CLIFFORD's POV:
'Why the hell are the monsters coming out before the sun has set.
bhhhrrrmmmmmm!
tch tch
It happened again.
Its the second time that these shockwaves have occurred.
And these shockwaves came from the village.
What could make the ground and air shake so much that we could here it from kilometres away.
I have a bad feeling about this.'
"Sergeant we will be arriving at the village in just 5 minutes." Canny said
"Tch
I cant wait for that long, anything might happen in that span of time.
I will go first, you guys follow me." I commanded
"Yes sergeant " said the soldiers
'I used my fire and zoomed to the village.
It should take me only about 1 minute to reach the village.
After almost a minute I had reached near to the village.
The first thing I saw were hundreds of gigantic wolves stabbed by huge earth spikes which seemed to be raised from the ground.
I immediately stopped when I saw this.'
"Were those tremors caused by this."
'I saw the entrance blocked by the spikes, some spikes were inside the forest as well.
The spikes were covered in green black blood.
I flew into the sky, above the village to get a full view of what was happening.
I flew several hundred feet into the sky and then looked down at the village
I could see the whole village was destroyed by the spikes. I could also see the extent of the spikes.
The spikes not only covered the whole village but also vast expanses of the south and west side of the forest.
And there seemed to be so many wolves that were stabbed by the spikes that I couldn't even count them.'
"What could've done this" I said to myself with a surprised and scared face
'I flew down towards the area where spikes with the highest density were present at.
I saw a boy laying down on the ground.
I flew closer, I wanted to see the face of the boy
Its Clay!!
What is he doing here, I told him to go back to the mansion in the morning itself.
I landed on the ground.
I looked at Clay properly, he had a piece of bone sticking out of his skin and blood was spilling out uncontrollably.
I stopped the bleeding by coating his wounds with mana but I couldnt do anything about the bone.
We needed a healer for that so I picked him up from the ground,
a small stick like thing fell from his hands but I didn't pay any attention to that.
I flew straight to the Military camp and took him to the infirmary.'
---
"Cliff its a good thing that you brought the kid to the infirmary right away, if you were even a minute then this child might have been a goner." said the doctor
"What about now, is he healed, is his bone back in place, has he regained consciousness." I asked being very worried
"Dont worry he is alright, he is healed and his bone is back in its place but it will take a few hours for him to regain consciousness."
I sighed with relief when he said that
"But how did the boy get in that state" the doctor asked
"I dont know how he ended up like that, but I saw him at the epicentre of all those spikes." I said
"Could it be that this kid did all that" said the doctor
"No, its impossible. He is only at the brown stage and what I saw there was something only a blue stage core could do.
And they would also have to have the ability to control earth, which is very rare.
So I am still figuring out how did it happen and who did it."
"Well have you thought the possibility of an elemental monster.
I know that they are very rare but its possible since the Sian mansion is located here and also 4 years ago the MaEk mansion incident.
I think someone is trying to wipe of all the ancient families."
"Yeah, that is also a possibility.
Well thanks for that but now I have to go to the village, they are investigating the scene and I have to be there.
also call me when the kid wakes up." I said and headed straight to the village.
'Hmmmm the possibility of an elemental monster.
Yeah that's the only thing which makes sense now.
But why was Clay at the centre of it.
tch
Too much confusion, I will just ask what the team found in the investigation.
After a few minutes I arrived at the village.'
"Canny give me a report" I said
"Sir the population of this village is 149, we found 8 dead bodies, the bodies looked like a monster attacked them, it seems no human deaths occurred due to the spikes.
There are a total of 128 people have been identified 56 of them have received major injuries but they can be healed. There are 13 people still missing.
And we found your student Cera in a rubble, she hasn't received any injuries."
'Cera and Clay why were they here'
"Okay, what about the monsters." I asked
"The monsters are the giant grey wolf, most of them seem to have dark green cores.
We are yet to determine the number of the wolves.
Our team thinks that these wolves, who live in a forest which is thousands of miles away. Had come to this forest for food, the wolves might have overhunted and killed most of the monsters in their forest so they came here for food.
We cannot say the exact reason but thats the only plausible reason
As for the extent of the spikes we still haven't found that out yet.
