Versatile System Online

"I guess we should move back," Tim suggested but Ray's mother waved her hand and spoke, "Not yet, the girls haven't arrived yet. Lets wait for them,"

"Hmm," Tim nodded as he sat on the ground and leaned back on a rock. The forest was back to its usual self and all the corrosion that happened due to the malevolent tree was now gone.

A few moments later,

Two women appeared from the cater where the tree previously stood, haggard and disoriented; they slowly made their way towards Ray and the others.

"Why didn't you come help us?" Elina hurriedly came in front of Tim and twisted his ear in anger. Seemingly disappointed at her brother's behavior while Tim appeared shocked as he replied, "Wasn't it you who asked me to go and said that you would be fine?"

"It was for something else you idiot!" She smacked his head and turned around in anger, even more disappointed at how foolish her brother could be.

Right as she turned, she saw Ray's mother who had a slight smile on her face witnessing the siblings quarrel, "Dont worry, he did ask about you but I told him to wait here and let you girls arrange yourselves and come on your own,"

While the situation at the forest core ended,

The whole forest went through numerous changes. Even though the humans and Wargs had won the battle, the after effects weren't light. More than half of the forest population had died while only three forest lords remained. Of which, one was injured and the other two weren't enough to lord over the whole forest.

Along with all that, the humans suffered a few casualties as well. Around twenty or so students had died while half of them were injured to considerable degree. The head nurse was still managing everything and right now, she wasn't any less pressured than she was before the fight. After all, half of their elite force had been injured and were unable to fight while the apocalypse still rampaged around without any end. She feared that without sufficient man power, they might be susceptible to attacks.

"What should we do?" She turned to Aliya as she was the only one who she trusted to give her right suggestions at the moment.

"Let's wait for others to return. Im sure they might have some take on the situation as well, not to mention; we have an alliance with the Warg lord, so we might be able to make something of the situation," Aliya answered while bandaging her hands.

During the battle, she had been fighting with her staff for quite some time and since she wasn't used to such fighting style, it caused her hand to be bruised to some degree.

Time passed as a few mourned while others simply kept silent. The victory felt good but this time, their losses were truly heavy and with the training and fighting everyone had gone through together, the death of every individual hurt quite a bit.

The next day,

Emma and Kashish returned to the camp. They met with the head nurse and discussed some things and informed her of Ray's condition. As soon as the head nurse heard of that, she asked for where he was, to which Kashish told her to wait as they all were already on her way.

The head nurse did calm down but following that conversation, the environment within the camp had turned tense.

At night,

A message was sent out from Tim as he called upon Emma and asked her to meet them at the edge of their camp. Apparently, they had reached and were waiting for Emma as they had to inform her of something.

Emma moved under the cover of night and reached them within minutes and when she did reach, she was a bit shocked from how haggard the whole group looked.

Apart from Ray's mother, everyone was in a bad state. Tim's body was wounded all over from fighting the stray beasts during their way back while Elina and Aella were totally spent from the battle and had a few internal injuries over their bodies. They couldn't stand still due to lack of strength and energy.

Sirius, on the other had was in an even worse state. A dark fog filled his whole body as a few pieces of flesh were missing from his arms and legs. As if someone had bitten his arms and legs, while his hands were in such a miserable condition that the skin and flesh on there was completely gone and only reddish veins along bones were visible.

All his injuries were being held back by the fog that covered him and right now, he didn't seem any less deadly than the monsters they had faced.

Lastly came Ray, whose state couldn't even be defined. He was out cold while the right side of his body was completely mangled. His arms were dangled as if they didnt have any bones while a huge hole could be seen on his right shoulder while his chest was caved in with a few ribs poking out of his skin.

Looking at him, Emma covered her mouth as she asked Ray's mother,

"How's he still alive? And in this state, did any of you try healing him?"

"Dear, he has some special regenerative powers and believe me when I say, we tried to do everything we could but the meager healing spells I or any of us have are not able to even aid his healing, much less bring him back to top condition. Thats we travelled here in the middle of the night because we have a favor to ask of you," Ray's mother said, her expression turning serious by the end of her words as Emma understood that the situation wasn't as it seemed to be.

"Sure, I'm all ears. Tell me what i need to do," Emma said as she raised both her hands and let her aura run free for a bit. The blueish aura left her body and hovered around everyone and soon, a dome of aura was created which enveloped them all.

The very next moment, their presence vanished while they stood within the dome, "Dont worry. It will keep our conversation hidden from prying eyes," As Emma said those words, she gestured Ray's mother to start.

"As you can see, Ray isn't in a state to even retain his consciousness, much less speak and I am afraid that if we carry him through the camp and let others see his state, some people might get the wrong idea and would try to cause him harm. Not to mention, the overall atmosphere in the camp isn't too well right now and if the others see his condition, it might cause their confidence in his to waver,"

"So what do you suggest we do?" Asked Emma as she also started pondering, agreeing with Ray's mothers' reasoning.

"I say we call the head nurse over here but in a discreet manner that no one else suspects and ask help from the Warg Lord to help us keep him at his place until he recovers. Im sure that he wouldn't cause us any problems. Then we send others back home and wait until he is healed. Right now, only he has the dean's seal and without that seal, if we run into anyone from the government or the outside world, we wont be treated any good as right now, everyone would turn to look for their benefits," Ray's mother spoke and listening to her suggestion, everyone nodded as it was a plausible choice for them to follow.

"But what do we say if someone questions Ray's disappearance?" Emma asked.

"It's simple. We tell them that to defeat the enemy, Ray had entered a strange state of combat and travelled in another sealed dimension. Due to that, it would take him some time to return,"

"Thats plausible as well. After all, most don't even know about dimensions and such and those who know would understand that once one entered a sealed dimension, leaving that place wont be easy and would take considerable amount of time," Emma mused as she nodded and then asked,

"When do we call for the head nurse?"

"Before her, we call Aliyah as I'm sure she would be able to start his treatment first before rousing any suspicions and then we slowly move up and implement our plan," As Ray's mother spoke, she turned to Elina and nodded.

Elina nodded back at her and then used the telepathic communication everyone shared and contacted Aliyah. While she asked her to come at their location, Emma appeared a bit confused as she asked,

"I could have contacted her, why did Elina contact her?"

"We need to contact everyone separately to avoid a few issues. It's nothing much so don't worry," Ray's mother answered and then turned silent.

A few moments later, sound of footsteps could be heard as they all turned and saw a girl running in their direction.