Returning to the top of Montgomery Church, we can still see Yuso, who is surrounded by the three children, Mizuki, Sona, and Toshiro.
Yuso was hunched over, staring out into the village of Ryakudatsu from above. Call it a bird's eye view, for he was analyzing the closest exit for a chance to escape. 'If I could potentially hop from pentagram to pentagram, I would be out in minutes. The only thing is, I'd be detected instantly. If they could detect the child, I don't doubt that I could be sensed as well.' Yuso glanced back at the three kids, a thought coming to mind. 'However, I could leave the other two brats, only leaving me with one to deal with.'
Besides, how would Master react if he were to bring back more brats than what was expected? It would only hassle them both. Yuso proceeded to stand up, both garnering the attention of the children and making them jolt in fear. The red-headed male turned his body to face the huddled children. They were still frightened. Any small movement Yuso would make was all that it took to make the children shake erratically in fear. Yuso opened his mouth to speak, "Good news, you get to be spared."
The children all nearly smiled at those wondrous words, only to become scared at what Yuso said next, "But, the brat with curly hair stays with me." That wasn't good.
In response, all Yuso got was silence. How could the children respond to that? On the other hand, Yuso expected the two to simply hand over the brat in a gratifying manner. Most kids were selfish and arrogant. So why were they staying silent? These were the questions that invaded Yuso's mind. Unfortunately, they aren't what Yuso needs at the moment. "Don't make me say it again. Hand over the boy." Yuso's eyes became more prominent to the children. The red, pentagram-filled eyes were certainly a scary sight for the three.
Then, before any type of response toward Yuso could happen, a loud cracking sound roared from the ground below them. Yuso bolted to the edge of the church he was standing on top of, his eyes widening at the sight before him. The people from earlier must've found him already. But what is this power? He's already aware of the purple-haired man as well as the swordsmen's strength, but this? Not expected
All kinds of giant wooden roots were emerging from the ground, all targeted at the top of the Montgomery Church. Yuso had to move, and quickly. The red-headed male quickly spun around, his eyes rotating clockwise along with the red illumination of his palm. But, before Yuso could form a single pentagram, the roof of the Montgomery roof was obliterated by the wooden roots, separating Yuso from the children as well. This certainly escalated quickly.
With no time to waste, Yuso formed a crimson-red pentagram in mid-air, falling through it and being transported onto one of the giant wooden roots. Yuso could only watch as a significantly smaller root wrapped around Mizuki, yanking the curly-haired child away from Sona and Toshiro.
"Mizuki!" The two kids yelled simultaneously, extending their arms and reaching out toward Mizuki in hopes of him returning. Sadly, Mizuki was only getting farther and farther away.
Yuso narrowed his eyes, hopping off of the wooden root he was standing on, hopping from one root to the next. With the roots still moving, Yuso had to perform various flips and twirls to avoid losing his balance and ultimately falling off the edge of one of the roots. With Mizuki in sight, only a few feet away, still tangled up in the smaller root. Just as Yuso jumped forward, reaching for Mizuki, a giant green fist came into sight, nearly ramming into Yuso from his blindside. The redhead extended his hand out in the direction of the sudden attack, a pentagram forming as a protective barrier from the green fist.
Yuso landed back on one of the roots. On a root adjacent to Yuso, a cloaked man from the group he ran into earlier was staring him down. His hand was pushed forward, his fist clenched as a black-colored ring shone bright green on his middle finger. Looking closely, it can now be seen that the green fist from earlier was coming straight from that ring. Yuso had the opportunity to observe the green fist get sucked back into the front of the ring. This just keeps getting better. Aside from the black cloak, this man also wore a brown headband around his head full of long green hair that reached all the way down to his collar bone, as well as an exposed gray chainmail shirt that could only be seen from within the opening of his cloak
"Hey! Sorry for intruding, but we need that kid!" The green-haired man yelled out to Yuso. This man was apologizing? "Boss's orders!" The man finished off his dialogue.
Yuso grunted in annoyance. "Tell your boss to not meddle with my affairs!" Yuso shouted, forming three pentagrams under both his glowing palms. Yuso then reeled his arms back, proceeding to thrust them forward and launch the pentagrams at the green-haired man.
"Woah!" The green-haired man said in surprise, hopping to the side to avoid the incoming pentagrams.
Yuso looked back to where Mizuki originally was, seeing that he was now out of sight. 'I can't stall. Letting these people get their hands on the target will only be putting the mission at risk.'
XXX
Haishi, Oshieru, and Akushon could all be seen running throughout Ryakudatsu, heading to the training grounds to hopefully find the students around the area, as well as the aiding warriors Haishi had ordered to remain alongside the students.
"The training grounds aren't too far from here!" Haishi informed the two instructors behind him.
Throughout the duration of the past few moments, Oshieru has been mentally conversing with himself. 'I knew we shouldn't have come here. Sending first-year students to a village that we had only recently built an alliance with wasn't a smart choice, but our council was blinded by the hope of rebuilding itself!'
Unfortunately for Oshieru, there was no time to be stuck in these types of thoughts. What was important was finding the students. However, the gods must've blessed them with immense luck as what happened next clears most of their worries.
As they took a sharp turn, they came face-to-face with the aiding warriors, who also had the first-year students tagging along with them. This obviously shocked Haishi and the instructors. At the front of the warrior group, Kou adopted a look of relief. "Haishi! Thank the gods that we found you. We couldn't find the instructors, and without the instructors, we couldn't... Wait, they're with you!?" Kou halted her rambling, spotting both Oshieru and Akushon standing behind the chief warrior.
Haishi shook his head frantically. "It doesn't matter anymore. What we need to do is head to the Montgomery Church. It should be the safest place right now!"
"Yes, Haishi!" Kou replied hastily with the nod of her head.
XXX
Hey! Sorry for the lazy ending, but this also means that almost everything is set for the nearing finally of Volume 2! It's kinda hard to believe that we're almost at Volume 3 for The Village Disciples! Stay tuned for more!
Have a Great Day!
Peace - Cr1ticalz_