The Third Party - Chapter 72

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

Everyone was confused of what the person in black said, as far as they know, there were no such thing as an artifact present in their village, or in this valley.

They could call the barrier surrounding the valley as one, but it’s too big for them to carry, of course everyone apprehended knew the word ‘artifact’, but the question really is, what artifact were they talking about.

All but one already recognized what the man in black spoke off.

‘Ahhh, so they made their move again.’ thought Ken, quietly assessing the situation, he felt like his limbs would be bent from his assailants pressing down on his back while holding his arms backwards, but this pain was something he could handle.

‘Must they be rude as well? Forcefully making me kneel down, but then again, I did make their visits a blast.’ He thought, while he was deep in thought ridiculing himself and appraising the men in black’s actions, others… didn’t fare much.

Mira, Harth, Lana, Dawn, Kara, and Ulysses, didn’t know what to do as they did not feel their magic from within them, it’s as if their strength was also sealed, from some kind of… focal point.

Ulysses glanced at the man at his right, searching for anything out of the ordinary, but nothing from their outfit comes to mind, he lowered his gaze to the hand holding down his shoulder.

He noticed a line, which was curved, but wasn’t really clear as some kind of symbol was covered in the palm of their hand, his eyes turned cold, but he didn’t continue gazing at the hand, instead he returned his gaze in front of him.

Unfortunately for them, the students fared no better, as they too were trying to find ways on how to get out of such situation, as they frantically looked everywhere, their magic and strength also sealed.

The other man in black who seems to be the leader of this group walked towards the lunch table where everyone’s equipment were placed, he went directly to the scythe that was casually leaning on the table.

Took the scythe and turned around.

“Artifact secured, prepare to depart.” He said, and began walking towards the orb of some kind of contraption, which looked to be made out of steel, with circular lines embedded around it.

Ken felt anxiety creeping into his system but he forced it down as he could not afford for their assailants to know what he is feeling, instead he put on a facade as he smirked.

“So that’s what you were here for.” he said, everyone stopped to turn at the direction of the voice, to the human kneeling down, held by other two men in black. “You’re taking something that is not yours, return it.”

The man on his right tightened his grip on his hand, Ken gritted his teeth from the sudden pain coursing through his shoulder.

“Who are you to lecture us, can you not see that you’re in no position to oppose?” said the man, and tightened his grip some more, Ken felt like his limb would be torn, but he only gave the man a cold smile, with a hint of malevolence.

But of course, no one noticed it as they were more concerned about what he is feeling, and the other thinking how much of a fool this person is to speak out of terms.

“This is how you treat your hostage? You take away their things and subject them to torture? My, you people are twisted in the head.” said Ken, this time, the man in black could not take it anymore and let go of the hand holding Ken’s arm and punched his guts.

Ken belched out as he felt as if all the air in his lungs depleted in that second, he held his head down, knowing full well that this would anger the man some more.

“You have the guts to oppose the might of the Dragon Kingdom, and for that you shall pay!” said the man, took out a sword in mid-air and plunged it straight to Ken’s stomach.

Everyone held in a stand-still, shocked at the sudden turn of events, only when did the man pulled out his sword from Ken did everyone returned to their stupor.

The two men let Ken fall on the ground, his blood slowly tainting the ground beneath him.

One particular person, who realized a sudden piece of information, quivered, she looked at the man holding the sword and said…

“The Dragon Kingdom?” even in such a small voice of conveying her message, everyone still heard Princess Lang’s words, they turned to her direction, realization striking their features.

Even the men in black would not be able to hide their shock if one would look closely into their eyes not covered by their black clothing, as they widened, a crucial information, their companion carelessly spat out.

“Y-your highness… W-we can-“ the leader of the group wasn’t able to finish what he wanted to say as a chuckle came from the body lying on the ground on his own pool of blood.

A sudden force, invisible to the naked eye, sprang out from Ken’s body and assaulted the men in black, holding them in the air as they choke in their breath.

Ken slowly rose from his lying position, propping one limb from the other, in order to create the desired effect, revealing his front where his blood had stained everything in front of him, including his face.

Painting a viciously scary scene of someone rising from the dead, he opened his eyes, revealing crimson red irises with specks of black at the center, Ken chuckled in delight, but the sound only served to chill down the people around him.

Even Ken’s friends and masters were not spared of the chill down their spine, as they felt their body going numb, unwilling to move, their hands and feet running cold, rooting them on the spot.

