Chapter 16:

  I went to my room’s door and opened it.

  “Ahhhh,” I screamed, surprised to find Neymar at the door.

  “I didn’t know you could scream like girls,” Neymar said sarcastically.

  One couldn't blame me for screaming as Neymar's transformed hands were blooded and had a gash on his chest. He looked like a demon.

  ‘He probably fought a Bara. And from the wound on his chest, they seem to have surprised him.’

  “And I didn’t know you could appear like a ghost.”

  “No time for jokes kid. I need you to find Naya arrows to shoot the damn birds down, she’s almost out of arrows,” Neymar said as he turned to leave.

  “What about the others?” I said in a hurry.

  “Art is shooting the birds. The rest are on their way to help Captain. But Ramses he… he died,” Neymar said as he took off running.

  I wasn’t saddened at Ramses’s death as I didn’t have many interactions with the man. I barely knew him.

  After Neymar left, the hallway went silent. In the silence, my heartbeat rang clearly in my ears.

  ‘I have to be careful. My mana will need an hour to regenerate and during this time I can’t use my abilities.’

  The rooms of the other party members were close, their doors wide open. I didn’t focus much on which room Naya took, a decision I’m starting to regret.

  I first went to the door closest to my room.

  ‘I think Hugo was here.’

  BOOM

  Another explosion came from inside the palace.

  ‘It seems the fight with the Shaman is still ongoing.’

  I stuck to the wall adjacent to the door, not wanting to get close so that a sneak attack wouldn’t end my life.

  Looking inside the room, I saw a dead body swimming in its pool of blood. The body didn’t belong to any party member.

  I went to the next room. Repeating the same technique of staying close to the wall, I looked inside the room. This time I didn’t see a dead body. In fact, I didn’t see anyone. The room only had some stuff lying around and a bag.

  I went inside to check the bag. It was full of books.

  ‘This is probably Edger’s room.’

  Edger had a quiver with arrows in his room. I took it and went back to the corridor.

  The room next to Edger’s had two dead bodies. Upon closer inspection I found out that one body belonged to Ramses and the other one was a Bara.

  Ramses had a horrified look on his face, his eyes wide open. I closed the man’s eyes and exited the room.

  “Kid? What are you doing? Come and help, I need arrows,” Naya said upon seeing me exit Ramses’s room.

  “I have found some,” I said, showing her the quiver I held.

  Naya’s eyes beamed with happiness at seeing the quiver.

  “Good job kid,” she said as she took the quiver from my hand and ran to a room further up the corridor.

  “Do you know where Art is?” I shouted after her. She just pointed to a room.

  I went to the room Naya pointed at. I tried to open the door but it was locked.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “It's me, Haitham. Open the door, Art.”

  I heard squeaking sounds and the door was opened. I found Fin standing guard at the door.

  “Hey, Fin.”

  Fin made a weird hand gesture, which I took as a welcome. Fin didn’t speak, or he couldn’t; I wasn’t sure. But the man conveyed meaning with his hands. The only one who seemed to understand him was his brother, Art.

  “It's good to see you Haitham,” Art said while giving me his back. Art was looking outside. I also saw that he had only two spears left.

  “It's good to see you, too. What is the situation outside?” I asked as I approached to take a look myself.

  “All grounded Baras have been killed. There are still some flying Shareefs over us but they are doing nothing. Some soldiers are trying to shoot them down.”

  Outside was mayhem with tens of soldiers dead. The air had a certain smell to it I couldn’t describe.

  “It smells like… death,” I said.

  “Yeah, many died today. It’s a huge loss.”

  I asked a question that was heavy on my mind, “Is the city breached?”

  “I don’t think so as breaching the city walls isn’t easy. This was a surprise attack done through the air.”

  I heaved a sigh of relief.

  “By the way what is this Shaman we are fighting?”

  “Shamans are a cult. They are officially called the Cult of Al Shaam. They don’t obey any country and what they like. I don’t know what they hope to achieve by helping the Baras. But it can’t be good.”

