The Third Party - Chapter 71

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs., 8 months and 1 week old)

‘Cloud?’ thought Ken as wolf figures from a distance started to become clear, and it was true, as Cloud and his pack were running towards them in… large numbers.

‘What could they be doing here for?’ he asked inside his mind, not only him for the others also wore the same expression of curiosity as to why the esper wolves would be here, and its afternoon to boot, isn’t that a bit late of a time to visit?

“Cloud, what brings you here?” asked Klein, meeting the pack and greeting them as well.

“We are here to report that there’s some kind of object in the sky.” He said, looking at the direction they went, and indeed, there was a small dot in the sky, moving… towards them?

The group was confused as they could not get a clear image of the object in the sky.

“Do you have any information about it?” asked Klein looking at the alpha of the pack, almost eye level as cloud reached up to Klein’s shoulders.

“We don’t, but we sensed it through our patrols on the valley and it has a densely packed magic power similar to mine and my pack’s power, so we were alarmed and came rushing here.” Klein nodded at Cloud’s explanation and returned his gaze at the approaching object.

“Since when did it arrive?” asked Klein.

“Just a few minutes ago, but I highly doubt that it had arrived at this time since the barrier would have alerted us of its presence.” said Cloud, Klein’s expression turned into a frown.

“Indeed.” He fell into deep thought, the others at the side looking at their leader in almost blatant anxiousness, for penetrating the barrier without being noticed is unheard off, even Ken and the other humans that live in this valley know of that fact.

Unless…

“I want six people to come with me and investigate south border of the barrier.” He then looked at the other leaders present. “Ras, Oldin, Kilean, Nazir, Rena, Abel, come with me, as for the rest, tend to the students and the people in the village, we will be right back.” said Klein, and off the seven people went, vanishing in thin air.

Even though this kind of occurrence was supposed to be natural for the group, they still can’t help but be amazed at the sheer display of technique and power in that single move.

“Well, I guess you guys are stuck with us.” said Dawn looking at the children.

“What about us?” asked Cloud, looking awkward at the side along with his brethren, as he glanced at his pack, they expected that they would be mobilized right at this moment when he’d report to Klein, but who would have thought that the leader also had other thoughts in mind.

The other leaders felt sorry, for one way or another they understood the discomfort of these wolves, Harth could relate to him as both had wolf instincts and carrying out the orders of someone they revere as stronger and a good leader is of greater joy and pride to them.

Even though both were alpha’s, they stayed true to their loyalty to Klein, a peculiar combination of a wolf being loyal to a snake, but would anyone try to argue when that said snake was as large as a foot of a mountain and can reach at its highest height?

Maybe others will, who knows nothing of their custom.

“Don’t worry alpha, I’m sure everything’s okay with the master taking the situation into his own hands.” said Ken smiling softly at Cloud. Cloud could only nod. An idea struck Ken.

“Oooh! Now that you guys are here, could you please teach me your magic?” asked Ken, staring expectantly at Cloud, anyone could see the clear change in the alpha wolf’s temperament as his features turned from depressing to enlightenment.

Cloud thought for a moment.

“Hmm… I could, but why do you suddenly want to know now?” asked Cloud.

“So as not to waste time? We’re almost finishing up with our day, and the sun’s still up, so I would like to use this time to learn, please.” His friends could only groan, and or slap their forehead at Ken’s indulgent nature.

Always wanting to learn and improve, not to mention that he’s a monster when it comes to magic, but most of all, this little bit of an annoying trait of learning anything when it comes to magic.

“Okay, I could let you learn, but I’ll need to settle my pack first.” said Cloud.

Ken nodded and the esper wolves returned to enter the village proper with Lana in tow, these types of occurrences are pretty much normal to them, for not only does every creature who possess some form of intellect and are part of the beast kingdom of this valley look up to both the King of the animal beasts, and the leader of the magical beasts.

So tasks are pretty much handled and reported to either the King or the leader, but this time, why did the esper wolf alpha report to Klein and not to King Raze? Don’t they always report to him? Were the swirling thoughts of Ken.

“Hey, we still have to finish up class, and clean up Icarus’s mess.” said Allen, coming up to Ken’s side.

“Right.” Ken nodded, and the group returned to their class with Mira, the group finished up class and had the liberty of cleaning up the burnt ground with magic, what they did not expect was that the work would be taxing.

The burnt ground almost took up three forth of the field, when the group quickly realized this predicament, they each looked at Icarus who was also helping in cleaning up his mess, just how much power did he put into that spell earlier.

Nevertheless they didn’t complain, and just carried on with their work. Glen noticed on the side that some parts of the field where filled with puddles of water, probably his companion’s attempt at trying to clean the dark ground.

But who would think such a thing when technically one should just reshape the land or rejuvenate it through nature magic, what an idiot, and that idiot he was thinking about was Ken who had the brilliant thought of using water.

