Zero No Tsukaima Fan Fiction ❯ Zero No Tsukaima Darkness Rising ❯ The Strongest Town ( Chapter 9 )

The Strongest Town

 

Just as Seth said the night before the group is woken up by Seth before the sun can even be seen coming over the horizon. Seth is already ready to go as he packed up before waking everyone else up.

Rain crawls out of the tent an obvious distaste for this idea written across her face, “It was easy to be fired up about this last night.” Seth bends down and kisses her on the lips and then walks away, “Geeze, he hardly sleeps and now he is waking up before the sun rises....”

Airo using his amazing speed packs up the tent around Hina leaving her sitting in an empty shell of a tent. Within twenty minutes everyone is up and Seth leads the group on. Though his attitude and actions show a very determined person on the inside he knows that as he is if they get attacked he'd be completely useless without his runes.

At least Rain knows now maybe she can figure something out

A few hours into the journey Seth begins to remember the surrounds and actually becomes exited, “You guys are in for a real treat.”

Zion looks over Tabitha's shoulder, “Why, is there some great natural wonder or something up ahead?”

Seth kinda laughs, “More like the opposite, the town up ahead is Strongest Town” Rain nods but Zion and Airo aren't from the area so their knowledge is less than. “This place is great for someone like me. I think Saito would enjoy it too. This place is where a lot of the most powerful fighters gather to train and compete against each other.” Seth looks up in the sky and crosses his heart, “Master Gen, lived there.”

“Master Gen?”

Seth smiles back at the group, “My master, he taught me how to fight, without him I'd already be dead. In such a short amount of time he taught me how to fight to almost my full potential.”

The mood of the entire group seems to elevate because of Seth's rather uncharacteristic happiness and optimism. Seth turns around again and smiles at Rain, “This is where we finally started to get along. This place is very special to me.”

Before Rain can return the kind words smoke begins to rise over the last hill before the town. Her face turns white and Seth's smile quickly fades away. “Seth.....”

He slowly turns around the smoke just reaching into the heavens, “No” Seth sprints up the next hill and into town.

Before the group makes it to the town gates Seth is already running from house to house trying to find someone. He finally stops to catch his wind and falls to his knees. Rain runs to him and kneels down in front of him, “Rain, they are all gone...”

“Gone?”

“Dead Rain, they are all dead, because of wounds or smoke or fire, it doesn't matter they are all dead.” Seth's face is blackened from the smoke erupting from the houses he entered, “This town is suppose to be filled with the strongest fighters in all of Tristain and Germania.”

The sound of a building further down the road collapsing makes Seth rise to his feet. He puts his pack down on the ground and removes his over coat and shoves it in before closing it up, “He did this, if he sent people after us at the Magic Academy then they would have had to pass by this town.”

Another building roof collapses in and the walls fall soon after. Seth and the group slowly make their way through the town Seth at the head of the group silently reminiscing about the short time he spent in the town. As he reaches a house the causes a fork in the main road. A simple weather worn white, home with two stone steps to the front door. The building isn't on fire but the outer walls are scorched, possibly from the heat of the close neighboring buildings flames, though those are out as well.

The town's smoke continues to rising into the sky and is easily seen even as they are far enough away to not even see the town. What was once a very light mood has become some what dark as the simplest of questions if directed at Seth are replied with a, “huh?” The group reaches a very large almost mountain like hill that allows them to see the land stretched out before them. As they look on marveling at the great view Zion notices something.

“Guys there is a group of people down there.” Zion points at a group of four all in black cloaks similar to the one worn by the man that attacked Seth and Rain at Tristain.

Seth begins to quickly make his way down the hill and is half way down before anyone notices. As Seth reaches the bottom Airo is already waiting for him, having used his increased skills in movement to reach the bottom faster.

“We should wait.”

“You can wait.” Seth walk right past Airo and continues on.

Airo looks back up and sees that everyone else is still only about half way down and runs after Seth. “What are we gonna do, capture and question them.”

“Kill them all.”

“You can't be serious.”

Seth flashes him a look before speeding up his pace. His eyes holding so many different emotions and wants, though at the moment revenge seems his strongest. He begins to run with Airo keeping a slight distance behind him, knowing that at this point in time if he continued to try and stop Seth, he might end up fighting him.

 

 

A few hours pass and Seth and Airo still haven't caught the group ahead of them.

“Why haven't we caught up with them yet!?” Seth stops and turns to Airo like he expects his friend to apologize for this problem.

Airo stops and looks at the foot imprints left by the people, “I don't know if they where running then the imprints would be different, I'm starting to think we should wait for everyone else.”

“Maybe you should use your power to catch up with those people.” Seth puts his hands over his head and begins to follow the tracks again.

Airo doesn't respond to Seth's quick fire words, laced with insults, instead he just stays behind Seth and stays quiet.

After a few steps something flies over their heads to quick to be seen, just heard.

Seth stops and quickly scans the area for somewhere to hide, but they are in the middle of an open field, “Back to back.”

Airo quickly jogs up to him and spins so that they have a full circle of vision around them.

The wind seems to completely die and a sharp whistling sound begins to ring through the area. Airo looks up and finds the cause of it, “Dragon!”

Airo and Seth duck low to the ground so that they aren't blown away by he powerful winds pushed at them from the dragon's wings. The group of people jump off of the dragons back and stand before Seth and Airo.

Seth stands up and takes his stance, “Did you burn down that down back there!?”

One of the four, the second shortest puts his hands behind his back and begin to laugh like a pig. The man behind him easily twice his height bends down and puts an arm around the shorter mans shoulder and begins to laugh, his body practically convulsing.

Seth brings his arms to his side and stands up straight, visually challenging the larger man, “Answer me scum!”

The large man suddenly stops laughing and though his cloak is still blocking his face from being completely seen a scowl is faintly seen on his face. He turns to the shortest of the group, “Allison, let's see that magic again huh,” For a man that easily stands over six feet tall his rather placid voice doesn't seem to match.

The shortest of the cloaked group, Allison, steps in front of the group and whips his arm out. A wand comes out of her large sleeves and she grabs is just before it can get away from her. With one fluid motion she draw her left arm up and her right arm moves until the wand to pointing right at Seth and Airo.

The woman removes her hood and pink flowing hair falls past her shoulders, “Explosion.”