Oddly, when Maximus had tried to sense the intruders, he couldn't sense anyone.
'Are they outside my range? Strange. Oh, one indeed came in my range. It seems Seraphina hadn't entirely put up a fake alert.'
A while later, a short but stout built man entered their vision. He had a confident gait with a hint of arrogance on his face.
Maximus felt weird as soon as he set his sights upon him. It was… almost the same as when he first felt like eating the soul. I don't feel any hunger though, is it just my soul ability reacting? But why?' He couldn't figure it out so he decided to be cautious with the man.
Shortly after setting his gaze on then, the short man said,
"Our boss is gathering everyone together, you have been invited together too. Isn't it great to spend time together with a larger public in this vast forest? We have information that there might be larger animals attacking next time, we can even protect you from those while you stay with us. You just need to do one thing though, light a flare and tell the army person who'll arrive that you're withdrawing from this game whatever it is. We are just after the money we'll get at the end."
It was Seraphina who came forward to handle the talks.
"We don't wish to leave our place. We came here to enjoy the wilderness as it is to spend time with just our group, not everyone, please leave."
Without his arrogance fading, the man replied,
"We can allow you to remain here, just call the army and tell them you're withdrawing."
"Why would we?"
It was Isabelle who had intervened, she had an expression of indignation on her face.
"What will you do with the money? Spend it on projects? Gambling? Would you donate them to charity? Help the poor? No right? Fucking go to hell."
The man looked at her with disdain evident in his eyes, but his face didn't betray any kind of disappointment or anything at all. It was as if he had expected they would refuse. He whistled loudly and cackled while looking at the group. Get ready to be beaten into obedient pigs, y'all don't understand the severity of the situation.
*****
A few minutes ago.
"Why are we allowing this sir?"
"It's alright, a simple competition won't hurt."
"But why could he be doing this?"
"Isn't it obvious? The man who is conquering groups left and right is doing so he could save all his supplies and live off the supplies of others. His group then has high chances of being the ones who consumed the least supplies. Is he from our University?"
"Yes sir."
"Hmmm, bring me the data of our university."
The soldier nearby gave some commands and procured a set of documents which he passed on to Sebastian.
"He joined last year? I remember there being lots of applicants that year, most of whom joined this field trip. Hmm, wait. Bring me the data of people who are working for this student."
"Alright sir, I'll tell the scouts to quickly compile it."
It was a couple minutes later when a soldier ran over to hand the documents. Sebastian held both sets of documents in each hand and began comparing them. After barely a few seconds he broke into a smile. He took out a phone from his pocket and calmly dialed a number as he leaned back into his chair.
"Hello?"
"Hello dear brother. Could you send me information about all the people of the six families who've left their area? Or people who haven't been seen in their area in the past 1-2 years."
"Sure."
"Don't you want to ask why I need the information?"
"Why?"
"If the information you send helps with something, I might have stumbled upon something good."
"Did you find some undercover member of one of the six families?"
"I might have. I organized a trip to the wilderness to weed out some good survival talents or some supernatural students who didn't hide their abilities. But they won't just show their abilities randomly right, so I had to bring three other universities who I made a bet with. I made a statement that if I win I'll distribute the money. Who knew someone would be lured out with just 5 million dollars?"
There was a moment of silence on the other hand before the male voice continued,
"The information has been sent. Focus on the younger targets, it is likely that a competition to obtain the position of heir has begun among one of the families. Well, it probably isn't ours but I'll check just in case."
"Thanks for the tip brother. By the way, where do you think I should put a supernatural being who can manipulate probability?"
There was a long pause on the other end, as if considering all the possibilities before the person spoke again,
"If he has agreed to become a core member, he can become one of our most important supernatural beings."
Sebastian's expression changed quickly, extreme surprise visible on his face. He quickly asked how to which his brother simply responded,
"Sorry, but due to several conditions I can't risk telling you. Just know that if that supernatural being agreed to become our core member, tell them that they can determine the conditions as long as they aren't too over the top. They deserve this. Also, remember, no forcing."
"Alright alright, of course I won't. By the way, a small rift has opened here in San Francisco. I sent some people to scout and it seems it leads to a forest but all the animals there behave too weirdly, almost all of them seem to possess intelligence of an average human being.
"I suspect it's due to shapestealers. I don't know what they are, how they look or anything in fact. Just that they can possess a person. I know about it because one of the people I sent began asking weird questions to my soldiers. It's good that they are completely loyal to me so they reported to me and I immediately knew something was wrong.
"Further experiments proved my earlier conjecture about their possessing capability. I don't know yet how to defeat them, just that killing the person or animal they possess seems to be impeding them in some way, probably an injury."
There was a noise of typing on the other side as if the person was searching for some information. A few seconds later the person said,
"They are very likely soul-type creatures. If you have soul related supernatural beings around you, quickly deploy them to counter these beings. They can probably sense and deal damage to these shapestealers. If you don't yet have anyone, recruit if you spot one, they are very useful, or if there's no one in your area I'll send one. I probably have a little information on these shapestealers you speak of too, read it when you feel like. Alright I need to go, some important matters have cropped up. Bye."
The call ended as Sebastian, who had leaned back on his chair, sat up straight again. He opened his phone and went through information several times before shortlisting a few. The soldier, who had stayed beside him the whole time, didn't look surprised at the contents of the call, he simply waited for orders, which Sebastian eventually gave him after reading the documents.
*****
As soon as the short man whistled, Maximus instantly felt around eleven more people enter his 'radar'. Like Seraphina had said earlier, they had their group surrounded completely. Narrowing her eyes, Seraphina looked at the member in front of her,
"Do you not fear retribution from the army? What if this act isn't allowed?"
"Heh, do you think you are the first ones? We have already amassed a huge number of people and it's still going, throughout the process not once did the army interfere. So, we know their stand. Not like we are killing you guys either, just a lot of cuts if we aren't careful."
Then without speaking anything, the short man sprinted forward, his speed unbefitting of someone his stature, speaking volumes of his athleticism.
*BANG*
But to everyone's surprise, a shot rang through everyone's ears. Barely missing the leg of the sprinting short man, or… was it a warning?