And look at where that got him, barely even cleaned it, and that said boy was walking towards the edge of the field, when Ken turned around both Glen and Ken locked eyes at one another, instantly, Glen knew that it was Ken who made this puddle of water.

I mean, who would look all blank and acting all innocent at the side as they calmly flee from the situation, and then used nature magic to continue with his work.

With a smirk, Glen’s eyes glinted, and the two exchanged looks, waiting for the other to make a move, when the others noticed a sudden change of atmosphere by the two, they each slowly stopped what they were doing and looked at the two boys.

‘Oh boy, this is going-.’ before Lila could finish her thought, the two already launched themselves at each other holdings hand in mid air in the form of arm wrestling.

A stone table formed below their arms, and both vigorously started tussling one another, trying to take the other down. Their friends watched in conflict whether they’d laugh or slap their forehead, for this situation right here… was stupid.

Usually when the two would engage in an arm wrestle with one another, they would clearly announce their terms and conditions as to why they are doing such activity.

It appears that this are one of those cases were the two would randomly engage in an arm wrestle for no reason, last time they did it, it was over a piece of bread, Glen saying that it was him who took it first, while Ken saying that it was him who cooked the bread.

Not one of the two would back down, as they didn’t wanna share, blame Ken for adding a delectable filling inside, that time, he added chocolate. He had found a fruit similar to cocoa, he didn’t even need to use any sort of sweetener as the fruit was incredibly sweet to begin with.

Surprisingly, the fruit has the shape of the cocoa on earth, just a bit on the darker color.

Contrary to the student’s thoughts, the adults watching, except for Ulysses, were wide eyed, staring at this interaction.

Clearly, Glen had a much bigger stature than Ken, look at those seemingly close to twig like arms of Ken, and those arms of Glen twice as large as Ken’s, but to think that the two were an even match to one another.

They felt like their head would explode if they can’t understand this interaction.

Suddenly, a wave pulse emitted from the two, letting Ken’s hair fly around softly, while it flapped both of their garments. Their friends could only think of one thing, these two were serious? With a deadpan look on their faces, but were distinguished from one another.

The adults were even more confused, exactly what where these two doing? It looks like they’re fighting with the intense atmosphere, but it looks like they aren’t. Huh?

“Uly, is this normal?” asked Kara to Ulysses beside her.

“Yes it is, but you don’t have to worry about anything, they won’t get hurt… or something.” explained Ulysses, calmly looking at the spectacle before him, he didn’t even mind her calling him with such a nickname.

He didn’t need to bother, for if he does, then both him and Kara will just go round and round in their argument on why she should not call him ‘Uly’, it was such a hassle the first time he reprimanded her.

The other adults took a glance at Ulysses at his statement, but soon after, returned their gaze at the scene before them.

Dawn, was confused whether she’d be anxious or… maybe she just feels anxious, there’s no other emotion dominant than that one. Harth stared with great interest, Kara just watched calmly, trying to act like Ulysses.

While Mira has one single thought in her mind, she wants to participate in such activity, but as to how to do it, she was still contemplating.

If the students could hear her thoughts, they would definitely sigh out of their minds.

“What’s this?” asked Cloud, as he returned with Lana, his pack already settled down on the village to stay the night.

“Oh, the kids are arm wrestling.” explained Lana, Cloud only stared at her in confusion. Lana smiled and said…

“It’s where two people use their hands and try to defeat the other person by pushing the other person’s hand downwards.” Cloud nodded for a bit, kind of getting the gist of the situation.

The two eventually walked towards where the adults gathered and they all continued watching. Watching at the intense battle before them as both parties resorted to putting more magic into their arms causing strong winds to blow.

Now Ken’s hair was blowing wildly as well as their clothes. Occasionally the group would exclaim in awe if they see that the one side would be close to toppling the other and they’d do the same thing when the other would regain the upper hand.

It almost looked like a back and forth of the two boys.

Saber who was almost ready to be bored out of his wits since he’s seen this interaction plenty of times before cannot help but yawn and look the other way.

‘Wait, isn’t that the black dot from before?’ he thought, looking at the sky at the direction where the object was located, before he could blink thought, the object in the shape of a sphere suddenly appeared before them.

The group wasn’t able to react fast and move or do anything when black clothed people appeared everywhere and seized their movement, holding them in their arms and shoulders, even Cloud wasn’t spared as he was suddenly lying on the floor.

The arm wrestling between the two boys, were halted as both were being pressed on the stone table they made each by two black clothed individuals. Saber also did not notice until the last second and he was facing the ground.

Someone came out of the ball of sphere just as big as two storey house leisurely, all clothed in black, but with a distinct feature on his chest, with what looks to be a silver black medallion, with a black dragon carved into it.

“Good job.” said the person. “Now retrieve the artifact.”

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