Chapter 68: Mock exam 5

Rose withdrew her sword from the corpse of the bear like beast she has just slain. With a precise swing, she flicked the blood of the blade of her sword, before continuing on her way. It had been almost two hours since they, the supposed elites, set out on their scouting mission, but she hadn’t encountered anything of note.

Her raven black hair swayed with her every step, as she walked leisurely between the trees, but she looked somewhat out of it.

’This much of a change is too much in such a little time.’ She thought. The thing bugging her, was Damon’s change.

Even though he still had his habits from before awakening, like trying to show off his intellect, and that of after awakening, like cursing out when he thought no one was hearing, it still felt like he was a completely new person.

Damon didn’t have this sort of confidence before. And not to even talk of how his physique ability suddenly changed.

“Even father hasn’t heard of such a thing happening, ever.” Rose muttered. “But I bet that sly snake does, he just wouldn’t tell me.”

She had asked Emmett if he knew how Damon managed to achieve such a thing, but he denied knowing anything. She knew Emmett had his fangs deep in the Vorde continent and even beyond, so he most probably knew how Damon did it. Little did she know, even Emmett himself was baffled by this fact.

Just as Rose was thinking that, a small black crow materialized on her shoulder.

“You want me to go beat him up?” the crow cawed. “I’ll go beat him up.”

“You’re being too loud, Hex.” Rose muttered, but the frown on her face eased into a smile. “And who do you want to beat up? Emmett or Damon?” she asked in an amused tone.

“Both!” Hex cawed. “I’ll peck them both for you.”

“Emmett would see you coming from a mile away, and Damon’s also not like he used to be. You won’t be able to peck/ annoy him like before.” Rose chuckled, a rare phenomenon in itself, but that was how she was, when alone with her familiar.

She had had Hex for slightly over two years now, and the familiar had been her greatest companion ever since.

Hex tilted her head, “Hmph, I’ll still beat them both.”

Rose shook her head with a smile. “You are rather fiery today.”

Hex bobbed her head as she flew around rose. “There’s this new familiar in the realm, going around causing trouble, and calling himself Ancient emperor venerable something.” The crow cawed angrily.

“So, what does that have to do with you?” Rose asked genuinely confused.

“Some of the elders tasked me and some others to capture him, but it’s been proving difficult.” said Hex as she landed back on Rose’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get him eventually.” Rose consoled.

“Oh no, wait.” the bird suddenly froze. “I’ll be going back now, it seems the imbecile has appeared once again.” She turned into a ray of black light and disappeared into Rose’s chest.

“That was refreshing.” Rose muttered and turned to continue her scouting, but a voice suddenly sounded from her left.

“Am I interrupting something?”

She turned, and there he was, her twin, or at least what was a reflection of him.

—————

“Am I interrupting something?” I was on my patrol in this area, when I sighted a familiar figure talking to a particularly detestable familiar. That little birdy was a great deal of annoyance, even more than Bubbles.

Now, I couldn’t hear what they were saying because I was too far away, but it was also the reason Rose hadn’t sensed me. Plus, she wasn’t on guard at the moment. But make no mistake, the moment I let the slightest amount of fighting intent, she would be onto me.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, a moment after turning.

I shrugged, and began walking towards her.

“What would I be doing? scouting of course.” I said walking past her, before I suddenly froze.

“Also, come back… I mean go back to the castle.”

She frowned.

“Why?”

“One of the enemy camps have already been found, and it’s in this general direction.” I gestured. I was the second reflection heading to that area, but since my main body got there first, I stopped here. And the moment I froze, was when Anastasia proved to me she didn’t know House Stormbreaker.

“Who found it? and how do you know that?” She shot one after the other.

I smirked.

“Who, if not yours truly?” I gave a mock bow, relishing the scowl on her face. Not gonna lie, her extreme resemblance to me, or rather, my extreme resemblance to her sometimes freaked me out.

“Also I’m just coming from the castle, the others have started coming back as well.” I added. I wasn’t lying about this part, Fabian and Alistair had just arrived back at the briefing hall.

“I…”

“See you.” I cracked into motes of light, before she could say any further.

—————

Meanwhile back at the 1–Alpha castle.

“Fine fine, you do.” I said. “Now don’t throw anything else at me.” I smirked.

After that, we settled into a little silence. But before it could take root, two figures walked into the hall. Alistair and Fabian.

Fabian threw me a glance full of disdain. “So you really just sat down here doing nothing.”

For some childish reason, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

“Yes I did.” I placed both my legs on the table. “What are you going to do about it?” I asked with a challenging glare.

Fabian looked away, muttering something about ; “Mediocrity born amongst the superiors.” or something. But it didn’t mean he was scared of my glare or anything. If anything, he found it beneath him to provoke a fight with someone he considers lesser, or throw the first blow.

Some stupid code of conduct if you ask me.

“So you two are also back.” Anastasia commented.

“Also?” Alistair raised a brow.

“Well, Damon was the first to come back, and he also found one of the enemy camps.” she said.” She explained.

Alistair’s eyes twitched, before he masked it with a smile. We both hadn’t talk since the scuffle earlier, but he still turned to me with that fake smile I could smell from a mile away.

“Wow, nice work Damon. Fabian and I also got the general direction of one of the enemy camps.”

“Damon didn’t just get the general direction, he saw their castle.” Anastasia said, making Alistair’s brow twitch even more, and cracking Fabian’s disdainful expression towards me.

I wasn’t sure, but it kind of felt like she was enjoying their reactions.

“So which direction do you think the other enemy camp is in?” she continued.

“Six kilometers out west from here, I was suddenly ambushed.” it was Fabian that talked. “While I was dealing with them, Alistair arrived, and we quickly eliminated them, but we decided not to press further since it was only reconnaissance, and instead come back to camp to relay our findings.”

Meanwhile I froze. ’About six kilometers west, and about six kilometers east.’ I thought. Our camp truly was caught in a pincer attack. We were stuck in the middle.

“Ah, so we’re in between the two, how interesting.” The redhead chuckled mildly.

“What do you mean by in between the two?” Alistair asked.

“Well, the other camp Damon saw was also about six kilometers east, so, we’re in between both enemy camps.”

“Hmph, it doesn’t matter, we’re still winning.” Fabian said. “If they were somewhat close, I would be apprehensive of them joining against us, but if they’re this far away, they stand no chance.”

I would have loved to disagree, but he sort of had a point.

“You boys are forgetting again that this isn’t all about fighting.” Anastasia said causing us to turn towards her. “In your absence, I had tried putting the flag in my spatial storage, but it refused to be stored. It has anti–spatial sorcery all over it.”

“Though,” she continued. “The consoling part is that, in the nigh impossible event that our flag gets stolen right under our noses, they also wouldn’t be able to hide it.”

“Making it simple for us to find and retrieve.” I added. The point made sense on paper, but what if they had an illusionist like that white haired bitch, who could cast an illusion to conceal the flag, then all would be for naught.

“Let the others return, and we’ll finalize our plan for this mock exam. I’m already getting tired of it.” Anastasia drawled.

“Just to be clear, It’s only been a few hours since we got here.” I said.

She turned to me.

“So what? I’m going to finish it today if possible.”

Some minutes later, Rose came in, en tow with Delilah. Now only Sarah, Elsa, and Dion remained. Anastasia briefly explained the situation to the two women.

I didn’t know why though, but Rose was glaring at me. ’Heh.’ I inwardly shrugged. Possibly had to do with the fact that I dismissed my reflection before she could finish speaking.

***********

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT.

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