Chapter 29: The Welcome
"But how come I can't sense their presence?" the Shrouded One pondered quietly, sniffing the air around him. Yet no trace of the girls reached him. Quite the opposite—in fact, the girls could sense exactly where he was.
"I can already picture his face right now, sniffing around, trying to catch a whiff of us. Hahaha," Ariella said with a laugh.
"We got his scent instead—hahaha! Hmph, he thought he was the only one who could go around sniffing people. Let him have a taste of his own medicine! We can track his scent now and strike first, end this already," Elara chimed in.
Unbeknownst to the Shrouded One, the moment he disappeared, the girls had resumed their training. By now, they'd learned to mask their scent completely—unlike their first encounter, where he'd sniffed them out with ease. That trick wouldn't work on them again.
Instead, they could track him anywhere he went.
"No, Ela. We can't rush into battle no matter how strong we think we've become. We don't know how much he's improved. It's better to wait than try to draw him out prematurely," Ariella cautioned, and Elara nodded in agreement.
"Smart ones," the Shrouded One muttered to himself. "They must've learned to mask their aura. Clever move. But they've yet to witness the full extent of this young master's abilities."
He lifted his hands into the air—but nothing happened.
"Fool. Look at him!" Ariella scoffed. "He really thinks we're that stupid? Still hasn't learned from last time."
Before them, a translucent screen floated like a magical TV, showing a live feed of the Shrouded One. Every movement he'd made in the forest, from the moment he arrived, had been visible to them.
"Let's go welcome our visitor, shall we?" Elara said with a mischievous smile. In a flash, they teleported to his location.
"Long time no see. I see your skin's healed quite nicely. What's the secret?" Ariella teased, a smirk on her face.
They remembered well—the time they turned his fire back on him. He'd left scorched and scarred.
The Shrouded One stared at the two girls, his anger slowly boiling. He hadn't expected his powers to fail him here. Worse, he couldn't find them—they had found him. And now, they were mocking him, reminding him of the fire… the scars… and Percy's near-death.
They were playing with fire.
"You must be wondering how we found you, right? And why you couldn't sense us like last time," Elara said, her voice thick with sarcasm.
The Shrouded One said nothing. He simply glared.
"Since you've gotten better, you didn't think we'd be foolish enough to stop training just because we beat you once, did you?" Ariella followed up.
"The last time we engulfed you with our power, you retaliated with your fire—but it backfired. We managed to get a glimpse of your true potential. We saw all your abilities. Want me to list them?"
Without waiting for a response, she continued.
"Fire. Mirror viewing. Beast control. And let's not forget your blood rage—though it's been dormant for a while."
So that's what happened. The Shrouded One stared at them, eyes wide in shock. He couldn't believe how much these girls had uncovered. The only advantage he had left was this—they didn't know about his blood rage being reactivated the day before. They didn't even know about the Master… or the others.
Not yet.
© 2025 Victoria Nakayenga. All rights reserved.
This story is my original work. Do not copy, repost, or translate without permission.