“So?”

A single word from his rough, almost coarse, voice was enough to awaken, and coordinate their sense of urgency, or danger to be more precise, into a proper term: survival instinct.

Mel was the first to pick up the signals and instructions of her body, “sure.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

She turned her body towards him, with her chest up and a box-looking machine in her hands.

“A present,” her hands lifted it slightly away from her body before she pressed all the buttons at the same time as both of her eyes closed shut.

*Psh-Click*

“Argh!”

The two pushed themselves up, and although the man was still recovering from the sudden flash of light, they immediately decided to run away.

Mel picked up the backpack and threw it to Gillia, who caught it and set off in a hurry. But Mel didn’t, instead she turned around, a few steps away from the man, and took another picture without completely stopping her back steps.

“What the—”

The flash of light caused the two underlings, who were already very close to the bush, to flinch and lower their heads. With this assurance in place, she finally turned tail.

Their leader had barely managed to open one eye when he turned to one of his subordinates and took the flask he was holding.

His voice immediately turned into whispers as he closed his eyes and extended his hand in their direction, “mercious flow of spirit, unstoppable bed of essences, take hold of thy body and embody thy duty—”

“Water bullet.”

The area around him grew brighter as a blue light radiated from the circle that slowly formed beneath him with the faint shape of a vase at its center.

Along with it came a reaction from the green liquid in the flask. It slowly rose and stood by itself in the middle of the air before turning into a spiral, then taking the shape of an extended arrowhead. Settled on that form, it shot itself towards the ginger haired girl in the distance, quickly crashing onto her back.

And even though that did nothing but cause her to stumble and slightly lose her pace, which she recovered right after, they still didn’t attempt to pursue the duo. Instead, they turned around and walked back to the bonfire.

“What happened ove’ there, boss?” one of the underlings that were by the bonfire approached them.

“Nothing much, I just threw some meat in the forest. Let the chicks go for a walk.”

“Ooh~ I cannae wait to see what they’ll catch,” another henchman, who overheard it, chimed in.

Like a flame that spread all over the forest, the order was quickly passed from one to another, and within a few minutes the entire group was joyfully carrying some cages towards the edge of the campsite.

“Boss, I foun’ this below the bush where they were lyin’ at,” the underling who first saw the flash approached him with a piece of paper in hand and a wood bottle on the other, “looks like a paintin’ of ye, nah?”

“What sorta paper is that? It’s glowing like glass,” the guy who was holding the flask earlier, looked over it as the boss took it into his own hands.

“It’s rather sticky to the touch, I never heard of paper like this being in production.”

He noticed how the painting seemed like a slightly shaken and unfocused portrait of himself. With his eyes, along with the rest of his figure, illuminated by a white glaring light, it was clear as to what was the source of both this picture and the flash.

“Mhm, let’s hope they don’t go too far.”

A good distance away from the campsite, now surrounded only by trees, the girls maintained their pace as they ran over bushes and oversized roots on their way back down the forest.

Gillia continued to run after adjusting the backpack on her back without taking a single look over her shoulders, while Mel began to slow down once she noticed that the liquid on her back wasn’t running down her body, and had instead become viscous and increasingly smelly.

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Within a couple of minutes, Mel finally reached the slope that led straight out of the woods. It was a steep and over a mile long slope, which still had several trees on the way and no set path to walk through. And also where she figured it was worth a shot to slide down the slope using the viscous, yet liquid substance on her back.

While it did cause her many small scratches and she still had to hold onto trees on the way down to avoid the elevated roots, her descent was significantly sped up.

Once she arrived at the base of the slope, she was met by the sight of two meters tall grass expanding all over the horizon maintaining their yellow tone, even as the moonlight shone over it.

And not so far from her was the top of the backpack being carried by Gillia, still on the move.

“Phew—”

*Cryaa!*

A screech echoed all over the forest, easily reaching the two girls.

High above the trees, unbothered by the light of the moon that reflected on its lustrous feathers, was a creature that bore semblance to both eagles and man.

With wide spread wings that seemed to be held together by human arms instead of wing bones, and thick legs that had the feet of a bird of prey, however at the size of a human head.

The outline of its torso, neck and head could only be referred to a female human teenager’s, whilst still covered in a thin layer of plumage that accentuated all of those features.

“What in the world…”

Mel, having already ran through some grass, couldn’t help but stop on her tracks at the sight of that flying creature, who was clearly heading in their direction.

And from the corner of her eye, she caught the appearance of two other similar looking creatures, with only the third having a different coloration.

Unsure of what to do, she decided to run, again, towards her friend, but she couldn’t see the top of her backpack anymore.

“Gillia!”

Her calls were for naught.

*Cryaa*

The cries of the bird looking people got nearer by the minute, and that time wasn’t one she could waste looking for her friend. So she headed south.

“Now I wish I drank some of that mix before running off.”

Even with only the painting-making machine and one picture on her hands, she still couldn’t reach much velocity as she also had to push apart the grass on her way.

And sooner rather than later, the flapping of those large wings became audible.

“Why are they,” she looked over her shoulder for a moment, “so intent on getting me?”

Swimming, on a straight line, over the yellow sea, she felt like there would be no end to this dual pressure of the sounds coming from behind, and of the rustling caused by each wave.

*Flap* *Flap* *Cryaa*

Without a chance to take a breath in, her pursuers closed in on her from behind, their talons already extended outwardly.

Mel wasn’t unaware of it, and already took a firm hold of the device’s holders before quickly turning around, “catch this!”

*Psh-Click*

*Craa*

Though the closest creature didn’t stop its descent, it did turn its head away from the flash of light and closed its eyes, which was the opportunity Mel needed to jump out of the way.

The other two became wary as they were still quite a distance away, their approach came to a halt and they just flapped their wings enough to maintain altitude.

Once the bird-like monster crashed onto the floor, it flounced on the spot before opening its eyes and noticing how much distance its prey had taken in the meantime.

“God, it’s way taller than the grass,” she continued to go south, and the situation, too.

With a couple flaps from those wings, it quickly took flight and went in her direction while regaining altitude. Its companions followed suit, approaching from above.

“Give me… a break…”

As soon as the trio saw the opportunity, they all dived from different directions towards the stumbling prey running about.

Mel approached the machine to her forehead for a moment once she heard their screeches approaching at high speed, “please, don’t fail me now—”

“Just blind them and stay still!” a voice came out of nowhere.

Mel didn’t have the chance to recognize or process what they said as the approaching foes took priority in her mind. So she stopped on her tracks, turned around, and with faith on her device, she pressed the button, twice even. Closing her eyes as she stood in place.

“Leaf blade.”

Following the strong intonated voice, all the stalks of grass surrounding Mel clustered together and remolded themselves, becoming sharp and pointy like a sword, then stretching above her height at the same moment the three birds descended.

Two of them had the center of their feet, and their middle talon, pierced through by the double-edged yellow blade, their entire dive being brought to a halt by it.

While the third, the differently colored one, managed to slow down by forcefully flapping its wings mid-descent and got away unharmed.

However, that wasn’t the end of it. More blades of grass were formed and stretched towards the two already caught monsters, slowly penetrating their legs without actually cutting them off, keeping them held up in mid-air.

A hand reached out from the tall grass and grabbed Mel’s, “run, now!”

Pulling her into a tent made out of intertwined stalks and leaves, with the backpack as the central pillar, where the two hid in the dark as the entrance to it slowly closed itself.

Mel haggardly breathed in and out while looking at her friend’s dirtied face, before noticing her empty hands, “the, haa, machine—”

“Shh.”

The noise of the flying creatures was quickly taken over by the approaching footsteps and loud human speech.