11 Scoping the enemy territory

"We have fifty men altogether," Kim informed Davidson through the phone.

"Mr. Kim, for the last time, You know very well that we are up against a god and his army of followers right?" Davidson asked Kim to reaffirm that they knew what they were getting themselves into.

"Angel class followers aside, my men can somehow manage against the normal followers. the sword we use weakens the aura where it strikes so it will be able to hurt the normal followers to some extent. we can prevail with perseverance." Kim replied back confidently.

"We are going to have to send the men there first to scope the area. I think you should leave with your men first. " Davidson proposed.

"That's fine, but where exactly are we going?"

"Shortly, one of my employees will be there. He will take care of the travel for you and your men. I will meet you there with the boys in exactly 7 hours." Davidson instructed Kim and hung up the phone. Now he just had to wait for the boys to come back.

Davidson's residence was in Florida. After leaving Marcellus on his own he flew there to track Yoonah's location. He had few words for Yahiko who arrived just before he left for Florida. It was about helping Marcellus with his training. Yahiko was reluctant to that at first but he always had been obedient to Davidson so had agreed as Davidson was quite persistent.

Yahiko had met Davidson twice when he visited Shin in japan. The second time they met was when Yahiko had turned 11. It was Davidson from whom Yahiko had picked up the English language.

Davidson had been eagerly waiting for the boys to return since he arrived back in L.A. He had been sensing the clash of aura between them all the way from Yoonah's home.

While Davidson waited Janine made him tea.

As Davidson smiled in appreciation, she sat beside him and while hesitated at first she asked him after gathering courage," Mr. Davidson, are you really sure that she is fine?"

Davidson noticed worry in her eyes, He reassuringly smiled at her, " I already told you, at least from the aura, I can tell that she is still quite healthy."

Janine had more to ask. She had always been with Ivanna so it was of great concern to her where Ivanna's future lied.

"So what are you planning to do after you meet her? you came here to meet her so you must have something on your mind right? do you have any plan for what you guys will be doing as a clan?"

Davidson got lost in his thoughts for a moment. His usual smile vanished from his face as he took another long sip from his cup, " That's up to miss Yoonah but I do have a personal favor to ask of her, the whole clan to be exact," He took a long breath, Janine's eyes were fixated at him. she had many questions still but she just hoped that he would answer them without her asking. Davidson concluded his answer as he wanted to talk about it when the clan was together "there are so many variables at play with this phenomenon so we must act cautiously. The world is moving towards inevitable chaos. I believe no awakened has the luxury to just ignore this."

Janine did not ask anymore. she realized that Davidson did not want to dwell on this matter more for now.

Davidson quietly finished the rest of his tea.

Janine felt like she should not have brought that up. As she was regretting dampening the mood, Davidson's eyes suddenly became full of life as he looked towards the door. In a matter of seconds, they could hear the doorbell ring. Davidson hurried towards the door.

As he opened the door a very annoyed Yahiko and faintly grinning Marcellus showed up. They were not injured but were definitely in the need of a shower.

"So how did it go?" Davidson asked Yahiko.

Yahiko just clicked his tongue and walked inside while taking off his t-shirt.

"I need to use the shower, which way?" He asked Janine who was very flustered to see a shirtless man talking to her. She had not met Yahiko until now. She nervously pointed towards a door without speaking.

"Why are they all so good-looking?" She scratched the back of her head while thinking to herself.

"He is just annoyed a little bit because things did not go as his expectations. right, Yahiko?" Marcellus teased him from behind Davidson. Yahiko gave him an 'I will kill you' look and slammed the door behind him as he entered the shower.

Davidson curiously looked at Marcellus. He could sense that Marcellus's mana pool had grown a lot since the last time he had seen him. His mana was stable and even if Marcellus was not generating any aura at that moment, Davidson could tell that he had gained significant control over it.

"hahaha He is mad because I managed to punch him, he really must have thought that I would never be able to punch him hard." Marcellus was overjoyed.

"You managed to beat him in fusion?" Davidson was surprised, Yahiko was even better than him at fusion. It was too soon for Marcellus to have reached that level.

"Well, I would not actually call it that," Marcellus humbly replied, "He is still stronger than me for now but I hit him with a punch he will never forget." he childishly made a V sign at Davidson and entered inside. As he was walking towards the sofa, the look on his face suddenly changed as he turned towards Janine.

"Wait a minute, did you just casually let him inside the bathroom that Ivanna uses?" he looked traumatized.

His time here had been very eventful so he did not have time to think about it before. time and again he kept forgetting that this was the place where Ivanna lived. She herself not being here played a big role in that but regardless he was slowly having all kinds of thoughts at the realization.

Janine observed him for a while, "She uses the one attached to her room, the one he went into is for the guests,"

Marcellus realized that she was looking at him with a little bit of disgust for what he said earlier. He did not say anything else to avoid making things more awkward.

After an hour, Davidson took them and headed to the Los Angeles airport where his jet was being refueled.

Springerville Airport, Arizona, three hours after they departed from LA

Kim was waiting outside the airport.

"Have you sent your men to the location?" Davidson asked immediately after meeting Kim.

"Yes, they left two hours ago " Kim replied.

