Milla'iin watched the destruction of the town. Once he saw enough, he raised his tendril, "This is enough."

The soldiers stopped.

The city was almost completely destroyed. Most were completely destroyed except for the tallest structures. The soldiers didn't attack those because they knew it would either fall on them or get caught by the debris as it collapsed.

The creature was satisfied with the destruction. He would grin if he had a mouth. Still, there was one major problem to deal with.

"We return to the city and find out who is that spy. The others didn't find anything yet."

After this order, the troops turned around and left the remaining of the town.

Chapter 115: Close Call

Bahrakatan and Remi continued to walk out of the city. They avoided another patrol as he explained the same thing.

"It… It much harder to wander around now," the teenager admitted.

"They are all looking for someone who spied on them, but they are wrong. Your tribe has technology to watch everything around the Cothica," the Coralsmith replied.

"Yeah."

"It's pretty intimidating what your tribe can do, even if you cannot fight that hard and easily get hurt," Bahrakatan went on, (Don't raise your voice too much.)

"I thought the others might know if they read into the minds of others," Remi wondered.

"They might not have checked everything. Milla'iin and the others might get a little sloppy in that," he sighed, "Can't say I was different. Maybe we just couldn't believe something like that is possible. Or we were just a bit lazy," he raised his shoulders.

The two stopped when they were near the school. The bell rang as the afternoon advanced.

"It's kinda… apocalypse," Remi muttered to himself. The school was empty and no one came out. Despite that, the ball still rang, as it was automatically programmed.

Bahrakatan heard what he said and couldn't disagree. He brought this horrible kind of situation. Still, he decided to help the human get out of there. After that, he had no idea. Still, he was a horrible creature to cause damage to the Cothica. The holy place for Perim, broken down by his own tribe.

The Coralsmith heard something suspicious, "Stop."

"What-" the teenager heard that too.

(Not a word,) he grabbed the boy and hid in the large bushed near the school. They quietly observed and noticed a few soldiers patrolling around.

"Did you see anything yet?" one asked.

"Nothing. The humans we found are already under our control," the other one replied.

"We got failures after failures since we got the city," a third one grumbled.

"We didn't get any of the four humans, we don't know where they are and they captured Aval'par."

Bahrakatan already know about those. Still, they were talking about it. He also noticed they weren't that confident in the success of their mission.

"And now this. The humans escaped the city because of a spy," another one growled in frustration.

"Everything will work better once we purge that spy," one who was more hopeful said.

"And check in his mind everything he might tell them… Unless Milla'iin wants to use him and give them false information," one chuckled as he put his hand on over his mouth.

"Stop talking and get on with it," one Kha'rall ordered them in annoyance.

The M'arrillians stopped talking and went on their search. Their loud steps resonated in the street until they were out of hearing reach.

Remi sighed, "Damn. They sure want to get me for that… purpose."

"Unless Milla'iin decides to kill you," Bahrakatan darkly said. He didn't know what the Chieftain might do anymore. Everything was possible, "Let's keep going," he looked around and scratched his chin, "Still, we are quite in the open."

The man thought about it, "We can go through the school. There is a wall in the backyard and we can just climb on it."

"Let's do that," the creature agreed, (But do not act as if you can think on you own. For your own safety. Remember, you are 'under' my control.)

He got a positive nod.

They took the direction of the school and went inside. Bahrakatan made sure that he acted as if he was controlling the man.

They entered in the building casually. It was better than lifting the human and less suspicious. They wandered around.

Remi gazed at the school. It reminded him of the time he was in middle school. The teachers, the students and the other workers who gave life to the school during the day. Even after the bell rang, they were still the teachers, a few students and the janitors around, from what he saw in his youth. Now, it was empty. It was void of life. The school lost its reason to exist. They were all under control of the M'arrillians, "I'm lucky you aren't like the others."

"Indeed," Bahrakatan replied a bit shamefully. He was the one who brought them here. He closed his eyes and sighed, "We cannot slow down in memories."

They heard something and stopped. The Coralsmith knew they were others searching in the school. (Investigate this room for any intruders).

The teenager knew what the M'arrillian wanted and went in that classroom to search for the 'spy'.

Bahrakatan saw a few M'arrillians with his humans under their control coming to him. There was one adult and a few children with him.

"What are you doing here?" one of them asked curiously.

The Coralsmith was relieved. It wasn't suspicion against him. He had to admit it wasn't that normal for him to wander around for any reason. Still, he had the excuse in his mind, "With Milla'iin mood and the lack of material to forge battlegear, it is the only thing I can do. I asked a human to search that room," he pointed at it, "Notice anything strange here?"

"Nothing. It's mostly desert," one of them replied.

"Mostly?"

"We found those young humans hiding with that man. They were hidden here since we invaded. They were waiting for rescue to come," he chuckled, "As if it would happen."

