The Gamer's POV-Chapter 222: Unlikely Escort

Despite it being a bit late into the morning, the barren plains were still dark as night. As for the cadets, those who had recovered enough to hunt were preparing to leave the camp.

Cedric’s party was joining too, so they gathered amongst Aurora’s party and the others. The only person who wasn’t there was Leon.

Aurora walked past the crowd of cadets to where Cedric’s party members were waiting, then she approached their circle.

"How is he?" she asked, looking in the direction where the party had stayed during the night.

Dion, who had been talking to Evelyn, stopped and looked towards the direction she was looking at, then replied, "He’s still recovering. Whatever had happened to him seemed really bad."

Aurora sighed and her expression grew dark.

But just then, Audrey, who stood among them frowned and interrupted the group. "Guys... do you hear something?"

Everyone turned and gave Audrey a confused look. But she seemed to be listening to something intently.

"What is it, Audrey?" Dion asked. The only thing he was hearing was the constant noise of the cadets around them.

But just then, Evelyn stiffened and said, "Wait... I hear it too." She turned her gaze up to look northwest and after a few seconds of intense listening, she asked, "Are those... ravens?"

Aurora frowned as she turned to look in that direction too. "Ravens? Out here?"

Indeed, it didn’t take long for them all to hear the caw of ravens approaching. It was strange considering that even birds didn’t come to this territory.

After a minute, the ravens became visible and the cadets could see five ravens descending from the sky towards them.

Celeste, who had been stroking her ferret, suddenly brightened and grew anticipatory. "Those are ravens." She turned to Evelyn, excitedly grabbed her arm and added with a wide smile, "Those are Cedric’s ravens!"

"Huh? Are you sure?" Dion asked, squinting as he watched the dark shapes circle closer. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Yes, she’s right," Audrey interjected, appearing giddy. She raised her hand, and not too long after, a raven landed on her outstretched forearm. When she recognized the bird, she laughed breathlessly. "It’s Kuro. See, Cedric is alive!"

’That guy is actually alive?’ Aurora blinked in total disbelief as the rest of the birds followed suit, each picking out a member of Cedric’s party and making themselves comfortable on a shoulder or an arm.

"Ha! Praise the gods, he is really alive," Dion exclaimed.

While the party began to celebrate in relief, Aurora was quite stunned. She couldn’t believe it and was sure that guy was going to die. When she heard that his ravens had vanished, she was not surprised, to be honest, because no one could have survived the Hollow Ones alone.

So how is it that he was suddenly alive?

She watched as the party members huddled together, chatting and stroking the ravens that had landed among them.

However, in only a few seconds, the peaceful atmosphere vanished.

Someone suddenly shouted, "Princess!"

Everyone turned their heads to see a boy with a kestrel suddenly sprinting toward them from the edge of the camp. He stopped short, doubling over as he gasped for air, and was out of breath entirely.

"What is it, Lyristra?" Aurora asked as she stepped forward to steady him.

The boy stammered and his face was pale with terror. "The... the monsters!"

Aurora’s eyes widened as the boy straightened and added, "The Hollow Ones are on their way here, Princess!"

"How many?" she demanded.

"There’s about ten of them," Lyristra managed to gasp out. "But there’s something strange."

Aurora frowned and her hand instinctively tightened on her glaive.

Lyristra then added, "Two Dominants are riding with them."

"What?"

At that moment, the sound of horses thundering against the hard earth echoed from the distance, together with the panicked cries of the cadets who were now scrambling in a chaotic frenzy.

Aurora quickly left the boy and turned to the gathered cadets, then yelled in urgency. "Get ready to defend the camp!"

Since the cadets already had their bonds in their weapon form, most of them alongside Aurora began to head towards the front of the camp.

"What’s happening?" Aurora began to wonder aloud as she broke into a run weaving through the clusters of panicked cadets. When she reached the front, she strained her eyes to see through the haze.

’There’s only ten,’ she thought as she looked at the many other cadets that had began flanking her with their weapons and eyes locked forward into the gloom.

’It should not be a problem, right? We should be able to get rid of them easily.’

Her grip tightened on the glaive as she turned to look toward the source of the growing thunder.

It didn’t take long for the cadets to see an approaching dust cloud. And then from that cloud, tiny red eyes could be seen, after which ten horses emerged into the dim light.

The horses grew near really quickly and with every passing second, the tense atmosphere intensified.

