Seeing Ben injured by the self-destruct spell of the bandit's leader, both Annie and Selena begin to panic because taking the impact of one self-destruct spell is not simple. One may lose their life or be seriously injured or crippled.
"Shit! It's burning, ah..." Ben started to shout in pain, which was caused by the acid.
"Ben, are you all right? Go to Mary. Even though I have a healing spell, it's only effective with minor injuries. This burn on your hands looks serious," Selena said urgently.
Selena came near Ben and started to examine him in a hurry to check the injuries on him.
Ben transformed back to his human form by pressing the Omnitrix symbol on his chest.
With a green flash covering his whole body, he was transferred back to his human form.
Even though his dress was still present, there were some minor injuries on his right palm, some traces of poison on his elbow, and a few bruises on his face.
Serious injuries had been healed when he transformed back from the alien to his human form.
"Idiot, you would have been dead by now," Annie scolded Ben with a serious expression on her face.
"Hm..." Ben was embarrassed and smiled at her bitterly.
"I miscalculated. I caught him by his thought before casting any spell. Sigh... I was caught off guard by the self-destruct spell on him,"
Ben scratched the back of his head, avoiding Annie's gaze.
Seeing that most of Ben's injuries had healed, Selena looked around when Annie was scolding Ben for his recklessness.
"Stop fighting. Come here and check to find anything related to them," Selena ordered them while searching for any information about what these bandits had been doing here for the past few days.
Why were they sacrificing kids from the village?
Hearing Selena, both Ben, and Annie started to search around with her.
Annie found a document that was half-burned, while Selena found a big stone on which some strange markings were carved behind one of the shelves.
Suddenly, Annie's eyes widened, looking at the markings.
"Sister Selena, look at this. The same marking was drawn on this book. Unfortunately, half of the book was burned and turned to black,"
Annie gave the book to Selena, showing the same marking on it.
"It seems like the blood flowed through the markings," Ben touched the blood inside the marking.
Selena nodded, took her communication device, and contacted her captain, Charlotte.
"Captain, this is Selena from the orphanage..."
Selena started to explain what had happened there and how these bandits were using orphan kids and village kids as sacrifices.
"These trash! How are you guys? Any injuries?"
Charlotte asked upon hearing they were not normal bandits.
"No major problem, Captain, but Ben was slightly injured due to taking one of the self-destruct spells head-on," Selena reported Ben's injuries to Charlotte.
"____"
There was no reply from the other end; the communication was cut off.
After informing Charlotte, all three of them went to the room where Mary was guarding the orphanage kids.
When they entered the room, they saw kids throwing hard things at the faces of the bandits while Mary and others who had been caught before went to the secret room to help Selena.
"____"
"____"
"____"
Cough... Cough...
Seeing the scene before her, Selena coughed to get Mary's attention, who was encouraging the kids to beat the bandits.
"Sister Selena, did you guys arrest the bandit's leader?" Mary, seeing all of her teammates return from the fight, asked them with a smile.
"No, the leader self-destructed," Annie said while eyeing Ben, who was injured.
"Yeah, unfortunately, he committed suicide. We now only have them," Selena pointed at the four bandits whose faces were badly bruised from the beatings they received from the kids.
"And Mary, can you heal him? He took the impact," Selena shifted her focus to Ben, who had injuries.
"Oh my, Ben, you have been poisoned," Mary exclaimed, looking at the elbow where the poison started to spread, slowly turning the place blue.
Mary came toward Ben opened her grimoire immediately and started casting a spell.
"Snow Magic: Healing Touch."
The palm of Mary's hand started to emit a pure white, cold aura. She placed her hand on Ben's poisoned elbow.
When the cold aura touched the poison, it slowly started to fade from his elbow. After, he showed her his injured palm, which still had a minor burn mark. That, too, was healed by her.
After fully healing Ben, Mary went to Annie and Selena to treat their injuries if they had any.
Blue Rose Base...
A few moments before...
Captain's room...
Charlotte was doing some paperwork while Sol was distributing the other paperwork when one set was completed.
Suddenly, her communication device started to vibrate, showing that someone was trying to contact her.
She attended the call.
She was shocked when Selena informed her that the bandits were not normal bandits who had taken over the orphanage.
She started to explain briefly how they went to the village, how they sneaked into the village, and how they found out that they were using the kids from the village and orphanage as sacrifices in some evil ritual.
