CHAPTER 16 (4): Daybreak.

*A little before Reo fell down the slope, on Lia and the other's end*

Leon, Lia, Kyle, Trice, Don and the other kids separated from Reo at the cave. They found the exit which Reo has mentioned and got back to the surface, into the forest.

It was past mid-night and the moon was in full bloom. The moon in this world was a lot brighter than that of earth. Along with the torches they had, it lit their path in the night forest.

The torches also served another purpose. It was past mid-night, the perfect time when monsters roam free. The torches were to be on the safe side.

They went into the forest and steadily advanced. They couldn't increase their pace much due to circumstances.

After creating a good distance from the cave, they decided to take a quick rest for the sake of the injured. They came across a fallen tree and decided to catch their breaths.

"….."

No one made a sound or said anything. The mood wasn't at its liveliest after all. The events of the day had left a sour taste, especially the fact that they had to leave one of them behind.

Leon probably felt this the most. He bit his lips tightly and squeezed at the hem of his cloth. He felt disgust towards himself. Disgust for the fact that he felt relieved someone else sacrificed themselves for him to make it out.

Leon never saw Reo to be one who would do something like that. He thought of him as someone who would be the first person to make a run for it if anything went wrong.

Reo had a chance to do that. Before and after his fall with Lia, he could have taken the chance to run away, but instead came back for them.

The thought that Reo could already be dead because of them soured the taste even more.

"….."

The silence reigned for a little longer.

"…..H-hey, do you think Reo is okay? Do you think he'll…." Kyle said.

"Of course he is! Reo said so himself. He promised after all!" Lia quickly gets up and interrupt.

Her face was red and wet with flowing tears. Seeing this, Leon's heart ached more. Seeing Lia shed tears for the sake of another made him feel worse.

"…I…I'm sorry." Kyle said.

At a time like this, Don would be the one to try to lighten the mood, but was in no shape to do that.

"We should get going." Leon stood up and said.

"Staying out in the middle of the forest at such a late hour like this isn't good." He said.

"Reo sacrificed himself for us. It would be pointless if we got caught or killed by monsters." Trice contributed.

Suddenly, Kyle was dragged off into the darkness by something. He let out a shriek as he was.

The others all stiffened and looked toward the direction Kyle was dragged off into. Leon picked up the torch and shone it towards the darkness.

There was Kyle, in the hands of one of the bald men.

"Nobody moves, or your friend here gets his throat slit open." The man said holding a dagger towards Kyle's throat.

"Kyle-!!" Lia let out.

From the bushes behind her came the other bald man with a really annoyed expression. Muffin jumped out of Lia's hands at the man. He clicked his tongue. He grabbed muffin and threw him to the ground.

"Damn dog." The man scoffed.

Muffin fell to the ground with a whimper. Lia made her way to the do.

"You brats sure gave us a really hard time. And don't even think of running or making any silly moves. If you do, I'm sure I don't have to explain what happens to your pal here." The man who had Kyle warned.

The others were unsure of what to do. If they mad a single move, Kyle would be killed. They couldn't let that happen.

Leon bit his lips out of frustration. Frustration at the fact that he couldn't do anything. He was powerless and unable to help out his friends.

"Tie them up." The man said to the other.

"Hmph. Don't sound like you're in charge, dammit." The other man grumbled as he went on to tie them, but paused in place to the sounds of growling.

Vicious growling could be heard coming from all directions. The men including the kids all froze in place. The turned around towards all direction trying to get the source of the noise.

"B..b..bro, th…those are…"

"Silver wolves…!"

Six wolves like animals stepped out of the bushes. The wolves had already surrounded them. The men along with the kids were all trembling as cold sweat trickled down their face.

"Shit-! There's six of them." The man with Kyle said backing up.

The wolves all snarled and growled as the cornered their prey. Realizing they surrounded from all directions, they all cringed back in fear. The man immediately let go of Kyle and un-sheathed his sword at the wolves.

"O…oi, bro. we're surrounded from all directions. This is bad." The other bald man said looking around.

"Yeah, I know. This is bad, really, really bad."

"Yeah."

Suddenly and quickly, one of the wolves pounced straight at them. Leon swung the flame touch at it, causing the monster to back off. It backed off and snarled at Leon.

The wolf was shaken but only for a bit. It quickly regained composure and along with the park, steadily began to shrink the space between them and the kids.

The wolves began to circle around them as they directed hungry eyes and snarls towards their prey. Leon out of desperation swung the flame torch all over keeping the wolves cautious.

The wolves cringed at this but snarled and bared their deadly fangs dripping with saliva hungrily at him. Leon was petrified with fear by this and stopped waving the torch for little while.

A wolf took the initiative and pounced right at him. Before the wolf could get to Leon, a blurry shadow fell from above against the wolf bringing it to the ground.

The wolf was brought down instantly, as a black cloak swayed before the eyes of Leon majestically.

With a look, there was a sword thrust into the head of the wolf which laid on the ground lifelessly. A black cloaked man was atop the corpse with his hand around the swords hilt.

