Paladin's Path

"Trafficking of Chimera has been a thing for a long time now. Maybe since they first ever started appearing even." Carmen started to explain. "People use them for large scale attacks or even some people that are supposed to be on the right side of the law will use them for whatever unregistered purpose they have."

It was interesting, other than for attacking Theon couldn't think of much else they would be used for since there was nothing to gain. But once she explained that even some people on the right side of the law may try to purchase them that made it sound like people wanting to soar through the ranks at a quicker pace.

"So since they're all suppressed in their cages they won't try to break out of them to get to Bell?" Jon asked trying to sound as disappointed as he could.

"They shouldn't but I personally don't fully know how strong her curse is. So Bell," Bell was looking in the buildings direction now turned to face Carmen, "I am kind of using you here to test out what we will be facing from here on."

Bell nodded in understanding. "That's okay."

"Great, now if any of them do manage to free themselves you guys should not engage understand. Only do so if you really need to but make sure you stick together."

The trio nodded as they got the message even Jon looked like he was taking it more serious.

They followed Carmen as she led them to the buildings entrance, a rusted door hanging slightly ajar.

As they entered a heavy scent hit their noses, dampness, iron and something more rotten lurking underneath. There was a low light that was just bright enough for people to navigate their way through the building and see the monstrosities crawling about in their cages.

More agitated now presumably because of Bell entering in as well, they got louder and bashed their skulls on the bars of their holdings. They were lined up and packed tightly.

"Suppression Runes," Carmen muttered as she pointed to the shapes carved on paper above the cages and some placed on the bars of the metal cages.

One of the chimera caught Theon's eye, a hulking, malformed thing with too many limbs, its face and body a grotesque blend of human and animal features. It snarled softly as it noticed his gaze, Theon couldn't help but feel a soft chill.

They were everywhere you turned locked up.

"Wonder how much this could sell for?" Jon said.

There was no retort and as Theon was looking around he glimpsed at Bell to see her shaking in fear.

This was Theon's first time even seeing chimera and maybe it was the uncanny presence they had to their OD that made him tremor a little. But Bell was terrified.

Before Theon could do anything Carmen was upon her and gently placed her hand on her shoulder, she craned her neck down to face her and lowly said. "You are safe with me."

The effects were almost instantaneous. Bell's shaking calmed down a bit.

But the rattling of the cages were getting louder with the chimera seeming more agitated.

They were dumb creatures that couldn't speak, mainly meaning that these ones were not as strong as the one's that could communicate with humans.

"I've sent out an alert for some more paladins to come to this location to deal with this." Carmen said. "What we are going to do instead is search for clues on who may have dragged these guys here."

The team stuck together with them unintentionally forming a protective triangular formation around Bell.

The team walked around the building and walked into many different rooms, there was nothing of note other than some smaller and weaker chimera in innocuous spaces.

Finally they found something in one of the rooms closer to the back exit.

A room, the only moderately clean room, housed a long desk with multiple phones on the table. A few conclusions as to what they were, dummy phones or stolen phones were the first ones.

As they walked in Theon was the first to notice a lone owl like chimera with four eyes on its face and a larger than average beak locked away in a cage, Theon stared deeply into its eyes and for some reason he felt he was receiving a look of recognition from it...

'No, that's...'

He raised his hand in the direction of the owl and a dragon formed ready to rage on, only for the chimera to skews in on itself and pass through the cage and fly out of the room in blinding speeds.

Jon was first to try and chase after it until a hand clamped down on his shoulder. "Let it be. You wouldn't catch it anyway."

Carmen then turned to Theon.

"What did you notice?"

"I think that someone was watching us through it." That was the feeling he got from the chimera, the feeling behind the gaze was awfully human compared to the other beasts in the building.

Carmen nodded and hummed.

"Guess we've been figured out then. Grab the phones and then we'll be on our way." She ordered.

Theon grabbed one phone and Bell grabbed two while Jon carried none. As he was about to turn away he had seen the sharp glint of another phone hidden away at an angle that the other three hadn't spotted.

