Chapter 22: Caught

As Karl is getting closer to the forest, he is getting an unsettling feeling that he shouldn't be here. Ignoring this feeling. Karl enters the forest alongside Zena.

This forest reminds Karl of a famous forest in southern America. This looks just like that but purple. Every tree, leaf, branch and even the grass is purple. Karl looks like a 5-year-old in a theme park. He is touching every tree as he passes by it.

"The entrance of the water tunnel is at the south-east corner of this forest. We should reach there in half a day." Karl nods. They continue walking towards south-east for 2 hours.

Suddenly, the ground starts to shake, Zena grabs Karl and pushes him against a tree. Surprised, Karl asks "Wha-"

"Shhh! Stay quiet." She whispers. A sweet scent enters Karl's nose and he wonders 'How can she smell this good in a freaking desert. I sweated almost 4 oceans.' The shaking intensifies. Karl glances left and sees a figure that resembles a chimpanzee. Karl's eyes open wide as the chimpanzee comes closer.

'He is almost tall as a 2 story building. '

Zena moves closer to Karl, her chest touching Karl's nose. Suddenly, the chimpanzee stops. Karl notices Zena's eyes glowing orange. She slowly moves her hand. But then the chimpanzee suddenly jumps in a random direction and goes out of sight. Karl looks at the destruction made by the chimpanzee.

"A three horned ape, this close to the border? What is the federation doing?" Zena curses.

"What was that thing?"

"It is a high star beast named three-horned ape. They usually live very deep in the forest by forming a tribe. But this one looks a little lost. Wait here, I take care of him." Zena orders.

"Wait a seco-"

BOOM!

A huge explosion takes place which shakes the entire forest.

In the academy, few hours before Zena and Karl enter the forest. Andressa walks up with her usual alarm. The first thing she does after walking up is to check her weight.

'78 KG. Good, I lost 4 KG in a week.' She cutely jumps and celebrates.

After this, she goes straight into the restroom to get ready. In just 7 minutes, she comes out fully dressed and ready to go. As Andressa is locking the door, her eyes fall on her watch.

'Should I call him? Would that be weird? Ugh. That dumbass better not be a burden to miss Zena.'

Andressa drops the idea and leaves for mess. On the way, she sees few men in black suits just outside her dorm. She ignores it and proceeds to walk.

Suddenly one man calls Andressa "Hello. Are you Leonard Avaritia's friend?" Andressa nods."We are from the federation; we need to ask you few questions about your friend. Please follow us."

'Why am I getting a déjà vu?' Andressa wonders.

The agents brought Andressa into the main building of the academy. There she is brought into an empty classroom which is just at the entrance. Inside she sees a man with light blue hair with an above average face is sitting on the instructor's chair. The man looks at Andressa and smiles.

"Hello, miss Andressa. I am here to ask you about your friend's whereabouts. Just answer me that and we will leave."

Andressa face visibly changes to a distressed one. She slowly sits in front of the chief.

'What should I do? Leo is with miss Zena. I can't tell him that. Should I lie?' She grips her pant tighter and looks at the chief.

"H-he went to see his brother and sister. He said that he would be back in a week." Andressa fumbles hard.

The chief keeps his smile and says "We have tapped your watch just earlier, we know everything. Tell us the truth and we will let you go."

Andressa shakes her left leg continuously. 'Oh no!' Her eyes fill with tears. An agent in the background facepalms himself. 

"C-can't you let him go please?" Andressa breaks down tears running down her face.

The chief leans forward. "As a matter of fact, we are only interested in that instructor. So, I can let him go. Just tell me where is he."

Andressa glances around with a troubled expression. Her hope all lost and broken. She looks down and says "He is in the La-"

Now back to the current scene. The explosion creates a small cloud of smoke. Zena shields Karl and crouches down. Few seconds later the cloud dissipates revealing big trail of burned trees. Karl sees the three horned ape at the end of the trail. His fur now burned, aside from that he looks fine. The ape roars which made Karl's ears ring.

"Look there." Zena points just ahead of the ape. There is wooden wagon which is pulls by two humans wearing shabby clothes. There are few fully armoured men around it, they seem to be guarding the wagon.

A man stands out among those men as he has his magic circle summoned.

"Zena, who are they?" Karl questions. But Zena doesn't reply. Karl looks back and sees Zena stunned. She is looking straight at that man, not even blinking.

"Zena, Zena." Karl shakes her which brings her back.

"Uh."

"Who is that man?"

Zena swallows and answers "That is Sian and I think he saw us."

Karl looks back at that man and notices that he is looking straight at him.

The ape runs straight the wagon in a frenzy. The men around the wagon all summons their circle.

Seeing this Karl grabs Zena's hand runs. "Change of plans, we have a distraction of few minutes. Now, will run straight to the water tunnel and you will leave this block. I will transfer you some money later."

Zena makes a grim face. "No. You don't understand. Sian is a low knight he can sense my mana and follow me everywhere."

'Why is he here? This is way too early.' Karl curses.

"We can still outrun him. Just stick to the pla-"

BOOM!

Another explosion occurs, Karl glances back and sees the fallen body of the ape. Half his head is missing, a huge hole in the stomach and an entire arm missing.

'What the fuck happened?'

Just then, Zena stops. Karl realizes and stops too.

"Don't give up now!"

Zena stays silent her eyes glowing orange. A sound of footsteps is coming from ahead. Suddenly, Sian comes out of the trees. He looks straight at Zena. Without any notice, he fires a series of barrage at Zena. She quickly summons a ring of fire which acts as a shield.

Collision happens, a wave heat is spread everywhere. Karl covers his face from the heat.

Few seconds later, the heat dissipates. Karl opens his eyes and sees Zena on the ground with 1st degree burns all over her body. Every tree around him turned to ash. A whole section of the forest turned black. Sian stands there unfazed.

"My brother, Martin wanted to say goodbye. But you came straight at him."

An armoured man appears behind Sian. He takes his helmet off, revealing a full burned face. He is Marin but barely recognizable.

'She said she scratched him a little, is that a little?' Karl wonders.

Zena sluggishly stands up. "Let this kid go. You have business with me." She pleads.

A horrifying sound comes from the burned face "No, no. The kid stays. I am going to skin him alive and set him on fire."

Karl quickly takes the first step and appears beside Martin and kicks him in the gut. Martin falls on the ground.

"I liked you when gave useless advice to me like the countless others."

A bright light flashes. Sian uses a spell straight Karl. It was a small-scale flamethrower which created a lot of smoke. Sian waits for smoke to clear.

'That kid was too fast. Is he one of them? Whatever. Even them have a hard time dodging my spell this close.' The smoke clears out and nothing is there. Sian is surprised, he quickly glances at Zena. She is not there. The other men arrive.

"Find them and bring them to me." Sian yells.

"But sir, the package."

"Do as I say." Sian forms a blade made up of fire. One man slowly picks Martin up.

Zena is now on Karl's back and he is currently running in a random direction. Karl spots a huge tree in a distance. He uses levitating steps and climbs on the tree. He puts Zena down on a huge branch and sits near her.

"Leo. Leave me here. They are after me. You can escape."

'Like hell I can!'

"No. Think positively. Does he have some kind of weakness?"

"I only met him once. During the yearly harvest festival. Sian alone fought 4 high star ranked monsters and killed 2 of them. He is better than us in every way possible. Also, he killed that three horned ape in a single spell. We can't do anything. This is it."

'Okay, she has lost it.' Karl thinks.