Before Jenna, stood a young and handsome man in knight armor. His cascading gold hair shimmered with brilliant light, his brownish gold eyes, staring at her. Her soul.
Then he asked:
"Are you hurt?"
Jenna blinked twice before regaining her mind. She wasn't taken aback by his appearance, rather the situation before her. Composing herself, she turned and stared at the rest of the students, they weren't hurt. Then she turned to him, and replied:
"No, we are not. Thanks to you?"
The young man's expression changed to a displeased one, as those weren't the words he wanted to hear, but it would have to do. He walked into the barrier like he was the owner of it, making everyone shocked.
"W-Who are you?" Jenna stuttered in shock, but kept her expression unchanged.
The man in the armor didn't answer straight away. Instead he walked around her, inspecting her armor, as they looked intriguing to him. He did it unconsciously, but it had already begun making Jenna feel uncomfortable.
"Excuse you!" Jenna proclaimed, as she moved away from the knight.
"Oh, apologies. I got carried away. Hehe."
Jenna was bewildered. She didn't know who this person was, or how they had the mind to chuckle in the situation they were in at the moment. Although, his appearance said otherwise.
"I asked who you are?"
With a forceful expression, Jenna stared at him and suddenly he looked back at her with an even more determined expression.
"We are…"
At this point, all the monsters that had surrounded them had all perished, turning into ash.
"We are…"
Then, suddenly four figures landed in front of the students, with one hand and knee on the ground, while the other was in the air, as if landing like a superhero.
"We are… knights!"
The four figures stood up, and entered the barrier just the same way the first knight did.
Among the four were two females and two male. Their cascading armor beamed with light of otherworldliness. Adding the first knight making them five in total.
"Knights?" Phillip uttered.
"Yes. And we have come to get you out of here."
"Get us out of here? What do you mean by that?"
Jenna stared at the young handsome man before her. He had a steady and straight expression. There was no sign of one who was frightened by the monster whatsoever. Rather, he held a sense of confidence, and authority.
"Just exactly as I said!" he responded, not giving meaning to her words.
This made Jenna a bit uneasy, as he moved her sword from her right to her left hand and pointed at him.
"I don't know who you are, Mr. But I can't just do what a random person tells me to do."
The young man was taken aback, as both of his hands were raised up as if he was surrendering, although he didn't look as if he was threatened.
The knight's lips curled into a smile, as he stared deep into Jenn's eyes. There, he saw determination, and at the same time, fear.
He looked at the rest of the students and saw fear and confusion in their eyes. Then he began:
"You are right." He placed his hands down. " I think I didn't start well. My name is Reynold Bichek Arnan, but you can call me Reynold. And these are my fellow comrades; Elysia, Echidna, Alon and Natsu. We are the knights of Luminastra."
While calling out their names, he pointed at each one of four knights, as they gestured with pleasure.
"I am going to keep this short before we are surrounded by more Echoes, but-"
"Echoes?"
Jenna asked, as she cut his sentence short, while she brought down her sword.
"Yes, that's why I said." Reynold replied.
"Do you mean these creatures?" Phillip added, and Reynold responded.
"Exactly. That's what they are called… Echoes."
Phillip turned to Jenna as both stared at each other, bewildered. They didn't have the slightest idea that the creatures had a name, and with this information it hit one of them.
In Jenna's thought:
'If these guys know what those monsters are called, then they also know what the hell is happening here.'
"Can you tell us more about this mon- I mean Echoes?" She asked, staring at Reynold with curiosity.
"Like I said I would make this short, but here you go. These creatures that you see are called Echoes. And I'm sure by now you would have noticed how they are born. When a person is bitten by one of them, such a person would either die, or instantly turn into another Echos, under the rage of two minutes."
"Two minutes?!"
"Yes. And they are not so easy to kill. As of now I would say that you have zero chances of winning this battle. Your only chance is to come with us."
Jenna frowned as she heard these words again.
"Are you saying that we should abandon our home just because you say so?"
At this point, the rest of the students began murmuring in reaction to what Reynold had just said.
"Like I said, there is nothing you can do. At the stage you are now, you don't have enough powers to fight them all. You will only die if you get out there. And I am not letting that happen."
"So you are saying that we should go with you because, What? You think we are weak?" Jenna proclaimed. "Hmph, who do you think you are?"
At this point, Jenna didn't know how to react, there was a situation before her that she didn't know if she could come out from it alive, but now she had not been presented with one, she wasn't just going to accept it right away, especially not from a stranger.
However, what other choice does she have?
"Look, I am not saying that you would abandon your home. What I am saying is that when you are a lot stronger, you could come back and reclaim it. Moreover, it is not as if you are actually leaving your world, since the place we are going to is already attached to this world.
"What do you mean?" Jenna asked her pupils folded in suspicion.
"I will explain some other time, right now we have to get going before we get surrounded by more Echoes."
Reynold turned to his comrades and nodded for them to do something.
..
At the same time, Hitori who saw the strange figures that entered the barrier, had no idea who they were. He witnessed how the four knights were able to kill so many Echoes, as it was like he was watching heroes fight in a comic book.
"Who are they?"
At the time when they had finished with the nearby monsters and entered the barrier, Hitori knew he had been given a chance. The space was clear for the most part, and he could make his way to his friends.
Although not all the monsters were killed by the four knights since there were over ten thousand of them. However, it was the ones that were surrounding the barrier which were the ones that met their faith in the blade of the four knights.
"I have to know who those people were, and where they came from."
Hitori, who was outside of the barrier, was the only one who knew how the knights appeared… from another space. Without hesitation, he picked up the pace, and he ran towards the barrier.
..
Back with the students.
Reynold nodded to his head, and then two of his comrades, Elysia and Alon stretched their hands, and began rotating it. Suddenly, a bright light began forming in the space, and the more they rotated their hands, the more it grew stronger, and stronger before finally turning into a big space-like portal.
The students were bewildered to see what they wouldn't have normally seen in their entire lives.
"Is this real?"
The portal emitted a radiant flow that looked otherworldly.
"Is this also a power?"
Reynold turned to Jenna and gestured for her to take the first step, when suddenly a voice called out.
"Wait!"
The voice suddenly caught everyone's attention, and they all turned to the direction of where it came from. In the distance, a figure was moving abnormally like it was about to fall, but still kept its balance.
"Is that…?" Phillip squinted his eyes, and couldn't believe it.
"I…It can't be!" Jenna stuttered, as saw the figure come clear to her gaze.
"Do you know that person?" Reynold asked, with a curious expression on his face as if something was wrong.
"Yes. I do. It is…"
The figure finally became clear to their vision, and in sync, both Phillip and Uvenna called out:
"Hitori!"