Seekers guided by information provided by Metz, first flew by plane to the territory of England. Robin Hood was specifically connected to this country.

Cathy was also present on this mission surprisingly. Although she insisted on staying in Italy, she was eventually convinced by Lok to go. On one hand she was excited about her first mission. On the other hand, she was terrified at the thought of the possibility of encountering people in black and white attires again.

Nearby from the entrance to the airport building, the team stood in a circle. Lok began to fiddle with the holotome.

"Robin Hood came from Nottingham, didn't he?" Den asked.

"Most people believe it. In reality, he comes from Loxley" Sophie corrected, who was standing next to him.

"That would make sense. Our notes lead us there. There's also mention of Barnsdale Forest" Lok announced after finding the relevant part of text in the notes.

"Barnsdale? Did you say 'Barnsdale'?" Cathy asked.

"That's right. Is something wrong?" he looked at his sister.

"I recall that this forest is near Oakham. That city isn't even close to Loxley" she began to stroke her chin in a thoughtful gesture.

"Cathy, I didn't know you knew the geography of England" Sophie was admired her boyfriend's sister's knowledge.

"Being on numerous school exchanges, I got to know many interesting places in England. In Wales too" Cathy replied.

"Do you know that Robin Hood could come from one end of the country and leave a mark on the other?" Cherit interjected from the leader's backpack.

"I figured that out myself" Lambert replied with folded arms.

"Listen, the titan is in that forest. I just read about it" team's leader announced.

"He had so much time to familiarize himself with those documents. And as usual, he does it at the last minute" Sophie sighed in her thoughts.

"Everything's clear. We're going mushroom picking, and incidentally we'll pull out the titan" Den muttered.

"I know we can get to Oakham by train. I was there once on an exchange in high school" leader's sister stated.

Few minutes later

The team got out of the taxi, one of many parked in front of the airport. Seekers were currently in front of one of London's railway stations.

"Wait here for a moment. I'll be right back" Lambert said and went in an unknown direction.

"I thought someone from the Foundation would be waiting for us" Cathy said disappointed.

"As far as I know seekers from the local headquarters are supposed to be on standby and they are prohibited from leaving London. You know how big this city is. So, we have to manage on our own. Besides, it's not the first time we've had such missions" Sophie explained.

After a few minutes, the leader came back to team with four tickets.

"We have a little journey ahead" boy announced.

"About two hours of travel. Not bad" Casterwill remarked after reading the information on the piece of paper.

"Enough time to regain our strength. Let's go to the platform. We'll discuss what's next later" Lambert suggested.

On the train

The team had been on the road for forty minutes. Only the four of them remained in the compartment. Fortunately, there was a place for four people, with double seats facing each other. There was stable, brown, square table between them. Den and Lok were sitting by the window. Cathy and Sophie were sitting next to them. Lambert placed his holotome on the table, on which the terrain of Oakham and its surroundings was displayed and visualized.

"We're lucky. We won't have far journey to go to our destination" Lok pointed to a point that the holotome then marked in red.
"The forest is a few kilometers west of this town" Lok stated.

"East..." Sophie interjected.

"Well. East, what did I say?" boy asked.

"If you said it right, I wouldn't have said anything" she answered.

The boy just shrugged and went into details:

"As I mentioned after our arrival, the titan is in the forest. But it also guards something what is the source of its power. In that case, we need to find its energy source and destroy it. Then someone from us will have to bond with titan. Den, maybe you'll take care of that? Holotome, show information about the titan named Arawn." 

The machine displayed the titan's profile and recited its stats: "Arawn: Attack three, defense two. Type: Gaia-titan archer. Height: average. Special abilities: target shot."

"Maybe Cathy wants to try?" Fears suggested.

"I still don't have experience with titans. You know I haven't been able to summon our mom's titans yet. I'd prefer it to be you" Lambert girl spoke.

Den had no intention of insisting. He just wanted to be polite.

At the location

The team decided to walk the remaining few kilometers from the town. It was past nine at the morning, so they had the whole day for the mission.

"I'm afraid that after today, I might not feel my legs" Cathy said after walking almost half of the way.

