"And that's what we were waiting for. I didn't think that the demon king would be stupid enough to send children. But looks like the info was correct. Let's wait till they find the girl and the other people."
A voice resounded in the silence and as quickly as it had come, it went away.
The sun had already set down and night had fallen over the area. But the moon was hidden behind dark clouds.
So with the moon being hidden, there was no source of light.
"We should retreat at this point," Aiden muttered while grasping Will's right shoulder.
The three boys had spent half an hour searching for Zoe but they still hadn't found her. They had been following the track of her blood on the ground but that became useless when night approached.
But that was only true for Alex and Aiden.
"Guys, I might fall over if you keep holding my shoulders this tightly. I know that you can't see in the night but you are not blind either. Use your senses a little." Will sounded annoyed before he bent down on his knees.
He looked at the ground but saw no drops of blood anywhere. He sighed and stood up before looking at his two partners.
"There are no signs of blood anywhere. Any suggestions on how we should proceed?" He then asked but heard no answer in reply.
"There is one thing that we can do." Alex then took a deep breath as he bit his thumb.
He bent down on the ground and dripped a drop of his blood on the ground.
He then started chanting in a strange language.
"Anykah Huku Huku Kubaya Kochi Kochi Sha la la Zen Zen Zense Kami Kajoyo Naojo Noko Ri Gama Kawa Saki No Hikaru Nara." Alex finished and stood up.
'Why do I have a feeling that someone from Earth created that spell…' After hearing certain words in the spell, Aiden had doubts about the origin of the spell.
But those doubts would have to wait for now.
"Earth Mother's Embrace." Alex then finished the spell with its name and slowly started moving forward.
"This spell is quite ancient when some demons used to worship the Earth Goddess, Gaia. Legend has it that once Gaia took a living being in her embrace, the two of them formed a permanent connection and could talk to each other anytime," Alex explained while walking. "This spell is something that was handed to us by one of Gaia's followers."
Alex then suddenly stopped and looked towards Aiden and Will. He raised his index finger to his lips in a shushing gesture and sat down.
"Zoe is less than 100 meters away." He whispered before silently moving forward.
This made Aiden remember the silent walk training they had done in the academy. It hadn't been a pleasant experience for many people but Aiden had aced the test.
But if it happened at night, he too struggled with it.
This was because, in the day, Aiden could just make the shadows stick of the soles of his shoes. The shadow would easily prevent him from making any noise and would also suppress any noise if Aiden stepped on a branch or something.
But at night, the number of shadows available dropped by a long shot. This was where Aiden's silent walking ability was tested.
[ Silent Walk (Maxed Skill)
- Like an assassin on his way to hunt his target, you will not make any sound with your feet while moving.
- The effectiveness of the skill is doubled during the night. ]
But the system had yet once again saved him even though he was still reluctant to completely depend on it.
"I will go from below. You two on the other hand go together." Alex ordered as he knew that Aiden was useless at this point.
After all, there was no moonlight for him to create shadows with.
Will and Aiden both nodded and with the help of Will's lightning element, they dashed away. But Alex stayed there with a grim expression.
"This feels like a trap." He muttered to himself and tried to check whether there was anyone in the surrounding area.
His skill, Earth Mother's Embrace, could track people from any distance. The only requirement was that he had to mark the person with the spell beforehand.
Alex had marked all three members of the group in the beginning to make sure that they stayed safe. He took his rank of a group leader very seriously especially when it included three children.
'Though I probably shouldn't think of them as children. They might be able to break the teeth of full-grown adults.' He then shook the thoughts away before sinking into the ground.
He then started following Will and Aiden in this way.
***
"You guys don't have balls. Hell, you don't even have dicks. That is why you are all coming at me at once." Zoe wiped the blood off her lips and gritted her teeth.
Standing in front of her were six men, all of them grinning at her situation. She had no way of escaping and if not for her pool of elemental energy, she would have already died.
"Come on girl, just give up. If you let us have a few hours with you, we might just let you go." One of the men said and snorted as Zoe raised her eyebrows.
"What can a dickless man like you do? I would rather say that you go ahead and find an animal in the forest. But I think even that animal would refuse to be with a dickless man like you." Zoe replied with a small smile.
She knew that she had struck a nerve when she saw the man cracking his knuckles.
"Let me show you whether I have a dick or not." He said in a threatening voice as he and the other men took battle stances.
However, they were all laughing at the man behind his back. This meant that they were not actually taking Zoe seriously since they thought that they could easily beat a teenager like her.
'That should lower their guard. I can perhaps take down one on my own, two with a little luck, and three with heaven-defying luck. But if I had such levels of luck, I wouldn't be facing these men.'
Zoe assessed the situation with narrowed eyes. Her chances of winning were pretty low and the only thing she could try to do was escape.
"O Watcher of hell, curse my enemies with the curse of paralysis," Zoe muttered a simple yet extremely effective spell.
She then jumped a few feet back and started running away.
"O the mother who embraces all with love, bless me and my allies with the power to resist any curses!"
'Ah shit, here I go again.' Zoe cursed mentally before pulling to a stop and rolling in the right direction just in time to dodge a fireball.
The only reason Zoe couldn't escape was that the group had a life magic-user amongst them.
Light magic-users were the counterparts of dark magic users. However, life magic-users were the arch-nemesis of the dark magic users.
Their blessings were directly called from the power of the gods and depending on how big of a follower they were, they gained more benefits.
It looked as though the life magic user in the group was around average or above average but that too was enough to subdue Zoe.
'I have to keep them occupied.' She knew that the only way she could live was if someone came to rescue her.
Otherwise, she would sooner or later be defeated.
So the only thing she could currently do was face slapping. After all, they would be too abashed to move then, or at least Zoe hoped so.
But she was lacking the power of the main character so that wasn't possible.
But before another fireball could come her way, three arrows zipped through the air and flew towards the life magic-user.
They were easily stopped by one of the men as he glanced around with narrowed eyes.
'Those were shadow element arrows.' A feeling of hope suddenly started to generate inside Zoe.
After all, there was only one shadow element user who she knew. And if Aiden was here, that meant the rest of her group members were also there.
"I think you just gave up our element of surprise," Will whispered while looking at Zoe's body and seeing whether she had any major wounds or not.
"I just merely assessed their level. They are much stronger than us." Aiden replied immediately as the two of them were sitting on the branches of a tree.
With the help of Will's light element, the duo had hidden themselves and Aiden had started shooting from the top of the tree.
"Then that's going to be fun," Will replied with a grin as the two boys climbed down the tree and looked at their opponents.
All of the men were above average in physique and one of them had good muscles. They had also seen the life magic-user use his chant and a person using fire magic.
But they had no idea what the other three people could do.
"Hey kid, I can sense when someone travels through the earth. Looks like you don't know how to hide the waves caused by your movement," The man with the best physique said with a grin and put his hands on the ground. "Miniature earthquake!"
As soon as he took the name of the skill, tremors of shock went through the entire place.
And these tremors forced Alex to reveal himself.