The Trail of Secrets & Blood 2

The flushing sound of a river could be heard in the distance along with the cheerful and melodic chirp of various birds hanging atop the verdant willows.

On the rocky path that seemed to be man-made but also like no one had passed through it in the last years, four figures trekked while the air was gushing out of their throats.

“Lugha jungle…what a weird and distant place to choose to build a tiny settlement.”, Bruni said while sweat was dripping from his forehead toward his eyes.

“I wouldn’t agree with you on this. Maybe the Dweller higher-ups got a sniff of the Roqnir temple nearby and decided to approach it in mystique…”

“And that is probably why we won’t encounter any large prey…probably.”, Reio added to Logan’s sentence just before he finished it.

Maeve was starting to fall behind while the others were speaking about the aspects of their mission and she called out to them in a complaining voice.

“Oiii, wait for me! You know how much I can’t stand the heaaat.”

“Then why don’t you cool yourself a bit Maeve?”, Bruni answered without turning back to look at her while waving his right hand as if he tried to skip her last remark.

“That’s not the proper way to use my powers! I also want to keep my strength for the fight…”, Maeve answered slightly annoyed after dropping her head down.

Then, as Aimil noticed her struggle, she slowed down her pace to match Maeve’s.

“Ms. Howler look, we can see some piled-up rocks at the end of this path, we must be near the settlement!”, she spoke to her in a soothing voice.

“That’s good! I’ll get to use my Quartz [ice manipulation] then soon! Eh, I mean…, there’s gotta be some shade there to lie down without the sun’s rays reaching us, right?”, Maeve said while putting her hand behind her head after making a seemingly innocent expression.

“Girls, don’t get left behind! Let’s take this opportunity for the whole squad to be together!”, Bruni shouted in Maeve’s and Aimil’s direction.

“Can’t we have a little privacy here, us ladies?”

“What do you need it for, to make some girl talk?”

“What does it matter to you, Bruni??”

Aimil was standing in between Maeve and Bruni while cold sweat was forming on her face with an expression as if she wanted to dodge that conversation.

Suddenly, Reio stepped in and broke their goofy talk.

“Shhh, I think I can hear something.”

“We should be near the settlement so let’s be prepared for battle.”, Logan added to Reio’s prudent and low-volume comment.

Reio moved his hand in a way to signal everyone to walk slowly and quietly near him.

“That’s the first camp right there. I’ll make an iron staircase for Bruni to climb and then pour some lava on them. That should do the trick for a surprise attack, now that we’ve got the chance to do it.”

“Okay, so I and Logan should charge at the other ones that will unavoidably pop up then. Aimil, back us up if anyone comes from behind or flank.”, Maeve added in a serious tone like her previous teasing attitude never existed.

“Hehe! I’ll stay atop the ladder and watch from that height the Dweller positions before I’ll join you then. Let’s go people, team Evanescent Trail for the win!”

Reio agreed to Bruni’s last words and immediately put his Pyrope [steel manipulation] onto his supporting gear on a shoulder patch.

After that, he opened his palms, and steel bars formed out of nowhere and got placed together in a shape of a staircase while long iron bars kept them from underneath to prevent their fall.

Everyone followed suit and put their gemstones onto their corresponding supporting gear places and got ready for battle. Logan alongside his gemstone put on a dark cloak that covered his face enough to reach his eyes.

“Go break a leg Bruni!”, Maeve whispered as he started tipping his way toward the end of the metal staircase.

When he reached the top he could see underneath him a camp with several Dwellers lying around it and then two others further away from him. After that, he faced the rest of his colleagues and made the numbers 2 and 9 with his hands.

“Alright, Logan should better take care of the ones up front since he is the right man for the job, and Maeve and Aimil come with me to flank the others on our left.”, Reio whispered while signaling Maeve and Aimil to move with him.

“Right. This shouldn’t take us much time. So, let’s take care of them and go return for our exotic vacation.”, Logan said in a serious tone, despite the content of his words.

“Be careful out there, don’t overextend if you are not sure. We are all here for a reason!”, Aimil said in a worrying but sympathetic voice.

At that moment, Logan, Maeve, and Aimil followed a left path that Aimil started making by pushing the bushes’ leaves aside, and after Bruni noticed them, he started flowing with magma the Dweller's entire camp.

“GO!”, Bruni shouted and in a blink of an eye, everyone dispersed in their initial direction.

An electric current could be seen in Logan’s previous position as he reached in an instant the Dwellers that were lurking behind some trees at the point Bruni showed out before.

He then smashed his fist on the ground and plasma struck the Regretters and Revengers that were unfortunate enough to be there. The azure light unveiled for a brief second the look on his face despite the hood that covered it.

Immediately after that, he noticed a few more Dwellers throwing some dark spheres toward him and dodged them fast, and in mere seconds he approached them again and clapped his hands before a fierce plasma bolt completely vanished them from sight.

“That should do it for now.”

At that moment, a lava wave blocked a soundwave ready to strike Logan and Bruni showed up behind him while throwing a lava arrow toward the Regretter that was responsible for the attack.

“Don’t forget the enemies on the sides. Is this hoody really helping you?”

“I was aware of it. And I am fast enough to dodge anything anyway. But thank you, regardless.”

“Haha, no worries, just don’t blush for me.”

“Ahhh…”, Logan exaggeratedly exhaled.

Both of them then run toward Maeve’s, Reio’s, and Aimil’s position, while noticing several ice pillars forming some meters away from them.

“She must be really enjoying this…”

“I heard from Bahia that she was mainly going for scout missions lately. So this might be a heavenly gift for her.”

After they closed in, they could hear the sound of ice crushing in the surrounding area along with some near-hysterical laughs.

“HAHA! This is it!”, Maeve shouted as she threw ice-made daggers at the Dwellers before her and formed ice pillars from the ground to disrupt others at her sides while marching her way to a horde of them.

Reio tried to support her march from behind making her steel bars to use for a foothold and throwing metal nails at any enemy trying to get close to her.

Alongside him, Aimil conjured vines that either smashed any Dweller in front of her or slapped at another that tried to make its way toward Maeve.

“Be more careful, ms. Howler please!”

“I-have-told-you…You can use my FIRST NAME!”, Maeve answered while simultaneously raising her voice in coordination with her attacks that crushed the Dwellers.

Bruni gazed at her from behind and then turned to Logan with a mischievous look on his face as he extended his hand like offering dance to a lady.

“This seems fun! Shall we?”

Logan covered his face completely with his hood and vanished immediately toward the Dweller horde standing before Maeve’s eyes.

This is a side story featuring the main cast from my work-in-progress novel, "In The Ashes of Forgiveness", originally published on Medium.

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