At her companion’s proposition, the black-haired woman gritted her teeth.
"... Don’t die."
Without taking another look back, she hastily turned around and ran over to the two limp bodies on the ground.
Scooping both of them up, she hoisted them onto her shoulder and then broke into a mad sprint toward the cave’s entrance.
"’Don’t die,’ she says... As if things are going to be that simple," The blond-haired woman laughed wryly.
If both couldn’t win fighting together, how would the war-scythe-wielding woman handle the creature alone?
While the blond-haired woman claid to stall for long enough for them to escape, at least both won knew what the war-scythe-wielding really woman intended to do.
She intended to stall for ti, but it wasn’t for herself.
No...
The blonde-haired Kelonian wasn’t planning to run away.
She was prepared to die.
The Kelonian woman was prepared to sacrifice everything to ensure the success of their mission.
Even at the cost of her own life.
Resigning herself to her fate, a dark grin broke out on her bloody lips.
"Humans have a custom of exchanging their nas in duels to the death. That way, the killed would know the na of their killer, and the killer would rember the na of the person they killed."
The blond-haired woman tightened her grip on her war scythe and pointed it at the monster before her.
"However, you are no human... And I have no na to give a beast."
Channelling her mana, she controlled the blood around her to flow and accumulate onto the spear in her hand.
However, before she could finish what she planned on doing, the blonde-haired woman felt a heavy blow slam against her chest, sending her flying backwards.
The strike was strong enough that it sent her all the way to the vicinity of the cave entrance.
"...How?"
Voicing her disbelief, the blond-haired woman stared at the grey monster.
The attack was so fast that she didn’t even see it coming.
Was this how he severed her companion’s arm?
Why was he so fast?
Just as she thought this, sothing caught the blond-haired woman’s eyes.
The creature she was fighting... Sohow, there were two now.
As she noticed that, several others appeared out of thin air around it.
"W-what the h*ll is going on?!?"
Slowly turning their heads in unison, all of the gray-coloured monsters stared at the blond-haired woman with vicious grins.
She desperately tried to move her body, but no matter what she did, her body refused to listen.
It seed the earlier attack had utterly crippled the blond-haired woman.
All she could do was watch in horror as the horde of monsters slowly closed in on her.
***
"AHHHHHH!!!"
Hearing a scream of pure agony behind her, the black-haired woman scowled.
Not only did she lose her brother, but she had to leave the blond-haired woman behind her to run away on her own.
Although she could simply chalk it up as a necessary sacrifice for her country, the black-haired woman couldn’t help but feel agonized by her decision.
Leaving a comrade behind was a deplorable thing to do.
With so asure of naivety, the black-haired woman held back on sealing the tunnel, just in case her companion managed to sohow escape.
Despite being a seasoned veteran, she was still human.
While knowing it would be impossible, she still prayed that there was even an infinitesimally slight chance of the blonde-haired woman pulling through.
However, the horrifying shriek proved otherwise.
As the screaming abruptly stopped, the black-haired woman was already sure.
The war-scythe-wielding woman was dead.
Narrowing her eyes, the black-haired woman tightly clenched her remaining hand.
During the short ti her companion had brought her, the woman had taken off her brother’s uniform shirt and used it as a makeshift tourniquet.
Thanks to this, the woman didn’t pass out from blood loss.
While she had plenty of pus-filled injuries, her most severe one was the bloody stump that used to be her arm.
Although the tourniquet managed to reduce the bleeding, the black-haired woman still needed to give it proper care, and soon.
If she made it out alive, that is.
She dropped the bodies she was holding before turning around.
Reaching inside her military uniform, the one-ard woman produced a round object with a pin attached.
Raising the object to her blood-caked lips, she bit the pin before ripping it off with her teeth.
Not wasting another second, she lobbed the object at the cave ceiling.
(BOOM)
As the object exploded into a flash of light and heat, the strong force created by the impact damaged the cave’s entrance and sent several large boulder-sized rocks falling.
Crashing into the ground, a large dust cloud rose, filling the air with particles of crushed rock and earth.
Watching this, the black-haired woman let out a sigh of relief.
Although she sealed the cave later than she originally planned, she still managed to accomplish her task.
She was safe now.
All she had to do now was wait long enough for help to arrive.
...Or for sothing else to kill the creature.
However, the Kelonian woman felt regret towards her blonde-haired companion.
While she managed to recover her brother’s corpse, the blonde-haired woman’s body was still there.
Human Mana Cores are delicacies for every monster that road the world.
There was no way that the creatures of the forest, or even the grey-skinned abomination for that matter, would leave her corpse intact.
After consuming her mana core, they would probably devour the rest of her body, not leaving the bones behind.
That was the fate that befell humans who died without companions nearby to humanely tend to their remains.
...At least her brother didn’t have to experience a similar fate.
Turning on a flashlight, The black-haired woman looked at her sibling’s body.
However, as she did, the other body the Kelonian woman had brought caught her attention.
It was none other than the princess.
By her chest’s slow rise and fall, the black-haired woman was sure she was still alive.
Watching the peacefully sleeping princess, dark thoughts flashed across the Kelonian woman’s mind.
’It’s all this little bitch’s fault... What kind of psycho keeps a monster like that as a companion?’
If Cecelia were awake, she would have felt aggrieved.
The decision to put Blaine as her bodyguard wasn’t hers but the king’s.
She had no choice in the matter.
Glaring at the sleeping girl, the black-haired woman felt a sudden bloodlust fill her body.
’If this idiot never ca here... Everyone would still be alive...’
As those thoughts passed through her head, the black-haired woman shook her head.
"No... Her ti will co..."
The teenage princess would suffer.
The black-haired woman would personally ensure this.
She was done making concessions for children after being burned once already.
No longer would she hold back because she was a mother herself.
Turning around to distract herself, she looked in the direction of the cave entrance.
With moonlight no longer reaching into the cave, her singular flashlight was the only source of illumination in the pitch-black expanse.
However, sothing strange caught her eye as she looked into the darkness.
It was like... The darkness moved.
As soon as the cave was sealed, the woman disabled her Mana Art to preserve her rapidly dwindling mana storage.
But for so reason, she felt a sudden impulse to activate it once more.
Once more channelling her mana, the Kelonian woman felt her instinct-like sixth sense return to her.
It was then...
The alarm bells in her head began going off as if warning her of impending doom.
Swallowing fearfully, the black-haired woman slowly lifted her flashlight at the dark expanse before her.
It was then...
She saw a large grey monster eerily smiling at her.
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