Chapter 116: Over

One moment Nero was all alone, and the next he was just there. The only explanation he could think of was some kind of teleportation card or ability, but that was highly unlikely. The alternative was that the man in front of him was so fast, that Nero hadn't seen him move at all!

But how could there be no afterimage or trace at all? No matter how fast one moved, it couldn't seem instantaneous, right? Then again, he was just musing on how versatile cards actually were.

Nero had his spear raised already by the time he finally got a good look at the man, and realised he knew who it was. It was the major incharge of their training. Why would the major himself come here?

Even if the incident here was detected, and the army responded, the major did not need to come personally. Even a sergeant was more than enough, to be honest.

"Would you care to explain why there are two dead recruits and a dead invigilator on the ground?" the major asked, though his tone did not was more commanding than inquisitive.

Numerous scenarios ran through Nero's head as he tried to come up with a way to determine if the man in front of him was a part of the group that tried to enslave him, or if he really was just investigating.

"It's gravity, it pulls things towards the ground. Pretty wild stuff."

The man's neutral expression turned to a frown, but quickly returned to its normal state. He locked eyes with Nero and asked another question.

"The wounds on the invigilator's body match your spear. How were you able to kill him?"

"Pretty easily," Nero answered. It wasn't that he was trying to antagonise the major on purpose, but that he was trying to buy some time while he thought of a solution. Although he had not hesitated to face an Initiate, he lacked confidence in the face of someone who was either an Arcanist or Mystic. He did not know how to be sure that-

The man disappeared. He vanished from right in front of Nero's eyes, and before he could even begin to search for him, he felt a smack on the back of his head.

"This is the army, not high school. Give me a proper answer when I ask a question, not one-liners," the major said, standing behind him. "Now, explain what happened here."

For major Liam to just snap it with only his hands... that was a display of strength Nero could not quantify. He was certain that even Arcanists should not have been able to do something like that. Heck, even Mystics should not have been that powerful!

The incomprehensible display of strength, accompanied by the speed Nero could not understand were both more than enough for Nero to understand that he had no hope of surviving if the major meant to harm him. Even one of those alone was enough to completely defeat him. With no other option, Nero could only trust him, and hope for the best.

He looked one more time at the corpses on the floor. Charles' entire neck and head had been blown off, leaving behind only a corpse with no head. The other two were not exactly a pretty sight to look at either.

Nero finally dropped his guard, knowing that he could do nothing else in his current situation, and let himself think about the fact that he had killed humans. Many ex-soldiers he'd talked to mentioned that killing people was an uneasy, soul wrenching experience that one never got over. Others talked about it with maniacal excitement, bordering insanity.

But Nero felt neither. He didn't feel indifference either, though. Instead, he likened the feeling of killing someone like crossing an item of a checklist of things to do. It was just that - another thing he had to do.

In his defence, not that he needed one, he had warned Henry and Charles about what he'd do. They should have listened.

"The masked guy mentioned one other recruit who was being targeted - Clarissa Hunter," Nero suddenly said. "There might be even more recruits that they're targeting, but I only know of her."

"I'll take care of it. For now, it's time to take your team back. All of you will be questioned individually, but you're not in any trouble."

Nero finally looked away from the corpses and walked up to his shelter. Inside, everyone was still asleep, which gave Nero pause. Among all the cards he checked, he hadn't found the one which put all his teammates to fall asleep.

Had they used some kind of ability? But that didn't make sense. He assumed Henry or Charles were the ones who somehow knocked everyone out, and their abilities should not have worked in that way. His eyes flashed, and before waking anyone up, he looked through the belongings of the two recruits, but found no card.

That meant that there was at least one more person in his team who could have been working with them, or one more person who hadn't revealed themselves outside.

He made a mental note to mention that to the major, then started to wake everyone up. This dreadful training in the forest was finally over.