Suddenly, a feminine soft voice echoed across the gathering, silencing the noise almost immediately.
Shia lifted her head lazily and noticed a tall thin man, wearing a skin-tight black and green protective suit.
He had long braided pistachio green hair that reached his waist, making Shia click her tongue in annoyance each time she saw it.
"Mantis, haven't I warned you not to get in my face again if you don't want your precious hair sliced?" Shia intoned with a hint of jealousy.
A sweat dropped down Mantis' forehead as he stared at her serious expression. He heard rumors that the Idriss Morningstar was forcing his entire family to keep their hair at a neck's length maximum; females or males.
It had to do with long hair being detrimental in combat...It seemed like Shia wasn't a fan of this family rule. If it wasn't for their deal, Shia would have given Arthur some bad looks too due to his ponytail.
"Ha..ha..ha, Shia, no need to be so aggressive."
Mantis released a nervous laugh and then tried to win her over again.
"We are going to move at dawn after we add another batch of Daywalkers. Please, feel free to tag along with us, no contract is required and I will assure you that the first Blood Crystal Flower we find goes to you; no payment needed." He smiled welcomingly, "What do you say?"
'Isn't this the same as making us work for her evolution free of charge?'
'Tsk, life truly isn't fair.'
The rest of the Daywalkers showed envious and slightly bothered looks at Mantis' special treatment of Shia.
But, they kept their complaints within the confines of their minds, understanding that they weren't at Shia's level of reputation.
"Not interested."
Yet, to everyone's surprise, Shia didn't even bother to stop. She moved past him while Jamal and Sergio were giving him a dirty look.
She only stopped when she arrived at the closed-shut solid metallic gate, guarded by two governmental Daywalkers.
One looked bored as hell, smoking a thin cigarette and hiding his face under a hat, while the other had an energetic attitude.
The smoker leaned lazily, glancing at Levi behind a pair of thin black sunglasses. Then, he ordered him to come close and show his ankle monitor.
Arthur brought his brother to the guard and helped him lift his trousers, exposing his ankle monitor.
As Arthur looked around and noticed the weird looks his brother was being given, his veins popped up, and his expression turned menacing.
"Don..."
Just as he was about to tell them off, Shia turned around and uttered coldly, "Mind your f*cking business before I rip your eyes off."
Almost everyone turned their attention somewhere else, knowing that the Blood Hunters Agency was filled with monsters, who couldn't care less about their reputation.
In other words, antagonizing the precious daughter of the leader wasn't a smart move as they were unpredictable.
Arthur eased up a bit and gave Shia an appreciative nod.
Shia ignored him and focused on the guards.
Uncaring about the ongoing drama, the smoker Daywalker glanced once at the ankle monitor and scanned it fully with his NeuraLens.
A hologram manifested in front of him, giving him all the officially recorded details of Levi.
//
Name: Levi Ignis Larson
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Background:
Levi Larson grew up in the shadow of tragedy. Both of his parents were slaughtered at the hands of two mysterious nightcrawlers. They also ripped his eyes out and left him to turn into a Sleepwalker; the signature move of the infamous Duskbound Order.
Parental Situation:
Father: Brian Larson, the founder of Larsons' nightwear company. (Deceased)
Mother: Ruqya Altamir, no noteworthy information found. (Deceased)
Current Status:
Levi Larson has been under city arrest for 5 years, which was later on upgraded to a regional arrest after succeeding in all his yearly Forensic Psychological Evaluations.
Danger Level: Low.
Ankle monitor status: Temporarily lift (Fifteen days)
Current Guardian: Shia Chaima Morningstar. //
After he finished, he looked up at Levi and murmured to himself, "He sure has grown."
Levi's ears twitched, hearing his whisper...Taken by surprise, he scrutinized the humanoid grayed aura of the guard, trying to see if he had met him somewhere.
Unfortunately, there weren't many details in a foggy featureless aura.
"He checks out."
The smoker Daywalker waved his hand lazily and lowered his hat, hiding half of his face while leaning against his chair. His partner swiftly opened the gate for them after checking the IDs of Shia and the others.
Ka-thumb!!
The metallic gate let out a thunderous noise, echoing across the silent Harrowing Forest in the distance.
"Please be careful, there are still many remnants of the fallen Shadow Castle hiding underground." The energetic guard saluted them by placing three fingers on his chest.
Shia, Sergio, Jamal, and even Arthur saluted back in the same fashion. Then, they walked outside of the outpost, standing amidst an empty field of dirt and rocks.
There wasn't even a path towards the forest. It was like they were thrown completely into the wilderness.
Ka-thumb!!
The guard closed the gate behind them, following protocol.
