Drake stood high up on a tree branch, his expression quickly reverting to the usual calm one he had always worn.
He remained silent for a few more seconds, as if he hadn't heard Jacob's question.
Jacob raised his right brow slightly, revealing a look of confusion on his face.
"Drake, is something wro…" before he could finish speaking, Drake spoke again.
"How old are you exactly?"
Jacob fell into deeper confusion after hearing this question. He couldn't tell if this was a joke or if Drake was actually serious.
"Is this a joke?" He chuckled awkwardly before he continued speaking. "If it is a joke, it's not funny."
Drake however, gave him no reply.
Seeing this, Jacob frowned. "I turn 17 soon. We need to go, Beatrice needs us."
Hearing this dragged a grin out of Drake's calm facial expression.
So I was right! It'd be stupid to think luck's the reason I ran into him so suddenly. That damn old man was right, someone really is controlling it.
He turned around as he thought to himself. The smile on his face slowly fading away.
These damn flames are too hot.
Jacob had already started leaping from tree to tree by the time Drake followed.
Once Drake caught up to him, his eyes widened slightly as he turned to look at Jacob without stopping.
"What did you mean when you said Beatrice needs our help?"
Jacob kept his gaze forward, in the direction they were traveling in as he replied to Drake.
"Don't act dumb now, you know exactly what I'm talking about."
While Jacob said this, that slight and innocent looking smile returned to his face.
Drake too, looked forward once he heard Jacob's reply.
"It's attacking now? I thought it'd wait for the perfect opportunity."
Jacob replied again, leaping over multiple trees while they continued their conversation.
"This is the perfect opportunity for it. We aren't there after all."
Drake smiled slightly when he heard this.
"So this was your plan huh? How did you know of Beatrice?"
Jacob turned his head slightly to Drake's direction.
"What do you mean?"
"So you went on a guess? I'd be a fool to believe that."
Jacob faced forward once again after hearing what Drake said.
"I don't know what you're talking about. But, it's obvious from the way she manipulates her divinity that she's received high levels of training from someone powerful."
Jacob turned his head slightly while he spoke, and took a quick glance at Drake.
"Just like you."
Drake smiled, his eyes still faced forward after hearing what Jacob said.
"Anyway, they're up ahead." Jacob finally said in a calm and flat tone.
*****
When they reached the campsite where they had left the rest of the group at, Beatrice, Tarth and old man Henry were all faced in the same direction with their guards up.
Trees were chopped and had fallen to the ground. Ice covered most of the open space, and the ground was full of holes and most of it had been crushed.
The group were facing in the same direction.
Facing back at them was Simon.
When Jacob and Drake got there, they stopped quite a distance away to observe and figure out what was happening.
When they finally got a clear view of the situation, Drake's eyes widened in shock!
He could tell it was Simon that everyone else was up against, but something felt off to him. What he felt was an indescribable feeling, as if he knew something was missing but he just couldn't figure out what it was.
Jacob couldn't see Drake's facial expression, so he never realized something was wrong.
"You're back already? A pitty, you were too fast. I could have ended them first, then picked you two off later on."
No one could hear what he was saying. All they heard were screeching sounds.
Simon's voice was sharp and twisted as he spoke. It sounded like the screeching sound of metal items scraping on each other.
Divinity filled the air as he spoke, causing Beatrice's legs to shake under the immense pressure.
When one's divinity is much higher than the another, releasing it could cause the weaker of the two to yield under the stronger pressure or in the worst case, it could even lead to losing consciousness.
The former was the case for Beatrice. She could feel her legs slowly giving out under the weight of Simon divinity. She could feel herself struggle to breath, it felt like gravity itself was against her.
To a certain extent, the same could be said for Drake who was a distance away. Although it wasn't as bad for him, he could feel the sweat rolling down from his forehead.
Jacob was completely fine.
Seeing this distracted Drake from whatever disturbed him so much about the Simon he was seeing before him.
"Do you not feel how dense his divinity is?"
Jacob simply shook his head after hearing this question.
"I feel it… it's just not that strong."
Drake looked forward again after getting a reply.
How high are your divinity levels then? As a regular human of divinity they shouldn't be that much higher than mine… but clearly that's the case.
Strangely, down at the campsite Tarth and old man Henry seemed to be just fine too.
Seeing this caused Drake's brows to furrow.
"Jacob… Tarth and the old man don't seem to be affected at all. Are they in on it?"
