Finally, after waiting for half an hour, Byul saw them moving. She sighed in relief and waited for them to move. But the relief did not last long.
Suddenly, a chill ran down her spine as a palm gripped the hair on the back of her head, jerking backwards. Byul cried in anguish as she found one man behind her armed with the same armour the rest were wearing.
"Boss, you're right," the man shouted, jerking her head towards the group, as if bringing some animal. "There really is a little rat here, and quite a beautiful one at that."
Even with all the caution, Byul still failed to remain hidden. She tried to muster the mana in her channel, but the moment she tried revolving the mana, her face darkened as a cold reckoning came to her. The jerk who was jerking her hair had sealed the mana inside her. She did not know how he did it, but she could feel the seal was not strong. She could break free if she tried, but that needed time as well, and that jerk would not let her.
A handy knife appeared on her right palm from within the cloak, and she twisted airily, jerking the knife at the man's gut. Even though she could not use mana, if the strike hit him where she had intended, she might get a chance to flee from this group of beasts.
But Alas! It did not go as she had intended. The guy caught her right arm before the knife could reach his gut, as he pinned down Byul on the grass on her front, still twisting her right arm behind.
With a cracking noise, her right shoulder dislocated, while a few green grass came in her mouth.
Byul cried in pain. Even a couple drops of tears appeared in her eyes, yet it did not seem to earn even a pity from that man. He would not even let Byul eliminate herself from the test either.
Byul had faced similar situations in the past for more than one occasion, she had seen others breaking under men, yet she succeeded to come safely before. She has to thank her cautiousness, and trust issues for that. But now she was in the tower, her causiousness was not enough to save her.
She could do nothing but cry in helplessness.
Then a loud cry came from the man. Not in cheer, but in agony. He left Byul immediately, rolling on the ground. A couple of ice spikes were struck on his back. Byul did not waste on the thought of where the ice spike came from. She got up instantly and found a familiar face. It was a girl she knew, a graceful girl who was as powerful as she had heard from others.
"Run," Tanya said as she shot a few ice spikes towards the group, before running in the opposite direction. She was similarly hiding in a hedge like Byul, but when she found out that Byul had been captured, she did not hide further. God knows what these beasts would do to her.
Before preparing the spells, Tanya had already guessed the force of these lots, and it did not look good to her. If she contested with only a few she would succeed in flying colours, but there were over a couple of dozen, and she felt quite eerie from the leader of the group.
Tanya broke the crystal orb the very moment she decided to help Byul. She knew alone they had little chance of escaping unharmed, but there was Byul too, who was helpless as a lamb.
The bead could call Wrik and Davin, and she only hoped they were in close distance. Even one of them would be an immense help to be her strength. And there really was someone close by, only a mile away, but it's only one person. It would take him a few more minutes to reach here.
Byul joined Tanya in the run. She was not a pure mage like Tanya. Even though her constitution was inferior to any close-quarter Warrier in her group, she was able to run faster than Tanya. Beside running, she was doing her best to lift off the seal that the guy put in her. She only needed a dozen more seconds before she could break it.
Tanya, similarly, was not just running, she was casting the ice spells. These beasts would not let them go. She had to delay until salvation arrived.
Tanya shot a few of her ice spikes at the group chasing, her intention was not to injure them only delay them.
. . .
Wrik ran in the grassland, the faraway mountain was still that far away. It was over a couple of hours before he was running in the grassland with caution. The sun was already on the horizon, there was only about an hour of light left. It would be a threat if he was still in the grassland then.
Fortunately, he did not come across any other venomous creature in the grassland other than the grass vipers. He had met over a couple of hundreds of viper in this time and killed half of them. Two were able to bite him, but that was not that as serious as the first one.
Wrik felt quite feverish as his mental energy diminished on account of using his [Eye of Insights], while his stomach asked for food. He had no time to dine in peace here, so he put a dry piece of bread in his mouth, still running. The thought of breaking the crystal bead that could alert his allies came to his mind a couple of times, but he decided against it. He was not in that terrible state now.
But it looked like someone else was.
A slight vibration assaulted his mind as a map appeared in front of his eyes in the transparent omega window. The place it was indicating was on his left towards the mountains, though it was quite close by. It would take him a couple of minutes if he runs at full speed.
Without much to ponder, Wrik dashed towards his left in the direction the map was pointing.
_____________
End of Chapter: The Little War.
Next Chapter: Crisis at the Grassland.
Check out: CHAOS REBORN. It is a story about time reversal, but there's more to it than just regressions. Here's a little info:
His godmother wanted him to be the Messiah, the hope of humans, but he had other plans as he knows the world does not need another Messiah, but a REAPER. After the regression, Elior came back 12 years in the past to right every wrong, but can he succeed when he found a restriction on his memories? Can the chivalrous youth who could not lie about anything keep a big secret that might change the fate of the universe?