A Price to pay for having...?

Due to the push made by Richard, the wind element controlled by the gray-haired man stopped, dropping the old man onto the floor. Noticing this, Richard's body appeared beside him to catch the old man on time. 

Although he shook the old man up in his arms, he did not feel any response. With fear, he put his finger under the old man's nose and his ear near his heart. Neither his heart nor his lungs are functioning. 

"No! Don't joke with me old man, wake up!" he cried out.

"What a rare crest power," the gray-haired man mumbled while getting up. His anger has died down from seeing Richard's display of crest power. 

  'Brilliant'

And it means more money even though this little orange will be hard to tame. 

His face turned into a big grin thinking about how much he could get from auctioning off the two boys. 

The orange haired boy is surely quite a big catch for someone who's compatible with the light element, waking up from their strong sleeping gas without even taking a single basic lesson for elementalists.

"Do you think this is funny?!" Richard shouted at the smiling gray-haired man. He knows that this man was the culprit of his old man's state.

His eyes looked around the walls in the process of his speech until he found something. He vanished from the spot he was in it which made the gray-haired man excited.

A sound was heard from behind the gray-haired man but as he turned his head to the sound, there was no one. He immediately looked back and saw the orange-haired boy appeared in front of him out of thin air with a short knife in his hand. It must have been taken out of the wall behind him.

"Ahhhh!" Richard screamed as he swung the black knife right to the gray-haired man's face with his eyes closed.

He felt his movements stopped. Slowly opening his eyes, he notices that he was wrapped in wind. Richard bite his lips feeling frustrated by the look on the gray-haired stranger. He looked like he was having fun.

Richard tried to move inside the wind element but he couldn't. Only his facial muscles could be moved in it. He did a quick thinking, there's not much time he could teleport more. There's a limit to it before it tires him out. If he can't get the gray-haired man in those limited times, he will lose.

This is a life and death situation for him.

'This is better than what I expected,' the gray-haired man thought.

They started their little fight.

Richard disappears and reappears near the man multiple times while the man stops the boy's attacks.

The boy didn't manage to even make a scratch with his clumsy attacks. Soon, he hits his limit.

'Dam it.'

There were tiny footsteps coming from the stairs, the gray-haired man heard it and sent a huge wind with one hand while restraining the orange-haired boy in his wind, controlling with his other hand.

Multiple banging sounds came out right after the wind was sent and soon crying voices were heard.

When Richard saw that the gray-haired man was gesturing to make another, "Stop it!" he yelled. What if sending another one hurt the kids more? He had to stop him.

The gaze that was on the staircase shifted to the orange-haired boy with the sound of chuckles. When a pair of cold eyes met the frightened kid in the air, the chuckles stopped.

"Who are you to order me like that?" with his words, staring at the boy's eyes, a large wind blade came out of his hand. It travelled to the staircase.

A moment later the sound of screams and cries came back in response to the wind blade.

Richard had his eyes wide, shocked.

The dead bodies hanging on the walls float in the air to the gray-haired man also the black bag the Luke was in. He jumped from the broken window to the ground. His fall was slowed with his wind element so it didn't hurt his legs.

Richard tried to get out of the wind but it was useless. He needed some rest before using it again. He was also pulled towards the way the  gray-haired man was heading, leaving the body of the old man in the hallway.

What surprised Richard was there were more people he didn't know waiting for the gray-haired man, surrounding the orphanage.

The men waiting outside saw their fellow brothers carried by the wind. Their hands and legs were hanging down even in the wind. It meant that they were dead.

The gray-haired man nodded at the men to start their last job.

'Destroying the evidence.'

---

Luke woke up feeling dizzy, he felt that he was sleeping on something hard. He tried to open his eyes and the first thing he saw as he opened his eyes were iron bars. Through them, he saw pairs of feet roaming in front of it.

He got up to check his surroundings. He was in a room that was the same size as his bedroom. But it was certainly not his bedroom where he sleeps together with his friends in it. The room he was in has brick walls surrounding three sides of the room, the last side was built with iron bars and there were four men guarding it.

He also found someone in the corner of the room facing the wall, someone with orange hair.

"Richard?" Luke called out.

There was no response to his call.

Luke went near his friend. He was sure as he got near him. The clothes on him were the same one that Richard wore yesterday. He touched his friend's shoulder with his hand to confirm it. He could feel that the body was shaking. Luke pulled his friend's body to see what was wrong.

The face of his friend was the expression he never expected to see. Richard, he doesn't look like he was scared, he looks lifeless and there were dark circles under his eyes.

"Richard, Richard!" He shook his friend's body but it was hopeless.

It resorted to Luke using his crest on him.

He put his palm on his friend's forehead while closing his eyes. The black color when one sees when eyes closed turned into a projector screen for Luke. Replaying all the scenes from yesterday night like a movie.

"AARRGH!" He removed his hand on Richard's. 

His body moved with his instinct far from Richard. Gripping his hair with both of his hands. He too was shaking like Richard. It was too much for a kid like him to see all his loved ones becoming like that, all because of his compatibility with shadow.

Richard's eyes turned to look at Luke who's far from him. Without speaking a word.