Chapitre 3: Escape (Part 2)
I heard Joan's scream.
Did we do something wrong?
It was as if time stopped. I could not help but stare..hopeless..powerless.
"DON'T STOP ATTACKING YOUR TARGET!" Sun yelled out to us.
No, with my speed I can still save him.
I caught Sun looking at me as if he knows what I am thinking about.
I gripped harder onto my dagger, hands still shaking, slowly lowering my stance, pushing my energy throughout my body. Small lightning sparks began to crackling around me. I pushed the ground with all my might. Like an arrow, I flew towards the direwolf.
In a blink of an eye, I was about to crash onto the direwolf's body. I thrust my dagger onto its belly and discharged the strongest lightning I could muster up. The force of the impact was enough to shove the direwolf onto a tree.
One of direwolf's paws got twisted in a weird way and smoke was coming out of the stab wound I made.
All of a sudden, my legs lost their strength and fell to my knees. I could hear everyone calli-.
Ahhhh. I did it. She'll get mad at me again.
Darkness...
The door swung open aggressively. There she was.
"Oyyy idiot! What are you doing sleeping on the floor like that?! You overexerted again during last night's sparrings, no? Why are you staring at me like you've seen a ghost?!"
I'm back in my room..
"Ah it's nothing I was having a bad dream and you woke me up from it," I waved my hands.
"Yeah sure. I brought you breakfast, I figured you'll still be asleep at this time," She threw the bag she was carrying at me. She started cleaning up my things lying on the floor.
I put down the bag she gave me and started helping her.
"So did you win any of the sparring sessions in your class?"
"Not really I had to fight #1 and #4 back to back. Well not that it really matters, I'll just study the mistakes I made during those fights," Thinking back on what happened my body started hurting again. I stood up and made my way close to her.
I pulled her close and held her.
"Happy birthday Trin," I whispered into her ear.
She faced me and kissed my cheek.
She smiled at me, "I told you to be careful. I can't take care of you always, dumbass. Come on, let's go. We'll be late for class."
Ah that fucking smile. Don't smile at me like that. Please..
She pulled me towards the door. As I passed the door the scene changed.
The rain started hitting me. I can feel the rain trickling down my face as I look around.
There she was laying on the ground unconscious surrounded by our instructors and some people wearing black suits.
"TRIN!!"
Reaching out, I opened my eyes and there I was, still in the forest. Feeling cold with the wet ground and my wet clothes.
"That bad huh" Joan muttered. "How are you feeling?" she asked while helping me slowly get up.
"Ugh, like shit. How long was I out?"
"Just a few minutes. You really surprised everyone. Since when can you do that? Did you breakthrough? As far as I know we are all at Lock 1"
Lock corresponds to the level of our Talent and quantity of Energy we have in our body. Being in Lock 1 means that one has crystallized their energy to become their core, without a core one will not regenerate any used energy when activating their Talent. Although that's all that was taught to us so far in the Institute.
"Ah it's nothing. So how's Achilles?"
"Achilles is fine for now. Although he's covered in wounds. His Talent protected him from most of the damage but he is still pretty beat up. He'll be fine after a good rest. So we decided to rest here since both of you were unconscious. Everyone's pretty tired too after that fight."
"I see. You can go to Achilles now Joan. I'll be fine, help Elizabeth take care of him." I smiled at her. Seeing the red around her eyes.
She smiled and nodded as she left.
When I got up, I walked towards Sun, Napoleon and Arthur who were inspecting the corpses of the direwolves and the victim.
Sun noticed me.
"You're up, are you okay?"
"I'm fine"
"I'm sorry, my plan was a failure. I should've told you guys to retreat as soon as the third direwolf regained consciousness."
"Just tell that to the others. So did you find out something?" Looking at the dead man, who Sun was inspecting.
"This guy was part of the people who attacked the Institute. See this insignia? That's Eastern Alliance insignia, this guy probably belonged to the army judging by his gear. I read about them a little in the past. Though the people who attacked inside did not have uniforms they're most probably Agents from the Eastern Alliance Bureau."
From our history lessons, we were always reminded that humanity barely survived World War III at the same time the surge of aggressive monsters. What's left of human territory was divided into four Alliances.
The Northern Alliance, also known as the Northern Monarchy, which is greatly known for their capital that boasts its defenses as it is located at the top of a mountain.
The Western Alliance, also known as the Free Republic of Americas, are known for their strong Agents, mercenaries with Talent they are tied to each Alliance's Bureau but can be hired by other Alliances.
The Southern Alliance, also known as the Sultanate, are known for their army which consists of only people with Talent.
Lastly the Eastern Alliance, also known as the Eastern Empire, are known for their technology and for having the largest territory.
"Ironic. Almost poetic, that the ones who train orphans to be future Agents, assassins and soldiers got attacked by Agents and soldiers." Just thinking about it makes me laugh, yet angry at the same time. It's been my home for a year. The place where I met her and lost her.
"But why did the government suddenly attack after all this time?" Setting my gaze onto Sun. His eyes were looking down, hands trying hard to hide his anxiety. He's still thinking about his plan failing.
"The Institute must have a government backing with the scale of their operations. Gathering orphans at a large quantity does not look good. Even if they don't have government backing they should have connections to the government. The reason for this attack might be because their backing got caught or they were betrayed. Another possible reason is a government crackdown on underground syndicates that are in the way of their own syndicate. Or they're following a global trend of eradicating syndicates. Although these are merely theories, we will need more concrete information to be sure."
"I see. Not that it matters to us. We need to be careful knowing the identities of these people. We won't be able to defeat them. So what should we do?" I asked Sun. Gazing back to the camp made by the others. They look really worn out. Maybe not just physically but also mentally and emotionally.
"Let's move away from here first. Since we're dealing with the military this position is already designated in the beginning. By morning they would be looking for their missing members. After that we can rest, then let's just decide guard duty when we stop." Sun said
Sun insisted on carrying Achilles on his back as we moved away from the scene. Maybe it's his way to apologize for miscalculating his strategy.
As we stopped, Sun divided the group to hasten the setup of our camp. I got guard duty. Everyone was still wet and cold from the rain and sweat so I set some fire with my lightning, giving us heat for the remainder of the night. Almost everyone fell asleep quickly. Seeing their tired looks and thinking about the chaos we all went through, in the end we are all still just kids..
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone