Eleanor opened her palms, summoning two daggers, and drove them through the hole Helga's blood bullet had made, then pulled them upward, slicing the traitor elf's palm in two.
His muffled scream was abruptly cut off as Eleanor punched him across the face, chest, shoulders, and face again, ending with a sweeping kick that sent him airborne. She simultaneously summoned a spear and drove it through the elf mid-air, pinning him to the ground.
Meanwhile, Helga was busy dodging bullets with speed that made no sense to the gunmen. One of them, terrified by her apparent power, stopped firing and tried to flee, only to be sent straight to the afterlife by the floating blood swords Helga summoned.
The traitorous elves, fully aware of Helga's true power and knowing she couldn't face them all at once, charged at her. As the gunfire stopped for fear of friendly fire, Helga snapped her fingers, three ringed magic circles materialising around her hands as she released AOE magic.
The blood from her palm, which she had been draining into a floating orb above, multiplied and solidified into a massive, boulder-like mass that slammed into the ground between her and the elves, detonating on impact.
The explosion sent out high-velocity secondary blood bursts that streaked toward the elves at sonic speed, overwhelming them with sheer volume.
As they braced against Helga's magic, Eleanor seized the chance, grabbing the wounded Aleesia and slinging her over her shoulder before reaching for Marie with her other hand, shouting,
"Helga! Wall!"
Helga understood without further explanation, having already considered the hole Eleanor had created with her first strike as the best escape route.
They couldn't possibly take down all the traitorous elves and armed assailants while protecting both Marie and the wounded Aleesia, so the plan had always been to grab them and run.
Helga darted to the side, unleashing another wave of AOE blood magic, transforming a single droplet into a storm of razor-sharp shards that blasted outward in a high-velocity radial explosion.
She vaulted over the fallen tables and bolted through the hole in the wall, spinning around to fire at the ceiling, bringing it down to block the path behind them.
Bursting out into the adjacent shop and back into the hallway, Helga followed up by firing again, this time collapsing both the shop's ceiling and the hallway ceiling in front of it, sealing the elves inside for the moment.
They hurried down the stairs at the end of the hall, and Eleanor darted into the first restroom beside the stairwell, setting Aleesia down before forcing a potion into her mouth.
"Drink. It's a general-use paralysis antidote."
Aleesia instinctively tried to spit the bottle out, but Eleanor seized her chin and forced the contents down her throat, tossing the empty aside and following it up by shoving a vitality potion between her lips.
At the same time, she spoke to Helga.
"We're leaving this one here. She'd only be dead weight if we tried to run with her."
"!!"
Aleesia's eyes went wide at those words, but Eleanor didn't even spare her a glance. She simply stripped off her now bloodstained jacket and got to her feet, pulling out one of the shirts she had bought earlier and slipping it over Helga.
"In case we get spotted, the ones upstairs won't immediately realise it's you since your shirt will look different."
Then she turned to Aleesia, grabbing Marie as she spoke.
"Stay silent and suppress your presence so they don't realise you're here."
"Huh—!? W-wait! Ales—!"
"Shhh! Quiet, princes—prince."
Eleanor quickly corrected herself, clamping a hand over Marie's mouth and dragging her out of the restroom as she followed Helga down the hallway toward the next corner.
But as they approached, the sound of rushing footsteps came from around the bend, too close for them to retreat or hide.
Eleanor was about to suggest they act like civilians fleeing, but then she remembered the traitorous elves from upstairs, and a realisation dawned.
'They might recognise the disguised Marie!'
The possibility that her disguised appearance had already been exposed couldn't be ignored, so in the heat of the moment, Eleanor yanked off her own glasses and pushed them onto the elf's face.
The moment she did, the figures rounded the corner, and as Helga raised her hand to fire magic, Eleanor grabbed it, stopping her just as the one in front barked,
"Move or we shoot!"
Eleanor bent down, letting her hair fall over her face as she raised her hands shakily, perfectly playing the role of a frightened civilian, while Marie, already trembling with genuine fear, stumbled backwards, making the act even more convincing.
But it proved unnecessary, as the moment the leader saw that 'none' of them appeared to be elves, his interest quickly faded.
"Take them to the others with the Boss. The elves are still upstairs!"
He barked the order to two of the gunmen, who levelled their weapons at the trio and motioned for them to move, leading them toward the clearing where the other hostages were gathered.
As they moved forward, Eleanor suddenly staggered, collapsing toward Helga, who instinctively caught her.
Helga was about to ask if this was another one of Eleanor's acts when she realised Eleanor's body was unnaturally hot, as if she were running a fever.
Her eyes widened, concern flashing through them, but just as she opened her mouth to speak, the armed men behind them shouted.
"Move it!"
Taking a deep breath, Eleanor silently patted Helga's hands, a quiet signal not to worry, and continued moving forward.
They eventually reached the clearing in the food court area where the original blast had occurred and were herded into the human section, joining the rest of the crouching humans who had been captured.
'Right now, the best plan is to stay here until the Imperial Knights arrive to mount a rescue. Since we're useful hostages, they won't start killing, provided nothing crazy happens.'
With that in mind, Eleanor joined the others huddled on the floor alongside Helga and Marie, dropping to her knees quietly, pressing a hand to her chest as she took deep breaths.
Helga frowned at her and muttered, "What's wrong? Why is your temperature so high?"
Eleanor whispered back, "I'm as lost as you are…"
She also had a headache on top of the high temperature, but she didn't mention it, instead, she scanned the area and took note of the positions of the armed men standing guard.
'Only ten men, plus their leader, who's just sitting quietly. They're not much. This mall is huge, so they must have spread their forces thin to cover it all.
What's more, most of the hostages are ordinary civilians, and the stronger ones in their squad must have already knocked out any hunters or reasonably strong individuals before dispersing.
Eleanor had just finished this assessment when two of the armed men entered, pushing what appeared to be a family of three.
It was a woman with two children, all held at gunpoint, and with the children clinging tightly to her, she could only move slowly, a bit too slow for the armed man's patience.
"Move faster!"
He shoved her to hurry her along, but the push caused her to trip and fall, a pained groan escaping her as she hit the ground.
"Dude, chill," the other one said, grabbing his arm, while the two children screamed.
The older child quickly pushed his mother onto her side, revealing a noticeable bulge on her stomach.
'She's pregnant!'
Eleanor's eyes widened at the sight, and in that same moment, the younger child shouted,
"Don't hurt Mommyyy!"
"Kh?!"
He hurled the handbag that had fallen when the woman did, sending it straight at the face of the masked man, who froze, likely never expecting a child to attack him.
But although the man dodged the bag at the last moment, his face contorted with rage beneath his mask.
"You braaat!"
Without hesitation, he kicked the boy in the face, sending him flying onto his mother, who screamed and wrapped her body around him protectively.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! But please forgive him! He's just a boy!"
"Get out of the way!"
Her pleas went unheard as the masked man bellowed, reaching to pull her away from the child.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" the other masked man shouted, yanking his enraged comrade back.
"The brat threw that crap at me! I'm gonna fucking kill him!"
"This guy…! Control your goddam temper!"
As the two argued, the other masked men watched with varying reactions, some seemingly indifferent, while one or two even cheered on the enraged man.
Seeing this, Eleanor silently grabbed Helga and whispered,
"There are four hostage groups. How fast can you create barriers around all of them?"
"Barriers? What are you trying to do?"
"A gamble, that's what."