Riven was running as fast as he could from the splitting ground. He and his group were doing good staying away, and even though some people from the Storm Guild fell in, it was mainly because they were trying to protect the group—since they were behind them, making sure no beast snuck up from behind. It cost them their lives.
"Are these people so committed that they will risk their life for this man and his orders?" Riven thought.
"Hey, are you okay?" Jude said, looking at Emmett, who was gasping for air while running uncoordinated.
"Yeah, I could do this all day," Emmett replied.
But one stray rock knocked the boy's position off, making him fall. Before he could hit the ground and be taken by the splitting terrain, he was caught.
"Rowan, you know you could've just left them, right?" a man said.
"No. He wants us to protect them, so we will protect them. End of story," Rowan said. She was the same woman who stuck with the group the entire time, not leaving their side for a second.
"Well, I guess there are a few cracks in this guild," Riven thought, commenting on the words that the man spoke.
"Every guild has some type of crack in it—either a traitor among them, people who won't really listen to their leader's orders, or in-fighting," Jude said through the link.
A big crackle was heard while they were running. For the first time, the group knew what this sound meant as they looked up to one of the crystals, which looked to be charging up energy and blasting down toward them. They all moved out of the way, with Jude barely able to dodge the bolt coming his way.
"Jesus, those things are really fast and huge," Jude commented.
After a few more minutes of them running and dodging the quick lightning coming from the crystal above, the rumbling of the terrain soon stopped, and the splitting of the ground stopped with it. When the group stopped, none of them were really out of breath since they were all in their second awakening. Same for the people in the Storm Guild, none of them were out of breath either, but they still needed time to mentally rest and gather their thoughts about what just happened. The only person who was truly out of breath was Emmett. He never awakened to any stage, so it made sense that the boy was extremely out of breath. While Emmett was on all fours catching his breath, Rowan walked up to him and gave him a bottle, which the boy instantly drank down.
"What was that? That doesn't taste like water," Emmett said, coughing.
"You're right. It's not. It's supposed to allow you to regain most of your stamina back. You should be feeling almost back to normal," the woman said while walking away.
Emmett immediately stood up and bowed.
"Thank you," he said.
Rowan gave him a nod as she went to talk to her group.
"So what do we do now, Grandmaster Phineas?" a person asked him.
"Truthfully, sir, I feel like we should just leave. Level 10—heck, even level 8 beasts are dangerous to us. If it wasn't for the equipment we have on, we would die in one hit. And even this equipment isn't really up to date. We're only in Level Four armor," another person added, putting their thoughts in the air.
"No. We can't. We all know why the Evolaris Family sent us here and why they don't give us that good of equipment either. They want us to fall behind. They want us to lose out. If we come back now empty-handed, who knows what they would do to nerf our power even more. We must make it through this trial that they have set for us and beat it to become on their level. Now many do not know this, but I'm going to let out a little secret. I might have a way to catch up with them—but it will most likely take time. But in that time, our manpower will grow. You just have to be patient. Can you do that for me?" Phineas gave an empowering speech, which encouraged his people to stay and follow him down his path.
"Phineas, you fool," Rowan muttered under her breath. But Riven heard her and walked up.
"Why would you call him a fool? Phineas handled that level 8 beast no problem, and with all of you guys' power, you'd most likely be able to take on a level 9 beast and a level 10, right?" Riven said.
"That's how I can tell you're a kid or just some dumb guy with no experience," Rowan said. "The level between Level 8 and Level 9 is a major difference. And mind you, Phineas didn't defeat that beast with ease. His Evolution does have its limits—one of those being he could say a word, but it would most likely have no effect on the beast. The snake beast's entire scaled body should've softened when he said his words, but only the head did—meaning the beast was powerful enough to resist him. And if a Level 8 beast was powerful enough to resist him, imagine what a Level 9 or Level 10 would be like."
Rowan's words made Riven really think about it, and the boy shook his head.
"No, I won't make the same mistake that I did with our first outing," Riven thought.
"What are you planning to do?" Tessa questioned.
"You'll see," Riven replied back.
"I think I know what he's gonna do," Leo said.
"Same," Jordan agreed.
"What exactly is he gonna do?" Jude asked.
"Remember what happened during our first outing? A lot of students could've avoided being killed if we gave them some of those weapons. But we put a price on them. And after all those students' deaths—and what Nico said when she bought the weapons in the first place—it hurt Riven. He always thought maybe if he didn't put a price on those weapons, most of those students would've lived."
"They all would've lived," Riven yelled back in his head.
"Would they, Riven?" Jude questioned. "You guys couldn't take on the wolves even with the armor. Maybe, yes—the beast they'd be able to take on. But not those werewolf experiment things. They would have died all the same." Jude's words were cold, but everyone knew it was the truth as well.
"Not this time," Riven said back.
"Hey Phineas, can we talk?" Riven said out loud, pointing toward the distance and signaling the yellow-haired man he wanted to talk away from the group.
"Hey, you call him Guild Master Phineas, or Sir. Got it?" a person walked up, angry at how Riven greeted their guild master.
