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Chapter cover: Crow and Nameless facing back to back while sitting on their chairs with a cruel light dancing in their eyes.
…
Date: -/-/ X636
"Again!"
The little Crow rushed forward to his opponent, his hand reaching for the handgun, but he was too slow as the hand was suddenly shot off, leaving a bloody stump.
He let out a scream, eyes filled with absolute hatred at the trainer, cradling the bloody stump.
The adult, eyes were as hard as tone; glared at the half-breed. "AGAIN!"
XXX
Present
Crow's eyes glazed over the desert. The cool breeze blowing in his face just made him relax. His grip on the reins went slack, then tightened the moment he heard a blood-churning roar at a distance.
What was that?!
Crow came back to reality and stared down – he couldn't see from this height. And with the grey clouds, worse. And with this height? It was amazing they managed to survive the atmospheric pressure on them.
"Eagle Eye," Crow mumbled under his breath. Immediately, his eyes reinforced until he has an eagle's sight. The clouds were still blocking most of his vision.
He cursed under his breath and nudged his gryphon lightly with his heel. It dived down until he could see the beauty of nature. Crow pulled the reins back and it lets out a caw in protest as it stopped, still flapping its wings to keep itself and the owner airborne.
The silver moon hung in the sky along with its stars, its companion. The desert sand shifted like a gliding wave – however, among the movements – he saw something unnatural.
That something isn't moving as one. It wasn't pushed forward like a wave, but move when the current isn't against it.
He squinted, when a sand wave was coming, it stopped. The brown wings flapping in the wind.
Confused, Crow chose to observe longer.
After a few minutes of observation, he realized it was a traveler's cloak. Then, he or she was on the move again.
Once, twice, it stopped again when the current flowed over the traveler.
"…Lea?"
It was a risky bet – but they have nothing to lose except for their ego.
He glanced back at Kuan, her pink pigtails were dancing with the wind, and it was amazing they haven't whipped her face yet – considering the wind's direction.
"THERE!" He shouted, pointing when the traveler stopped again. In an unspoken cue, their heels squeezed their respective gryphon's sensitive spot and it dived down – this time with full speed.
As they got closer, the wind blew the traveler's hood back, revealing his sister who was at first surprised, and quickly replaced with a grim expression. Once they were on the ground (or sand in their case), the gryphons cawed unhappily, stretching its wings before folding them and circled around, with the rider.
"…Crow," said Lea Stellar with her usual monotone voice once they dismount. "Kuan, what are you doing here?"
Kuan's excited expression fell, and she stared blankly at Lea, who blinked. The older girl (a.k.a Kuan) hugged Crow's leg.
Crow sighed inwardly, he hated his partner.
He gestured to his gryphon. "Let's talk when we are in a safer place?"
It was a question.
Lea raised her eyebrows, before her eyes narrowed lightly. It was brief, but Crow felt his throat constricted. He couldn't lie to her, unless he wants a verbal and physical lashing.
Or if he was lucky, just a playful slap on his wrist and a compliment.
Lea glanced backwards – Crow and Kuan followed her gaze and found nothing, but Lea's expression changed briefly from surprise to annoyance. She clapped his shoulder once as she passed by him, towards the gryphons.
Without another word, they mounted the gryphons (while Lea with Crow) and shot off to the skies.
XXX
Location: Somewhere above Ossyria
They flew for almost three hours when they descended onto the ground of El Nath. It was bitterly cold, their exhaled breaths were just white puffs and their clothes have frost on it.
The moment Crow touched the ground with his boots, he felt immense pressure on his body. In another moment, it was gone.
If his teammates felt it, they didn't show it.
The snow covered their ankles, and Kuan was shivering badly especially in her hot pink frilly dress – very unsuitable for cold weather.
The gryphons' wings kept flapping, and they screeched once before leaving them on a cliff, attracting the monsters which lived there.
Lea was at the edge, looking down from the cliff with her a small scowl on her face. "Antique?"
