The silver armoured man that appeared before them scanned each and everyone of them, two Scorpion Guards, three ruby ranked guys, and three ruby ranked girls.
He first eyes on the most familiar description he kept hearing when he joined the guild, a wavy haired guy with only a cape hanging on one of his shoulders, a beautiful bow that helps him dispatching enemies in one strike. He also saw he had his ruby gems on his bow, probably to enhance the arrows.
'This must be Lance Amare George Crest-Vancouv,' he thought.
Next, his eyes landed on a dark-haired guy, his intense and serious gaze would not let any degrading words penetrate him. Wrapped up in a dark blue cape with his black boots, his silver vambraces and silver sheathe would make him stand out, especially with his ivory skin.
'This guy, sword user, he must be Verin Eros Alon,' he squinted his eyes.
Next, his eyes traveled to a gloomy looking kid, he wore all black. And the bandages he has on his shoulder down to his arm, and his shin seems to be in need of replacing. His eyes is dull and dead but murderous.
'What a strong gaze,' he formed an unnoticeable grin, 'this must be the one they're talking about. A lost cause genius, Viv Arni, adopted son of Sir Oz.'
The mysterious man sighed. The next one he studied are the women of the rank, his eyes went to the shortest girl who's behind Viv. Her fluffy blonde hair is tangled, possibly from the mission. The way she presents herself is clear that she is from a noble household. And with a staff as tall as her, he immediately recognized who she was.
'Thenea Vill-Ember, the supposedly first Ruby Rank adventurer.'
The next person he scanned was the person next to Thenea, another blonde girl. She's a tad bit taller than the previous one, and with Thenea's sparkling amber eyes, this girl's black eyes look dead like Viv's. But what causes him to shiver was not it, it was the resemblance she has with someone he knew from the past.
He could easily compare the two, from her hair, to the shape of her eyes, and the way she carries herself, but it is impossible. The person he thought of was cheerful and always smiling, this one doesn't show any emotion.
The guy who defeated Grun noticed the other blonde girl's clothes, 'A Priestess from that temple?'
His brows drew closer together as he pondered and sewed together pieces he took notice from the new girl.
"Oi, what do you think you're doing?" The woman beside Lance spoke and took a step towards him. "Why do you keep ogling Lithea?"
'Ah, so she's not Lily.'
His eyes next studied the person speaking to him. She wore a dark maroon bodysuit.
He sighed.
Serene's face turned beet red when she noticed him sigh after looking up and down at her.
"You!"
"What's wrong?" Lance got confused as she pointed a finger at the armoured guy.
"She's ogling at us and sighed!"
"He must be disappointed in you," Lance joked, trying to lighten it up to stop her from attacking the guy. They still don't know if he's there to help them, or was there for a different mission.
Serene was burning in rage and summoned her vines, forming it into a huge hammer and hitting the back of Lance's head with it, making him fall forward. When his lips met the ground, Serene continuously hammered his back.
"You."
Whack!
"Ack!"
"Crazy."
Whack!
"Ogh!"
"Bastard!"
Whack!
"Ah!"
"Die!"
Whack!
"Oogf!"
Lithea summoned her threads and wrapped it on Serene to make her stop, Verin took the vine hammer from her and threw it away so she couldn't pick it up.
"Sorry about these two," Verin apologized on their behalf but never let his guard down. He may have the ring on his finger, but it wasn't a guarantee he won't attack them.
"Do you mind me asking," Verin and Hugo's thundering gaze battled, "what brought you here?"
"I am here for a mission."
Lance popped his head up, "what mission?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA–" Serene screamed but again, Lithea covered her mouth with her threads.
She flailed.
"I was personally asked by Lady Edrei to help them with the abduction," he admitted, holding the children tighter.
"Are those the missing children?" Thenea asked.
He looked at the side and moved, letting the cloud bed he formed earlier to pass. There, dozens of children were sleeping comfortably.
"Oh my," the light mage covered her mouth and started crying. She bawled her eyes out when Lithea started hugging her. "The poor kids!"
Viv was surprised at the scene, to him, Thenea's tears is an alarm inside him. His snapped and was in rage to see her hurt.
'He made her cry.'
He was about to jump on the armoured guy when Verin unsheathed his sword and stopped Viv, "don't!"
Viv growled.
"Stand down, boy," Lance stood and dusted himself. He slowly took Viv's knives.
Viv looked at him with a menacing look, the commander gulped.
"He's one of us, Viv."
Everyone was surprised.
"Mmmhmm?" Serene struggled, still at Lithea's mercy.
Lance felt their eyes on him and nodded towards the guy, "look at his finger."
Thenea sniffed and wiped her tears dry to look for a ring. When she did find it, she smiled, "there is a ring."
"So you're the seventh member?" Verin asked.
The guy only nodded.
"What's your name?"
"I am called Hugo."
Lance nodded, "are these all of the children?"
"They're the only ones I found," Hugo looked at the guards, "although I still have to make sure there are none left."
Lance noticed him looking at the guards and called them, "go get help in the village, tell Lady Edrei as well."
"Ha!" the two of them saluted and stomped their feet before taking off.
To save the children, they must hurry. They don't know how long some of them have been there, if they ate well, and what traumatic events happened while in captivity.
Lithea slowly walked towards the two gentlemen and tapped Lance's arm lightly to get his attention.
"Lily, what is it?"
Hugo's eyes widened in surprise, 'Did he just call her Lily?'
"I can take a look at the children."
Lance smiled as a sign of relief, "of course! Please, we need your skills."
Lithea nodded firmly.
"Move them there," she asked Hugo as she pointed to the spacious area with no trees where the guards were standing near.
