23) Pregnant Runaway (II)

"G-get away!"

"Such a fierce young lady, I will take my time with you. You will be screaming my name one way or another."

Small bullets started forming coming out of the shadow fog until there were hundreds in a wall formation in front of them.

"Now, either run or die"

'Wait, he wants us to run? This character is sick in the head! What the hell is this?'

They wanted to run, so badly, but their bodies were frozen in place. Even Ryker was pissing his pants and cursing the entire universe. Yes, he would not die but this guy would not make it a quick death. Ryker was a lot of things but a masochist was not one of them.

"Well, that is too bad."

*Swosh* *swosh* *swosh*

The bullets started flying towards them when a figure landed in between the four deers in headlights and their attacker. Silence. All the bullets had disappeared in the palm of Holden who was now standing in a protective stance in front of Ryker.

"Now this just got interesting. All of my prey in the same place, at the same time, ready for me to devour them."

"Run Forest, run!"

"Shila, Tempest! NOW!"

Shila's tiger disappeared and the quetzal-looking bird took its place. It opened its wings and flapped strongly. All of the dust from the broken homes and the ashes from the fire flew up in the air restricting everyone's vision.

Ryker felt how a hand-pulled him and they started running from that place. His mind was not there right now, he was a shell just following whoever was dragging him about. Every time he thought he was gaining power he was reminded of his place in the food chain, he was not even a snack for the top contenders. His spirit was broken in real life and it was slowly breaking inside the game.

Holden had no other choice but to slap the sh*t out of him to wake him up.

"What are you spacing out for? Throw the house out the window!"

And so he sent two energy blades, which were doubled by his ability, his cherry bombs, and his gummy bear. The gummy bear was not double as it was not considered an attack but he still sent one.

He was still very bloated and stopped to vomit a few times in the way. Fortunately for them, the shadows didn't follow them once they got out of town as those were not their instructions. They just had to destroy the entire town. They didn't care about survivors, who would be able to hurt them in the future?

Once they were a safe distance away the team stopped running. The sun was rising on the horizon but they were exhausted so they decided to rest for a few hours. Ryker noticed that throughout the way, Holden's character changed, sometimes he was serious while others he was his usual self.

When they were coming out of the town, they met a few shadows but Holden or the triplets took care of them fairly quickly. Ryker felt like he was a burden to them and he had no idea why Holden decided to rescue him. He needed answers, and now that they were resting he would make sure to get them. He knew that if he asked Holden, he would not get clear answers so he decided to go for the triplets.

"Hey girls, how's it going?"

"Gosh you are so awkward." -said Shila.

"I don't think we have been properly introduced, sir. My name is Valerie" -she was the healer, the first one of the triplets Ryker met.

"My name is Ryker, I already know Shila."- he then turned to the cold and distant technomancer- "who are you?"

"Ava."

"Alright, nice to meet you girls. I have a question, what just happened?"

"You don't know what a shadow raid is?" -said Valerie. She was clearly the friendliest one of the three.

"Nope"

"Alright well, let me explain then. The Northern Continent of Mervin is divided into a few kingdoms. Feywood village belongs to the Kingdom of Light. The Kingdom of Shadows usually sends their "shadows", a group of specialized troops designed to kill, to towns and cities in all four kingdoms in an attempt to make people feel endangered. The only way to guarantee your survival is to move to the Kingdom of Shadows. They want to control the entirety of the Northern Continent."

"And what do the kingdoms do? Can't they destroy the Kingdom of Shadows?"

"It is not that easy." -said Shila- "the emperor of Shadows is a very powerful individual. Every kingdom has a guardian. Usually, the guardians do not engage in any politics but the King of Shadows has been able to tame their guardian, making it their puppet. No one knows how he did it, but-"

"That is enough Shila" -barked Ava.

"How do you know all of this?" -asked Ryker.

As Shila and Valerie were about to talk, Ava interrupted.

"Don't"

However, they were not the only ones present.

"Hahahaha what if I told you, you don't have to be a genius to know they are hiding something. I know what they are hiding."

He then pointed to Shila and said.

"Shila Animalis, daughter of the King of Beasts. From the Kingdom of Beasts."

He then pointed to Valerie.

"Valerie Pura, daughter of the King of Light. From the Kingdom of Light."

And finally, he pointed to Ava.

"Ava Cras, daughter of the King of Tomorrow. From the Kingdom of Tomorrow. They focus on technology and they have an artificial affinity. Which revolves around technology."

"Wait what?! Why do they look so similar?? What the hell is going on here? Someone explain!"