Chapter 16: Unknown enemy
"Damn." Corre cursed at himself. It was a bad decision that they left and he sent everyone to check the houses when they had not even checked them closely.
Quickly forming a circle, all the remaining knights had unsheathed their swords and ready to battle. The adventurer joined them. Jane had grabbed her bow from her back quickly and started loading the first arrow on it.
For some reason, Kara also joined them.
"I need to protect Chris too." He said, taking up a spot in the circle that guarded Doctor Angelo and Chris. His behavior was perfectly normal. No one minded.
The coachmen quickly tried to get as close to the circle. They swore to live long!
"Someone or some people must be watching us right now. Don't get separated from each other! Pay attention to everything!" Knight Faller started to shout.
"Gary!" Knight Hamon shouted.
"…"
"Are you still there!?" Knight Hamon shouted again. But not a single soul replied.
Everyone started to look downcast. Gary was the third strongest knight. His disappearance meant that meant they were dealing with something really powerful. It looked like he was attacked too, and couldn't get back to them, if he was still alive.
'So his name is Gary. But is this for real?' Kara thought but he was now more alert.
What worried right now was he could not even sense anything! Usually, hostile intent could be felt. Magic fluctuations especially from the strong—may it be beasts or people--could be felt too.
Kara remembered May's warning before they entered this town.
'You said you could feel they were mages around, but they were strange. Is this what you mean by that?' Kara asked May, hoping the girl would reply back but no one replied as usual.
'What could you be doing inside my mind anyway? Is there something interesting in there?' he asked again, assuming it was true that she could be watching from his own eyes right now.
With his crimson eyes wearing a serious expression, he looked at Chris who was inside the circle with Doctor Angelo and told him to get ready. Chris already knew that he cannot take it easy too.
'Where could the enemy be? I can't sense them.' He thought to himself.
At this time, Jane who had been attracted to Kara couldn't help but look at the person she's attracted to. Maybe he needed help and was scared was what she thought. But she instead became confused and somehow disturbed.
"Huh?" she muttered silently.
For some reason, the raven-haired boy somehow looked just strange to her. He wasn't even panicking, and he had a calm look on his face as if he had been in countless life and death scenarios. But she couldn't focus on him right now. She cannot!
She was an archer. Her eyes attentively darted around the place. She had already loaded her bow with an arrow, and was ready to aim it at anyone she could see was an enemy.
It was at this moment!
Everyone heard a sound!
*Crack*
The thick twig of a nearby tree broke.
The sound of iron armors moving and clashing together rung consecutively. The knights and adventurers gripped their weapons. Everyone was ready to fight!
Jane quickly pointed her bow and arrow at the tree, and was about to let go, when she noticed someone falling down from it!
"That stupid kid!" Knight Faller said, as the blonde hair of a boy in his teens wearing iron armor caught their sight.
"Gary!" Knight Hamon rushed to him leaving his position and breaking the formation.
It was at this moment!
He only needed an instant opportunity.
"Shadow Demon," Kara muttered, and as soon as his eyes grew dark. He did not wait for his suddenly black eyes to garner any attention!
In an instant, he disappeared, taking advantage of the split second that everyone was looking with the sudden sound! His footsteps silently sounded as he silently buzzed away from them in extreme speed!
If anyone could have seen him, their eyes would have popped out from their faces!
Chris was an exception though.
'Fast. What skill is that?' he thought.
Meanwhile, Knight Hamon was so relieved Gary was all right.
"Gary." Knight Hamon said.
"Ouch." Gary was sleeping all this time. As he lifted himself, he checked his head for any damage. It seemed like nothing happened to him. But not every knight was like him. They were abducted by something lurking in this town.
His eyes looked at Knight Hamon's large eyes and his brown hair. His face was chubby, his belly was round, and he was holding a big axe with one hand.
"Hamon, huh? What? Is there something wrong?"
"Stand up, there is an enemy here." Knight Hamon went on to explain what happened, and what kind of enemy could be lurking. However, Gary wore the same expression that either looked frightened or uninterested.
"I see. Then I take a watch here." Gary said. After standing up and seeing the circle formation, Gary decided to lazily slam his butt on the ground and yawned.
Knight Hamon shook his head, and went back.
Everyone just ignored the young knight. He was still a high level combatant. Their situation would be better if he still was indeed alive.
While Knight Hamon was going back though, Gary then noticed something in the formation.
'Huh? Where did that boy go? Did he get taken too?' he thought, thinking of Kara.
Kara, on the other hand, naturally knew that Gary was in that tree. Using a miniscule shadow flame he formed on the tip of his index finger, he sent it flying towards the large twig Gary was peacefully sleeping on, making it slowly crack and him instantly fall down.
His shadow flame skill was a very fast disappearing spell that had a maximum distance of 30 meters. He can use it in melee but it was actually a range skill.
It was the right opportunity to use it.
In the form of the shadow demon, he lurked at the houses.
Whoever was the one or the people who were attacking them like this would pay. Kara could have waited for the adventurers and the knights to take care of this matter, but it was not difficult to predict that it would be a long fight of hide and seek.
Thus, Kara would rather take care of it in the shadows.
With his shadow demon form in stealth, he started to explore the town for anything strange. It would be bad if the enemy who seemed obsessed with hiding saw him. After all this, Kara thought May would talk to him at least, but it looked like she wasn't going to.
While everyone was observing the empty silent town, a knight's face suddenly paled!
"He's gone! The boy here is gone!"
"Huh?" Gary mumbled and thought. "Were they talking about the raven-haired boy? I thought he was gone."
"Oi, oi what is happening right now? This is too creepy. Don't tell me bandits are doing this?" John asked, chuckling a little. It was obvious he was afraid.
Everyone looked at Kara's supposed position. They just looked away, and he was gone! How could that be?
Were they battling someone they cannot see? Did the enemy took him while he was with them.
Everyone's stance suddenly broke a little.
"I would not forgive them at all once we defeat them all!" Jane angrily complained. She was both really afraid and angry right now.
"Be calm." Knight Fallon intoned.
Seeing how everyone was suddenly panicking and was breaking the formation, Kara was no idiot. He decided to appear visible.
"What's wrong? Did you see something?"
"There! Over there! I saw someone there! It has red eyes and a black body."
Everyone who heard that followed the knight's trembling finger pointing at an alley between houses. There, something black and shadowy with crimson eyes was looking at them!
"That is not a man, that must be a beast!" Knight Fallon said.
"That must be one of the things that the magic item can create! We never knew it could be this dangerous." Knight Hamon said.
"You." Jane aimed his bow and sent the arrow flying at the shadow demon.
Seeing this, Kara disappeared from everyone's sight.
-- Gift
received