Warlock Apprentice

Angor and Keely spent several days covering a great distance of several dozen kilometers, after which they finally saw their Meraid’s Swords changing direction just a little. After a careful calculation, they believed that they were still halfway toward their final destination.

Apart from monsters, they fought off several groups of apprentices who came after their swords. Even though four out of five teams were led by elites, they still weren’t good enough to defeat Angor and Keely, especially when they worked together.

Almost no one could resist Angor’s nightmare illusions.

In other situations, Angor needed time to prepare his illusions. But since Keely was with him, he just had to unleash his illusions right away while Keely kept the enemies in check using her Inferno embers.

Angor finally understood why people all wanted to find teams when going on explorations or quests. Decent teamwork between two people would do more than doubling their strength.

But he still believed that teams didn’t always mean good things.

Using spirit feelers, he saw Freud sitting on the Soul Floret while hugging his knees to his chest, thinking about something.

Freud was a good example of bad teams. Even good friends or schoolmates studying under the same teacher would become enemies just for personal profit.

There was no conflict of profit between him and Keely for now, but nobody could predict the future.

Angor enjoyed having an extra partner on his travel and during battles, but if he had to choose again, he would still go on adventures alone unless he could fully trust someone. And the only one he could trust currently was Toby.

He moved his spirit feelers and looked at Toby, who was sleeping on a pile of Soul Orbs.

The bird never woke up after they left Dark Castle, but Angor could feel that the bloodline in Toby was growing stronger by the day. His inner power felt several times stronger compared to when he was awake. Also, Toby’s physical shape changed; he was bigger now. Previously, Angor could easily grab Toby in one hand, but now, Toby had grown as big as a juvenile eagle.

His once gray feathers had taken on a red hue, like the color of dusk.

Angor was sure none of his old friends would recognize the bird now if they were to see Toby.

Moreover, these changes all happened recently, maybe during the last two days. Angor guessed that it was almost time for Toby to reach the end of his mental challenge.

These days, Angor would keep some of his attention on Toby when he wasn’t fighting or doing other things. The black kitten, Luna, noticed Angor spacing out and meowed at him.

Luna’s call caused both Angor and Keely to stay focused again. They had given Yethew’s gray scale to Luna so that the kitten could help them monitor incoming enemies.

It seemed Luna was smart enough to understand the mental conditions of people. In fact, Angor believed that Luna could do a better job at reading emotions than Keely, so he trusted that Luna could tell them whether they were expecting Duons or raiders.

And Luna just told them that something was coming.

Keely took over the scale and began communicating with Luna while Angor watched. He felt it funny every time he saw Keely “speaking” to Luna while Luna meowed back to her.

Can they really understand each other?

He never realized that the others also saw the same thing when he talked to Toby.

“Someone is heading this way,” said Keely, “but probably not a robber, according to Luna.”

“Then what for?”

“Diverting enemies.”

Angor took the scale and quickly understood what Keely meant. About a dozen kilometers away, one single scale was approaching them quickly, while someone with a Meraid’s Sword was going after the scale.

Luna meowed again.

“Luna says that the scale has been following us closely. Whoever has that scale wants to attract that sword holder to us. Well, he can also be planning something bigger but I don’t think it’s likely.”

When Angor returned the scale to Luna, the cat swallowed it.

“So what’s the plan? Do we fight them?” Keely asked.

They could either confront the pursuers or run. Since that sword holder wasn’t carrying a scale, it meant that he or she couldn’t tell their locations. They might easily avoid conflict if Angor used the sequence of gravity and dragged both Keely and Luna away.

However, Angor knew that Keely wasn’t ASKING since her attitude already gave her answer away.

“Well, if you want.” Angor shrugged.

Keely grinned devilishly and began to do warm-ups.

They slowed down while continued to follow their original course. Every now and then, Luna would tell them the remaining distance of the enemies.

Several minutes later, they could see a dim light in the distance using their eyes, which was getting bigger and bigger.

“I’m ready,” Keely said as she lifted her oil lamp and released a white ember that she prepared beforehand.

Luna moved to Angor and clung itself to Angor by biting onto his clothes. During their previous battles, Keely always charged ahead no matter for attacking or defending, while Luna would dig a pit to hide. The kitten realized that Angor was the “safer” spot since he always relied on illusions to stay away from enemies as much as possible so that his precious body wouldn’t get any bruises or scars.

Despite his casual stance, Angor already readied several defensive means and a number of illusion nodes around the water.

Keely went for the light with a series of hearty laughs. A huge group of embers instantly blocked all escape directions of the incomer.

The enemy also saw Keely and grew horrified since she just ran into another nightmare.

“Now die!” Keely rammed into the enemy with her body covered in flames.

Before Keely could finish her attack, the targeted woman suddenly gained unbelievable speed and reappeared behind Keely as if she teleported.

“Angor, what are you doing?!” Keely glared at Angor; only Angor could make something move so fast.

“Angor?! Angor Padt?” Keely’s target turned around and quickly saw Angor’s face. “It’s really you! I’m so happy!”

“Wait. You know her?” Keely realized what was going on.

Angor was trying to prevent the little girl from hugging him by pushing her face. “Hey, Shan, aren’t you going to check on Gank?”

Shan finally realized that Gank was probably hit by that fire attack because Angor only pulled one person out of Keely’s way.

She turned around and saw Gank burning in blue flames. Half of his body was frozen.

“Gaaaank! No!”

Keely frowned and canceled all the frostfire that was torturing Gank’s body.

“This is Shan, an apprentice from Brute Cavern, and my… Let’s just say that we met before,” Angor explained.

“That’s not enough reason for her to bring danger to us.”

“I know.” Angor sighed. Shan wasn’t really his friend. He saved her because the girl seemed to be on good terms with Nausica.

“So are you going to deal with whoever’s chasing her too?” Keely was getting impatient.

Angor was also thinking about this question. What he just did didn’t mean he would keep helping Shan with her own problems.

Shan returned with Gank with a worried look. “Angor, Nausica and Shiliew are in danger! You gotta help them!”

Shan knew she was asking too much but she had no choice right now.

Clearly, Shan didn’t know well about the friendship between Angor and Nausica.

“Where’s Nausica? What happened to her?”

“I don’t know. We got separated when escaping. But Shiliew can tell us! She left her blood on Nausica. That’s how she found us after entering the garden.”

“So where’s Shiliew?”

“Tulip Palace. Shiliew sent me and Nausica away. She was trapped there by two witches.”

Keely humphed while listening to their conversation. She already knew what Angor was going to do now.

Mortal kindness…

She wondered if she should go with him. She certainly didn’t want to, but her professor told her to…

Nah. He can manage on his own.

Angor was still unsure about the situation. “Details, Shan. Tell me what exactly happened.”

“It’s Jebra! Shiliew wounded Jebra, then he somehow hired a bunch of people to attack us—”

Keely rushed in front of Shan and grabbed her collar.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”