The next day Cathy went to the headquarters for another training session. Den intended to accompany her, just like yesterday. Sadly, he announced that he would arrive a bit later. First, he had to deal with dishwashing. Otherwise, someone was ready to chop his head off. The fact that they now lived as a group of four also suggested that getting away from dish duty wouldn't be quick.

When the girl crossed the threshold of the Venetian headquarters, she immediately noticed Clease, who was preparing a new batch of books for her to read.

"Hello Cathy. Yesterday you learned boltflare, so now it's time to learn more offensive spells. Come here." the man said, then pushed aside a chair on which the girl subsequently sat.

"And where's Den? He said yesterday that he would help me train with you" he asked when he realized that the boy still hadn't arrived.

"Household duties" she replied briefly.

"Quite understandable. When you're ready, come to the hall. I'll be waiting for you. Today we continue where we left off yesterday" he said and disappeared behind the door.

The girl nodded towards the man and began reading about augerfrost.

Meanwhile, Den was scrubbing another plate. He consoled himself that he wouldn't have to listen to Sophie's chatter, who had been chasing him for dishwashing for five days. What about her and Lok, they were out of the house, probably shopping. Cherit was watching a documentary about one of French writers in the living room.

"If you're bored Cherit, maybe you could fly over and help me wash this pile of dishes, huh?" Den shouted to his small friend.

Titan pretended not to hear, which sometimes passed without much echo. Not this time. Cherit heard that his friend turned off the tap, and then there was louder stomping coming towards him.

"Did you hear, or are you pretending to be deaf?" Fears stood over the gargoyle, giving him a threatening look with folded arms.

"Den, my dear. Unfortunately, Sophie forbade me from helping you. It was supposed to be a punishment for taking so long." titan answered.

"Just when I'm pressed for time..." he thought. "Couldn't you have said that without me having to come to you?" he sighed after a moment.

"Den, you know very well how many years I've lived. Don't expect an old titan to make such an effort." titan caught his back and pretended to be grandpa.

"With the number of years you've lived, you've never really said, but I'd prefer not to know" the young man turned around and went on washing.

He was sad that he wouldn't have a companion. He thought it was fair in exchange for his delay.

After a few minutes, Lok and Sophie walked into the house.

"I see that Cathy didn't wait for you to finish. She probably knew it would take you a lot of time" Lok said to his friend, placing the shopping bags on the counter.

"Give it a rest. I'll finish it, and it'll be over" Den answered.

"Lok is more punctual than you now" Casterwill stated.

"His leadership learnt him something useful" boy replied.

<after washing dishes>

True to his promise to Cathy, Fears headed to the quarters. Finding her reading a book, he went straight to the training room so as not to distract her. He greeted Clease.

"Is she reading?" the man asked.

"Of course, she is. Otherwise, I'd scold her for it" the boy replied.

"I'm done" the girl entered through the door.

"Den, today I'll leave you alone. Sit in my place and watch your colleague" he pointed to the chair where he sat yesterday.

"At least I'll be relieved from some work here" thought the boy.

Fears sat down and began to observe.

"Good, my dear. What Den showed you yesterday was the first basic spell that every seeker knows. Now it's time to practice other spells. Before we move on to that, use boltflare" Clease commanded.

Following the request, the girl did that. After uttering the right words, a ball emanating orange energy appeared on her hand.

"Very good. Now, try using one of the spells you just read about and aim it at the mannequin." Clease suggested.

"Alright, I'll try. Augerfrost!" girl managed to summon a thin beam of blue energy that hit the wooden bust. 

It immediately absorbed the damage.

"Quite good. Now watch this" Clease cast the same spell.

He wanted to inform girl that she was doing well, but it wasn't the full potential of this power yet.

"Augerfrost!" she struck again. This time it was better than the first attempt.

"She's doing better than yesterday. Maybe she'll be skilled enough to join us on the next mission, as I don't fancy being in a trio" Fears thought.

Some time later...

Today, Clease didn't let Cathy go too quickly. He noticed yesterday that she had talent and covered more material and exercises with her than he should have for that day. Finally, Cathy, along with Den, left the Venetian headquarters and headed home.

