Chapter 62 - Betrayal
"Need a hand?" Joren arrived as quickly as he could and helped defend Sir Carter from the barrage of attacks he would have faced.
Sir Carter didn't reply, just smiled, as he brought his sword down on the unit leader, cutting his chest while burning it in the process.
The six hidden sun members all charged at Joren, but as he was empowered by his lightning element, he quickly evaded all of them, albeit barely. He was still in the 2nd circle and they were in the 4th circle, they were still stronger and faster than him. His attack, which managed to stop theirs, was luck.
'Since lightning burns hotter than fire, I had hoped it would be able to put out the fire, and luckily I was correct. It probably won't happen again though.' Joren dodged to the side as a dagger came at his back. A beam of fire was headed his way so he quickly ran up a tree and came down behind Sir Carter in the form of a lightning bolt as the hidden sun members followed him.
"Let's trade partners." He joked
"Ha, I like the sound of that." Sir Carter grabbed Joren and pulled him to the side. He held his sword tightly and slashed the air, sending a huge wave of red fire that rippled through the air burning the hidden sun members that came in contact with it.
"Arghhh!" They screamed. Only being in the 4th circle meant they stood no chance against someone in the 5th as the purity of their mana is night and day. Sir Carter only had trouble against them since their unit leader was also in the 5th circle.
Joren followed up by jumping and standing on the air. He formed a large bolt of lightning which had a curve to it. A thin bolt of lightning connected the two edges of the large lightning bolt and Joren pulled back on the thinner bolt. He had made a lightning bow.
As he pulled back on his lightning bow string, six large lighting arrows formed and crackled intensely. The purple lightning made the clouds turn black and thunder roared through the sky. Releasing the string, the six lightning arrows rocketed at lightning speeds toward the six hidden sun members who were still screaming and burning, trying to put out the red flames that encapsulated their bodies. In almost an instant, the six lightning bolts pierced their hearts, and lightning struck them where they stood, causing thunder to roar again a few seconds later.
"Phew, that was intense. Sort of." Joren stretched his back and relaxed since the battle was over. His friends had won their battle, and the Knights managed to get the upper hand against their foes as well. The only thing left was to interrogate the unit leader who was bleeding out from his slightly cauterized wound.
"Everyone, pack up immediately, we need to move as quickly as possible." Sir Carter shouted as he walked over to the unit leader. "Now, you will answer my questions." He stated coldly.
"You'll get nothing out of me, traitor." The unit leader bit down on something in his mouth and with a crunch, he died.
"You're the traitor, bastard." Sighing, he bent down and tried to see if the now-dead unit leader had anything of value that they could use. 'Since they managed to find us, they must have the other tracking insect with them.' He searched all over the body but couldn't find anything. 'Dammit!' He got up and went to the carriage.
"I think you owe us an explanation, Young Lady Tessa," Glenn spoke firmly. They all knew that involving themselves with a Noble could cause them trouble, but they decided to go along with it anyway. Nobles getting attacked isn't out of the ordinary, but getting attacked by organized groups is.
"Sigh. It's my family. More specifically, my Uncle." Tessa looked down at the carriage floor, not facing anyone, even Sir Carter. "When my father and uncle were both young before I was born, my grandfather stepped down from the family head position. My uncle, being the older brother, assumed he would inherit the position.
My uncle is a strong person. He spent his life training and mastering our family techniques, graduating from the academy with the highest scores in the physical department, and even joining the Knight Order. But strength isn't all it takes to run a fiefdom. My father, on the other hand, wasn't far behind my uncle when it came to strength, but unlike my uncle, my father was academically and politically smart, which my grandfather wanted in his heir."
Everyone listened without interrupting. It wasn't every day that you heard the story about a Noble house's internal struggle firsthand from a member of the family.
"As you can assume, my uncle was jealous and did not take it well. He challenged my father for the right to be the heir and lost. He distanced himself from the family and kept a quiet life for the past few decades, even starting a family of his own. Little did we know he was orchestrating a plan all along.
