Chapter 91 - Rendezvous

Third Person’s POV (12 yrs. and 8 months old)

Raze sent out scouts to monitor the actions of the demon army as they would rendezvous at the Northern Forest, with the intention of keeping them updated of the whereabouts of their enemy while they swiftly travel.

The plan was simple, their main objective would be to arrive at the Northern Forest without getting noticed by the demon army while they send out individuals to scout out the area and warn one another if they had spotted monsters along their way.

Engaging is out of the question since killing one monster might alert the others of their presence, hence even though they were marching to the Northern Forest, west of the valley, they were careful not to create too much disturbance to the wilds as much as possible.

Their scouts would dart in and out of formation as what they were told to maximize the area they would cover, thankfully both lions and wolves were efficient in the task. The esper wolves were in charge of relaying the information within one another through the help of Alfred and Lyn’s spell -which had not deactivated-.

They were weirded out of the sudden voice in their head, but soon they adjusted to the spell and were able to use it effectively.

While the mountain lions and lava wolves were in charge of the scouting, some of the esper wolves also joined too leaving the others walking forward, lucky now, are they? But no, Alfred, Lyn, Erick, and Lorna, were in charge of keeping up the spell while they help sort out vital information for the group.

Vin, Kel, Coralia, Trunk, Raze, Cloud, and Rain were in charge of the path towards the Northern Forest. The kids were left almost no task, for the adults deemed them to stay put and do nothing but follow what they have to say.

But Ken interjected saying that they can still help, but he did so in a respectful way, free of discouragement, or pride in his intent, he reasoned out that he wants to maximize their safety of travel, and he gave one way.

That is to have someone cloaked with invisibility by magic and fly in the air to scour and monitor the skies. At first the adults were reluctant but gave in when all the kids had ganged up on them, they could not refuse such blatant insistence.

Allen, Princess Lang and Celine had volunteered to take to the skies and scout, the group nodded for they believe that they would be enough and swift in this objective, Ken had also added another feature again to the spell his father and mother casted.

That is to connect Allen to Saber, Celine to Lila, and Princess Lang with him, as some type of private connection, he said that this would be a way for them to directly come to the other’s aid if ever they are caught in trouble.

And so their plan commenced, the three flew up into the sky, turning invisible mid-air, they checked if the connection between their pair was online and confirmed with their pair transmitting yes to their mind.

By now they had passed the river Ken and his group had loved to bathe in, but since this was a relatively far distance from their old training ground -which was covered in small patches of grass since it was still used by their parents to either hang out or practice- they didn’t encounter any demons or monsters.

Several reports from those who scouted from the ground and from the air were transmitted all throughout the spell Alfred and Lyn made, with the occasional sightings of monsters here and there and then avoiding them entirely.

The whole group used the information effectively as they would adjust their formation to the actions of the demon army. One such desperate werewolf had stumbled upon the center of the formation of the main group due to it feeling hungry and smelling something in the air.

The creature had gone unnoticed because by coincidence or pure luck, it had slipped through the routes the scouts took, coupled with the fact that it was walking in four legs making it difficult to discern them from a dire wolf or an esper wolf since they have similar looking coats.

It was not only at the last second that they discovered that a monster slipped by when the dire wolf stood in its two hind legs behind the formation where other scouts where resting. The leaders were alarmed when their men had started shouting -or roaring/ barking in their case- on the backline.

The four human adults were not even spared of the mental strain of the shout in both the connection and in actuality, they felt like their heads would suddenly give out from the ringing.

There they saw a werewolf lunging towards one of the defenseless scouts who despite being tired from scouting the area still pressed on to walk beside the formation so as not to be left behind.

Suddenly an ice spike formed beside its head and in the blink of an eye, the ice spike pierced the head in one swift movement, before dislodging itself and impaled the body of the werewolf for eight times and imbedding itself on the last strike.

The group looked around and found that it was Ken who initiated the spell with the magic circle fading out in front of him, Ken didn’t mind the attention and pressed forward, waking everyone from their shock and continued walking.

Although the spell took a toll on the adults body and mind, since they had to manage dozens of individual thoughts, they were still able to withhold with the assistance of Wilbert, Flin, Riyah and Icarus.

The four had taken upon themselves to share the burden the four adult humans were under, with the psychological training Ken had given and is still giving them, along with their experience from earlier, made them handle the pressure with a little bit of ease.

But the task was still an arduous one, for some of the information being passed was accompanied with the intense emotion the sender had, making it all the more taxing for them to help in filtering out vital information.

And the commotion from earlier still left a bit of a painful ring on the system the spell created.

Thankfully every single one of the lions, wolves and their three companions didn’t burden them much with their emotion and deliberately sent out information that they deemed vital, this time everyone was even more precise and meticulous of the information they would send.

As they had learned from their previous mistake of slightly messing around with the spell that they weren’t able to notice right away that werewolf that passed their formation, added with the fact that they felt guilty for the outcome of their actions on the humans.