Jacob looked surprised for a second, then his expression quickly turned serious. He seemed to be in deep thoughts for a few seconds.
While this was happening, Beatrice covered herself in a layer of divinity across her entire body.
Although she could finally breath normally again after this and her movements became more stable, she could still feel the heavy pressure of Simon's divinity to an extent and this messed with her balance and movements.
Drake needs to come back quickly. I've used up most of my divinity from trying to keep up with this monstrosity while protecting myself with divinity.
"Mr Henry, you and Tarth need to leave while I'm still keeping him busy."
She turned to look at the old man while talking. She had a calm expression on her face while she spoke, even under this much pressure.
"No! We'll fight together. You are under no duty to protect us little girl."
Tarth's reply was direct but had a lot of meaning to it. He knew that she felt responsible for what happened to Manther. He knew she had the highest chance at getting them all out of that situation alive. Every one of them knew.
Beatrice's face twisted.
"What are you gonna do?! It's much harder to fight with your help than it would be if I was alone."
Tarth's expression change, he looked visibly angry at her remark.
Before he could say anything however, Jacob landed from the air right in between them.
Both of them jumped back at the sight of this, clearly surprised.
While this distracted everyone, Drake went straight for Simon.
Flames covered his hands with divinity covering his entire body.
He and Simon then engaged in hand to hand combat. Every blow they unleashed sent slight shockwaves everywhere.
Simon clearly had the upper hand in the battle in terms of raw power due to how high his divinity was, however Drake matched this through skill and precision.
He evaded and countered every blow threw at with maximum efficiency.
Jacob turned to face Beatrice.
"We aren't going to make it if we split up. We might even get picked off one by one instead. It'd be be better if we just stand our ground here and end it today."
He was calm as he spoke, offering Beatrice a slight smile.
Beatrice was still wide eyed, staring at Jacob as he spoke.
"You're back already?"
Jacob turned away and looked in the direction of the battle Drake was engaged in.
"Don't you agree?" He answered Beatrice's question with a question of his own.
Tarth smiled.
"Yes Beatrice, we can't keep running and hiding forever."
Beatrice looked at Tarth, then looked down with a shy look on her cold and beautiful face.
Then she nodded her head slightly.
While she did, Drake took a leap back, landing next to her. He successfully opened up distance between himself and Simon.
Drake was clearly out of breath. His breathing was heavy and sweat streamed down his face.
"What's the plan, Jacob?"
They all turned to Jacob once Drake spoke.
Beatrice was confused by Drake's words.
Why is he asking Jacob what the plan is? He's shown to be quite smart, but to ignore all of us here…
While she thought to herself, Jacob took a step forward.
He narrowed his eyes with a serious expression on his face. After pausing for a few seconds he spoke to Drake in a calm tone.
"Drake, describe what Simon looks like to me. Only his facial features."
Once he said this, old man Henry's face turned pale, surprise taking over his expression immediately.
Drake looked closely at Simon. He could see the clothes he was wearing, he could tell which expression he was making… but he couldn't tell what his face looked like.
It was confusing to him. He neither knew which colour Simon's hair was nor could he figure out whether he had facial hair or not.
Beatrice's looked at him. She too, couldn't make out the specifics. It twisted her expression.
What's going on here?
She couldn't understand what was happening as she thought to herself.
Drake turned to Jacob. "I can't describe him. Have you figured something out?"
Jacob nodded his head slightly, turning around to face old man Henry.
Once he did, Jacob drew his sword from his waist. His expression turned cold as he stared straight in old man Henry's direction.
He stabbed his sword into the ground and reached up to his head to tie up his long black hair in a long tail.
His entire face was revealed once he did. Pale white skin and black eyes, the black jeweled earrings swaying slightly as he moved about, tying his hair.
He reach to grab the sword and lifted it, pointing it straight at the old man.
"I'm certain you can see his facial feature either. He's the one controlling Simon."
He paused, maintaining his cold expression. Then he spoke again.
"Luckily he's not a divine creature yet, but he's close. I'm not strong enough to win, so after you, Beatrice and Tarth take down Simon, come over immediately to help me."
Tarth, Beatrice and Drake. Each one of them had looked flabbergasted. They never once expected this to be the case.
Old man Henry chuckled at the sight of this.
"I should've started with after all." He paused, letting out a menacing laugh.
"No matter, you will all be dying here regardless."