38 Everflower Forest

The next few days passed quickly. After hearing that they were going on a mission, Akari wanted to join as well. Due to it being a Sato Clan mission, they said she wasn't able to come. Also, due to the nature of the mission, both Ryouma and Arata thought that it would be better if she didn't come along. Akari was disappointed but understood. Other than class and cultivating, Arata and Ryouma spent their time planning their mission and how they were going to achieve it.

A day before their scheduled date to leave, they received information from the scouts. They had found the nest and were able to draw a basic layout of the nest and the surrounding area. Arata and Ryouma scanned over the new information and applied their new knowledge to their current strategy.

Then the day came for them to set out. Arata had gathered all of their travelling supplies and everything was in their carriage. Arata and Ryouma left early in the morning just as the sun broke over the horizon. They left the Royal Institute with a serious air about them. Ryouma had accepted the mission and the need for it. He understood what the Clan was there for, the battles and fights that must take place in the shadows so those in the Light could live peacefully and happily.

He guessed that this kind of mission was only the tip of the iceberg compared to the things he was going to need to do later in life, but he had thought about it a lot over the past few days. He was willing to carry this burden and fight in the dark. He steeled himself to do what he could. When he thought about his own darkness, his past, he knew that if he could keep people away from experiencing that kind of darkness, he was willing to do what he could.

They travelled the first hour in silence, both seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Arata then glanced over to Ryouma whose was looking extremely serious and tense. He coughed lightly.

"I thought road trips with friends were supposed to be fun. This seems like we're on our way to a funeral."

"We are, aren't we?"

Arata shook his head. Bad choice of words. And how could reply like that with such a serious face? Ryouma giggled.

"That was a really dark joke, Captain."

Arata chuckled.

"Well we are the Sato Clan, we can't joke around unless it is in the dark."

The two boys chuckled. Ryouma slowly went back to a serious expression.

"So, this is going to be the type of missions we do, huh Captain?"

Arata's smile faded as well as he nodded.

"Yeah. It is why our Shadow Trials are set up that way, to see if someone can witness the darkness of the world and remain true to themselves. It is also to find out whether that person can commit the acts that no one else can without straying off of their path. This is the burden the Sato Clan must carry."

Ryouma nodded and paused before replying.

"With the big celebration and ceremony, along with the Shadowguards Master Azrail has, things seemed so lighthearted and good in the Clan. You are all a bunch of deceiving liars."

Arata laughed at this.

"We are the Harbingers of Death and the Guardians of Darkness, ya know. The titles ain't just for show.'

Ryouma chuckled and dramatically put his hand on his head.

"Oh my. I have been tricked by your tomfoolery. Curses!"

Arata laughed dramatically like an evil villain.

"Mwahahaha! Now you shall serve the dark for all eternity!"

The two boys laughed together and the atmosphere was a lot less tense now then before. Ryouma gestured to the carriage.

"Why don't you rest up for a bit, Captain, and I'll steer the horses for a while."

Arata nodded and climbed into the back with their supplies. He sat cross legged and meditated for a while. He was still trying to condense his Energy but still was unable to. This had stumped him for the whole week. After a couple hours of meditating, Ryouma called out to him.

"Captain, we have guests."

Arata heard the serious tone in his voice and came to the front. He turned to Ryouma, who's eyes were now darker than usual. He had been working on the Shadow Awareness technique and had finally consolidated the first level and could now activate it freely. He was scanning his surroundings.

They were heading down a trail with trees on both sides of them. Arata activated his Shadow Awareness and looked through the trees to the surrounding area. Ryouma spoke up.

"6 people."

Arata shook his head.

"8. Two are further down the road."

Ryouma nodded.

"How do you want to handle this, Captain?"

Arata tapped lightly on his shoulder before glowing slightly and disappearing in a burst of light. Seeing that he had disappeared, Ryouma just grinned and continued going straight. As he continued forward, he spotted two men standing in the middle of the road. They stood in the horses way and Ryouma brought the carriage to a stop.

One of the men was large and had a shiny bald head. He had an angry look on his face as he shouted at Ryouma.

"Get out of the carriage!"

Ryouma looked innocently over to the two men.

"Is there a problem good sirs?"

The other man had short, spiked blond hair. He laughed.

"Good sirs? Sounds like a rich, sheltered little boy. Let me break it down. You get out, and you don't die."

Ryouma feigned a shocked face.

"Die? Oh please sirs! I do not wish to die!"

The large man shouted.

"Them get out!"

Ryouma shouted back, sounding like a scared child.

"No! I won't!"

The blond man chuckled evilly.

"Do you think you have a choice? Men! Come out!"

The two men grinned as they stared at Ryouma. After a few silent seconds, nothing happened. The two men continued to look menacing.

"Men! Surround the carriage!"

Again, his calls were met with silence. Ryouma continued to act scared.

"Oh no. Are your men invisible? Oh please don't hurt me, good sirs."

A look in Ryouma's eyes changed. The words "good sirs" sent a chill down the two men's spines. They felt that the boy's aura was different now. The two began to look around at the trees, wondering where their group was.

"You can just continue forward. I'll dispose of the lumps of rock in the path."

The two men turned around to find a small young boy standing behind them, waving at the two men with a smile.

"Excuse me, good sirs."

Arata rushed forward as the blonde man chanted and through a punch at Arata. His fist was covered in what looked like ice. Arata caught his fist and the man was stunned to find that he couldn't move and all of his energy was being sucked away. The large man was a step behind and as he went to throw a punch, a small leg was flying towards his stomach. As it connected, a powerful burst of ice sent the man flying into a tree, breaking it and embedding the large man in the tree.

