Chapter 18

'The Wanderers' started to make their way through the forests the same way they did the day before, planless and random. As they wandered their way through the forest, Rain couldn't but think back to John's words during the night. He did seem to act rather weirdly. She hadn't known John for rather long, so she didn't know if his actions were abnormal or if that was normally how he acted.

"Has John always been an odd character," Rain suddenly asked out loud. Sunny, Alfred, and Benji all turned and looked at Rain rather weirdly.

"Where did that come from," Sunny asked. Alfred and Benji couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"Well, I was walking and talking with John last night, and he seemed alright. But I might've said something because then his attitude completely changed. I don't know if it was my fault or if he's just always like that," Rain clarified.

"John has been like that for a little while now," Sunny explained, her complexion turning darker the more she spoke. "Some things happened some time ago with the stampede."

"What happened," Rain asked carefully.

"There was a C Rank monster in the stampede," Sunny almost spat out as if that explained things.

"I'm still lost," Rain said slowly.

"When monsters start to get to C rank, they gain a form of sentience. They can converse logically, they can strategize, and they can think outside of their basic survival instincts. Although it's rudimentary compared to humans, the power behind a C-rank monster isn't something to blow off. There was only one person in Aeitha that could go toe to toe with a C-rank monster," Alfred said. A gloom had formed on his face, and the look never left his face.

"You said was. What happened to that person," Rain asked. The look on everyone's face turned from disgruntled and gloomy to anger and frustration. Sunny especially looked like she was about to blow her top just thinking about it.

"Bloody 'Emmortales,'" Sunny yelled as she punched a tree. There was a loud boom as the trunk of the tree snapped, and the tree began to fall to the side. Sunny looked a little less angry now that she had punched a tree. Alfred looked like he wanted to continue speaking, but every time he tried to open his mouth, no sound would come out, so he could only close it.

"Since you're part of the Aeitha Guards now and a 'powered,' I guess it's only fair you know too. However, this may never leave the group or be spoken outside of the Aeitha Guard Building," Benji spoke with an authoritative tone. His well-known and common annoying and perfunctory tone was gone, replaced by a grave and serious manner. He stared at Rain, waiting for an answer. She quickly nodded.

"I won't tell a soul," she spoke. Benji could only sigh before he began speaking.

"We had a town chief. She was a strong and independent woman. She helped run the town, and everyone looked up to her. Everyone strived to be like her, a just and powerful individual who was not blinded by their strength. She was the one who made the Aeitha guards who they are today. She was one of the people who helped stop the stampede ten years ago. Even though she wasn't the person to stop it, without her, a lot more people would've died, and the city might not have been able to last till the savior came. She was a prized individual, however, the 'Emmortales came." Benji paused for a second as if he had to collect his thoughts and calm his rage. "She welcomed them into the town without any reservations and calmed the masses. She worked with them to help the town prosper, and for a time, it worked. Although they were weird and had their own quirks, they helped the town grow. Yet they started to grow too powerful for the guards to control them or at least enforce the law on them. The guards tried to keep restricting them because they had no ties to the town. We started to fear that they would do something terrible. But they left soon after. Just upped and left the town, and that would've been fine. However, one of them came back with an agenda." Benji paused again. However, it didn't look like he was going to continue.

"And..." Rain couldn't help but lead them on.

"Then they killed her," Sunny interjected. "They poisoned her and tried to make it look like the Aeitha Guard did it. However, the captain walked in on them as they tried to escape. The 'Emmortales' killed our chief and left our town crippled. The blow was low and would hurt the town dearly. So the 'powered' Guards came together and decided to hide it away from the population of the town and the rest of the guards. We told them that she was deeply sick and was out of commission. We have been keeping up with this lie for a while now, and it is killing every single one of us, particularly John."

"Why... John," Rain asked carefully and slowly.

Alfred, who no longer had a face full of anger, but a deep and painful look, spoke up.

"Because John is her one and only son."

"What," Rain couldn't help but yell out. But he looks like a bum, and he has no aspirations. How could he be the child of someone that stood so high?"

"He's like that because of his mother's death. He has no family left. All he had was his mother. He harbors as strong a need for honor as he does for revenge now. With those two things constantly battling in his mind, he can only become a bum to stop himself from doing something terrible. The flame of passion died with his mother, and only the bog of revenge remained," Alfred spoke with a heartbroken tone.

