Chapter 86. One step Ahead

Joan was usually beautiful and appeared calm. She was ever composerd and barely got influenced. Even in classes when someone made a joke, she would do nothing more but smile.

Seeing her laugh made her appear evil. Her tyrannical laugh ceased and a white light flashed in her eyes. The three who had spoken fell down dead never to know what killed them. Even the rest did not see what killed them.

"Anyone who dares mention a god to me will have the same fate. You dared let him go by running away from him?" Joan asked angrily. "Cunning brat. Just how does he manage to keep his cultivation hidden from us?" Joan asked softly with a whisper.

Tracy had also informed her that she had failed to read his cultivation. She would understand where they were coming from but that only angered her. She was sure that Alaric was not yet in the middle stages.

Yet, the brat played them.

"The only place they can run to is the woods. All teams commence thorough search in the forest. They cant go far into the woods due to their weakness," Joan commanded and the masked guys all rushed towards the forest.

"Tracy, go keep watch in the academy. We will inform you after successfully catching them. I feel a great urge to kill that brat," Joan said with gritted teeth. She deactivated the array and together with the two men, they flashed towards the forest.

Joan specifically searched for arrays. Trying to act smart infront of her? Was she not the one who had taught them arrays? He dared tried to use them to hide from her? What a joke!

She laughed when she saw a concealment array. The fact that the two guys had not yet noticed it showed just how profound he was in arrays. But to her it was nothing. Especially when she specifically searching for arrays.

She landed and stretched her hand forward. She decided to prove to him the difference between teacher and student. She instructed the two guys to wait for her as she evaded the alarm arrays.

She felt some pride seeing her student's success but anyone who messed with her plans was an enemy. With her skills, she did not even try to dstroy the concealment array. She found all the weakpoints and bypassed there.

She entered the cave with a pleased smile. Inside the cave, she could see a white dress at the far end. To think that they had not noticed her. They must have had a great trust in those arrays.

She saw the blue robe next to the white dress. She moved forward as discreet as she could and when she reached them, she saw the clothes were being supported by sticks.

She screamed in anger and the whole cave was blown away. The array did not stand a chance. Joan stormed outside the destroyed cave and reached the two guys.

"They were here not long ago. They cannot go deeper so it is better we search the perimeter from the regions the fifth stage beasts resides," Joan said.

Her hair now was mess. Her face appeared very angry that one could think she was burning up. She spoke to the masked guys and told them to patrol the fifth stage regions.

***

Alaric felt the alarm array trigger and knew that the plan had worked. He was now wearing a black t-shirt. He had created a similar battle suit to that he had created for Aurora during their last mission. They were running headed into the regions with beasts of the sixth stage.

One thing Alaric was good at was taking his chances. He had realized during his first time in the forest that beasts rarely attacked you if they could not sense your cultivation level. This is because they did not view you as a threat.

He had explained to Aurora how to seal one's cultivation and they were running without releasing their cultivation. A little disturbance in energy would alert the beast.

Alaric was leading the way with Aurora behind him. She would oftenly have to stop and catch her breath. Alaric knew that their pursuers thought that they could not be dumb enough to enter deeper into the woods.

The same way he had anticipated that concealment arrays and alarm arrays would only sell them off, he was able to buy them some few seconds. The few beasts they came across were now almost in the Master Plane.

Going any further would be detrimental. Maybe there would be a hungry beast that they would cross paths with and it would not mind feasting on them.

Knowing the thinking of their pursuers, he knew that it would take them almost one hour before they realized that they were deep in the forest. Well that was enough for him to come up with another plan.

From afar, he could hear rumbling and splashing of water. That was exactly their escape route. Follow the river. They followed the sound and stood at the edge of the edge of the waterfall.

"On the count of three," Alaric said as he held Aurora's hand. He then counted to three as they jumped into the waterfall. They swam to the top and then to the side.

The dark sky cleared and the moon appeared. Alaric wished he was able to awaken fire element begore wind. Though, he knew that there was no way Aurora could catch a cold because she was a water and ice elementalist.

"We should probably get going," Aurora said as her clothes dried up. She them led the way down stream. Alaric hurried to catch up with her as they walked in silence. It was Aurora who broke the silence.

"How long did you know that something would happen today?" Aurora asked. Alaric was silent for a while before he gave his answer.

"I never knew that it would happen today but I got an anonymous request that I should protect you," he said.

" Is this why you tried to get some information from me that day?" She asked and he just nodded.

" I also got a vision when my brain was awake that I should wake up before tonight ended. I knew then that today is the day that they were planning to get you. That was what drove me to wake up soon. I just did not expect that those four bastards were being used," Alaric said with clenched fists.

" Don't you worry. Its my life mission to protect you. Even without anyone telling me to, I would gladly protect anyone I care about," Alaric said as they increased their pace.

"You know you are endangering your life. They may be after me but not after my life. Please don't push yourself far. You realize that we are dealing with people in the Salvia Plane. We stand no chance even in touching their hair," she said.

" Are you really thinking of giving up? How can you agree to go down without a fight? I am never giving up on you. I would rather die trying. You know being weak is not your stupid but choosing to do nothing because you are weak is. So, don't you dare talk about giving up," Alaric said.

Aurora sighed as she tried to protest.

" Am not giving up. I am trying to save your life," she said.

" My life has been saved and inorder to successfully kill me, you should cut off my head and throw it from my body miles away. No one can hurt me. Have that in mind," Alaric said as he hurried.

" You joke with death as if its nothing. Do you know how I felt when you almost died?" She asked. " You say you would rather die but what about the ones you live behind? So you just die and leave me the burden of being the cause of your death too?"

Alaric paused and turned to look at her. She also had stopped when she spoke those words. She was holding back alot of pain and he knew all about it. And yet, he had successfully managed to make it resurface.

"I..."

"Don't you dare die!" She shouted and wiped the tears that were now falling down her cheeks. "Promise that you will not die!"

"I promise that I will not die. You should also not take blame for your mom's death. I could bet that it was not your fault," he said.

" What did you say?" She asked her eyes showing a complex emotion.

" I said there are things we can control and those we can't. You should never take blame when something out of your control happens. Instead, you should use it as a motivation so that you can control it the next time it happens," Alaric said.

Aurora wondered where all these quotes he was saying to her were coming from. It was like a sage was inside him.

"So you were also awake at that time. Sorry you got to hear my embarrassing story," she said with a self depreciating smile.