" Shit… Run as fast as you can, don't even look back " Yang says, panting while he speaks.
We were running in the middle of an abandoned city, surrounded by hazards such as overgrown shrubbery, cracks, and debris surrounding the road waiting for the perfect time to make us slip. And doing something like that isn't anything we can afford in this situation.
" We should split up. "
" What?! " Rena and the others looked at me as we run trying to figure out if I was serious.
" We need to split up. " I say firmly without changing my expression.
" What do you mean? We're going to die if we split up our forces! " Kate says, who was running behind us.
" No, we're going to die if we stick together. "
" We don't have the opportunity of fighting back here! Yes, we can try and kill a shrieker with numbers, but do we really have the number here? "
We actually can't afford to stay together for long, we will all die a gruesome death if we do this the endurance way. We're simply not going to outrun and hide from something like that with about 15 people in our group.
We still haven't found the other half of the class, so we don't even know how many students have died right at this moment.
" This is... Tsk. Mon is right we need to split up everyone. " Rena says with a serious tone. She didn't look towards Reign and the others as she knows it would just add more complications if she tries to do so.
Instead, she nudges everyone and takes on her leading persona.
" We'll split into two people per team. I'll go with Mon, then Yang will go with Kate and the others should follow fit. We'll be going in different directions when we count to one. "
Rena seemed to have read my mind as she flawlessly organizes and orders everyone in a stern tone.
" 3... 2... I'll see you all outside. 1! " She shouts, serving as our signal to split up. Everyone looked nervous, but they are all Guardian cadets. They wanted to survive this whole ordeal and their abilities help them somewhat ease up.
It seems like Reign's team stubbornly ran forward with no proper plan in mind.
It's not like I could do anything about that...
Thanks to them, no Shrieker tries to run after us so we could rest for a bit in some dark corner of a building.
" Mon what should we do now? " Rena looks at me seriously.
It seemed like she's trusting me with the strategies while she does the leading. It was a great sight to see. Someone who was so stubborn in being selfless finally relies on someone.
But it's not the time to be happy about friends, we have a more important thing to deal with.
" You probably thought of it by now, but those Shriekers aren't acting right. "
I start to explain what was actually happening, without revealing everything. I'm just going to say observable yet suspicious things that would lead her to a conclusion that is close to what is actually happening.
" Yeah... they should be solitary predators, how come they're working together to chase us. "
" But even more confusing was, how did Mr. Froil do it? How did he control them? " She looks at me trying to see if I know something.
Well, technically I know as they're Originals, and that's an innate ability of every single Original there is. But I couldn't reveal that. I'm still just a Wanderer who somehow got an ability thanks to an artifact.
" I don't know... But I've read something about mind control in a book on the internet."
Well, it was technically true, but the book I read to know that information wasn't any normal book, it was the story of this world.
...
Rena looks at me curiously.
In the story, about midway through the plot, humanity struggled so much against the innate ability of Originals, that despite the difference in numbers humanity started to crumble every time a high-ranked Original showed up.
Thus a bunch of scouts and information gatherers banded up to figure out the source of that power. Whether it was huge amounts of mana or a long preparation time, they had to figure out what the cause of it was.
That was when they caught an Original who had the position of captain in their society, which was equal to Grand in terms of Inter ranking, in the middle of using this innate skill.
It was a catalyst that they use to control the Inters. They're using multiple Inter and Guardian corpses and turning them into a different form of magical energy that serves as their fuel for mind control. This took years to find,
Though humans, figured this out, there was no way to replicate it as the energy they were using doesn't exist anywhere in the world other than the Originals. And even when they imprisoned some to test the new energy, it was way too vicious for humans to handle. Most will just implode in a second when they're exposed to it. But that doesn't remove the fact that humans had figured out one of the main strengths of Originals. The power that could turn a single Original into a whole army now had a weakness.
Well, that would be for humanity to figure out in the middle of the story. I have no plans in revealing that, as after that incident, the Originals grew stronger and utilized their unique energy in different ways, and the battle just grew fierce. I can't let them develop that much yet, as I have to make sure everyone grows stable and the balance stays fine.
" In a research I read, Mind Control in a sense is just pressure and superiority that utilizes your overwhelming strength to take over a person's mind by using their low mana pools. This was the explanation for every Mind Control ability there was. "
" With that being said, it would make sense that Mr. Froil would be able to mind control them right? His ability is Probability Gambling, an ability that gives him a random ability for a certain period of time and strength, depending on the number he rolls with his skill. So it would be possible that him to roll for a Mind Control ability right? "
" Well, in theory, yes. But Inters, even the smallest one would not have less mana than any Guardian there is. The mana concentration in their bodies is too much that they even condense mana stones in their bodies. The Sentinels are a different matter, but this is multiple Shriekers we're talking about.
That's why summoners don't exist despite the attractive thought of using Inters to fight Inters. Mind controllers are usually a part of the government, mainly the military forces. And the rest are in organized crime groups, as their ability only work against humans. "
" My suspicion is there's a bunch of mana stones in one area that is being controlled by a Guardian or something that has a mind control ability. " This in theory would be impossible by any means, but this was something that Sense suspected at first after this incident as the 1A students recalled the situation to them. So saying it like this would help me convince Rena, but its also vague a
yet good enough for Sense to believe.
" This... How did Mr. Froil even manage to sneak that much mana stone in...? " She wonders.
I only shrugged my arms pretending that I didn't know anything.
But I do know how. Originals don't need that much mana due to their skill, so they don't need mana stone at all. They need something with a decent amount of magic power and something that preferably gathers mana in the surroundings passively.
...
Something like the real Mr. Froil, unconscious in the ground and getting used as a catalyst would probably be the most likely thing...