Armory Additions

During the few seconds leading up to the explosion, Novius' vision began flickering with runic symbols while his ocular blood vessels slowly expanded. The pain was insurmountable, forcing his words to fumble as he desperately cried to save his friends.

"BEHIND… THE TREES—"

BABOOM!

Currents of heat, chunks of debris, and human bodies were violently thrown through the jungle. Luck was not on their side, resulting in their bodies cracking against the thick trees of the Crosstree Jungle.

Novius prayed as his nails dug into the roots of the tree he desperately hugged. The only thought going through his mind was hope his friends made it out alive. To lose another would possibly break Novius. He may have accepted Elijah's death, but he struggled to accept the life given to him was not guaranteed.

Novius mostly knew of what plagued the entire world, and yet he's so far from being able to attempt to destroy the problem. He was unable to contend against beasts alone!

Elijah was everything he wished to be, and knew if Elijah was dead, the only one who could carry out his intentions was himself.

Reacting to Novius' words came instinctually to his friends. Each one of them hugged the trees tightly, barely scraping by as Alexia struggled to hold onto Thaylen's body.

Unfortunately, the attacker who was chasing them through the trees did not get the memo, and was slammed against a tree at neck-breaking speed. After the mushroom cloud subsided into nothing,the four stooges held firmly to the tree, watching scraps of the carriage and different natural parts of the earth flying by their heads come to a halt.

When all was said and done, each one of them rolled on their back to see three towering trees slowly tipping over into the depths of the forest. Inaudible sounds were heard by each one of them while trying to communicate with each other. Thankfully, they all had the same plan: run into the opening behind where the explosion took place to avoid the threat of the falling trees.

In the moments of stumbling across the beaten and soiled ground, Novius rapidly blinked as his vision slowly returned to normal. His ears were ringing without the intention to stop. Novius stood up, took the black sword that had lost its red glow out from the trunk of a tree, and ran for the earth path.

Crash! Boom!

The trees had finally fallen, cracking upon impact and creating another wave of dust to blow in their faces.

A few grueling minutes passed of them regaining their sanity, When they had all come to, a plan to loot the bodies and return to the wall was formed. This was decided before realizing the Protectors who stood atop the wall would be coming their way.

An explosion of this magnitude could not be ignored.

While Emery was looting and checking the life signs of the still body 40 feet behind the carriage, he looked up from the lights he saw out of the corner of his eye. "Look! The Protectors! We have to run through the trees again!" Afterwards, Emery pulled a four inch curved knife with a small hole for a finger out of the man's jacket.

"G-guys… I think I am bleeding somewhere…" Alexia was beaten, and likely picked up a stray chunk of earth that flew by their faces.

"Quick! Into the Jungle, the trees have already fallen!" Novius said before inspecting her wound. A piece of wood, likely from a tree, had punctured her hip pretty deeply. Thankfully, it is not a fatal wound, but would surely complicate their entrance into the Kingdom. "Theon! Can you put your ice around the wound? I'm not sure we should take it out…"

"I got it!" Thaylen briefly held his hand over her hip while creating a blanket of ice that attached itself to the thick splinter.

Being that Emery was the tallest and strongest of the group, he carried Alexia in her arms while running quietly through the edge of the forest, weaving between the fourth and fifth layer of trees in order to not be seen.

Novius had reluctantly expressed his interest to watch their investigation after telling his friends to continue moving forward. All he desired was his new bed to think about the subtle feeling and understanding in his soul.

Conversations related to an unknown and sudden explosion took place while ascertaining the reason why. Phrases related to The Kingdom of Rentri and Frostfire, coming danger, and spies were voiced while communicating through a magical device similar to Astraea's communication amulet.

Not a single soul noticed any movement within the border of the Crosstree Jungle as they were focused on what was in front of them.

Emery waited for the right opportunity to enter the kingdom through a climbable tree. Half an hour of struggling to cross the wall led to Theon creating platforms of ice attached to the wall. A makeshift staircase was created, and went unnoticed as the wall was temporarily unmanned besides a few patrolling low-ranking Protector's.

"Quick! I think we may have been seen!!" Novius frantically ran around the corner of a building, through a wide alley, jumped through a fence into a thick garden of growing herbs and roots, and later appeared in front of their three-story townhome.

"They went this way!!"

"Shit! We have been seen! We can't make it to the window in time!" Emery was looking left and right, and pulled his friends as he ran down a long row of townhomes.

Condensed runic flashlights painted vivid pictures against the walls of the nearby townhomes, resulting in a sliver of movement being seen just before Novius and his friends had turned into the next street.

"The light was on us for just a second! We have to keep going!" Novius hurriedly replied. His main concern was what would happen when Emery ran out of energy. His waning stamina has already resulted in a decrease of speed.

"Turn here!!" Thaylen threw icicles into the alley behind him separating the back sides of two back-to-back rows of townhomes.

Just two hours ago, it had been pouring rain unbelievably hard. Several puddles, and odd smells coming from the trash bins were evident, and added to the run or die feeling each one of them felt.

"Up the bridge!!"

