With the death of Ronald, finding survivors in the college was easy. With nowhere to go and having only one chance at survival, the survivors had to accept Zayden's condition of carrying their weight.
While this was going on, Tyrel was giving Lucas the beating of his life. Tyrel was already imagining the pain in the hearts of the girls as Lucas forced himself on them, the anger in his eyes increasing.
Zayden didn't interfere because he knew that without punishing Lucas, something like this was sure to happen, and having someone like Lucas in his shelter would be a detriment.
"Pow!! Pow!! Pow!!"
Punches rang out, groans of anger and pain escaping the mouth of Lucas as he sheilded himself from the punches of Tyrel. His eyes carried deep hatred as if looking at his sworn enemy.
'If I don't die here, then I'm going to kill you'
Lucas thought, his face already swollen. Tyrel didn't say anything, controlling his power to inflict as much pain as possible on Lucas without killing him. He wanted Lucas to feel the pain the girls felt when Lucas forced himself on them.
Suddenly, something happened.
Both Tyrel and Zayden suddenly felt a gaze lock onto them, as if being stared at by a predator, already picturing the death of its prey.
Their muscles tensed, ready to fight for their life. After all, they had been fighting for their life for a while now and were already used to it, so they were not panicking.
The void cracked, and a hand appeared in front of both Zayden and Tyrel, reaching out towards Lucas.
The hand was very familiar to them, and with the purple energy covering it, they knew who it belonged to almost immediately.
"Phantom Warlock"
It appeared slow, but it was very fast. Before the two knew what was happening, the hand had latched onto the shirt of Lucas, and in the blink of an eye, Lucas was dragged into the void.
Lucas's face showed pure terror as he felt his body going out of his control, dragged into the blackness of the void.
He looked at Zayden and Tyrel with pleading eyes, unable to find the chance to say anything.
But the duo were just as confused as he was.
"Watch your back"
The amalgamation of voices reached the ears of the duo, making them frown, and before they knew what was happening, the crack closed up and Lucas was gone.
"This is going to be troublesome"
Tyrel frowned as he spoke to Zayden. he knew that Lucas was trouble. But this trouble was getting out of hand now. If nothing was done, it would become something that neither of them would be able to handle.
While Tyrel was thinking all of this, Zayden had different thoughts.
'With the Phantom Warlock able to do something like this, what would happen when he targets one of my friends?'
A myriad of expressions appeared on his face, ranging from anger to helplessness.
With nothing to do and no way of stopping the phantom Warlock from targeting his friend, only one solution appeared in the mind of Zayden.
'I need to get stronger faster'
Determination appeared in his eyes. If he had strength, there would be no need to worry about something like this.
But now, there was nothing he could do about the situation, so he focused on the matter at hand.
Both Zayden and Tyrl headed back to the gym, where everyone was waiting. It had only been a few hours since the phantom warlock was defeated.
So the people who participated in the battle had enough time to sweep the college, avoiding nulls if necessary, while looking for survivors.
And as the night descended, Zayden and Tyrel arrived in the gym.
The gym was bustling, but not in a good way. There was tension, fear and apprehension everywhere.
The number of people in the gym increased to about five hundred. It was a miracle that this many people survived for a week without Zayden's help, but it was still a good thing.
It seemed like other people, apart from him, still had the will to survive, something that he needed.
As Zayden entered the gym, Amara and Dare appeared in front of him. If before, Amara was sceptical about Zayden, after the battle with the constellation, and the death of Raymond, there was a little bit of respect forming.
In her hand was a small notebook with a whole lot of information.
Without waiting for Zayden to give her the go-ahead, Amara began.
"There are five hundred and twenty-seven survivors in the whole college, and all of them are here"
"Of this number, seventy are higher than level five, thirty evolved and sixteen between the levels of thirteen and fifteen, the level for obtaining a class"
"Of the remaining, two hundred and forty-three are ready to level up, and the rest are still sceptical"
Hearing this, a smile crept onto the face of Zayden. The number of people who survived this time was more than ten times the number of people who survived last time.
While it was disappointing that some of them were still delusional, the number of people ready to grow was already good enough.
"That's great, gather everyone on the main team, it's time for us to leave the college"
Zayden said, heading towards a table in the gym. Amara nodded her head, listening to what Zayden said as he and Tyrel walked away.
Now, one might think, with the increased strength of the group, what was the use of leaving the college now?
They could just stay in the college and form a shelter here while surviving. Well, that was in the short term.
If they just waited in the college, forming their shelter here, they would be blocked off from the main world, and their power would stagnate. This was very bad because with the second apocalypse descending in ten years, their strength stagnating would mean almost certain death.
And finally, there was a place that Zayden knew of that could increase the strength of everyone without them actively doing anything.
That place was a treasure, and there was no way Zayden was going to let it fall into the hands of other people.
A few minutes later, everyone was seated at the long table. Everyone, including Zayden, Tyrel, Darian, Dare, Aiden, Amara, Isara, and finally Soren.
They were the strongest people in the whole of the college at the moment, and the main decision makers, with Zayden being the de facto leader.
"I am planning on forming a shelter"
Zayden dropped the bomb on them. This wasn't what they expected to hear, but the table became silent, pondering expressions appearing on the faces of everyone at the table.
Well, almost everyone. Tyrel and Darian had almost blind faith in Zayden and were ready to follow him; one shouldn't forget that without the help of Zayden, they would have already been dead.
As for Dare, it was almost the same. The despair of the apocalypse landed on him, and Zayden became his only hope, so of course, he trusted Zayden.
As for the rest, they were thinking about everything as hard as they could. After seeing the strength that Zayden displayed, it was obvious that Zayden was stronger than they, so his creating a shelter wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
While they were all thinking, Zayden dropped something onto the table. It was a gold hexagonal-shaped looking item, and it had the carving of a house on the surface.
Seeing the confusion on their faces, Zayden proceeded to explain.
"This is a faction creation token. Once a place is chosen by a faction as its shelter, and the faction is established there, this token will build a dome around the shelter for one month"
"Now this dome is special because it allows only people related to a particular faction to go through it. Nulls, and people unaffiliated with said faction can't go through the dome, but people affiliated with the faction can easily go in and out of the dope"
"This is the system's way of giving us an upper hand"
Hearing what Zayden said, they began to feel all the more that his creation of a shelter and a faction was a good idea.
"Now what's important is if you are willing to join me as members of my faction. Note, even if you don't, I'll help you leave the college, but that's where our partnership ends"
"I'm in!!!"
Zayden just finished his last statement as Darian, Tyrel and Dare agreed, almost immediately, making a smile form on the face of Zayden, his gaze turning to the rest of the team.
"What of you guys??"
****
A/N: This marks the conclusion of the first arc of Starbound Awakening, the College Arc. I will be taking an official break. This break will allow me to stock up on chapters and finalise the outline for the novel. The hiatus will be between one and four weeks. I appreciate your support, and I'm excited to see you in Arc Two!
Also, your ratings and reviews are very important for the growth of the novel, so please, review it.