Chapter 50
"...Are we the ones being hunted?"
At Kuarem's words...
The air around them froze.
His subordinates' eyes shook.
A companion who had been walking beside them had died without making a sound.
The man sent to check on him had also died only a few steps away.
There had been no signal from the trackers who split off to the left or right.
An invisible enemy was moving through the darkness...
Cutting away their weakest openings one by one.
"C-Captain."
One subordinate swallowed.
"Shouldn't we get out of the forest first...?"
"Shut up."
Kuarem cut him off immediately.
The instant anxiety began to spread...
One trembling voice could allow fear to swallow the entire group.
Kuarem examined his men's expressions.
Then ordered,
"Plant torches in all four directions."
"Cut down the low bushes."
"Groups of three. Back to back."
"Yes."
"Nobody moves alone."
"Do not chase him until he reveals himself."
Slash! Slash!
Bushes fell with every swing.
Torches planted in four directions pushed back the darkness.
The men gathered in the center of the illuminated space.
Kuarem drew his black longsword and watched the forest.
The boy used darkness.
Then...
They simply had to stop entering the darkness.
Hold formation.
Give him no opening.
Wait until the pursuit teams from behind joined them.
And from a nearby tree...
Theron watched.
Fast judgment.
Kuarem had not focused on losing his men.
He had immediately analyzed how they were being killed.
He did not panic and flee.
Nor did he scatter his men farther apart.
Theron had not expected someone like him to be operating around a remote coastal city.
It was the response of someone who had survived real combat for a long time.
Theron's gaze moved to Kuarem's sword.
From his stance and breathing...
He was clearly Three-Star.
Still at the early stage...
But Three-Star nonetheless.
Theron had reached Four-Star.
But his young body was still not fully recovered from everything it had endured.
A direct fight could be troublesome.
However...
I don't need to fight him.
Theron's goal had only been to attract attention and then leave.
There was no reason to kill every pursuer.
And now that Kuarem was voluntarily forming a defensive position...
I have even less reason to fight.
Theron could simply wait for a good moment and leave.
The only issue...
Was that too few pursuers had gathered here so far.
He needed to drag in more of those searching the outskirts of the city.
Tap!
Theron quickly moved through the darkness.
Then fired another signal flare he had prepared.
This should bring everyone still scattered around the region.
FWEEEEEEET!
The flare shot through the night sky.
The trackers watching for Theron flinched and looked upward.
"Another flare!"
"Could he have already moved somewhere else?"
Several men looked anxiously toward Kuarem.
Kuarem shook his head.
"No."
The flare had risen from a direction different from the teams he had sent left and right.
He stared toward it.
Then quietly spoke.
"This bastard..."
"He's trying to gather all of us here."
His expression became cold.
The boy was not simply trying to kill them.
He was pulling the entire pursuit force toward this forest.
There could only be one reason.
He's buying time so the other trainees can escape.
Smart.
No.
Calling it merely smart was not enough.
The boy was risking his own life...
To buy his companions time.
Precise planning... and confidence in his own skill.
Kuarem's gaze became colder.
He already understood roughly how strong the boy was.
If they fought carelessly...
His own losses would only increase.
So...
"We're returning to the city."
Kuarem immediately turned.
His subordinate stared in surprise.
"We're leaving him?"
"He's probably still nearby."
"That's exactly why we're going back."
Kuarem looked at him.
"His goal is to keep us trapped here."
At his command...
The men removed their torches from the ground.
Still maintaining groups of three with their backs protected...
They started returning along the path.
Theron's eyes narrowed as he watched from the darkness.
That guy...
It seemed an annoying opponent had appeared.
Above the southern city gate...
Guard Captain Tergon frowned at the red flare cutting across the night sky.
It was already the second one.
At first...
He thought it meant they had discovered the escaped trainees.
But as time passed...
No report of a capture arrived.
There was not even any word from the trackers who had gone outside the city.
Instead...
More signal flares kept appearing from changing locations.
"What kind of chaos is this just to catch a few brats?"
Tergon growled.
Below the wall...
Soldiers carrying torches moved busily.
Every entrance to the city had already been sealed.
Guards searched alleys and abandoned buildings.
Additional troops blocked roads leading out of the city.
The targets were children who had just left a ship...
Children without proper weapons.
Yet half a day had already passed.
And not only had they failed to capture anyone...
They had barely even found them.
Tergon looked toward a nearby soldier.
"What about the hunters?"
The men released to track the Hell Island trainees.
Trackers from the coastal administration office.
Mercenaries.
Local hunters.
All of them were being loosely referred to as hunters.
The soldier answered with a stiff expression.
"They're already pursuing them."
"But..."
"Something seems to have gone wrong."
"Gone wrong?"
"Signal flares keep appearing from different locations."
"And we've lost contact with the first trackers who went after them."
"Any capture reports?"
"None yet."
Deep wrinkles appeared between Tergon's brows.
Dozens of people had entered the forest chasing a single child.
Yet instead of capturing him...
They did not even seem to understand who was chasing whom.
"Idiots."
Tergon clicked his tongue.
"This is what happens when you leave work to people with no proper foundation."
He looked over the city wall.
The signal flares had risen from the southern forest.
Not far.
Their red light could clearly be seen even from the wall.
If the trainees escaped through that forest and hid in the mountains...
Finding them again would become several times harder.
They could not wait longer.
"Prepare the soldiers."
"We're moving too."
The nearby soldier hesitated.
"Is it all right to remove city guards?"
"Leave half."
"Lock the gates."
"And tell the people searching inside..."
"Nobody leaves the city under any circumstances."
Tergon's eyes turned cold.
"The rest come with me to the southern forest."
"Capture anyone you see."
"Yes!"
The soldier ran down the stairs.
A short while later...
BOOM!
The tightly sealed southern gate opened.
Tergon rode out at the front.
Behind him...