Crow nodded. "We will have privacy there…"
They could hear Kuan's chattering teeth, it was almost comical. "COLD!"
Lea's eyes gleamed with amusement – so was Crow's. "If you have enough energy to complain," She paused, and a piercing howl came. "Then you can fight." Lea hissed out before jumping down from the cliff.
Kuan muttered some unflattering comments before following their leader.
Crow sniffed the air once and his expression soured.
The smell of rotting corpse stood out strong even with the newly fallen snow. He glanced backwards at Von Leon's castle, it was impressive even from afar. Even though the castle walls and gates were battered, they stood strong.
Bad nose!
Since birth, Crow's nose can smell the mana – each of them has their individual scent. Lea's was more of the sea breeze, the one reminded Crow of the twilight while Jake's is like a smell of a prayer's smell of oil.
Crow shook his thoughts out from his head and focused to the misty bottom. The howls of pain and cries of death pierced the very air and soul of the land and maniacal laughter mingling together.
Whose voice is it?
Crow took a few steps back before sprinting and jumped off the cliff.
It was a thrill Crow will never forget as the blood rushed into his head, heightening his already sharp senses. His hand gripped the hilt of his sword while the other covered his forehead, eyes slightly narrowed as multiple small figures came to his sight, but as quickly as they came, the mist clouded his eyes.
He unsheathed quickly and sliced the air and the once misty ground became clear. Slowly, but steadily, his mana flowed from his hands to his weapon, and reinforced it.
Unlike his siblings, his mana color was slightly orange with a hint of black.
He kept falling and landed onto one of the brown, huge Werewolves which was sneaking up on his partner – right at its head, killing it instantly. Crow hopped off before it crashed into the snow.
"Glad you could make it," Kuan greeted him before throwing one of her aluminum knives, glowing slight pink with her mana with reinforcement spell. It struck one of the eyes of the charging werewolves and exploded into bits of flesh, blood and fur.
Those disgusting things matted his hair and clothes, causing Crow to make a sour face, well, more sour-er than before.
"Oops?"
Crow pointed to his eyes, then at Kuan, swearing revenge before doing a backhand slash to the werewolf behind him.
The werewolf stumbled backwards, snowing them with its flustered leg movements. Crow took advantage of the cover of white by cutting down another three pairs of werewolves' legs.
However, the werewolves recovered quickly as the cuts were shallow, their black eyes burning with silent anger. As one, they howled and charged in all fours – almost causing a mini avalanche.
He readied his sword once more, this time with the intent to kill.
Before Crow could deliver the fatal blow, a flash of blue passed, and blood spurted out from multiple wounds on the werewolves' body and they fell, still. Crow blinked and stared at his sister who was running a hand through her messy hair, the brown hairband was lost somewhere during the battle.
"Too slow," Lea said before dashing off to another unfortunate target.
Crow didn't waste much time before doing the same as his squad mates.
They kept fighting until they reached a safe zone – a powerful bounded field to keep the monsters away fueled by A-rank mana jewels. Crow stabbed the white snow with his blade and gratefully fell backwards, catching his breath. Kuan didn't follow him, and instead check her weapon supplies – and she let out a heavy sigh.
"Running low," warned Kuan followed by another enraged werewolf howl.
In an unspoken cue, Kuan and Crow looked at the weary Lea. Lea stared back and shrugged, "We don't have the supplies to camp for more than two days…" She trailed off, her eyebrows knitted together and placed a gloved finger on her lips, looking thoughtful.
"If we can get to town before nightfall, we have a chance to book a room for three."
"Great plan, one question. How?" Kuan made a dramatic gesture to her feet.
"Shadow travelling."
Crow and Kuan blinked twice and stared at each other. It took roughly twenty seconds for the information to sink it.
Kuan did an X with her arms.
"We don't have the energy," Kuan reasoned.
Lea sighed before turning around and ran out, cutting their precious reprieve short.
…
A/N: Shadow travelling is also used in chapter 10.5! How and who can use it will be explained in future chapters.