Shumba was yet to react in anyway. This at least signified that Taku was still alive. They had attempted to use the connection between Shumba and Taku to locate Taku but it was to no avail. According to Chiwenga Taku was too far for Shumba to be able to get a definite location. The reason what Chiwenga knew this was simply because he left a soul imprint on Taku which no weaker than the connection Taku had with Shumba. And with that soul imprint, he could only vaguely sense its position.

The problem was that the forest was way too large. If they just started searching at random places then there was chance that they could come back empty handed, even though there was a chance of success it was slightly too low. With the evidence that Taku might still be alive the Ivory Guard issued a search mission. Maka's team even cut their holiday short as they rushed from the capital to Bindura.

A total of two hundred teams went out for the search. But after a full month of searching, they all came back empty handed. Some teams elected to give up and it was at this moment that Maka's team arrived in Bindura. Without wasting time they went straight to the inn that Taku's team were staying in. The streets by this time were now bustling with people. The beast wave had ended and the citizens did not have to worry about their safety anymore.

This inn though was now not accepting any more customers. When Chiwenga came he just presented the inn owner with an offer he could not refuse. And with that this place became Chiwenga's house. Of course Chiwenga kept all of the chefs and staff. Maka's team entered the inn and immediately saw Taku's team sitting quietly on around a table.

Seeing the team of four walk in. The quartet of Tadi, Ranga, Tino and Nyasha did not even greet them in any formal way. They just gave them a slight nod and maintained their silence. The opposite party did not feel the slightest bit wronged by their behavior. They knew exactly how they felt and returned their own nods.

Maka's team consisted of two males and two females. They all sat down around Taku's team and remained for a while before a girl who was wearing a blue amour spoke and introduced herself and her teammates to Taku's teammates. "My name is Rujeko, these are my teammates. Rumbi, Tafara and Masimba.

"My name is Nyasha. This is Ranga, Tino and Tadi. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

Maka's team nodded in agreement. Tafara was a pretty big guy, but with a glance one could tell that he was incredibly hyper. The same could be said for Rumbi, she was fairly beautiful, to the point that Tino kept stealing gazes at her. Masimba on the other hand was rather reserved, out of all of the people here he was the only one who looked really calm. What gave him away was the anxiousness in his eyes. Rujeko looked to be the most mature out of all of them and also she seemed to be strongest.

"I heard that you guys have a way to see whether your leader is alive or not. Is this true?" After a brief period of silence Masimba asked the question that was on everyone's mind. Tino nodded and then explained. "The contract of equals that Taku and Shumba signed is a bit peculiar. If Taku was to die the Shumba would feel incredible pain and would potentially go berserk. The stone they used to make has a soul binding effect, so their souls are pretty much connected."

"If their souls are connected then doesn't that make it easier to find him?" Tafara spoke with a hint of impatience. "He should be able to sense his partner's position right? How useless is this creature and its master that it can-…"

Before he could even finish his words he was already up in the air being held by the throat by a black figure. "Do you dare finish those words?" everyone in the room except for Taku's teammates broke out in cold sweat when they saw this scene. Tafara at the moment was extremely terrified. He could not even sense anything beforehand. Before he knew it his feet were already dangling in the air.

Rujeko tried her best to calm herself down as she spoke. "I apologize for my teammate's rude remar-.."

"Shut up!" the black figure shouted. "Who gave you the right to speak?"

Rujeko immediately shut her mouth and did not have the courage to say anything anymore. Even the usually calm Masimba was slightly frightened by this scene. Just how powerful did the opposite party have to be for them to not even pick up on his movements?

"Now can you please complete your sentence from before?" the figure spoke without hiding its hostility at all.

"That's enough." A masked man walked into the inn. "There was no need for that. His teammate also went missing. He just let his emotions get the best of him that's all. Just put him down."

The figure slowly put Tafara down, and during that process the figure was still filled with killing intent. "Our disciple is missing as well. You don't hear us saying sh*t like this. At least we can tell that our man is still alive. Can you people even tell if that girl is alive or not?"

All of Maka's teammates lowered their heads. True the only thing they brought with them was hope and nothing more. Tafara who was now timid opened his mouth wanting to apologize but he was cut off by the masked man. "Do not worry about it. We already know that you are sorry. Just sit down and calm yourself down."

