Chapter 112. A Trap Within a Trap (1)
“You little...!”
No. 7 flew into a rage and swung her blade-like claws.
Her claws tore swiftly into No. 5’s neck, sending red blood spraying into the air.
But No. 5 neither dodged nor defended herself.
She merely looked at No. 7’s bloodstained hand and smiled.
“Idiot.”
“Have you forgotten what overtechnology weapon Abraxas gave me?”
No. 7 suddenly came to her senses.
No. 5 was the Punisher.
She stored nanomachines in the blood flowing through her body, and whenever someone attacked her, she specialized in activating those nanomachines through the blood spilled from the wound.
And right now, No. 7’s hand was covered in No. 5’s blood.
“Damn it!”
Realizing what had happened, No. 7 hurriedly tried to wipe the blood away.
But the hand stained with it was already beginning to corrode rapidly.
Watching her, No. 5 muttered,
“I suppose I should thank No. 11... Lambda.”
“Thanks to him, I finally learned whose perfect counter I am.”
No. 7 frowned irritably, unable to understand what she meant.
“What the hell have you been babbling about this whole time?”
“Nothing important.”
No. 5 answered indifferently.
She roughly scratched open the wound on her neck, deliberately making herself bleed even more.
The blood rose into the air as a red mist.
No. 5’s eyes gleamed.
“Just understand one thing.”
“It’s time you stopped rampaging however you please.”
Victoria and Yukgap, who had been running blindly ahead, finally reached a secluded corner of the harbor.
Yukgap quickly looked around before speaking cautiously.
“Let’s rest for a moment.”
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s following us.”
Victoria climbed down from Robert and muttered worriedly,
“Do you think No. 5 is okay?”
“We can only hope she is.”
Yukgap answered with a tense expression.
He had no idea what No. 5 was planning, but No. 7 had stopped pursuing them.
Still, there was no telling when or where another surprise attack might come from.
“Is your jaguar friend really that scary?”
Victoria asked, noticing how tense he was.
Yukgap shuddered.
“You saw it yourself last time.”
“My acceleration is a terrible match against No. 7.”
“Especially in a place like this, where there’s plenty of cover. That’s exactly where her ambush ability shines.”
“I fought her plenty of times during training.”
“I lost every single time.”
Training with No. 7 had almost always ended as one-sided beatings.
Unless Yukgap had some unexpected weapon like last time, a pure physical confrontation would end with him being crushed first.
“Robert doesn’t have many weapons left either.”
Victoria sighed.
“We fired almost everything.”
“And none of it worked on your crocodile friend.”
Her situation was just as hopeless.
Most of Robert’s weapons had been exhausted, and his defensive armor had been bitten apart.
Even if they returned now, they still had no real way to deal with No. 10.
“We’ve got two choices.”
Yukgap calmly summarized the situation.
“We either keep running away...”
“Or split up again and try to get onto the ship.”
Kevin’s voice came through their earpieces.
[Then I’ll roll the die here.]
Yukgap and Victoria looked at each other with determined expressions.
Almost as if they had agreed beforehand, they answered at the same time.
“Kevin, even if the die says so, I don’t want to completely retreat like this.”
“Same here.”
“I evacuated because you told me to, but there has to be another way.”
Their determination was firm.
It was obvious that words alone would not convince them.
Kevin thought for a moment before offering a compromise.
[Then choose a direction yourselves and move according to the result of the die.]
Yukgap immediately pointed toward the path on his right.
“Fine.”
“Then I’ll bet on ‘Go right.’”
He had no idea what lay in that direction.
But they had already decided to entrust everything to chance.
One way or another, he had to move.
Soon, the sound of a die rolling came through the earpiece.
Clatter...
[It landed on ‘Yes.’]
Kevin answered.
Yukgap glanced toward the right-hand path.
The answer had been given.
Victoria looked the other way.
“Then I guess I’m going left.”
Yukgap to the right.
Victoria to the left.
That was the answer they had received from the die.
“Contact me through the earpiece if anything happens.”
Yukgap took a deep breath as he warned her.
Victoria climbed back onto Robert and grinned.
“Don’t worry.”
“I’m not giving up until I’ve landed at least one good hit on Abraxas.”
“Well, well.”
No. 11 slowly looked around.
“They really ran away.”
They had charged at the ship with such confidence, yet every one of them had retreated so quickly that not even their backs were visible anymore.
Considering he had anticipated their attack and positioned everyone accordingly, the result felt almost disappointingly anticlimactic.
“Should I pursue them?”
No. 8 asked after landing beside him.
No. 11 calmly shook his head.
“There’s no need.”
“They won’t go far.”
“Alpha predicted that they wouldn’t retreat quietly.”
“They’ve only withdrawn temporarily.”
“For now, remain in the air and wait.”
“Understood.”
At the order, No. 8 flapped his wings and rose high into the sky.
Left alone, No. 11 stretched lazily.
“Then I suppose I should get back to work.”
They had stopped the attack exactly as predicted.
