Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 279: Keeping Watch

Stanley feared the fact that the person that had attacked him was Raven since the wolves that attacked them had been crafted using dark smoke, like shadows.

"Gender? No, I can’t tell the person’s gender. I can’t see anything clearly when I sense things. It is more like a silhouette. I can see the shapes of their body, and based on my experience, the person who ran away was a man," the short man said. "Or a very masculine man."

"How tall?" Stanley asked.

"Tall like him," the short man pointed to the tall man beside him. "Taller even, maybe."

’Then it is not Raven,’ Stanley thought. Of course, just because it was made up of something a blade didn’t mean that it was made out of shadow. Even if it was, plenty of others could be born with the same power as her.

Yasu for one had a time-related power too.

"So, no one is around?" the girl asked. "We’re safe?"

"As safe as we can be," the short man said.

"And for food?" the tall man asked. "Did you notice any deer?"

"Food? Do you think I cared about food while our life was in danger?" the short man asked.

"I... suppose not," the tall man said.

"Let’s go find some food," the girl said. "We can catch some rabbit and butcher it here before taking it back."

Everyone agreed.

Hunting for rabbits took about an hour and they managed to catch about 5 rabbits, 2 forest squirrels, and 2 decent-sized white birds. That was a lot more than they were expecting to find that day, so they returned back happily.

However, when they arrived back at their place, a horrible sight awaited them.

Their place of hiding had been ransacked, their sleeping bags burned, and what foot they had left stolen away.

Stanley quickly rushed forward to save what he could and the others tried to as well, but there was nothing they could save.

"Fuck!" the tall man shouted in anger. "Who did this?"

"Probably that man from before," the girl said before cursing something under her breath.

Stanley cursed silently as well, a look of anger flashing briefly before he hid it down.

After a brief moment where anger took control of everyone, the old woman helped everyone calm down.

"There’s nothing we can do," she said. "What’s done is done. No point in getting sad over spilled milk. Clean what you can and we can set up camp."

"And sleep? Where do we sleep now that our sleeping bags are gone?" the tall man asked.

"On the floor, I assume," the woman said. "It will be cold, so we’ll have to have the fire burning at all times."

"We can’t have the fire burning at night," the short man said. "It will practically be a beacon to tell others where we are at night."

"Do you have any other way?" the woman asked the short man, shutting him up. "Come on," she urged. "We have work to do."

They cleaned up the camp and made a place for them to sleep. The sleeping bag had never been a very comfortable place to sleep in, but it was warm, and having some sort of separation from the ground was good.

But now, they didn’t even have that. The group gathered some leaves and grass to aid them however it could, but they couldn’t gather much as night fell before they could do anything.

Thankfully, with Stanley drying up so much log, there was plenty of fire to last them through the night.

They cooked their food on the fire, the woman providing them with salt and other spices to help with the taste. Their metal box had been stolen too, but at least they had someone who could help them have a somewhat tasty meal.

Once they were done eating, they tried to go back to sleep, but they found themselves unable to. With their camp thrashed and someone almost killed them before, they found it hard to sleep with the campfire burning.

They were too afraid to go to sleep.

"We need to have someone stay guard for us," the woman said and everyone nodded.

"I’ll stay up," Stanley said immediately. "I haven’t done much the entire day, so I’m not very tired. I can probably stay awake the entire night if I want to."

"No," the woman said. "Just because you didn’t do something physically tiring doesn’t mean you’re not tired. You have been using your powers all this time and that is hard too."

"No, I’m fine. Really," Stanley said.

"We’ll take turns staying up," the girl said. "We can’t let one person up either. It’ll have to be two at a time."

"How about 6 hours of sleep for everyone?" the tall man asked. "Blue, you can stay up for 4 hours with Red, who will sleep in two hours and wake me up. I’ll stay with you for 2 hours and then Green can take your place. Then Yellow switches with me, and Red again switches with Green once he’s stayed up for 4 hours too."

"That sounds good," Stanley said. He wouldn’t mind catching some sleep. However, he didn’t know how safe he would be when protected by people who had little to no fighting power.

"Let us go to sleep," the woman said, and all 3 except Stanley and the young girl lay down by the fire.

Stanley watched the girl roll her dice and smiled a little when it landed on a perfect 24.

"I haven’t gotten 24 in a while," she said. "You’re lucky."

"What did you do?" Stanley asked curiously.

"Look outside," the girl said.

Stanley frowned a little and turned to look outside of their little cave. When he did, he was surprised by how clearly he saw the trees and foliage outside. It wasn’t quite as clear as day, but it was almost as clear as twilight.

To see this bright during the darkness of the night was truly a gift to anyone in their current situation.

"Thank you," Stanley said, and together they began their watch for the night.