About a month after the first explanation about the innate element Kes and Nash were walking together, they were heading towards the training grounds for their daily sparring session.
In this month Kes had severely increased his Flow proficiency, but Nash had grown even quicker. This did not stop them from sparring together to improve, if anything Kes was a better sparring partner than before.
A month ago he could barely land a hit, but now he had enough stamina and had gotten proficient enough at martial arts that he was at least able to give Nash a decent fight. But unless Nash severely handicapped himself Kes still would not be able to beat him.
Kes imagined Nash would have been able to beat him before even if he was using Flow and Nash wasn't, but now that would surely no longer be the case.
Kes looked over to his friend. "Now that you are this strong I totally imagined you would go into the forest even if it meant risking expulsion, but apparently you are smarter than I imagined."
Nash shot him a grin. "And risk losing out on knowledge where I am still the furthest behind? I don't know what kind of battle maniac you think I am but I am still doing my best learning Paenese. And your mother is a damn good teacher too. If anything you are the one who could risk sneaking out for more riskier training, you speak fluent Paenese already."
In the previous month Kes had polished up his Paenese and Zoecian with his mother, both during class and while forcefully being pulled away from his fathers Flow control training. So Nash was not exaggerating, his Paenese was pretty much fluent now.
"I think I am learning a whole lot more about Flow proficiency from the old village chief than the forest could even teach me. Unlike you I still have a lot of gaps to fill there." Kes replied
It wasn't just that alone, he was also just scared of what the old village chief would do if he caught him sneaking into the forest. He could not imagine it being anything pleasant.
"Oh, I think you are mostly lacking in your Flow pool. You just don't have enough to keep up with me right now. Killing one beast would give you a huge boost, maybe we could have a half decent spar by then." Nash said with a mocking expression.
Kes clicked his tongue. "Well sorry for not being as great as Ashen village's great genius, the amazing and great Nash."
"Well as long as you know your place." Nash replied his expression somehow even more mocking than before.
Kes suddenly grinned. "Oh, is that Ade I spot there?"
"What where?" Nash replied clearly flustered.
Kes started laughing. "Just kidding, did I get your hopes up?"
This earned him a hard punch into his side, which was enhanced with Flow too.
…
Now making their way over to the infirmary Kes looked at Nash with an angry expression. "You can't even take a joke I see."
Nash was clearly embarrassed. "Look I already told you I was sorry ok. And it's nothing serious you managed to guard it just in time, great work by the way, your training is really paying off."
"Thanks for the compliment but this is really not the way I would like to experience the fruits of my labor." Kes replied with a scowl.
They entered the infirmary together, no one was in so they took some bandages for themselves and quickly patched up Kes with them. Nash was right it really was nothing serious, he hadn't gotten any of his bones broken. It still hurt like hell though, Kes would rather not take a Flow enhanced punch to his side for every joke he made.
Nash put away the bandages he had taken and patched up Kes with. "Now this should be all better right? Are you still up for a sparring match or would you like to rest for today?"
"If I let this much do me in I might as well not spar with you in the first place." Kes scoffed.
"Oh but I would take those bandages with you just in case my injury gets worse and we need to patch it up again."
Nash picked the bandages back up and tucked them into his robes. "Seems like a good idea to me, now I have some insurance and can really beat you up."
Kes sighed. "Please go easy on me oh great Nash."
Nash grinned as they stepped out of the infirmary together. "Seems like you still know your place."
"Hey, look Nash, it's Ade." Kes suddenly exclaimed.
Nash gave him an angry glare. "That joke is not funny anymore. Do you want another punch to your side?"
"No, I am being serious this time, look she's right over there." Kes replied angrily and pointed.
He was not lying, at the end of the road a girl with long ashen gray hair and icy blue eyes was walking. It was unmistakably Ade.
Nash quickly pulled Kes behind the closest building.
"What are you doing that for?" Kes said with an angry look.
It was indeed a very weird thing to do, Nash and Ade saw each other daily in the academy after all. There was no need for Nash to be embarrassed about facing her, they were both geniuses of the new generation and spent a lot of time sparring and training together.
"Don't you think she is acting a bit suspicious." Nash whispered to him.
