Hunter explained the memo of what had happened during the past fifteen minutes he was out for allowing him to stand on even ground with everyone else. Cloudy reveled that his memory was a bit hazy but said what he could.

"When we were making a break for the center of the forest I could hear whispers to coming from all directions yet it was only a single voice talking to me. It was soft~.. so so gentle. Whoever it was they warned me to stay away from the gateway and to never enter it."

"Each time they warned me the more I became afraid until... Err-.. Mhm~. I-I can't remember~."

Cloudy held onto his face trying to push himself so he wouldn't be a burden until Hunter stopped him saying he had done his best and to not worry about it now. Hunter gestured for Royal to follow him to the gate ahead specifying that it needed to be studied further before they head on inside. Excited to learn more Royal took out a few things to make the process easier and went to work with him. There was an unknown material that would periodically flash any color it had without reason. An hour passed on and they did figure out one thing about the gate and it was that it was used to prevent people from breaking inside using aura and escaping using it as well.

"It's a trap then~."

Royal claimed as he flipped a few notes with his handy journal.

Hunter stated that they would need to enter regardless or he could enter on his own for their safety. Royal said his own opinion thinking it would be best for them to stay outside. Looking back he saw Nick snacking on some food looking a little out of it while Cloudy was taking a sip of water recovering from earlier. Out of context Nick wondered why Hunter wasn't using a weapon while traveling explaining the convince of it.

"It must suck getting blood all over your hands. Why not use a blade or a hammer or something?"

"... It's too dangerous if I do. I only use it for things that require me to bring it. You'd understand if you saw what I am capable of with a weapon. Bare hands allows me to freely move around without being dragged down. It's sort of-... exhilarating."

He said with a hint of reminiscence.

They were all put off by his unexpected answer thinking he would say something closer to being unable to use one or for some edgy reason. At least that was what Nick's mind was going on about. Another hour passed inside the hallway with hardly anything worth mentioning happening. Royal and Hunter were close to finishing researching the gate as Nick started to look sickly. Concerned Cloudy moved closer concerned for his friend and held onto him asking if he needed anything. Nick took deep breaths almost throwing up as he laid down not doing so great. Cloudy called for the other two pulling their attention away from the gate. Suddenly a burst of flames with a wave of heat launched everyone afar coming from Nick. Cloudy was completely set on fire as his body was being burnt out of control. Shocked Hunter dashed toward them demanding Royal to remove the fire from Cloudy as he screamed in serious pain.

"FUCK! Royal put out that fire! I'll do something about Nick!"

"O-ok! What the hell happened!?"

He slid over to Cloudy leaving scrapes on his knees as that was the least of his concern. He attempted to put out the flames in anyway he could but it continued to get hotter each time he tried only frightening him. Confused he shouted to Hunter telling him that something was going on with Nick. Hunter ran nearby Nick as he stood up in a trance. His body grew in size with his muscles shaping and bulged up. Flames began to emerge from his body more violently with his aura surrounding him with sporadic energy flying around. His hair colored started to shift slowly having more orange than blonde now with his pupils used to have a gentle light blue now having a red and orange flame symbol. The area around was being set aflame with the air becoming too hot to breath in safely. Veins were popping out of Hunter's head yelling out to Nick for him to calm down and realize who he had just set on fire. Nick's eyes glistened as his expression's were close to emotionless like a puppet. Hunter's aura began to surface from the ground encasing him in crimson energy. He took a stance ready to subdue the threat in front of him but hesitated seeing Nick open his mouth in a deeper voice than his usual.

"𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒹 𝒶 𝑔𝑜𝒹 𝒹𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝓊𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝑜𝓇 𝑒𝓁𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓈𝓉. 𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾𝓃𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝓎𝑜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓇𝑒𝒽𝑒𝓃𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃."

Hunter had nothing else to say understanding if he didn't take care of the threat in front of him Cloudy and Royal wouldn't make it. At that point only action could make a difference at that moment and so he prepared himself to take another life.

"I don't know what's going on with you.. but this is the last thing I wanted. Sorry."

Nick's power continued to grow out of control as the ground below him began to melt from the heat he was spewing from his body. Royal tended to Cloudy's burns as best as he could witnessing Hunter face off against his best friend and brother. Hunter raised his hand up slowly to where it reached the same height as his shoulder as the aura around his body shifted over toward his hand and fingers. It became a weapon on its own with a single scratch from his fingers making it turn into a gaping wound. He prepared for a swift and painless death with a small amount of bloodlust packed behind it. Nick's body shivered profusely just from the eerie stare alone coming from him but never fell back knowing their opponent was someone strong enough to fight an army without issues. He charged at him full force flinging his ax in the air ready to strike Hunter down.

"𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝒾𝓃𝓃𝒶𝒸𝓁𝑒. 𝒩𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓅 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓅𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝒻𝓇𝓊𝒾𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃."

Before that Hunter couldn't bare to look at Nick, not by disgust nor disappointment. But how ashamed he was for letting something get over his head putting everyone in danger. Only mere steps away Nick laid his weapon aiming right for Hunter's neck announcing a skill.

