Leader of Shepherd

"Why did we leave that area?" I asked curiously in between breath as we stopped after running for three consecutive hours.

This was not the first time I've run so much after my evolutions but running at such a high speed for such a long time tends to leave people exhausted even if they've gone through a few evolutions.

Netra looked at me and smiled grimly for a second but then smile turned playful and she said "You'll know soon."

I sighed at her childishness but let the matter go.

I already had a guess that it had something to do with the Behemoth and the red Holler like abnormal that attacked Netra.

I had no doubt that if such a powerful abnormal attack Rahul and his camp and every single one of them will die so that abnormal was clearly not a joke.

I had a feeling that the abnormal was born from the Behemoth. It was just a guess but I was pretty sure that my guess was correct.

After all, where else would such a powerful abnormal come from and why would it destroy the missile launcher and damage the missile before attacking Netra.

That abnormal must have been a defense mechanism of the Behemoth.

Maybe the Behemoth has a large mind of it's own somewhere in it's large body and it was the one who was controlling the abnormal, like how Neha controls her bodyguards.

Maybe, but if that's the case then I did the right thing by running away from it instead of sticking around for any longer.

I knew that without any backup it would be very hard for me to defeat such a powerful abnormal after all.

I looked at our surroundings and realized that we had come across a deserted village.

'The abnormals from this village must have joined a horde and gone along with them.' I thought as I noticed that most of the houses were intact, giving away the fact that no battle took place in the village.

'Or maybe someone sneaky like me or Jasvinder killed them all during the night before they had the chance to evolve and enhance their senses and then took the dead bodies out of the village to burn them.' Lily offered and I nodded.

'That is a very real possibility. But that's not the important thing right.'

I looked at Netra who took out a large slab of meat and started munching on it. It looked rather disgusting and I had the feeling that no one ever taught her the importance of table manners but I was already used to her antics so I didn't mention it.

"Netra." I said and she turned to look at me with her innocent eyes.

"We need to talk." I said and her expression turned sour, as if she just tasted a lemon.

—————

We sat on the opposite ends of a table and stared at each other for a long moment before I finally spoke.

"First of all. I want to know what that giant thing back there was?" I asked "And don't deny it. I noticed your expression the first time you saw it and there was recognization written all over your face. You knew what it was. Didn't you."

She gulped a bit before nodding slightly.

"I knew what it was. I've never seen it in person before but I've seen it's pictures. And heard stories."

"Stories?"

"Stories." She nodded.

I looked at her for a moment but when she didn't said anything I asked "tell me about the stories and where you got the pictures from."

She nodded and then started.

"The giant creature you saw back there is named Giagadon."

"Giagadon?"

"Yes. And please don't interrupt the story." She said as she went into Professor mode.

"Sorry." I said with a teasing smile and she huffed in return but I could the shy smile tugging at her lips as clear as day.

"Yeah. So that thing is named Giagadon. It was first seen 6 times ago so only the few 6 timers and above know of it."

"6 timers?" I asked, not liking the implications at all.

"Yeah 6 timers." She said with a understanding smile as she put a hand on my thigh to calm me down which helped a bit because those words came as a shock to me.

"6 timers." I repeated to myself in a low voice. I knew what that meant but I had to conform regardless. "Like 1 timers, 2 timers, 3 timers, 4 timers, 5 timers and 6 timers?"

I asked and even as the words left my mouth I understood how stupid that must have sounded but Netra didn't laugh at my words. Instead she had an understanding smile on her face as she gripped by thighs a bit more tightly to show her support.

I took a deep breath to calm my heart from this shocking news and asked something that I often wondered about but never really thought about seriously.

"How many times… I mean who is the person with the highest… you know what

I mean"

"I don't know." She said and I wondered if she was mocking me because this sure was rude to mock someone's ignorance but then she saw my expression and understood how her words sounded like so she frantically shook her head and replied once again.

"I mean, I don't know who is the person who has lived the most lives. But I know that our leader, a person created the Group called Shepherd is a 7th timer. No wait, now it should be 8th. Yeah he's an 8th timer. And I don't know about anyone else who has lived as long as him."

"I… see." I said while looking down before I looked up at her and asked the question that I should know, considering how close we are but never had to courage to do.

"How many times did you…" this time she got my question and smiled bitterly before saying.

"I'm a third timer." She said and then added "We third timers hold the lowest in our group."

"Lowest? Why?"

"Well… Chris, the leader of Shepherd don't take anyone below 3rd timer. I don't know why that is so don't ask me. It's the rule. I just follow it."

"I see." I said and then we both realized that we had side tracked from the original story so she continued.