Two months ago, my father very got sick and became bedridden. My mother was taking care of him but then out of the blue, our family was attacked. At first, we didn't know who are enemies were, but when we saw that it was our own people, our knights, servants, and other family members attacking us, our uncle declared that he was taking what was rightfully his, announcing that this was his attack."
You could see the internal struggle Tessa was going through. Her eyes teared up a bit and she gripped her clothing tightly. She took a deep breath before continuing.
"Our forces, the ones who didn't betray us, fought as hard as they could, but my uncle was too strong. He managed to break through to the 7th circle and no one could do anything. My grandfather, who was in secluded training trying to break through to the 8th circle, came out to stop him, but he was brutally beaten and killed.
Everyone around me died horribly. My brothers were at the academy so they managed to avoid this situation, but I was still at home so I was in danger and needed to flee. My mother took my father to her family home to help him get better while I decided to go to the royal capital to meet up with my brothers and formulate a plan to stop my uncle." She finished speaking and looked at everyone.
The knights could be seen gripping their reigns out of anger and the mercenaries had looks of pity on their faces. All but Joren.
"Something doesn't add up," Joren said thinking out loud.
"W-What?!" Tessa glared at him with anger. The others also looked at him with confusion.
"I can understand some of your family members and workers betraying you, but what I don't understand is how you're alive. When we were attacked, the guy said his business was with you. They didn't say they wanted to kill you, they said to hand you over." He continued
"No offense, but you're a woman, and unless you make a name for yourself, women in noble families get married off and are detached from the family. Why wouldn't they go after your brothers? Why are they targeting you? They obviously have a way to find you since you've been on the run for at least a month. What makes you so important?" Joren looked right into her eyes and asked this question. He didn't sugarcoat anything.
Tessa, looking visibly defeated, sighed and spoke up once again. "He wants what's in our treasure vault, our family artifact and relic. Only members of the family head lineage can access the vault which he can't. So he plans to use me to open it since my father is gone and my brothers are at the academy." She explained
"But isn't he your blood-related uncle? How can he not open it?" The mercenaries all nodded their heads wondering the same thing.
"When a new family head is chosen, they undergo a ritual which solidifies their position. Once the ritual is completed, a marking will appear on their hand and only the children of the current family head will bear this marking. The old members will lose the mark as well." She spoke.
"And lastly, how are they able to track you?" Joren asked
"Right before the coup, my servant delivered my dinner. She had put a male tracking insect in it so when I ingested it, it latched onto my mana core which allows the person who has the female insect to find me. I have to keep moving in order to not be found."
"But we never stayed in the same place longer than a day and they managed to catch us only after a week of moving. There's no way they could have caught up so fast unless they have a way to move across large distances relatively quickly, or..."
*BOOM!*
A large explosion went off in front of the road they were traveling on. The horses neighed in fear while everyone tried to calm them down. Fire spread across the road, moving onto the grass which then caught fire and started burning all the flora around them. A large crater was formed from the explosion and dust and dirt rose in the air.
Everyone looked around, shocked by what happened. They got down from their horses and readied themselves.
Out from the dust cloud came three figures, two men and one woman, all with similar attire to Sir Carter. As they each took a step, flames erupted from their feet in a blazing glory. The power they gave off was suffocating and one look at them would cause your body to tremble. Each of them was in the 5th circle.
"Or you were betrayed." Joren finished. At that moment, one of the five knights that guarded Tessa grabbed her by the neck and held his sword up to it.
"Y-You?! How could you?!" Tessa asked furiously.
"You ramble about commoners being inferior to you and always put us down! I worked my ass off to be where I am. I provide for my family the best I could and all I got from you was a disgusted look and insulting words. I hated working as your Knight, so when they asked to aid in their plan, I didn't hesit-" his head exploded from being overloaded by electrical energy.
As people were listening to what he had to say, they were caught off guard by the sudden burst of his head. The mercenaries already knew who it was while the others looked at Joren with confused faces.
"He talks too much," Joren said as his friends copied what he said under their breath.