"I see you're getting better at it" praised the boy.

"Don't exaggerate. I just have two good teachers by my side. Don't deny that you tried to hold back laughter when instead of hitting the mannequin, I hit the wall and burned a hole with raypulse!" Cathy answered.

"On missions, we also sometimes miss the mark. The most important thing is that Clease was understanding and didn't make you repaint it" Den said.

"I won't be surprised if one day I have to do it" Lambert laughed.

"Well, as a form of gratitude... it might make sense" Den laughed too.

Suddenly, they heard and then saw a beam of light pulse hitting the ground at an angle just in front of them.

"Just when it was starting to get nice..." thought Fears.

He began to look around for the probable enemy. He looked up. Since the sun was about to disappear from the horizon, the boy could only see the silhouette of the person who cast the spell. He noticed that they had a common element of clothing with those higher-ranked people in the Blood Spiral. Specifically, it was about silver epaulets with three spikes.

"Hyperstride" Fears jumped on the roof of one of the nearby houses.

"Who are you?" he asked.

He didn't really expect an answer. Taking advantage of the situation, Cathy ran towards Vale's house, so Lok and Sophie would come to help Den.

"Augerfrost" the opponent aimed at the girl, but fortunately, she avoided it.

"It seems like she can read my thoughts" he said in his mind.

 Fears attacked with a dragonfist, hitting the enemy in the stomach.

"I am here, buddy." he addressed the knocked-out enemy. 

"I hope no more of his pals will show up because it might get tough. Especially since I used up some strength today in the fight with her..." he said in his mind and carefully observed the area around him.

A few minutes later, Cathy reached the house. If it weren't for the fact that she still gets lost in Venice, she would have arrived faster. She burst through the door and immediately gasped:

"Den... Den is in trouble. Go to him, quickly!" the girl collapsed on the floor, exhausted.

Her legs were shaking so much with fear that, once in a safe place, she stopped controlling her body. The couple was surprised by this news, but whatever it was – they had to go check it out and help their friend.

"Cherit, take care of her. Sophie, let's go. Let's see what's going on" ordered Lok.

They left hastily. The couple knew that Den was fighting somewhere along the route to the quarters, so they roughly knew where to look for him. They hoped he would hold on until they joined him.

"Let's go, Kipperin!" Lambert decided to summon the titan to facilitate the search.

Boy barely rose and noticed the spheres of power exchanging with each other. He took Sophie in his arms, and they flew as close as they could. Luckily, they weren't noticed by five enemy seekers. Lambert sent the titan back to the amulet. He summoned the Willblade which, combined with overslam, pushed two enemies out of the fight. Sophie and Lok reached Den. They stood back to back.

"Good to see you. How did you find me?" Den asked jokingly.

"Finding you was much easier than you would think. Besides, now is not the time and place for conversations" Lambert replied, parrying and then pushing away with the sword one of the summoned enemy titans.

The titan had white skin and a weapon similar to the Antedeluvian. In appearance, it resembled a grown-up Goblin Brownie. Lambert, in the next move, approached and cut the titan in half, causing one of the fallen enemies to return to the amulet.

"Three versus three? Now it's fair fight" Fears exclaimed and attacked another seeker.

"Ammoniacy" one of the enemies cast a spell.

A white beam was heading towards Sophie, but she avoided it by jumping back. She noticed that this unfamiliar power was eating away at the place where it landed.

"I wonder what would happen if I blocked it with a shield. What was that power?" she thought and went on the counterattack.

"Kindlestrike!" a thin, blue beam flew past the opponent.

"Casterwill" the enemy hissed.

"That's me. Did you come for an autograph?" Sophie jumped in with a hyperstride to deliver a kick straight to enemy's face.

Meanwhile, at home Cathy woke up. She saw weary Cherit beside her.

"They haven't returned yet?" she asked, massaging her head and looking around the room at the same time.

"Not yet, my dear" the titan replied.

The girl looked at the gargoyle and saw that he didn't look too good.

