Ling Xie POV Continued
We ended up at head quarters a short time later. As I exited my car, I walked straight into the Guild. Outlaws and Outcasts, affectionately known as O.O was built by me from the ground up. After the military abandoned me for a failed mission and I was dishonorably discharged at 20, I spent the next 7 years building this up. We were the #1 Guild. With our strict zero discrimination policy my guild is a safe haven for guides and omegas.
"Tsk" I click my tongue in irritation at the unwanted memories attempting to surface. My team follows behind me as we make our way to the elevators. The guard on duty uses the wave length determiner to check our identities.
I stepped on the elevator followed by the 4 team members who led the raid. Horvak, an A.S.E. Mentalist, looked exhausted and in serious need of guiding. I had sent him along to mentally record the entire battle. Yet, it seems he actually had to fight. I glanced at the others Tae-Ho, Vaire, and Crow. While the looked ragged they didn't seem to be in need of guiding. Why did Horvak need it?
"Do you need guiding?" I asked. All four shook their heads.
"Miasma levels all below 50%?"
"I am at 50% exactly" replied Horvak, while the other 3 nodded.
"Very well." I responded, as the elevator descended deeper underground.
The doors opened to bustling activity. Espers and Guides busted about with their work. Most people stopped to greet them, but i just waved the greetings away. We were in a hurry if Tae-Ho requested a briefing room. He opened the door to B.R. 1; the most secure room. It was protected with the highest tech and magic.
The room held a soft glow. Harsh lighting can often trigger high level Espers into irritability and as the lowest was Horvak he was still an S Rank.
Vaire threw himself into a chair. "That was the craziest fucking raid I ever been in. Hey, Ling Xie gimme that guide. I'll take great care of him and he'll take even better care of me" Vaire's wolf's grin held a lecherous note to it, causing all of us to frown. There was no one who fit the horny play boy as perfectly as Vaire.
"How about you tell me what happened." Ling Xie sat down in the main seat. His imposing demeanor spread throughout the room. His dominant pheromones suppressing the other alphas in the room. Vaire let out a whine and tilted his head showing his submission to the superior Alpha. In fact all the other Alpha's submitted by showing the necks to him. Satisfied I loosened up on my suppression of them.
"Report." I said, crossing on leg over the other. There was silence as everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to speak. I quirked my eye brow, and decided I would wait a bit more until it would become irritable. Finally Tae-Ho spoke.
"We can only assume that the young man is a guide and the other is a dragon shifter Esper." I raised my eyebrows slightly surprised. There has never been a dragon shifter in the past 200 years of awakenings.
In the year 2000 the first Esper awakened. His abilities were the power of the sun. From there ability users started to awaken left and right. The governments struggled to maintain order and then they Gates to dungeons appeared and exploded out. The world descended into chaos. There were mass casualties, by the time the first battles were won all humans without abilities were dead. The population was decimated and continued to decline, at this point many of the abilities users, especially those who could shift into some form of animal began to display alpha and omega traits. The entire thing at the time was compared to the numerous literary works. Shifters were fairly normal, but no legendary beast has ever had a shifter. Until now.
"A dragon shifter hmmm" I was intrigued and eager, if we could add a dragon shifter to the guild it would be a huge advantage against Apofys of the Abyss.
"How did they manage to get into the dungeon?"
"Well..." Tae-Ho let his sentence hang before continuing. "We were fighting the dragon. He was an enemy of the dungeon. Until the guide fixed it."
"Wait, you're telling me you brought enemies of unfathomable power into the guild?"
"I don't think they are enemies. In fact..." He glanced over a Horvak.
"I think they may be from beyond the dungeon." Horvak's rumbling voice inserted him into the conversation.
"Explain." I shifted my eyes to Horvak. He sighed deeply.
"I was unable to penetrate the dragon's mental defenses. Even unconscious his mental fortitude was...at levels that over powered me." That was interesting information. Horvak was the strongest Mentalist, so powerful that he had multiple limitors implanted by the government at one time.
"And the guide?" Horvak sighed at my question. "It's is better to show you. I recorded what I could from his mind, after reading the battle. I think the only reason I was able to break into his mind was his unstable emotional state." Horvak then plugged the transmission device into the chip at his wrist closing him eyes.
I watched in awe at the battle against the dragon. His midnight black scales glittering. Each powerful attack exciting me at the prospect of a foe I could let loose with. Until the youth showed up. A soft glow surrounded him, as darkness covered his body like armor. The silvery blue light of guiding powers exploded from the youth. Enveloping the dragon and all Esper's on the front line. I watched as the dragon disappeared and the guide fell from the sky.