"Good, the enemy can sense if any awakened get near them from a certain distance. they will only be able to sense the normal humans if they have any followers with enhanced vision." Davidson talked while walking and everybody followed him.

"You have not told us the exact location, old man." Yahiko interrupted.

"The area is called Gila national forest. it's a wilderness area that does not have people visiting it often. There have been minor reports of suspicious activities and a few disappearances as well. "

"I think I have watched a vlog that was shot in that area. That's a nice place to have brawls." Marcellus was looking forward to a real fight.

Kim looked at Yahiko and Marcellus, They were oozing confidence. They even looked itching to fight. when they first met, Davidson alone seemed the most intimidating but now it looked like there were two more of him. Kim also felt relieved that they were on Yoonah's side.

Marcellus looked at Davidson after a 7 seater BMW pulled up in front of them.

"Is this yours too?"

Davidson sighed, "yes, I have a lot of money. It's about time you stopped being surprised by these things."

Marcellus still could not have but be impressed however, Yahiko was already familiar with this so he did not show any reaction.

Once they got inside, Davidson began explaining the plan, "Ok boys first things first. I know you guys are excited, I'm looking at you young Marcellus." That alerted Marcellus who was looking around the car and at the driver. "But this is a rescue operation, not an all-out war, so we will operate swiftly to get miss Ivanna and make a successful retreat. No, unnecessary scuffles. are we clear?"

"Don't lump me together with this kid old man," Yahiko crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat comfortably.

"Says the guy who cries for a video game merchandise," Marcellus was quick to strike back.

Yahiko glared at him.

"I'm serious here, it could cost the lives of people who are going with us." Davidson changed his tone, "not everyone is blessed with power like us, do not let it get to your head now boys."

The boys nodded in unison offering seriousness.

Kim took out a tablet and placed it in front of everybody. The tablet then connected to a video call.

"Ji Won, what's the situation?" Kim asked the man on the screen. It was one of the men who was with Kim when Davidson and Marcellus first met them.

"We have located them sir. I'm sending you the video footage captured by our drones." Ji won said as he pressed some keys on his laptop. An ariel view of the landscape of the Gila wilderness area appeared on the screen. Then it zoomed to the San Francisco river and Ji won began explaining what was on the screen,

" Can you see the several black openings in the cliffs along the river?"

Everyone focused on the dark spots on the cliffs, they looked like the opening of caves.

"We believe they have carved these cliffs and formed settlements inside them."

"like caves? They are living inside caves?" Marcellus was quick to question.

"Yes, technically that is a cave but much more sophisticated. there are rooms inside them and they have all the appliances for livelihood. You can basically call this a village."

"How did they manage to do that? what kind of abilities do they possess to be able to carve those rocky cliffs? I doubt they used machines." This time it was Yahiko who was concerned.

"It is possible with McCoy's abilities. He is the god of poison. he can create a large amount of acidic and toxic substances out of thin air. When he was escaping the UN task force he corroded half of an entire town. He could easily corrode the insides of rocks with his abilities." Kim explained to Yahiko.

"Mr. Ji won tell us more. " Davidson reminded everyone not to get distracted from the main topic of discussion.

"We suspect there are roughly 400 followers in that area. You can probably see the tallest cliff with the largest opening. Our swords turned white when we pointed to that area. that means both McCoy and the princess are inside that cliff."

Davidson started thinking for a while. He rested his chin on his fingers as he kept thinking for a minute. Nobody spoke between that time as they were all waiting for him to say something.

He finally lifted his chin up and looked at the three. Ji won was still connected on the call.

" Ok, assuming that they have no skilled sensory type follower. Mccoy as a god can sense our mana from roughly 3 miles away. The time we take to get there from that three miles will decide how much preparation time they will get to respond to us. They cannot sense normal humans so Mr. Ji won you can tell your men to move ahead of us and be on stand-by at a place where you can avoid their vision. "

Ji won nodded on the screen.

"My speed is about half of Mach so I can cover that distance in about 30 seconds, what about you guys?" Davidson looked at the two young men.

"I think I have reached the same speed as yours by now, Mr. Davidson," Marcellus replied while playing with his curls.

"I am faster than this guy if it's just sprinting, so maybe 20 seconds?" Yahiko replied with a smug look on his face.

That annoyed Marcellus but he did not say anything because Yahiko was still better at explosive power.

"By the way, why have you guys not mentioned the aura?" Davidson asked the boys as it crossed his mind.

"what aura?" Both questioned in unison.

Since they were told to rest they had been subconsciously suppressing their aura from coming out so they could not sense any foreign aura. However, both of them had been feeling weird ever since they arrived in New Mexico. It was an unexplainable gut feeling so they had not mentioned it till now. As they realized that, both of them channeled their aura at the same time. The look upon their face changed.

"What- what is this intense aura?" Yahiko's eyes widened as the overwhelming sensation stressed his mind.

"Has it always been here?" Marcellus who was in the same condition as Yahiko looked at Davidson for answers.

Kim was looking at their faces taking turns wondering what was happening with them. A gust of wind blew inside from the window as cooled off their dripping sweats. Davidson faintly smiled announced, "Remember this sensation and engrave the feeling to your core young fellas, this intense aura that overwhelms you right now is the Alpha energy coming from our god."