'…and there's a speculation that their leader might possess some kind of ability. Be careful.'
Eric's voice resurfaced in his memory as he recalled those words, and he began to consider whether this was the ability he had been warned about, questioning how the man could have sensed them at all.
He sharply composed himself.
"What comrades are you talking about?"
Thorner folded his hands and rested against a tree, leaning into it with casual ease.
"Come on, Mercedes isn't foolish enough to send a single person after me, and a child at that matter."
"Besides, their heat signatures are far too erratic to go unnoticed."
Jurgen's eyes widened slightly as the realization settled in. The ability to sense heat signatures explained how they had been detected, and the mention of erratic patterns could only point to one person among them. He cursed inwardly as he struggled to maintain his composure, aware at the same time that the increasingly restless Nyugen was making that effort more difficult.
A low, sharp exhale left Thorner as he pushed himself off the tree. He casually licked his thumb and smeared away a small stain on his cloth before lifting his gaze toward the bright moon, then gradually lowering it back to Jurgen.
"I don't know what game you think you're playing, but I have no time to indulge you."
"Midnight approaches, and it would be best if you—"
He had not finished speaking when Nguyen burst from behind the fence with a loud shout, sprinting forward before launching himself toward Thorner, his hands crackling with lightning, illuminating the fog in jagged flashes.
"DIEEE!"
Dammit, you bastard, Jurgen cursed inwardly.
Before Nguyen could land his attack, an unseen force seized his breath, cutting him off mid-air as he dropped with a heavy thud to the ground. His hands clawed at his neck gasping desperately for air, his body writhing against the ground in a futile attempt to recover.
In that same instant, as he fell, a girl took form behind Thorner as though she had emerged from nothing.
She had long, creamy hair, and although she was completely exposed, strands of mist wrapped around her body in separate layers, clinging to her form in a way that concealed without fully covering.
"A big fool," Thorner remarked.
"Nicely done, Hazel."
He gestured toward Jurgen just as the other criminals began to flood out of the forest, spreading rapidly like a colony of ants.
Jurgen reacted immediately, shifting toward Bubbles as he called out with urgency.
"Fatty!"
Bubbles rushed out from behind the fence and placed his palm against the ground, repeating the same gesture he had used in the arena. From that point of contact, a trail spread steadily across the earth toward the advancing group. It reached them just as they closed in on Nguyen, and at once the ground beneath their feet gave way.
They sank almost immediately, the earth swallowing them until only their heads remained above the surface just like the arena. They struggled and writhed in place, yet their efforts produced no result, as the ground held them fast and denied any escape.
A notable expression formed on Thorner's face as he observed Bubbles' strained effort.
"A warper?"
What drew his attention more was not merely the ability itself, but the precision with which it had been executed. There was no visible experience in the boy's movements, yet the control was deliberate and measured. The effect had been applied with careful restraint, such that the ground directly beneath Nguyen's writhing body remained solid, while the surrounding terrain had been rendered as yielding as liquid.
"Akagami!" (Red hair!) Jurgen called out to Arrow.
In the same motion, he launched himself toward Thorner, wasting no time between command and action. Arrow responded without hesitation, leaping onto the fence before following into the air. As he moved, he unsheathed his sword, the blade catching the moonlight as it was drawn.
They closed the distance immediately.
Jurgen lowered his stance, coiling his body like a compressed spring as he drew back a loaded, each muscle tightening as he prepared to release its force, while Arrow shifted his attention entirely to Hazel, who still lingered behind the enemy leader like a shadowed threat.
The surrounding world seemed to slow, compressing into a narrowed focus that centered only on their respective targets.
In that moment, a slow and cruel smile formed on Thorner's shadowed expression.
"Even bigger fools." His tone was drawn out, carrying a venomous edge.
Hazel dissolved into the fog almost instantly, the mist thickening as it spread and concealed Thorner within it.
Their attacks followed through a fraction of a second later. Jurgen's punch and Arrow's blade cut into the space where both of them had just stood, the fog parting violently under the force of the impact. Pressure radiated outward from the point of contact, yet neither figure remained within the disrupted haze.
Arrow sliced through the mist with sharp, deliberate movements, but it proved futile. She had fully merged with it, indistinguishable from the shifting fog itself.
Jurgen strained his gaze into the haze, searching for any irregularity that might reveal her position. He reasoned that if she moved with the fog, then a denser region would likely indicate where she was concentrated.
His attention briefly shifted back to the weakened Nguyen, whose breathing had become increasingly labored, his face already taking on a bluish tint.
"Fatty! take Nyugen and run. Akagami! follow that mist woman, she's behind this."
He gestured urgently toward a thicker section of the fog, his deduction consistent with what he had observed; more importantly, it aligned with the suspicion that she was responsible for Nguyen's deteriorating condition.
Arrow gave a sharp nod before breaking into motion, heading toward the denser fog as it slithered through the area like a living presence.
Jurgen returned his focus to locating Thorner, working under the assumption that he had not dissolved alongside the mist woman. The question remained fixed in his mind: where had he gone?
Before he could fully process the thought, Thorner appeared directly behind him in a sudden shift of position. The air pressure changed sharply at his back, and Jurgen snapped his head around in the same instant.