They all turned to see the vice captain come out from the dark, her flaming red eyes fixed at the demon.
"I thalorin lisa, marks the end of your life and brings death upon you." she said pointing her sword to the demon.
"Enough of the gibberish, come at…" the demon couldn't complete his statement as a sword pierced his throat, spilling blood everywhere.
"I won't miss again." the captain said, running toward the demon.
That was when the demon understood that his life was under threat. He pulled the sword out of his throat letting the injury heal, as he took a few step back.
The six spider legs that had popped out of his back elongated, and moved toward the vice captain.
Without hesitating she swiftly evaded all of them.
The demon couldn't believe his eyes, he had never seen anybody move with such speed still yet, maintaining perfect balance.
She opened her hand as she ran on the tree, her sword that was on the floor instantly moved toward her.
"Ignite." she said, grabbing her sword.
The sword slowly got clothed in flame as she jumped at the demon.
"Fool, you're wide open now." the demon shouted, moving his six spider legs towards the vice captain who was still in mid air.
The only thing they saw was fire and blood, And the six spider legs dropped to the floor, and the captain stood at the back of the demon.
The Demon looked petrified, as his eyes were wide open. Then Slowly, his head slide down from his body, and for a second the lifeless body stood still as blood gushed out from his neck before falling 5o the ground.
"Stand in a queue…the captain is waiting for you all." she said, cleaning the demon blood of her sword.
Malcon could feel sweat run down his spine just by thinking of the captain. Throughout their journey no demon or beast attacked then
"Malcon!"
"Yes." he answered, turning to bane.
"What?" Bane asked on seeing Malcon turn at him.
"You called me."
"No I didn't."
Malcon sighed and turned his front, continuing his journey.
"Malcon!"
Malcon turned again at Bane, but he wasn't even looking at him.
"Malcon." the voice came again, and that was when he recognised the voice.
"Sam?" he said looking around.
"what did you say?" Bane asked.
"Malcon!" the voice called again.
Malcon quickly ran out of his line, running into the forest.
"Come back here Eden." the vice captain shouted on seeing Malcon run inside the forest.
She opened her hand creating fireballs that hovered in mid air.
"Keep going, it will protect you." she instructed running after Malcon.
Malcon knew he couldn't outrun the vice Captain.
"Shadow armor." he said, running.
Thick black shadow slowly covered his leg and moved up to his upper body, completely covering him in shadow, till he was as dark as the night.
For a second it looked like Malcon had suddenly disappeared in the vice captain's eyes, she tried sensing his mana but she couldn't. Giving up she ran back at the others.
For some reason Malcon was the only one that could hear the voice. He didn't know if he had gone mad as he was following a voice, a voice only he could hear.
After a while he stopped hearing the voice, Jumping down from the tree he stood, he searched for any evidence of Sam. All he found was Sam's fat shoe and blood stain on the ground.
"What did you find?"
Malcon's heart skipped a beat as he heard a cold voice above him. Looking up he saw the captain staring down at him.
He jumped down from the tree, looking around.
"I found his shoe and some blood stains," Malcon replied.
The captain bent over to sniff the blood."demon's blood" he concluded , standing up.
"Does that mean there is a possibility that Sam is alive?" Malcon asked.
"There are still odds," he said, looking up.
"Did Sam's voice lead you here?" the captain asked.
"Yes."
For a while the captain didn't say anything, it looked like he was thinking. Suddenly the ground slightly vibrated, they both looked at each other. They could feel a strong presence coming toward them.
"Run!" the captain said in a whisper.
They quickly jumped up to the tree, and began their journey back to the house. Not only did the ground vibrate but Malcon could feel the tree vibrate, whatever that was chasing them was ganning on them.
Malcon slightly turned his head to look at what was chasing them and his heart skipped a beat. There were beasts of different kinds chasing them, some were large spiders while some looked like bats, except they were huge.
"Keep running, I will kill as many as I can".
"No…you will die."
"That an order Eden Malcon…keep running." he said as he stopped running, waiting for the beast.
"And don't underestimate your captain again kid." he shouted as Malcon ran past him.
At interval Malcon kept on turning to see the captain, and he just saw him standing on a tree branch. Malcon turned again to look at the captain and his eyes widened in surprise.
"This is suicide." he said watching the captain fall from the tree branch, with his head facing the ground. As the beast saw the falling food they all moved toward it, struggling on who would eat him first.
"Mirror magic." the captain Said,as he slightly brought out his sword from the shit, and thousands of mirrors appeared throughout the forest.
"Reflective slash" he continued slashing his sword toward the mirror that appeared in front of him. a massive air wave escaped from his sword entering the mirror, as it entered the mirror it reflected through the other mirror that had appeared killing the beasts.
'Never underestimate your captain.' He said to himself.
Looking up ahead he could see beasts at different corners.
"Shadow armor." he said, blending into the night, as he made his way past the beast.
When he got back he explained to the vice captain how Sam had unlocked his ability and called him and the captain.
Few hours later the captain returned, covered in beast blood.
He couldn't find Sam.
*****
The house was as quiet as a graveyard, the lost of Sam seemed to have affected everyone.
After their breakfast, most of them went down to the training ground , the captain did not restrict them from cultivating, and since there would be a duel, they all wanted to train themselves personally.
"Are you going down to the training ground?" Malcon asked bane.
"yeah…i have been wanting to cultivate for a long time now" he answered. "aren't you coming?"
"No, I am a little bit tired." Malcon answered, going up to the boys' room.
He fell to his bed on entering the room, the thought of his blood flooded village and Sam death seemed to have clouded his mind.