Chapter 391: Rescue Team

"How close are we to the planet Halbert!"

"Apologies ma'am! But the space has gotten thicker with debris, we should be expecting a thirty-minute delay…" A man handling a control panel spoke in a shaky voice to his clear superior standing to his side, pure distress on her face.

"No slowing down! That is an order!"

"B-But! General Davis we— "

"No buts lieutenant! These kids have waited long enough and must be scared out of their minds! Shalkers are on that planet and have beat us to it! Full speed ahead! If the ship sustains damage then it's fine by me! UNDERSTOOD!?"

"Y-yes ma'am! U-understood!"

For days, principal Rayna Davis and her elite soldiers had set off on a long excursion. Her fiery eyes were like that of a viper, keenly looking out towards the vast expanses of the zooming space with her sweaty hands tightly held behind her back and so much brewing underneath her frown and furrowed eyebrows.

The reason was unexpected… A shalker attack, which not only broke the treaty put in place but also the death of three instructors and a student. 

The ship was filled with operators and soldiers, and the size of it was nothing short of a warship… Because war was something fully to be expected.

At first, she couldn't believe it, such an action was nothing shy of a declaration of war between the two races, but the voice transmissions from the instructors were more than clear evidence.

"Ma'am! We have a visual and are ready to land!"

"Good! Can you accurately track the locations of all the students!?"

"Yes! They should be to a mountain to the north! But, we won't have a clear la— "

"Doesn't matter! Land as close as possible to the students! THAT IS AN ORDER!! IS THAT CLEAR?"

"C-Crystal…"

The blackness of space around the ship was suddenly and abruptly replaced with white, white, snow and wind that consumed all. The room began to shake, as though the ground was ready to crumble beneath them. Amber lights and emergency sounds rang throughout the entire ship due to the abrupt landing, yet no one onboard panicked nor complained as they pushed on to completing their rough, yet successful landing, somehow suffering little to no damage on the ship.

As soon as they halted, the massive doors sprung open like a folding gate, and the cold, unforgiving tundra of the planet blasted their faces within.

"Attention all soldiers! Your orders had already been given out to you! Search the area and notify me as soon as you sense a disturbance! As for the others, come with me towards the red marker on your maps! That's where the kids are!"

"YES MA'AM!"

"Then let's move on!"

Like a silent blur, she disappeared from place, and all her soldiers that were considered as the top echelon of elites stood there visibly stunned at where their leader went, their eyes wide and their face sweating. It was as though she was never even there. 

Yet, luckily for them, they did not need her directions as they followed suit at their own pace, lagging severely behind. 

In that mere instance, Principal Rayna Davis had made it halfway towards the marker, ignoring the harsh climate as she flew against the wind at her top speed, gritting her teeth and squinting her eyes. 

But that was when in the distance, she saw what seemed like a castle, and when referring back to her marker, she found it to be the same area…

In that moment, her heart sank, and a realization dawned on her…

'FUCK!!' She inwardly wailed.

They were not safely in a cave like the instructors told... Her students were most likely captured and held hostage within that castle, maybe even tortured… 

Her teeth were beginning to crackle in the cold wind from how hard she held them tight, and she accelerated further until she reached the castle gate. 

There she witnessed clear signs of battle, areas with snow melted, scorch marks on the walls and ground, cracks on the roof. It was all rather intense, but most peculiar of all was the lack of guards watching over such a big establishment. 

However, those thoughts were mere passing ones. She had no time to fully analyze and investigate, not when her students' lives were at risk along with the possibility of an ambush. 

Part of her knew that entering through the front gate was idiotic, and there was a high possibility of ambush, yet she pushed on anyways, for that is the fastest path she found. 

To her surprise, there was nothing but emptiness waiting for her on the inside. 

As she sped through the faded hallways, everything around her was but a blur, her sole focus up ahead and on her marker. And that was when she came face to face with her destination…

'THERE!! THAT DOOR!!'

