Chapter 7

“I found you.”

Lily stopped breathing and she felt like she was about to have a heart attack. Jacob’s face turned pale and his knees began to shake.

They both slowly turned their heads and saw the cloaked man walking towards them.

He disappeared like the wind and he reappeared just as suddenly in front of Jacob and sucker-punched him in the gut, right in the solar plexus.

Jacob’s facial contortions changed into one of great pain as his face turned red, he opened his mouth but no sound came out and drool began to spill out. His eyes rolled backwards as he passed out from the pain and dropped Lucas on the ground with him.

“Jacob!” Lily cried out and rushed towards him and knelt on the ground next to him.

The cloaked man walked towards them and reached out his hand towards Lucas, when suddenly a small explosion rang out behind them several meters.

*Boom!*

“Hahaha! Did you think that you could escape from me?”

“Sigh… you must really enjoy those drastic scenes where you arrive at the last minute like some sort of superhero.” said the cloaked man as he activated his golden aura that shrouded him and drew his sword.

“Hahaha! The hero always arrives at the perfect moment. That is what makes a hero a true man!” as he said that the mayor unleashed his own light green aura that covered his body.

They both stared at each other for a long time. Lily’s legs were getting kind of cramped because she was kneeling for so long but she didn’t dare move because she didn’t know what they were going to do.

‘I have to find a chance to escape while these two monsters are fighting. But how am I going to escape with these two passed out?’

The cloaked man with golden aura made the first move, as he rushed towards the mayor in inhuman speeds and his swung his sword, aiming for the head. The mayor lifted his arm and grabbed the sword with his bare hand. The cloaked man’s eyes widened in shock but his lips formed into a slight smile.

The mayor’s huge fist headed straight towards the man’s chest and upon impact the cloaked man flew like a cannon ball, crashing through trees, into the woods.

This all happened in the blink of an eye and Lily was barely able to see all the occurred much less take action to escape.

“Now, come with me lil’ miss, I promise not to hurt you and your friends. Judging from your clothes, you’re not from around here. I’ll protect you and your friends as long as you behave and tell about where you’re from.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

Lily was greatly intimidated by this giant of a man who stood over two meters tall and had bulging muscles and a scary mustache. What Lily needed most was time. She needed to find a safe place to completely go over her grandpa’s diary and learn all the information that she can and go back home.

“I have my honor as a man. All I can give you is my word.”

“I’ll give you an 8 out of 10.” The cloaked man suddenly appeared next to the mayor like a magic trick and he aimed a kick straight at his head. The mayor flew over a dozen meters, tumbling through the ground and finally stopping after his head hit a tree.

“I didn’t survive eight years in the Coliseum by luck y’know? There were plenty of brutes that were much faster and stronger than you, mustache dude.

Now, hand over Lucas or you’ll get hurt Lily. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“H-how do you know my name? Who are you?”

“I know a lot of things Lily. And one thing you should know is that Lucas is dangerous and I have to kill him.”

“Why? What did he ever do to you?”

“It’s not what he has done, but what he will eventually do. Let’s handle this peacefully. You give him to me and I’ll tell you how to go back home.”

“How do you know where I’m from? I don’t need your help! I can find my way back without you.”

“How are you going to find your way back without this?” the cloaked man lifted up Lily’s bag and took out her grandpa’s diary.

Lily’s eyes widened and realized that she was no longer carrying her bag and realized her mistake.

“Give it back!” shouted Lily.

“Give me Luca-“

“I must be getting rusty. Two people have injured me in one day.” The mayor appeared behind the cloaked man and grabbed him by the head and slammed him into the ground.

“Let’s go little lady. I promise that I won’t hurt you and your friends.” The mayor picked up Lucas and Jacob as if he were handling little kittens and swung them over his shoulders and took the bags.

“Ugh… that hurt you bastard.” The cloaked man slowly got up and patted the dust away from his clothes.

“Wait, you must be General Ferbias, the Thousand Man General. They said you died by an assassin after the war ended. What the hell are you doing here in this backwater town?”

“Sigh… that’s former general now. I got tired of being in the army and serving pretentious, selfish pricks who force young men to fight for their own gains. Well then, now that you figured out who I am… I’m going to have to kill you.”

The mayor/general Ferbias dropped Lucas and Jacob to the ground like sacks of potatoes and his light green aura blazed with even more intensity than before.

