Chapter Five: Storm Wolves

“Loran…”

His voice trembled a little, perhaps from the cold.

Avril looked at him with her beautiful eyes and said, “Get a good night’s rest.”

Then she said nothing more, simply hugging her knees with both arms, sitting quietly in a corner of the fence, her back to the bars, her gaze continually sweeping over the group of children.

Loran also sat quietly in a corner. He gradually understood what Avril was trying to do: she was observing, looking for allies. Only children with enough strength and courage could possibly help her escape. Although the chances were slim—Gray was a great knight, his formidable strength obvious, and his servants radiated Star Source power, at least first-tier practitioners—ordinary people had no way to resist.

Among this group of children, Loran felt Star Source fluctuations only from Avril, and they were strong—seemingly at least at a second-tier level. Yet she had obvious wounds on her arms and neck; she must have been captured by Gray after resisting and paid a painful price.

…

Late at night.

Only the biting cold wind swept over the bamboo grove; strands of icy air passed through the bamboo slats and blew on the children, making them shiver. Many of the children were already huddled together for warmth, or someone would freeze to death.

At some point, when Loran opened his eyes, Avril was sitting beside him, leaning against him.

“You—”

He was astonished.

Avril’s beautiful eyes were nonetheless filled with calm; in a very low voice she said, “If you don’t want to freeze to death, hold me tight.”

“Oh…”

Loran opened his arms and pulled Avril into his embrace, but his heart was full of complicated feelings. This hug felt exactly like the embrace before death—a mutual support between two weaklings, and at the same time, a mutual use of one another.

He didn’t know how long had passed when suddenly a cacophony rose from the distance, even cries and screams from people could be heard—

“Not good, beasts are appearing—quick, organize a defense! Knights, take up your longswords!”

“Damn it, weren’t the beasts suppressed between the northern mountain ranges? How could they appear in imperial territory?”

…

“What, beasts have appeared?”

A group of children all woke up. Loran also raised his head, then glanced into his arms and saw Avril had opened her eyes. There wasn’t a trace of panic in her lovely eyes; on the contrary, she seemed to regard the appearance of the beast as an opportunity.

“Damn it!”

Gray suddenly stepped out of the tent, drew his sharp sword with a clanging sound as intense star-source energy surged through him, and said, “Servants, guard the captives well. I’ll go see what kind of beast dares attack the Light Knights’ camp!”

“Yes, my lord!”

However, not far away, a low roar suddenly erupted, and under the moonlight a beast the size of a person appeared—like a gigantic wolf with blue fur. Viscous saliva dripped from its fangs, and a greedy, ghostly gleam shone in its eyes. Its fur bristled, and an alluring aura clung to its claws. With a sudden low roar it leapt forward at incredible speed; with a single snap it sank its teeth in and tore off the head and shoulders of one of Tuka’s servants!

“Beast!”

Tuka let out a fierce shout, spurred his horse forward and raised his sword. With practiced ease he cleaved once; Starforce surged from his palm into the blade, becoming a biting tempest. He gave a low roar: “Storm Slash!”

“Boom!”

The Storm Slash struck the giant wolf, but it only seemed to hit fur. In the next instant the wolf howled, its claws raking across Tuka’s pauldron with a “whack,” sending man and horse tumbling and rolling into the bamboo grove, a thoroughly awkward fall. The power of that swipe was terrifying— even the great knight Tuka was knocked flying by a single blow.

“Dammit!”

Gray rode up, letting out a low roar. His left hand exploded with star-source power, surging through his whole body without end as he cried, “Blessing of the Gods!”

Blessing of the Gods, a combat technique of the Order of Light knights that uses Starlight energy to make the body more stout, greatly enhancing one’s strength and defense. Gray had already mastered this technique; in cultivation he was clearly above Tuka. A sword ripped through the air, a “pfft” of flying blood, cleaving a wound straight across the giant wolf’s neck.

“Roar…”

The giant wolf bellowed, its fur bristling as strands of blue demonic aura coiled around it. In the next moment, invisible gusting storms slammed toward Gray with a continuous “boom boom boom.” Wind blades sliced against his armor and the starlit aura protecting him. Gray was fierce enough—blasted so that blood oozed from the corner of his mouth—but he still leapt forward, roaring, “Die!”

A surge of star-source power flowed through both arms and into the longsword. With a “pshh,” it pierced through the blue direwolf’s eye, straight into its skull. The next instant, the blue direwolf collapsed to the ground, wildly thrashing its four legs, then went still.

“Whoo… whoo…”

Gray stumbled back several steps and fell hard onto the ground. His face had already been slashed by the wind blade, blood all over, his expression drastically changed.

At that moment, several other knights rushed over. One of them dismounted and glanced at the direwolf’s corpse, frowning as he said, “A second-rank beast, a storm wolf. Fortunately there were only three of them, and we’ve already killed them all. Lord Gray, you’ve done well—truly deserving of Lord Luke’s recommendation. To be able to single-handedly slay a second-rank beast like that, your strength must be nearly on par with a Geode Knight.”