"Yo!" The cloaked man said with a big smile at the kids.

"M…Mr. Cliff…?"

The other wolves offended by this, all changed target and rushed at Cliff one by one.

With swift but yet gracious movements, Cliff pulled out his sword out of the cranium of the wolf underneath him and with a single swing; he cut through one of the wolves bringing an end to it.

The other wolves all stopped and growled at him. Two of their kin were now dead, the wolves were cautious. Regardless, they all pounced at Cliff.

Cliff smirked and readied his sword. Before the Wolves could get close enough to Cliff, three more figures appeared out of nowhere and struck down the wolves swiftly and professionally from various directions.

"Whew….looks like we managed to get here in time." One of the figures which happened to be another man said as he swung his sword in the air getting rid of the blood on it.

"U…um, Mr. Cliff, we are well aware of your skills, but suddenly running off and abandoning the unit's formation is uncalled for! What if something went wrong and we didn't make it in time?" Another man of the three said with an un-approving expression.

"Come on, Roan. Even if you arrived a second late, I could have handled it. They were just low level silver wolves after all." Cliff shrugged and sheathed his sword.

"NO, no, no, no! That's not it. That is not the point! The formation, the unit formation we brought up…." Roan continued his blabbering lecture to Cliff. It would seem like he was getting scolded.

Cliff on the other hand rolled his eyes and paid little mind to the words of the blabbering Roan.

"Come on man. It's just a formation." Cliff said.

"That's exactly the point! It's a formation that should, must be followed…" Roan as if venting all his bottled up stress said.

Cliff gave a wry smile and scratched the back of his head while listening half-heartedly to Roan's ranting about formations.

"That is not it, Roan. You're missing the most important thing right now, and that is….the fact that Cliff here was the only one who killed two of the silver wolves leaving us one each! It's so unfair, so unfair!" The third man said.

He had short white hair and a big build. He was about the same height or a little taller than Cliff. His demeanor was that of a gentle calm man from the outside, but in truth is a hot blooded competitive man.

"Uh, actually there were six of them. I cut down the last one." Cliff nonchalantly said.

The man gave a slap to his cheeks.

"Aaaaaggghh! D…dammit! You might have bested me this time, Cliff. I see your skills haven't deteriorated over the years. But next time, next time….as long as blazing flames of passion and youth never go out, I'll…I'll never lose!! Kugh-! After such humiliating defeat, as punishment; a thousand push-ups."

The white haired man dropped to the floor and began his push-ups. Cliff seeing this said nothing and just heaved a sigh. He had eyes that showed no surprise whatsoever to this.

He seems to have gotten used to this sort of thing.

Following this development, Roan's right eye twitched, and a hollow smile devoid of all emotions was worn.

"Hehheh—heheh. Of course. It's hopeless, these guys are hopeless. Nothing matters anymore. That's right, nothing does. I might as well just kill myself. Yeah, it doesn't matter after all." Roan begins muttering some dangerous stuff to him.

He unsheathes his sword and points the tip at his stomach.

"Ah-! M…Mr. Cliff, Mr. Ridge, Roan is trying to end his life again!" a cry from the first man who tries to stop Rona from taking his own life.

"Uwa-?!" a confused voice leaked out of Cliff as he joined in the suppression.

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After managing to calm down Roan, Cliff and the men ensure the safety of the kids. During the little commotion that happened earlier, the two bald me managed to get away.

Cliff and the rest didn't just happen to be passing by. Hours back at the village, the villagers and parents of the kids began getting restless. Their kids hadn't returned long after curfew, it was only to be expected.

They searched around the village for their missing kids. Sightings of their kids around the walls were confirmed. The local guard set out into the forest to look for them as a search party of ten including Cliff.

His son being one of the missing kids, Cliff had all the rights to join the search. Just like Cliff, there's another parent in the search party.

"…Dad."

"Umu."

Ridge, the grey haired man stood tall before Leon who happens to be his son.

"Léon hart, glad to see you're alive." Ridge said with a smile of relief as he pat the head of Leon.

Leon replied with a tired smile.

Ridge Grey, the father Of Leon. Though father and son, the resemblance is almost close to none. For one, Leon is blonde and Ridge has short white hair. In addition, their looks and character are totally different.

Ridge is rather hot blooded and raring to go, Leon is quite the opposite of that. Though completely different in various ways, Leon is most definitely Ridge's son.

"UM, Leon, where's Reo? I don't see him." After confirming the safety and status of the kids, Cliff asked.

"Oh, you mean your son? Yeah, where is he anyway?" Ridge said.

"..."

No reply came. Cliff noticed the morph in the kids' expression. Cliff wasn't dense as to have not understood what that meant, but he refused to jump into conclusions and decided to ask again.

"Where is Reo? What happened to him?" he asked trying to stay composed.

"H-he's back there…." Tears flowed like a stream as Lia said.

She explained what had happened back at the cave and how Reo sacrificed himself for them to get out.

"…."