"Do you remember when Lok talked about regenerating strength? He wasn't joking" Den remarked.

"It's not even about that. I'm aware of how much we have to go through, but I'm not used to walk that long" Lambert answered.

"Happens" he stated.

Sophie chuckled to herself after this exchange.

After less than an hour, team stood in front of the forest.

"Have your eyes in the back of one's head. We don't know when the titan will sense our presence" leader informed.

"You know... that forest is quite large" his sister commented.

"I'm counting on luck that Arawn will come to us" Lok said.

"Then let's test your luck" she replied cheerfully.

Team walked ahead. There were trees and occasionally small bushes around them. From time to time one of them broke or stepped on individual branches and leaves. Young seekers were slight surprised when they noticed there were human remains leaning on single tree branches.

"They probably had a good reason to hide in this forest" Fears said after they passed the fifth human skeleton.

"Do you feel anything unsettling?" Lok asked his girlfriend.

"No. Should I?" Casterwill looked at him.

"According to the map, there should be Robin Hood's house somewhere around here" he showed a hologram from his holotome.

"Maybe we should think about where the titan is" leader's sister spoke.

"He probably expected our visit and he's avoiding us now. I wouldn't feel right with hosting people without cookies and warm tea" Fears said.

"Fall down!" Sophie shouted after seeing an arrow flying towards them.

Team a bit disoriented fell to the ground. The arrow embedded itself in the ground behind them.

"Speak of the devil, there he is. I take back what I said earlier. However, he does have cookies for us" Den stated after quickly getting up.

"Shoot them down, Cursed Archer!" Fears summoned his titan.

Skeletal figure appeared with a bow and holding an orange arrow in his hand. He was ready for Arawn's attack.

It seemed there would be a small duel between titan archers. From the depths of the forest, the rustling of leaves could be heard. Arawn probably hid. Den's titan followed in the footsteps of his opponent and hid in a tree's leaves.

"Try to keep him here and don't get killed" boy ordered.

"Let's think for a moment... an archer would guard Robin's house. So, we need to go in that direction if we want to get rid of the power source" Lambert declared.

"Visiosphere" Sophie's eyes glowed with a white light.

This spell allows the user to scan the area within a radius of one hundred meters. Girl looked around for titan and the sought-after building until she finally said to Den "Make Cursed Archer shoot at that bush" pointing her finger at a distant leafy object.

Upon hearing the command from his owner, the titan shot in the expected direction. Arawn decided to counter quickly with his arrow. Tips collided, bounced in opposite directions, and finally embedded themselves in the ground.

"This titan is quite good" Den thought. "Keep attacking him continuously" he gave another command to his ally.

Titan began firing numerous flexible orange arrows towards his opponent.

"Now we have a chance. Let's hurry" Fears said.

Team stealthily passed by the battlefield. After a while, a wooden cottage appeared before their eyes. It had two windows, and between them there was the entrance. The roof was covered with moss.

"This is what you asked me about earlier, Lok. Now I sense some kind of barrier. Breakspell!" Sophie used the appropriate spell to get rid of the obstacle.

"Cherit, keep an eye on titan's location from above" Lok ordered.

Titan, who had been silent the whole time, soared into the air and began searching for Arawn.

"Farslip" the door was opened by Casterwill.

Trio entered inside. Den decided to stay outside just in case if the Cursed Archer was defeated. Titan's special ability "target shot" suggested that he might defeat Fears' titan very soon.

The inside of the cottage was not spacious. It had only one room. There was a chair and a wooden table. Sheets of paper were laying on table. Sadly, they were unreadable anymore. Next to it, there was an empty blue teapot and a white cup with painted blue flowers. By one of the windows there was a dusty wooden dresser. By the second window, there was a bed with a ton of blankets. Approximately fifteen of them could be estimated at a glance. The walls were adorned with paintings, mainly landscapes of fields with various flowers. One of landscapes was different from others.

"Ugh, cobwebs" Cathy muttered, brushing them off the window.

"That painting... do you see it?" Lok shared his thoughts with both girls.

"Does it depict Robin stealing money in some city? Is that what you mean?" his girlfriend, who stood beside him, asked.

