Chapter 62: The Encounters

"I did it…"

She stared at the grown beanstalk as the buzzer still echoed in her ears. Her glowing eyes shivered and her breathing turned from uneasy to calm. The crowd also stayed silent and continued to be amazed at the rare occurrence coming from a talented tendrin.

It's not common to see tendrins that could make a request to elemental spirits, especially a tendrin as young as her since it would take years to practice it. She might not be one of the most talented tendrins in the world who made requests to the highest-level spirits, but she might be following their steps in no time.

"I did it!" She yelled with full of excitement. She couldn't believe that even at the last moment, she managed to grow her beanstalk to the passable height and stop the other contestants from distracting her. Not to mention, she wasn't used to making requests to plant spirits before.

But of course, not all power can be gained by just pure luck. There were still consequences. Because of her using a strong request to water spirits within a wide range, all of her energy slowly drained. Even the adrenaline rush that she had been keeping all this time faded.

Her eyes started to get heavy, and her body became weak that she couldn't be able to carry it anymore. Thus, she let herself fell on the wet ground filled with puddles, didn't care about the dirt sticking in her clothes. She fell unconscious.

But thankfully, Pholly managed to reach her with her arms and caught her before she fell. Her face was filled with worry, the same as the time when they faced the Cerberus at Zentra.

"Sister!" She yelled, now holding her with both of her hands. Tendrins, with their hardwood skin, were known to be heavy for an ordinary man to carry, but it wasn't a big deal with their fellow kind.

The announcer went back into his lively attitude and the crowds were cheering once more. The medic helped Dalary and Pholly with their situation while the others brought the fake corpse into the infirmary. Dalary managed to enter the second round thanks to her persistency and called for an hour break.

The hundred participants were no more and now have been cut off to 54 survivors. They were ordered to go back to their own lounges for the preparation of the second stage.

Dalary stayed asleep in their lounge while Pholly looked after her. She kept staring at her as she was laid down on the couch of the room. Her face was full of guilt on the fact that she didn't fulfill her mission. Even though she was ordered to keep her away from overusing her talent to request, she failed.

Despite her sister's complaints about joining the tournament, she kept doing her best to make sure to keep track of their plan while she was just making excuses to keep her pride standing. She was doing everything to make this plan successful, not just for Meria, but for others too.

So she decided to make a move all by herself.

She walked towards the door, leaving the room and to the hallway. She took a peek out of the door with her head first, then tilted it from left to right.

Unlike their first visit to the hallway, not a single person walked through it. The once open corridor was now closed and dark, covered the view of the wide streets of the capital with hard metal boards.

But she didn't care and continued walking in the hallway, pass through numerous vacant rooms to find the other survivors. They finally had an idea for his appearance, but she was in doubt if what the blacksmith said was really true. She wasn't sure about it but she will keep in touch with that theory. For now, she must find Heron.

She kept walking until the room's door ahead opened. Then, a familiar lady showed up from it. All her features resembled the mysterious person they met earlier on the same corridor. She looked at her with eyes turned into slits, as the latter also did the same.

"You…" Pholly said, unknown of her name. The tension surrounding them started to rise and the atmosphere became heavier each time. She may not have been met her before, but she could feel something around her, something that shouldn't be underestimated of.

The lady stopped giving her deadly glares but still continued to stare at her.

"It seems like you brought a misfortune here in the kingdom…" She uttered with her sweet voice like that of an angel. But it didn't match her words full of threat at all. "…groups of armies from different factions…"

Pholly's eyes widened and her arms started to shiver, not because of her voice, but because of what she heard.

"What?" She exclaimed with a low voice, not to give attention to their conversation.

As far as she knew, encantors were the only ones who could use magic or the so-called prophets could see everything. But their features didn't match hers, as she didn't have winged ears and the prophets were believed to never show their faces unless they'll retire in being one.

It could be just a lucky guess, or she was too skillful in the deduction that she could get everything almost right.

The lady didn't even bother to explain the method of how she got to that conclusion and just walked past her. Then, she stopped as soon as she was a foot away from her position, and turned around once more while the latter didn't even move.

"If I were you, I would leave as soon as possible." She said and started walking away from her. Her shoes stomped loudly in her every step, but that didn't bother her in going to her destination.

Pholly turned around and just stared at her back until her presence could no longer be seen in the hallway. She knew that they were all followed by people with different motives and beliefs, but how she spitted those words seemed like advice for a threat that was much more dangerous than their situation.

Meanwhile, Dalary finally woke up from her deep sleep. When she used her ability back at Zentra, she fell unconscious for hours but now, it lasted just for a few minutes. She wasn't sure about the reason behind the huge difference, but it might be because of her building up her body for days to prepare for the tournament.

But she left her train of thoughts as she noticed the silence of the whole room. Pholly was nowhere to be seen inside, and she was the only one staying.

Out of curiosity, she left the room and started walking in the dark hallway, looking for her sister's whereabouts. She didn't know what was her intention of leaving, but she was sure that she won't be going anywhere with no goal. Until, she remembered their current mission, which is to look for Heron.

Come to think of it, she must do her task right now as soon as possible as she might be thrown out during the next round. Although she has doubts about what Vison said, they didn't have any other leads and didn't have a choice but to believe in it.

She continued walking, passing numerous rooms until she finally ended up with someone along the way. But she knew it wasn't just someone.

In front of her was a man with a blue coat covering all of his back from head to toe. She couldn't be able to identify who it is until he finally turned around, which made her eyes widened more.

The man's face was covered with the same cloth as his cloak. One could be able to see the blonde strands of hair hiding in his hood, and his ruby eyes glowed in the dark, which could mistake him for a monster of the night. A trident lance carved with a fine design was exposed in his back, embracing the color palette of seafoam green and silver-white.

It's not just his appearance that was full of intimidation, even the aura he was releasing made her legs shivered even without the cold. One could tell that he was strong, but he was never a match to the mysterious lady before.

She couldn't believe that the blacksmith was right about the descriptions, and all that's left was for her to see the skull-and-bones tattoo on his wrist. But it was possible for this to be a trap. She took a step backward, and went on a battle stance, trying to protect herself.

"Huh? A kid?" The man greeted her with his attitude that shouted lack of interest in her. Although his presence is intimidating, the way he approached her might change her impression of him. "What do you want from me?"

But Dalary didn't let herself be bothered by the attitude and appearance. All she could think right now was that he is really the one they were looking for or not. She gulped as her sweat dripped, and her breathing became uneasy.

"Are you… Heron?"