Archers like Audrey had already nocked their arrows and pulled their strings taut.

Eventually, the horses began to slow down as they reached near the edge of the camp’s perimeter, kicking up a final swirl of dust before coming to a halt several meters away. The Hollow Ones pulled their mounts back, flanking the sides to leave the center open for a single horse that kept approaching at a steady pace.

Simultaneously, all the Hollow Ones tapped their chest, then their foreheads, before raising their hands to the side.

Of course, everyone was paralyzed with confusion, but what made them stare in total silence was the fact that on the single approaching horse, Cedric was slouching lazily with a calm, unbothered bearing, and his raven was perched on his shoulder.

Behind him...

"Alicia?" Aurora’s eyes widened in disbelief. She looked like she was seeing a ghost.

Alicia gazed out from behind Cedric at the crowd of Cadets and as Cedric pulled on the reins, bringing the horse to a halt, she carefully slid down from the saddle and landed on the ground with a soft stumble.

Before she could even steady herself on her feet, Aurora ran up to her and pulled her into a hug. "What is this? How are you alive?" She pulled away and searched Alicia’s face and neck with frantic, trembling hands. "I thought you died, I saw you die."

Alicia looked at her like someone who was clearly overstimulated, then muttered. "I died. We all died, Princess." Her gaze flicked to Cedric. "But Cedric brought us back to life."

"Huh?" Aurora blinked and her brain buffered for a few seconds. Then she slowly turned to Cedric who had also stepped down from the horse.

He had just managed to find his balance on the uneven ground when Celeste ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck, nearly knocking the wind out of him.

"Do you know how worried we all were when your feathers suddenly vanished?" she mumbled as she buried her face into his shoulder.

"Oh no, I made you worry. Whatever will I do now?" Cedric replied with a weary, lopsided grin, making Celeste scoff. Then he ruffled her beautiful red hair.

Audrey also stepped in and wrapped her arms around him from the other side, then whispered against his chest, "Welcome back, Cedric."

Cedric smiled as he accepted the embrace, then his smile widened even more at Evelyn who was grinning in front of him with her hands crossed.

"I have a lot of questions for you, Birdie," Evelyn blurted out. "How in the name of the gods did you survive those monsters? Where have you been? Why did your feathers suddenly skedaddle?" She pointed a stiff finger at the hollow ones in the distance, and her voice grew a bit louder and more accusatory. "And what the hell are those bastards doing over there?"

"Yeah bro. Glad I didn’t have to mourn you too," Dion said as he brought down Evelyn’s pointing arm, before walking by and shifting closer to Cedric. Then as his eyes darted between the hollow ones in the distance and Cedric, he lowered his voice and added, "But what in the name of the gods are those scary freaks doing here?"

Without answering immediately, Cedric’s gaze shifted away from Dion to the crowd of cadets who were murmuring tensely among themselves, then he could see Leon slowly approaching with a raven in his hand. He looked a bit pale and his jovial demeanor was gone.

However, when they locked eyes, both of them subconsciously smiled, like brothers.

Cedric then turned away to Aurora, who was now trying to silence the crowd of cadets who were yelling, asking what the hell was going on.

After restoring a semblance of order, Alicia remained with the crowd of cadets to keep the order, while Aurora walked up to Cedric.

Then the princess asked in a strained voice, "I don’t understand. What is going on, Cedric? Alicia says you... raised people up from the dead?" Her tone grew even more unsure, "And they are with the hollow ones who apparently are no longer hostile?"

When they heard that, all of Cedric’s party turned to look at him with questioning wide eyes.

After a moment, Cedric sighed and finally replied, "Yes, I did raise most of the fallen cadets back to life."

Aurora looked visibly flabbergasted, but before she could ask how that was possible, Cedric added, "My bonded ability grants me the power to bestow a second chance to the fallen at a cost. I used this ability to bring the dead cadets back to life. As for the hollow ones, I managed to convince them to help us. So you don’t need to be afraid of them anymore."

Aurora frowned, and her confusion deepened into a sharp, wary skepticism. "Those monsters? Help us? Help us with what?"

Cedric turned to Leon and nodded. The party caught that and all turned to Leon. After a few seconds, Leon sighed.

His next words which were spoken grimly shocked everyone, and drained the color from their faces.

"The blue bridge for this lunar eclipse is bound to appear in the kings paradise."

[End of part one: Battle of the Lords]