Chapter 35: Hunting

　　The forest seemed to have no end.

　　The sunlight casts stingy rays through the dense jungle, shining down on the gnarled roots of the trees and the jumble of rocks on the ground. The smell of moss mixed with rotting leaves hung in the air, the deeper you traveled the more so. A foot stepped on a green stone, only to slip on the moss-covered coat. Kanon fell to the ground, and the angry black teenager fumbled for his revolver and nearly blew up the abomination under his feet.

　　A metal javelin probed and pressed gently into his hand. The cold metal of the gun's tip caused Kanon's body temperature, which had risen from anger, to drop slightly. Rafi said quietly, "Stay put, unless you want to inform Lucy that we're coming."

　　"Rafi, maybe the bitch lied to us, it's not like it's the first time she's lied." Kanon put away his revolver and stomped at the bluestone two more times without relenting before calling it quits.

　　Rafi shook her head, "I don't think so. Emily isn't strong, as you saw, she put us down in three hits. She's not capable of defending herself, yet she's heading here alone, supposedly to meet up with Lucy, so ..."

　　As he was talking, something suddenly whipped by out of the corner of Rafi's eye. He alertly caught it and turned his head to look twenty meters away. A low shrub suddenly shifted, Rafi immediately shot a glance towards Kanon, and the two lowered their bodies, quietly and silently encircling over.

　　There was nothing behind the bushes, except for moss-covered jumbled rocks and roots floating out of the ground, and Kanon spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders, indicating that there was nothing there. Rafi, however, crouched down and reached into the bush to feel for something. After a few moments, he lifted out a piece of clothing.

　　The fibers at the edges of the coat were torn, and should have given way to hooking onto a messy branch and ripping it off. Rafi flashed his discovery at Kanon, and the two men continued to track it. ten minutes later, another shallow footprint was found imprinted on the jumbled rocky moss coat.

　　With that, they realized that the prey they were tracking seemed to be in a hurry, revealing more and more cracks. Based on these traces, they found an old tree that had died. All that remained of the old tree was a dry section of the trunk, which had eroded a blackened hole in the tree. A clump of bushes in front of it unnaturally parted slightly to the sides, as if something had just forced its way through the bushes.

　　The two stood outside the tree hole, and with the light, they could see a figure looming in the hole. Rafi shot a glance at Kanon, and the two of them shot at the same time. A javelin flew out of Rafi's hand, while Kanon also saved his shot towards the tree hole. Anyway, they couldn't get the antidote, and they didn't expect Lucy to comply with their demands, so they just killed the third ranked girl to avoid any complications.

　　A cloud of blood mist burst from the tree hole, there was limited space in there, and even if Lucy was good, there was no place to circumvent it. Rafi was cautious, though, and after stopping his attack, he told Kanon to stay outside while he burrowed into the tree hole. With a single bound forward, he stepped over the shrubs. Dwarfing down towards the tree hole, he only landed on one foot when a stinging pain immediately came from his paw.

　　Looking down, the original entrance to the tree hole, some sharp broken bones stuck upside down in the ground. The bones were sharp and pointed, Rafi stepped on them mindlessly, and immediately stuck them into the soles of his shoes. Fortunately, it only scratched his foot, and at most it was a minor injury. But this was clearly a trap, especially in the depths of the tree hole, where his javelin had nailed a shirt to the wall of the tree hole, and on the ground lay the body of a young elk, so the meaning of a trap was even stronger.

　　Rafi was then about to signal Canon outside when he suddenly realized that he couldn't shout and was starting to lose control of his limbs. As he fell headfirst to the ground, he saw an imperceptible glowing lavender light at the tips of the bone fragments under his feet.

　　Poison?

　　Rafi was appalled, finally realizing what had happened to her.

　　Outside the tree hole, at the sight of Rafi's sudden collapse, Kanon knew something was wrong. Before he could find out who had set up the trap, Allen had already rushed out in a clump of bushes ten meters away.

　　As soon as the party appeared, Allen used the tactical long knife as a javelin and threw it at Kanon with all his might. The long knife broke through the air, emitting a sharp whistling sound. Kanon immediately rolled on the ground, then popped up and fired. Allen's Mad Butcher had arrived in front of him when the long knife came out of his hand, and the Mad Butcher rose like a shield, and Kanon's bullet struck the blade painfully. Shock Allen's tiger's mouth was already cracked with a pain.

　　However, Kanon no longer had the chance to fire a second shot, Allen had already approached his body. The black teenager roared, and his foot flew up to Allen's bottom. A smile flashed in the latter's eyes, and his body suddenly swung to the side, causing Kanon's attack to fall through.

　　The silhouette of the person in front of his eyes was lost at first, Kanon was not able to recapture the figure of his opponent, but suddenly felt that his whole body was floating lightly. The world was spinning even more strangely in his eyes, and finally he saw Allen, and his own corpse that had been beheaded by a single slash from Mad Butcher!

　　The whole fight happened in a matter of seconds.

