Chapter 167 Leonard's Mission

Leonard, formerly one of the rankers at the academy and now the Captain of his own squad within Infernum.

Since the war began and the military merged with Infernum, causing the creation of the Royal Army, Leonard had been forced to take orders more often than not.

Although he held the rank of Captain, the soldiers from the military that held the same rank would often be given the role of mission leader. This meant that they would be considered a higher authority during that mission, in regard to the members of their squad only.

"Spread out and search the town." A soldier commanded. Soon the entire group tied up their horses and set of in different directions on foot to comply with his order.

Leonard was among those that had to comply and chose a direction nobody else went towards. 'Over the last three months I haven't been given command of a mission once. Do they think I can't handle it because of my age? They say it's because of experience but I don't think that's the actual reason...' Leonard thought as he rounded a corner into an empty street.

This street wasn't very large and functioned more like a 'street between streets'. It was too big to be considered an alleyway and it had the entrances to many homes and businesses within.

By comparison it was smaller than most streets within this town, only being around half the length at most. It didn't connect to anything kn the opposite end, instead there was a large warehouse that caused this street to be a dead end.

Leonard walked down the street, checking each building one by one. This town had been abandoned a few weeks before after Trent had turned half it's citizens into beasts and killed most of the others.

The few who escaped reported what happened and the Royal Army sent this squad to investigate the town.

'There doesn't seem to be much of anything here, did the cult really abandon this town after their attack? Seems like a waste.' Leonard thought as he left his second to last building of this street. He only had to search the large three story warehouse at the end of the street now.

The cult had been using the towns and villages they attacked as temporary bases to attack nearby areas from. They didn't stay at these places for long since the Army would eventually show up with greater numbers and retake the town or village.

He pushed open the metal door at the entrance and walked into the warehouse. There was nothing within the large open space that should have been used for storage.

'The cult must have taken everything before they left.' Leonard thought as he started looking through each if the rooms on the sides of this floor.

He concluded there wasn't anything on this floor and continued up to the second floor. This floor appeared to be an office space, it had desks placed all around and several doors leading into other rooms.

He went through each of the rooms just as he had done with the previous floor. He exited the last room and stared at the staircase at the end of the hall, his eyes flickering from the ascending to the descending stairs.

'Is it even worth searching the top floor?' He thought. After about a minute of consideration he decided to leave the warehouse and walked towards the descending stairs.

~Thud~

Leonard paused after only taking three steps down the staircase. There was a loud thumping sound coming from above him, like something had fallen over.

He berated himself for almost leaving without finishing his check and turned around to head up to the third floor.

Like the second, the third floor was a collection of offices. The difference being that these offices were much larger and each one seemed to have only a singular desk.

The third floor was just a single hallway with a door on each side every ten or so meters. Each door led to a different office, each larger than the last.

'This must have been where the management did their work from.' Leonard thought as he exited the second door on the right.

There were about five doors on each side of the hallway, meaning there were ten offices in total. After searching seven offices, Leonard was starting to question if he had actually heard anything earlier or if his mind was just playing tricks on him.

He searched yet another office and upon exiting it the door handle slipped from his grasp and he tried to grab it again. Instead, he reached out and pushed the door, causing it to slam shut with a loud thud.

It was a total accident but it ended up being a good thing. After the door slammed, Leonard heard muffled whispers coming from the last door to the right.

'So I did hear correctly.' He thought as he slowly approached the door, trying to make as little sound as possible.

He reached for the door handle and twisted it, opening the door out into the hallway. As soon as the door was being opened, a pitchfork was being shoved toward Leonard's chest.

He was surprised but the attack was slow enough that could easily react. His skin and uniform both turned into a silver metal before the strike could land.

The metal tips of the pitchfork clashed with his body and bounced off the the side with a loud clanging sound.

The pitchfork was flung into the doorframe and bounced into the hallway, making a clanging sound as it bounced.

The person that was wielding the pitchfork was a young boy, maybe ten years old. His face became panicked when he lost his weapon and he backed away from Leonard quickly.

'A child?' Leonard thought with a surprised tone.

The boy fell over his own feet and tumbled to the ground, his face still filled with fear as he watched Leonard step into the room and look around.

'Why is he still so scared? Can't he see I'm with the Army...?' Leonard thought while looking down at his uniform. It was then that he realized he currently looked like a living statue.

He stopped using his ability and the silver metal disappeared after a moment. "I'm sorry if I scared you, I'm actually with the Army. Are you alone here?"

The boy seemed slightly confused when he saw the metal around Leonard's body dissappear but his fear turned into hope after Leonard spoke.

"No...my - my mom...she's ..." The boy struggled to say, the stress from what had just happened still affecting him. He pointed at the large desk at the back of the room as he tried to speak.

Leonard walked over to where he was pointing and saw a woman lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious. She looked to be in her late twenties and had long brown hair that went passed her shoulders.

She was unnaturally pale and was holding her hand over a patch of dried blood on her side. "How long has she been like this?" Leonard quickly asked as he bent down to look at the bloodied area on her side.

"She got yesterday but a few hours ago she just...she just fell over and went to sleep... I didn't know what to do. I tried to wake her up but she stayed asleep. Then I... I heard someone coming and..." The boy seemed to be trying to stop himself from doing so but he began crying as he neared the end of his sentence.

While the boy was speaking, Leonard lifted the woman's shirt slightly to look at her wound. It looked like a bloody mess and Leonard couldn't make out any details.

Leonard scooped the woman up into his arms in a princess carry. "Come on, we have a healer with us that should be able to help your mother."

He walked out of the office and down the hallway with the boy following behind him. It wasn't long before Leonard had returned to the rest of the squad, only this time her had two people with him.

"Who are these people?" The party leader asked with a demanding tone as Leonard approached.

"I found them in a warehouse. The woman has been injured and it seems to be quite severe." Leonard replied. He didn't appreciate the aggravation in the party leaders voice but he didn't say anything.

The squads healer came forward and Leonard put the woman down on a sheet that was placed on the ground by the healer.

The healer began to do his thing, checking the wound and using his ability while cleaning the blood so he could get a better look.

Leonard was being glared at by the party leader and was about to say something when the healer spoke.

"This is... Strange. I cleaned the blood around her wound but no matter what I do the wound won't heal. My ability isn't working on her." He said.

"What could cause that to happen?" Leonard asked.

"Sometimes the cause of the wound can slow make healing abilities less effective but I've never seen something that can't be healed." The healer said, confused by this predicament.

"Is the wound unique in any way?" Leonard asked.

"No, that's the thing. It appears to be a bite."

"A bite? So it was a strange animal or monster... That would explain why you've never encountered this before." Leonard said.

"The bite isn't from an animal or monster. It's from a human."