Through the efforts of everyone, they finally arrived at the entrance of the Northern Forest without anymore mishaps as they had followed the plan of action their leaders and the humans had created for them.

Alfred, Lyn, Erick, and Lorna, had finally deactivated the spell freeing them from the pressure along with the other four, they were thankful that they finally arrived at the Northern Forest, and at the village where the magical beasts resided.

Upon their arrival, the magical beasts in both their animal and human form flocked at the entrance to receive them and more importantly help the group settle into the village as per orders by Klein.

Klein, Lana, and Ulysses arrived shortly after while the residents where ongoing with the assistance of the lion and wolves to give them a place to rest, everyone in the village where quick to act for Allen had the bright idea of informing them beforehand of their action by flying here to inform his father through Ken’s spell and then flying back to assist the group.

It could be considered an animal beast army now because of their large numbers.

‘It’s official, I’ll have to call this village a town now.’ thought Ken as he watched as dozen cave holes opened up from the ground to let the exhausted mountain lions, esper and lava wolves to rest within the caves of the Northern Forest’s 34 houses.

Ken was sprawled out on the ground with his hands behind his back as support near the entrance of the village, town of the Northern Forest by the wooden spikes wall, along with his group who lined themselves to his left, as they were exhausted too.

They watched as the formation they were in had thinned out and lastly leaving no lion or wolf behind. The scenario never fails to baffle Ken as he witnessed the kindness the magical beasts ruled out by nothing but their humility and rational thinking.

Never that jealous, but more content, and always helpful, like how they were willing to help Ken prepare food for his companions, or providing them shelter when they were busy that one time. The thought brought peace of mind to him.

“Good work all of you.” said Klein approaching the group along with the two masters, guardians, and parents. The group stood up in attention.

“Thank you master.” The eleven replied and bowed.

“The eleven of you can go and take a rest at my house, Allen, please lead them there.” said Klein, but the lot looked unwilling, they had similar thoughts of the matter, and that they want to be in on the battle too.

Klein upon noticing their defiance raised an eyebrow, confused as to why that is.

“Forgive me if this may be disrespectful master but, I do not wish to take a leisure.” said Ken, immediately his group nodded too.

“Why?” asked Klein seriously. Ken thought hard for a moment, he knows to himself that the adults are trying to make them not participate in the battle to come, but the animal beast leaders thinks otherwise

“Please let me join in the battle.” said Ken, his companions who thought that they would be included looked at him in shock and quite probably outrage for not including them, unknown to them, Ken didn’t take a glance at them when they nodded and had just stared stare at his master.

“Let me join too!” -Allen-

“Me too!” -Celine and Princess Lang-

“Us too!” -The rest of the group-

Ken stared at his companions wide-eyed at their sudden eagerness to join one after another. He tilted his head to the side for a moment, thinking as to why they would expose them to danger, forgetting that he’s also someone who should not be exposed to danger.

His companions had similar thoughts along the line of, they cannot let Ken into battle without them, or they’ll worry, but most of all, he hasn’t recovered yet.

Klein and the rest fared no better, they were also shocked of their children/students/nephews to declare such thoughts. Klein shook himself out of the trance and asked…

“Why?” He looked into the eyes of his students as they too looked into him as he spoke. They all entered in deep thought, wondering their eyes, biting their lips or frowning hard, except for those that know how to control their facial expressions and just omitted a certain chill to the bone.

Ken sighed and said…

“I do not wish to stand idly by and wait for the battle to end when I know I can help, that we can help.” He gestured to his friends.

“How?” asked Ulysses stepping forward, his face riddled with unbridled anger, he does not wish for his students to be exposed to so much danger.

“We have encountered certain monsters that are invincible to our elemental powers, but we’ve found a way to defeat them.” Ulysses was about to interject but Ken beat him to it. “Plus, our teamwork worked out great on our last battle, Wilbert was essential in defeating those demons.”

At this the three were alarmed and looked at Ken differently, Ken noticed this and said…

“Please don’t worry masters if I know of this information, it’s just that I tend to peek onto my parent’s private conversations.” He smiled cheekily at his parents who were flustered of the revelation. “But none of their private conversations intrigued me more than this.”

“And I overheard you three talking about this topic on one of mama and papa’s visits here.” this made them all the more flustered as they had not noticed being caught at all, more than that they were confused as most of their conversations were either late into the night -Ken’s parents-, and when they know they’re children are busy -with other adults-.

“I know that all of you had hopes in Master Lana’s Light magic, but we’ve also got someone who can also efficiently use it.” added Ken. Ulysses gazed for a second at the person Ken meant, Wilbert. He sighed.

“We’re reluctant to let any of you participate in this war and if you had listened to all of our conversations, you’d know of the worries we have for this time of demon gates appearing.” Ken looked down for a moment, remembering how their conversations laid out in frantic and worried tones.

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