Chương 77: Book 3; Chapter 76; Such an arrogance!

"No!" Blake shouted, rushing in between and grabbing onto Rainee's hand that was holding this sword.

"No, please, don't hurt my mum! She didn't mean it! She didn't want to say anything bad! She is just tired! She just needs some rest." His mum did look extremely pale. It was difficult to say if she was scared by an armed little person standing in her room, but she really was close to fainting again. Rainee was slightly taken aback by Blake's pleas and was a bit lost, looking from him to his mum and back to Blake again, as if not knowing what to do.

The sword in her hand disappeared, and she showed an empty hand to Blake.

"I am not going to hurt your mum," she said in a gentle voice while putting her other hand on Blake's shoulder and squeezing it firmly but friendly.

"I promise you, I will not hurt either you or your mum. Trust me on that. Will you? But things are not good here, and I think she needs help. But I cannot help if you don't trust me. So would you trust me?" she asked while stroking Blake's hair. She knew that he didn't. She knew that right now, he felt nothing else, just horror upon seeing the very same sword appearing in her hand again, and was already thinking about ways to go around him.

But to her own surprise, little Blake did let go of her arm and stepped aside while looking at her with his big dark eyes." What do you know," she thought to herself while launching forward." I still have a lot to learn." Rainee swung her sword, bringing terror to the woman's face as it landed very close to her. But it didn't touch her; instead, it landed next to her.

It was evident that it cut through something, as some invisible force slowed its descent, and Rainee had to put extra pressure on her sword for it to go through. But it wasn't something that could be seen. At least not to her.

But it obviously could be seen by one of the boys, as he, too, drew a sword out of who knows where and also cut something off, just much closer to the wall than to her. Rainee and Angus looked at each other, and their swords swung again. What couldn't be seen by others in the room was no secret for their trained eyes.

The very same energy stream that got disconnected from Blake's mum after she rejected it, and which was aimlessly looking for a connection, but without agreement from the other side, should never be able to do so, suddenly gained some extra force and engulfed the woman without her either wanting it or even knowing that it happened. That's why she got so pale, as that draining force connected to her with such power that she didn't have any strength in herself to support its demands.

If Rainee hadn't cut through it, then this woman definitely would have lost consciousness, and under such an exchange rate, who knows what would have happened. Such a connection shouldn't be deadly, as when a person loses consciousness, natural self-defences should activate, disconnecting the person from an exchange that was too damaging. However, what happened just now wasn't what should be happening at all. It was a proper assault from one side, leaving no choice to the other.

Rainee and Angus didn't see many machines in the Capital but were educated that it was becoming popular in some parts of the kingdom and how they were operating. What happened just now wasn't something that should be happening. Before they could do or say anything, a new attack came in, and Blake started to run from one side of the room to another.

"It is trying to catch me! It is trying to catch me again!" he shouted. He wanted badly to run and hide from this force invisible to him that was after him, but didn't want to leave his mum with these two armed children, whom he himself brought into the house. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Rainee swung her sword a few times again, and Blake stopped. The attacker was gone.

Blake maybe didn't see what was after him, but Rainee and Angus did. There were a few more of these strange, searching connecting cords that entered the room, now aiming for anything they could attach to. Angus and Rainee didn't receive any attention from them, but the other three people in the room did.

"That's not good," Rainee said, "this machine must be broken, or not working correctly. I am going to switch it off. Ruffus, you don't allow anything else but Angus to touch you, close your eyes if you are not sure. Blake, you go and hide back in the forest. I will find you when it is safe to come back."

"What about my mum?" Blake asked, looking at his mum, who had fallen unconscious again.

"She cannot go with you, so she will have to stay here," Rainee said before turning around and running out of the house. First, she was going to use her horse, but just a look at them made her change her mind. Angus and Ruffus's horses were already connected by that strange, unwanted power that seemed now to be sucking on anything living around. Her Aspen was still free and backing off from these strings that were trying to grab her, too. Rainee cut them off and told Aspen to leave this place immediately.

There was no reason to put her at risk, as whatever was happening right now didn't have anything to do with Aspen. She freed the other two horses, too, hoping that she had given enough time for them to escape, but she wasn't sure about it. For anyone who couldn't see this energy that got loose, the town would seem the same as before, but what Rainee saw was complete chaos. The whole place went berserk.

