BXBX NOVEL Chapter 37 - Enough Is Enough
* Lana Del Rey vs Cedric Gervais \'Summertime Sadness\' Remix *
***
\'Now!\' she screamed in her mind to Kayla. Getting Raven\'s signal, she activated the skill Contractor.
A crimson red dragon eye appeared on the back of Raven\'s armoured glove as she palm struck Camilla\'s back, sending her crashing against her own barrier and wiping the cave floor with her face.
Or that what would\'ve happened if Camilla\'s training hadn\'t kicked in.
Even though she\'s taken a direct hit, she didn\'t let it faze her much as she\'s already known the girl was special. \'Maybe a little too special, goddamn it!\' she thought as she converted her shield into a cushion like field to break her fall.
To Raven\'s surprise, not only her physical strength had went down quite a bit now that she was a little kid, but also the crimson red dragon eye glitched at the impact and disappeared without having much of an effect on Camilla.
\'Well, of course it\'s not gonna f*cking work! Why did I think this is gonna be easy?!\' Raven thought to herself as Kayla\'s robotic voice rang in her mind.
[Insufficient mana to empower an enforced contract.]
[Target\'s resistance higher than skill threshold.]
[Special Skills Contractor failed.]
\'Yea no f*ucking sh*t, Sherlock!\'
"Maya, Maria behind me!" she signaled to the girls to stand behind her as she mentally summoned the drones to protect them and pointed her energy gun, the Wingman, at Camilla.
Joey realised that Raven doesn\'t trust him yet and decided to shield Rain for now as she has no combat prowess.
Camilla stood up with an unhappy expression on her face, completely fine and well, as the attack didn\'t do any damage to her. "HOLD YOUR F*CKING HORSES!" She yelled as she raised her hand up above her head in a gesture of surrender. After all, she\'s seen what one hit with that gun can do.
Back when they fought the monster king, the only thing that prevented the first shot from being the last was the healing skill he used. Camilla had no such skills.
"I said I can work with that no? The f*ck did you need to attack me for?"
"..." Raven didn\'t reply.
"... we\'re not going to play stare now are we?"
"..."
"Holy sh*t, chill okay? I swear I don\'t have any plans of hurting any of you!" Camilla was trying so hard here, she didn\'t want to be viewed as an enemy to the group. Especially that Maria was looking at her with that hostile gaze again.
And obviously she didn\'t want to go against a girl who can almost revive the dead, create various bullsh*t that she didn\'t even know were possible to make, and lastly, be as cunning and as strong as an S ranker even though she\'s still a D ranker. (AN: she doesn\'t know she\'s a low C ranker yet.)
\'She was either holding back to show me that she could\'ve killed me but chose not to. Or because she\'s still so weak from her previous mana abuse. Either way, I don\'t wanna make an enemy out of her since the first case means I\'m as good as dead, and the second means she f*cking took me by surprise and landed a hit that sent me flying in the air, WITH LESS THAN HALF OF HER REAL POWER!\'
Little did Camilla know, that was way less than half of her powers, and it wasn\'t even meant to be a killing blow but rather an attempt to use the skill Contractor.
Even though Raven was struggling to find a way out of the sh*thole she was stuck in, her expression was as cold as a brick of ice, and as emotionless as a robot without a face.
Her golden eyes were flaring with the same intensity of two twin stars. Their glow matched that of her aura.
[Warning: Energy reserves ru-]
\'I know,\' Raven cut Kayla\'s obvious remark short. She had her shot and she missed it. The next best option would be negotiations, something she wasn\'t a fan of.
"How can I trust you? You\'re the one who threatened me first." Raven said to Camilla in a calm tone.
"What? No! I didn\'t mean to! I just wanted to make sure you weren\'t lying! I can\'t stay with you if you\'re a psycho who kills for fun or money." Camilla exclaimed honestly. "How can I turn my back on someone who would stab me in my sleep for some money?"
Raven knew she had a point, but that means nothing if she\'s to endanger Maya or Maria.
"No one told you to turn your back to me. You can always just leave." She said in what appeared to be a poisonous tone to Camilla\'s ears, even though it was as emotionless as it\'s ever been, "We\'ve never forced you to stay with us, and I believe as an S ranker you can very well take care of yourself."
Camilla felt a dagger pierce through her heart, three stabs for each word that came out of the little girl\'s tiny mouth. She knew Raven was right, they\'ve never forced her to stay, but she\'s never considered leaving.
Those words almost made her cry as she lowered we gaze to the ground and bit her tongue. She thought physical pain would make the pain in her heart stop, yet it didn\'t.