Still processing the name Lance called her, he clumsily moved the children where she wanted them to.
"Careful," Lance said as he noticed Hugo's trembling hands. He thought Hugo was tired from keeping the children safe, and the cloud he made for them probably depleted his mana.
"My apologies," Hugo mumbled.
"Let me help," he summoned his mana and slowly transferred some of it to Hugo.
"Much appreciated."
Lance secretly smiled, it was the first time someone within the group had verbally appreciated him.
"While Lithea checks the children to help as many as she can," Lance began to speak and they gathered around, "I want Verin, Viv, and Serene to come with me and scour the area."
The three nodded and left first.
"Hugo and Thenea, watch over her."
The armoured guy settled the cloud bed down and nodded at Lance.
"We will," Thenea said and moved across Lithea; readied her staff.
Hugo moved as well and stood further away from them, watching with hawk eyes.
After making sure everything is set, Lance followed the others and looked for more kids.
Lithea took a deep breath before sitting down in front of the cloud bed, this will be her first time using her healing prowess after leaving the temple. She hasn't cured many people at once before as well, she knew this would take a toll on her.
Her mana could be in danger if she won't do it slowly.
"We're here for you, Lily."
Lithea nodded at Thenea and did her usual sitting form before closing her eyes.
'Lily.' Hugo had become more and more confused with them calling the priestess Lily and decided to take this opportunity to study her face more.
Lithea put both of her hands on the ground and summoned her threads, crisscrossing them to make a huge blanket out of it as her mana slowly flowed on it, coating them with healing mana.
"Thenea, can you please make a shield?"
"On it!"
Thenea gathered her mana on her hand and touched her orb to duplicate it; she had her staff float before her and used both of her hands to stretch the duplicated orb. Her hands moved delicately against the glass orb and within seconds, she covered them with her impenetrable orb.
"It's done, Lil."
After she heard Thenea finished doing it, she opened her eyes and activated her divine vision.
Hugo was surprised, 'it's the same as Master Chi.'
The mana flowing on her threads grew and green rays from her mana penetrated through the children. She has to focus.
'Slowly. Slowly. Slowly.'
She kept reminding herself.
Lithea could feel everything the children are feeling; a piercing cold, like ice covering their bodies. Heavy, it feels heavy, like they were trapped inside a huge chunk of ice.
They're all scared.
They're cold yet they sweat, and weirdly enough, their insides feel hot.
With everything she can, she summoned more mana to the threads and healed the children's visible injuries and wounds. Unfortunately, she can't reach deeper as there are no internal damages on the children.
The orb was covered with a strong green light as Lithea kept going. Her discomfort is visible, her brows furrowed while she gritted her teeth.
She inhaled sharply.
"Lily," Thenea uttered, watching her closely with worried eyes.
"What's happening?" Hugo can't keep calm, he still has a lot of questions for her.
"I don't know!" Thenea screamed as the light got hotter.
"Can't you take down the orb?"
"I can't! She told me to cast this for a reason!"
Both Thenea and Hugo were pinned on the orb, her mana and its strength is too much for them to handle. It's hot, it's heavy, and it's blinding. It is too overwhelming for them to counter it without hurting everyone within the orb.
The orb slowly cracked and the longer the healing gets, the stronger it becomes.
"I can't hold it!" Thenea gritted her teeth.
Hugo had already made his move and slowly walked towards Thenea, knowing what his scimitar can do, it can at least deflect some of the impact and minimize its damage.
"Here, hold my hand!"
He shouted and right before the orb exploded, Hugo had grabbed Thenea to him and covered her.
Groan.
Thenea opened her eyes and saw bits of shards of the orb around them.
'The kids! Lily!'
She was about to move when she noticed Hugo was struggling to move away from her.
'Did he get hurt?'
Feeling guilty, she slowly moved to slip from his protection and checked what happened; Hugo was closing his eyes in pain.
Gasped!
"No," a tear escaped her eyes.
"LILY!"
With the mention of her name, Hugo gathered his strength and took a look. Everything seems normal with the kids, apart from the shards of glasses around them, they looked safe. But what made him freeze was the unconscious Lithea with the blood coming out from her mouth.
"Lily! Lily!"
Thenea ran towards her and checked her pulse, she cried even more upon discovering it was barely there. It has gotten weak.
Still groaning, Hugo had to ask, "how is she?"
"Her pulse is weak."
Hugo panicked, he still had to ask her if she's the same Lily he knew from when he was a child.
"No, we should take her back to the village and–."
"Don't move!" Thenea trapped him inside one of her bubbles. "You're also in no condition, if you keep moving you're going to hurt yourself more!"
He didn't speak furthermore.
"We have to wait for the guards and the others," Thenea had her light magic seep inside Lithea to help her heart pump blood. Next, she opened her inventory and took her light coated bandages to help Hugo and some of the cracked bones he got from protecting her.
'Where are you guys?' She's scared. 'Viv, come back.'
As he was scouring, Viv felt a shiver down his spine. He stopped his tracks, it wasn't intentional. His feet suddenly froze.
"Viv, hurry up!" Lance fussed but he didn't listen. Instead, Viv pointed the direction where they left.
"What's going on?" Serene knew Viv's intuition is the sharpest within the team. She has been observing them all and not once did he fail her.
"Serene, we have to hurry up!" Lance yelled as she hopped down to join him.
Before the two could argue, a loud explosion happened in the same direction they left the others.
"The girls!" Serene immediately ran followed by Viv who outran her.
"Hey, wait!" Lance didn't know what to do; he looked at Verin. But to his surprise, he also started running after them.
He was torn, what's more important? His teammates' safety or the children's?
Lance messed his hair and ran after them, "oh, fuck it!"