Cliff lowers his head in silence. His facial expression couldn't be seen. Cliff listened and waited for Lia to finish without once interrupting her. By the time she finished, Cliff straightened up.

He feigned a smile and said,

"Thank you." He placed his palm against Lia's head.

Cliff turned his back against Lia. He took two steps forward and stopped.

"Which way is the cave?" Cliff with his back turned asked.

"Mr. Cliff, you're not planning to head there on your own are you? If you do, the formation would be…" At the same time, Roan got up and said, but was interrupted by Cliff.

"I came to find my son, not to follow some damn formations or whatever." His gaze sent a shiver down Rona's spine.

"Which way is the cave?" Cliff asked again.

"Th-that way." Leon pointed towards the direction of the cave.

"Rona…no…captain, take care of the kids. I'll see you back at the village." Cliff's expression still wasn't apparent to the others. But the carefree attitude of his from earlier was nowhere to be found.

Cliff gripped the hilt of his sword. He lowered his body, and with a breath, vanished into the forest towards the direction of the cave. Cliff ran through the forest like a bullet train along its track.

Emitting bloodlust and murderous intent, he cut down any and all monsters which approached him. He soon arrived at the cave and found Reo at the chapel.

*present time*

Reo lacked the strength and stamina to move and was placed on the back of Cliff. They made their way silently out of the cave with neither saying anything.

It was a weird mood for them considering the normally don't talk much at home.

"I didn't expect you'd come, father." Reo unable to handle the awkward silence any longer made the first move.

"O-of course I did. My own son was in danger, what do you expect." Cliff was flustered by the fact his son made the first move.

He felt a little nervous talking to Reo for some reason. Cliff normally isn't one to shy away from people. He's sociable and free around most people.

Unlike Reo who is always so stiff, Cliff treats everyone the same. But Cliff can't help feeling so distant whenever his talking to his own son. Half the reason is probably because they don't talk much at home.

Due to Reo's demeanor, Cliff is unsure of how to address him.

"It was just a little unexpected to see you in person." Reo said.

"You sound like you expected us." Cliff points out.

Reo had anticipated this. They had gone missing for a day, it's only normal the parents would become restless. They would issue reports of their missing kids, and a search would inevitably be carried out.

The only problem was just how long before the search party finds them, and if they happen to be alive at the time.

Back on earth, if a person hasn't been found for a full day, the person would be considered missing and the case would be reported to the police or security agencies.

A full day must be over before someone is officially branded as missing. Though not compulsorily a full day, it is advised so as to not jump into conclusions.

Reo expected a search to be carried out and for a search party to show up sooner or later. If the party arrived any later, things would have a turn for worse.

He realizes throughout the course of the day, he had relied on luck 80% of the time. He couldn't help but feel like he's used up all his luck for a life time.

On their way out of the cave, Reo asked Cliff about the whereabouts of Don and the others. Cliff assures their safety and tells him they're on their way back to the village.

He felt like a huge load had been lifted off his chest. Reo, on Cliff's back relaxed. A foul stench whiffed pass their noses. The stench was so foul, it was nauseating.

"Wh…what is that smell?" Reo getting a whiff of the stench furrowed his brows and asked while pinching his nose.

The foul odor got stronger. Reo then came across the corpse of one of the hounds. He had wondered what happened to them. The vicious hounds which hunted and chased him down laid there lifelessly with their innards spilling out.

Unable to handle the gore sight, his stomach stirred up. He fell off the back of Cliff to the round and threw up the rest of the things he had left in his stomach.

His vision went blurry as the image of the slowly decaying corpse stuck in his mind. In his current position, Reo passed out.

# # # # #

I open my eyes to the night sky. It seems like I passed out. I felt something heavy against my body pinning me down. I was only able to move my head. I looked around to clarify my surroundings.

I was still in the forest, and was covered by what seemed to be a blanket or a cloth. The cloth felt so heavy against my body. I can't seem to gather enough strength to get up.

My body felt sore all over, and I had trouble keeping my eyes open. My body felt so heavy and yet transparent.

By my side was a hearth. On the other side of the hearth was Cliff.

"You're awake already." Cliff said sharpening his sword.

"Did I…pass out?" I said weakly to Cliff.

"Yeah, you did. But only for a while. I didn't expect you to be up so quickly." Cliff said.

I'm incredibly exhausted to the point I can't even believe. Was it because of that weird spell that man used? To be able to render an opponent devoid of all strength and stamina; a truly ominous spell.

After haven taken to of the spells head on, moving a finger feels like a dream. He was probably right, a third one would have killed me.

"You seem tired. You should rest for now. We'll arrive at village shortly." Cliff said.

"I will." Since Cliff is the one taking watch, it should be fine.

It will finally be over, this long day. I can't believe it stretched out this long. We managed to find Muffin the dog and none of us ended up getting seriously hurt, so I guess all is well that ends well.

I stare into the fire as my consciousness switched places with drowsiness. My vision faded out and my eye lids felt heavier. Before long, I was fast asleep, and then I had it…