A full month had passed, and a second war between the Humans and the Werts had already begun. Since the first day of the third years first expedition, Jake had not been seen and neither had Sasha.
After Jake ran away with Sasha following him, both of them hadn't left planet Soran. The other students, Kyle, Smith, Max, Kevin, Ava, Rick, Nikki, Ayo, Louisa, Diane and the others had been taken back to Veda shorty after Jake had killed the four-tailed wert, Cypher.
Most of the students had been very frightened and some had been traumatized. But a month was enough time for them to recover, get stronger, and focus on the war at hand.
Currently, Sky and Anna were searching for Jake themselves on Soran. Initially, the soldiers on Soran were the ones searching for Jake but with their search yielding no result due to Jake being in uncharted territory, and using most of their resources to fight the Werts, they had stopped the search.
With Anna caring more about Jake than the ongoing war, she decided to go to Soran herself and search for Jake, and Sky, after making sure his father Andrea would be safe, followed Anna to go search for Jake.
Anna and Sky had been searching for Jake for a month and the sun was about to set. After five days of being on the receiving end of the heat waves from the sun, they were glad to see the moon again.
"We should get ready." Anna said. "It will be night soon."
"I'm gonna go around and check if there are any beasts in the area." Sky said, then left Anna to set up their tent.
Walking around, Sky saw a beast that had eight legs and looked like a giant spider except it had eight eyes and two bladed arms.
"An enhanced ranked beast." Sky said, seeing the triple-ringed marking on one of the bladed arms of the beast.
Immediately the beast noticed Sky, it hurried towards him and was about to attack him with one of its bladed arms when it suddenly stopped moving.
Using his magic, Sky had put his hand forward and stopped the time of the beast making it unable to move, no matter how much it tried.
"Maybe I'll have a little bit of fun before I go back." Turning his palm slowly to the left, the beast began moving back in the exact pattern it had moved forward to attack Sky.
After it had moved back to its initial position, Sky snapped his fingers and the beast began moving towards him again, in the same pattern as before.
When it got close to him again, Sky put his hand forward and stopped time for the beast once again. Clad in black, Sky had multiple holsters strapped to different parts of his body and in the holsters, he had different kinds of knives and daggers.
They had been made with the beasts essence of beasts not lower than medial in rank. Sky had at least ten knives and daggers in his holsters.
Using his magic, Sky controlled one knife from his holster and sent it through the head of the beast. As the knife passed through the head of the beast, not a single drop of blood came out due to the beast still being under the influence of Sky's time magic.
After getting the beasts essence from the bladed arm of the beast, Sky moved away and snapped his fingers, making the beast fall to the floor, dead. Cleaning the dagger on the beast's body, Sky kept it back in the holster and kept moving.
"You took your time." Anna said to Sky when he got back and entered inside the tent she had finished setting up.
"Yeah, I felt like having a bit of fun." Sky replied, sitting on the bed.
"And you didn't invite me?" Anna said, pouting a little.
"Maybe next time." Sky said, then laid down.
Anna had brought a lot of things with her when coming to search for Jake and because she kept them all in her dimensional bracelet, she could pack as much luggage as she wanted.
Sky hadn't even needed the things he had brought because Anna's supplies was more than enough for both of them, including Anna's house-like tent.
The tent was like a house in that it had a bedroom, a kitchen, a little dining room and a toilet. Sky had wanted to use his own tent but Anna had said he could join her in her's.
"Besides, I might be lonely staying all by myself in that thing." Anna had said.
Joining Sky on the bed, Anna laid down facing the ceiling with her head resting on Sky's arm which he was using as some sort of pillow.
"Do you think we're gonna find him?" Sky asked.
"I don't know." Anna replied.
"We can't look for him forever and we have to help out in the war." Sky said. "We're lucky the Werts haven't already put up a base here on Soran."
"If they did," Anna said, "we can bring it down. That would be our contribution. And it's not like we haven't killed some werts."
"Yeah but we killed only the ones we saw, which isn't much." Sky replied. "I'm sure your father will call you back any moment from now."
"Let's leave that thought for tomorrow." Anna said then turned to lay facing Sky and put an arm across his chest. "Good night."
Looking at Anna's arm across his chest, Sky shook his head and smiled before replying. "Good night."
___
Watching Sky as he fought against an enhanced ranked beast without using magic in an area filled with trees, Anna got a call on her phone.
"Talk to me." Anna said.
"Really?" said a deep voice on the other side of the phone.
"Dad?" Anna said, surprised but not so much.
"You are to return to Veda, immediately."
"Dad you know I can't do that." Anna said. "You know why I'm here."
"I already gave you a month to search for him and you have not found him. You must forget about him and return immediately."
"But Dad..."
"I do not want to hear it. Either I see you here in the next three hours, or I am coming to get you, personally."
"Are you telling me that as my father or as the Monarch of Ansteria?" Anna asked.
"I am telling you as both of them. Three hours." he said then ended the call.
"What's wrong?" Sky asked, walking over and noticing her countenance. He had used his magic and killed the beast he had been fighting before getting its beast essence.
"What's wrong is you jinxed it last night." Anna said. "My dad just called. He said I should get back to Veda in the next three hours."
"It's probably for the best anyway." Sky said. "I doubt if we'll find Jake and what if he doesn't want to be found."
At that moment, the sound of something breaking twigs on the ground could be heard. It sounded like footsteps coming towards them.
Out from behind a tree, Sky and Anna could see a shirtless person with his rough black hair covering his eyes and his very chiseled body on display.
"Hey."