Thaylen stayed behind to create a wall of ice blocking the bridge entrance. In reality, they quickly climbed the side of the bridge with the plan to jump to the roof's of the townhomes. Novius gulped at the dark river, but knew if anything, it would be their best bet at escape.

However, if they were somehow able to pull off this jump, they would have an effortless path to the rooftop of their townhome.

Emery aided Alexia on top of the raised structural support of the bridge. Her right leg was dangling off the edge, and stared at a 12 foot gap.

"This should help, but don't slip."

Everyone quickly crossed, leading to Thaylen destroying the bridge as he barely made the jump. Novius grasped Thaylen's palm moments before he fell backwards on the steep slant of the roof.

"I think we made it…" Novius opened the trap door to the roof they left unlocked before leaving earlier, and funneled down the ladder.

"G-grab the healing potions! The bottom drawer on the kitchen counter…" Novius anxiously relayed while quietly running down the steps.

A warm liquid was welcomed down the throat of Alexia, and within seconds, her body began to replenish its cells in the damaged area whilst Novius slid the five inch wooden splinter out of the front of her right hip.

"Please don't tell me you guys had something to do with that explosion…"

The voice of Don froze the children in place while Alexia laid on the single couch — reclining into a relaxing position.

"We…" Novius thought about lying, but shifted to telling all of the truth. "We were the reason why the explosion didn't destroy the wall. We wanted to hunt the beast by ourselves, taking all of the profits. But we encountered a carriage with a bomb."

"We stopped a tragedy from occurring, okay! I wouldn't change anything!" Novius sadly explained while looking at Don's worried expression.

"And in the process, you killed people right?" Don asked, creating a silence no one wanted to break.

"I didn't…"

Novius walked up the stairs, and lazily opened the door to his room.

"I hate this! I hate this! This world is so broken… I hate this…"

Don had lost his son, and now, what he had left were the best friends of his children. It has been 35 days since arriving. Don had made it obvious that he wanted no part in the war or hunting beasts anymore, which occurred because of the truth that was spread by Novius while also learning about the history of Gion.

Contrary to Don, he didn't feel helpless for some reason. Knowing there were people far stronger than him even at his supposed age, he still persisted on with the desire to fix the problem.

Astraea was a lie masquerading as the truth, and Gion was a place of comfort that would turn any soul without a reason into someone who would kick the world's problems down the curb.

A flashlight imitating the sun, and a warm glow far too relaxing to not kick your legs.

Everyone else followed — returning to their room. Instead of sleeping, they began to inspect the weapons and equipment they had gathered from the men after their lives.

In the hand of Emery, was a wildly curved knife with a hole for a finger — known as a karambit. A small rune was carved on both sides of the blade, and when mana was pushed inside it, a bright reddish-orange glow appeared, causing a mirage-like effect to emanate around the blade. "A heat rune… Maybe I will switch my combat style for the time being."

Held within the arms of Thaylen was a double-sided axe with ornate details, and another rune engraved into both sides. When activated with a small amount of mana, small sparks began to trickle off the metal post and the rounded head.

Alexia did not bother to inspect her black short sword she had received, but assumed it would light up brightly with heat that could cut nearly anything with different amounts of mana.

Finally, inside the hands of Novius, was a broadsword that glowed a bright reddish-orange color, signifying the rune had something to do with heat. However, before even activating it, Novius' eyes were filled with the same runic symbols that blanketed his vision. The pain of a headache and an understanding of the rune repeatedly banged on the door of his brain. The only problem being that it would require two hands to wield effectively.

What Novius had realized the last time he talked to Elijah was how something had fundamentally changed within himself. 

Now, a new feeling deep within his soul was found, eager to be used. An ability that gave him a deep understanding of the complicated runic symbols that this kingdom used in great masses.

Novius opened the door wide, allowing a flood of information to enter an empty library. The library was not necessarily his brain, but something connected to his soul. A euphoric understanding of the rune he was currently looking at.

"Heat, based on the quality and quantity of mana… What I saw before was—" More flashes of a complicated rune passed through his vision. "Combustion, condense, fire, and a catalyst…"

It was obvious a side effect of this power had something to do with the inability to control the power. Every glance he took at the sword resulted in flashed of the rune overtaking his vision. Although, each flash brought about a sensation that the rune was not actually there.

It was odd, and unfathomable to try and think about it.

A power with a flaw…

…

The next day came with conversations at the table related to the previous events. Mainly their academy admissions, which would allow them to further advance through power far easier than if they were to go at it alone.

Don had no argument over this, and even encouraged it. However, he has heard from people passing by on the streets of the market district that the entrance fee is quite expensive if you were to be accepted. This caused problems within the group.

Soon, they would be on their own for housing.

It was decided before they left to apply to the academy, that they would focus all of their efforts on stacking Genny while optimizing Don's potion selling business.

In fact, Don had heard that when the end of the Quarter came, the tax collectors would be coming by to do the work everyone hated. Being that Don had not been tracking any of his sales, he had no idea how the taxes were going to affect him.

Perhaps he was even illegally selling!

In the end, everything would be figured out as they hoped the protection Jarth had promised them in exchange for Landon and everything they knew would stand strong.