He picked it up and was about to tell Carmen but his something in him told him not to and directed his hand to put it on the inside of his uniform where another pocket was. Theon didn't know why his [Revelation] was making him hide something that was obviously valuable to the mission but he was still getting used to following its silent instructions so he was interested in how this will effect him.

"Lets go."

The team started walking out and Jon muttered quietly "This mission was kind of boring."

"Well it's not supposed to be fun you idiot." Bell fired off at him in succession. "Haven't you seen the statistics for the likelihood of death for a paladin?" She asked with a judgemental sounding tone.

Truthfully no. Theon knew the question wasn't asked to him but he wasn't that interested in finding out things like that in a field that was now his job.

"It's 77%..."

"Shh." the three students stopped moving as their teacher quietened them and signalled them to wait.

They were standing one floor above where the entrance was and Bell lost her haughty attitude and started to quiver.

"They've been released." she said in a low voice.

It didn't take a genius to know what she was talking about.

The chimera that they had passed had all been released. And with bell basically being a magnet for them, there was only one direction they were headed.

And the first signs of that came in a rumble... Then-

"RAH!" It sounded like a tear screamed through the building as beneath them a large being continuously growing its form tore through the building scraped itself upwards.

Theon was quick to react but the gold rank they were lead by was quicker.

Carmen Ford didn't rush to grab her students, not in this situation.

Her hand was in the form of a sharp chop and her OD spiked around her as she pounced forward and swiped down sending a sharp force down and upwards slicing the beast in half before it could continue to rampage throughout the building.

She turned and Theon was mesmerized. Her OD was spiky in fashion as it caressed her skin and there was a warm but feeling that felt like it was poking at them.

"We're moving out in high speeds, don't engage them inside this building!" She let out. Carmen dashed forward and flicked Bell's forehead, "I won't coddle you guys. You will have to forge through the evils laid before you, that is the path you have chosen so walk it, but I will stick by my promise. You will not die around me."

She then jumped passed Bell, "Follow me!"

Her tone screamed no nonsense and this was definitely the most serious she had been.

Theon didn't have time to ponder as he heard the guttural screams and throes coming from the chimera climbing the rubble and walls to get to them.

Carmen jumped through broken patches that the three students couldn't easily follow.

So Theon summoned his dragon's, two were enough, one grabbed Bell and the other Jon and then Theon got atop of the one that had grabbed the former.

Their mentor moved with great speeds but it was at a pace that Theon could follow.

By the time she broke through and found an exit outside she turned around and signalled for them to go past her while something was forming in her hands.

Theon could see her cup her hands and what he was seeing build up was her power. 'Wind.'

It looked like wind was dancing in her palm in a rage that wanted to be let out.

"Pay attention you idiot!" Jon shouted from behind causing Theon to look back to see multiple deformed monstrosities that came in many different slimy and grotesque forms hot on their tail.

Theon's dragon's moved quicker on command and rushed passed Carmen. And it was as soon as the three of them had passed her she unleashed her attack.

As they dropped they all felt the surge in OD so great it could compare to a tornado.

Theon's gaze was drawn back to Carmen as she stood, unmoving, in front of the oncoming horrors. Her posture was rooted and unyielding against the chaos.

Her hands still cupped together like they were cradling something alive and dangerous between her fingers. Wind coiled, fierce and primal, swirling with the fury of a brewing storm. The air around her grew sharp, humming with energy, and Theon could feel it pulsing in rhythm with her steady breath.

In that instant, Carmen Ford no longer seemed human. To Theon, she was something far greater, a force of nature with the authority of a tempest. Her light-hearted demeanour took the backseat and in its place was a presence that was radiant in it's intensity. He couldn't tear his eyes away as the wind between her hands howled begging to be unleashed.

Then, With a flick of her wrist, she released it.

The air snapped. A razor-thin gust tore from her palms, slicing through the space between them with a sharp hiss. It was too fast to see clearly, just a blur of movement, like the edge of a blade cutting through water. But the impact was undeniable.