The battle scene then shifted to watching a black gate form. Although it didn't look like the gates they had. It was as if an black crack to the abyss formed in the middle of the sky. Below was a small army with various types of species in armor. From the vision their vantage point seemed to be from above looking down. Next the screen warped into a foggy place then nothingness.
"Their armor and weaponry were fairly primitive." Horvak spoke.
"It's looked like a historical drama. You know those cultivation dramas set in BTG (before the gate) times." Crow spoke for the first time. Yet an unsettling gleam was in his eyes.
"Haha the little guide activated Crow's tism" Vaire laughed and Crow glared at him.
"Enough. Are you telling me that guide, not only guided half the battlefield of humans but you guys and the dragon? What was your miasma level after the guiding?"
"30%" Horvak responded.
"32% for me" Crow said.
"38%" No surprise about Vaire he was probably in the low 60s when the guide did his thing. Tae-Ho was quiet for a moment.
"9%...he brought me down from 55% to 9%. I was also the closest to him other than the dragon." My hands dropped as I pressed my palms on the table.
"9%?" I was shocked all of us had to meet with numerous guides to get below 35%. While the others numbers were surprising, but to drop below 10% not even from direct contact was unheard of.
"Well it originally stopped at 25% until I caught him. When he stroked my head...it dropped to 9%" I stared at him in disbelief.
"Ling Sheng...is it possible that..." Crow's voice trailed off as we were interrupted by the intercom beep.
"Sir, the shifter seems to be awake."
"I'll be right there." I responded. After making sure the comm was no longer on I looked at the others.
"Get some rest. I want a report and recordings on my desk tomorrow. After you've rested."
With that the meeting ended.
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My mind was swirling with the implications of these two beings. A dragon shifter and a guide, supposedly. However, Apofys was truly devious. Until the being prove otherwise they must be treated as possible agents of the Abyss. The shifter had nothing wrong with him medically, so he was locked and restrained in one of the cells in the sub-basement. I paused momentarily at the first cell. My brother laid sedated in a bed in that cell. The guide gave me a glimmer of hope, but I couldnt let my thoughts dwell on that. I had too much to do.
My steps echoed in the hall as I walked to the 3rd cell. I stopped before it, a chair already set up in front of the clear mana glass.
"My name is Ling Xie. I am the Guild Lead of O.O. and you are currently being held captive in my guild. You are currently a prisoner here. Do you understand?"
I gaze through the glass at the man. His long dark purple hair cascades about him in waves. He seemed to have a lithe build under the outfit he had been dressed in. An outward appearance that completely contradicted the power I had seen of him in his shifted form. His green eyes looked at me, and I swore they flashed with a reptilian glint. He looked at me as prey. His head tilted to the side and yet he let out a long sigh.
"Where is my Lady?" His voice held a rich mesmerizing timbre and I was momentarily stunned. I felt as if I was under the effect of a power for a brief moment.
"Who is you Lady? Is the young boy as bearer?" I asked about the other being brought in.
"Where is my Lady?" He repeated the question.
"He is recieving treatment. Who is he?" The man just flashed a grin, his fangs glinting. A satisfied look crossed his face and I realized he had given me nothing and I had given him important information. Frustrated I continued to question him but he remained silent. He looked satisfied and yet he looked incredibly bored. My watch beeped alerting me to the guide being awake. Seems like I could use the guide against the shifter for leverage.
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It had been a week and he had gotten nothing from either of them. Not even their damn names. The damn shifter pissed him off to no end. I grabbed Vaire by the neck and threw him into the wall.
I was currently sparring with Vaire and Tae-Ho. Lost in thought, his body moved on pure instinct during the match. The dragon shifter just silently lived. He neither acknowledge my presence or others.
Also the odd phenomenon of things randomly appearing in the dragon shifters cell was frustrating. There was only a bed, toliet, and sink. Like most of the other holding cells. Yet his now had a rug, the bed had become more ornate, the toliet had a partition wall. There was even a desk, chair, books, and what looked like paper and a quill of all things! He was capable of basically pulling these items from some place through space and yet he stayed locked up in the cell. It was beyond confusing and frustrating. He just made himself at home. Who does that? Seriously!
Just as both Tae-Ho and Vaire were about to launch a combined attack alarms began to blare. Their watches went off with an alert for a mana rampage.
"The fox guide?" Vaire's response was filled with confusion. "Should the QUCC stop that?" He looked at me with confusion.
"Get the dragon. Summon Horvak, We are getting answers today!" I snapped as I stormed off toward the med ward.