As Nathaniel and the other five ran through the empty streets, they observed the place's desolation. No one was in sight; the cars had been left parked on the side of the street. The doors were all closed, but it could still be seen that there was life somewhere in the city due to the cameras scanning the surroundings regularly.
Aside from this, the only signs that anyone lived there were a few scattered trash cans lying around and some abandoned bikes along one wall near an alleyway.
Along the way, the six young men saw a few police officers patrolling around from time to time, but they clearly stayed away from them because of what they were going to do. However, they used masks to conceal their faces and hoods to hide their bodies.
"What do you think?" one of them asked another guy walking next to him.
The other guy shrugged and replied, "I don't know, man. Something feels kind of wrong, but we've got to do what we've got to do." He looked over his shoulder towards the streets behind them.
"There should have been more police officers in my experience; the lack of their presence means that something big happened at the eastern gate," another kid said.
"What are you thinking about?" Luke asked.
"It's possible that there was a security breach at the eastern gate," the other kid said.
"They are surely not so incompetent as to allow the thaids to make a breach in the eastern wall, right?" another said.
Luke furrowed his brows and considered the possibilities, wondering if what he said was true. Then, he said, "I won't be so sure about it," Luke replied. He had witnessed police and military inadequacy numerous times. One was when his parents were killed by some thugs when he was a little kid; then, when her sister got kidnapped by others to sell her organs on the black market.
He recalled those memories with sadness, anger, frustration, fear, and hope. His emotions were all mixed up together, but he couldn't help feeling angry at the people who did such things. Not that he was that different from them; he, too, was a thug now.
"Stop chatting and focus on the mission, or I won't pay you," Nathaniel said, a look of sheer concentration on his face.
ROAR
"Did you hear that?" Luke asked.
"Yeah, it seemed close..."
Luke turned around quickly, seeing nothing out of the ordinary except for a couple of garbage cans. He took off running again. They kept hearing noises coming from behind them. It sounded like a roar followed by grunts and shouts.
"Thaids!" Luke said.
"They really came in!" Another shouted.
"Stay silent, you idiots!" Nathaniel said.
"We need to find cover!" Luke then added, pointing at the nearby building.
"It is useless!" Nathaniel said.
"What do you know about thaids?!" another said, not knowing that Nathaniel had trained at the Red Palace until the previous day.
"I fought a lot of them during the past week. They will be able to find us wherever we hide. No, I bet they already caught our scents and are actually coming for us!" Nathaniel said.
"You fought thaids?" Luke asked.
"Yes, it was part of our training at the Red Palace..."
The other five kids looked at Nathaniel with awe in their eyes. None of them knew that their employer went to the Red Palace.
"Are you saying that you train there? Why do you need our help then?" another asked.
"Because the target goes there too, and I need help to get rid of him. He is not a simple guy..." Of course, admitting this was as painful as being kicked out of the institution. It was a stain he would never be able to wash off, a humiliation he would feel for years, even if he managed to kill Erik.
"Anyway, let's move! We don't have much time left," Nathaniel said.
After a couple of minutes of running, the thaids finally came into view. It was a small group of ten beasts that were chasing Nathaniel and his group.
"They found us!" Luke said.
"What do we do?" Another asked.
"We must fight them..." Nathaniel said with a cold look.
"Are you crazy?"
"Just shut up and do as I said."
At that moment, the young man turned around and started channeling mana into his arms. The others looked on in horror as the young man faced the beasts, but they understood once they were close enough. Nathaniel unleashed a force attack, blasting all ten thaids in the air and exploding the heads of two of them.
"What the hell?!" Luke shouted. The five kids were left astonished at how strong Nathaniel was while the thaids' corpses lay scattered on the ground.
"Come, give me a hand; I need to conserve my strength..." Nathaniel said. He was calmer than usual. The five kids reluctantly took their weapons and charged at the beasts while they tried to stand up again.
The humans quickly dashed toward them and plunged their knives into their eye sockets, killing them instantly. Only three beasts remained, but Nathaniel killed them easily and quickly.
"Come on, let's get going before another group finds us," Nathaniel said.
"All right," Luke said. He started believing he had just put himself in massive trouble for some reason. After a short while, the group finally managed to arrive at the Red Palace.
"Ok, we must run to the tall yellow building and head to the shelter. Given the situation," Nathaniel said, they should be open to all.
"Are you sure about that? I don't want to find myself in front of the defenses the Red Palace students usually boast about," Luke added.
"Yeah, don't worry..."
But before they could do anything, a horrifying beast and a swarm of monsters arrived before the Red Palace; it was the Blirdoth.
"What the fuck is that?" one of the kids asked.
"I don't know, but it's nothing we can take on." These words came out of Nathaniel's mouth. It was hard for him to pronounce them, but he had to be realistic this time. The beast was enormous, and the mana around it was too thick even for him to use all his power to put a dent in its skin.
However, Nathaniel quickly observed the wounds on its body, meaning that someone actually managed to fight this creature. At that point, Nathaniel didn't know if they were dead or alive.
"We need to wait here; let's see what happens. Maybe we will be lucky..."
The other kids observed Nathaniel with faces full of fear. They couldn't understand how he could be so calm in this situation, where a monster of that caliber and a group of thaids so huge were in front of them.
So they waited, and soon they saw how the Blirdoth destroyed the Red Palace's defenses and how it started spreading its gas all around the Yellow Palace. Nathaniel knew that the most likely place where Erik would be was that building since this was the time when the students trained with their weapon masters.
After five minutes of the beast releasing the gas and sniffing the surroundings, it went behind the building, but from the other side, a group of students came out of a door, barely breathing and with some wounds on their bodies.
"Bingo..." Nathaniel said. Despite being a crazy psycho, he was smart, and it wasn't hard for him to predict what would have potentially happened when the Blirdoth approached the Yellow Palace.
Then, two things happened. The thaids that were following the Blirdoth went toward the students, and at the same time, Erik came out of the room.
"You see that guy there?" Nathaniel said, pointing at Erik.
The five kids couldn't see him clearly, but they understood who he was talking about.
"Yes," they replied.
"That's our target," Nathaniel said.
Then the Eganesus attacked, and they saw the whole scene ensue. The kids observed Erik fighting and immediately understood why Nathaniel needed their help. He was strong--stronger than any other kid they had ever seen and probably stronger than their employer.
At that moment, the other students started running away, and the Blirdoth approached the door. Then Erik started to run, and the beasts all chased them.
"If we are lucky, they will end up eaten alive..." Luke said.
"No. Look there..." Nathaniel said. Principal Van Dyke was dashing in the students' direction.
"Who is that guy?" one of the kids asked.
"That's the Red Palace principal," Nathaniel said with apparent anger in his tone. That was the motherfucker that got him kicked out of Frant's greatest and most prestigious organization.
It was then that the battle between the students, the principal, and the Blirdoth ensued, and soon, the remaining people ran away, including Erik. The kids were shocked and terrified as they witnessed the chaos that erupted before their eyes. They had never seen anything like it.
"Let's go; this is the right moment!" Nathaniel said. They then started chasing the young man through the empty streets.
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