"If the guard thinks the 'Emmoratles' are so bad, why do you let them in the town? Why do you still work with them," Rain couldn't help but ask. She was worried about her future aspects in the town. Would everything be ruined if they found out she was a player? Would they all despise her? Would they kill her? Would they expel her from the town?

"The townspeople still think the 'Emmortales' are good, and they are still occasionally bringing town prosperity. The occasional 'Emmortales' that come through town help the populace and solve some problems. Only the 'powered' guards know of the things that happened, and we are the only ones who distrust them. Even more so, we can't exactly turn them away without giving a reason, and we can't kill them because they can't die. They put us in a tight spot and we can't do anything about it," Alfred explained.

"I guess that explains his hatred for the 'Emmortales,'" Rain said softly. Rain could only look at the other members of 'The Wanderers'. Each one was radiating a different kind of emotion. Sunny had a wave of extreme anger and frustration, was completely restless, and was holding herself back from hitting something. Alfred just had a downcasted look like he was still grieving the loss of John's mother and couldn't help but blame himself. Benji, on the other hand, seemed to look rather uncaring, just fiddling with his self-moving contraption. Yet Rain could see him tapping his foot and his need to avoid eye contact. He was trying to distract himself from his feelings.

"I'm sorry I had to bring this up," Rain softly said to the others before lowering her head. Rain could hear Sunny take a deep breath as if trying to calm himself.

"It's not your fault, Rain. We haven't dealt with this issue head-on in a while, so we all still have pent-up emotions. Right guys," Sunny stared daggers at Alfred and Benji, forcing them to nod in agreement. "We still have a mission to accomplish. It's probably best if we put this behind us and keep going." After speaking, Sunny turned her back to the rest of the group and started her march forward, heading deeper into the woods.

'The Wanderers made their way deeper into the forest, deeper than they had traveled the previous day. Yet they hadn't seen a single monster yet, and as such, could only keep going with their guards raised. Yet the hours passed, and the sun would climb before it began its descent towards the horizon. The group had not found any clues, nor had they seen monsters either. The group was oddly on edge, and they were gonna start making their way back to town, but then they found something; an abnormally large cave entrance. Rain was rather lost in why the group stopped and decided to ask.

"Why did we stop at this cave? Are caves really not that common here?"

"You don't smell it," Benji asked, surprised.

"What don't I smell," Rain could only ask, confused.

"The heavy scent of iron, of blood," Sunny spoke seriously. Rain took in a few quick and deep sniffs, and Rain figured that she could smell the scent of blood, but she didn't think it was that strong. It was there, and Rain realized that now, but it wasn't as strong as that one day.

"It must be in there," Alfred said. Not even a moment later a painful screech echoed throughout the cave. The screech almost sounded inhuman, but it was soon abruptly cut off. Rain's face couldn't help but twist into discomfort and unease. A scream like that suddenly and abruptly getting cut off could only mean one thing, death.

"We're going in there, aren't we," Benji asked in a pessimistic tone.

"Yep," Sunny stated before gulping. Benji quickly formed a ball of light and sent it into the cave. The light illuminated the cave entrance, and it was obvious that it made some turns and went down deeper.

"Ladies first," Benji sarcastically commented. Sunny could only stare daggers at Benji before making her way into the cave and making sure not to make much noise while traveling inside. Rain could only softly sigh to herself before she drew her sword and made her way inside as well. Benji quickly followed behind her, and Alfred brought up the rear. The group slowly made their way through the cave, making as little noise as possible, yet it didn't matter. Within a few minutes of walking through the cave, the group found themselves walking into a much larger cavern room. There was a pond in the middle that formed from a small crevice of water dripping from the wall. There seemed to be a hole in the ceiling covered by lots of layers of mass as some light seemed to shine into the room but was heavily filtered by the moss. Yet 'The Wanderers' didn't notice any of these things as all of their attention was stuck staring at something on the far end of the cavern.

A creature that could only be described as a six-foot-tall wolf that was starved to the point of being skin and bones. Yet it had spikes across its neck and all along its back that led to a slick and slim tail that curled into a spike that was at least two feet long. Furthermore, the creature was covered in blood and was currently eating into what used to probably be a human. It made some crunching sounds as it dug into the was-humans chest. Before it suddenly stopped and turned its slim and spiky head towards the unwanted intruders. It made a sound that sounded like a mix between a screech and a howl before it charged at the group.