CHAPTER 10: PREY BECOME PREDATOR

"Kairi, what do you say?!" Virgo gasped about Kairi's sudden request.

"I want to help the hostages who are taken by Dark Ries," Kairi said seriously.

After an hour of calming down his chaotic emotion, he remembered that there were still hostages in Dark Ries' hand. He felt wrong because they all were safe but the hostages were not.

"Are you crazy, Kairi?! There are dozens of his men there who will be so happy to see us again, including Dark Ries!" Aries disagreed. She does not want to feel hopeless again.

Kairi looked at them one by one.

"Virgo, Aries, Agi, and Pegasus, please help them! I can't bear to see them get abused like that. There were even children and old people who were caught too. They need our help." Kairi pleaded.

He knows that he will endanger them once again but they were those hostages' hope now. If they left, he doesn't know what will happen to the hostages. And time waits for no one.

Pegasus gritted his teeth. He grabbed Kairi's front collar and brought Kairi's face close to his.

"If anything happens, are you ready to die for them? Think again. They are strangers to you." Pegasus asked him with a sharp look.

"If that is my fate, so be it," Kairi answered and gave the same expression.

Virgo and his friends realised that they couldn't stop Kairi's decision when he had made up his mind. It was dangerous but if it was ordered by their leader, they had to follow. They think Kairi was the heir and so, their leader. They could understand that Kairi will not leave the hostages no matter what happens.

"I'll bait Dark Ries to me while you go release the hostages."

Another sentence that came from Kairi stunned them.

"Okay, I think you're crazy." Agi widened his eyes.

"I'm not! That's the only way to keep him away from the base. If he's there, we can't release all the hostages. He's the strongest one over there, right? Without him, they will lose their morals to fight against you." Kairi said while folding his arms on his chest.

"It's true but for you to be bait is very dangerous. I don't agree where your life is at stake," replied Agi, shaking his head.

"Who said I want to die? You have to get here quickly before I get killed. I'll be depending on you guys to come quickly to my rescue." Kairi smiled before he got serious again.

"I will try to delay the time but you also have to believe I can hold on. Otherwise, our plans will be in vain."

"But, Kairi... I don't like this. Let me go with you." Virgo wants to be by Kairi's side to protect him. Kairi shook his head.

"No, Virgo. I need you to help others first. The more people, the faster we handle the rescue mission and the faster we defeat the Dark Ries. I will use this forest as my defence. Don't look down on me, I also learned some self-defence art from Rafiz." He told them.

"That's right. Rafiz taught you many things..." Aries nodded. She knows Rafiz through Kairi's memories.

"Trust me, okay? I'll wait for you. I will not allow Dark Ries to kill me."

Agi, Virgo and Pegasus looked at each other. They finally agree despite feeling reluctant to leave Kairi alone with Dark Ries. An hour later, Agi who had been near Dark Ries's tent recited a spell that brought up a fake Kairi.

Aries, on the other hand, uses her powers to control the minds of the guardsmen who were outside of Dark Ries's tent. After controlling them, the fake Kairi entered the tent. Not long after, the fake Kairi came out with lightning speed heading for the forest.

Dark Ries also came out a moment later with a violent temper to catch the fake Kairi.

"He looks so pissed. What did you do to him with fake Kairi?" Aries asks into Agi's mind.

Agi smirked. "I make the fake Kairi walk to him with confidence and kiss him. Hah, take that for trying to hurt us!" Agi replied happily.

Aries stared deadpan at Agi. He had time to make a joke at this time?! Wouldn't Dark Ries plummet Kairi for this?! But why didn't Dark Ries avoid fake Kairi's advance? Does he think he can dodge all Kairi's attacks?

Aries was confused but now worried for Kairi. She prayed that Kairi would be able to hide for a long time.

The fake Kairi moved like the wind and Dark Ries did not think twice that it was a trap made for him to change his location. Once Pegasus indicates that Dark Ries have moved far away from the base, they strike out. They attack the underlings one by one silently.

"Virgo, Pegasus, go help Kairi! Aries and I can handle the rest," Agi told the two of them.

With a nod, the two went back quickly to where Kairi was.

In the forest...

"Where else do you want to run, boy?" Dark Ries asked while grabbing Kairi's head. He hit it against a rocky wall.

Kairi's head was bleeding from the blow which made him blacken for a moment.

"While I'm still breathing..." Replied Kairi who vomited some blood.

"Heh! Still bragging even though your life is almost at the end?" Dark Ries asked, shaking his head.

Kairi gave a smile and chuckled. He was tired after the runaway. Dark Ries still found him after the disappearance of the fake him. His luck doesn't seem to be on his side.

"What's so funny?" Dark Ries asked.

"You don't think I'm still alive, do you?" Kairi asked back.

He didn't know what to think anymore. His only thought was to delay Dark Ries.