Now that he looked a little closer she was indeed acting a bit suspicious. She kept looking backwards, it was like she did not want to be followed.
And she was succeeding, so far there seemed to be no one following her as she was alone. Except Nash and Kes hidden behind the building of course. But her Flow detecting was not good enough to sense them yet.
"Do you think she is going into the forest?" Kes asked Nash with a serious expression on his face.
"Only one way to find out, we follow her." Nash replied as he tried to sneak around the building and follow Ade.
But Kes suddenly pulled him backwards. "Don't you think it would be a better idea to just let ourselves be known, she wouldn't go into the forest if she realizes we are watching her, I doubt she would want to risk suspension."
Nash sighed. "If she was scared to risk suspension she wouldn't be doing this in the first place. And if she really wants to sneak into the forest she would maybe be scared of one of the adults who are a lot stronger than her but not us. She would just run away and this would make us lose sight of her, and then we won't know if she actually went into the forest or not.
Kes realized that what Nash was saying made a lot of sense, they couldn't just ring a false alarm now, they didn't know she was going into the forest or not. So they couldn't just find one of the adults either, this would maybe even get them in trouble. It would be smartest to just follow her wait, and if she went into the forest get an adult to get her out of there.
There was no way to prevent her from going into the forest right now, only a way to get her out of there as fast as possible if she did.
So they decided to quietly follow her, as closely behind her as they could.
As they got closer and closer to the forest Kes was feeling worse and worse.
He looked over at Nash and saw the expression on his face wasn't looking good, though he imagined it to be for very different reasons. The academy was the place where Nash met Ade the most after all, Kes couldn't imagine Nash feeling good about losing this for a while.
He doubted Nash was nervous about Ade dying in the forest, they were both very strong after all. But this was exactly why Kes was nervous, they were only teenagers. Nash and Ade destroyed everyone they were up against but each other in training, so they could not help becoming arrogant and overconfident.
Nash was kept in check by his parents, he knew the dangers that could lie within the forest from the stories they told. But Ade's parents were not on the hunting team at all, her parents were simple farmers, she had probably never been told stories of the dangerous hunts.
Getting closer and closer to the forest Kes looked at Nash. "Don't you think we should get an adult here by now, she definitely is going into the forest."
Nash put a finger in front of mouth signaling Kes to shut up.
But it was too late. Ade suddenly looked backwards and spotted them, Kes and Nash had gotten too close while following her.
Ade's eyes grew wide as she quickly dashed away, and she dashed towards the forest.
"Well shit." Nash shouted at Kes with a mad look on his face as he quickly dashed after her. "Kes quickly go get an adult preferably my father or mother I'll try to stop her."
"Wait, stop Nash, what if you run into something bad?" Kes shouted at Nash who was running faster than he had ever seen him before.
Nash quickly faced backwards, his expression unreadable but definitely one of anger. "And risk Ade dying? Are you stupid? Just go get someone already, fast!" He barked at Kes
Kes quickly shot into action running towards the village.
He ran faster than he had ever before, he didn't want his friend to die in the forest. He knew both Nash and Ade were very strong, much stronger than he was, but he could not help but fear for the worst.
A couple minutes later he reached Nash's house.
"Hello, is anyone home." Kes shouted, he realized his voice was growing a bit agitated.
Usually he would be way too scared to shout at either Cantor or Viola, but circumstances were different this time he was sure they would understand.
When a minute later no reply came he decided to just step into his home.
He walked around still shouting hoping to find anyone but after another minute of searching he realized there really was no one home.
"Shit, I wasted so much time. Just why do they need to go into the forest don't they realize it's stupid there's a reason the village chief forbade it." Kes was growing more and more annoyed with both his friend, and Ade, who had made the dumb decision in the first place.
But he was also quite annoyed with that all he could do now was just go back and get help. He realized he could do nothing to stop Ade and that what his friend had said was true. If he had revealed himself earlier Ade would have dashed away earlier and they would really have had no idea where she had gone to.
But he had no time to think about his weakness, right now he had to make a choice as to who he would go get help from.
Kes quickly made up his mind.
'I guess I'll go there.'