The Insider System

Chapter 287: Practice

"I think something is happening, I think they stopped." The last few times the arrow had picked up Dawn it had been pointed at the same exact direction and while they could be running away from them still just in a new direction he felt like they might have stopped for a reason.

"Do you think they might be resting for a while, it's been hours since we got word that Dawn had been taken so maybe they're tired from running this whole time." Lake thought this sounded very plausible and said. "That's probably what it is. They must not know we're after them like the last person." There was a small chance this was a trap but he didn't feel like there was a real chance of this being true but he still wanted to check.

Not needing the arrow to tell them where to go any more, Lake tried to think of a setting for Detector that could tell them if this was a trap that they were running towards. Wondering if people about to fall for a trap would work, Lake set Detector and a second later was happy to find neither of them were glowing.

Setting Detector back so that he would know if the person who had Dawn started to move again Lake wondered how much longer it might be before they caught up to them. With them not moving, Lake felt like they would arrive within an hour based on what he knew about the size of the Holy Domain which they were still in.

It would probably be a lot faster actually since the amount of time they had already been chasing them they had to be really close. "I'm about to change my tracking method because I think we're getting close so I won't be telling you where to go for a while."

Setting Detector to look for Dawn without using the arrow anymore, Lake waited to see a golden person appear in front of them. Less than twenty minutes Later Lake saw someone with Mana vision and said. "Slow down, I'll tell you when you can stop moving." The people he was seeing weren't in range of Detector yet so he still needed them to get closer to make sure it was the people they were after.

After slowly creeping forward for a while the two people in front of them finally entered Range and seeing one of them start to glow Lake gave the Temple Head a thumbs up. Getting off of her back, Lake activated Mute and crouched down next to a tree. He knew the Temple Head would be going first and that she probably wanted him to come from another direction like last time but neither of them wanted to speak this close to the person on the off chance they heard them and ran so he was just assuming.

Watching the Temple Head start to move forward again, Lake silently headed off in another direction to come around the back of the person they would be ambushing. Moving quickly because he had a larger distance to cover compared to the Temple Head and because he had Mute so he didn't have to worry about the amount of noise he made, Lake got around to the other side before the Temple Head had even attacked.

Getting an arrow ready Lake waited for her to get the person's attention if she failed to take them out like last time. Less than a second later Lake saw a flash of light and the person fell to the ground with no head. Seeing the Temple Head had decided to just use magic this time since there wasn't a chance of hitting Dawn who was on the ground a few feet away from their target Lake walked out of the bushes he had been hiding in towards the body.

"It was a lot easier this time huh, you ready to head back?" Hearing the Temple Heads words lake was about to ask if she wanted him to check the body first but he guessed there wasn't much of a reason without its head. "Yeah."

...

With the meeting done all Donny could think of was wanting to find the scouts who had been sent out to investigate so he could ask them about all the small details that had been left out of the meeting. Donny's father had always said in situations like these to never ignore any bad feelings you had since it seemed people's instincts were a lot more trustworthy than you would think and this advice had served him well so he planned to find them as fast as he could.

"Hey Keel, do you know who was sent out to investigate?" Keel had probably been in the command room when the scouts got back so he should know their faces. "Yes but I do not know where they are at the moment." This was fine because it gave him a way to find them. "Would you point them out to me if you see them?"

Seeing Keel nod Donny was about to go back to the room their team was in when Keel asked. "I will but Why?" Donny had no reason to hide him being curious so he said. "I just want to ask them about a few things and didn't want to bother Rigbis with it." Keel seemed satisfied with this answer because he turned and started to walk away.

Doing the same, Donny was back in their room in a few minutes and was about to start training again when he saw a huddle of people in one of the rooms corners. He wasn't able to hear what they were saying so he started to walk over because he was curious what they could be talking about.

"I'm telling you it's weird that the other team didn't find any of those things we should ask commander Rigbis to make sure they're still who they were when they went out." Hearing this person was spreading rumors that could lead to the situation he had been worried about before the meeting Donny walked into the group and said. "We've already looked into that. We haven't been infiltrated, we were just unlucky finding that thing."

He wanted to nip this in the bud now before this kind of talk spread any further. "Donny listen I'm telling you it's completely possible a few of the people they sent into buildings were tuned without the other people they were with noticing."

Donny knew there was always a small chance but not wanting to feed into this at all said. "We have people checking our identities constantly. Four different people came into this room yesterday making sure no one had been cursed while we were out on our mission. We would have found anyone who shouldn't be here by now."

He could tell his words were working on all the people around but the guy he was arguing with still wasn't convinced. "The Demon Worshipers are constantly finding new ways to trick us. Just because our skills say everything is alright doesn't mean anything."

"What would you like us to do? We already segregated the two groups that went out into their own rooms that they aren't allowed to leave. That's more than enough." The next step would be to start throwing random people into cells which was completely ridiculous when there was no evidence that anything was wrong in the fortress.

"Mendy, Vice-captain Donny is right there's nothing wrong with how we're doing it now. Even if there is a person that's being controlled or has been replaced they won't be able to get out into the rest of the fortress." Donny would have preferred if the other person just agreed with him that there weren't any traitors but this was good enough with this Mendy guy being done talking.

"Would you all like to run some more drills?" It was a great way for them to pass time while they were being kept away from the others. Seeing a lot of people go and grab their weapons Donny smiled and wondered if it would be ok if he set a formation inside this room. He knew a small formation that would make small flying things that they could use as targets; he just wasn't sure if the guards outside their room would like it.

Deciding it would be fine Donny got to work and soon twenty small balls were flying around the room in random directions. "Alright everyone pick one and try to catch it. Whoever hits one first gets to tell the others what move to practice to do." They were all extremely bored so making this into a game was one of the best ways to get everyone who wasn't asleep to participate.

A few minutes after the game started the game Keel walked into the room and said. "Donny the scouts are in the command room right now if you want to wait in the hallway to talk to them when they walk out." He wasn't allowed into the command room if he wasn't invited to keep him from hearing anything he wasn't supposed to so waiting in the hallway was his only option.