Of course their assailants were in a similar situation as well, as they found it difficult to remain standing, they were in large numbers, in order to help out when necessary if their hostages decided to retaliate.

But such a situation didn’t fare them well as some of them were lying on their asses, cold sweat running down their forehead.

Ken fully stood up, looking straight at the man holding his scythe. He held out his hand, blood flowed out from his hand and even the blood on the ground rose in height and propel forth to the man.

In panic he wasn’t able to anything as the blood engulfed him within seconds, his cries for help, muffled, the blood forming a sphere of bright red, then slowly turned dark.

The man gurgled out a muffled scream of agony, further frightening everyone in the vicinity. The sphere of blood popped, revealing the man whose face was deformed, missing an eye, a part of his mouth, revealing a part of his skull, even some of his bones on his limbs were visible.

The man started walking towards the other man in black closest to him, a sound reminisce that of a zombie belt out from him.

“Who’s next?” said Ken, lightly glancing at the other men in black around him, with that sadistic smile. Everyone was thrown into chaos as they all tried to flee from the ‘monster’ who ‘killed’ their leader.

Ken chuckled to himself thinking how fun it was to mess with this people. In a gripping motion of his hand, all the men in black, lifted into the air and dragged toward their location.

Fright evident on their faces as some screamed for their life, a person clutched his head in a protecting stance, in an attempt to shut out everything around him, and let this nightmare end.

Ken’s smile widened, while his friends at the side, had black lines crossing their face, as they know, that with the seal gone, they could sense that what Ken was doing, was just messing with the brains of their assailants.

Ken was just using illusion magic, but damn, the use of such magic in such a fashion was overkill, it almost felt like it was real if no one would pay attention in closer detail, but no, no one would try to pay attention if they’re in such a situation.

Look at all these men, screaming. The group wanted to sigh, but if they were going to interrupt Ken, then surely, they would also be dealt the same way by him, they all recognized this as Ken, pissed off, and in no circumstance are you to try and stop him.

The adults… -except for Ulysses and Lana- were confused. Screams continued to reverberate on the field.

-Thirty minutes later-

A total forty seven men in black were held in ropes, in groups of four, Ken checking to see if one of them had escaped, but so far, all men in black were all here.

“Great, it’s all done, now to send them off. It’s a shame really, I thought they had a fighting chance against me.” Ken draw a magic circle below them on the ground with nothing but his magic, and was prepared to fling all forty seven Dragon soldiers into the air towards the south border.

Since… that was the direction they saw them coming, and to see whether these Dragon soldiers were able to fly, don’t mind him, since he’s thinking that Dragons are flying reptiles, surely they would be able to fly.

Awhile ago Ken had already cleaned out the fake blood on his body, healed his wound, and fixed his clothes, while he instructed the others to help him in tying up those he had captured, fortunately, the first one he had captured was the leader of their assailants.

Sleeping soundly in mid-air, the group had quickly gone to work, but another was still bothered.

“Wait!” said by someone behind him, Ken turned around and saw Princess Lang looking towards him, with an unreadable expression. She slowly walked towards Ken.

The others just stared, all of them cleaned up and had nothing else to do.

“About the artifact, what were my people talking about?” she said, Ken exclaimed an ‘oh’, turned to the tied up men, then to his scythe strapped on his back, he then faced the princess.

“I think this conversation is going to be long, so you might wanna sit this one first.” He said, the princess wanted to know the answer to her question here and now, but she also knows that if she were to push for her agenda right now, it would be rude.

She could comply to what Ken said, and walked back to their group. She turned around abruptly and said…

“What are you going to do to my people?” Ken smiled to her.

“Make them fly in the air.” Ken snapped his fingers and off the Dragon soldiers blasted into the air, the rest did not think of such a way Ken would treat those Dragon soldiers, and could not help but gape unconsciously.

“You guys might want to close your mouths, a fly might enter by.” said Ken, bounding towards the direction of their table, smiling coyly at them, but his line of sight was looking forward.

They all but felt their face heating up, but to those who were good at hiding their emotion, didn’t really show up on their face, mainly Allen, Saber, Ulysses, and Harth, the cute tinge of pink was still visible though.

They each quickly caught up to Ken, Lunch was rolling around, and of course, they were either excited or aggrieved of who was Ken going to ask to help him in preparing lunch for everyone, it’s Monday, and that’s what he always do on Mondays.

Man, getting to deal with people’s other agendas on a Monday is such a hassle, Ken thought.