Samuel tried his best to hide his annoyance and calm down from the previous anger. But all he was able to amount to was a half assed smile.
"Yeah!" He said while nodding his head.
It didn't seem like the captain took much surprise to it though, he just amounted it to the young man being stressed from being in a fight that must have been quite tough.
Unbeknownst to him of course was the fact that Samuel had dispatched of these foes with complete one sided domination as soon as the sneak attack was over.
Samuel was telling his mind to calm, this rage felt like it came from the very depths of his nature. He was indeed filled with anger and hatred when he realized they were darkor cultists, but it felt like the rage came from the wolf.
"It seems I still have much to learn." Samuel mumbled to himself while the captain looked on in confusion. "I did take a bolt or two and I am no master of healing, so I could use some help with that!"
The captain nodded and followed protocol, the scene was cleaned up, one or two survivors from the cultists were secured.
An hour or so later they were back in the base camp and Samuel was given some proper healing by one of the many healers.
While he was getting healed a soldier and a mage was taking his statement on what had happened, he of course told them about the ambush and the few things that the cultists had openly bragged about.
When they were done and Samuel was free to leave he did so without further notice, but the minute he took one step outside the tent he was assaulted by a small pile of people rushing up to him.
All people from his faction, that yelled out their questions in a complete jumbo of chaos. "Enough you shitheads!" Vuldara yelled at them from behind.
Samuel was glad that she came to his rescue, all of them took a step back.
Without dragging too much attention to himself Samuel told them all a very watered down version of what had happened before he rejoined his teammates.
While the rest of them all kind of walked off in different directions much to Samuels surprise. "So what happened really?" Zalbas was the first to ask as he walked up and put a hand on Samuels shoulder.
"Well I managed to trick the dragon a little bit, and then it returned to it's cave. I checked out the place to make sure it was safe and then on my way back I was attacked by those asshole cultists."
"Nothing I couldn't handle of course. But I don't know if they got anyone else!" He looked at his friends that all remained quiet.
"Sorry buddy, but they have already brought back a few dead of our college mates." Vazmarx spoke up. "I think there were more than just the one incident you happened upon."
"Because of that, most of the forest has been locked down and this encampment as well, we are not allowed to leave until... I don't actually know how long." He sighed.
Samuel nodded, "Well there must be something we can do rather than just sit around!"
"The reason why we are not allowed to leave is probably because they think one or more students are aligned with the cultists!" Samuel spoke and the others slowly nodded.
"Yeah, I had already guessed they are going to look into students. Why else not allow us to leave!" Zalbas agreed and the others sighed in agreement.
The team took the rest of their time to plan out what they were going to do before taking some rest. There were many additional tents that had been set up now, they decided to get some sleep before deciding on what their course of action would be.
But in the middle of the night a chilling scream was heard, which instantly woke up Samuel. He once again looked around and found himself alone, covererd in blood. His hands were completely soaked in liquid.
He stumbled outside of the tent and the entire camp was gone like smoke, he saw a huge wolf sitting and waiting for him outside. Blood was dripping from its mouth as it silently observed him with two big whiteblue eyes.
"What do you want from me?" Samuel asked aloud but realized the question was wrong... he furrowed his brows and asked, "What are you trying to tell me?"
The question seemed to trigger the wolf as it tilted its head in his direction and then behind him as if observing something else, sniffing the air a little bit it growled.
Samuel turned around to nothingness and jolted awake, instantly feeling his hands that thankfully were clean and not covered in blood.
But he remembered the dream, it was so vivid and real. Then he could smell it, the scent from before as he quickly got out from the tent, he felt the smell through the air.
It was just like the smell he felt in the dream... "No... not I? The wolf? I am... the wolf?" He whispered and as if on cue he looked down into a small puddle where the moonlight slightly reflected some light.
He did not see his own face, but saw the very face of the wolf in the dream. Only after blinking a few times did it disappear and he saw his human face once more.
Then he felt it again, even stronger... that damn smell! He quickly kicked Vazmarx and Zalbas awake and motioned for them to follow him.
Vazmarx took the honor of waking up Vuldara whom was in a separate tent. She was annoyed but tagged along anyway when she noticed how serious Samuel was.
He didn't say much to them and he didn't need too. They followed him regardless, Samuel started following the scent in a quick pace, but not so fast that he would lose it.
As he started jogging he could see in the corner of his eye a wolf running next to him. He gave it a quick look and it mirrored his movement and gave him a wolfy grin.
Before long they had ran through half the camp and arrived at the edge, there were only a few tents at the edge of the camp they arrived at. With only a large plain of grass on the other side, however not too far off they saw several torches where the perimiter had been set.
But it was still odd for it to be unguarded, most of the camp had guards at all time, but here it was quiet. That was when Samuel felt the final whiff of the scent that was blood.
He quickly approached the large tent and tore open the flap. A large pool of blood and three mutilated bodies, one more person lay in the tent with many cuts.
She lay there gurgling and gasping for air as her attacker had cut her throat, but before finishing her off completely the tent had been opened and moonlight had come in.
Samuel instantly rushed in, "Vaz, Zal quick go get the guards... Vuldara quickly help her!" He spoke as he took the womans body in his arms.
Vazmarx and Zalbas instantly took off, but Zalbas gave one look behind him as Vuldara entered the tent. Vuldara lay one hand on her book and another on the woman and her eyes shone in golden light.
Soon enough that same golden light entered the womans body and closed up all wounds. The woman only had enough energy for a simple, "Thank you" before she passed out from the loss of blood and energy from healing.
Her life wasn't completely out of the woods, but Vuldara nodded that she would be fine. Samuel took the bloodied woman in his arms and carried her out, he had no idea who she was. She looked like she could be a regular student, but because of all the blood she was covered in she was unrecognizable.
Her hair had become blood red as well, with most of her clothing in tatters, Vuldara placed a cloak over her. A glint in the moonlight made Vuldara quickly summon a magical shield that deflected three sharp daggers.
She took a step in front of Samuel whom was still holding the woman. Both of them saw a creepy shadow like creature that was twitching and gurgling emerge from the ground.
"Get some!" A scream was heard and Zalbas came flying with two spectral like dragon wings. His hands covered in fire that exploded fire outward when he hit the shadow, which instantly retreated further back after the sudden surprise attack.
Zalbas jumped back and with the boost from his wings he landed several meters back. Channeling his inner spirit he lit up all elements in his body and took a battle readied stance toward the creature that looked at him and then Samuel and Vuldara.
Almost as if it was edging its options.