A door was of magnificent beauty, yet one that she defiled by knocking down, preparing for battle. 

"WHERE ARE YOU KEEPING THE KI—" She bit her tongue in the middle of her sentence, she could not believe her eyes, for what she saw within that room was something she never expected to see in a million years. 

"Greetings Ma'am! Apologies for scaring and worrying you…"

"W-w-w-w-w-w-wha…" The more she looked upon what was in front of her, the more her bewilderment grew. 

All the students were safe, and not a scratch was on any of them.  They were all sat eating together in the center carpet, some were on their phones as though it was all casual. 

However, she could not help but find herself constantly gazing upon the magnificent throne at the back, where sat a smirking black-haired boy, and still, only if it were for only an instant, she felt like she was in the presence of a true monarch. 

"Kids… You're all safe! What… What happened?" She muttered, scratching her aching eyes. 

"I'd be glad to explain…" Moby's smile grew larger as he forced himself out of his seat, walking towards his principal while the others stored their food back into a storage ring and did the same. 

"We killed all the shalkers, and now we waited here…" 

"You… YOU DID WHAT!? BUT HOW!?" She lost all sense of her dominant professional air and asked. After all, if the instructors couldn't defeat them, how could they?

"Our instructors fought valiantly and got them extremely injured for us, they sent us away into a cave for our own safety, but we disobeyed orders and left anyways since we felt like it would only be a matter of time before the shalkers healed and found us… We had to capitalize on the opportunity… Here are the bodies, I kept them safe in this storage ring so their bodies stayed frozen in time and didn't decompose." Moby pulled out a ring from his pockets and handed it over to his superior, who immediately looked within to find three corpses laying inside. 

"I… Apologies, I'm just lost for words…"

"Don't worry ma'am! We all understand… And if you are wondering why we did not use the teleporter and head back to school, we chose against it. We thought that it would be best if we were her to explain everything to you and help you collect evidence, and we didn't know how powerful the communications were to your ship, so we didn't want to leave only for you to arrive and find nothing…"

"I… I see… That was a good call," She nodded slowly before shaking her head, her face of shock slowly turning into a smile as she began to softly laugh at herself. "Kids, you have no idea how stressed I was about all of this… But I'm so happy you're all safe… No… Not happy… Proud! You killed three shalkers and avenged your instructors! I'm certain they're smiling at you from heaven right now…"

"I really hope they are too Ma'am…" A man spoke from the back, and the principal's eyes once again went into wide puzzlement. 

"Kai!? Kai Fatebringer… Ha— Wa— I… I thought you were dead… I got reports saying you were cleaved in half with your guts leaking out!!"

"Oh, I'm so dearly sorry to worry you ma'am, but my death was greatly exaggerated… You see, that part of me was just an illusion I conjured with my flames, a trick of the light…"

"But we lost signal of you…"

"That was because my right arm was cut off along with my watch…"

"I— I see… That makes sense..." She nodded and smiled once again, breathing a single breath that completely let go of much stress and paralleled her current state of mind. 

That was when suddenly, footsteps were heard from behind, and all of their attentions were drawn. 

"Ma'am! Sorry for the wait! But we are here for support!"

"Stand down soldiers!" Rayna ordered. "Everyone is safe her, but keep your guard up. Now is not time to get careless! five of you stay here! The rest go and explore every nook and cranny of this castle! If you find anything interesting relay it back to me! I expect a full report on everything! Understood?"

"Yes Ma'am!" They yelled back all in unison and did as they were told. 

"Kids, thank you so much for the explanation," Her expression softened as she looked down towards her students. "but I'm gonna need some things more in-depth to help me out with my investigation. I believe all of you, but according to protocol, I must question at least one of you about the happenings with a lie detector. This is very important, because depending on your answer, it will determine whether or not peace will be extended a bit longer or we would be forced to once again enter another great war…"