Arata twisted mid air and used the momentum of his twist to turn the blond man's arm, which he was still holding on to. The force and momentum caused the blonde man to flip over his arm, landing on the ground. Arata landed and moved to stand over the blond man, his foot on the man's chest.

"I think that's enough for you and your little group. Good bye."

Arata lifted his leg and sent it flying down into the blond man's stomach, making the man unable to move as his ribs were now most likely broken. Arata grabbed and casually tossed him to the side as Ryouma and the carriage pulled up beside him. Arata gracefully jumped on the moving carriage and the two boys carried on their way.

As they left, a strong gust of wind floated through the trees. As it flew past the blonde man on the ground in pain, a slash across his neck appeared, causing the man to suffocate on his own blood and die. The wind materialized into a tall man in a black outfit. He wore a black and grey cloth that wrapped around his head and a black and grey mask over that. Every part of him was covered, you couldn't even tell what color his skin was. He had a grey symbol imprinted on his back. The Sato Clan crest. He watched as the carriage continued forward.

"He is still too soft. Master dotes on him too much."

The mysterious man shook his head as the wind swirled around him, swallowing him as he became transparent and disappeared. The wind then rushed forward and followed the carriage with the two boys, unaware of his presence.

Arata and Ryouma continued to chat and joke with each other as they travelled along uneventfully. Arata looked out over the horizon.

"We're here."

A large forest was now coming into view. It seemed endless and was clearly a very large forest. as they neared, they could now see that the trees were a lot larger than they looked from afar. These trees were huge.

Arata and Ryouma followed a trail that led into the forest. As they entered, they felt a strong Energy force coming from the surrounding trees. Ryouma spoke up.

"This must be the Everbloom Energy from the forest."

Arata nodded. From the information they studied, they learnt about the Everbloom Energy. It was a powerful Earth and Wood Energy hybrid that was prevalent in this forest. It provided power to the plants and trees causing them to grow exponentially, thus the size of the trees and the forest. It was a perfect place for those that cultivated these particular Elements. The deeper in you went, the stronger the Energy was. But the creatures and beasts also grew stronger.

There were five sources of the Everbloom Energy in the forest that fed the entire place. They were the five locations of the Everflowers. Powerful plants that radiated pure Energy. They were protected by the villages in the forest and the creatures in the area from those that wished to take it for themselves.

The village that was destroyed was one of those villages. This showed the strength of the Forest Drakes as they were able to defeat the village that cultivated so closely to the Everflower. And the nest was close to the Everflower also, which meant that they had absorbed a lot of the Energy the Everflower provided. And Arata and Ryouma were going to fight them on their home turf.

The odds were continuously stacked against them. But Arata was still confident as long as everything went to plan. Ryouma learnt over the past few days that Arata was quite lazy and didn't like using too much effort. But this trait of his also brought out a scarily powerful strategic mind. He was meticulous in his plans and covered every possible outcome so when it came time to act out the plan, it was an easy thing as everything was already laid out for you, you just need to follow the plan.

As they moved through the forest, they both felt the eyes of creatures and beasts on them both. Arata and Ryouma kept calm and continued forward to not startle or scare any of the creatures. As long as they let them be, most of the creatures would leave them be.

After a few minutes of following down the trail, they came to an opening. Ryouma gasped. There were destroyed houses and broken pieces of wood everywhere. There was debris all over the ground and as they observed closer, they could see dried blood streaked across the ground, the walls and the broken houses.

They arrived at the village.

Arata's face went grim as they came to a stop and surveyed the horrific scene before them. Although Ryouma had done his best to prepare himself for this, it still hit him hard. They both got out and walked around, scanning the area. Arata looked over different parts of the village. He saw the scrapes and where the debris lay, slowly piecing together how they were attacked, how the village tried to defend itself. The scene vividly creating itself in Arata's mind as he did his best to figure out the strength of the Forest Drake's.

Ryouma had stumbled his way to a broken church. The walls had been completely destroyed. There were slashes and claw marks on the ground. Ryouma bent down and picked up a little doll with yellow cotton hair and a purple dress. Ryouma felt conflicted as he stared at this doll. Arata came over and saw the church and Ryouma holding the doll. He sighed before doing his best to shift the focus.

"I'm guessing they had a lot of Forest Drakes attack. But I am guessing that most of them were quite young, inexperienced and weak. There are only a few places where the destruction was minimal and the Forest Drake's completely overwhelmed the villagers. By my guess, we are dealing with over 40 Copper Grade Forest Drake's with an additional 7 Bronze or Silver Grade that attacked. And there will definitely be more Copper Grade Drake's at the nest that were too young to come as well as a couple more Bronze and Silver Grade Forest Drakes that stayed behind to protect the young. By the degree of the damage, they didn't have a Gold Grade Forest Drake, but we can't rule out the possibility that there is one. Although, for a nest of this size, they would only have one."

All creatures and beasts had a Class and a Grade. The Class indicated what that creature's species were ranked, whereas the Grade indicated the quality of the individual creature. There were 10 Classes, 1 being the strongest and 10 being the weakest. Grades were the same as a spell's grade, and revealed the strength of that particular creature. Forest Drakes were considered Class 8 creatures individually, but their true power was when they fought together in a pack. If they had a Gold Grade Forest Drake leading them, they would need to pull out all the stops to beat them.

Ryouma was amazed at how Arata could calmly observe the surroundings objectively. Arata saw this in Ryouma's eyes. He patted him on the shoulder.

"It is important to feel the pain and empathize, but only if you let it fuel you and not drive you. Take a minute to calm down and prepare yourself."

Arata looked out over the wreckage and Ryouma finally saw pain in Arata's eyes that was instantly replaced by a cold, dark look as he stared out into the forest.

"Then we're going hunting."