15 Zheren

'This is it! This is the end for me!'

Max thought to himself as he stared at the enormous crab that had just walked into the cave carrying a human boy in its hand, it turned around and seeing all the dead crabs let out an angry shrieking roar that shook the entire cave. It angered it a lot to see its dead comrades scattered around the whole place in their piles of blood.

The enormous crab flung the boy he was holding causing him to slam his back against the hard wall and then fell to the ground then it began to dash towards Max. Max didn't see it coming, it ran at an unseeable speed and when it got to where Max was lying, it clawed at him giving him a deep tear from his neck down to his chest.

Max felt the burning pain, he wanted to scream but he could not find his voice. He tried to get up but it was a failed attempt, blood kept gushing out without stopping. He gradually opened his hazy eyes and looked ahead, there, was the crab coming at him again, this time with its poisonous tail pointed out towards him.

He did not try to get up and do something, he had lost the strength to do so, he only hoped for a miracle to happen because he didn't wish to die yet.

Just as the enormous crab was closing on him, a huge ball of wave came crashing down on it sending it flying across the cave into one of the walls.

*Boom*

The cave vibrated at the sudden impact of the enormous crab into the wall, it caused the ground to rumble and debris began to fall everywhere. Max opened his eyes wide in shock as he stared at the boy who had saved him. The boy had a small feature just like Max, his curly red hair reaching his shoulders and his deem blue eyes that matched his pale face.

Waves of endless happiness surged into his veins as he watched the boy approach him slowly with a weak smile, he had never felt this way before, why? No one has ever helped him, not even Harry who was a bit close to him has ever made him feel happy. This boy here gave him hope — he was the hope he was wishing for.

The boy came up to him and helped him stand on his feet, there was no time to waste as the cave was already collapsing. Max wanted to speak but the boy gave him a look that only meant one thing 'Silence' Max kept quiet as the boy dragged him lightly out of the cave with his hands firmly around him.

When they left the cave, Max was shocked to see the place as it came into his blurry view. It looked like where he and his group members were before the crab took him. Talking about the group members, were they searching for him? Or are they already back in the school... he dreaded the thought of them leaving him behind especially Harry who said he would protect him.

He sighed and glanced at the boy who was helping him close up the deep wound on his chest with the piece of cloth he ripped out from his clothes. The boy silently wrapped Max's wound and stopped the excess bleeding, when he was done he stood up and stared at Max.

"My name is Zheren, what is yours?" The boy Zheren said in a calm tone yet his voice felt heavy as if being weighed down by something.

"My name is Max, thanks for your help," Max replied with a faint smile on his face. Zheren nodded and looked towards the cave, they were some distance away from it but that didn't mean that they were safe. "Are you one of the students? what's your ability and how did you get captured by that thing?" he heard Max ask.

"I'm not a student and what is ability?" Zheren creased his thick red brows in confusion.

Max tried to hide the baffled look on his face and acted as though there was nothing odd about Zheren's question and as such, he made up his mind to answer the question. "Ability is like Uhm...." Max was finding it hard to use the correct words in his explanation, he wasn't good with studies and so he never listened to the teacher's teaching, especially when at the end of every class they would use him as an example. "If you possess a special power, it is called an ability. Do you understand?" He smiled wryly after explaining to the best of his knowledge.

"Ehm, I think I understand. Well, I have many abilities as you will call them but at the moment I can only have access to one, which is the wind you saw me use back inside the cave. I can control and create wind to any length," Zheren replied as he waved his left hand a little, then from afar, a huge tornado rose from the ground and began to swirl around. "See, I can do more than this although I haven't reached the peak yet," he added and waved his hand, completely dispelling the tornado.

"How did you get here then?" Max asked after the tornado had been dispelled, he was quite shocked but he didn't show it to the boy.

"I wa–"

*Boom*

Before Zheren could reply to Max, the enormous crab burst out from the ground not far away from them and began to rush toward the boys.

"Stay here, I'll try and stop it," Zheren said and stood in the front, turning his back to Max who nodded.

Zheren did what he did before and the tornado larger than the first one appeared from the ground, it began to chase after the crab and when it caught up with it, it swallowed it.

The enormous crab let out its cry as it tried to set itself free from the belly of the violent tornado.

"I do not know if it'll be able to do any harm to that thing," Zheren said with a creased brow.

"W-why not? I tho....." Max hadn't finished talking when the tornado died down. The enormous crab roared angrily at the two boys and then suddenly disappears by entering the ground. Max placed his palm on the ground and in panic he began to drag himself backwards. "It's coming... It's coming to us!" Before Zheren could realize what was happening, the enormous crab clawed fiercely at him sending him flying to another side.

"No!!" Max yelled weakly but it was too late — Too late to turn back the hand of time, a tear dropped from his eyes as he stared at Zheren who was bleeding non-stop. His shirt was soaked in blood and he lay on the ground weakly but the beast wasn't done with him yet. Max watched as it made its way towards Zheren and when it got to him, it gave him another deep cut on his chest where the heart is.

"Max," Zheren whispered weakly as he turned to look at Max from where he was laying, a faint smile appeared on his face as he closed his eyes.

"Zheren!" Max yelled at the top of his voice, his tel caused the crab to turn its gaze at him, it let out a mocking shriek and began to move towards him. Max saw the crab coming and unknown anger surged into his veins. "Those who hurt me shall pay with their lives!" Max said those words subconsciously, his eyes turned bloody as he glared at the enormous man-eating crab.

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"Master, do you think he will do it now?" A figure asked in the shadows.

"Yes, he will. Look at him now, he is about to get a breakthrough. Come on let's leave, our work here is done and we also need to report to the Lord," The second figure said and disappeared followed by the other one.

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A/N: I may not be too good with the action part of this novel, so bear with me for now.