  “The Shaman must be strong to be able to fight the Count and Captain both at the same time.”

  “They are strong. I heard once that you have to be at least rank three to join them.”

  “Should we go and help Black Ey-”

  BOOM

  The front door of the palace flew through the air, fire trailing behind it. A man wearing black armor exited the palace right after the explosion tore the door away. The man had severe injuries and was running. I tried to look at his face but he had a mask on.

  All the Shareefs flying above us descended at the same time. I also saw Black Eye and the Count exit the palace. Black Eye was in better shape than the man but was breathing heavily. The Count too didn’t have any injuries but was tired.

  “ATTACK HIM!” the Count shouted.

  Before anyone could do anything. The man, whom I presumed to be the Shaman, rode a Shareef next to a Bara and took flight followed by the rest of the Baras. The Count shot one last blue fireball at them which exploded and made a Shareef fall. Unfortunately, the one that fell wasn’t the one holding the Shaman.

  ……….

  After the fight with the Baras ended the Count had an emergency meeting with my group and Captain Sevaris, who was responsible for the palace defense. The General didn’t attend as he couldn’t leave the wall right now, afraid the Baras might launch another surprise offensive. But he sent his advisor, Zakei, in his steed.

  I also attended the meeting, giving a quick report on what happened to me.

  There were many ideas on what happened but Advisor Zakei’s idea was the most agreed upon.

  Zakei thinks that the Baras didn’t come up with the surprise attack. But they were convinced by a Shaman to raid the palace before the attack on Hama to steal the treasury, in which they succeeded. Apparently, the treasury is where the Count stores all the refined Lio he has gained from the dungeon.

  “Are you telling me we will have to fight Baras with abilities?!” Black Eye shouted at the Advisor.

  The Count also seemed to be troubled.

  “No, no, sir. All I’m saying is we have to take that into mind next time we fight them. finding people eligible for innate abilities is hard. They might deplete all their Lio before they find one,” Advisor Zakei said. He seemed intimidated by Black Eye.

  Black Eye seemed to be deep in thought.

  “Captain Black Eye don’t worry. I have a spare inventory and would like to share it with you and your party members for your valiant deeds today,” The Count said, trying to appease Black Eye.

  The mood in the meeting instantly changed at the words of the Count.

  “There is no need, sir,” Black Eye said.

  ‘What?! Why would he refuse the Lio? Has he gone mad? Scratch that, he is already mad.’

  “No, I insist. We will need all the strength we can gather if we are to survive the upcoming battle.”

  ‘Yeah, the Count is right.’

  “As you like, sir.”

  By the end of the meeting, a report came that held the number of casualties each side lost.

  The Baras lost six birds and sixty warriors.

  We on the other hand lost ninety warriors and seven staff. If we take the loss of the Lio outside of the equation, the conclusion would be that the Baras lost more as their birds are very important, and losing six is a lot.

  Thankfully the palace’s main chef survived so after the meeting we had a great meal. The air at the dining table was solemn but I didn’t care. I enjoyed my meal, which was the best one I had ever eaten. It had cuisines that I knew nothing of but they still tasted heavenly.

  After the meal, I went to my room. The body of the Bara was removed and the floor was cleaned. It still had some red stains that would be hard to remove. The broken window was covered by a cloth.

  I decided against taking off my armor, although I cleaned and oiled it. I knew I didn’t need to oil it but did so anyway

  My mana had recovered so I decided to spend my time playing with my awareness shaper skill. A knock came to my door and I went to see who it was.

  At the door before me stood a servant holding something.

  “Mr. Haitham?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  “Here, this is a gift from the Count.”

  The servant said, handing me a cloth-covered… something

  “What is this?”

  “I don’t know. I was told to give it to you.”

  ‘I think this the Lio he promised.’

  “Then convey my thanks to the Count.”

  The servant left and I closed the door behind me. As I had expected, under the cloth, there was a big glass bottle containing Lio.

  ‘I hope this is enough to upgrade my ability to Mid Rank 1!’