The Healer Girl Is Cute, Cecilia Is Sexy, and the Chain Woman Is Deadly
Cecilia's call had been the right one — if they were going to be watched anyway, better to move fast and punch straight through.
Mudwell might have held the upper hand, but the other side was just as scrambled. Breaking out before the encirclement could fully close was the correct play.
They abandoned any thought of slipping away unseen and simply ran as hard as they could, cutting down every enemy who threw themselves into their path.
Cecilia, with her future-sight, took the lead alongside the spearman and directed the charge. Whenever she called out where the next enemy would appear, the spearman used his high-speed movement ability to kill them before they even knew what was happening and looped straight back.
Speed was everything. When debris blocked the road, the soldier swung his remaining arm with a roaring shout.
KRAAAANG!
The wreckage of a building shattered into pieces with a thunderous crash, but the odds of drawing a huge crowd their way were low. The support teams that had entered the city were apparently all dead, yet some of the ones still holding the perimeter outside were still fighting — the sounds of combat echoed from every direction.
"Waaah—!"
As they scrambled over the pulverized rubble, the pretty healer girl beside Elysia caught her foot and started to fall—
Gotcha!
Elysia caught her at the last possible instant. Between her sharpened reaction speed and the sheer pace she was keeping, those late-night training sessions alone with Cecilia had clearly paid off.
The healer girl, suddenly cradled in her arms, mumbled shyly,
"Th-thank…"
What was she supposed to do with a pretty girl like this? Part of her desperately wanted to scoop her up and tease her rotten, but unfortunately there was no time.
She hauled the healer back onto her feet, grabbed her hand, and ran.
She was absolutely not holding her hand out of selfish desire. The healer simply had the worst stamina in the group, so Elysia was looking after her. That was all. Who would be chasing ulterior motives in a situation like this…!
She gave the joined hands a little squeeze and felt the texture of the girl's palm. Ah… the healer's hand was soft and warm.
They ran like mad, and before long the gateway in and out of the city came into view. Given the terrain, mountains ringed the place on every side, so they would still have to cross them — but escape was right in front of them.
Awakeners really were something else. Even a car couldn't have gotten them here this fast. And since she was one of those Awakeners herself, that made her a capable beautiful girl beyond any doubt.
Every day she scowled at the mirror and told herself to stop being so perfect already, but what could she do? This girl called Elysia was simply too beautiful. Maybe it was time to give up on wishing she weren't perfect.
She was still admiring herself when they reached the exit that would take them out of the city.
Up ahead, Cecilia signaled a halt.
Everyone stopped at once — everyone except the healer girl, who spotted the signal a beat late, took a few extra steps, then went, "Ah," and clapped both hands over her mouth. It was her legs that had messed up, so why she was covering her mouth was a mystery, but it was extremely cute.
Elysia kept a serious face while sneaking glances at the healer's wide, startled eyes — and then, with a deafening roar, the exit collapsed.
KRAAAANG!
It had only been a fence-like barrier; they could have climbed over the rubble easily enough. The important part was that it had fallen at all. Whoever brought it down was standing right in front of them. And since their own people had no reason to block them, it had to be Mudwell.
She had expected this from the moment they set out. When they planned the Mudwell purge, the first thing they prepared was the encirclement — stationing most of the support teams on the mountains surrounding the city. So when the assault team gathered in one place, the enemy's first move was obvious.
They couldn't have surrounded the support teams up on the mountains as well, but they would have sealed the city at the foot of the slopes to keep the assault team from escaping. And just as the good guys had formed a dedicated assault team, the enemy would have put together a separate squad to wipe out the support teams holding the mountains. That squad would have been stacked with their best fighters, same as theirs.
Which meant what?
The goons standing in front of them right now were almost certainly the weak leftovers!
Cecilia and the spearman realized it in the same instant and shot forward.
Taah!
The two of them streaked toward the exit at blinding speed and cut down the syndicate members who burst out from behind the rubble.
Seoguk!
