Maximus and Kenric only giggled because they looked at Johnathan's panicked face. "Calm down, just thank yourself because you didn't touch it."
"But what is it? You better not joking right now!" Johnathan raised his voice because he lost his temper at that moment.
"Yes, yes, yes…someone put that damn trap in Max's house. But luckily, I'm the one who took him here. They forget if I'm a magician, but I know that won't predict that I will come with him tonight. What bad luck for them?"
"Do you know who did this?" Johnathan asked with his heartbeat tried back to normal.
"Nope, that's why we waited until someone show up around this block. Then I'll hunt whoever put this in my house and throw this axe towards their head." Maximus spoke with a wave of anger in his voice.
"For your information John, that wasn't a regular spell. It took a lot of experience for a magician to do that spell. Whoever they are…" Kenric stopped and being serious, "They have a grandmaster magician just like me on their side,"
Johnathan was silenced and stunned, it was out of his mind if his enemy had a grandmaster and all of their efforts were just to kill Maximus. Although it now all makes sense in his head, the arrow and now this spell. The only thing that he couldn't answer is why they wanted them to die so badly, every question in his head jumped to one conclusion, 'if I know who did this to us, then I'm sure that's will explain everything.'
"You still couldn't find them right?" John asked Kenric but again Kenric shook his head.
He sighed, "I think they knew if their trap didn't kill us,"
"What do you mean?" Maximus asked. "I mean, they still watch us around here," Kenric answered while his eyes scanned through the window, watching the dark night in case something showed up in there.
"You're right," John sat down next to the max, "Guys, I want to tell you something."
They looked into John with curiosity, but they could assume that it wouldn't be good news. They also worried because Arthur and Ellia weren't there with him. Kenric tried to read it from Johnathan's expression with sweat around his head even though there was freezing out there. "What happened John? Something bad happened to you?" Kenric asked slowly because John was still quiet there.
"Yes, someone tried to kill Arthur," His eyes turned from panicked to cold just like the weather outside. Kenric could sense it and Max also knew John became serious when it connected to life and also his friends.
"What? Now, where is he?" Max asked and worried about Arthur.
"Calm down Max… He's okay, just it happened so fast and an arrow came out of nowhere." Johnathan showed the arrow to them, he gave it to Kenric. "It's poisoned right?" He looked to the tip of the arrow right away.
"Yes, and thank El. She saw it faster than we did. And there's a paper-like message for us." He gave the paper to Max.
"So where's Arthur right now?" Max asked for the second time.
"He's fine, he wants to check something. I don't know what it is but I think he knows what he does right now. I can tell that he's really angry at that time but he remains cool."
"Yeah, you know he will do anything to find the attacker right?" Max said it with a serious tone.
Kenric laughed, "Of course, he will chase them till the afterlife if he can. Oh boy, he always makes me scared when he's angry, glad I'm not there with you John."
They laughed because it was really amusing for them. Kenric still checked the arrow and Maximus tried to calm the situation. But their eyes still watched and were aware of the situation outside because they trained to be the best troops in the empire. They didn't want to make the same mistake, the surprise attack really surprised them.
"It wasn't an ordinary poison." Kenric smiled, he always had a weird interest in magic, spell, poison, and all the dark item. "It's really rare. It came from the blood of a monster."
"What monster?"
"Yes," Kenric's smile got bigger and bigger. He became more excited than before because he wasn't an ordinary person. Even if there's a group of people who wanted them to death, they couldn't be underestimated. "I need you guys to be careful for now,"
Johnathan, "That's right. Arthur was almost killed so did we. We can't take this easy anymore, by any chance if we lose our focus maybe… we can't see the sunrise anymore." Suddenly, they remain silent because John brings up some topic that they didn't want to hear, or maybe they are still afraid of that subject.
"Jess, John you make me scared," Kenric shook his head.
"But he speaks the truth," Max jumped into the conversation. "That's what would happen if we can't concentrate on this problem. Maybe we're too afraid of dying because we haven't fought for years and that makes us weak and pathetic."
Max said something big, and it make them think about it. He expressed how peace makes them weak, "This is the first time for you John and Arthur couldn't doge the arrow that came towards you. You guys are lucky there's Ell over there. What if by any chance in the future the same attack comes towards you and nobody is around?"
"What you're trying to say, Max?" Kenric asked with a serious tone.
Max sighed, "What I wanted to say is, now we're getting weak. We need to fix this problem before it's too late."
"He's right. We're weak and now we have to gather our strength again." John tried to calm the situation. "Ken, you fix this mess, and after that we back to Ellia's bar and we're looking for Arthur. Who knows what will happen over there."
After what Maximus said, they became aware of the situation even though they knew Arthur is the best warrior and their leader but still that how's they show their love and respect to their leader, the one who makes them family.
"Come, let's keep going!!" John said it to them and they all understand the job. Kenric did the best he could to fix all the traps that meant killing him and Max. They rushed through the snow in the morning, the time flies by so fast and it was only a couple of hours before sunrise. Ellia's bar was the only option in their head to find out if everything was alright.
They already put on their winter armor, it was built from rare material for them. They didn't want the cold winter beat them. It is always with the winter, and for almost years this winter would be different. Some people tried to kill them and yet they still had no idea who it was.
Every eye focused on the darkness because who know what would happen to them, even though it was just a small walk to Ellia's bar but now they couldn't take it easy anymore. Only a few houses already wakes up in sector two, because most of them were trying to catch fish, hunt something to fill their stomach, or sell something in the morning market. Johnathan knew there wouldn't be any attack in sector two like Ellia's bar because there would be any witnesses and the sun almost rise so they couldn't launch a surprise attack anymore.
'Here should be fine, too many civilians to fight here. And if they still sneak over us, they won't do any noise and outstanding moves here,' said John trying to calm his thought. But turned out John was right. They arrived at Ellia's bar with couple of people staring at them because it wasn't a normal scene where three horsemen rushed in the morning with snow pouring down. Even the people there knew that it wasn't good news.
"Ellia!!" Johnathan opened the door and was stunned when she raised her bow and aimed toward him. "W-what are you trying to do?" Johnathan was stunned and raised his arm slowly, while Max and Kenric watched them while also raising their arm.
Ellia sighed, "I thought you were our enemy," She put down her bow.
"What the fuck was that!?" Kenric shouted while they walked in and shut the door. "Don't ever raise your bow towards me again!!"
"That was preventive action and if you keep bitching about it, I'll send one of my arrows to your head," She sighed again. "Arthur hasn't back yet..." she suddenly lowered her voice and poured a drink into her glass.
Max locked the door while John sat in the bar and Kenric watch around over the window, "How long has he's been out?" Max asked.
"3 hours," She replied shortly.
Four of them also didn't know where did he go. Now they kept telling themselves that everything was alright but had no idea what should they do. Meanwhile Arthur still out there trying to answer his own thought and the riddle remain unclear.