Chapter 166 Deformed trees
Melissa and Richard gathered a platoon of Sentinels led by Hashar and Jacob. They both wanted to be on this rescue detail as the mission was personal to them too. They are both friends to Melissa and the female bodyguard, Sabrina.
Richard exhaled, carrying this much people over that much of a distance was going to sap him of his energy and he'd already informed Melissa that he could only manage a to and fro trip if he hadn't expended too much of his energy in combat situations. So it meant he would be sitting docks if a battle should ensue.
Melissa understood this and she knew she had to be at her physical best if she wasn't going to force him to do more than necessary. She was the only reason he would want to expend more than enough. Though in the past few days she hadn't had the time to train at all, she was already good enough to protect herself very well. She just thought it would be enough when they got to the field.
Richard wielded darkness once more, burning into the deepest and thickest part of it. The most terrifying concept to exist; he made it his friend and it climbed out from yonder encircling everyone as they swirled within its ocean.
They landed in a forest where the moon light washed against the blades of the series of leaves that covered the ground. The mix of the shadow and the silvery glint of the moon gave the area an eerie disposition. Melissa smiled as most of the sentinels removed their helmet to throw up, and they waited for a while for them to get themselves together before they moved forward.
The forest was really large and it would be hard for a group of people to run through it. It would be virtually impossible to do. But Melissa and Richard already tried to map out the possible areas they were to pass by matching news of gunshots in certain areas.
Normally, it was easy for the Oracle to bury their movements but they couldn't bury what people had seen or heard. So they checked the local news within the area and mapped out a certain area where there was a report of heavy gunfire in the past two days. The police had said it was a criminal group that they were chasing and the group had now escaped into the woods.
So Richard and Melissa, on an inference , had chosen that area to access. The rest of the work however was left to Melissa mostly though Richard helped with his uncanny and prominent senses, Melissa was the one who was spreading her aura around the areas, as thinly as possible to see if she could sense anything.
If that didn't work, they'd also set the comms they would use to the same normal frequency Richard had ordered them all to use. They scanned the woods and followed Melissa 's footsteps. For a while all she could pick up was residual emotions. So she tracked them using that.
“Sense anything yet?” Richard asked.
“A bit, just residual emotions and auras mostly,” she replied.
“What are those?” Richard asked as they crept deeper into the woods.
“They are emotions that are already dispersing but the area still holds on to a bit of their presence,” she said. “So it is not much to work with,” she said.
Melissa traced the emotions forward and she broke into a sprint, discovering that there was a possibility that the emotions would disperse before she got there. Richard and the sentinels followed her as she navigated through the woods.
She ran for a while when Jacob shouted. “Halt!”
Melissa broke her speed immediately, diving forward and rolling to halt it so she didn't fall over. Richard however halted like he hadn't been running at all and yet he was keeping up with her. “What is it?” Melissa asked.
“I am picking up signals,” he said. “Hello?” He said.
They all waited as he twisted his head in absurd ways trying to make out any word said from the comms. “Let's head forward for a stronger signal,” he said.
They complied and started to jog through the woods again. The night was starless and soon enough the moon's light disappeared. The night rumbled as the skies darkened, flashes of subtle lightning raked across the churning cloud. Soon enough a sparse downpour began, most of its waves being shielded by the big leaves of the forest trees.
“I can hear them now,” Jacob said.
“I can too,” Richard replied.
“Who is this?” Melissa heard Eric's voice from within the comms. She felt relieved a bit at least they were not dead.
“Ashfall,” Richard replied.
“Sir?” Eric said. “Magma,” he replied.
“The fallen has risen,” Richard completed another unknown half of their code words.
“Sir!” Eric almost screamed. “Are you in the vicinity?” He asked.
“Yes,”he replied. “Give us your precise location.”
“We are at the deformed trees,”he said. “We are all hiding in the haunted house in the area,” he said.
Melissa could remember how this was an excursion for her when she was a kid, the royal academy had taken them to see the deformed trees. Trees that grew weirdly to take eerily scary shapes. And they all surrounded a house that was believed to house the spirit of an old vampire. Vlad the impaler or so. She didn't really remember the stories.
“We are coming to you now,” Richard said. “Stay where you are!”
Melissa and the others rushed forward and they snaked through the treacherous landscape of the woods and soon they were at the deformed trees. They entered the haunted house and Richard spoke to Eric again.
“Where are you?” He asked.
Eric however replied by opening a door behind them. They all glanced back as every single one of the wolves just sat there in the room they'd dimly lit. In their midst was a girl that Melissa knew was the witch, Clarissa. She held a dashing resemblance to her mother.
She exhaled and then walked forward with the others to meet them.