The hairs on Peter’s body stood on end, and he felt anger flaring up in his chest without him having the ntal capacity to even acknowledge it.
"Princess!" he hissed. "Why are you suddenly being stupid!?"
Daru, anwhile, only grabbed Elara by her waist, hoisting her onto his shoulders. His legs then began to work.
To flee.
"Run!" he barked.
He felt a sudden urge to defend Elara, to explain what was going on. However, he realized that this was her weakness, and this could be used against her.
If Peter were to know, it would only be appropriate for her to do the explaining herself.
So, for now, they ran — one of them frustrated to the high heavens.
The foliage around them and that from farther away rustled violently, and crunching sounds were everywhere, fast approaching.
Accompanying the chaos were high-pitched screeches, barks, and snarls.
It would be dumb to think that they can hide themselves from this one. Not to ntion, Elara was still crying her heart out.
With gritted teeth, the two ran, armor clanging as they crushed the pieces of exoskeletons with every next step.
The winds weren’t as forgiving tonight, a few degrees colder than yester’s.
"Damn it! Damn it! Princess!!" cursed Peter, casting furious glances at Elara from ti to ti. "Why now?!"
He wasn’t dumb, though, only acting like one, so he knew there must be a logical reason for this.
In fact, he already had an idea.
This, however, doesn’t change the fact that they were in a dangerous situation...and their chances of surviving it were slim.
Very slim.
The monkeys were faster than they were, already gaining from all directions, plus they knew the Spider Graveyard better.
It didn’t take long for the trio’s pursuers to catch up.
In re minutes, the monkeys were cruising through the branches around them, with a few running on fours on the ground behind them
Their legblade swords scraped everywhere, though these sounds could barely be heard through their communications — initially furious, now a bit playful and mocking.
In the primate pursuers’ eyes, the three humans were cornered prey, like Rotblade Burrowers with all legs severed.
Completely helpless.
If there was one thing that had worked to their advantage — even if only slightly — it was that Elara’s cries were subsiding, and her clarity of mind was returning.
She soon realized what was happening, her heart ridden with guilt and frustration.
Of all nights...her curse chose to strike now.
Nonetheless, she was a future champion of humanity, and like a future champion she must act.
She will clean her ss herself.
Only, before Elara could push herself off Daru’s shoulders, his grip around her waist tightened, locking her in place.
"Don’t get any funny ideas now. You know you’ll just be buying a dozen seconds at most." Daru warned, knowing that his comrade had so martyrdom tendencies.
Elara gritted her teeth at his words. What he said was true, but that was the only way she knew to atone for her mistakes — her sword’s, to be exact.
She was praying to the gods that in those few seconds she bought, the two would reach a miracle, however much of a long shot that was.
Sacrificing was the only thing that would ease her guilt.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t even allowed to rid herself of the unpleasant feeling, though Elara had an epiphany out of it, while being carried on soone’s shoulders.
Throwing her life away now was simply her acting for her own sake; to rid her heart of guilt’s burden.
Contrary to her objectives, she was just being selfish.
The more difficult thing was to allow the thorn to dwell in her heart. That was the most appropriate atonent.
"Alright, I won’t," she sighed.
Catching the sincerity in her tone, Daru released Elara, though a bit hesitantly, throwing her a few ters ahead so that by the ti she recovered her footing, the three of them would be running side by side.
Only, by the ti this happened, legblade swords were upon them.
Three.
The closest Gray Ateles Mortises slashed at them, snarling in morbid glee.
But humans were humans for a reason. They are smarter than monkeys. Daru and his comrades didn’t panic, angling their swords without them even having to talk about it.
They just knew what to do.
As steel sang, they were sent flying back...and everything went according to plan.
They suffered a bit of damage from it, but nothing worthy of note.
What was more notable was the few seconds they gained from those, almost simultaneous exchanges.
Watching the prey masterfully use the montum to their advantage, the monkeys grew furious, continuing to give chase.
They attempted three more tis after spending a few seconds catching up.
However, the results were infuriatingly the sa for the primates. The human trio turned out to be far more slippery than the deathly primates thought.
...So they adapted.
Instead of attacking Daru and the other two as soon as they caught up, the Gray Ateles Mortises began overtaking them.
One monkey, in particular, caught the human trio’s attention.
It ca from farther west but was now catching up. Initially, it looked like just any other mber of the tribe, but now that it was closer, they realized that this one was three ters tall, and its sword was significantly larger than the standard Gray Ateles Mortis.
Clearly, it was made from the legblades of the elite versions of Rotblade Burrowers.
It wasn’t too difficult to deduce that this one was an elite. It was already different just based on the crude exoskeleton armor it was wearing.
"These damned, persistent monkeys!" cursed Peter.
They were slowly being cornered, and it seed as though a grueso end was unavoidable...when a chilling sensation gave their senses a nudge.
A gentle one at first, but growing stronger, and stronger, and stronger still.
The deathly primates seed to have been thrown into confusion and disarray. Usually, the Ateles Mortises would seek shelter at the first sign of the Hissing.
After all, their prey, too, would need to look for one.
They can’t possibly go too far.
Once the Hissing ended, the chase would simply resu...yet the long-limbed, gray monkeys seed hesitant to give the chase up this ti.
They felt that the cunning bastards would sohow find a way to slip through their encirclent if they chose to look for hiding places too early.
But if they didn’t, a considerable number of them would die, especially since the burrows were limited.
So of their kin would be forced to forfeit their lives.
It was then that the elite communicated with a series of barks and growls.
More than half the monkeys dropped the chase on its orders, and only the fastest among them continued, swinging through the branches.
The primates knew they still had ti.
However, so did Elara and Daru. If there was anything they were confident of, it was their knowledge of the Hissing’s timing.
Unlike the Ateles Mortises, who, by instinct, would hide at the first sign of danger, they tested limits.
The pursuing elite seed to be uneasy, but the two weren’t. It was only Peter who kept asking whether they should look for a burrow soon.
Daru and Elara ignored him, both focusing on the movents of their pursuers.
Inevitably, though, the elite caught up, swinging its blade at the princess.
The massive blade slashed through her left shoulder down to the ground. To the elite Gray Ateles Mortis’s bewildernt, the target continued running as if nothing had happened.
Elara’s attention was on a strange detail instead.
The monkeys seed to be circling hard from the east, attempting to herd them to the west since earlier, as if desperate to prevent them from crossing so sort of line.
’What line?’ the princess’s mind worked.
Before the elite had even restarted its pursuit, her mouth curved into a grin.
Chaos always worked to the benefit of those who are at a disadvantage, and she has just discovered a possible way to cause one so large that they would have an actual chance to escape.
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