--
Valerie cursed herself for being late. She could only imagine how terrified her precious student might've been facing this degenerate.
Unbeknownst to Lily, Valerie left a life-saving measure on her. It's on her wand. There's a mechanism in there that is directly linked to Valerie, letting her know where Lily was and how dangerous her situation was.
That mechanism was triggered due to Lily's duress after seeing TJ wounded. It sent a feedback to Valerie which alerted her of what's happening.
She rushed as fast as she could, practically leaving a blazing trail in her wake. Fortunately, they weren't too far from school, allowing her to arrive there as soon as she could.
But even so, it was too late, one of her students were already injured.
And this made her even more pissed. That's why she was so heavy handed with the culprit.
"Teacher!!" Lily called out, her voice wobbled as she cried.
Valerie's heartbroke hearing her cry, and this made her vision darken even more. She cocked back her fist and was pretty determined to turn this man into a blood mist, but suddenly, a hand wrapped around her fist.
"Chill, Boss. You can't kill him, we need to take him in for investigation."
It was Mr. Eden. He followed her after seeing how she practically broke the window in her office and ran across the sky. He thought that the situation might've been really serious for her to lose all decorum, and he was right.
Valerie growled. She didn't like it, but she understood the necessity. If she punched this guy again, he might really turn into a meat paste. He's more useful alive than dead.
"Hey, Lily. Sorry I was late, you're not hurt, are you?" Valerie's face and voice did a 180⁰ degree changed when addressing her student.
She spoke softly and sounded more caring, she coaxed Lily who's been crying from the terrible experience.
As she does this, Mr. Eden takes out some bindings from his inventory and ties up the culprit. He also called the police to inform them of what happened.
Only then did he see one of the brightest and most hardworking students injured and leaning on the nearby tree. Mr. Eden's eyes darkened for a moment; he himself was tempted to kill this deranged man for laying a hand on his student, but he'd be a hypocrite if he did that.
"Teacher, please take us to my dad; he can cure TJ. He's affected by something! Please!" Lily hasn't calmed down yet; she keeps holding TJ as if she's afraid that he's going to disappear if she doesn't.
"Right, yes. Let's do that." Valerie immediately agreed.
With a whistle, she summoned a huge creature, much to the surprise of the students.
It was an eagle, a giant one.
"This is Iris, my familiar and mount. Come, let's take you home so that he can be treated."
With a wave of her hand, Valerie released an invisible force that carried Lily, Sieg, and most importantly, TJ on Iris' back. Before taking off, Valerie looked at Mr. Eden and said,
"You called the police, right?" she asked. Mr. Eden nodded, so she ordered, "Okay, stay here and wait for them. Make sure they take that guy in and secure him. If he escapes, tell them they can't blame me for killing him the next time I see him outside."
Mr. Eden nodded. Even if she didn't say anything, he would make sure that this guy doesn't escape. If he does, Mr. Eden would personally hunt him down even if he had to flip the entire district over.
Iris took off after that. She practically tore through the skies with her speed, shocking the little passengers she's carrying. In less than a minute, they arrived at Lily's home, which triggered alarms all over the mansion.
Anthony was already outside even before the alarm completely finished its first tune.
"Daddy! It's TJ; please help him; he's wounded!" Lily, even before coming down from the mount, already screamed for help.
In truth, she didn't have to say anything. Anthony saw TJ and was already moving before his daughter could say something.
A flash of light erupted from Anthony's body, forming a bubble of light with him at the center. A pair of light blue gloves appeared in his chest, and his white robes fluttered with the wind; a face mask also appeared on his face, and his glasses gleamed with the reflection of light.
Upon entering the bubble, the trio felt their emotions calming down. They also smelled the scent of medicine and felt cleaner as they came close to him.
This was Anthony's [Sterilized Field], a reliable AOE skill he uses a lot as a doctor.
A hospital bed appeared before Anthony as he asked them to "place him here, gently, please."
His voice was gentle but firm. His tone was friendly and approachable but booked no room for refusal either.
Valerie, of course, did what he said. She's not one to defy the good doctor's orders, especially this district's medical saint.
TJ groaned as his back gently made contact with the bed. He then winced and opened his eyes, saying,
"Hey, uncle. Sorry about this; I didn't mean for us to get into trouble."
"It's not your fault, silly!" Lily hissed. "Just shut up and let my father do his work."
TJ showed one of his awkward smiles before saying, "She's overreacting, Uncle. The one who did this to me, his claws were laced with a blood racing agent. The wound's not that deep."
"It's great that you can recognize this," Anthony said as he already prepared the antidote. "You just relax in there and let me do my thing, okay?"
"I'll inject the antidote on you; this will make you feel sleepy. Don't fight it. Sleep and recover. Whatever happened just now, it's over. You're safe now, okay?"
"Okay." TJ nodded before closing his eyes to rest.
Anthony then injected him with the antidote, and after a few seconds, TJ's breathing began evening out. He also began cleaning his wound and healing it.
Like TJ said, the wounds were shallow. It's the Blood Racing agent that's making it worse. Now that's neutralized, and with Anthony's care, his wounds healed. It didn't leave a scar.
"Okay, he's good. He just needs to sleep, and he'd be fine by the time he wakes up," Anthony confirmed. Not even five minutes after he began, TJ was already good. He's sleeping peacefully now.
Everybody collectively sighed in relief. Lily collapsed on the floor and began bawling her eyes out.
"That was so scary!!" She said as she wailed like a baby. Her mother and her teacher were already by her side, coaxing her. Meanwhile, Sieg and Anthony just smiled wryly at this.
Anthony knows his daughter. She's fine; this was just her way of releasing her taut emotions, which was a healthy way of coping after the incident they're just in.
Speaking of the incident.
"Hi, Sieg. I'm glad that you're okay. If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me what happened just now?"
"I will, Uncle. But the police should be sending some people here. Let's wait for them so that the story doesn't have to be repeated."
"Alright. We'll do as you say."
**
Just like Sieg expected, the police came soon. They asked for Sieg and Lily's statement about their encounter.
Sieg was the one who did most of the talking since Lily was still calming down from crying.
Anthony's and his wife's hearts clenched when they heard that the trio ran into the loose cultist. Even more so when Sieg said that the man repeatedly tried to attack Lily and how TJ, again and again, put himself in between them to take the blow instead.
It was Lily who told them how TJ told them that they can't run since the man was faster than them, so they should stall instead. She also told them how he got injured and how the man was shot in the chest, only to be miraculously revived like it didn't happen.
Anthony, his wife, and Valerie looked exceptionally grim after hearing this, but they didn't say anything because they didn't want to scare the children anymore than they already were.
The police thanked the two and praised them for being so brave. Anthony then told the two of them to rest since a lot has already happened this day. He told Sieg that he'd inform his family in his stead and it'd be safer for him to stay here for the night.
Once the children were gone, the atmosphere between the adults instantly became somber.
"[Dark Revival]. That son of a bitch is still alive!!" Valerie angrily spat.
"Maybe it's not him?" Anthony tried to sound positive, but he sounded more like he was convincing himself instead of doing it for them.
"Yes, maybe they just found somebody who inherited the same skill," his wife chimed in, her face betraying what she actually tries to express.
"Either way, this is bad news for us. The [Dark Revival] is banned for a reason, and its re-emergence spells a lot of trouble for us," the policeman stated.
"We must leave right away and report this to the City Lordess. The sooner she hears about this, the sooner we can figure out a solution for these pesky cultists."