Chapter 84. By a Whisker (2/2)

Teresa Hussey spoke in a wry tone.

“From the get-go, they look at things differently from us. And that thing is like a freaking insane loon.”

Perhaps she had suffered a lot at the creature's hands because she gnashed her teeth like crazy herself before she went “Oops” and recovered her wits. She pointed at the door within the torture chamber.

“Go there. There should be another exit from here.”

It was only a matter of time before they got discovered. Even then, that didn't mean they had to use the door he used to enter, now did it? A blitzkrieg it was, then.

'As long as we can make out of the prison block….!'

Seol Jihu quickly organized his thoughts and fixed his hold on the princess. She softly wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered to his ear.

“Let's go, my prince.”

And then, Seol Jihu began running like an arrow.

*

Just as she predicted, the high-ranking Parasite returned quickly. In terms of actual time, it was around two minutes. From the moment it spotted the mutated Orc entering the forbidden building, this creature had been sensing that something wasn't quite right, so it took a look around but couldn't find anything was amiss.

'Did I see it wrong?'

The chain of thought that roughly went along that line shattered into pieces the moment it returned to the torture chamber. Well, the Haramark Princess who should have been bound to the frame was nowhere to be seen, after all. The only thing remaining was the sliced-off ropes.

It freaked out and dashed outside, but it was impossible to find the princess in one breath. There were just too many things walking around, disrupting its vision. Of course, this high-ranking creature was no dummy.

“Every single one of you, stop moving!”

A mental wave containing powerful controlling will spread out everywhere, causing everything inside this place to stop moving at once. The unknown Parasite being quickly scanned the area, but couldn't spot any movements. Either she was in hiding or had escaped from the hatchery already.

“That damn rat-like bitch!”

The high-ranking creature glared at the ceiling and roared out.

Meanwhile, Seol Jihu was in the middle of hurriedly running up the stairs. Around the same time as that roar, the communication crystal dangling in his ear began glowing as well.

“Mister Kazuki?”

A short bout of silence later, the communication resumed.

—I told you to arrive before the last minute mark, didn't I?

He sounded a bit furious.

“I ran into a high-ranking Parasite.”

—What?!

“For the time being, I managed to evade detection, but I don't know when….”

Pant, pant…

Seol Jihu pounded on the steps until he arrived on the first floor – and that's when he stopped talking altogether. As soon as he got here, he realized that the mutated Orcs busy moving around until then suddenly began staring at him. He used the rudium, but it didn't work. Thoughts of “Oh, shit” entered his brain.

—Run!!

Kazuki assessed the current situation through the communication crystal and shouted out loudly.

Kuuuuueeeeh!!

Mutated Orcs began rushing at him almost at the same time. Seol Jihu listened to his instinct and climbed on a wooden desk before leaping up from it. The Orcs rushing at him stopped and dazedly looked at his acrobatic jump. He flew above them, and at the exact moment he landed on the floor…

PANG!!

….Without a shred of hesitation, he activated the Festina Earring and ran.

The surroundings rapidly blurred past him. The light became hazy once more, and he spotted the path he took to get here. He couldn't tell whether the passageway had narrowed suddenly or that it was his own vision narrowing down. He didn't care and kept his eyes fixed to his front and ran like his butt was on fire.

In no time at all, he reached the middle of the laboratory, but then….

DUDUDUDU…!!

He heard unknown sounds of humongous scale coming from the left side. Even during his hurried escape, goosebumps broke out on his skin.

That direction was where he found Hugo. And that's where the stairs leading up to the surface was located, too. If he didn't hear it wrong, then it meant that even the elite Parasites guarding the surface had all come down here.

Rather than getting further away from him, the chasing footsteps grew only louder and louder, tenaciously clinging to his rear. PANG!! Seol Jihu activated the second layer of 'Boost'.

Just a little bit, and he'd be able to escape from the research area. Too bad, the reality wasn't so kind. The mutated Orcs he saw when entering this part of the underground laboratory were roaming around near the lone exit. Their numbers weren't high, but what with their large frames, it would be very difficult to go right through them. It was then.

“Keep running!”

His ice spear was suddenly pointing to his front. Teresa Hussey had picked up his weapon and began wielding it before he had the chance to notice her actions.

They couldn't fight here. Not only they would not win, but they would also get captured by the chasing pack, instead. Which meant that they had no other option but to break through from the front.

“Keuk!”

Seol Jihu gritted his teeth. He lowered his posture and pounced forward even harder.

Kuehk? Kuuheehk!

The mutated Orcs discovered the humans belatedly, their eyes gleaming dangerously now. All sorts of colorful weapons descended on the young human male dashing in like an ice pick.

He caught the sight of an axe being bounced away by the ice spear.

He felt a part of his armor breaking.

He even sensed something brushing past him which immediately lead to this burning ache coming from his back and his side. And then…

BOOM!!

Out of the blue, he felt something hard blocking his path slam into his body. And soon, that pressure from the front disappeared and his view opened up wide. He had finally broken past the exit door and escaped out of the research area.

