The sack that had rolled to the center came to a stop.
I pressed my back to the stairwell wall and waited for the signal.
“Hoo... hoo....”
“Shh.”
I raised an index finger to Kallen, whose breathing had gone ragged from nerves.
She clamped both hands over her mouth as if holding her breath were impossible.
My own heart pounded like mad. I swallowed dry and soothed the tension.
Only after chopping the back of his neck about fifty times did Theo pass out. We left the walking tracker behind and the three of us went down the tower.
Margon took point. He limped on one foot, and the short knife in his left hand sat awkwardly.
Still, rotten fish is fish—when it came to a crisis and a fistfight with grown men, Margon alone could manage it.
I stood tight at his back and squeezed the mock shield in my hand. I’d torn it off the wall—some decorative piece, not steel but what felt like aluminum.
It was feather-light and made a racket whenever it struck anything hard. Useless as a real shield, but good enough as a self-defense piece—so I took it.
Kallen stood last. Both hands gripped the herb bag tight.
I closed my eyes and listened.
The men’s voices were so loud it was hard to focus, but soon the signal I’d been waiting for began.
Tak, takdak, tak.
“Get ready.”
I whispered the order.
At once we pressed cloths to our mouths and tied the knots behind our heads. The cloths were pre-wetted.
“Hey, do you smell something burning?”
“Sniff—do I? Wasn’t you farting?”
“Heh. My farts smell nutty!”
The hunters, blind to what was coming, kept up their empty banter.
Good. An enemy off guard is opportunity for us.
“Uh—uh? Open a window. Cough... ugh, the smoke.”
“Pfft—achoo! Hfff—doesn’t smell like cigarette smoke. ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) Sniff...”
One by one they started coughing and sneezing.
I poked my head out past the stair and checked below. The heavy smoke pooled on the floor had risen up to the tables.
I checked the position of the last-opened exit one more time.
I reached my free hand back; Kallen took it.
At that moment, the sound effects announcing the start of the festival went off.
Pop-pop, pop, pabababak!
Margon, in front, hunched his upper body and pounded down the steps.
“Kallen, close your eyes.”
“Uuugh—yes!”
Holding Kallen’s hand, I chased after Margon. The murky smoke hid us.
Not that we needed to hide in it—the hunters were losing their minds anyway.
“Gyaaa! Ah—stings! What is this!”
“Achoo— a—achoo!”
From Kallen’s pack I’d picked out self-heating leaves, smoke-belching herbs, and popping fruits that burst with a pungent stench.
We mixed them all with Theo’s ointment, packed them into small pouches, and shook—natural tear gas.
The wet masks blocked our airways, but there was no helping the sting in our eyes.
I made Kallen keep her eyes closed; Margon and I squinted as we felt for the exit.
We’d certainly set off with the entrance in sight, but the hunters were thrashing so wildly we lost direction.
“Kh—huh? Who—who are you!”
Damn. Tears from the bite of the smoke blurred my sight and I lost Margon.
I barely kept from going down when I slammed into a hulking body, and a big hand groped up to clamp my shoulder.
“Agh—let go...!”
The man squeezed like he meant to crush my scapula. With the mock shield and Kallen’s hand in mine, I couldn’t shake him.
We’d planned to slip out quietly in the commotion. I’d have to call Margon after all—
“Kyah! Let go! Let go!!”
Hearing my voice, Kallen swung her pack at the man.
“Urk! Ugh!”
It was a plush bag full of greens. Somehow, every time it struck the man’s body it thudded like a rock.
Either way, thanks to it the brute grabbing me peeled off.
“Huh? A girl’s voice?”
“Grk—where? Where!”
But Kallen’s short, strangled cry tipped the hunters off to our breakout. If a woman screamed in this tower, there was only one culprit.
I snatched Kallen’s hand and sprinted. There was no time to care about stinging eyes.
Bounced around by men from all sides, we cut across the first floor and finally saw the wide-open exit.
We crossed the threshold like breaking the tape in a sprint. Clear, clean air hit us at once.
“Hah—hah...”
“Cough, cough... Ceryl...”
Kallen hacked—she’d breathed the smoke in mid-scream.
I thumped her back and scanned around. I scrubbed the tears blurring my sight away, rough.
Then I saw a few men lying on the ground—Dragon Hunters who’d bolted outside the instant the tear gas blew.
