LXXVI: A Haul Lost

"Is anyone there?!" Resounded into the air. Judith was pulled out of her head and turned to the origin of the voice. Turning right, she saw in the distance several men...no, Tethereds, looking in every direction.

Upon seeing these Tethereds, Judith's heart skipped a beat.

'Crap!' Judith screamed on the inside before exiting the clearing and diving into the trees and plant life of the forest. Laying low as she ran, she sank into a bush when she was sure to have made good distance from the Borachnid's den.

Placing herself in a good position to get a view of the Tethereds and not be seen at the same time, she watched them approach the clearing.

As they stepped into the light of the White Phoenix, Judith saw four handsome young men in Tethered uniform.

She wanted to ask herself what these men were doing here. She thought for a moment that they were members of the Enclave. But judging by their armour, it was evident they weren't part of the Enclave.

They were just Tethereds which came into the forest to grow in strength and also make some money while doing so. But for a Tethered to be this close to the city, meant they were a weak bunch.

But more than that, Judith felt her nerves eating at her...or rather, she felt anger welling up within her when she saw them look down in awe at the slew of dead Borachnids on the ground.

They weren't even given a chance to react to the sight when suddenly, a Borachnid had burst out of the hole. This Borachnid as opposed to the others, was quite large and also two feet taller than the men present. The Borachnid's tusks were much longer and thicker, and its eyes were filled with rage.

It was obvious that this Borachnid was the leader of this den, and right now, it was furious for the death of its pack.

Seeing the Parabeast, Judith had gulped. These smaller and weaker Borachnids were strong enough to do away with her, and this one, which was much stronger than them, had just been minutes away from Judith.

The other Borachnids were Zircon ranked, but also, Judith knew they were First Grade Borachnids. But this one, it was clear that it was much greater than a First Grade. It was probably a Second or even a Third Grade Zircon.

Judith thought for a moment what would happen if this Parabeast had caught her, then she shivered and pushed the thought away.

As she looked at the Borachnid and then the Tethereds, Judith felt a sinister part of herself wish that it would do away with them, so she could keep the treasure that she risked her neck for.

But at once she shook this thought away. Right now, the only hope she had was that these Tethereds were too weak to handle the Borachnid, and would in turn be chased away by it, thereby giving her the freedom and time — albeit limited — to harvest a good chunk of Parahearts and be on her way.

Yes, this was the only hope she had at this point.

Pulling her herself from her thoughts, she focused on the Tethereds and Borachnids. When she focused on them, she realized they had already begun fighting the Parabeast.

Elements crackled and flew into the air, the Borachnid attacked and the Tethereds evaded, albeit merely, but evaded nonetheless. They retaliated with Elemental attacks, which barely seemed to graze the Parabeast, but they kept going at it still.

As Judith watched, it was made clear that these Tethereds really were weak, if this went on, they would have no choice but to fall back, so Judith could jump in and take what was hers.

This new train of thought had made Judith hopeful, any minute now...

*CRUSH*

Before Judith's very eyes, the enormous Borachnid imploded on itself, causing pieces of its body to be shot in all directions.

'But...but...' Judith was at a loss for words. She was certain these Tethereds were too weak, how was it possible that...

"You guys okay?" Another voice rang in from the same direction the Tethereds came from. Turning to the origin point of the voice, Judith could see someone coming in.

'Another one?' Judith wondered to herself, as she watched the Tethered make his way to the others.

"Zeng!" They screamed upon seeing the new Tethered, then they rushed over to his side.

"Oh dear gods, we're so happy to see you."

"We thought we were going to be Borachnid droppings by morning."

"Thank you for coming in time to save us.

Likewise commentary were made as they had all spoken. After which the Tethered raised a hand to calm them.

"You guys honestly shouldn't be thanking me. Am I not your team member?" The new Tethered had said.

As Judith watched, she felt dread filling her being. It was clear this Tethered was much stronger than the others, and even if he wasn't, her only hope at retrieving the Hearts was dead now.

'This couldn't get any worse.' Judith thought, then immediately wanted to slap herself for saying so. It was obvious that she had jinxed something, so she decided to leave.

"Whoa, what's all of this?" The new Tethered had asked, eying Judith's haul.

She stopped in her tracks as she heard them speak, and then felt like crying.

"We don't know Zeng, came in here and saw these Borachnids like this."

"What about the voice, did you guys find the person in distress?" The new Tethered had asked.

Upon hearing this, Judith felt like using her spear — which she fell back at the clearing — to stab herself with. It was her fault that these Tethereds were here, if she had just kept her mouth shut.

Feeling it pointless to berate herself, Judith sighed, and then made to leave, when suddenly, she was once again halted in her tracks by the Tethereds.

"Zeng, Zeng are you okay?" One of the Tethereds had asked.

"Zeng, what's the matter?" Another Tethered had said.