And we believe that the shockwaves earlier were caused by the spikes rising up from the ground."
"Okay, have you contacted captain Rose."
"Yes sergeant we have, she will be arriving in 10 minutes"
"If you have any more reports call me, I will be in the military camp.
and one more thing where is Cera." I asked
"She is in the evacuation camp, its on the east side of the village." Canny said
'I headed to the evacuation camp in the east.
It took me a few minutes to get to the camp.
The first thing I saw when reached the camp were crying villagers, I even saw people praying.'
-"What am I going to do now, my farm's all destroyed. I had come to this village to escape from the urban life, but now I want to go back there."
-"My bar, my bar is destroyed. My dad had entrusted with the bar, he wanted me to keep it safe but now its nothing but rubble."
-"Please baby, please be safe"
'They should feel happy instead of sorrow, they were able get out alive with only 8 deaths.
Buildings can be rebuild, money can be made again but death cannot be reverted.
The amount of wolves I saw earlier would've instantly devoured this town if it hadn't been for the mysterious spike creator.
These people haven't seen the true horrors of the world like us the soldiers. We have seen our comrades die and some even leave us.
These people have been sheltered too much.'
"Sir Cliff"
'A voice woke me up from my deep thoughts.
The voice came from my right side.'
"Cera, I was looking for you." I said
'She looked unharmed, but her face seemed sad'
"Why are you sad Cera" I asked
"I dont know, my face just turns sad when I see all these people cry."
"Well good for you, we are going away from this sad place." I held her small hands and started walking with her
"Do you know where Clay is now" Cera asked
"Yeah he is in the military camp's infirmary."
"Infirmary?" she asked with a concerned look
"Dont worry he is fine, he just sustained some minor injuries." I lied to
"Thank the heavens, I was worried he might've been injured when he started to fight the wolf." Cera said with a less sad face
"Clay fought a wolf!" I didn't expect that
"Yeah we were in the village when a wolf appeared behind us.
I was so shocked that I couldn't move but Clay didn't seemed to be affected, he started to fight the wolf.
I fainted before I could see Clay defeat the wolf so I was worried."
'He fought a dark green core wolf and survived!'
"You didn't help him at all?"
"Yeah" she said with a hint of guilt in her
"Dont worry I am not blaming you or anything, its just that I am amazed to see that he survived fighting a dark green core monster." I said with a smile on my face
'He must have become a light brown mage after all the training I made him do.
I am so proud to be his teacher.'
"Sir can I go and meet Clay"
"Well you could but after he wakes up, we found him unconscious."
"Ummm okay"
"By the way what were you and Clay doing in the village when I told you to go back to the mansion." I asked
"We went to the village because we always get very bored at the mansion, so we would sometimes go the village." she said
'Well I guess I would get bored too when I have only one friend with me.'
"Sir I dont understand why would a giant grey wolf which is found hundreds of miles away from this village, come here."
"What do you mean by 'a' giant grey wolf?" I asked
"Yeah a giant wolf" she repeated
'Seems like she doesn't know what has happened.
I gave a her a brief of what had happened while she was asleep.
She had a shocked and confused face when I finished telling her.'
"So that's what the spikes were, I thought that they were barricades created by the soldiers. " she said to herself
"As for your question earlier, we think that the wolves came to this forest in search of food." I said
"But shouldn't they have gone south if they wanted food, why would they come north if they wanted food."
"Yeah, we are still investigating so we haven't found out much.
Now leave that stuff and go to the mansion, have a good night's sleep." I said to her
"Okay"
'I left her at the village entrance and told a soldier to accompany her.
I then went to the place Clay was laying down.
I remembered that Clay had a stick in his hand but it dropped while I picked.
I cant see anything here now, the investigation team must've picked it up.
I will ask them for it after I have to assessed this area properly.
------ 10 minutes later
I've checked this site properly, the only thing I can make out is that the open space in this dense spike area is where the conjurer must've casted their attack but the thing is, Clay was laying down in this space.'
"Sir, captain Rose has arrived in the investigation camp and she has called for a meeting." Canny reported
"I will be there in a minute."
"Yes sir"