Helpful urges 5.

Node moved an inch forward with a yell.

"That's a lie!"

Node never believed it anyways.

The cold wind blew through his long hair and clothes, once again the looming dark clouds from above blocked off the illuminated full moon leaving only the glowing crystals dimly shinning on top of every wigwam standing around them.

Peirce only froze not knowing what to do.

He shivered a little.

A friend who protected him from them was dead? For what? This can't be true. This can't be happening, not when she miraculously came back from the dead days ago at the lab. Why are they going this far just to capture me? What did I have that's so special? … I'm just an ordinary Inhumane…

Seems the clueless Peirce was still haunted by what'd happened at the city of bounty hunters.

"A lie?" scoffed the huntress. "I could never lie about such thing. She was a lot stronger than her age but all the same she fell aiming to protect you, Peirce."

The huntress pointed the drained skean at Peirce.

"It's your fault she is dead! Hinted. She loved you more than herself that was the very cause of her death, Peirce! You did this to her!"

Peirce mouth slightly opened, his eyebrows raised. He blamed himself for leaving Sniffia all alone to fight.

She's telling the truth.

"Sniffia's… dead?..." Thrown of balance, Peirce knelt in the sand as tears flow down his cheeks while staring at the huntress then placed his hands on his face, sobbing.

"... My fault… It's all my fault…"

The huntress smiled maliciously behind her mask. Great, now he have no choice but to surrender to us, someone as him won't want to prolong this carnage. Hmmm... Look at him such fragile heart, having that kind of heart shows how weak you're in this world we are and how early it will lead to one's grave. Her eyes rolled to Node. Should I kill that one too to make my actions more clearer… Her eyes rolled back to Peirce.

"Yes it's your fault. You could follow me, if you don't want—"

"--Snap out of it, Peirce!" Node interrupted with a crazed look at Peirce kneeling.

The sobbing boy removed his hands from his face.

"You go and look for her. The pregnant woman here and I, will deal with her and her running mouth—" said Node without moving his eyes to where the pregnant woman stood, leaning her hand on the wall of the wigwam behind them and her other hand on her belly, slightly straining. "You never told us your name Ma'am."

"You never asked!" The pregnant woman slowly moved to the two boys in pain, she could barely keep her straining look from them.

Peirce and Node turned to the pregnant woman, surprisingly she was not behind them but already right in front of the huntress with the fastest punch the huntress as ever seen, the force strongly propelled her into few wigwams along the way followed by dust and debris from where she'd finally thrashed in.

"I can take good care of her and her croaked mouth myself…" The pregnant woman uttered, already in shocked Peirce's and Node's front with her fist stretched forward then she dropped it with a low groan.

"Go look for your friend, she might be lying to enrage or scare us however it is only working on you, Peirce. Don't believe everything you hear not from someone as sly as she."

Peirce cleaned his eyes with a cough and stood.

I didn't. He sniffled.

Node nodded. Both boys were about going then more hunters jumped to the scene blocking their ways.

"... Right... " Node clenched his fists.

"You had me there woman," the huntress smirked behind her cracked mask, the white dress on her were more tattered than before as she walked up to them, holding her right shoulder probably dislocated from where she'd smashed into and her other hand still holding onto her weapon.

"I told you, didn't I? It wasn't a lie. I witnessed her taking her last breath then I left her cold body buried in the sand."

The mask crumbled off her face down to the desert ground just as blood drew down to her face from her head.

"Earlier it was a daft girl now a preggers woman, when will I have a fair fight."

The pregnant woman raised a brow at those silly words from the huntress.

"Don't be deceive cracked child,"

"Cracked… Child?!" The huntress's lips grew thin in anger gripping tightly on her skean while removing her other hand from her shoulder.

"You see this here," the pregnant woman rubbed her belly bulging from her cloth.

"This is a fair fight."

Then she leapt towards her. The huntress scoffed as she charged at her also.

—

Jamal, the remaining tribe's guards and the desert beast reptiles fought off the remaining creepers non-stop.

"They're much but thankfully they are decreasing in size. Push forward! Push towards the creator of those portals!" Jamal yelled, glaring at the being who created the portals now standing still behind the creepers.

The distance between them gradually bated as they strongly advanced knowing full well any moment from now him and the tribe's guards would be called the victors of this battle.

Never did they know Dryad's uncle and his followers had stealthily, fully penetrated through without no one knowing.

Jamal looked around in sweat while fighting.

The rotten smells from the creepers and their loud snarls coated the desert dulling Jamal's and the guards' senses.

He couldn't find Lazarus and the teenaged kids thinking hopefully Lazarus was with them.

Then his left long ear stirred a little to the left noticed a child fighting Frankenstein and his underlings just few meters outside the western region of the village.

His eyes squinted, who might the kid be, one of Peirce's friend?

He held his scimitars firmly to the direction of the small kid fighting,

"Give me a way to that position!"

The tribe's guards near him, responded with a yell making a way by cutting down the creepers to the direction of the girl.

Finally making it out he whistled calling his desert beast amidst the battle then jumped on it and rushes to the location.

Smashed through unaware Frankenstein and his underlings. The desert beast reptile clamped its sharpened teeth down to the arm of the fat being and Jamal almost slashing smirking Frankenstein on his shoulder but was shielded by Zero-Zero's long metal rod as the little girl jumped away from the impact.

Suddenly brume poured out from Zero-Zero's hands immediately cloaking Frankenstein and his underlings, Jamal leapt out from the brume without hesitating then whistled, luckily his desert beast reptile came back to him unscathed.

He exhaled, looked at the girl panting beside him.

She wasn't staring at him but glaring at the brume, hissing.

Guess her only target are them. Jamal thought.

"If I may ask, are you also Peirce's friend?"

The girl stood without a word not showing even a slight sign of responding.

Jamal blinked. He felt ignored.

Meanwhile back around the area where Sniffia was buried, little foot prints could be seen under the full moon mostly shadowed by the looming dark clouds which slightly illuminated over the foot prints as the cold wind swept the trails to where buried Sniffia was.

Appeared near buried Sniffia was a little girl, crouching down, her chin rested on her hand. Her glowing ultramarine eyes staring down to where Sniffia was buried in the sand only the sound of the cold wind was heard as it passes by.

Sniffia's eyes immediately opened, sprung out from within, clawing her way out from the sands.

She gasped.

Touched her chest area to her amazement the blade wound on her chest and all over her body were already, perfectly healed then she rolled her eyes to the girl crouching while dusting the sands on her body.

The little girl watched Sniffia expressionlessly and without moving from her position.

Sniffia sighed, her lips opened to the familiar girl as words came out.

"How… I'm I still… alive… again?"

***** Happy Birthday to me "Dec 22" ***** And today marks the first Anniversary of the Novel, Soul Lovers***** I'm truly loving the journey so far, do you?