Chapter 44: Flames of Hope

Eva's POV

"You are master's wife" A goblin said while holding his bleeding arm. He was sitting above a fire wolf's corpse. Half of his arm got ripped off by the fire wolf, but he managed to kill it before it killed him.

"You're one of the goblins we saved back then. What's your name?" I said as I approached him and held his other arm.

"Master haven't given me a name yet" He replied. I used an ice spell, Frost Touch, and closed his wound. "It won't heal it, but it will stop you from bleeding out, for now.

Frost Touch is a second tier ice spell. You convert your mana into frost energy and concentrate it at your fingertips. This way, if you touch anything, it will immediately freeze.

"He hasn't? What if I give you a name?" I asked.

"You are master's wife, I will gladly accept whatever name you give me" He replied as he looked at his arm, the bleeding fully stopped.

"We're not husband and wife, yet" I replied "Nevermind that. Are you the only goblin left?" and he nodded. "Let's see... I'll call you... Fang!"

"Fang! I am Fang? I am Fang!" He cheered and laughed. Although he's the only one left, he can still smile and laugh.

"Now, Fang, do you remember your master's sister?" I asked "Do you know where she went?"

"It's something that starts with an S! Shool? Yes, shool! They went to the shool! They... they left us" Fang replied.

"Oh you mean school?" I asked "Ok Fang, why not follow me so we can go save them? What do you think?"

"Okay!" He replied and we left. I remembered that Ashley's school was called the Silver Pine National Institute of the Arts. It's near the supermarket where Andrei and Kyan are doing their raid, maybe I can try and ask them.

When we arrived at the supermarket, it was barricaded and soldiers from the NLEU were stationed. I gestured Fang to hide behind me, and I approached them.

"Hello, officer. Do you know some soldiers named Andrei and Kyan? I believe that they are also stationed here" I said.

"Sergeant Andrei had just been deployed, while Chief Inspector Kyan is still in his tent. What is your business here, miss?" An officer said.

"I'm their colleague. Can you tell Kyan that Eva's here" I said and he nodded. He called one of his officers and instructed to pass on the message.

The officer came back and gestured us to follow him. So we did, but as soon as they noticed Fang, they stopped us.

"Miss, what kind of sick joke is this? Bringing a monster with you in a raiding encampment?" An officer said.

"Officer, you misunderstood something. He's my summon, he will not do anything harmful to you or to anyone in this camp." I replied.

"Maam, please understand. We are soldiers, we prioritize the safety of our people above anything else. You cannot go inside unless you de-summon the creature" the officer said.

"What's happening?" Kyan came out from his tent and approached us "Oh Eva, what brought you here?"

"I need your help" I said.

"Come with me" Kyan said as he walked back, so I followed him. He entered the biggest tent, I was reluctant at first, but I mustered up my courage and entered.

It was the central command tent. There were maps and documents posted all over their numerous corkboards. There were also pinned pictures of people in different spots around the city. I approached the boards, the people vary from young to old.

"Who are these?" I asked.

"Possessed people. We found out that people are being possessed in a pattern. It's as if they are making three layers of circles" Kyan replied.

"A magic seal. I don't know what it's for, but I'm sure it's a magic seal. They're used to unleash or summon beings from other dimensions" I said. I've seen them once while I was working as a porter. Demons summoning stronger demons inside the dungeons.

"Now, why are you here?" Kyan asked.

"Have you visited the school?" I asked. "Jin's sister was there. She hasn't gotten back home yet. I need help locating her."

"We're supposed to raid the school after we finish raiding the supermarket. I have no other choice, stay here. I'll assemble a group, and then we raid the school" He replied and I nodded. Kyan then walks out.

After a few minutes, he came back. "Let's go".

I followed him outside. He assembled 40-50 soldiers, with at least 10 of them above level 90. We rushed to the school, even though we encountered some monsters on the way, they just massacred them with their guns.

We arrived at the school. Some of the soldiers were stationed in front of the school while some of them entered the grounds.

"Sir, two higher fire wolves are guarding the front gate. We need to eliminate them in order to enter." A female officer said.

"Don't worry, Eva will handle it" Kyan said and I nodded.

I destroyed the gate using my mana beam to create a ruckus and lure the wolves. Both of them lunged at me but I quickly used two lightning spears and blasted them into pieces. The soldiers killed the remaining lesser wolves.

The school yard is now cleared, so we entered the school building. We stormed the base floor, and killed every lesser wolf in sight.

"Ashley!" I shouted but Kyan quickly shushed me.

"They might ambush us with their numbers, so keep it down" He said.

We went to the second floor. The corridors were flooded by corpses of students and teachers. We checked all of their IDs, there was no Ashley.

We went to the next floor. The third floor was empty, and it was not damaged. Looks like the fire wolves haven't got here. We tried to go further inside but we're... we're blocked by some kind of forcefield.

"Looks like a leveler got mixed up" Kyan said.

"Ashley's also a leveler, but she's a summoner. She couldn't have done this" I said.

"Does anyone of you specializes in forcefields or anything related?" Kyan asked. A man raised his hand, and approached the forcefield.

He then focused his mana and slowly broke it.

"How did you do it?" I asked.

"Uhm... You just find the core of the forcefield and break it with your mana. I used a spell called Mana Trace, and reinforced it using Fortification and Mana Magnet" He replied.

"He's one of my best guys." Kyan added.

"Explain to me all of those spells" I said "If it's no big deal"

"Mana Trace helps you locate certain points or places where there is an abundance of mana. While Fortification is a support spell, it doubles the the effect of a certain spell and increases the mana resistance of the user in case your mana origin is attacked. Lastly, Mana Magnet is my original spell. It attracts mana of different kind to me, the user" He explained.

"I see, Thank you for the information. Maybe I can use those, someday." I replied and we continue. We saw a door slowly open so we halted. They readied their guns and point it at the door.

"I swear someone just broke my forcefield" A voice of a girl said.

"Wait, we can't just get out there and look. If it broke your forcefield, then it means it's a strong enemy" Another girl replied. Kyan gestured his hands to lower the soldiers' guns.

"I'll make Carrots scout it first" wait... that voice... it was Ashley. A humanoid rabbit went out of the room, when it saw me it quickly pulled Ashley out. "Oh-my-god, Eva!"

Ashley quickly ran and hugged me. "Thank goodness your safe". Then two other girls followed her. One of them was tall, with a blonde hair and freckles. The other one was more darker, but she had a nice figure plus her brown hair. Both of them wore the same uniform as Ashley.

"Are the three of you, the only ones left?" Kyan asked and Ashley nodded. "Men, escort them back to the camp. We're getting out of here"

We've brought Ashley and her classmates back to the NLEU encampment. We also met Andrei there. The NLEU gave Ashley and the others time to process everything that just happened.

After a few minutes, they questioned them one by one. When they're finished, the NLEU gave them food and medicine.

Ashley asked about her brother, and I replied that he's looking for your mom. When she heard about it, she cried and slept on my lap.

We rested for awhile, then the NLEU drove us back to our house. We also brought her classmates back to their homes, luckily their families were still alive.

I wonder how Jin is doing. Jin, please hurry up and find your brother. Ashley and I will be waiting.