"I am so happy that senior Kaelen decided to bring me in this excursion," a girl squirmed as she looked at a guy far ahead walking his head held high.
"I know right? He has proven to be the only one with matching talent," another girl chirped in with the same look of adoration in her eyes.
"Don't you just love him?" Another one said and stars really reflected in her eyes.
The three girls were walking together and ahead of them was a three-girl trio but they did not seem to be interested in whatever these three were talking about.
Behind them were two guys walking with their hand folded on their chest. They walked closely to the girls and they looked at each other and smiled.
"Isn't senior Kaelen cool?" One of the guys asked and the other nodded as his eyes trailed back to the girls walking in front of them. They really had nice figures. Their swaying hips though not that prominent made the duo forget that they were the rear guard.
Leading them all was non other than senior Kaelen as they kept calling him. He was a guy who had black hair that was well trimmed. He was taller than the whole group and his white robes had a very different texture than theirs. He wore a black belt that seemed to mark that he had a higher status than them all who had a white belt. He was the vanguard as he was the strongest of the group.
Behind him was a guy who followed closely at his footsteps. He seemed to be more serious than them all and closest to height to Kaelen than them all.
Only he had a spear that he did not let go. The three girls behind him had bows and arrows strapped on their backs. Guessing their ages, they were all likely fifteen years old.
Kaelen had an aura of an 8th stage Awakening Realm and this guy was the strongest after him being at the 7th stage. The rest were in the sixth stage apart from the girls who were chirping. They were in the 5th stage.
This was the average formation for those who wanted to venture deep into the wood like they had done. There was a silence that ensued and everyone stopped and they reached for their weapon. They then formed a circle around each other and stared around. The speed they regrouped showed that they were used to having this sort of situation.
They waited as they heard the crunching of leaves as a nearby bush quivered. There came a black boar that seemed to be new in the 7th stage.
Alone, neither of them stood a chance except Kaelen but as a group, they were more than enough to take it out. The boar bared its malice towards them as it charged at them. The two guys brandished their swords as they ran towards the boar.
They performed a sword technique each and a blue glow covered their swords as they leapt in the air swinging their swords hard. Their speed when performing the technique was not bad and their swords landed but they did little damage on the boar as they retreated. They looked at the shallow sword marks they had left as they took in deep breaths.
They stood behind the three girls who now had their bows drawn and aiming at the boar. The boar had let out a loud roar as they had left some damage on it. Its eyes were unfocused and fury seemed to reflect in its eyes. They had managed to anger it but wasn't the best way to win to make the opponent make mistakes by making them mad and lose their cool?
The boar started charging once again but it barely registered the three arrows that came tearing through the air. Two of them hit it in the eyes and another pierced through its neck. The boar fell forwards as it skidded in the ground. Blood falling from its eyes and neck. It let out one last cry as its hind legs kicked.
Their combination was topnotch and it appeared they did not need to be coordinated by Kaelen who had not even drawn his sword. He clapped as he walked towards the dead boar and slicing its neck with one swing of his sword. He then pierced it with the sword tip and raised it high as the group shouted after their victory.
"Good job everyone. It seems that our training all this while has paid off. We have been travelling non stop and I think that we should take a rest. Our lunch just delivered itself to us," Kaelen said and the group laughed and complied.
After all, they had been travelling the whole day and they were tired and hungry.
They set up a camp and started tearing the skin off the boar with their swords and they started a fire which the fifth stage girls used to roast the boar.
It was until one hour later that they were finished. Everyone had been salivating but they were right about done. They had no qualms with each other as they went ahead and cut of a piece of the boar and sat down beneath a tree and started munching on it.
They ate in silence and with their weapon kept besides them. In Kaelen's thoughts, he had only one thing bothering him. He was the number two student and the number one overshadowed him with an entire stage above him. He would not keep a grudge but being compared with a girl who had joined the academy one year later left him a forgotten hero.
He wanted to improve to the ninth stage soon and he would reach her level. Then he was going to reclaim his number one position from her. He bit the meat hard as he recalled that he was in a mission under her command. His face contorted with the thought as he pulled the bone ferociously leaving a chunk of meet in his mouth and some dangling from his mouth.
He saw the others were looking at him but when his eyes met them, they looked away except for a certain trio that had not been looking at him at all as they all knew just what kind of effect this mission had on him.
They all knew just how Kaelen hated to lose but also how he fawned over the girl. It was funny how he fawned over yet he wanted to surpass her but only men could understand his plight as his gang had a serious look on their face.
Everyone went on with their meal but it was then they heard some sound above them. Their hearing had improved after all and they could hear something was falling from the trees. They looked up but the thick branches made it difficult to see anything. And they could only wait. They guessed it was not a fruit because it was not their seasons yet.
They stopped chewing as the falling thing kept getting closer and it was just in time when they saw a mirage of something but it was hidden by a branch that it had fallen on. They were now curious what it was and they did not have to wait for a longer period because whatever the thing they had seen was seemed to fall from the branch.
Their eyes widened because what they saw first was a bare back of the thing they were waiting for. Well, it appeared it was not a thing because they could see features that were definitely… Human?
They could not move as it fell on the ground on its back. There was a thud and they did not know whether the person was alive. It would have been difficult to tell his gender but they all saw the sure-fire indication that it was a boy. On his right hand was a sheathed sword. They thought he died after fall because they knew just how tall the trees were.
The girls were the first to react as their bodies acted on their own with their faces turning red. A sixth stage girl had a nosebleed and her hand released the meat she was holding. The others were more composed but it was probably because their eyes had not looked away from the manhood of the dead boy.
They were paralyzed and even the guys seemed to realize that there was a dead body laying before them. Well, that changed when they saw movement from the dead person. Horror filled them as the slowly watched him force himself to sit up and shamelessly look at his manhood and heaving a sigh of relief.
It might have been comical but their danger sense was activated as they realized it was probably some stray cultivator or a spy. This thought seemed to come to them automatically and it was just in time the boy looked at them with tired eyes and went through them one at a time surprise and dejection reflecting his eyes.
They quickly picked their weapons and unanimously charged towards him not bothering to ask him any questions…