Cathy came to them from the other part of the room where she had been examining the dresser.

"Let's check what's hidden underneath it" Cathy grabbed the frame of the painting, as if expecting something valuable to be there.

Bingo. In the recess, there was a magic-infused block, embedded in the wooden foundation of the house. It emitted a green glow.

"What is this? I've never seen anything like this before" leader said.

"This must be Arawn's source of power. We need to destroy it" Casterwill replied.

"Trouble. Cursed Archer is defeated" Fears entered.

"Quick, Sophie, destroy the stone and join us. The rest - go outside. We can't lose sight of the titan" Lok said.

Seekers left the cottage.

"Remember that it's an archer, so he won't come to us. He'll hide, and it's even more likely that he'll move away from us" Lambert summoned the Willblade.

"Even if we stand here, there's no chance he'll reveal himself?" Cathy asked.

She ignored sword her brother was holding in his hand. She knew it wasn't good time to ask about it.

"What would you expect from a titan whose seeker was a skilled archer? He'll definitely attack us from a distance" Den interjected.

"Destroying this artifact was harder than I read in books. There was also a problem with pulling it out of that hole" Sophie joined the rest of the team.

Then she used Visiosphere to locate and then announced that Arawn was in front of them.

"And Cherit? Where's he?" Lok asked.

"He's high above Arawn. I don't even need to use my powers to see him. Do you need glasses?" girl looked at boy.

"Oh yes, I ordered him myself" he scolded himself under his breath after looking up.

"Sophie destroyed the power source, right? Does that mean we can now attack this titan instead of contemplating a plan to capture him?" Cathy asked.

"I don't think so. I have an idea. I'll go at him from here, and you approach him from the other sides" Lok said.

Den shot Raypulse above him to signal Cherit that they were going for titan. He didn't shout because he thought Arawn might get spooked. Lambert made a sword swing, and the blue wave cut and knocked down three trees in front of him. He wanted to lure Arawn out of hiding, which he succeeded in doing. Unexpectedly, Cherit flew from behind titan and entangled him with a rope which Sophie had created a moment earlier. Archer was standing with his hands bound. Den knew that Arawn the Hunter had no chance of hurting him in this state. He approached closer and reached out both hands to try to bond with him.

Now seekers saw appearance of titan. His weapon layed on the ground. It was a golden bow with a brown handle. On his back, titan held a dark green quiver with a golden tip. A lot of arrows could be seen. When Arawn wriggled, arrows were making a loud clatter as they jostled against each other. His breastplate consisted of a gray-silver corset, laced in the middle. Under the laced part, there was seen burgundy canvas. On his shoulders, he wore iron shoulder pads consisting of four horizontal straps. His head was adorned with a helmet, from which a strand of white hair protruded. In the waist, he tightly held a brown belt with a gold buckle. On his legs, he wore brown boots that were quite long, reaching up to his knees.

Unexpectedly bonding was interrupted, but it wasn't Den's fault.

"What's going on?" Fears looked around for opponents and saw them after he looked at his left.

"Den, our mission is to get titan. Keep trying, we'll cover you" Lambert said to his friend.

"Cathy, don't let me down" the boy thought, starting to bond with the titan again.

There were four opponents, and next to them stood three identical pale-skinned titans that our seekers had the opportunity to meet in the last clash.

"The same outfits as last time..." Lambert thought.

"Fight with us, Sabriel! Join us, Sorcerel!" Two titan sister appeared near Sophie. They immediately rushed towards enemies' titans.

"Who are you?" Lok asked the masked man in a black and white costume right after parrying his blow by Willblade.

"Not your business, young man" he replied, then aimed white power of Ammoniacy at Lok.

Lambert cut the spell with his sword. He used Overslam to end the fight with this man. Then he attacked other enemy, whom Cherit had been bothering until now to prevent him from reaching Fears.

Meanwhile, Cathy struggled to keep up with the movements of another opponent and rarely found a chance for a counterattack. At the right moment, she hit the enemy woman with a blue energy of Augerfrost. She ran to help Sophie. A foreign man attacked Lok's sister with a Raypulse when she was running to Casterwill. Unexpectedly, Arawn's arrow neutralized the spell held in hand of the masked man, who wanted to attack Sophie with Raypulse. Den appeared to help girls. He hit the opponent with a Dragonfist. The fight was over.

