Chapter 8

While Claudius was preparing himself for a fistfight with a creature twice as big as him, Aurora was submerged by anxiety, knowing that she made a big mistake. Zarul looked at the idiot running in front of him.

''Dammit, now I need to fix this problem. Aurora, could not keep quiet like before. She kept blabbering like a fool about the treasure.''

Zarul began to think about an escape plan. Alea and Jaartheal were looking at the nervous Aurora with a big smile. Jaartheal whispered to Alea. ''

Alea, don't you think that Zarul is suspicious? He didn't even flinch when Aurora was mistaken about the time.''

"Mmmh, he maybe didn't pay attention?''

''Zarul, Not paying attention? What a good joke! Look, I know him a bit longer than you; this guy is always on his guard, and he will never trust somebody. Let's slow down a bit, like that we can think of a plan against them.'

''Aurora! Let's slow down a bit. I am still a mage. My constitution is not as good as yours. I want to be at full force when we enter the castle.''

Aurora started to reduce her speed.''Yes, of course, the castle will not disappear.''

''Okay, I should not say much anymore before I make them even more suspicious. Alea should not know that the contract is destroyed since Zarul is carrying it.

Suddenly they could hear a loud noise coming from the north of the forest; every small animal and magic beast went to hide. A few seconds later, the whole forest was deadly quiet.

Aurora directly thought about Claudius. Zarul also believed that this sound must be her trump card. The only clueless one in the group was Alea and Jaartheal. They actually ask to camp next to a giant dead tree for the night.

Twenty minutes earlier, Claudius was in front of the monster. Claudius removed his jacket. He was standing in front of the magical beasts, with a smile. The flying monster jumped at him flapping his strong wings; he was going to try to make Claudius fall with a mini-tornado, but he didn't move. His first thought was that the monster must be relatively young, Claudius assumed. Claudius decided to use a bit of his physical strength to stop the tornado. The manticore could feel a strange pressure on his body. His mana was not completely responding to him anymore. . The manticore was feeling weaker than usual.

The dread that the small human was sending out terrified the magical beast

The manticore was paralyzed; his body was responding fast enough for a fight.

Claudius was already bored by it. The lack of fighting spirit irritated him that a monster of a human knows that they will lose. They should still fight until the end behind weaker does not mean that you will lose the fight.

He didn't want to fight against this beast, so he just used forcefully drained his life force.

*

Level up x5

*

Claudius saw the notification, and the anger from the fight just disappeared; the sudden gain in power was enjoyable. After cleaning the mess he made, he decided to go back to the castle because he had enough disappointment. He went back strolling in the forest while murmuring ''Fight until death, glory in victory.''

Aurora and her group were sitting around a fire next to the dead tree. Aurora sat alone at the end of the camp. It looked like she was keeping guard but was actually deep in thought.

'' What should I do to survive the trip? I got a feeling that they will try something when we arrived at the castle.''

Zarul was also in his thoughts, but he was still sitting next to Alea and Jaartheal with a glass mead. Alea and Jaartheal were quietly discussing their plan to take down Zarul and Alea.

The group didn't notice that the dead tree was slowly regaining life; a very faint gold light was starting to glow from it.

Before going to sleep, Zarul could hear a voice in the distance. It sounds like a singing man, but he could not understand the language. Claudius was singing in his mother language to fill the loneliness he felt while going to the last remaining tree but stopped track when he felt the life force of someone familiar.

Zarul discreetly went to look for Aurora since Alea and Jaartheal were always sharing a tent. They overlooked Zarul escaping his tent.

Aurora was still outside looking at the sky net tree when she saw that the supposed dead tree was starting to get a golden hue. She was surprised by this strange phenomenon. She decides to investigate the tree, but Zarul quickly stops her.

Claudius was slowly walking in Aurora's direction that he felt a few seconds earlier when he noticed another présence approaching her. Claudius still didn't give much interest in the creature approaching Aurora. He just continued to loiter.

Zarul asked Aurora if her trump card was a human.

When Zarul asked the question, he could feel a powerful force pushing him down. Claudius arrived and pushed The wolfman into the ground. Aurora was surprised by the sudden apparition of Claudius didn't know what to say.

''Is this guy one of the ones you wish dead? Miss Aurora''

Zarul was shocked by the man that appeared behind him without noise. He was also speaking about his death as he was not even alive anymore. Zarul knew that he could not fight back with his strength and just looked at Aurora. He was hoping that she would keep her promise. Aurora was conflicted by her désire for revanche or keeping her promise.

Claudius saw that she was hesitating, so he lost interest in keeping the wolfman under him.

'' So, Miss Aurora, does he die or not?''

Urged to answer, Aurora chooses to let him live. She didn't want to become as bad as them.

''Claudius, he can live; the one I want dead are in the tent.''

Zarul was relieved that he survived, but he spitted a mouthful of blood before falling despite the short time that he was under pressure.

Miss Aurora, I will not kill them now. I need humanoid life forces to wake my subordinate from their slumber. So bring them next to the castle; I will see you there.''

After saying what he had to say, Claudius went to the now gold tree and recited the spell to bring life to the tree ultimately.

Aurora was mesmerized by the once dead scenery that grew back to a beautiful gold forest. When she tried looking for Claudius, he was already gone, so she decided to help Zarul.

Zarul was still incapable of standing up, still shocked by the strength of the man. He now knew that he needed to keep Aurora in his pocket not to die. Jaartheal and Alea were still discussing their plan to kill the two outside and take all the treasure for themselves.

But they still felt a change in the air, they went outside of the tent and saw a different scenery, that a few moments ago. Alea saw Zarul injured on the ground and was shocked to see Aurora standing next to him, uninjured. Aurora was trying to heal Zarul, but she didn't have any healing spell, only a few healing potions, but they were costly for someone like her. So she was reluctant to use it on him. Alea directly asked Jaartheal to heal the injured Zarul. She decided to look around to spot a potential enemy, but she didn't see anything, not even an animal.

Jaartheal pushed Aurora to the side and went to heal Zarul, and he asked him what happened. Zarul told him that a giant monster ran into him at full speed and that he could not stop it from running him down. Aurora was just lucky that the monster didn't go for her. Everything happened when the tree suddenly went back to life. Jaartheal, not knowing if he should believe that, just agreed with him and went back to his tent with Alea.