[You have gained 3 exp]
Kai woke up and was pleasantly surprised by what he saw.
He got three exp instead of two.
Roughly ten more exp and he'd completed the quest.
Outside, the sky is still dark.
He set his mind to wake up an hour after using the Deep Slumber, and it's working.
Now he was sure time didn't really have any hold within the House of Night. Even if he trained endlessly for days in the House of Night once he met with Noxian, he would still wake up as his mind willed it.
It's like having a mental alarm that would always wake him up on time.
Kai groaned as he sat up, feeling stiff and sore from sleeping on the rough ground. He walked out of his cave and saw that the outside was dark. There are several students who were still awake and on guard.
Both guards guarding the resource cave, for example, are still there.
Near the water trench, he saw Matilda.
She was talking with two other students who were on well-geared and looked rough.
Not that they were wounded, but dirty instead.
Scouts. And surprisingly enough, Matilda seemed to be gesturing for them to rest, and she took over scouting the perimeter. "She's not only strong, but she's also dedicated as a leader. That bully, Rakha, will never compare to her," Kai sneered.
He walked outside and stretched before heading back into the forest.
It's time to train as usual.
Kai grabbed the bow and arrows from his hidden stash and walked a bit further away until he found a small clearing. He then tried copying how Matilda moves, putting his weight into each attack, focusing on pivoting his feet before attacking, even trying to make an attack from impossible angles as she did.
Once again, a stick is his weapon, and a tree trunk is his target.
For the next hour, he kept on training.
His hope was that if he did the movements enough, his body would remember them.
Then, he took a break and took the bow and arrow.
"I've never used a bow before. I've seen target archery on mutube before, and it looked easy enough," Kai loaded an arrow, pulled the string until it touched his chin and lips, and then closed one eye.
With a deep inhale to steady his hands, he aimed at the tree trunk and fired.
It missed.
Embarrassingly far from the mark.
"Yeah, I really need a knife or a dagger," Kai shook his head, knowing that mastering the art of the bow would take time. "Should I try sneaking into the equipment cave? I can easily get in there with the Nigh-Pha—"
"Raaaghkk!"
Kai snapped his gaze to the side when he heard a roar.
A distant roar that he assumed to be coming from an animal.
But he soon realized that it wasn't an animal when he now heard more painful shrieks.
And it was coming from the base's direction.
Kai discarded the bow, grabbed two arrows, and snapped them in half with his knee. The broken shaft became crude hand weapons, the only thing he was confident in using to fight.
He then ran.
Bushes tore at his arms as he charged through them. Not slowing down. Not checking behind. As he got closer to the base, the commotion swelled, forcing him to push even harder.
If everything were as Matilda said, the other teams should still be preparing.
Locating the mine or the Awakened Monster.
But since the other team was now here, she must be wrong in her calculations.
Kai crouched and peered from behind a tree. Ahead, he saw his team was desperately fighting off the invaders. Most of the enemies used the forest as cover and rained arrows on the unsuspecting students.
Only two people wearing a dirty gold armband engaged in a close-combat.
One is a well-built man with short, messy black hair. He was attacking alongside three man-sized shadow dogs made entirely of mana. His coordination with the dogs was impeccable as he overwhelmed Team Crius.
As for the other one, he has long, murky blue hair that reaches his lower back. Armored bone capped his knuckles and protruded from his elbows. He was missing an arm. It was severed cleanly, but that didn't have any effect on him.
His other arm was strong enough to block a slash from a grade 0 enchanted sword.
One that the guards guarding the resource cave have.
Rakha and a few others were putting up a fight, but there was no sign of Matilda.
I should help.
He stared at the enemies slaughtering his team without mercy.
One begged for mercy, but got his throat ripped out as he choked on his own blood.
Hesitate, and I'll die. I can't shy away.
Kai gripped the shafts in his hands tighter and cast the Nigh-Phantom.
His mana was full, so this was the perfect moment for him.
Like a moving shadow, he sneaked closer to the enemies behind the tree lines. Even as he stepped through the bushes and made a sound, none of them turned. Kai could get close enough to know that there were only five of them.
And one is out of position.
"Hah, this is going to be fucking easy," the student cackled as he fired another arrow at the guard who had his back turned. It pierced into the shoulder, allowing one dog to get close and bite his arm. "Going on the offensive is the right thing to do, exactly as Lion said."
Just as he drew the bow string again, a cold shiver ran down his spine.
He felt something cold touching his throat, and before he realized, it punched through.
