Chapter 7

That night, Ace and his squad had chosen to stop at an inn just about half a day's travel away from their actual destination. Their reasoning for this was so that some of the members of the squad could potentially make a breakthrough looking through some of the techniques and weapons that they were carrying. The squad was not stingy and everyone pulled out every single piece of weapon and armor and scrolls that they had in their storage rings. 

It could be said that, regardless of how much wealth they individually now had due to all of the storage rings given to them, it would all be useless if they somehow were caught on the way to their destination and completely wiped out. Ace was lucky enough to find a particular powerful looking sword that had some fire elemental inscriptions placed onto it. This was the most treasured weapon of one of the families which resided within Maplewood Township.

Other members of his squad had actually made several big breakthroughs throughout the night while others made very small ones. But at this point as the morning came, their squad was much better equipped for anything that would have posed a threat beforehand. Still, if a strong enough expert were to appear like a fourth rank warrior, their entire squad wouldn't be able to even have the time to regret their misfortune!

"Excuse me captain, what is that in your hand? It looks like it is a flame but I thought that you did not train as a mage class?" Ace was curiously looking at the members of his squad as they were getting ready to leave the inn as he noticed his captain holding something in his hand.

"Oh, Ace, glad you asked. Let me gather everyone to explain real quick before we head out." After the squad finished their tasks and were ready, they listened to their leader. At this point, their very survival was placed onto their leader's hands so they were very attentive. "This here is a soul flame which was given to me by Sofia, the other squad leader. This showcases that at least she is still alive but if it dies off, we know for sure Sofia perished and possibly the remainder of her squad."

And within a single moment after everyone began to nod their heads as they listened to the explanation, the flame had begun to dim down at an incredibly fast rate until it finally was no longer part of this world. Ace and his squad's faces all turned ashen as they all moved as quickly as they could out of the inn. 

"This is very serious everyone, make sure you all within but a moment are able to withdraw your weapons. The Church of Damnation obviously sent hunters to hunt us down with the intent of killing us rather than capturing us. It is now possibly up to us to survive while it is safe to assume every other squad part of the evacuation died off by now." Ace was clearly the youngest and felt the most horror throughout this entire ordeal but he could only listen to those present that were older than him and who had more experience to direct him through it.

"No! There they are! Quickly everyone, get ready to engage!" From the corner of another member of Ace's squad eye, Jack was able to clearly see a group of experts dressed in the same outfit of those who were part of the Church of Damnation and they were headed straight towards the group. Luckily, they had already traveled for several hours before this interaction and so as long as they overcame this obstacle, they were sure to make it to their destination.

Knowing that they had been discovered but had at least finally caught up to their prey, Grover commanded his own squad to engage and so a fierce battle was about to begin between both sides. The total number of experts in each squad were equal, but there were a few individuals present on his side like Ace himself which were clearly not as experienced in a real battle compared to their enemies so this was going to be both dangerous and extremely intimidating.

What Ace's squad realized was that the forest not too far from their current location would give them a slight edge as long as they could reach it. Therefore, the first thing that was done as Grover's squad pressed onto their location, was Nathan who was the Vice Captain of the squad unrolled an ancient looking scroll which immediately caused a circle of flames to descend trapping Grover's squad within it. 

Ace's squad was successfully able to pull off this feint perfectly as they all continued to head closer to the forest nearby. The circle of flames would not buy them much time, but it was still enough for the flames to have still been lit as Ace could not see it with his naked eye. "How long do you think that will hold them captain?" Ace asked this question out of concern for his safety but trusted that this would hopefully be enough to allow them to lose their enemy's trail.

"Do not worry, we have one last scroll that is one of the earth element which essentially does the same thing. So even if they catch up to us in a few hours from now or even while we are in the forest area, we have enough safety measures at this point to relax but only a little bit. Remember, there could be backup nearby of theirs and so we must remain vigilant at all times. If any of you need to rest, I hope some of the energy pills in your rings could help you push through it for the time being until we officially make it to safety!"

The group continued to travel and without seeing the enemy, they had actually made it to the forest area. However, to everyone's surprise, they had begun to remain together as a group. The forest had no real dangers within, but everyone present would have thought that splitting up at this point would guarantee the lives of everyone present but their captain thought otherwise. 

"Perfect, we should be almost out now. Everyone, it is possible that the enemy took a roundabout path to meet us at the exit of this place so be sure to withdraw your weapons now so if we are caught in a battle, we are at least prepared." Ace felt very good about having such a captain present leading him and the others. It could be said that he would not have done these things if he was alone. But he also knew that with being so young and having no experience outside of the township, that he had a lot to learn.

After several minutes, the squad began to slow down a little bit to conserve a bit of energy as everyone together each took out an energy pill from their storage rings and consumed it. What was great, was that each member of the team had at least ten of these pills so using one to help them push forward like this, did not seem to be too wasteful. "Hey Cap-" as the squad continued onward towards the exit, Ace felt something was very off and before he was able to fully make his thoughts known, he had vanished completely!

This set off everyone's alarms and without hesitation, the entire squad actually split up after but a single thought as they rushed towards the exit. This was an order that the captain had told them earlier. If there was any indication that their enemy had pursued them within the forest and were potentially present, they would immediately split up and meet at their destination within a specific period of time. Unknowingly to them, those from the Church of Damnation who were hunting them down, were not present and all Ace had done, was flip a strange switch while running with them!