Since the holy region borders were defined by the range of the Holy Pillar, those outposts were considered the first line of defense for each region.
Thus, Daywalkers could leave their regions at any given moment and explore the wastelands, but they had to do it at their own risk.
"The outside world doesn't feel as dangerous as I anticipated," Arthur said as he looked around him.
"We are still under the Sun Disk Tower illumination...Let's see if you will say the same when your only source of light is the moon, stars, and your equipment." Sergio snickered.
As he mentioned, the tall Sun Disk Tower didn't act as a mere weapon against the nightcrawlers encroachment, but also as a lighthouse at night.
Right now, it was focusing its light in the direction of the forest, illuminating the entire path towards it...Unfortunately, the forest was outside of its range.
"Enough chitchat, we have ten hours at best before dawn. We must reach the depth of the forest before Mantis' group moves out." Shia ordered calmly, "Bring out your Nightmounts."
All three reached out to a backpack on their right wrist and pulled out a small wooden totem, each one with a different shape and peculiar inscriptions written on it.
Shia had an eagle-like totem, Sergio possessed a wolf-like totem, and Jamal held onto a horse-like totem.
All three closed their eyes and murmured different incantations with strange-sounding language while holding the totem in one hand.
The moment the incantation was finished, the three blood hunters threw the totems in front of them. Then, everyone watched as a mysterious light descended on the totems from the heavens, illuminating the fine inscriptions written on their surfaces.
After the inscriptions were fully illuminated, the totems grew in size bit by bit until they were bigger than Shia's party!
Then, the wooden totems shattered, revealing three monstrous Tier 1 nightcrawlers. When exposed to the physical world, the shadowy horse and blue-furred wolf nightcrawlers growled viciously at the party.
The wolf even tried to lung at Arthur with bloodthirsty eyes and saliva dripping down its vicious mouth.
"Ayoo, easy boy, easyyyy."
Sergio pulled into a chain of light, which was linked to a spikey collar on the nightcrawler's neck.
After a couple of tugs, the blue-haired wolf finally started behaving properly as each tug released a painful burning sensation on the collar.
"You still haven't tamed them?" Shia gave them a look of dissatisfaction while patting the wings of her eagle, which was lowering its head in obedience.
Though everyone could see the hint of dread in the eagle's eyes, making them understand that it wasn't listening to Shia out of love.
"We are trying our best, the f*ckers are too rebellious." Jamal cursed as he kept pulling into a similar light chain, forcing the shadowy horse to behave.
"I know a trick that might make it easier for you guys to tame them." Levi interjected softly.
"What do you know about taming Nightmounts?" Sergio glared.
"Quite a bit."
Levi walked towards Sergio, using his cane. Then, he extended his hand in front and requested, "May I get some Luminus snacks?"
Shia gave a head nod to Sergio, making him reach out to his backpack and pull three small orbs, the size of marbles.
Then, he handed them to Levi with an annoyed look, "You better not waste them, I am running low on stock."
Levi merely smiled in response while walking slowly toward the giant blue-furred wolf.
Since the wolf was in the real world, it appeared as a wolfish blue aura in Levi's eyes. Still, Levi could sense that its aggression was growing with each step he got closer to it.
"My late mother's hobby was learning about nightcrawlers in general; archetypes, evolutionary paths, rarities, behavior, and the rest of their seemingly infinite peculiar qualities."
Levi shared softly while placing one Luminus snack on his palm. Then, he pressed it and it started shimmering with purified stored sunlight. The moment the three nightcrawlers noticed the light, their hunger took over their minds!
Even Shia's mount showed hints of wanting to pounce on the snack, but one cold glare from Shia made it reconsider.
Grrrrrr!!!
Meanwhile, Jamal and Sergio were forced to tightly hold onto the light chains, keeping their Nightmounts controlled.
"When studying Tier 1 nightcrawlers, she found out that besides their insatiable hunger for light, and their low intelligence, they reacted excessively to another thing."
Levi brought the Luminus snack right next to the blue-furred wolf's mouth and kept it at a short distance, forcing it to try its best to eat the snack, but to no avail.
"Sit." He ordered with the same serene smile.
The wolf completely ignored his order, its eyes still affixed on nothing but the snack.
"Sit."
Still no response.
Seeing this, Sergio had already lost his patience and commented with an irked tone, "Shia, are you really going to let him waste more of our time?"
Shia shushed him with a finger near her mouth.
"Sit."
After Levi repeated the order three times and the wolf failed to heed it, he brought the Luminus snack right in front of its eyes. Then, he tightened his palm until the orb exploded, releasing a short-lived flash!!
"..."
"..."
"..."