Chapter 11: The Awakening pt 1

The trio slid from behind the rock and very quickly, making no attempt to hide, rushed towards the encampment. They followed Lin’s lead.

With Rel’s relic encompassing them all, no one could hear them, even if they spoke loudly. Nor could they be seen, even if they were right in front of the target.

Soon, they closed in on the magicians. Alels hands were heated to molten proportions and she grabbed at the Mage’s throat. A loud shriek escaped from the magician's lips and he flailed wildly.

It was too late however. Within seconds, his throat was seared through and severed. The other Magician turned in high alert to see the source of the sound, only for Rel’s fist to very powerfully collide into the side of his head.

His vision shook and he dropped straight from the floor, suffering from internal bleeding. Aside from the two magicians there, no one else had heard them. The reason being is simple.

“Heh, looks like it works.” Rel scoffed.

“WHAT?! YOU DIDN’T KNOW IT WOULD?!” Alel resisted punching him with her molten hands.

“Oi oi. I figured it would. If I could shroud my own comrades, I could clearly shroud my enemies.”

The shrouding effect had engulfed both magicians shortly before their deaths. By this point, they could see everyone within the shroud, but no one outside could hear them. So it was a very effective method in muffling opponent alertness.

With this method, they could truthfully bring down the entire camp.

Or so they thought….

The next course of actions occurred in a blur, as if time itself was a nothing of essence. The loudest roar could be heard in the tent behind them. What pursued was an explosion of wind, picking the tents off the ground and sending them flying into the clouds.

“WHO IN THE WORLDS DISTURBING MY DAMN SLEEP!”

“Heh…I see so that’s how it works.” Rel shook his head and cursed loudly.

His relic could only shroud living beings and their possessions. Inanimate objects are not considered in the shrouding ability. In this case, the bodies are no longer beings but objects. As soon as they died, the shroud no longer worked on them.

As the tent flew past them, dust kicked up and revealed their form to the masses. The culprit for such a large noise caused everyone to wake up in a panic.

A man with a golden ring and deep sunken eyes stood at the center of everyone’s attention. As everyone came out of their tents, immediately incantations were being made.

Lin observed through various eyes. All of them were fixated on the crew in the center of it all. The dust cloud he had kicked up, was sticking onto their bodies and giving a corporeal sight to everyone.

“SHIT! THEY CAN SEE US!” Lin shouted.

“HOW?!”

At that instant, the man that shouted leaped forward. Fast. Much too fast. Lin couldn’t even keep up with the movements through the man’s own eyes.

A single golden ring gleamed in the darkness and picked up Rel by the throat, lifting him into the air. “Eenie, meanie…miney. MO.”

“The rest of you better come out of hiding, or your friends dead.” Regalt's grip remained firm against the man’s face. Everyone else immediately stopped their magic casting.

To them, Regalt had just dashed, then suddenly disappeared. “Heh, now we’re talking.” Regalt said as he saw everyone before him. Much to his shock, they were all plague children. “Well well well… isn’t this a surprise. Well actually, no. It isn’t.”

Everyone was shocked that Regalt could see them. For just a split second, they had believed that Rel had taken down the shroud. But upon noting that the mages and everyone else stopped their attacks, they realized that he didn’t deactivate the shroud. He simply included Regalt in it.

To the outside world, it appeared as if Regalt had merely vanished upon dashing towards the duo. They were uncertain what was going on. They could see one of the assailants were being lifted into the air.

While flailing in Regalt’s grip, Rel smirked and kicked at him. Regalt had not prepared any defense towards the kick. Such actions could not harm him. Or so he thought.

Upon impact, he was sent flying 5 meters back, before catching himself. A dent presented itself in his breastplate. “Oh?... this might be fun after all.”

Just as he had regained his own balance, Alel rushed him, her fist headed straight for the man’s face. Not willing to take any more chances again, Regalt stomped onto the ground, throwing her off balance.

He deflected her arms and punched her in the gut. She buckled up and held onto her stomach. “That’s 1.” Kars jumped back, avoiding Rel’s onslaught of punches with relative ease.

“Huh, that girl must be the one with the fire magic.” He said as he observed the crease in his armor. The heat had melted the metal.

Rel’s barrages of punches and kicks continued but to no avail. Finally, Regalt had collected enough data about the man to realize what his movement pattern was. Then all of the sudden…boom. The kid disappeared.

