The group gathered up with Sevyn standing protectively in front of the boys although she was the most hurt. Angelo was actually in a worse condition after all he was unable to move. Gael was in the best condition out of the three however he was not the greatest in melee combat. In fact, the main reason he had acted as bait earlier was because he was much more slippery, quite literally, than the other two. The unknown assailant in front of them seemed to have halted all hostilities and held up his hands in a placating gesture.

“Who are you?” She asked a positively menacing scowl on her.

“I am Raavar, a hunter from a nearby village.” He said removing his hood exposing his short spikey black hair to the group. His black eyes upturned in a friendly expression.

“And why did you attack us?” Gael this time, breaking his usual silence.

“Sorry about that, I had watched your fight against the giant wolf and wanted to test out your abilities.”

“To what end?”

“Curiosity really.” He scratched the back of his head. “As a Xerani you never felt the need to test yourself against another?”

“A Xerani?”

“Funny joke!” He exclaimed, with laughter. Looking at all their straight faces he realized that none of them joined him. “That..was not a frankly terrible attempt at humour?”

“How can you be this powerful at that age without knowing what a Xerani is?” He asked turning away, a hand tucked under his chin.

“So…are you going to tell us what that is, or should we get directly back to beating you to a pulp, because I hope you understand that your explanation was not enough to justify sneaking up on and attacking us.” Sevyn was back to interrogating him.

The man turned back around an apologetic look on his face.

“Look, I am sorry I was going to ask you guys but when you noticed my presence and called me out your bloodlust kind of jolted my instincts into instant combat mode.” Raavar explained.

She stared at him skeptically.

“Frankly that level of bloodlust made me fear for my life.” He said laughing nervously. “Although I decided to turn it into the

Shaking her head lackadaisically she couldn’t deny that with her blood still running high after the fight she was slightly on edge. Especially with pursuers likely on that trail by now. She could understand his

“Next question, what is a Xerani?”

“You guys certainly seem serious although it should be impossible after all you are all Soldier class Xerani.”

“Soldier class?”

“This just gets better and better.” He was rubbing his face with both hands, tiredness suddenly making an appearance across the bronze features. “Did you guys live under a rock?”

“Let’s just say that we have technically only ‘lived’ for three years the rest of our lives were spent as part of a lab setting.” Gael answered drily.

“Know what, talking here feels off, mind if I take the wolf’s body, we can make delicious food with it as an apology for my attack earlier.” He walked towards the location of their fight against the beast. “I can lead you to the village its close to the entrance of this forest.”

Sevyn’s expression brightened suddenly.

“You know the way out of this place?” She asked excitedly.

Raavar blinked, the change in her demeanour caught him off guard.

“Y-Yes I do, my village is along the way there. Oh, what are you names?”

“Sevyn.” She stated with a thumb to her sizeable chest, then pointed at Gael.

“Gael.” He said simply.

“And the small sleeping one is Angelo.” He had eventually passed out from exhaustion.

Raavar had nodded with each name revealed to him.

“Well, what are we waiting for, lets go!” She walked up to him smacking him hard on the shoulder. She hadn’t eaten in over a week and though not actually hungry she felt that she could eat enough for fifty people. Angelo’s short frame was piggy backing on Gael as he followed the other two. Raavar was carrying the front half of the wolf and Sevyn help with the back half. Along the way Angelo and Sevyn both recovered although Sevyn was still not in top condition with multiple bleeding scars.

While Raavar led the way internally he was in a bit of turmoil. The three behind him couldn’t have been much older than twenty and yet they had reached a level of power that other Soldier classes in their thirties could dream of reaching. He himself was considered a genius having reached his level at the age of twenty-five. And here he found three others far beyond him relatively. Sure if he had gone all out he could probably wipe the floor with that especially with their current state after their initial battle but based on the rate they were climbing in power it would not take long until they reached him. He then remembered what they had done to the wolf after they defeated it.

“By the way.” Raavar started. “What was that you did with the wolf?”

“We absorbed it’s Ehror of course.” Sevyn answered casually.

Absorbed? He thought, that was not something people on his level could do. Looking at them closer he once again noted the physical features you would not typically find in a human. Sevyn’s eyes and small horns, Angelo’s eyes and Gael’s platinum coloured hair. It was as if they were undergoing a low level of Mystification. Something that should only happen when they were much stronger than they currently were. He couldn’t help but be unsettled, Gael had mentioned that they were in a lab. Some forbidden experiments that escaped? This also explained the level of Ehror they passively emitted without even being in combat, it was truly monstrous for people at Soldier class, it seemed they had never been taught to hide their aura which lined up with their story. Well, he hoped to keep them friendly after all he wished to use their considerable power for a dilemma of his.

Meanwhile Sevyn was looking forward to seeing something new. The jungle had far outlived their welcome. However, while she was following Raavar she was still on alert. She did note that the general direction they were moving in matched that of Akuuna’s pointing while they were still at the facility. They had never deviated from that path and as always Akuuna seemed to be correct. She continued to watch Raavar for any sign of hostility but her instincts told her there was no need. She was still on alert just in case.

On their way they were accosted upon by a pack of wolf monsters much like the giant wolf they fought earlier but obviously smaller. There were dozens of them, and they moved in erratic patterns to surround the group. The Alpha large enough to stand a couple inches above the average person, led the attack after the formation was complete. Sevyn charge into the fray a wicked smile on her lips as Raavar drew his bow.

She went straight for the Alpha lesser wolves that got in her way ripped apart by her superior strength. She slammed one down with her elbow breaking its skull and letting blood spray out. An arm across the stomach of another splattered it into a spray of guts and a kick to another doing the same. Weak…far too weak. But the Alpha seemed strong as it bared its teeth at her howling before joining the fray. Arrows from Raavar took out other wolves around and Angelo sliced and diced through the rest with the support of Gael as always silently and efficiently taking out keys targets that could disrupt the group.

The Alpha met with Sevyn gnashing at her using its great jaws with incredible savagery. She dodged and kicked in response, continuously landing blows in between dodges and keeping a perfect distance from its jaws so to allow her to stay on the attack. A frustrated charge led to its legs being swept away from under it before being followed by continuous stomping to its body. Her bloodlust was starting to show up again. A final stomp left the wolf dead under the heavy assault and she hadn’t even needed to use her ability for the fight. Raavar walked over and his face paled at the sight. It was like a grinder had been used over the wolf’s head one with a shoe sole pattern.

There was silence as the final wolves whimpered in their deaths. Raavar glanced at the other two who watched Sevyn as she came down from her bloodlust in silence looking up at the moon. He suspected that this was not new to them. She looked back down as she was finally done the glowing red in her eyes dimming. Angelo who appeared to have be trying to make himself smaller relaxed alongside Gael.

“So, we going or not?” She asked walking back towards the giant wolf corpse.

A couple more hours of walking and they came across a large wooden gate embedded in a large wall made of upwards pointing logs spiked at the top. The logs were obviously made out of the ridiculously huge trees meaning the wall stood at over 8 meters in height, unlike the facilities’ however it had no Ehror protecting it leaving Sevyn perplexed as to how it was meant to defend the village. Guards stood at posts every dozen or so meters. The village also seemed small, much more so than the facility.

“Welcome to Diar, my home.” Raavar announced arms wide as he walked towards the gates.