to correct this.
Hitryel threw his legs up, rolling over the back of the couch on which he was sitting.
Tolin immediately cut his conversation with Joysaleen, bringing his eyes forward—
Hitryel grunted in frustration from behind the couch, rippling his Ethersurge down to his legs. He planted his feet onto the back of the couch then immediately extended his bent legs, throwing the couch to the opposite one.
Tolin rolled to his left side as the furniture collided into one another. He did not wait a second in taking big steps toward the fireplace with Kelty's gloves in hand. "Don't push your luck, sir. Do you really think I won't burn your Heart—?"
Hitryel rolled to his right, crashing into Joysaleen's stool, making her fall and tumble backward.
She hissed as she fell. "Watch it, you moron—!"
Hitryel planted his feet on the desk, pushing it toward Tolin with legs bulging with Flow, body flattening on the floor.
Tolin's eyes widened as the table slid straight at him with a speed his body couldn't process. A pinkish aura bubbled around him as the furniture crashed against him, breaking upon impact, wooden pieces bursting out—
Hitryel jumped onto his feet from the floor by tucking his legs in, bringing his knees closer to his torso, and them blasting them out. He straightened up right after his feet touched the floor and ran at Tolin despite having his hands tied up behind his back.
Tolin smiled as he saw Hitryel running at him without a blink in his eyes. "This is all I wanted. I love to see people—"
"Shut up." Hitryel lunged with his right leg extended forward, kicking Tolin in the face, stamping the skyguard's head into the wall, which cracked from the impact. Tolin's hands flew out, throwing Kelty's gloves into the air, as the kick broke through his Ethersurge and turned his bulbous nose into a fountain of blood.
Hitryel opened his jaws wide open, chomping them close at the airborne gloves, grabbing them by his teeth in midair to not let them touch ground as he himself did so. He stood high, looking down as Tolin fell to the floor, holding Kelty's gloves by his mouth.
"Pathetic," he mumbled.
###
Arold sniped at the very end of the mine, the arrow crashing against the wall, making the escaping miners flinch. He raised his fist forward, signaling the Etherbeasts to attack. The wave of cavelurkers behind him broke into a full speed charge at the skyguards ahead.
The group of Etherbeasts jumped on top of each and every miner, harassing them on the spot. Cavelurkers had grown significantly weaker over the last decade, but their sheer number as of now was still enough to overpower this group of skyguards.
Arold almost told the rest of the cavelurkers to advance deeper, but then a cavelurker flew over his head, the ones behind him catching the poor creature. Arold sharply turned his head forward, thinning his eyes to find which skyguard had done it.
He loaded his bow, closing his left eye, locating the miner who'd just thrown the cavelurker this far, the chaotic bodies in front of him obstructing the helmeted miner's face and the arrow's path.
Arold exhaled, a thread of green light blooming out of the hand holding the arrow, then wrapping itself around the sharp projectile—
He slid his feet left, releasing the arrow emanating a green glow way off his target. The targeted miner, who wasn't wearing anything over his sleeveless top, kicked away more and more cavelurkers, breaking through the wall of Etherbeasts. Perfect distraction.
Arold whistled, rounding the fingers of his left hand clockwise in a circle. 'Turn.'
Half of the thread of light wrapping the arrow loosened as the arrow spun in midair, changing its trajectory as it stopped, pointing to the target miner.
Arold whistled again, straightening out the forefinger and its neighbor of his left hand. 'Thrust.'
The thread of light unwrapped itself and the arrow zipped through air, straight down at the targeted miner's helmet, the glowing threads shooting in the opposite direction, disappearing right after.
'He won't get hurt,' Arold reassured himself. 'Sorry, but I have to knock you down.'
The arrow crashed against the miner's helmeted noggin, knocking his head back.
Arold waved the remaining cavelurkers forward, knowing the big threat was dealt with, but they refused to move. Arold's eyebrows furrowed—
Tens of cavelurkers flew over his head, some being rescued by their cousins from getting crashed into the stone walls, others—unfortunately—not finding such luck.
Arold gulped with wide eyes as he looked ahead and found that it was the same miner that he'd just shot who was still going strong against the cavelurkers, punching and kicking aside any Beast that stood in his way. He was advancing toward Arold. Quickly.
Then he did something strange, standing still amidst the tens of creatures surrounding him that were too afraid to attack him. He put forward a hand, palm up, as if asking something from Arold—
The cavelurkers around him were blasted away, and soon the miner was joined by…
'No…! So all along, this miner…' The two men now standing ahead of Arold were making his whole body shiver with fear.
After all, they both were Squadron Captains of Legion 55, men directly under Commander Lexnal.
"Aren't you cold?" Celd said to the miner, pocketing one hand, offering a dark coat with the other. "Don't take it off, man!"
The miner accepted the coat with the hand he was not holding Arold's bow with. And—
'What!' Arold looked at his empty hands, confused as to where his bow went. He looked around, checked inside his cloak, but to no avail. 'That can't be… Could that bow…?'
Soon, the rescued miners were running through the cleared way, and the two captains were joined by someone that made Arold shrink. "He" had arrived.
"So all this time," Lexnal said, stopping a little ahead of the captains, "it was you sending those cavelurkers to attack my servants, wasn't it?
"Researcher's son?"
Arold set his jaw after gulping, a grim thought occurring to him. 'Ryuzio…left me…?' He and his friend were supposed team up to take care of Lexnal and the other three captains while Arold distracted the miners…
Lexnal approached, licking a lollipop. Ever since the day they met, more than five years before, Arold had never seen the skyguard without that candy in his mouth.
Arold took a step back, and so did the cavelurkers around him. He found himself utterly defenseless, now that his bow had been taken away from him by Captain Ernash… When…? But he still had one thing that'd save him… One thing he had on Lexnal.
"How're you going to pay me back, kid?" Lexnal asked. "For the past five years, these cavelurkers have caused major damages to my business. You were the one sending them, weren't you? So how do you plan on paying back for the losses you've made me?"
Arold gathered courage as he grabbed his right hand with the other to stop it from shaking. "D-Don't come any closer," he said, voice quivering. "C-Commander Lexnal… I know what you've been doing for these past 5 years inside Ezlus Mines… I know these mines better than any skyguard under you…"
"That just gives us more incentive to silence you," Celd said from behind his commander. "We can't let you chat about Commander's business to others."
"No, Celd," Lexnal said, tilting his head. "He's not talking about trading lucentums. He's talking about the surprises we've placed through these mines."
Arold gulped, unable to move, as Lexnal stopped right in front of him, eyeing him down.
"Aren't you, kid?" Lexnal said with a smile. "But let me ask you a simple question. Do you know why the independent research team that came here failed to stay alive?"
Air choked out of Arold's lungs, sweat forming on his face. Faces appeared in front of him. Faces of people he had once known. Faces of all the people who'd left him alone inside these caves.
Lexnal's smile deepened. "Because their leader made the same discovery as you." He laughed, holding the stick of the lollipop inside his mouth, exhaling air from his nose.
Arold fell to his knees, tears forming in his eyes. "You're…lying…"
The leader of that independent research team…was none other than Arold's own mother. She'd also found what Arold did and that's why she'd died…along with the rest of her research team…?
"You already know what that means, right, kid?" Lexnal said. "You'll soon be meeting your mother."