Even if it was just for an instant, he had disappeared from Regalt’s line of sight, and a powerful force sent him flying yet again. This time, much much further than before. He found himself at the very edge of the camp 40 feet back.

Everyone gasped as Regalt had finally come back into view, only to get rag dolled across the field. The scenery was an odd one to everyone involved. To the outside audience, they could only see sudden impact points across the camp. Then suddenly Regalt had reappeared out of nowhere only to be sent flying.

Regalt laying still on the ground, laughed hard. “I see…that was very clever. You kids have the making of a powerful group. Unfortunately, your lives will be cut short here.” As he said this he seemed truly saddened by the news.

Rel was surprised by his own actions. He had only just thought to do that in the spur of the moment. By excommunicating Regalt from his shroud, Regalt became blind yet again to the squad. The slight moment of disorientation was all he needed to land such a powerful strike on him.

He smirked and kicked off the ground. His leap sent him 30 feet up. With the trajectory, he was bound to land right on top of Regalt with a powerful pummel of his hands.

“Regalt! No. Let's leave. NOW!” Lin shouted. Ora ran over to Alel, who was just barely struggling to get up.

Just as Rel was going to land onto Regalt, Regalt activated his relic even further than his prior 5%. “1,000 cold nights, 10%” Rel landed his hit with a strong powerful shock sent straight to the man’s gut. The dent in his armor was apparent.

Regalt shrugged off the hit like it was nothing, and with one swat of his hand, Rel’s world went black.

He got up, cracking his knuckles and his neck. When Rel lost consciousness, the entire shroud ability deactivated, and everyone was visible to the naked eye.

Now the magicians all had their spells ready and active. Elemental waves were entirely prepared and ready to turn the group into a puddle.

Alel, Lin, and Ora all huddled around each other. Her arms heated to the point that they were entirely red. This was a situation that, regardless of their relics, they could do nothing to prevent from happening.

“So this was the child with the invisibility. A girl with hands that heat up, a guy with immense strength AND a blanket relic? … Hold on. I had assumed that strength was his relic. So he must be a variant.” Regalt picked up the slumped Rel and held him to his side like a piece of luggage.

“This was not worth waking up from sleep for.”

“I figured you were having some nightmare in your sleep, Regalt. But you really know how to cause a scene.” A man sprouted forth from his tent. He nonchalantly walked to the circle and everyone made way for him.

Even with the darkness of the night, it was no mistaking who the man was. His armor radiated brilliantly under the moon's rays. It almost seemed as if it was emitting its own glistening light in which several hues escaped from.

The pristine armor and glistening sword were further testimony to who the man was.

His short trimmed blond hair seemed to glisten much the same as his armor. Everyone there was met with the piercing gaze of the legend.

“Who are you people? And why is it you’re here-“ He stopped upon realizing they were all children, and upon realizing they were all plague children.

“Ah…I see. You don’t need to answer that second question.” He could already tell why they must have been here.

At that moment, Rel had awoken again and began to pummel at Regalt’s side. He tried with every ounce of strength to break free from Regalt’s grip, but it proved not even a tad bit effective.

Of course, this was going to be the outcome.

Why wouldn’t it be? They were going against the legendary Silver knight, and upon hearing the name Regalt, they too knew who he was. The silver knight, and the one man army. There was not a single way they could have achieved victory.

Lin cursed and spat in Kars direction. “We’re here because of you murderous fucks. You killed a comrade of ours in cold blood, and then slaughtered our teach-”

“Why did you guys do it?” Ora asked. His glare as intense as his voice.

Kars gaze met with Ora’s and he could clearly understand the emotions that must be flooding through the young child. Kars nodded and sighed.

“It isn’t that we hate you, plague children. The death of your teacher…. was by mistake.”

“By mistake? BY MISTAKE?! YOU CUT HER IN HALF!! WHAT KIND OF MISTAKE IS THAT!? YOU GUYS TORMENTED MY FRIEND, MY BROTHER! AM I TO BELIEVE THAT IS A MISTAKE AS WELL?!”

His rage could not be contained within him. Even to the great Kars, he was going to make the world tremble.

Kars snapped her fingers, and his three subordinates came forward. Mikhail, Lawrence, Shiek.

The trio looked rugged and entirely unhappy. He couldn’t tell what their deal was. They first come and kill his comrade, and then act remorseful about it. He couldn’t understand it at all. Not one bit.

Regalt walked in front of Kars and blocked his view. “Kars-Sama, I’d like to take care of this.”