　　Kanon could have fired at least two shots, but Allen, who had gotten the jump on him, interfered with a tactical long knife. When he avoided the long knife, it also meant losing a chance to shoot. If he could do it all over again, perhaps Kanon would have risked being pierced through the chest by the long knife and risked his life to shoot Allen, then the ending might have been different.

　　Unfortunately, there's never an if in the world.

　　So Kanon was dead, and Allen picked up his revolver and gave the one round that came out of it to Rafi in the hole in the tree. Rafi was a cautious man, as evidenced by the fact that he refused to risk a fight even against a weakling like Emily, preferring instead to fling his tactics behind his back. But now he was dying of his own caution all the same, and if he hadn't stomped into the hole in the tree to make sure Lucy was dead, he wouldn't have stepped on the shattered bones that had allowed Alan to coat them with the neurotoxin.

　　Trading the toxin in the Storm Wolf's saber teeth for one of Rafi's lives was a business deal that Alan felt was too good to pass up. If possible, it could be opened a few more times.

　　The hunt was over and it was sunset when Alan returned to Lucy's hideout. The twilight sun painted the ground with a dull yellow light. Alan had just slid down the same grassy slope that he had slid down to the backlight when, in the instant of light and darkness, a cold pistol had been pointed at his temple. Then the pistol retracted and Lucy whispered against the grassy slope, "You're back."

　　Alan shook his head, "Not telling you to hide."

　　"Hiding is not my style." Lucy shook her pistol, "I don't like to hide, fighting is my option."

　　"To hell with your options." Alan didn't have the heart to say as he pulled out the antidote he had gotten from Emily. Tossing it to Lucy he said, "Drink it."

　　I don't know if it was because of the feeling of people in the shadows, Ellen always felt that Lucy didn't look as weak as before. Lucy did listen to the teachings and instructions this time, taking the bottle without saying a word, she poured the contents into her mouth. Ellen couldn't help but say, "You don't try it either, in case it's poison you're done for."

　　"I believe you." Lucy said full of herself.

　　Four simple words, but hit the soft spot in Alan's heart, he stood in place with a sign. On the contrary, Lucy looked at him strangely, "What are you doing? It can't be that you are also poisoned, right?"

　　"Only ... not!"

　　"Then why are you blushing? Oh, I see. Little Ellen, are you thinking of something bad?"

　　"Where am I thinking anything bad, don't be ridiculous." Alan opened Lucy's paw that was reaching for his face and said, "I'm just a little tired, I took out three people this afternoon ..."

　　At that, he paused and said, "Emily's dead."

　　Lucy nodded, "I know."

　　"You know?"

　　"She's a smart kid, but too smart and she'll drive herself to death." Lucy shook the empty bottle in her hand, "She must have hidden this, and now that you have it, she must be dead, no matter what you use."

　　"So, how did she do it?"

　　"Mr. Haney." Alan prompted simply.

　　Lucy's mind was like lightning, and she immediately figured out the key, "Is it using Ms. Elsa?"

　　"Well, they dropped the enhancement potion you were using."

　　"No wonder ...," Lucy shook her head, "Never mind, let's not talk about it. What's next on the agenda, my big hero?"

　　"First, let's get something to eat. Secondly, we'll get out of here tomorrow and find a place to hide him for two or three days ...," Allen had already begun clearing the nearby grass and preparing to build a fire, "and when you're completely well, we'll go and find someone else to trouble."

　　"I like this plan!" Lucy said with a snap of her fingers.

　　Just as they built a campfire and ate their dinner, a metal ball flew in from above the forest and landed on top of their heads. Several lasers shot down from the underside of the metal ball, building a screen on the fly. Several portraits slid across the screen in a loop, they were teenagers who were already dead. The convention broadcasts the entire death ring live, and every night, one of these metal balls appears near the survivors, announcing the deaths to them.

　　Of course, after announcing the list, the metal balls would quickly leave. They flew so fast that even if a teenager tried to find his competitor through the metal ball, he couldn't keep up with its moving speed.

　　After the death list cycled through three times, the bottom of the metal sphere closed up and the light screen disappeared. The sphere rises up towards the night sky, spewing out a few more thin blue flames before disappearing into the night in an instant.

　　In the list of deaths just announced, the number of deaths had reached 14. 22 teenagers, and only 8 were left in less than two days. Judging from the previous Death Rings, this was considered the norm. In the first three days, most of the teenagers would be eliminated, and the remaining ones were all elite and strong. Usually, it was at this point that the death ring would really enter its climax.

　　For the remaining teenagers, it was time for a true test of life and death.

　　The next day, after eliminating all information about the camping, Alan left with Lucy. They traveled north and spent the day crossing a grassy plain. At noon the next day they found a river valley. The slope of the valley stretched diagonally at a 45-degree angle halfway across the country, with a fast-flowing bay below. A large river meandered from the northeast, turned sharply at a startling 90-degree angle just below the valley slope, and flowed to the north side, disappearing into a vast forest.

　　Standing at the top of the slope, Allen looked into the distance and said, "Let's stay here for two days for now."