"Newfury" said the black-and-white one who was the first to fight Lambert.

He got one of his companions arm around his shoulder and said:

"We bring a message from our lady: beware of the Death Spiral" and then they fled.

The remaining two lay unconscious on the ground.

"What a kind of pals of them. Leaving their teammates to their fate... they only could do this" Den commented.

"Did you notice their attire? They weren't the same guys as last time. Even Cathy did quite well with that one" Sophie remarked.

"What do we do with them?" Cathy asked after getting up with Lok's help.

"Leave them to me" Casterwill girl replied.

She tied their hands and Lok took their amulets. He knew it was another step his girlfriend wanted to do.

"We won't carry them like sheep" Lok thought out loud. "Sophie, do you have an idea?"

"Of course, I do." she smiled.

Girl summoned a monodex, pressed a few keys, and connected with the nearest Foundation headquarters. The unit from Birmingham arrived two hours later. The tied enemies were taken, and they were promptly transported to the Foundation's prison in London. It was necessary for them to be interrogated by appropriate people soon.

Dante's House, Venice, Italy

Seekers returned to Venice after two days. There were some complications that prevented them from returning to Italy sooner.

"Finally home" said Den, who immediately sat on the couch after walking through the door.

"You would just sit all the time, lazy" Cathy remarked and then laughed.

"It's not my fault that the seeker's job is tiring in its own way" boy replied.

"Den is right" Lok defended him.

"I get it, so were you giving me huge advantages in the last training?" she turned to Fears.

"Fighting you and those people is like two different leagues" he replied.

"Alright... I'm going to the headquarters" she decided.

"Rest properly before you go to headquarters and bother Clease" Den advised.

"I have plenty of energy" she answered.

"And you said after this mission you wouldn't feel your legs. Did you exchange them for a new model or something?" he teased.

"Waiting for our plane gave me plenty of time to rest." she said.

"I still advise you to rest a bit more. You might tire out that old man" Den repeated.

"Don't exaggerate. Three days are enough for Clease to rest from me" the short-haired girl laughed.

A few days later,
Huntik Foundation International Headquarters, New York, USA

Huntik Foundation's council met to discuss recent events.

"From the report delivered by Lok Lambert's team, we have undeniable evidence that the Blood Spiral has revived. Experienced seekers who are part of that team, fought with them during the last mission. We also learned that the leader of the Death Spiral is not a man. In my opinion, we must strive to make our seekers better. It will be needed to face a stronger version of Blood Spiral in the future" Metz began.

"We also need to find out what the Spiral's goal is. Additionally, I propose sending our best researchers to check if the Spiral Mark has really expired. If it turns out that the Nullifiers can still be somehow summoned, things might get unpleasant" Guggenheim added.

"I disagree. What has been confirmed once doesn't need to be checked again. A waste of our people's time and our money" Nasher opposed.

"Due to what you're saying, Nasher, I support Guggenheim's position. It's worth checking again. Would you prefer the Nullifiers to be summoned and bring doom upon us?" Momax responded.

The man only snorted and didn't reply.

"Reborn Death Spiral is using new, previously unknown spells. During fights with them, we have to be very careful. In addition to the mentioned training proposed by Metz, I suggest increasing the number of members in each of our existing teams" Teien proposed.

"What do you think, will the Casterwills agree to another cooperation with us?" the Foundation leader asked woman.

"As long as Sophie leads the family, everything is in her hands. As far as I know her, she will probably say that the Foundation is a huge help to our family. Without hesitation, she will push everyone to fight against our persecutors" she answered.

"If we're talking about increasing teams' members, I have a proposal on this matter" Vale spoke up, holding a stack of papers in his hands.

******

Hello guys, I hope your day/afternoon/night is great. Sorry for unregular translating but it takes a lot of time. I sometimes regret myself being Polish. That language isn't helpful to translate text to English that easily as I imagined. Take care and hopefully next chapter very soon!