The next day, Paul was standing in an open area of the forest where he had previously talked with the boy. He was slightly nervous, hoping that the boy didn't lie to him and that what he told him was correct.
He had arrived slightly early, but after waiting for about 20 minutes, there was still no sign of the boy arriving, even Wolf and the others who were in the trees some 100 meters away from Paul were starting to believe that the boy would never show up, that what he told Paul yesterday was a lie and that the people from the city were the ones that would arrive here.
But even that made no sense, if they wanted to attack Paul, it was highly likely that they would have arrived early and would set up a trap for him, and yet, nobody was present.
As a couple more minutes passed, just as Paul was about to leave, they all heard the sounds of leaves rustling. After a couple of seconds, the body arrived.
"Mister, you're here!" The boy said with a wide smile on his face, but Paul and the others immediately sensed that something was off. The boy was nervous, his hands were slightly shaking and from what Wolf could see, there were traces of him being beaten up as he could see some small bruises that were not covered fully by his clothes.
"What happened to you, what's up with all the bruises?" Paul asked with some vigilance, but some anger as well.
"Ah, the boys from my neighborhood, we had a dispute and fought, that's all." The boy quickly explained as he made his way over to Paul who was keeping his guard up. Something was fishy about the entire thing, the boy was not acting the same as he did yesterday.
As the boy came near Paul, one could see his nervousness rising higher and higher until his eyes became a bit teary.
"What's wrong, why are you crying?" Paul asked the boy as he took a step toward him, but Wolf and the others moved as well. They moved silently, making no noise and keeping their guard up.
As the boy came about 2 meters away from Paul, he stared at him.
"I'm sorry, mister." The boy suddenly took out a small round object from his pocket before throwing it at Paul. Paul's eyes opened wide as his dagger quickly appeared in front of him, blocking the ball.
Boom!
An explosion took place as an array activated around Paul. He was standing straight in the middle and the area about 10 meters around him was covered by the array that nobody amongst them managed to notice.
The array quickly formed a dome around Paul, containing the explosion in it and maximizing the damage that would be done.
The dagger quickly shone brightly, taking on the explosion and shielding Paul from it. Paul had grabbed the dagger the moment it arrive and moved forward in order to shield the boy as well, but he only managed to do so after he had already been severely injured from the explosion.
Paul shielded him from the explosion, managing to save his life, but the array was still up.
Suddenly.
Ten people came out of the forest. Their invisible bodies suddenly appeared in front of the array as they watched Paul with smirks present on their faces.
"This one is still not good enough, look, it barely did a thing to him!" One of the men who was leading the group said with slight anger as another person clicked his tongue.
"It's the dagger, it shielded him from the explosion, otherwise I am certain that he would have been injured."
"At least we didn't sacrifice that little bastard for nothing, it looks like he might even make it." A third person said with a sneer as he stared at the boy who was in Paul's hands.
Paul's eyes opened wide as his hands started shaking upon listening to their comments. He stared at them with hatred as they all started snickering at him.
"Look at that boys, he seems quite mad at what we did, too bad he is trapped in the array."
"You don't need to even try breaking it, it will take you most of your energy to break through the array, not to mention that we can still do this." The man that previously clicked his tongue and explained that it was Paul's dagger that blocked the explosion said before taking out another ball and throwing it at Paul.
The ball passed through the array without any obstruction before exploding inside, forcing Paul to channel his mana to the dagger in order to shield himself and the boy again.
"See, we can attack you from outside, but you can't attack us before breaking the array, so how about you put down your weapon and armor and stand back?" The man asked him before lifting his glasses a bit. He sneered at Paul and his angry expression before suddenly looking at him seriously as Paul smiled at them with bloodthirst.
"What a good idea, put your hands up and lost the items, and we might let you live." A voice said before the man they all suddenly found themselves with weapons on their throats as Reign and the rest appeared behind them.
"We only need these three, kill the rest," Wolf said as Shadow and the others simply nodded before killing the seven Tier III combatants without skipping a beat. The 10 had hid themselves and sent a kid on a suicide run, scum like them didn't deserve to continue living.
"You are making a mistake." The man with glasses said before Reign cocked his head back and suddenly punched him in the back with lightning covering his fist.
The man's body bent backward as he was sent flying toward Paul, easily passing through the array and continuing to fly toward the enraged Paul who had placed his dagger down and was channeling mana to his right hand.
He clenched his hand before punching the man straight in the face, making his body spin twice in the air before falling down face first to the ground.
Seeing how one of them had been sent flying so easily by Reign made the other two shake in fear. They were all Tier IV combatants, but they were low-grade Tier IV combatants that had barely been able to evolve and belonged to the bottom of the realm, compared to Reign and the rest, they were nothing.
"Laura, heal the boy, Greenie, Aelrinder, and Elijah, come with me, let's break the array." Reign said as they quickly entered the array and started attacking it from the inside. Laura entered and started healing the boy, but stopped after a couple of seconds.
The array broke fairly quickly as it was made to contain one Tier IV being. Being attacked by five Tier IV combatants was more than enough for it to break after a couple of seconds.
"Laura?" Reign glanced at Laura who shook her head at him, the boy was dead, even though Paul had shielded him from the explosion fairly quickly, the frail body of the boy had already sustained serious damage, enough to make him die in mere seconds.
Paul stared at the body as he clenched his hands into fists before staring at the guy he had just punched. He had regained consciousness and was trying to get up, but was unable to do so. He started slowly walking toward the man while summoning his dagger which promptly came back to his hand.
As he was some 3 meters away from the man, Reign grabbed him and stared at his eyes.
"Not now, not yet, we first need to get information from them, if you want to get revenge for the kid, at least find out where his family is so that we can help them, at least bring them the body back so that they can hold a funeral." Reign whispered to Paul before grabbing his shoulders. Paul stared into Reign's eyes as his head moved left and right before nodding at him heavily.
Reign nodded back to him before turning around and grabbing the man by his collar before throwing him over to Wolf and the others who had already stripped the prisoners of their items and had only left them with the shorts that they gave them.
Both the men were bound in mana-restraining chains, and the third one was bound quickly as well.
"I and Paul will be talking with this guy, Shadow, Laura, you guys take this one, as for the last one, he's all yours, Wolf," Reign told as his teammates all nodded while the rest went around the area in order to stand on guard and make sure that nobody would come over.
"Where is his family?!" Paul suddenly asked as he stabbed the man in the leg, making him shout in pain before looking at Paul.
"Whose family, what family?!"
"The kid, where is his family?!" Paul asked while twisting the dagger slightly and making the man groan in pain again.
"He doesn't have one, he's an orphan, we just make them tell a sad story to people they come across in order to garner more sympathy!"
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om