It's Beginning

I silently followed behind him.

I couldn't help but think right away about the guy that Hayley's was interested in. I'm not an idiot it was pretty obvious for everyone else, and with his question, he wanted to confirm if Hayley and I are together or not.

Just for some peace of mind, I needed to think about someone else that could fit that situation… but it was meaningless. She might know more people now, but most of the time she is with me or around me, we live together, and she seems always to be in high spirits when she is with me. From the other people point of view, she must look closer to me than Rose since most of the time she is with me, she is in Astral form, most people don't get to see her at my side like Hayley, a misunderstanding was expected to occur.

It made sense, we had a history together that was not a secret, and after all, that has happened, I became the main support in her life.

I thought about the way she was acting. Lately, it reminds me a little of the time before we started to date… she was a little more forward in her advances at the time, but she was probably trying to not do it because of Rose, she probably doesn't even notice her attitude because it was the way she always acted with me.

It was sad, Hayley is a fantastic girl and deserves the best in the world, I don't want her to suffer anymore, but being honest there was nothing I could do in this situation. It's something that she must get over by herself.

…Is not like I could keep my distance from her.

A memory came back, it wasn't an old memory… just three weeks, but it felt like it has been years already.

…

We were together in the backyard of her house, and she was crying in my arms.

"Spence… please don't leave me alone…

…Promise me…"

"…I promise."

In my mind, I was looking at the achievement that was born from that moment…

[Who to trust?]

…

It might not be a real link like the one I had with Rose, but that promise was equally important… despite what happens It was impossible for me to leave her.

Even if I knew that her feelings for me might become a problem.

All I could do was hope that she stops feeling like this.

And if she can't, hope that it doesn't create a problem between Rose and me.

…

"Hey, look."

Even if I was distracted, it wasn't like I was in my own world clueless about what was happening around me. We had arrived at the city border, and I could see the forest where the swamp was located.

I could feel Rose's gaze fell on me from the sky again. This time She talked to me through Dante.

'You are going to the swamp?'

'Yeah, I need to know what is happening there, it's closer than the farmlands, and we need the information.'

'Be careful please…'

'At the minimum sign of danger, I'll run away, I'll even throw that idiot to the snakes as bait if I need it to come back to you.'

'Yeah sure, just take care, remember what happened with the Man-bull.'

'I know, see you later, I love you.'

'Love you too.'

She was right, the Man-bull was a D ranked beast, and it was an entire league over the E-Rank beasts, with my current strength I should be able to win in a fight without using adrenaline burst, but still how many of those beasts I could battle at the same time if the worst happens?

I felt conflicted inside, my mind tells me that this is not a good idea, but I have this weird feeling inside as if this wasn't wrong, but the right call instead.

We were already past the city edge and were near the forest. I have never come to this forest before, at least not this part, there used to be an area that was used as an adventure park, but it has been already abandoned for at least 10 years already, it was also in another entirely different area.

From the outside it looked like an average green forest, anyone would be surprised to hear that there is a dangerous swamp in here. But that image disappeared as soon as I entered the forest. The place was dark because the light barely managed to pass in between the branches and leaves. We have yet to see beasts or find water, but I could feel the humidity of the place.

I made a signal to Stan and traded places with him, I need to be in front to advance in this part of the travel. As I used my aura view, with the tracking function, I found that until recently this place was like a beast's freeway. The traces were chaotic, infinite and everywhere, I didn't even try to get more information from it and moved carefully.

*Crack

"Sorry."

Stan was following behind me, I lowered my volume so he could barely hear me.

"Don't make noise look where I step and do exactly the same."

He understood that the situation was delicate. He nodded and squinted his eyes trying to focus on the places that I was stepping on. Unlike me, he couldn't improve his sight, so it was more difficult to see where to step.

Focusing on my hearing, I found the sound of beasts crawling and making different noises further ahead. I stopped on my tracks after advancing a little and Stan did the same.

Far away in front of us, there was a considerable group of beasts in the water. In that area the number of trees decreased, giving enough space for the light to come down and spread. The group was composed mainly of similar beasts than the ones we already repelled before, but in between, I could see some beasts with a strong aura and a couple of semi-humans.

The group kept growing I couldn't see too far but if I had to guess at the time already was composed by at least twice the number of the previous attack, and it is still growing.

_______________________________________________

At this time, Rose was walking towards the conference room in Green Shelter. She has just confirmed the situation and was in charge of informing about the situation to some of Green Shelter leaders.

On the table, Dr. Harting, Blake, and some people from the hunting teams and Law enforcement were waiting. She was nervous, this was the first time that she was part of these meetings. In a way, you could say that she was the one that called this meeting.

"Hey, Rose. Did something happen? Why did Dante tell us to come here instead of talking to us directly?"

"He just left the range of his telepathy so he couldn't do it by himself."

"I thought that he was going to stay in the range."

Blake was frowning, losing their main communication method was a huge problem in the situation.

"Yeah, but he is busy doing something with Spencer, he asked me to explain what has happened in the last few hours."

"Did something happen to Spencer?"

There were people in there that already knew about the mission, but others had no idea about it. What was Spencer doing that needed Dante's Help?

"Everything went fine, in the last hours Spencer and Dante successfully repelled an attack that was coming from the swamp without problems, currently he is trying to infiltrate in the swamp to get more information about it."

"I thought that he was going to come back after that."

She has to be evasive, to not tell the truth by mistake …

"There is nothing we can do about it, what I wanted to tell you is that we need to start reinforcing the east wall and get ready to fend off the attack, I just saw the scouts coming this way. Because of the distance, I estimate that the first wave should arrive in about 3 hours, half the time if their fastest beasts move on their own."

Everyone's face turned grim as they received the news. Until now there was the possibility that we were wrong, that there was no invasion, but it was happening now, and they needed to act.

"The scout's arrival?"

"Should be in about half an hour."

Rose knew that they wanted to hear the confirmation from them until now everything has come from Spencer's group hearing it from someone else, that was what most of them wanted. She could see doubt and fear on some faces.

They didn't have where to run from here, resisting inside Green Shelter was the only hope everyone has for survival.

Dr. Harting was looking Rose's eyes like if he was trying to see through her.