"𝒟𝒾𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝒮𝓉𝒾𝓇𝓀𝑒 𝒮𝒸𝑜𝓇𝒸𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒮𝓊𝓃: 𝒮𝓊𝓃 𝒞𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒"

𝒮𝓊𝓃 𝒞𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒: Nick's ability that has yet to be unlocked until now shockingly. It engulfs whatever he uses with lethal amounts of flames and attacks dealing burns and possibly causing irreparable damage to another's weapon if he were fighting a person.

Fire suddenly encased Hunter engulfing him in fierce flames, Royal shouted in concern but could hardly breath properly due to the air being so hot to take in. Nick stared dumbfounded as Hunter only moved his shoulder a few inches toward the right not even fazed by his intimidating attack. Although he dodged it the flames were burning the clothes on his body from his legs.

"𝒩𝒾𝒸𝓀 𝐼'𝓂 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓎, 𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹'𝓋𝑒 𝒹𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓉𝑒𝒸𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊."

The next thing Nick saw was a massive hand in comparison to his Ax sweeping down at him putting him into a state of shock not believing how massive his hand seemed to be. He could feel his blood leaving through a large gash in his body. His bones being sliced apart with his collar bone being the first to his rib-cage down toward his lower stomach, into his leg and finally out of his body. It was as if a blade had cut into him not a hand apart of a human. All that could be heard was the sound of meat being sliced open. Only after there was the sound of blood being drawn from his body in the silent halls of an unknown territory. Royal looked on in horror as the man who saved them all was the one who killed off one of his only friends and family. Hunter who had slain one of his own could only do what he thought was best and look down on the corpse of his former student knowing the aftermath had settled in with a heavy mood right after. The flames that had stayed lit on Cloudy's body snuffled out in the blink of an eye right when Nick was taken out. Royal searched his body for anything but there was no burns nor scarring not even so much as a single mark showing he was caught on fire. He knew now that he was safe for the time being and moved over to Hunter seeing nothing but his back still staring at the corpse. Trying to break the awkward situation Royal tried to comfort him although he was hurt as well but was stopped by Hunter.

"I-I...I'm sorry guys~. I never wanted this shit to happen. I shouldn't have brought children along with me into my squabbles."

Royal stomped forward right up behind him and kicked his leg as hard as he possibly could forcing Hunter to fall back hitting his butt on the concrete. He faced him shouting seriously with confidence more emotions and expressions than ever before.

"I've told you that we all agreed for what we signed up to do and we all knew the risks especially. You gave us a home, respect and treated us like a family in comparison to others and this time 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝓊𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝓇𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓁𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓃𝓈 𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓉. I know that is what Nick would've wanted us to do. If we cried because of him dying he would come back and annoy us until we didn't anymore. Although it is hard not to cry~."

Hunter wasn't able to do anything but try to move forward knowing fully well it wasn't going to be such a simple task. He took in a long hard deep breath calming himself. Royal took a quick notice seeing that his eyes had taken a different color for just a moment but couldn't tell what it was before it went back to normal. He would've questioned him but hesitated and decided it was better not to ask at all. Hunter walked over still shaken up by what he had to do earlier and checked on Cloudy to see how his body was holding up. To his surprised he was alive and well with nothing on the outside off putting. He put his two fingers close to his chest pressing it gently as he released his aura around Cloudy. Royal asked what he was doing to him as Hunter explained that he was searching for internal injuries just incase since the fire did nothing to his body on the outside. It was an abnormal event. There was nothing found inside that would harm him which was confusing to say the least but he was happy enough to know that Cloudy was alive with nothing happening to him being a miracle. He almost let out a single tear before thinking of Nick and stopping himself. He circled back to Royal asking him for a favor. Royal agreed and did as he was told which was to watch over Cloudy until he woke up. Hunter reminded him to not leave Cloudy be nor wander on his own or it could lead to his death. Royal already knew what he was going to do now. It was stupid and reckless but they didn't have very many options either. Hunter heroically faced the unknown gate and marched up the small flight stairs before reaching it. This time it was more animated and lively than previously with a black space like substance swirling around eating anything that would enter. He cautioned himself and ordered Royal to not enter the gate no matter the circumstance. Royal nodded in response a bit side tracked by Nick's body still not used to seeing a dead body in general but especially of his friend. 

Only a few steps away from walking into the gate with unknown variables it began to open on its own welcoming its guest into its home as if it knew it was there. A putrid stench of malice and aura consumed them all as the energy was bouncing all around the hallway being let free from the gate. The sheer potency of the energy was enough to put Royal into a state of shock shutting down his entire body except for his consciousness. What made it more frightening was that the door was only partially opened with more energy still waiting to be released with Hunter taking in the brunt of all that aura. Royal could only look as Hunter turned back with a sad expression on his face telling him to be safe. The doors shortly after slammed shut with the lingering aura dissipating with the source now closing off with the halls of the forest now silent.