One moment Nero was all alone, and the next he was just there. The only explanation he could think of was some kind of teleportation card or ability, but that was highly unlikely. The alternative was that the man in front of him was so fast, that Nero hadn't seen him move at all!
But how could there be no afterimage or trace at all? No matter how fast one moved, it couldn't seem instantaneous, right? Then again, he was just musing on how versatile cards actually were.
Nero had his spear raised already by the time he finally got a good look at the man, and realised he knew who it was. It was the major incharge of their training. Why would the major himself come here?
Even if the incident here was detected, and the army responded, the major did not need to come personally. Even a sergeant was more than enough, to be honest.
"Would you care to explain why there are two dead recruits and a dead invigilator on the ground?" the major asked, though his tone did not was more commanding than inquisitive.
Numerous scenarios ran through Nero's head as he tried to come up with a way to determine if the man in front of him was a part of the group that tried to enslave him, or if he really was just investigating.
"It's gravity, it pulls things towards the ground. Pretty wild stuff."
The man's neutral expression turned to a frown, but quickly returned to its normal state. He locked eyes with Nero and asked another question.
"The wounds on the invigilator's body match your spear. How were you able to kill him?"
"Pretty easily," Nero answered. It wasn't that he was trying to antagonise the major on purpose, but that he was trying to buy some time while he thought of a solution. Although he had not hesitated to face an Initiate, he lacked confidence in the face of someone who was either an Arcanist or Mystic. He did not know how to be sure that-
The man disappeared. He vanished from right in front of Nero's eyes, and before he could even begin to search for him, he felt a smack on the back of his head.
"This is the army, not high school. Give me a proper answer when I ask a question, not one-liners," the major said, standing behind him. "Now, explain what happened here."
"You're not allowed to touch your subordinates," Nero muttered under his breath. It was a rule in the army. Training, punishment and even ragging were pretty common in the army, especially for new recruits. It was seen as a rite of passage. But such things had a way of escalating rapidly, and so a few such rules had been created for the sake of new recruits' safety.
Usually, they were implemented very strictly, but if a senior officer went around the rules, nobody could really say anything.
"Do you think this is a joke, recruit?" the major asked, his voice finally taking on a tinge of anger. "There are three corpses on the ground and you're holding the murder weapon. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't arrest you right now?"
Nero turned to look at him, and in his eyes was not wariness but anger.
"Why don't you tell me why I was attacked by an invigilator and two other recruits, trying to enslave me?" he demanded, and then held up the Leash & Collar card for the major to read. There was no chance that the card was being used by Nero because it was a 3 star card, and there was no way he could use it anyway.
"If I was attacked, who is to stop others from getting attacked? In fact, how do I know you're not behind this, huh? What better way to secretly enslave the new recruits than to send them into the goddamn forest without any training and unsupervised? Because if this wasn't some genius plot to get away with some shady business, then it must be some real goddamn incompetence."
Liam's expression did not change at all as Nero accused him of being a mastermind. He also did not miss the way Nero built a small distance between them, and positioned his spear defensively. It was subtle yet masterful.
"There's three dead bodies on the floor, one without a head, and you say you're not trained?" Before Nero could respond, he felt a tug, and the next thing he knew, the spear in his hands was gone! It had just… disappeared! When he looked up, he found the major standing a few metres from him, holding the spear over his shoulder.
"You were not unsupervised. All recruits are being monitored from the base, and are assigned a team of rotating invigilators," Liam explained. He did not really need to explain, but he could tell getting Nero to cooperate would be a hassle if he didn't - he could see it in his eyes. Even against Liam himself, Nero was ready to put up a fight.
"I'm explaining this to you because I want you to understand I know that you could not hide such a fight from being noticed, so you're not a suspect. But I'm going to take you and your team back, and everyone is going to be interrogated. It is in your best interest to be as forthcoming about what happened here as possible. I cannot protect you if you try to hide things from me."
Nero clenched his jaw as he tried to consider his options. The truth was, he would need to trust someone, or at least appear to. He nodded.
"Oh, and I tolerated your insubordination right now because I understand you're wound up. But don't ever talk to me like that again."
As if to show he meant business, the major held up his spear and snapped it in two! That was a Victus-3 spear, meaning it was made of a special alloy blend from the Victus series. It was both strong and slightly flexible. Unlike swords, which could break more easily if they took too much damage, metal spears almost never broke under normal circumstances.
For major Liam to just snap it with only his hands… that was a display of strength Nero could not quantify. He was certain that even Arcanists should not have been able to do something like that. Heck, even Mystics should not have been that powerful!
The incomprehensible display of strength, accompanied by the speed Nero could not understand were both more than enough for Nero to understand that he had no hope of surviving if the major meant to harm him. Even one of those alone was enough to completely defeat him. With no other option, Nero could only trust him, and hope for the best.
He looked one more time at the corpses on the floor. Charles' entire neck and head had been blown off, leaving behind only a corpse with no head. The other two were not exactly a pretty sight to look at either.
Nero finally dropped his guard, knowing that he could do nothing else in his current situation, and let himself think about the fact that he had killed humans. Many ex-soldiers he'd talked to mentioned that killing people was an uneasy, soul wrenching experience that one never got over. Others talked about it with maniacal excitement, bordering insanity.
But Nero felt neither. He didn't feel indifference either, though. Instead, he likened the feeling of killing someone like crossing an item of a checklist of things to do. It was just that - another thing he had to do.
In his defence, not that he needed one, he had warned Henry and Charles about what he'd do. They should have listened.
"The masked guy mentioned one other recruit who was being targeted - Clarissa Hunter," Nero suddenly said. "There might be even more recruits that they're targeting, but I only know of her."
"I'll take care of it. For now, it's time to take your team back. All of you will be questioned individually, but you're not in any trouble."
Nero finally looked away from the corpses and walked up to his shelter. Inside, everyone was still asleep, which gave Nero pause. Among all the cards he checked, he hadn't found the one which put all his teammates to fall asleep.
Had they used some kind of ability? But that didn't make sense. He assumed Henry or Charles were the ones who somehow knocked everyone out, and their abilities should not have worked in that way. His eyes flashed, and before waking anyone up, he looked through the belongings of the two recruits, but found no card.
That meant that there was at least one more person in his team who could have been working with them, or one more person who hadn't revealed themselves outside.
He made a mental note to mention that to the major, then started to wake everyone up. This dreadful training in the forest was finally over.