In their midst, Margon was panting. He’d gotten out first and pre-cleared the space.
Even with only one arm left, skill didn’t just disappear.
“Ceryl, are you all right?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. Move!”
I grabbed the scruff of Kallen’s neck and hauled her up.
We had to run for the woods with the tower at our backs. I had no idea how long the improvised smoke would last; we needed to get as far as possible as fast as possible.
With the limping hulk on one side and the coughing girl on the other, I tightened the aching muscles around my eyes.
“Kallen, pull it together! Quick—”
“Ihihihing!”
Then a familiar cry snagged both our ankles.
We whipped around; the sound came again from behind the tower.
“Ihihing, ihihihing!!”
“Ella! Ella!!”
Before I could stop her, Kallen ran. It was the exact opposite of where we needed to flee.
I looked between Kallen’s back and the trees for a beat.
“...Gods, how did an S-grade get caught by these clowns!”
Kallen had bolted on impulse, but even thinking it through, my decision was the same.
I couldn’t leave Ella in this lunatics’ den.
When I sprinted after Kallen, Margon scowled, frustrated, but followed me.
“Ceryl! Why are we going back!”
“There’s someone we have to take!”
“Someone? Who!”
“There is! White and good!”
We swung a wide half-circle around the tower to the back, and I saw Kallen and Ella.
A familiar two-shot, but the mood was not the same.
“Ella, are you okay? Hic... What do I do—what do I do. I’ll get you out fast.”
Ella looked much as she had the first time I saw her at the Facility. She was penned behind a flimsy fence, all four legs bound with leather thongs.
I closed the distance fast and swept for injuries. Nothing obvious.
“Prrr... prr...”
But her breathing was strangely fast. Not even when she’d sprinted full tilt over a mountain had she sounded like this.
Excited to the brim, Ella tossed her head side to side and even scraped her bound forehooves.
“Margon, lend me your knife!”
“Huh—uh? Here.”
Margon, flustered, handed over the short blade.
Kallen yanked the stall door open, rushed in, and started cutting the leather thongs binding Ella.
Maybe it was the biting smoke; maybe relief at seeing a friend—but tears kept spilling bright and clear without tiring.
“Ceryl, the white, good someone... is this?”
“‘This’? Watch your mouth.”
“Why would you... a monster...”
Margon exhaled an empty breath, baffled.
This kind of reaction was rare lately; it felt almost fresh.
“She’s our friend. She’s saved my life more than once. I can’t leave her.”
“...Isn’t that Elfera?”
“Yeah. Good eye. Same one from the Facility.”
Margon’s dark eyes narrowed. He swept Ella with a look and rubbed his mouth with his left hand.
“I heard from Theo this morning. Jed brought in Elfera.”
“Theo said that?”
“Yes. He was pleased—it was his first S-grade.”
A bad feeling crawled up my spine. Even after all the running, cold prickled down my back.
Just then Kallen cut the last thong and beamed as she stood before Ella.
“Ella, no injuries? You’re okay, right?”
“Prrr... prrr...”
In that instant, Theo’s words flashed as letters across my eyes.
I’ve only experimented on monsters. The drugs are for monsters anyway.
The thought process of a stupid human brain couldn’t keep up with the speed of an S-grade monster.
Before I could arrive at a conclusion and countermeasure, Ella lifted the forehoof that had been pawing in tiny stamps.
“...Ella?”
Kallen’s startled voice.
The orange-haired girl stared blankly at the unfamiliar look on her dearest friend.
Again the whole scene slid into slow motion.
Elfera’s white mane scattering in the wind; Kallen’s pupils flaring wide in a blink.
And the brown-haired man hurling his body to prove his worth.
“No—! Kh—”
“Kyaaah!”
Ella’s forehoof slammed dead-center into Margon’s chest as he leapt between her and Kallen.
Elfera’s kick was like a traffic collision. The two of them flew at once, as if hit by a car.
“Kh—krrhk, gulk...”
Margon flew several meters and hit a thick conifer trunk, coughing blood.
Kallen, who’d dodged her friend’s kick, popped up the instant she fell and, eyes wavering with shock, looked between Ella and Margon.
“E-Ella... why...”
I turned my stiff neck and faced Elfera again.
“Prrr, prr...”
The gentle black eyes rippled red.
The crystal horn that had guided us through the dark forest glowed red as well.
It was like a warning light had come on.
