The students were starting to leave the room one by one. It was their day off and they didn’t want to hang around in the assemble hall any longer than they needed to. Most of them were leaving with smiles on their faces, excited for the upcoming event.
With Jack mentioning and informing the students of his plans to be at the Inter military base event. They were now eager to impress him, and wanted to start practising right away. If Jack was to over them an invitation to join his family it would be a shortcut to the top.
Usually, unless one was extremely talented they would have to build a reputation for themselves from their own factions and work there way up. Nearly everyone, who wished to become a traveller had a goal of joining the big four.
Even if you created your own faction, it was beneficial to work under one of the big four, for protection from the others.
However, not all the students had smiling faces as they left the hall, there were some who didn’t feel the same way.
“Hey, would you move,” A student said as he accidentally bumped into Quinn on his way out.
“What was wrong with that guy?” Another student said.
Not moving from his spot, Quinn hadn’t moved but he wasn’t the only one who had remained motionless. After hearing the final name that had been called out, the whole group was shocked at what they had heard. For the final name was Erin.
As Logan waited outside he realised the others hadn’t come out with him, so he took a bite of his sandwich, before he said, “Guys, come on, we need to start our plan straight away. I know this is a shock, but that doesn’t stop us from the original plan, instead of saving one, now we just need to save two.”
With Logan’s words, the group quickly snapped out of it, and started to make their way out of the assembly hall with everyone else. Worrying about it or thinking why Erin was chosen wasn’t going to do them any good. The more time wasted, the less likely the plan would work.
The students who had been called all had gone to the front of the stage, wondering what was going on. Peter was also upfront, but his expression hadn’t changed much. He was informed of what was going to happen, and wasn’t worried about it, he trusted his master, Quinn.
He would just do everything his master had told him to do, and everything would work out fine.
Erin, on the other hand, was panicking, her whole head was slightly swirling. ‘They picked, me but why? Aren’t I one of the top students? They would never pick a student as good as me right?’ She thought to herself.
But the realisation had hit her, and her mask was starting to crumble away. The thoughts and memories she had kept within were starting to surface.
A few days ago, inside the second years head office, Duke had been given a bunch of files that matched the criteria they were looking for. That’s when they stumbled upon Erin’s file.
“Now this is interesting.” He said. Erin was a level five student, and she also had quite an expensive ability too. She wasn’t an original but the ice element ability was expensive to get a hold of, especially at level five so Duke wondered why she had been selected.
After reading the file everything started to make sense. Her family worked under one of the big four, and they had established a shelter on one of the orange portal planets. Because of the risk involved, the family had paid them well and had gained quite the status.
A few years had gone by and it looked like the exploration of the planet was nearly over. It was the main task that had been given to her family. They had done a good job getting rid of the few advanced tier beast that lived on the place.
Erin was eventually sent back to earth to finish her normal school education. She went to a good private school as her parents could afford it, and even bought her a strong ability, it was an opportunity which they never had.
The exploration of the planet had been completed, and Erin had gone back over the summer to celebrate with her parents. At last, they had moved up high enough in the family’s ranks to obtain a place back on earth.
But on that fated day a Dalki ship had invaded the planet, the Dalki came and attacked. Seeing her family and friends raise up their weapons to fight, she wanted to help too. But before she could even join in the fight her father had stopped her.
“No Erin, you are not strong enough yet, now get out of here!” He screamed.
“But I can help!” Erin cried. “Just let me help you!”
“Look, I didn’t want to say this, but you’re weak. You will only get in our way!”
And at that moment, she witnessed her father being stabbed through the chest. As she stood there frozen, an old friend of her fathers managed to grab her and run away.
Her family did their best to protect all the civilians on the planet and even other factions that they once squabbled with over territory had come to help, but it wasn’t enough, and all they could do was wait for help to arrive. At this point, nearly everybody that could fight had died. All of this havoc had been created by only two Dalki. However, the defenders had managed to kill one of them, but the other still remained alive.
The remaining Dalki had set its eyes on the emergency shelter, but just as it was about to attack, help had arrived. A female dressed in pure sparkling white came through the portal, and Erin saw her pass by. She fought against the Dalki on her own and was able to go toe to toe with it. The swordsmanship that had been displayed was light and silent. It was as if her feet never even touched the floor.
She would continuously parry the Dalki’s attacks while dishing out attacks of her own in between, until eventually, she defeated it, and the Dalki had died.
Erin cried a lot that day, her tears wouldn’t stop coming, she cried for all the people that had been lost. The women who had defeated the Dalki walked up to Erin, but unlike what the others thought should be said to a child, she didn’t give any words of comfort to Erin, but only gave her the harsh truth.
“If you never want to see your family or friends die again, then you have to become stronger. You have to be the best, so nobody can take anything away from you. Because your tears won’t bring your family and friends back.”
And that was the last time Erin had seen her family or the strange female warrior.
She had been selected because she no longer had the backing her family once had. With everyone gone she had been sent a token gesture of money from one of the big four, just enough for her to live off of for the rest of her life, but the political protection their family had was now gone.
But what was the use? Money couldn’t bring back the dead. The only thing that remained in her mind from that day were the words spoken to her by that strange woman. She would become the best!
Erin had chosen to live by those words that day and whenever she felt tired or wanted to give up, that same memory would come back to her. She needed proof that what she was doing was working.
She thought she had gotten better but the day they had met the Dalki once again, she had frozen in place and the only thing she could do was run.
Right now though, she was being led together with the others to a certain room, everything she had worked for up to this point, was all going to be taken away.
Following closely behind the row of students, was the mechanical spider Logan had sent after them. Right now Logan had returned to his room and he was monitoring the direction of the spider. He could see where they were heading and would be able to inform the others of what needed to be done.
He was also looking at a 3D map of the whole school. On it, there were several different indicators, each one being a different person from their group. The spider and Peter were different colours for clarity’s sake.
“Okay, Fex. It looks like they’re heading for one of the meeting rooms located on the second floor on the west side. Layla, you stay close behind him. Once you turn and reach the end of the corridor stay, and wait in position. The two guards are sticking to Jack like glue.
“When Quinn and Vorden are ready, and I give the command then you guys will move out. Understood everyone?”
“Understood.” They replied.
Jack had entered the meeting room, and the eight students were following him in, one by one they entered the room. One of his guards had also entered the room with them while the other stayed outside, standing guard at the door.
Quinn and Vorden were at one side of the corridor, while Fex and Layla were at the other side patiently waiting for Logan’s order.
‘Alright Raten,” Vorden said. ‘Looks like you’re up.’
****
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