"What happened to you?" she asked, concerned.

"I had to recharge to move you to the couch. I wouldn't let you lie on the floor, especially by the door." titan replied.

"You didn't have to, but thank you, Cherit." she said.

"If Lok had returned faster than you waking up, I would have had quite a problem from that" the gargoyle laughed with his characteristic laughter.

"Don't exaggerate. Lok is not like that." girl laughed softly.

Suddenly, a connection from the Foundation's headquarters appeared on the TV screen, with the characteristic sound of a phone ringing.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Someone from the Foundation's headquarters wants to contact us" the titan flew to the holotome to click the appropriate button.

Metz appeared on the screen.

"Hello... where are the others?" man asked when he realized that he couldn't see the remaining three.

"It must be one of the members of the Foundation's council" she thought. 

"It happens that they are fighting with an unknown person or persons. When we were returning with Den, we were attacked by an enemy. I came back to inform Lok and Sophie, and they immediately went to help him" the girl replied, holding the titan in her arms.

Metz didn't know what to say, but after a while, he spoke up:

"I was afraid of this. Call me when everyone is back. I have important information to convey" the Foundation's leader ended the call.

"I'm getting more and more worried about them" she placed the titan on the chair and went to the window to see if she could see anything.

A few minutes later the trio of seekers returned home. It could be noticed that this fight cost them some effort, especially Den.

"I'm so glad nothing happened to you" Lambert's sister stood up from the sofa and immediately took Fears from the joint security with Lok and Sophie.

"Today was probably a bad idea for you to fight with me" Cathy laughed.

"Very funny. Next time, you won't run away; we'll kick their butts together" the boy replied.

"Sure" she smiled.

"Cathy, everyone is back now" Cherit quietly reminded her.

"Right! Someone from the headquarters called. I don't know who he was. He wanted to tell you... I mean, tell us something." girl said.

"Come on, I'll show you how to use the holotome" Lok said.

Siblings approached the device. Boy clicked something, and his sister watched attentively.

"Metz called?" team's leader thought when he read the first entry on the list of received calls.

He clicked the button to call the Foundation's leader.

"It doesn't seem that complicated, but it doesn't change the fact that it will take me a lot of time to figure out this machine" the girl remarked after they sat down and waited for the other side to answer.

Metz answered, and after a moment, his image appeared on the display.

"Welcome, seekers" the man greeted them.

They also greeted him.

"Cathy mentioned that you had some skirmish. Can you tell me the details?" man asked.

"How does he know my name? " girl thought.

"We were attacked by one man. For a moment, I thought it was a Blood Spiral seeker, but when I looked at him more closely, he was wearing a black and white outfit and a silver mask on his face. After waiting for Sophie and Lok, five more of the same guys came. They seemed to be well trained, so they probably weren't recruits" Den explained.

"The powers and titans they used were different from those of the Blood Spiral" Sophie added.

Listening to these statements, Metz was both surprised and not surprised.

"Our research department, and now you, have confirmed our concerns - we are dealing with a new threat. Frankly, I didn't expect you to be attacked as well. Another team alerted us to a similar incident, but it happened in Brazil. We need to learn more about them, especially their plans. If this is a rebirth of the Organization or, worse, the Blood Spiral, we will have a serious problem." Metz said.

"We defeated them once. We must manage it again the next time" Lok said.

"I have a feeling that we'll find out soon" the leader of the Foundation replied. 

"By the way, I have a new mission for you. Our archaeologists found records about Robin Hood, which mention one of his titans - Arawn the Hunter. Your task is to find its amulet and, if possible, establish a bond with it. I'm sending you the necessary information for the mission. Good luck" Metz ended the call.

"Lok, who was that man?" his sister asked.

"Right. You had the right not to know. That was Metz - the leader of the Foundation. He often assigns us missions and is also Dante's mentor." team's leader explained.

The holotome beeped, indicating that the files sent by the man had arrived in Lambert's mailbox.

"Seekers, we've got a mission" young leader announced.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Tommorow is Christmas so... Merry Christmas!