\'How can I explain that I felt... at peace, when I was with them? I really liked the little time we spent together. I guess it was nothing special to them as I\'m a stranger here after all, let alone what I\'ve just tried to do...\'
"Uhm," she nodded in calm yet weak voice, "I\'m sorry I caused you trouble, I\'ll take my leave then."
At that she started heading towards the entrance of the cave as she stopped for a second before looking back at the 3 girls in particular, "what you have is quite special, don\'t waste it..."
She was happy she lowered her gaze in time to avoid anyone noticing her eyes tear up.
"Here!" she said as she threw the bracelet back to Raven without looking her in the face.
With a last weak goodbye wave, Camilla left the cave.
*sigh* Making sure Camilla was at least 100 meters away, Raven sighed as she retracted her aura slightly.
She was more relaxed, but didn\'t let her guard down as their were still two uncertainties in the cave, Rain and Joey.
*gulp* Noticing Raven\'s gaze, they both swallowed loud enough to be heard.
"Joey-"
"Yes!" he said in a nervous voice.
"Why did you try to stop her before? And why do you call me princess?"
Thinking about it for a moment, he knew there was no point in denying it any longer. "I\'m a soul weaver, and there\'s no way I wouldn\'t recognize my prince-ss." Up till that moment, he was still confused as to whether call Draven a prince or Raven a princess.
That was because what he was familiar with the prince, and there was never a princess.
Raven raised her brows slightly as she wasn\'t sure how to react to that, \'well, not that I didn\'t see that coming. To be fair, I thought it was either that he had a huge crush on me and kept viewing me as a princess, or that he knew about the trial.\' she thought to herself.
[Does Raven wish to view targets stats?]
\'Pft,\' Raven was surprised to say the least, \'You can show me Joey\'s stats?\'
[Affirmative]
\'Be my f*cking guest.\'
[Appraisal launched... Loading...
[Race: Soul Weaver.
[Blessing: 6th Lord\'s Compassion.
[Rank: B]
\'that\'s it?
[Unable to access more information as no connection has been-]
\'pfft ok ok too much info, just say yes and go on with your life... or wait, before you do that, can you explain his blessing?\'
[Negative, as there was no-]
\'remember when I said be efficient?\'
[Affirmative]
\'sweet, then please f*ck off and review everything you learnt so far. I don\'t want a freaking newspaper everytime I ask a simple question.\'
Kayla stayed quite.
\'Anyway, so that proves he is a soul weaver too, what are they though, or rather, what are WE...?\'
"Nonetheless," Raven said to Joey, "I still don\'t know you, why should I trust you? For all I know, you could be planning an assassination or something."
"Princess..." what Joey hasn\'t told her yet was that they knew eachother. Joey and the \'prince\' used to play together in the castle\'s massive garden, back in Erembourc, also known as the Soul Weavers\' planet.
Unlike humans, soul weavers mature after one year of their birth, on average. So even though their body would be that of a one year old baby, they\'d be smart enough to have conversation with a ten year old human.
But seeing how she didn\'t remember him, he knew it was something related to "that night".
"Princess, I\'m ready for any test you might think of, to prove my loyalty. However... if you wish for it, I\'ll leave too..." to say he was hurt would be an understatement.
Raven felt the sincerity of his words, yet she didn\'t wanna take any chances.
"Yes please-"
""No he doesn\'t!!"" both Maria and Maya cut her off, before looking at eachother is surprise as they\'ve said the same exact thing.
"The only reason I didn\'t say anything about Camilla\'s leave was because she started it, and she was obviously ready to harm you the moment you provided a different answer to what she\'s expected. Even if not directly, her aura was quite dangerous."
"Same here," said Maya, "Those two however spent literally every second in the cave trying to save your sorry tiny a*s when you were unconscious. And unlike Camilla, Joey there was ready to die for you!" she said the last part with a bit of envy, as she could literally do nothing but feel sorry for her own weakness.
"Uhm," Maria nodded as she saw Raven bite her lower lip in embarrassment, "I definitely agree, if it wasn\'t because of Rain\'s healing too, we wouldn\'t even be having this conversation as you\'d be still unconscious. You should at least thank them."
Being scolded by both girls made Raven\'s mood go from bad to worse. Her face was bright red from both embarrassment and anger. \'What if they were just acting? Didn\'t they say Camilla brought both of them here in the first place? Maybe they wanted us alive to help them escape this place first!\'
Even though countless thoughts and scenarios played in her head, she said nothing, but just stared at the floor of the cave.