Two heads spun free in a spray of blood, whirling through the air and flinging crimson in every direction. It looked exactly like cranking a showerhead to full blast and letting go — the head thrashing wildly, cold water slamming into you before you were ready, making you jump.
Ah. She wanted a shower.
She wanted to soak in a hot spring with Tania and Adele held tight in her arms and take her sweet time. She wanted to bathe with Luna and Rina too. No — if they were going that far, why not gather everyone for a sleepover?
Her, Tania, Adele, Luna, Rina, and Cecilia on top of that! A beautiful-girl pajama party. Stay up all night chatting, eating, bathing together, sleeping together…
With that many people, tossing and turning would be inevitable; someone was bound to end up tangled with someone else. Sleeping like that, body heat would build, skin would grow sticky with sweat, and then…
"H-hey! Snap out of it!"
While she was staring at a head that had just hit the ground with a wet thwack, a pretty girl whose face felt oddly familiar was yanking hard on her hand.
Who was this pretty unnie again? Had she wanted an invite to the party? Looks like hers would more than qualify. And grabbing her hand already — quite the forward girl. It was almost enough to make her blush.
"I said snap out of it!"
The pretty girl hauled on her arm with all her strength. When a beauty pulls you, the polite thing is to go along — so she did, and found herself standing amid a scatter of pulverized building debris.
"…What's wrong with her?"
"I-I don't know…"
A sweet, familiar voice drew closer. A woman a touch sharper and sexier than the one holding her hand waved a palm in front of Elysia's face.
Her hair looked ordinary black at a glance, but a secret two-tone of light blue peeked from underneath. Her skin was so pure white it made you want to dirty it, and the firm body and scattered scrapes visible through her torn clothes somehow made Elysia want to lick them. A beauty's saliva could heal anything, right? Surely she wouldn't mind?
The most striking thing about her was that both eyes were closed. Was she sleepy?
"Elysia. Elysia!"
How did such a gorgeous woman know her name? Had she become famous without realizing it…?
Then, over the woman's shoulder, something enormous came plummeting down. Somehow the blindfolded beauty knew — she pulled Elysia into her arms a beat early and threw them both clear.
KUUUUUUUNG!
Something crashed down with a spectacular roar, but that was the furthest thing from her mind. Every scrap of her attention was locked on the woman holding her — on Cecilia.
"…Teacher?"
"Finally back with us."
Cecilia smiled as if this were a headache and pushed herself up. Amazing. Cecilia's embrace had been so warm it cleared her head completely. Beautiful women really did possess some special power. Or maybe it was just a familiar set of arms that had brought her back to her senses.
From the dust kicked up by the impact, a figure came walking toward them with heavy, deliberate steps. Even at a glance, the woman radiated an aura of uncommon power. Black chains spun in both her hands, and every time they struck the ground they made a vicious chwaak!
…Had her blanking out gotten them trapped? Holding everyone else back was the worst possible thing she could do…
"Did we fail to escape because I zoned out?"
"No. That one looks like she came down from the mountain side."
Cecilia gave her still-unsheathed sword a light flick, shedding a spray of blood as she spoke. So even if Elysia hadn't been staring into space, they would have run into this opponent anyway.
The masked woman swung the chains she had been spinning.
Chwararararak!
The chain shot forward at a speed no ordinary metal should manage and crashed into the spearman's spear with a ringing kaaang! He couldn't absorb the force; he was blasted backward and tumbled across the ground.
The spearman might not look like much, but the Association ranked him A-class. He was not someone random trash could overpower. And yet Elysia did not recognize the woman's face. Before the operation started they had been shown photos of every key figure. Someone this strong should have been impossible to forget. Was her memory just that bad?
Ah. Wait.
"Um, unnie?"
The moment she spoke, the woman who had been lazily whirling her chains snapped her head around to look at her. Those dark-crimson eyes burned like fire, and inside them there was nothing at all — a void so absolute it made Elysia's body shudder.
"You're not with Mudwell, are you?"
Shwaaaaaaeeek!
The instant the words left her mouth, the woman swung her chains again — chains wreathed in the same dark-crimson aura as her eyes.