They both stared at each other for a moment before they simultaneously charged at each other, the cloaked man wielding his sword and the mayor lashing out with his fists in a blur that made it look like he had more than two arms.

The battle raged on and it was more like two monster were fighting against each other. Trees were toppled down, the ground trembled and cracked under the force of their brutal attacks meant to kill each other.

The fighting was getting more and more chaotic. The terrain was literally being changed by these two monsters and Lily couldn’t believe what she was seeing. They were fighting all over the place and their battle gradually got closer and closer to Lily and her friends.

Ferbias smashed his fist downwards to the cloaked man but he missed, resulting in him destroying the area where he punched the first on the ground and stones flew all around the surrounding area. Unfortunately, Lily was the target of one of the stones and it hit her straight on the forehead.

Blood splattered and she slumped on the ground, unconscious. The blood slowly trickled down her face and it reached the small pendant that her grandfather gave to her as a child and it began to give out a faint green light that was barely visible. Now, all four high school kids were knocked out and unconscious.

“Lily!” cried out the cloaked man.

“Uh… oops?” said the Ferbias looking apologetically at the group of children lying on the ground.

A sound of a horn was heard in the distance and you could see a couple hundred soldiers running in their direction.

“Hurry! The mayor is fighting the murderer! We have to go help him.”

“Shit. I don’t have time for this. You’re lucky Lucas. I’ll get you next time.” The cloaked man said as he ran off into the distance while Ferbias went up to Lily and began to put pressure on her wound to stop the bleeding.

***

When I woke up I felt a throbbing pain on the side of my head and felt nauseated.

“Lily! You’re awake!”

I saw Jacob and Lucas come up to me and they asked me if I was fine. I saw Dylan lying on a bed reading a book. Wait a minute… that book is…

I ran up to him and snatched back my grandpa’s diary.

“What do you think you’re doing?! That’s mine!” I yelled at him. I immediately felt dizzy from my sudden movement and swayed a little before Lucas came next to me and supported me.

“Thanks Lucas, I’m fine. Dylan, why did you take my grandpa’s diary without asking me?”

“Because you specifically said that your grandfather was here before, which means there should be clues on how to get home from his diary. This diary is probably our only chance of getting back home and you’re being selfish because of sentimental values and not thinking about the rest of us.”

Silence pervaded throughout the room.

“Haha, it’s alright Lily, Dylan doesn’t really mean that, he’s just mad because he lost the fight with the mayor. Mayor Ferbias came in earlier to check up on us and the first thing that Dylan did was challenge him to a fight but he lost instantly-“ Jacob was interrupted because a pillow was thrown at his face from Dylan.

Dylan stared at Jacob for a few moments before he said, “I’m going to sleep. I only got up to the part where your grandpa was encouraging you about your life.” He covered his head with the blanket and turned to his side, facing away from us.

I felt a little bad now honestly. I should have considered the situation before and asked him how he was. I mean, he did sacrifice himself to fight that huge monster.

“Dylan… I’m sorry that I lashed out at you. My grandpa passed away last week and I’m still kind of emotionally unsettled by all of that and the current situation that we’re in, and thank you for sacrificing yourself for us earlier.”

There was no reply from Dylan as he just lay there. Jacob just looked at me and shrugged.

“Lily, we need you to hurry and read your grandpa’s diary. Because it’s the last memento that your grandfather left for you, we feel awkward reading it. So we have to leave this to you. You need you find out how he got back home for all our sakes.” Lucas said.

I found it sweet that he said that he won’t read my grandpa’s diary out of consideration for me. Does that mean he likes me?

They left to do their own thing so that I could have peace and quiet while I was reading my grandpa’s diary. Lucas told me that they would send someone up to get us when it’s time for dinner. I was already starving.

My hunger soon went away as I immersed myself in my grandpa’s story.

Lily did a quick recap in her brain before she began to read so that she didn’t forget anything.

Her grandfather fell in a hole in the cave just like her and her friends… was it a coincidence? Her grandfather landed in a desert,

whereas Lily and her friends landed in the plains. Did something happen to make the terrain change? Did thousands or perhaps millions of years pass by? Or were they sent to a different place?

Her grandfather met Adira the one he currently has a crush on and she taught him about her tribe. Then her grandfather got into an awkward position of having to tell a story to the entire tribe during the banquet prepared for him, in honor of him being a guest and I assume it was just basic hospitality customs.

Currently, her grandfather was resting in the tent and writing what happened so far in his journal.