With that the figure disappeared into thin air. The masked man was of course Chiwenga, but for whatever reason he had decided to hide his ident.i.ty. Even though Tino and the rest of the team found it strange they still did not ask any questions. As Chiwenga also sat down, Shumba who had been in Taku's room this whole time finally came out and lay down next to Chiwenga.

Chiwenga stroked its mane and then lifted up his head, only to be met with a couple of shocked gazes. "I am guessing you can't tell what type of demonic lion this is right? To be honest with you the evolution of demonic beasts is fairly unusual. When some beasts evolve they will either turn into the already known demonic beast species. In some rare cases they will evolve into something completely different. I don't even know which type of lion this is."

Chiwenga sized up Maka's team and found that they were incredibly powerful for their age. That is of course if he didn't put them in the same bracket as Taku and Maka. As Chiwenga was thinking about this everyone from Maka's team had the same thought. A master this powerful should have a monster of a student.

Chiwenga was yet to flaunt his prowess, but just because he was able to make that black figure retreat they knew that he was someone they could not afford to offend. Chiwenga sighed. "I know that you guys are worried about your friend. But I really do believe that you are mature enough to remain calm. We can only vaguely sense their location, even this isn't enough for us to find them. Two hundred teams were sent out in the last month to search for them and all of the team have come up empty handed so far. I just want to tell you not to get your hopes up about anything and also just be prepared for any possible outcome."

The teams could only nod as Chiwenga continued. "I am leaving today to go and try find him. You guys will obviously need Shumba. But let me warn you about something. Even though Shumba can vaguely sense where Taku is, it is still a gamble because you can travel in that direction for months and Shumba would only still vaguely tell his position. This forest is way too big for anyone at the moment."

With that Chiwenga did not say anything else as he stood up and walked out of the inn. Whilst walking out he suddenly remembered what he had said to his disciple before. "After you have finished this mission I want you to come stay with me for a period of time. Of course during this period of time you team can also come stay with me, I will be able to give them guidance from time to time. And I will be responsible for all your needs, this includes food and a place to stay."

Thinking this far Chiwenga just shook his head and kept on walking. He was really looking forward to the next five years. In these five years he knew that he would be able to create a very sharp sword that would cut down anything in its path. But at the moment all those dreams were about to be demolished. Even though he did not want to admit it, he was looking forward to have his disciple help him resolve some past grievances.

As he left everyone from Maka's team breathed a sigh of relief. Masimba glared at Tafara. "You had just had to open your big mouth didn't you? I swear that black figure is the most powerful person I have met so far ever since I started cultivating."

His trio of teammates nodded at the same time, and they had met powerful figures with reputations that could strike fear into the hearts of billions. The amount of pressure that Chiwenga and that black figure gave them was enough to suffocate them. In the Ivory Guard they were considered an elite team, each member qualified to lead an entire army, but in front of such pressure they could only lower their heads.

"You guys should not think of it much." Tino started. "He would not have killed you, maybe he could have tortured you until you begged for death. At least you will be alive right." Tino said all this as if it was nothing, as if it was something that they were all used to this type of thing. The people looked at Taku's team as if they were looking at exotic animals.

After casually talking for a while the eight began discussing how they would go about searching for Maka and Taku. "I think it's best if we split and search separately."Tafara suggested. "This way we will be able to cover more ground as well."

Nyasha shook his head. "The problem with that is that one of us would have to take Shumba with him or her. And even though it sounds effective it is risky as well. Even though these Ivory Guard bracelets can allow us to communicate with each other, we might still not reach each other in time to a.s.sist, and if we get out of range, sigh."

Hearing these words only Tino was shocked as he just stared at his bracelet. He knew that this thing represented status and a way to record contribution points, never did he think that it also had such a function. Nyasha scratched his head when he saw Tino's expression. "When you get these bracelets as team they will already be configured to be able to communicate between each other, we forgot to tell you about this. But if it was someone who is not from your team then you will need to leave a Zesa imprint on the bracelet. The problem is these things are also ranked and we have the lowest ranked bracelets and can only communicate with people who are several hundreds of meters away."

"Wait since they are a gold ranked team that means their quality is also better, right?" Tino asked. "If that's the case cant they attempt to contact Maka."