Three dead, one building burning to rubble, and our wall is breached.
My fists clench as I think of the destruction wrought by that supposed “trader.” Clearly, he was something far more than he claimed, and we unknowingly brought the devil straight into our outpost.
I kneel beside a blackened, still burning space inside the outpost. Two curved scimitars lie beside the scorch marks, the metal warped and ruined from intense heat.
“Well fought, Enzo,” I whisper.
Then I stand, composing my face as I turn and look at the rest of the outpost. “Ferrus and Tusker are tracking the ‘trader’. The rest of us need to repair that breach to our wall as quickly as possible. I want it stronger than it was before.”
At first, nobody moves. They wear the shock and disbelief plainly on their faces. Honestly, I can’t say I blame them, but I also can’t admit that.
“Sir?” Norman asks. “What was that thing? It burned Enzo like he was nothing. I don’t—”
“It was a threat,” I say. “Whatever it was, we aren’t ready to face it. That’s why Ferrus and Tusker have strict orders not to engage the trader. If that was his power, then we need to know exactly where he is at all times. We’ll keep watch on him.”
“What if he comes back?” someone asks.
“Then we’ll evacuate,” I say, the words tasting bitter on my tongue. “The fanatics likely won’t bother trying to hold the outpost they destroyed to the west. If we have to, we’ll escape there and take command of it. At worst, they’ll have left behind a weaker force to defend, and that is a threat we can handle. Any more questions?” I ask, sweeping my eyes over the inhabitants of my outpost.
When nobody speaks, I turn and head for the front gates.
Aerus approaches me once I’m alone, kneeling beside the corpse of the poor girl who was burnt out of her tower. There’s hardly anything left but a few charred bones and her sphere.
“Three more spheres,” Aerus says. He’s a short man with a large, puffy beard and thick brows. He fights with bare fists and his power amplifies his strikes. It’s impressive, but the man himself is too volatile to trust with much responsibility, even if he’s constantly begging for it.
“All ‘F’ rank,” I say, scooping it from the ashes of her body and brushing it clean. “We’ve already used all the ‘F’ rank slots in our disc. For now, these are useless. Find someplace to store them,” I say, handing it over to Aerus, who nods and takes the sphere inside.
I stay there for a while, eyes fixed on the darkness beyond our outpost. I know I can’t stare for too long, though. The darkness and the quiet has a way of playing tricks on my mind. Of convincing me I see my brother, Bolton. I close my eyes, banishing the thought of him. It’s too painful to imagine he’s really here, and yet I know I believe exactly that. Somewhere, Bolton is out there, and he’ll need the safety and security of what I’m building here.
For him.
I stand with a sigh, wishing those idiots had never brought the S+ trader inside our walls. All I can hope is he has no interest in us. That demon of his could’ve killed every last soul in our outpost, but for some reason, it didn’t.
With a shiver, I head back in the walls. For now, all I can do is wait on Ferrus and Tusker’s scouting report.