It was Rusk who did it.
Before saving the boys, Rusk was fighting with the enemt's leader one-on-one.
During their fight the leader said:
"Rusk ?, is that how you go by these days ?, Torian Ironlaw !!", and attacked Rusk with a dagger.
But he managed to go out of the way, and said, "That's none of your concern".
"Oh do you remember me, i was one of your subordinates, that you trusted !!", said the leader, "After you left we lived in hell, everybody treated us like scum of the earth".
"I know who you are, Siles !!", replied Rusk, "And I am sorry for what happened, But i am not a traitor".
"Oho, so you do remember me", Siles attacked him with all his might.
At the last minute, Rusk was able to change the trajectory of his sword. But Siles's dagger went through his body. Blood spilled everywhere.
He fell to the ground, he was losing consciousness after seing the boys getting away, with relief.
Siles calmly stepped to talk to his men about capturing the boys.
But, as he was losing consciousness, he saw couple of Siles's men went after the boys. He quickly gathered last of his strength and casted a spell, "Absolute Annihilation".
The spell was so powerful, it attacked everything around Rusk with iron needles. They exploded time and time again, multiplying in the process, when the needles hit something. The needles were moving so fast, they pierced through even high ranked armors of Siles's group.
After Rusk got up with severe injuries, he saw the scene everywhere was blood, total annihilation.
Everywhere he looked, he saw the body parts of Siles's group. And Siles was lying with hole in his chest, and without a left arm.
*Absolute Annihilation is spell kills every living being even if it is a friend or foe except the caster, the needles multiply by hitting the target and explode. After explosion, it flies at a high speed. The spell's range relies on its caster's mana left.
Rusk rushed to help the boys, even in his injured state. He barely ran, every step he felt agonizing pain.
He used his search skill to find them. He felt they were not far from the cabin surrounded.
Rusk gathered all of his mana and used the spell, that summons swords. He sent the swords rotating at an incredible speed, when he felt they were about to be killed.
The swords chopped every one of the remaining Siles's group, as they were about kill Kael and Jace. The boys were shocked.
When they looked back it was Rusk.
Rusk collapsed, relieved knowing they were safe. Kael and Jace rushed to help him.
They took him to the cabin, and tend to his wounds. Rusk lost a lot of blood in the fight against Siles. His condition was serious, he was in a coma.
Kael and Jace took care of him for days.
Kael read the diary time and time again, to see what Edward Marshall would have done, if he was in a state like that.
After five days, Kael got a lead on how to heal Rusk. It was stated next to a drawing in the diary:
"I, Edward Marshall, was on the verge of death after my fight against commander of Vinrathia kingdom. He nearly killed me with his little tricks. I was heavily injured and lost consciousness for a week until my crew healed me with a artifact known as the Phoenix Necklace. It was a necklace that regenerates the body if mana was applied. That's how I survived."
The drawing was the Phoenix Necklace.
After learning about this, he went to the cave. When he reached there, he saw a someone stealing the treasures. He shouted, "What are you doing that's mine, stop you Thief !!.".
Kael chased the thief to catch it. But it was no use, he was quick and tricky. He threw peppers in Kael's eyes and tripped him. That's how he lost sight of the thief.
Without a choice, he went back to the cave. He opened all the chests, and collected all the necklaces. When he was finished, He took every one of the necklaces he found to the cabin.
Jace was not at home.
Kael checked the all the necklaces, every one of the necklaces was useless. He felt disappointment, and regreted not being able to catch the thief.
Feeling down, he went to the river. He sat there, and put his legs into the water, it was cold yet refreshing. He sat there thinking about how they lived when everything was fine.
After a while, he decided to catch fish for dinner. But it was no luck either. He couldn't catch a single fish even after hours.
But, something strange happened, as he was sitting, he heard a scream for help. Kael quickly stood up and ran towards the scream.
When he went there, he saw a girl running away from a bear. She screamed at the top of her lungs:
"Help, Help, somebody, please help me".
Kael didn't waste a second, he jumped towards the bear and attacked him. The bear threw him away with his mouth. Fortunately, Kael was fine.
The bear caught up to the girl, she had nowhere to run, being trapped. Kael jumped between them:
"Hey listen to me, while i distract him you should run, okay !!".
The girl said, "What about you ?".
Kael yelled, "We don't have time".
Kael distracted the bear by throwing rocks at him, by yelling at him. When the girl tried to run, The bear noticed and pushed her away. She fainted from the impact.
Kael became angry, ready to kill the bear with his hands. Kael went flying and hit a tree when the bear attacked him.
As the bear approaching Kael, Jace suddenly showed up to help with his sword.
Kael shouted, "You are gonna die, you fool !!".
Jace gathered his mana, and put it into the sharp edges of the sword. It was the same way, Kael did, when he killed the member of Siles's group. Then Jace attacked the bear, chopping his head off.
Kael was shocked by that, "How did you do it ?".
Jace smiled, "You are not the only genius here Kael".
They both laughed and went to check on the girl. She was unconscious, so they took her to the cabin.
When they laid her, necklace dropped to the feet of Kael. Kael picked it up curiously, then he remembered the drawing.
It was the Phoenix Necklace.
---
Your Opinion matters. Please leave a comment and review.