These strings of energy got entirely out of hand, enlarging, growing way bigger than anything reasonable, and people on the street and by the houses were falling down, unable to cope with this drainage. The attaching strings got stronger, and Rainee wasn't outside of their interest anymore. While running, she kept cutting all of them, no matter if they were attacking her or others, by doing so, drawing more and more attention to herself.

In a short time, she had reached that black machine, now emanating all these unwanted connections, but she wasn't sure how to reach it through all this attacking force.

"I will cover you," Angus's voice sounded next. At first, Rainee was a bit worried about Ruffus being left alone, but soon realised that if things were to escalate, then not just Ruffus would be in trouble. She spun her sword in front of her while Angus was covering her from behind, and in no time, they reached the large handle to switch that machine off. It was heavy and rusty, as it hadn't been used for a while, but Rainee managed to press it down, and all the nightmares surrounding them disappeared instantly.

Both exhaled deeply and looked at each other with big smiles. They did it! But before they even finished exhaling, a burst of energy came flying from that far distance, where, not that long ago, the very same machine was sending excess energy. This burst engulfed the black machine, exploding around and sending Rainee and Angus flying several metres away. The switch they had used just now flew away too, and the black machine got back into working order.

Rainee could feel a few of these draining strings engulfing her, looking for any opening to connect. The moment she worried about how Angus was doing, one of these engulfing strings connected right into her heart, dropping her strength by a considerable amount. At that very moment, she felt free again. Someone must have just freed her, but without even looking to see who it was, Rainee jumped to her feet and dashed back to that black mechanical beast in front of her.

It had to be stopped at any cost, and as switching it off was not enough, it had to be cut down. In her head, she was trying to come up with an idea of how it could be done, as right now the energy surrounding this machine was much stronger than her own, especially after the assault she just experienced. But she was not given a chance to come up with anything, as before she could reach it, the black machine exploded into pieces, and instead of it stood a young and tall man in a nice green uniform.

A new burst of energy came from afar, but this time it was met by this man's sword and, with just one swing, sent back to where it came from, and a new explosion in the far, far distance could be heard. A few fast shadows swiftly passed by, disappearing in the same direction. It was a few more officers on their dragons. The young officer, who had just put an end to all this calamity, turned towards Rainee and looked at her with a small, sarcastic smile playing on his lips.

"Getting in such a mess..." he said, looking at Rainee.

"Aren't you putting your fingers on something you cannot swallow? Making people come to rescue you…"

"If you didn't want to come, then why did you come?" Rainee said, hardly sparing him a single glance, and looking for Angus, who was getting up from the ground and cleaning dust and shreds from himself.

"You know, little lady, with such an attitude, there might come a day when no one will come to your aid," the young officer said, not happy with such treatment.

"What an arrogance…"

"Me, arrogant? When it is you, an ungrateful little child who doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. What would have happened to you if I hadn't come so fast?"

"If I needed help, someone else would have come," Rainee said firmly.

"If you came just to be praised, you shouldn't have come at all. I honestly don't know how you are keeping your status as General with such a strange attitude."

"I honestly don't know how you are keeping your life with such an attitude…" the General said grimly.

"My life belongs to me, and I like it, that's why I keep it," Rainee was relentless.

"Still, thank you for being so fast. Let's go," she said to Angus, and both of them turned around and ran away.

"Where do you think you are going?!" the General said strictly.

"Prince Angus, return immediately!" Upon hearing that, Angus was about to obey, but seeing that Rainee didn't slow down, he stayed at her side.

"To check on Ruffus," Rainee said over her shoulder.

"And you are not Angus' commanding officer to speak to him like this."

"Prince Ragnar is alright," the General shouted after them.

"Your "alright" and the real "alright" don't often match," Rainee said before turning the corner and disappearing out of sight.

"I cannot wait for the day when I am your commanding officer…" the General said to himself, putting a strong emphasis on "your." He spoke in a quiet voice, but an answer still came from far away.

"I am not in a rush to join your ranks, so stay alive to have a chance." The General didn't know what to do — to be angry or to laugh, so he just shook his head, jumped on his dragon, and vanished out of sight.