KINETIC

"No... Not again... I let someone get taken again..." Leo said in disbelief. The pain of having failed another friend was slowing seeping in.

"We have to... We have to get him back. We have to..." Leo turned around to speak with the rest of his group, but as he did, he saw that almost all of them were unconscious.

Cain still hadn't woken up from the injuries he sustained earlier. Clay had passed out just after Leo dashed away from him and Nila had succumbed to the needles and collapsed.

Rene had been in the middle of the group during the entire fight, but all she could do was lie down on the ground and hope she didn't get hit with anything.

Nila and Clay stood their ground so that Cain and Rene wouldn't be in their attackers direct line of sight.

Rene was sitting on the ground holding her knees with her arms. Her body was shaking and there were tears in her eyes.

The anger that Leo was feeling started to fade until all he had left was guilt. He blamed himself for not noticing the masked hiding in the forest. For being too slow to react to the attack thrown at him. For being on the ground instead of helping his friends fight. For not being fast enough to stop them from taking John...

Leo walked forwards and sat on the ground next to Rene. He activated his Aura for a moment to check on Nila and Clay. Both were still breathing and didn't seem to be in life threatening danger.

"I'm sorry..." Rene said while lightly sobbing.

"What do you have to be sorry for? I'm the one that failed everyone." Leo replied with a guilty tone.

"No... I couldn't help... I was completely useless..." Rene began crying harder, "Nila and Clay... Even John. They got hurt defending me and Cain. Cain is hurt... So no one can blame him... But what about me?" Her crying intensified.

Leo understood what Rene was saying. She felt useless because she couldn't fight. It's the same feeling Leo had his entire life as a slave.

"You don't need to be good at fighting to be useful, Rene." Leo reached his hand out and held onto Rene's arm, "You kept Cain from dying just a few minutes ago, and I wouldn't even be here if not for you." Leo paused for a moment.

Rene seemed to calm down a bit. She had been so concerned about what she couldn't do, that she didn't think about the good she's done.

"Your ability allows you to heal people, to stop death. My ability allows me to hurt people, to cause death. You're amazing in your own right, and each of us has a part to play in the world." Leo let go of Rene's arm but she immediately moved towards Leo and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"Thank you... Thank you for cheering me up. I was just so scared... I... I didn't know if I was going to die..." Rene began sobbing lightly again while holding onto Leo.

Leo embraced Rene with his arms, completing the hug. "I wouldn't let you die, you're too..." 'Important' Leo thought. "Special..." He said after a pause.

Rene continued to lightly crying for several minutes as Leo embraced her. After some time, Leo heard the bushes up ahead rustling and immediately became alert.

He jumped to his feet and pulled Rene to hers. They both stared at the forest where they heard the noise coming from and waited.

After a few moments of tense waiting, a group of people walked through the bushes. All wearing military uniforms.

"Hey! Look up ahead, there are people injured over there!" One of them shouted as they spotted Leo and the group.

"Oh gods... It's the top 2 rankers! They're both injured!" another shouted as well. Their entire hunting group ran forwards to Leo and Rene who were the only ones still standing.

Leo still had a big circle burned into his chest that made his skin looked charred. "What happened to your group?" The Officer who was accompanying this group asked Leo. It was the same officer that Leo had argued with previously.

"The officer accompanying us was killed and we were ambushed. Most of us got injured and barely survived, but they took one of my assistants with them as they disappeared." Leo replied bluntly.

He tried to summarize the situation into as few words as possible so that action could be taken quickly.

"Well, it seems like the almighty rank 1 isn't so strong after all." The officer said smugly. "Letting them take one of your group members... How irresponsible." He looked at Leo with an exaggerated expression of pity on his face.

"You think you could have done better? After having just defeated an uncommon tier beast, we were ambushed by 10 people. All highly skilled. I'd love to see you try to fight in those circumstances, Officer." Leo said with an expression of anger consuming his face.

" An uncommon tier!? I... Of course I..." The officer began saying before Leo interrupted.

"Just shut up. I don't have time for your inferiority complex to fuck things up. Help me and my group return to the carriages so that I can speak to someone that can actually do something about this." Leo said while staring into the officers eyes with an intense expression that caused fear in the officers heart.

"Y-Yes, uh, right... We should all go back, since you're all injured..." The officer said with a shaky voice.

He then turned to his group and started making arrangements. All the dead bodies would be left here except for one, which they would take back with them as proof.

Those who were unconscious were to be carried, while Leo and Rene walked. All the while Leo's group would remain at the center of the other group, so that they were protected.

While walking, Rene healed Leo as much as she could everytime her AP began to restore. Coupled with Leo's Regeneration skill, his healing was coming along quickly. Being mostly healed by the time they returned to the carriages.

Leo stopped the officer that had traveled back with them, "Ride ahead of us and inform Lieutenant Anders that we're coming and that we need to speak with him. Tell him it's urgent." Leo ordered.

The officer looked conflicted for a moment before he begrudgingly did as Leo said and climbed onto a horse and took off back towards the city.

Leo and his friends were all placed into their carriage and it began heading towards the city and academy as well. Rene did what she could to heal the others bit by bit.

Eventually, one of them woke up. "What... How did we get here? What happened?" Cain asked while still wincing in pain.