"It's okay," Phineas said, calming them down. Then he walked away with Riven.
"What is it, kid?" Phineas questioned.
"Stay still," Riven responded, using Phineas as a shield to cover himself so others wouldn't see what he was doing.
"What are you doing?" Phineas questioned as he saw a glow coming from the boy's hand. Then a silver-gray armor appeared in Riven's hand—it looked like something a knight would wear back in medieval times.
"What—how did a—" But before Phineas could ask, Riven cut him off.
"Don't ask questions. Just know I can do this. Do not tell anyone I can do this. You owe me. Always remember that," Riven said, giving the man the armor.
Phineas nodded and took the armor. The yellow-haired man was about to slowly take off the armor he had on, but Riven soon stopped him—putting his hand on the chest of the armor and placing it into a storage space, making it all disappear—then giving him the silver armor to wear. The man immediately put it on.
[Bastion Ward Armor Set]
Active Ability — "Tactical Overdrive"
Effect: Boosts all basic movement and combat functions by 15% (attack speed, movement speed, reload speed if applicable) for 10 seconds.
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Passive Ability — "Stability Core"
Effect: Reduces all stagger, knockback, and stun durations by 20%.
Also grants minor auto-balancing, making it harder to be interrupted by weaker attacks.
Stats: Strength +50 | Speed +40 | Durability +70
"Bring me two more of your most trusted people, and I'll give them the same armor as yours," Riven said, looking Phineas dead in the eyes. The man nodded.
He then brought over two more people, one being a man and the other being Rowan. Riven gave them the same armor he gave Phineas, but they had to take off their armor manually since the storage space was running out of slots.
"I feel incredible!" the man yelled. "What level is this equipment?" he asked, looking at Riven with joy.
"Level Six."
When Riven said this, it shocked Phineas and the other two members—Level Six weapons were hard to come by and craft, but an entire armor was a whole different story.
"You pull Level Six armor out of your ass—why don't you make it for everyone?" the man asked.
"Can't do that. It Comes at a cost," Riven said, looking at his hand.
They didn't question what that cost was but decided to leave it. Before Phineas walked away, he patted Riven on the shoulder.
"We need to have another business talk later," Phineas said with a big smile. "Also, one more thing." Phineas then grabbed a red pen out of his bag and started drawing on Riven's cloak.
"All right, and done. Now I officially make you a member of the Storm Guild. You didn't have to do what you did today—even if your own life was on the line. You yourself probably have Level Six equipment as well, maybe even higher. Yet you still offered this to us for free, of all things. Your kindness will be rewarded and we will support you. Also, you might want to draw on your friends' clothes as well—I don't have time to do all that." Phineas's last words as he handed Riven the pen and walked away.
When Riven looked down at his cloak, he saw what looked like a cloud with lightning coming out of it. One thought went through Riven's mind:
"What a bad drawing."
When he walked back to his group, they all pretty much knew what had happened. With the pen, Riven drew the same thundercloud on each of their cloaks.
"You're not so good yourself," Tessa commented.
"He's doing his best," Leo said. But when he took a real good look at his, he thought the same thing as Tessa.
"Yeah, if you're gonna talk about somebody else's drawing, you need to be an artist yourself my guy," Jordan said, laughing.
"Oh, shut up already. Give me a break," Riven replied.
"Did you guys hear what he said, though? He said he officially invited us to the Storm Guild. So what was that he said yesterday?" Jude asked.
"A lie, most likely. Which means what Emmett said was true. He would've gotten rid of us—heck, he probably would've gotten rid of us during this outing if it wasn't for what Riven just did," Jordan deduced what Phineas meant by those words.
"So now we're a part of the Storm Guild. You know, being a part of a guild doesn't really feel empowering," Leo noted.
"I mean, what did you expect? These guys only get Level Four armor from the Families—meaning most likely the Family takes most of their gemstones and all of their high-level gemstones. Like they said, the Storm Guild is one of the highest guilds trying to become a part of the Family, and they're doing everything in their power to stop that. But with us—or rather, Riven—we technically have the resources they need to become one of the great Families," Jude concluded.
As Phineas spoke up:
"Okay. Thanks to some new outside help—which I guess is now inside help since they're a part of the guild—we now have enough manpower to take on virtually anything. And after all the noise that was made, beasts are probably coming this way. So everyone keep their eyes peeled. The Evolaris Family didn't think we'd make it out of here, but little do they know, after this we'll become even stronger!" Phineas said with joy in his eyes, lifting his hand in a fist. "Are you with me?!"
Everyone else followed with a war cry, calling out Phineas's name.
"He's getting overconfident, isn't he? If what Rowan said was right—even with that armor—he'll most likely still not be able to take on a Level 10 beast. But with their group, they should be able to take them on," Jude said with a smile.
But as the group was yelling, more cracks started to form in the terrain—and it split again. And thanks to Riven and his group all being in the back, no one noticed… until the last minute, when the group fell down a deep, dark hole.