"Yes, I didn't expect it. I thought I gave you a big blow at that time that should have ended your life. It seems like someone has saved you." Dark Ries guessed.

But, who was able to save Kairi around the Knight Seeyer's hidden village? There were no outsiders who could enter the village and he had already made sure that all of them had died. Only... Dark Lordany was around him at that time. Dark Ries has doubts about Kairi's rescuer.

"Probably... It is our destiny to meet again..." Kairi's eyes closed.

"Yes and also to end your life this time. With this, Deorc Star will be the ruler of this world!"

Dark Ries changed the position of his hand from Kairi's forehead to his neck. Kairi felt the air was cut-off from the tightening.

"I, I don't remember why you wanted to kill me, Dark Ries. What made you want to kill me and my... Clan?"

"Huh? You don't remember what I said earlier, boy? Because you're the reason we all killed your clan's members. It was to find you..."

Dark Ries guessed Kairi was the real heir of Queen Siarah. Yet, he hesitated because there was another guy that was also one of the surviving Knight Seeyer.

If he kills Kairi, will they succeed in defeating the Bright Star?

"It would be impossible for Dark Kurumi to be the Bright Star's leader." He silently thought.

"Before you kill me, can you tell me what the Deorc Star's plan is? At least I'll be tormented before I die... Wouldn't that be agreeable..." Kairi said with difficulty.

He was relieved that his words made Dark Ries' hands on his neck a little loose. He quickly took a deep breath. His words also made Dark Ries smile.

"Interesting topic. Oh well. Since you'll be dead either way, why not. First, we will kill all the Bright Star users and everything related to them. Then, we will destroy all the towns and villages that support them. How does that sound? Good, doesn't it? Haha!" Dark Ries laughs excitedly.

They can finally eliminate those lesser humans!

"After that, I will kill the people you love. I will find them and destroy your current hiding place as I did at your formal village. I'm sure you have a new home after you run away from me. And don't worry. I'll make sure I'll torture the person who saves you… Slowly…" Dark Ries whispered in Kairi's ear.

Kairi's expression whiten. His thoughts returned to Rafiz, Rafael, and the residents of Ryam Town. If Dark Ries found them, they would all die in his hands. He could also imagine how the town would be destroyed.

No!!!

As a result, his calm auras change from his messy emotions at Dark Ries's threats. His love for his family, his will to protect them, and anger at Dark Ries and Deorc Star that will harm them, awakened something deep inside him which had long been dormant.

"What the-...?!"

Dark Ries had to let go of Kairi and jump a few metres away. Kairi in front of him was surrounded by a luminous stellar field. Not only that, Kairi's hostility toward him could be felt through the auras he released.

"I won't let you touch them..." Growled Kairi whose eyes had now turned bright green.

"No one can touch them!" He screamed as the pressure of his power was released around him.

Dark Ries' body felt the pressure and was about to fall to the ground but he held on. Confronted with Kairi who has now turned strongly in front of him makes his feeling grow even more excited.

He truly was Queen Siarah's heir!

He thought the changed Kairi would be more fun to fight. But, he who was too confident in his strength would not have thought that Kairi would defeat him so easily.

Kairi's power is not only aided by his power as the leader of all Bright Stars but also by his power as the Knight Seeyer. Knight Seeyer's ability enables them to see in pitch darkness and detect the movement of some future steps on the person who wants to attack them.

Dark Ries, who doesn't know it until Kairi traps him in two fields that form an 'X' box, finally realised a shocking truth. His shadows also failed to trap or grab onto Kairi. It disintegrated before it reached Kairi.

How can he become too strong?! Is this the true power Bright Star's leader holds?!

"Des Sa Olo Nas Ki Ei... Fa Like Aito Olo Elne Mos Ei! (Oh star who is my slave... Destroy all obstacles that obscure my path!)" Kairi recited a mantra from an old language that he didn't notice.

He was not that conscious because his anger muddled his reasonable thinking. The old language seems to have been dwelling inside him from an ancient time.

At his command, the 'X' box field that surrounded Dark Ries squeezed Dark Ries' body tightly. Dark Ries screamed in pain. When the size of the box field turned smaller, his body also got smaller and smaller.

Kairi felt a splash of unknown liquid on his cheek and wiped it with his hand. When he saw the colour of it, he looked at it strangely until his eyes saw the area in front of him.

His body started to tremble with his eyes becoming wider. The area in front of him was coloured with dark red liquid everywhere. Someone's body parts that were cut into multiple pieces were also in the middle of that area.

Kairi instantly retches all his stomach contents beside a tree he holds onto due to his weakened body. He also fell to his knees. Fear enveloped him until tears fell from his eyes.

"What, What have I done...?"

Kairi doesn't deny that he was the one who caused this disaster. Although he did not consciously do it, he still has the memory of it.

He had accidentally killed someone... So brutally...