Shogun matches forward, his steps now bordering on the verge of a sudden emergency. Even though David couldn't understand the language, he understood the urgency in it.
"We are being tracked." Shogun Bloodaxe said in the native tongue, catching the couple's attention. Draven looked around him, his sharp eyes seeing everything in the faint light.
Shogun groaned seeing Draven's futile search.
"Nobody is here, Draven. Watch this..." While speaking, he went near David and with a rough shove pushed him to the ground.
The next moment, his fingertips glowed with an incandescent brightness as a string - thin, almost unnaturally non existing - appeared in the air.
David was shocked to see it. It was the same string that he had struggled to see for more than a second.
And now under Shogun's abilities, he saw it. Very surprisingly for him, it was protruding from inside his body and extended to somewhere deep in the forest.
He tried touching it but his fingers passed right through it.
'I cannot even touch it!'
Draven in the native tongue asked Bloodaxe with a respectful tone, "Shogun, what is this and where is the thin string even coming from?"
Oblivious to David's confused state, Bloodaxe replied. "This string is no ordinary string.... it's a Mark. A special ability mostly found among the scouts. You can't just pull this string out, heck even I don't know how to remove it."
He sighed as he added, "As for where is this coming from, I think I already know it. Well, you shall see it in a moment as well."
Meanwhile Lysandra asked the nameless girl, "Who is he?"
She didn't know him. In fact, she had lost her consciousness during the assault itself. And so, she didn't know the nameless girl or David either.
The nameless girl who was looking at David with a slightly concerned face, answered. "He no name. Nameless like me." Then as if remembering something very important, her face turned serious. Lysandra raised her eyebrows, thinking she was about to hear something that would be beneficial.
Ultimately the nameless girl said, "He speak invader tongue good." Her voice sounded as if she was decoding a profound conspiracy rather than a simple fact.
To Lysandra, her face looked quite cute and she couldn't help but laugh softly. "Is that so? Does he speak like me?"
The nameless girl looked at Lysandra in childish wonder. "Like you!" To which Lysandra giggled. "You are going to be an adult soon. And yet, you talk like a small child."
At that moment, Shogun said something that sent chills down the couple's spines. In his native tongue, he spoke. "Prepare yourself. This as well might be our last battle."
Bloodaxe Hermann, one of the seven Shoguns of the Hermann clan, glanced at Draven with a meaningful stare. To which he bowed with a resigned face.
Lysandra took a step forward as she witnessed the exchange between the two. "Is something the matter? Who is after us?"
Her native tongue, undetected by the three of the young people, was met with a grim face by both her husband and the Shogun.
'So it's either the general or...' She didn't want to complete the thought as a shiver ran down her back. She clearly remembered her. Heck, how won't she when she was the very one who stopped her rampage.
Shogun grunted as Draven wrapped an arm around her. "Be safe..."
Then in one swift motion, Shogun smashed his mace on the ground. A powerful quake passed through it as a circular section of the the ground suddenly caved inwards and a large hole enough to fit three people side by side, appeared in its place.
...It appeared right below the couple.
Draven jumped upwards as small wings appeared from his back, fluttering up and down in rapid bursts of motion. It didn't let him fly but helped him levitate just few inches above the ground.
Lysandra appeared stunned as she lost her footing and tried to cling to her husband. But to her sheer shock, Draven pushed her into the pit with a solemn smile.
As her figure disappeared into it, Bloodaxe removed his mace from the ground as the pit closed on Lysandra. Draven landed on the ground soon after, his wings going back inside. "Shogun, make sure the ground is porous enough before our end or whatever fate we are destined to, so that she can get out of here at her discretion."
For a moment, a stunned silence filled the air. The other three people, each with their differing personalities saw the incident with wide eyes. The shock was so great that it wasn't until a few seconds that they realised that they had been holding their breath.
Since none of them knew the native tongue, they had no idea what conversation had taken prior to the incident. To them, it looked as if their own leader and the woman's husband had just killed Lysandra.
But none of them spoke, for fear that they might just meet the same fate.
Draven deliberately ignored their expressions as he watched deep into the forest with a calm face.
David shifted on his feet at the stillness. He wondered what was even happening at this point. Even though his eyes saw it, he could tell they didn't doom Lysandra. But if not so, then what?
Suddenly Draven spoke. "I hear them...they are quite near." He looked at Bloodaxe as if confirming something.
But then...
"Indeed, they are near. But you see, I am the nearest to you all." A voice spilled from their left.
David's heart thundered inside him as he recognised the voice instantly. He looked sideways and as expected, there the princess stood in her full body armour.
At that moment, it all connected in his mind. Obviously, Shogun and Draven wouldn't kill Lysandra.
...They were trying to save her.
And if so...if they had already predicted who was coming, that meant...
David's eye widened as he touched his shoulders. The string...
"You know I wouldn't blame him for not knowing about the tracking ability Mark. It was his bad luck that he encountered me....and what better chance than using him as a scapegoat to track a Hermann Shogun and his right hand?"
Princess Valerie spoke calmly, her voice carrying no malice nor any rage....despite the calamity of emotions raging inside the hearts of the other six people.
Or maybe seven...
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A/N: Contract under review :)