PENSIONNAT - VERSION ENGLISH - BOOK FINISH

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All I could see was his dark silhouette. Impossible to see his face! The darkness hid it perfectly.

- Show me your face! I shouted these words in a voice that I wanted to be confident.

- My child, you are quite ignorant. Did your mother never tell you about me?...Well, I'm not surprised. She never appreciated me for what I am!

- How do you know my mother? How do you know us?!

- It was back in the old days.

- Bygone days? I whispered these words as if they had some meaning for me.

- A time when the gods were with us! A time of evolution! At that time I was working for your mother. In spite of being weak and trusting her heart, as she liked to tell me... She was splendid! A woman that no one could match. But she didn't know how to adapt. We had to change! The threat was there! And... He arrived, him and his "army"... He said everything would be okay, he said he would be there to protect her. He was oblivious! And arrogant! A danger to us all! When I tried to stop him, I was banished. I had, until then, promised to take revenge. I threw myself into the forbidden water! It cost me 99% of my soul! But thanks to this, I gained in power and longevity! I became a being that can be killed. Today, I am only a projection of the past, indelible, invisible...

- A shadow. It was obvious. You want to kill me because you've been banished?!

- Believe it or not, my child, but if I want to kill you, it's to save you... and the Ghota! Your death will bring the forgiveness of the gods! And my vengeance will bring me peace...

- You are mad... I sighed in disgust.

- Perhaps! At these words he laughed even more.

- It's you! Grayce shouted. You freed the shadows!!! You're a monster!

- They are my friends! My army! I freed them, because they too, want revenge! He sneered again. The difference this time was that the ground began to shake at the same time.

*****

Near the lantern with the white flag.

- What's going on? Marie shouted in panic.

She held the rag tightly over Thibault's wound. But it was getting harder and harder. The ground and the trees were shaking.

- Max...we have to go back...Thibault stammered.

With each teleportation, his wound hurt more. He was warm, yet he felt a small chill that chilled his blood.

- We can't. We have to trust them! Marie added. Let's keep going. Try to hold on...

*****

- What do we do?! If he keeps it up, he'll draw all the creatures here! Max shouted.

The shaking didn't stop and the noise it made sounded like it might wake up the monsters lurking underground.

- No. Not all the creatures... Not all the creatures... He's summoning the Shadows. Grayce explained.

One by one, out of the ground, a shadow appeared. Where did he send them to emerge from the earth?

They looked like him. However, they had no gray light surrounding them and had a red smile. They scared us. Especially since there were at least a hundred of them!

- Eat... my friends... At this command, they all ran towards us.

Used to putting our lives on the line, since we entered this forest, we each created a weapon of projection. I chose the staff, Max the chain and Grayce chose a staff as well.

Max was doing well. He was able to dodge shadows and attack them at the most opportune times. Grayce wasn't very good at fighting...but she managed, to my great relief, to avoid those bugs! As for me, I was doing my best. I was fast enough to hit and dodge them, but what was the point? When a shadow disappeared, another one appeared at once!

By dint of this, we were going to die of exhaustion!

We had a quarter of an hour of confrontations. And as I had foreseen it, we were exhausted. We were getting closer, in order to reform our trio and we were looking at our opponent with a look that we wanted to be mean.

- This is the end. It's a shame about your friends...

Without remorse, he sent those shadows at us. We prepared for the shock, but...We knew how it would end....

"PLASH!!!*

A grenade exploded between us and the shadows. Its flames were orange. It blinded us, but thanks to it, we had survived the first wave.

- Stay behind the flames! They will protect us. The gray-eyed boy had returned.

I didn't know who he was, but every time I crossed his path, he saved my life.

- You have to get organized! Don't just stand there and watch the bad guys! Take the initiative!

- Is that a reproach? I asked, as if this was the time to be difficult!

- No. It's advice. He had a little arrogant air that was not unknown to me...

At times he reminded me of Thibault. But Thibault was hurt so it couldn't have been him.

- He's right, Ella. We must attack. Max advised. You can't be on the defensive all the time.

They were right. Anyway, I didn't have a plan, so any proposal was welcome. Unfortunately, the thing didn't give us time to get organized. He threw his second wave of shadows.

There were twice as many as the first. And they looked twice as hungry. We took the lead and instead of parrying, we attacked. We moved toward the wave and each of us struck the shadows until they disappeared completely.

The boy defended me several times. I only managed to help him once. Max and Grayce were a good pair. Max would hit the overflow and Grayce would just protect Max by parrying. Looking at them it was like a waltz.

But there were too many of them. And those that one destroyed, was drowned by the news that it sent. After a while, we were overwhelmed.

The figure lost patience and burst a gray shock wave, which crossed everything in a radius of two kilometers.

It knocked me and my friends to the ground.
friends.