"They were more than the spy," he commented, (Stay calm Remi.) He spoke only in the mind of the human with him. He just hoped he wouldn't screw up, "We will check again, just in case he moved around while you were searching."

"Good," the soldiers went on with the humans.

Remi came out after they were gone. He was a little pale at the news that more were under their control. He gulped down loudly and tried to look fine.

(You're okay?) Bahrakatan asked with concern.

He got a simple positive nod.

The two went on in the mostly empty school. They heard the M'arrillians continued their search in the other rooms of the school. They made a few stops to inspect each room, to blend in better.

Eventually, they reached the other side without encountering any other M'arrillians. They went outside of the school and looked around.

"No one from my tribe," the Coralsmith commented in relief.

They looked around as they approached the wall that led outside of the school. At the other side, the city continued, but it was less dense. They approached the limit of the city and could see the woods near it.

Bahrakatan grabbed the boy and lifted him at the top of the wall.

Remi jumped down at the other side.

The M'arrillian jumped over the wall and landed loudly in front of the human, a few holes created by his legs on the ground, (Let's keep going.)

The two continued to march in the empty street of the city. The empty streets and the silence showed how much the town was dead. Remi wondered Summervale would ever recover from the invasion. The answer no seemed probable.

They noticed something at the horizon. Bahrakatan squinted his eyes and grunted, "Dammit."

"What is it?" Remi asked as he tried to see forward.

"We took the worse direction to escape. We went north," the M'arrillian replied. He cursed himself for failing to realise the direction they took. He was too busy to think to escape, that he didn't carefully plan an escape route. He quickly looked around for a place to hide. He didn't want to test Milla'iin patience, especially with the army around. He noticed there was a small park near them with large plants, (This way!) he pulled the boy and they hid in the large bushes.

Remi wanted to protest, as the exoskeleton of the creature would stand out. He barely saw him through the dense leaves of the plant.

(Do not move and breath as little as possible. Once they are gone, we leave town and we keep going north. I'm sure Milla'iin won't go north next, as the river goes south too. He will also focus on the supposed spy.)

"Yeah."

(Quiet please,) he reminded the boy.

He calmed his breathing the best he could. He observed the troops marching forward. Alas, they stopped near them for some reason. It made his heart skip a beat.

The two waited for them to leave. They tried not to move at all. Just one little bit and they were goners.

Milla'iin asked, "Did they find the spy yet? None of them are responding to me."

Rath'tab replied, "No. They haven't found anything. They are busy hunting for the spy. All the found were a group of children with one adult, hidden in the school thing," he scratched his chin, "We surely dropped our guard once we took control of the city."

The chieftain sighed, "I agree. I let the victory get over me. Because of that, those four humans escaped with their family and we lost any traces of them. No one has any idea where they might be and we cannot find anything in their mind."

"And those humans left a spy behind to report any of our plans. We didn't expect them to try something that risky," the other creature grumbled.

"Nevertheless, we will hunt that spy down and spill everything he knows. He might know where the four humans are," Milla'iin chuckled quietly.

"The existence of the spy affected greatly the moral of the troops. If we fail to find him, what would we do?" one of the soldiers asked.

The chieftain didn't reply as he thought deeply about it. He had no idea what would happen if the moral dropped too much.

The soldier went on, "The spy know we are searching for him and is probably in hiding right now. Do you have any idea how to force him out of his hiding spot?"

"That's if he didn't leave the town already," another one commented.

The soldiers grumbled among each other's on the uncertainty of their situations.

Milla'iin knew the problem would grow out of control if he didn't do anything, "If he is gone, then won't have any new information. We prepare a trap for the sky and give false information, while we tell the true in our mind. The humans aren't mind readers. The spy won't be able to do anything. Still, we keep searching for the spy."

Bahrakatan and Remi continued to listen as the M'arrillians talked to each other's. The felt tension raising in their body as they didn't move for a while. It began to be difficult to stand still.

The Coralsmith felt like he might move against his will soon. His pincer was shaking a little and could clap at any moment. He wasn't use to just stood in place for a long time. They waited for many minutes now.

Eventually, the M'arrillians left. The two waited a bit longer, until they couldn't see them.

(Wait,) Bahrakatan ordered. He extended his thought. Slowly and gently, just in case he could feel a presence. There was no one. The creature sighed, (Gone. Let's go.)

The two went out of the bushes and continued marching forward. Eventually, they left the city.

Remi looked back. He sighed, "Where are they?" he wondered a question he wouldn't get an answer.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," he replied as he followed the M'arrillian.

The two left the city and didn't look back after this.

AC: This is the end of this chapter. Not as excited as you hoped or thought it would be. Sorry.

Next Chapter: What to do?

Tom and his friends wondered what to do at the base, as nothing else went on after the assault at the city.