Before I could react, the enemy had started attacking. Snapping out of my trance I mentally slapped myself; I needed to concentrate and focus on the most important thing at hand – which is keeping everyone and myself alive. Tom had creating a ring of fire around us, immediately causing the two men in black to back away. In front of us Steven had his strange armour back on and managed to get Kailey, Emily and Jeremy behind him. Luckily for us we managed to gather up pretty close to each other.

Conjuring up the strongest mind wall I could I blasted it towards the four guys trying to attack the trio and successfully pushed them away for a few tens of meters. The force knocked them clean off the ground and I was surprised at its effect. Usually it’s not as powerful as this.

“Come here!” I shouted, frantically gesturing for them to join us inside the ring of fire. For a gut wrenching three seconds I watched them galloped across the small space between us and made it into the fire ring, I was relieved that Tom had let them in; there were a good chance he would just leave them out.

Steven nodded appreciatively in our direction before ramming into three of the attackers, effectively crashing them.

Looking around I saw we were surrounded by a good seven of the enemy. They outnumbered us from the beginning; although I thought there were more of them than this. I looked at Jeremy, hoping he would get my message; Emily and Kailey were a bit useless here, since there was no plant around us due to the fire and the emotion control thing wasn’t too much of a help at the moment.

“Ga-Gwen.” Tom shouted, gesturing with his head to the left, letting me know that I was meant to deal with those coming in from that way. Giving one last glance at Jeremy, who seemed to be under some kind of a panic attack alongside Kailey and unlikely to offer me any help. Emily was surprisingly calm about this and stood in a fighting stance. Not that it was going to be much use.

I pulled my blades out, thankful that I didn’t just dropped them on the ground next to the Legres. I left two over the fire, letting them grew hot whilst I aimed the other two at the two trying to jumped through the fire wall.

To my dismay, they seemed to be wearing some kind of body armour underneath the flimsy looking black clothings. Smoke was starting to build up around us as the grass was burnt out and the fire began to burn the soil. The smoke sting my eyes and the smell was awful; however the wind was blowing away from us so they were getting a worst deal.

Using my mind sensing skill, I took this to my advantage and aimed at the assassin’s eyes whilst he was coughing. The blade slashed him right in the right eye ball and he let out a shrill scream and dropping to the ground. I should have driven the knife right through his eye but I couldn’t bring myself to do something so gruesome.

“Gwen! Now isn’t the time to be soft.” Emily sighed next to me; how the heck did she see what I did? She gave me a glare before turning to Kailey and Jeremy and started scolding them.

Feeling slighted I turned back around to see the man that I cut on the right eye getting back up. Blood was gushing out from his wound as he held tight to it. His comrades didn’t seem too bothered by it, and that’s when I saw the darts they were holding.

“Watch out!” I screamed, throwing up a mind wall just in time to block out those darts. Jeremy’s face whitened as he picked one that had managed to squeeze through my mind wall by shear force. I realised quickly that my mind wall was breaking down slowly. The darts were poisonous.

“Can you cure this?” Kailey asked, the two of them appeared to be functional now, if not slightly shaken. Tom was still throwing fire balls at the attackers from the other side who thankfully didn’t appeared to have poisonous darts to throw. His face was the colour of milk and I knew he wouldn’t be able to hold it and attack people for long.

“We need to get out of here.” I said, slashing the now red hot blades towards the enemy. I was beginning to feel drained and not even one of the enemies was down. One of them managed to dodge it but I was able to cut the man with the injured eye across his stomach. This time I made sure I used enough force to cut through the body armour; the heat probably helped.

In an agonising scream he dropped to his knee, his hands flew towards his stomach as if trying to hold himself together. Sicken by the sight I turned away so I didn’t have to see it; my heart heavy with the realisation that I had probably killed him.

They are the enemy. I told myself, retrieving both blades and aimed them towards the remaining attackers. It’s you or them.

