Chapter 136: Ambush

Crash!

The first thing that I heard when we neared the campsite of the rest of our team, was the sound of the cloth tearing, metal clinging and some strange noise that I couldn't figure out the source off. But before I would even have a chance to attempt guessing its origin, one of the two commanding trucks filled to the brim with expensive electronics exploded in a ball of fire!

Raising several meters above the ground, a gentle hue of deep redness seemed to enrich the flames for a moment, before this single showcase of disaster came to an end. 

"Wha…" 

Instantly unhooking my safety belt I was about to jump out of the car and join the relief effort right away, when a sturdy hand of my bodyguard slammed right into my chest, burying me back into the pillows of my seat.

Once the man made sure that I wasn't going anywhere, his hand instantly reverted back to its original position on the manual gearset of the car. While I didn't really know all that much about the intricacies of car racing, from how rapid and decisive the moves of this bodyguard of mine were…

No, that was only a clue. Whatever it was that made him react in the way he did, I learned about how determined this man was to get me as far away from this place as possible from the painful overload forced me tightly against the back of my seat.

"Sit down, this isn't something we can face!"

Barely capable of moving my head around, I cast a quick glance at the face of my bodyguard. Covered in fat drops of sweat, the redness of madness was reaching all the way to the pupils in his eyes. But contrary to the look of his face, his aura was steady, as if he entered some kind of ultra-focused status of meditation.

CRACKABOOM!"

Once the truck finally fell to the ground, an even greater shroom of fire erupted from its wreckage. Seeing it through the side mirror of the car, I could feel my fists tightening. 

No matter what, the people that were there were under my command! Whatever was going on there, I should be rushing to their help instead of racing as far away and as quickly away as the horsepower of my car would allow!

"Stop the car."

I knew it was stupid even before those words escaped from my mouth. Compared to some soldiers, even those reaching second grade, my life was of far greater importance. If I were to completely hide my emotions away as to stop them from clouding my judgement, even Pavlo's life wasn't worth putting mine at risk. 

That was, only if I were to consider the importance of specific people within the faction!

"There is no damn way I will abandon my people!"

Ignoring the confused look on my bodyguard's face, I could feel my emotions coursing through my soul like a ravaging current of a wrathful river. Under the pressure of those stirred-up emotions, I looked through the front window of the car.

'Action always creates a reaction. Push at something, and it will push against you with equal force.' 

For some reason, this simple physical law appeared in my head. For some even stranger reason, my mind jolted, as if connecting the dots in some kind of important puzzle. 

And with a single wish of my barely conscious mind, I felt the raging energy of my emotions suddenly calming down.

Not because I managed to get rid of them and silence my thoughts. Because they came to work as the catalyst of my own magic power, pushing against the ground in front of the car with immense strength!

"WHAT THE FU…?!" Uttering a shout of shock and terror, my bodyguard clearly lost his mind when our car seemed to hit an invisible wall. With the safety belt no longer holding me at the seat, I sent just a tiny whisper of energy to cut the man out of his own belt.

With no time for pleasantries, my mind jerked again, instantly turning nearly my entire aura into a desire. Using the changing emotion, I instantly pulled my bodyguard towards me. As soon as I felt his flesh hitting against my body, my desire died off instantly, replaced with repulsion.

CLANG!

The sound of the metallic construction of the sports care that we were in coming apart under the immense force of my witchcraft was starkly different to how the electric truck of mine sounded when it exploded. But there was a simple explanation behind it. Without the fireball to heat the metal, tearing it apart was not only harder, but it also gave off a different sound!

"BRACE!"

Shouting this single word, I let go of the man's body. Now that we were racing through the air towards the ground, sticking together for no reason like that would only make the both of us more prone to injuries. 

But before our bodies could hit the floor, another explosion shook the area. Turning my eyes towards this unexpected event, I felt a shiver travelling down my spine. 

The part of the road where my car would appear if I didn't decide to follow through with my emotion was now turned into several meters deep crater. Without even a fireball, it seemed as if someone transported the shockwave of an explosion alone, not willing to leave any other hints of his abilities. 

'Sarates? Government? Who else?'

At this point, I would have to be an idiot to still believe that it was just a misunderstanding. But that didn't mean I had any clue who to blame for the current precarious situations that I was in. And before I could even spare a real thought about it, the merciless ground finally embraced the two of us. 

"DHUH!"

The air escaping from my lungs when I flattened against the ground made up a strange moan. As my body turned around in desperate attempts to fight off the pain I noticed that my bodyguard didn't fare any better. Even though with the speed at which we crashed into the ground soft and lush grass of the local plain didn't seem like the worst place to fall at, compared to the small ravine that my bodyguard's body created due to a slightly different angle of his fall, I had absolutely nothing to whine about. 

Especially when I saw several bloodied stones marking the path that he made on the ground. 

"The hell…"

Even though my physical abilities were nothing to scoff at after my heavily athletic-oriented career, I was nowhere even close as durable as any cultivator that took their training seriously. With the ragged state that my body was in right now, I had no other choice but to use the slight variations in my emotions to create witchcraft, using which I finally managed to prompt my body up.

"Sir, are you okay?!"

Even though his landing was far worse, my bodyguard quickly proved that cultivation offered some perks after all. Despite the marks of blood all over his clothes, neither his face nor his aura indicated that he was hurt in any serious way.

"For now, yes. We don't have time, let's return to the camp."

Given how the enemy, whoever that fucker was, managed to set off that strange explosion exactly at the path that our car would have to take to escape the ordeal at the camp, there was hardly any doubt in my mind who their real target was. It looked like that exploding truck was nothing but a distraction and a bait aimed at pulling me away from that place!

And with how little I knew about what the hell was going on, doing the things that the attacker wanted to discourage me from doing was the one thing that I knew for certain that was right!

With every step that I made towards the place where the rest of my troops was left, I could feel the strenght returning to my body. The initial shock caused by the sudden crash into the ground quickly waned off, allowing me to properly assess the damage to my insides.

And it wasn't good. With several internal bleedings and fractured bones, I could move like a healthy person only thanks to my witchcraft and the sheer resilience that my emotions infused in me. 

But the state of my physical body didn't matter much right now. With my awakening as a true mage, even if it was only on the minimal level, I was free to use any of the emotions I would like. I could break any of the taboos that I deemed necessary. Especially given how doing so would alert Ayda about how dire my situation was right now!

"Sir, I can see… No, it cannot be!"

Suddenly stopping in place, my bodyguard reached with his hand forward. Following after his arm with my eyes, by the time my sight passed by his hand, I couldn't fail to notice how his hand was shaking as he continued to point at something in front of us.

"Oh boy…"

To say that the sight was insane, would be too little to give justice to the situation. 

The entire camp was wrecked. All the vehicles were destroyed, with their wreckages burning whenever they were parked before. But the strangest of the situation actually consisted of three things.

First off, my people didn't seem to be in as bad of a state as I worried they would be.

Secondly, fighting arm to arm with them, were people bearing the emblems of the Sarate family. And from the looks of things, not a single one of them fared any worse than the remaining two grade two soldiers that remained at the camp.

And thirdly, a maddening crowd of monsters continued to attack the united line of the rivalling human factions, with fireballs, thunders and boulders flying all over the place!