Gray’s gaze grew grave as he said, “I didn’t expect the beasts’ tracks to have already extended into the heart of the empire. It seems the northern battlefield is indeed in a grim state. Sirs, we’ll set out at first light and hurry back to the Scarlet Castle to report. I’m afraid the Light Church will have new orders for us in the coming days.”

“Mm, yes!”

…

Inside the pen, Loran watched with his own eyes as Gray cut down the storm wolf. His face went slightly pale; he could feel just how formidable that storm wolf was. Even a hundred ordinary people might not stand a chance against such a beast, yet Gray had slain it at the cost of only a light wound. His star-source power and combat skills were simply beyond imagination.

Beside her, Avril’s gaze was clear as she quietly glanced at Gray in the distance, saying nothing. The attendant at her side gripped a sharp sword and watched the children silently, so Avril soon relaxed her clenched fists and abandoned the escape plan. The moment had passed; if they broke through now, they would never get past the knights’ grasp.

As for Loran, he had no thought of fleeing either. He wanted to know why the Light Knights had been raiding for so many years, and whether there was another path for him to grow stronger—strong enough to take revenge on a powerful enemy like Gray.

…

At dawn the mist rose, and the jungle felt damp all around.

Under Gray’s orders, the servants cooked another pot of meat soup, then baked a flatbread for each of the boys. After that they went out again; everyone was blindfolded, their hands bound, and they were thrown onto horses. Each warhorse carried two or three boys as they set off once more.

All that could be heard were the hoofbeats and the metallic sounds of the knights’ scabbards and armor rubbing.

Loran lay over the horse’s back, unable to see anything and forced to judge everything by sound. From the knights’ conversation he vaguely learned that their destination was called the Blood Castle, and the specific place was called the Scarlet Cage. No one knew what kind of place it was. Even though Loran had grown up and heard many tales from bards and Master Erco, knew the legends of the Harbingers, the scattered holy embers across the continent, and the anecdotes of some heroes, this Scarlet Cage was something he had never heard of.

It seemed the same for all the children; no one knew where they were going, only that their fate was uncertain.

They kept walking like that, stopping and going, for two days.

On the afternoon of the third day, the sound of hooves grew crisp and the road was no longer so rough, which meant the squad of knights had left the forest path and finally reached a well-kept road. If Loran concentrated, he could even smell toasted wheat bread from the roadside and the fragrance of the fields; passing by occasionally, he heard the clanging of a blacksmith forging blades.

…

Not long after, the column began to climb and the road grew violently bumpy, so much so that some of the children vomited. Clearly, the knights had entered a mountain area. After nearly two hours on that mountain track, the road started to level out again and then suddenly stopped. A loud voice rang from above: “Who goes there?”

A familiar voice called out loudly nearby: “Guard knights of the Crimson Castle, Tuka, Gray and others, returning from a hunting patrol in the outer villages by order—please allow passage!”

“All right, inspect their tokens, then bring the game in.”

“Yes!”

The next moment, Loran was hauled off the horse, still with the cloth over his eyes intact. The rope around his hands was pulled, and together with several other children he was led into a narrow space. Then the floor beneath them seemed to lift, rising steadily while the clanking of iron chains filled his ears—this was some sort of elevator.

“Creaaak~~~”

Accompanied by a sharp sound, the lift stopped. The boys were hauled forward again; no one knew how long they walked before coming to a halt.

“Alright, let them see where they’ll be living from now on.”

Gray’s voice was very loud. One by one the servants stepped forward and tore the blindfolds from the children’s eyes. In the next moment, Loran opened his eyes to the blinding sunlight. Towering walls rose around them, studded with protruding blades, and on a high platform in the wall ahead stood a woman in a skirted uniform with her arms folded across her chest.

“Is that all?” she asked calmly, her voice carrying an inexplicable authority.

“Yes, Lady Catherine!”

A knight of rank higher than Gray replied respectfully, “A total of 1,457, including some who can be reformed and some used as training material — they’re all here.”

“Hmph…”

Katherine’s beautiful eyes swept disdainfully over the boys and girls in the square as she said, “Children, I don’t know where you came from or what grudges you bear, but you must understand one thing upon arriving here: this is not the Empire’s Knight Academy, nor any city-state school. This is hell. It will be your grave, and it may also become the place where you win everlasting glory. From this day forward, your bodies and souls no longer belong to yourselves; they belong to the Light Church. I hope…”

Her voice grew low, her beautiful eyes revealing a tangle of emotions. After a pause she said, “I hope more of you can survive.”

Then she gave a small wave of her hand: “Luke, how to arrange them is up to you. As for what happens next, I’ll come back after they’ve entered the advanced training class.”

“Yes, my lord!”

Luke felt an indescribable reverence, and on his shoulder rested a very ornate emblem—the mark of the Earth Knights and a symbol of formidable strength.