"These trash! How are you guys? Any injuries?"
Charlotte was disgusted by these people and asked if there were any injuries on the other side.
Because she knew it was not a nice task to handle evil wizards in a group. It will be very difficult to handle with an inexperienced team.
Charlotte was proud that they had taken down a seemingly evil cult by themselves.
"No major problem, Captain, but Ben was slightly injured due to taking one of the self-destruct spells head-on," Selena informed Charlotte about Ben's minor injuries.
When Charlotte heard Ben was injured by the bandits, she unconsciously crushed the communication device in her hand.
"Those bastards! Harming Ben. I need to annihilate them," Charlotte started to emit killing intent.
Orphanage...
Selena, Ben, Mary, and Annie left the village after a few magic knights from Azure Deer came after getting information.
Selena gave them the bandits they arrested and took them to the secret door where the stone markings were present.
After leaving the orphanage and giving the bandits they caught to the Azure Deer members who came to retrieve them, all four of them left the village to return to the Blue Rose secret base on flying brooms.
Blue Rose Squad's Base...
After returning from the mission, Ben went to the bathing house the Enchanting Pool, where the members of the Blue Rose squad can take a bath.
Ben entered the pool, removing his clothes which were in a mess.
The pool itself is a breathtaking sight. Its waters possess a crystal-clear clarity, allowing one to see to the bottom where intricate, iridescent stones create a mesmerizing mosaic.
The edges of the pool are lined with luminescent moss, creating a soft border that invites individuals to step in.
When Ben entered, the water around him started to turn radiant blue. Ben sat down and started to relax, enjoying the feeling.
The Enchanting Pool has two effects: one is calming the mind and another one is a minor healing effect.
Wizard King's Office...
A tall, middle-aged man with short messy blond hair and purple eyes, one of his notable features is a blue six-pointed star on the left side of his forehead.
He is Julius Novachrono, the 28th Wizard King of the Clover Kingdom.
Julius's attire consists of a shirt and pants of similar color and designs.
The white shirt has a high collar with black fur at the end, and intricate gold and purple-colored designs on its circumference.
The shirt also has long sleeves with light purple cuffs, which have similar black fur and designs.
A pair of gold ring-shaped ornaments are also decorating the upper and lower parts of each sleeve.
Julius's brown pants are complimented by a pair of high boots of similar color, which have black fur at the collars as well.
And he wears a long red robe that covers his entire body.
The part of his robe which covers his torso is decorated with white fur. On top of the fur, Julius wears a gold necklace and a couple of medals.
He was sitting at his desk, doing the paperwork with a bored expression on his face.
"Marx, can I get a break?" Julius looked at Marx with a pitiful look.
"No, Lord, you have to do it for the next 2 hours before taking a break,"
A young man with fair hair in a bowl-cut hairstyle. He has narrow eyes with long lashes and a typically serious expression on his face.
He wears a dark, long-sleeved formal jacket under a light, furred mantle with an attached robe that reaches nearly to his ankles.
The front of his mantle is decorated with an ornate chain and clasp.
The collar of his jacket is trimmed with fur and has six diamond-shaped ornaments placed horizontally across the front.
Sigh...
Wizard King let out a pitiful sigh, thinking that he still needed to do paperwork for the next 2 hours.
When Marx was checking, he saw the report submitted from the Blue Rose and took it out of the other reports, placing it on Julius' desk.
"My Lord, look at this document. It seems today one of the squads of Blue Rose encountered an evil cult," Marx said with a serious expression on his face.
"Do they... They can't be anyone alive." Julius turned serious and asked Marx while reading the contents of the report.
"Yes, my Lord, they were able to catch four of them alive." Marx nodded his head.
'Impressive, an inexperienced squad managed to complete this mission,' Julius looked at the details of the squad that completed this mission.
"Marx, it seems this year we got interesting fellows. I am interested in their magic. I want to meet them." Julius looked at Marx with his eyes twinkling with excitement.
Marx shook his head with a sigh and started to give the papers to Wizard King Julies to sign while explaining it to him. Julius' face turned dark seeing the paperwork he needed to complete before he went to his room to sleep.
**********************************************************************************************************************************************************
(Author's POV)
Thanks for reading the chapter! please give a review and power stone!!!