The arrowhead burst out the other side, slick and red. His body locked up. His eyes went wide, throbbing, and craned back. A pair of eyes stared into the side of his face from behind like a ghost appearing out of thin air.
Nothing else.
Just eyes in the dark.
Blood poured from his mouth.
He tried to scream and alert the others, but a hand clamped down over his lips. Kai dragged him backward into the shadow while muffling his scream. Nobody realized that one of them was taken out.
[You fed the House of Night with a low rating divine blood (Grade 0 Awakened Supernal)]
[Gained 8 exp]
Kai feeds the student to the House of Night.
He did it while the student was still alive, and as expected, he got more exp for it.
Only a small bloodstain was left behind, but the body disappeared.
One more and I can complete the quest.
Kai fixated his eyes on another target. This student was closer to two others, but she stood further behind. He thought she was too focused on the moment to realize that the others had already five steps ahead of her.
But he soon realized it was deliberate.
Her aim with the bow was impeccable, while the others needed to get closer.
Unlike the first one, the student managed to sense the killing intent and leaned to the side, narrowly avoiding the arrowhead heading for her throat. But even so, Kai was ready as he stabbed the arrowhead into her thigh and quickly covered her mouth.
He put her in a chokehold and pulled her away without alerting the others.
Instead of killing her instantly, Kai dragged her further away.
She struggled, but twisting the arrow in her thigh made her squeal.
And when he was satisfied with the distance from the battle, he slammed her against a tree. The second arrowhead drove into her chest, right below the collarbone, pinning her to the trunk. She had to stand. She had no choice.
"Do you even call yourself a man?" Blood leaked from her mask. "How can you even think of stabbing a woman from behind? Scared that you'd lose?"
Kai's body shook with anger.
He approached her slowly and grabbed a handful of her hair, forcing her to look into his eyes. "How did you know where our base was?" He asked. "Answer this, and I'll not kill you. If not, then you'll die as your friend did."
No sign of answering can be seen on her face.
Her lips were sealed tight.
Kai grabbed the shaft that was stabbing into her chest and twisted it slowly.
He saw how Matilda tortured the scout, so he knew what to do.
Pain punched through her. She gritted her teeth and hissed through them. For a short second, Kai could see the human in her, the kind of normalcy behind her watery eyes as she fought through the pain, refusing to let him see her break.
But that normalcy was gone a second later, replaced by a feral defiance.
"Just answer the question." His voice was flat. Patient. "It's not like you'd lose anything by answering my question."
"How do you think?" the student forced a smirk.
Hard lines appeared on Kai's forehead as he tried to read her eyes behind the mask.
"Shouldn't it be obvious by now?" She sneered at him like he was slow. If he thought about the situation hard enough, the answer should be obvious. "It's your leader. She sold your team out."
She watched as clarity reached his eyes as the information sank in.
"What…?" Kai's eyes widened in surprise. "Matilda did? What for?"
"In exchange for being accepted into our team, of course," She chuckled. "Guess she's not confident in your team. And we don't mind having another High Angel in our ranks. It'll make the rite easier."
At that moment, Kai's eyes flashed in realization.
He recalled how the scout managed to escape Matilda.
And then her hesitation as she answered his question, before finally attacking him.
Matilda was deliberating whether Team Crius could win the rite or not. She must have gotten more information from the scout that she withheld and compared it to the team. She did not like the odds, so she changed sides.
It was as simple as that.
Her sudden attack… Is she testing me? Tch.
Kai failed her test miserably, and that was the last push she needed to flip.
Everything started to make sense.
Team Coeus must have more than one High Angel. It's highly likely that those two earlier were High Angels. That means, at the very least, they have two High Angels. And now with Matilda on their side, they have three.
Just that fact alone made it clear that Team Crius was now doomed.
She's the logical one here.
Kai didn't know what implications abandoning the team would bring, but surviving is the utmost important right now. He also needed to change sides. If there's a slot for him, then he needs to be in Team Coeus.
"Tell you what, if you let me in your te—"
"Over here!"
Swish—!
Before Kai could react, an arrow pierced through his back.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw two enemies were onto him.
"You're fucked now, pussy," the student cursed.
Kai gritted his teeth and slapped the girl one last time for not even hearing him out, and then made a run for it. His Nigh-Phantom was still active, but it seemed Team Crius had already fallen, so they could now see him.
A few steps away, Kai looked over his shoulder and saw a familiar face.
Matilda emerged, and the sight of her made his heart pound hard against his chest.
I'm in trouble!