The wind howled as it raced forward, a force so keen it felt as though it could sever reality itself. It tore through all chimera like they were nothing, like they were made of thing paper, their grotesque forms splitting and scattering in all directions slowly disintegrating nothingness.

Leaving only small miniscule chimera that were too weak to pose much of a threat to anyone, the big had luckily put themselves in a domino like position allowing the gold rank to easily get rid of them.

For a moment, it was as if the world had been swept clean, the oppressive air lifted by the sheer force of Carmen's attack. The wind carried the decay away with it leaving behind a strange, almost serene silence, like the calm that follows a storm.

Theon and the other two could only watch, awestruck, as Carmen lowered her hands. Her OD, Still swirling and sharp, seemed to calm in tandem with the dissipating winds, its spiked aura retracting as she took a slow breath. She glanced over her shoulder her expression wasn't firm like what Theon was expecting from her still rigid stance.

Instead it carried some of her usual playfulness as well as being completely reassuring as if to remind them of her promise she had made.

"That certainly wasn't expected." she said, even though she sounded light her voice cut through like her attack just now. "Let's get going, we're done here."

Theon's mind was still catching up to what he had witnessed. The whole building was now destroyed and if one were to look at the space they may guess that it had never even been there, save for the few pieces of rubble.

Carmen Ford wasn't just there guide, she wasn't just some mentor. She was the eye of the storm, an unbreakable force that stood between them and death.

___

It had only been a day since the last mission and the trio were back to training.

"Chimera are incredibly sensitive to OD." Carmen pointed out. "Some people are too but that's something you are just born with, can't be trained."

Being sensitive to OD was just like having another sense gifted to you, the standard awakened could still sense other people's signatures but someone born with the unique trait could sense it so well that some could predict where attacks would come from as well as have an easier time figuring out their abilities.

"Most chimera, typically weaker ones, are actually blind so that's why their other senses would be so sharp. And to fight against that before initial attacks new paladin recruits work on suppressing their OD. So that's what you guys will be working on today."

Jon whistled before uttering.

"I'm already good at that though."

From his past as an assassin it would make sense for that. But that's only something he and Theon knew.

Carmen gave him an strange look before shrugging her shoulders.

"Well if you're so good you'll win the little game we play." Jon perked up a little. "Its just going to be hide and seek, still on campus but over to the far east side by the forests. We'll be playing with another group by the way so meet me there."

And with that she disappeared in a gust of wind.

"Jon." Bell called his name as she turned to him.

Jon looked to her waiting for her question.

"You said you're already good at suppressing your OD. Explain how please!" She said it in polite phrasing but it still came off as a demand.

Jon didn't seem to mind as he got to explaining it as simply as he could. Theon listened in as well.

"Think of your OD like water. The nodes that she spoke about the other day would be like running taps, wide open and pouring water everywhere. It's noisy messy and anyone nearby can feel the splash."

Bell and Theon were nodding along and following his lead.

"So what you gotta do," Jon continued in a playful yet deliberate tone. "is turn down the tap. Not completely- just slow down the flow. You picture a steady trickle instead of a flood."

Bell squinted, processing.

Jon was grinning.

"It should be flowing, nice, quiet and smooth. Unnoticeable to anyone but you."

Theon chimed in. "So you just have to stay in control of the flow?"

Jon snapped his fingers and pointed at him. "Bingo. Control the flow like your trying to fill a glass without spilling a drop. Do it right and maybe Chimera won't notice you in a room."

He said that to Bell who still had her eyes closed. Theon thought that this would be a way for her to be more safe but the words that came out of her mouth said otherwise.

"I was told that wouldn't work, as they are attracted to more than just my OD, but my very being, my soul or essence. So I was only stuck inside barriers surrounded by suppressant seals."

'Oh.' It sounded sad. All her movement would have to be documented and she was more or less a lost cause, Theon wondered what a life like that would have been like if she didn't want to be a paladin.

Jon cut back in to his little teaching lesson.

"You don't have to just use the water analogy. Use whatever is most comforting and get's you in that state."

Bell gave him a deadpan look. "Helpful."

Jon winked. "What can I say? I'm a fountain of wisdom."