“You need to get out of here.” Ho appeared out of nowhere, a long sword in each hand dispatching the two men quickly. My eyes widened as blood oozed out of their throats and the two of them fell onto the ground, struggling to breath. Gulping down the bile threatening to rise I nodded at Ho, who was covered in blood and half a dozen cut. Tom dropped the fire wall and Ho began herding us along, with Steven joining us half way towing Vladimir and an injured John behind him, his arm supporting a girl who seemed to be unconscious.

“Is that all of us?” Ho asked incredulously, before shaking his head and kicking the attacker he just knocked down in the ribs. I felt sick to my stomach as I took in all the blood on everyone; we were lucky with Tom’s power. I tried not to pay close attention to the bodies littered across the floor; it was a lucky break that my entire group survived…As we ran away I wondered where the rest of the enemies have went. They outnumbered us by so much.

 Worried, I made sure I kept my mind opened for the one mile radius around us. I didn’t even realised I dropped it during the fight; I really needed to focus and stop freaking out.

The moment I did I sensed a group fighting in front of us. I vaguely recognised a few people and I instantly knew that they must be Tom’s teammates; they must have made an escape when we were fighting, or they were chased away.

My mind involuntarily jumped back to the image of the illusionist donning the black mask on with a smirk. Did I hallucinated or did it really happen? Everything seemed to be so surreal; like I was experiencing it in someone else’s body.

“Someone’s ahead of us.” Just as I was contemplating whether I should tell everyone, John’s weakened voice called; he nodded towards the direction of the group, his face white as sheet and if it wasn’t for Vladimir supporting him he would not even be standing. Jeremy had the unconscious girl on his back and seemed to be struggling a little; I stole a glance at Tom and knew he was unlikely to help.

I had never seen Ho looked so conflicted before; he looked as though there were a battle inside him. Steven had also adopted a frown as well, looking around like a paranoia. I watched as the two of them trying to communicate to each other through stares; I could tell Steven wasn’t very keen on the idea but Ho seemed to grow more determined by the minute.

“We need to go and help them.” John said, gesturing towards the group’s direction. My eyes shot towards him in surprised, I never expected John to be a helper, especially not in this kind of situation. I could see hesitation in everyone’s face. We all want to save them, but it would also mean risking our own lives.

Deep in thoughts, I felt something grabbing hold of my hand and I looked down to see someone’s hand holding onto mine. Bewildered, I followed the hand up and saw that it was Tom. His lips was pressed together tightly and as I looked at him he tightened his grip on me.

“We are staying together.” He said, still not looking at me. My heart warmed by this gestured and I could feel myself blushing. Luckily everyone was busy with their own internal conflicts so no one was paying us any attention.

After what seemed like an eternity I saw Ho nodded and lead the way towards the big group; my heart started beating fast in my chest, but whether it’s from the prospect of the upcoming conflict or the fact that Tom was holding my hands I had no idea. I couldn’t afford to start having feelings towards him, I couldn’t, there’s too much at stake…

Before I had time to investigate further into my feelings towards Tom, I was pulled forward by the group, moving cautiously towards the fighting ground. Everyone was feeling tense and I could tell Kailey was trying to deal with that; but if she’s not convinced herself, then it’s not going to work.

“What’s the plan?” I heard John whispered to Ho after finally limping next to him with Vladimir’s help. The girl was still unconscious and it would be unwise to bring her into battle, if that’s what we planned to do.

“We need to get Lyanne out.” Ho said, I saw Tom’s head perked up and concluded it must be his group leader’s name. My mind flashed back to the wicked smile of the illusionist and I felt my stomach twist in nausea. Nudging Tom I related the story to him; he knew his group better than I do, maybe he could shed some light on the situation.

“No way.” Tom almost exclaimed, but quickly dropping down into quieter tone; but it was too late, everyone had heard him and turned around to look at us.

“What’s going on here?” Ho asked, eyes darting towards our connected hand and I could feel myself turning scarlet. Desperate to divert their attention I retold the story.