Unsure what the commotion was about, Judith turned to face the Tethereds, but found she couldn't see them properly. It would seem they had ducked low. Finding her curiosity getting the best of her, she carefully rose onto her feet, even if by a little, so she could see what was going on.

Almost erecting herself, Judith found the Tethereds were sprawled on the ground, all clambering for...Judith's eyes widened. She saw the Tethered that had just come into the clearing lying on the ground as though he had been knocked unconscious of killed even.

'What happened to him?' Judith wondered if there was a sickly Tethered in their midst, then, following the onslaught of occurrences that happened this one night, Judith felt a pit rise in her stomach all of a sudden.

Following this, fear gripped her as she began to feel a strange weight press down on her.

'This feeling...' Judith thought, finding her fear grow deeper, when she realized that she had felt this way before.

With horror in her eyes, Judith watched as the Tethered rose up from the ground, but more than anything, Judith felt it, she knew, some innate part of her knew, just like the goddess had told her. She knew, this was not the same Tethered, but a god...a different one.

As she stood frozen, the other Tethereds were happy, cheering that their friend was fine. But he just ignored them, then, he turned to the location Judith was hiding and at once Judith felt her heart want to break out of her chest.

Not wanting to be here any longer, Judith weakly made her way out of the location and struggled to leave this immediate vicinity, but her fear only grew when she heard, "Zeng where are you going?"

Judith didn't even have to turn to know exactly where this 'Tethered' was going. Moving purely on reaction, Judith forgot to remain hidden and dashed forward with all her might.

Seeing her run, the Tethered likewise did the same and chased after her.

"Zeng!" His cohorts screamed as they saw a member of their team suddenly chase down a girl that just emerged out of nowhere. Then, they chased after him.

Judith did her best to run as fast as she could. But no matter how fast she ran, she could feel him behind her, gaining.

'Dammit dammit dammit, two of them?' Judith thought, feeling her fear eat away at her. She thought that she only had to contend with one god, but now there were two of them. And what was worse, Judith could feel an intense amount of blood-lust coming from this god. Which made her in the moment question why the other god did not possess such blood-lust.

'Duck!' A voice resounded in her mind, a feeling of some sort.

Acting on instinct, she followed the voice in her head. At once she fell to the ground, what followed was her feeling a strange current glide above head her. The seconds that proceeded that current was a loud burst.

Judith yelped when this burst broke into the air. A tree that was in front of her imploded, causing splitters to become airborne, some even lodging themselves into Judith's skin.

When she rose to see the tree in front of her, all she saw was a stub with a shattered head that left it jagged and mangled. Finding her heart suddenly skip a beat, Judith felt a presence behind her.

The god had capitalized on his attack to close the distance between him and Judith while she fell to the ground. As she laid on the floor, fear eating into her, an orange light engulfed her immediate environment, drowning out the light of the White Phoenix.

Before the Tethered could roast Judith into a human barbecue, she rolled to the side, narrowly evading a plume of flames that dove into the ground where she was but a second prior.

Getting onto her feet, Judith capitalized on the Recoil of that attack and ran.

Just as the god was about to hit Judith with a Lightning strike, the other Tethereds had caught up to the god and held his hand in place.

"Zeng, what are you..." The Tethered was not allowed to finish talking before a burst had erupted a distance behind Judith, which was accompanied by a smulching sound that made the hair on her skin rise.

Utter horror was etched into the faces of the other Tethereds as they watched their comrade burst before their very eyes. Not even being given the time to react, the god attacked the second Tethered. The remaining two Tethereds had enough time to react, and at once they began to fight the impostor.

Behind Judith, struggle along with the explosions of Alkalis erupted. She did her best to keep her focus, steady her beating heart and calm her frenzied breathing.

'I'm going to make it.' Judith thought, trying to convince herself this. Though she felt skeptical because the Way-Point was still a dozen or so meters away, she forced herself to have hope and pray that the other Tethereds will survive long enough to let her escape. Perhaps, they could even deal with him, so that her escape would be all but guaranteed.

Calming herself down, Judith ran and ran, eating up the distance as fast as she could. Several seconds later, Judith could see the spot at which the Way-Point was hidden. Just a meter away and Judith...

"Ah!" Judith screamed when she felt something suddenly slam into the side of her face, sending her hurling to the right and crumbling to the ground and slamming into a tree. When she came to, she found the new impostor forming out of thin air. He used the same Invisibility Alkalis that Qui Lin had used before.

Now feeling an exuberant amount of pain coursing through her, and feeling like a cornered mouse, Judith ran her eyes in all direction, looking for anything, anything that can help her survive this.

But there was nothing that could be of use.

Gripping a fist full of dirt in one hand, and holding onto a stick in her other hand, Judith prepared herself to do something crazy as she watched the impostor summon his Alkalis Rings and point his hand to her.