Chapter 217 – When The Wind Stops

“I’m bored…”

Rebran mumbled, his paws kicking at the dirt as he slowly trod ahead. He was currently in his cat form, so Rebran’s sulky behavior seemed even more cute than usual.

“Stop complaining; you asked yourself to be placed at the back of the trail.”

Calron commented, his arms over his shoulder as he casually walked.

The two were currently at the back of the trail, with thousands of ex-slaves and the Raizel clan ahead of them. Due to the heavy carriages, old people, and children, the movement speed of the group was extremely slow.

Kail had assigned Calron to remain at the back of the trail in case other remaining ex-slaves from the city joined them late, and seeing Calron’s face would dissipate any doubts they might’ve had about whether it was the correct group or not. His uncle had also placed over a dozen guards to protect Calron in case of trouble.

The other youngsters were all put in front of the party, but Rebran pleaded with Kail to let him remain with Calron. The young lion wanted to spar with Calron once again to improve his skills and try to beat his Boss. His last defeat sat heavily on his mind. However, Calron had no intention of entertaining the youth and was instead brooding over why the King had let them pass so easily.

“Boss, it’s important to train your body regularly, so you’re not caught off-guard by enemies. I’m a very busy lion, but I can make some time for you if you want to practice your martial arts.”

Rebran trotted over to Calron in a seemingly nonchalant manner while his emerald eyes nervously glanced up at Calron.

“Hmm, is that so? I’ll keep it in mind.”

Calron squinted at Rebran suspiciously before brushing him aside.

As if struck by a sudden thought, the young man turned his head downwards and posed Rebran a question. “Rebran, what’s your element? I don’t recall you ever using your essence?”

“Eh? Don’t you remember me creating a white ball of light at the Beast city? Or my awesome wings? That’s my element!”

A pair of small glowing white wings coalesced on Rebran’s back as the cat pranced around to show it off.

“Light is an element!? I thought your wings were part of your Griffin blood heritage.”

Calron stopped momentarily, taken aback by the news. He thought only five elements existed in this world and was not aware of there being anymore aside from them.

“Boss… is stupid?”

Rebran tilted his head cutely. He was genuinely surprised by Calron’s lack of knowledge in this matter.

“You little punk!”

A furiously blushing Calron kicked the cat on the bum, eliciting a small screech from the animal.

“Ah, I forgot that you grew up in some backwater town. It’s not surprising that they’ve never met any other races besides humans or encountered anyone from the greater cities.”

Vala interrupted the two. He was also assigned to the back of the trail with Calron and happened to overhear the conversation the duo were having.

“Humans can be born with other elements besides fire, earth, water, air, and lightning?”

Calron inquired Vala who joined them by walking next to the two. Due to unfortunate events that took place at the Red Boar School during Calron’s first year, he was forced to run away from the school and thus deprived of the essential education he needed to know about this world and its history.

“Yes, there are human clans which are known to have unique bloodlines that awaken a different element than the conventional five within their young children. In fact, there are ancient books of lore that suggests the existence of many elements, but it’s said that most of them were lost centuries ago. There were some elements which could be acquired by any cultivators instead of being awakened naturally or other elements that combined to create an entirely different element. The knowledge of these techniques or abilities have been forgotten, but certain records of them are still available in Selior city’s library.”

Vala explained to Calron as they walked while Rebran scratched his ears.

“It will take too long to tell you all about it, so you should ask one of the clan’s Elders to give you a more detailed lesson in history. However, as of today, there are only seven major elements present in the world: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Lightning, Darkness, and Light. There are other lesser known elements like metal, wood, shadow, etc. in some parts of the world, but are exceedingly rare and are inherent to specific bloodlines. Anyways, I better get back to work.”

Vala patted Calron on the back and returned to his position. He was given the task of locating any straggling slaves and had to use his soul power to detect them.

Calron walked in silence, thinking over what Vala had revealed and debating whether he should ask the Patriarch about a history lesson. He never liked sitting in class, and listening to an old man blabber all day was not how Calron wanted to be spending his time.

“Boss, I think I’ll fly around to stretch my wings a bit.”

Rebran stated, his body slowly growing larger by the second until it reached a height of nearly two meters and a pair of gigantic white wings erupted from his back. The guards walking with Calron gasped in admiration and awe at the scene in front of them.

“Sure, have fun.”

Calron smiled at the beast and waved at him as Rebran took flight. Calron instantly saw through the young lion’s façade and knew he was flying ahead to meet up with Ellie and play with her. Although Rebran was in his teenage years, compared to a Griffin’s long age, the young lion was still a child.

“I’m getting bored as well…”

Calron muttered a few minutes after Rebran left and let out a small sigh. Seeing as there was nothing else to do, Calron activated the Divine Perception and continued his prior training of manipulating a living being’s senses.

Secretly inspecting the guards behind to make sure no one could see his grey eyes, he began to locate any viable test subjects nearby. It didn’t take long for Calron to eventually find a small sparrow flying overhead the trees beside them.

His grey eyes flashed with a dim glow as Calron entered the bird’s consciousness and tried to make it believe that an eagle was currently chasing it from above. The sparrow trembled mid-flight for a second before returning to normal.

“Damn…”

Calron cursed under his breath as he left the bird’s mind. He managed to plant the thought of an eagle inside the sparrow’s mind but could not maintain it. Maybe it was due to being unaccustomed in a foreign mind, or maybe he was missing something else entirely. It was like the sparrow’s mind rejected his very presence the moment he planted a thought inside it.

Is it because the appearance of the eagle was too abrupt? If I plant the thought of hearing an eagle’s cry from afar and then slowly building the proof of an eagle chasing it, would that work?

Calron mused, thinking back to when he first tried to implement this ability on the worm. The appearance of a wall was too sudden for the worm, and it broke its train of thought, which then broke any hold Calron had over its mind.

“Let’s try again.”

Calron whispered and tried to search for other small animals nearby. The earlier sparrow had already left the group’s vicinity.

However, after moments of searching, Calron could not locate a single animal, bird or insect nearby. The ones he did find were in the process of running away or crawling underneath the ground.

“Strange…”

He deactivated his Divine Perception and glanced back to check on the guards and Vala to see if they noticed something. From the looks on their faces, they did not sense anything out of the ordinary.

The creatures were all here just a moment ago. Something caused them to all run or hide…

Calron pondered, his eyebrows locked in a frown.

“It can’t be… ”

He abruptly stopped in his tracks, causing the rest of the guards to halt as well.

Vala finally detected the abnormal absence of nearby animals and alerted Kail and the Elders ahead through a crystal. He then swiftly arrived next to Calron and shielded him with his body.

Right then, the wind stopped moving, and a deathly silence spread around them.

Someone was coming.

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