“You mean Hamish?” Ho’s brow was furrowed together so intensely that he looked like his face was permanently contracted. Steven had a similar expression on and I watched them carefully; none of us except them and Tom knew this guy. But the look on Lyanne’s face told me that this guy had been the perfect actor all this time.

I stole a glance at Tom. Our hands were still intertwined and he looked like he was in pain; I wanted to read his thoughts but I was afraid of what I would find there. Instead I settled on watching Ho, he seemed to pondered over the information and the rest of my group broke into small conversations. Emily however was staring at me and Tom’s hand, an unreadable expression on her face. I thought about removing my hand from Tom’s but at that precise moment his grip on me tightened. No then…

“Gwen, if what you are saying is true…” Ho started, pinching the bridge of his nose with a grim expression. “We are in big, big trouble.”

The whole group fell silent. Ho looked and Steven who shook his head at him; with his shoulder slumped down, Ho lead the group into a nearby bush.

“If what Gwen said is true, we are in much more trouble than I thought.” He said in a hushed voice, my heart sank. “This could be an organised attack planned for years. I really hope it isn’t true, but It would make sense, we have never seen so many trained killers out, especially not for a group of novice.”

Tom and I shared a look, guilt flooded through me as i realised that it could be us that had caused this. We were the only variable in the equation. Nothing else had change.

“I need to speak to Lyanne to confirm the story.” Ho said, eyes briefly connecting with mine. “I need to find out if it’s really true.” I nodded to let him know that I understood. It was necessary.

“I need you guys to run.” He declared out of the blue, shocking us all. I was mentally preparing myself to go in there. “If they are attacking us, we need to get words back.”

“You can’t go in alone.” Vladimir said suddenly, straightening up letting John slide onto the floor. I could see Emily giving him a panicked glare but he ignored it. “You need all the help you can get.”

John gave out a yelp as he glided into a not-so-graceful position. He grimaced at his leg and pulled himself into a sitting position. “I will go with you too, it’s not like I could run very far with a bump leg.”

My mouth slacked and I stared at John; whilst I never pin him as the kind that put himself first, he didn’t strike me as the guy who would sacrifice himself for others.

Ho shook his head at them. “I can’t have you risking your life to go with me on a suicide mission. You are the future of Ganesh family guard, the more of you that get away, the more likely one of you can pass on the message of the ambush.”

“They are coming.” I said, my heart racing as my mind told me that a group of ten had detached and rushing towards us, they must have a mentalist on their side as well.

“Run.” Ho said to Steven, nodding his head towards us. With a grave nod the giant man took a step towards us and hoisted the unconscious girl over his shoulder and herded us away. But Vladimir stood his ground, whilst John remained on the floor, and to my surprise, Jeremy and Kailey as well.

“What are you guys doing?” I cried, but Steven was solid behind me, pushing me forward. Kailey gave me a weak smile whilst Jeremy just looked pained. Emily was lingering a little as well, casting furtive glances at Vladimir. Ho frowned at them and faced Kailey.

“You are no use even if you stay.” He said harshly, but not entirely unkind. Kailey’s face whitened and allowed herself and Jeremy to be dragged away by a retreating Emily. I cast another glance at Vladimir and John, were we really just going to leave them?

“They want to stay.” Steven said, sighing before pushing us into a small jog. I looked back again and saw Vladimir helping John up and the three of them bracing themselves for the coming assault. My heart clutched at the thought of their coming doom, there was almost zero chance of them coming out of this alive.

“Just go.” John shouted, before we broke into a run. The sound of battle rang behind me and I squeezed my eyes shut, reliving the horror the night that Owen almost got killed. Holding onto Tom’s hand, the seven of us plunged into the dense forest.

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Hey guys :D I am back!

Sorry about the filler chapter - i needed it thoug, to tie in all the feelings and highlight the confusion and similarity of situation that Gail keep running into :) it will have a big impact on her.

Also throw in a little bit of good old romance ;) I guess Gail isn't as ignorant as we thought she is! Who would have thought John is such a character! I didn't :P

vote and comment ;)