He almost rolled on the ground from the remaining impact force after he broke past the door, but he somehow managed to not fall. With Teresa Hussey in his arms, it was far harder to maintain his balance.

'Even still…'

Now that he could see the sky bridge, he was almost at an eighth of the way to his destination. Past the bridge, the passageway beyond it, plus to the room with the hideout, was all in a straight line. Better still, there was no obstacle blocking his way.

He thought like that and activated the third level of stacking – it was also right then he felt this itching sensation on his neck.

Bzz….

Sounds of beating wings pounded on his eardrums. Not only that, the garbled shouting coming from the crystal, the thudding footsteps, all these indecipherable cacophonies of noises assaulted his hearing. He hadn't even managed to cross the sky bridge yet, but it felt like some things were drawing nearer at a frightening pace.

—Jump!

Kazuki's shouting hit Seol Jihu's ear.

“I’m running!”

—No, that's not it! Trust me and jump as hard as you can! Hurry!”

“Behind you!”

At the same time, Teresa Hussey shouted at him.

There was nothing to lose now. Seol Jihu stopped thinking and kicked the sky bridge hard to jump. It happened in that exact moment.

Kwang!

An explosion suddenly rang out. The shock waves from that explosion swooped down on the youth as he was on the downward arc of his jump. He held Teresa Hussey tightly as his own body drew a parabola, before they crashed and rolled on the floor. Only after they slammed into the edge of the bridge's end did they come to a painful stop.

“Cough!!”

Tang, tang, Tang, tang!!

Seol Jihu coughed, but when he heard the repeated noises of things slamming into a wall, he quickly looked up in a panic. Several flying creatures were stuck in a whitish barrier with cracks running through them.

“What the hell…..?!”

His jaw dropped to the floor. Not in a bad way, mind, but in a good way.

The middle of the sky bridge had been cut off. Should he say that a big gaping hole suddenly opened up in the middle? The leading pack of the tenaciously-chasing Parasites fell to the black abyss below while the rest quickly took steps back.

Immediately afterwards, rather pleasing sounds of air being split could be heard, which in turn led to the flying creatures attacking the protective barrier to fall from the air one by one. Swish-! Swish-!! They were the sounds of arrows whistling by.

Only then did Seol Jihu realize what was going on. He also understood why Kazuki told him to jump.

'The trap!'

—Wake up and start running!

He immediately pushed himself up. Thanks to Mary Rhine's timely barrier, neither he nor the Princess was injured.

—We'll provide cover fire, so don't stop and run!

Seol Jihu took a quick glance at the enemies, now looking like dogs chasing a chicken, before picking the Princess up in one go. He then broke past the protective barrier and ran.

“How many seconds left?”

—11!

Although tight, it was doable. Enemies couldn't catch him, and the rest of the road was as straight as an autobahn. A situation several times considerably simpler than back in the Arden valley lay in wait for him.

Sssshwwing-!!

The sounds brushing past his ears were indeed quite joyful to hear. He couldn't hear anything else, though. No, he simply concentrated all of his being in running.

The passage was considerably long at almost 200 meters, but with triple stacking of the Boost, he only needed six seconds to cross it.

“Haa, haa!”

When he entered the disused room, five seconds remained.

He saw Kazuki and Mary Rhine lower their bow and the crucifix respectively. Yasser Rahdi was jumping up and down on his spot with a flushed face, gesturing wildly.

Four seconds.

The bookshelf turned 90 degrees was right in front of his nose now. Seol Jihu didn't slow down and simply changed his direction a little bit. Chohong had extended both of her arms out, ready to catch him.

Three seconds.

A fleeting smile of relief entered everyone's face. Even Seol Jihu formed a slight grin as if to reply.

In that moment…

BLAM-!!

An abrupt gunshot rang out, and Chohong witnessed it with her own two eyes. She saw the young man carrying Teresa Hussey twist and falter before he was sent crashing to the floor.

'….What was that?!'

Seol Jihu also formed a dumbfounded expression. They were almost there. They had almost succeeded.

It felt as if his foot was stuck in something. His vision blurred. Everything seemed to go white, then the ceiling filled up his view before everything suddenly crashed into the floor in a mad descent.

'What the hell happened?'

Abruptly, he remembered.

—Please, do not forget. Be mindful of the unseen sniper.

Agnes's warning entered his head. His spinning head kissed the floor, his poor forehead the first to bear the brunt of the contact.

“Ah….”

It felt like something somewhere in his body felt 'empty'. The pain rushed at him a single breath later.

“Argh, ah…”

Blood spewed out of his mouth. He curled up like a worm, but still, tried to reach out with his trembling hand.

As his hand aimlessly wandered in the air, he thought he could hear Chohong cry out like a wild animal. He painfully raised his head up to see.

She wasn't there.

There was no one on the altar.

“….”

Seol Jihu's dazedly stared at the empty void.

….At the transfer magic circle where no one stood, with the light already switched off.