"Rulu, are you alright?!" Kallen's voice came from nearby. Rulu turned his head again and saw her about twenty to thirty meters away, standing with her black spear in hand and looking over at him. Beside her was a strange creature. Rulu took a quick look at it — it had the body of a goat but the face of a human.
Rulu called out to Kallen: "I'm fine. What is that thing next to you?"
"I have no idea. It looks part human, part goat — it must be this wretched thing that was muddling our minds. It took me quite a while to track it down." Kallen said, glaring at the human-faced goat creature with fury. She then leveled her black spear and drove it hard into the beast's body.
The spear plunged deep into the creature. It let out a piercing shriek — not especially loud, but the moment Rulu and Kallen heard it they were overcome with dizziness, as though the entire world had begun to spin. Even the blue-robed Large-eyed man with the bow couldn't help but clap his hands over his ears. He pressed himself flat against the tree trunk and bellowed at the creature: "Enough — stop attacking your own allies!"
Hearing this, Rulu was now virtually certain it was the creature that had been causing his hallucinations. Its cry apparently had the power to interfere with the minds of those who heard it. Rulu shouted to Kallen: "Shut that thing up!"
"Quiet!" Kallen roared at the creature. She raised her right foot and drove it hard into the beast's throat, kicking it off its feet. With its throat injured, the creature immediately stopped its eerie shrieking. At once, Rulu and Kallen felt their minds clear — the fog that had been clouding their thoughts was gone.
"Enemy attack — all hands!"
"Leave some to protect our master — everyone else, over here!"
Loud voices and the sound of running feet came from the distance, and firelight flickered into view among the nearby trees. It seemed a large number of people were converging on their position. Rulu immediately understood these were almost certainly Princess Meiyu's subordinates. He called out to Kallen at once: "People are coming — we have to leave right now."
Kallen knew staying would mean serious trouble. She dropped the human-faced goat creature and hurried over to Rulu. Rulu had been badly hurt under the giant's earlier attacks and his body hadn't recovered — he still couldn't get up off the ground. He lowered his voice and said something quietly to the giant, who was standing motionless beside him. Kallen reached Rulu's side and looked at the unmoving giant in puzzlement. "What's wrong with this thing? Why is it just standing there?"
Rulu said: "Never mind it — just get me out of here."
Knowing Rulu was injured and couldn't move freely, Kallen hoisted him onto her back and fled.
The Large-eyed man in the tree nearby saw Rulu and Kallen trying to escape and immediately drew his longbow and fired on them. But Rulu had been keeping a close eye on him — the moment he saw the Large-eyed man move, he conjured a wall of wind between himself and the archer.
The arrows flying toward Rulu struck the wind wall and were deflected off course, veering away from their intended path and missing entirely.
"Go after them, you big oaf!" The Large-eyed man, seeing his attack had failed, shouted furiously at the giant.
The giant stood motionless, showing no reaction to the Large-eyed man's words and making no move to pursue Rulu and Kallen. Left with no other option, the Large-eyed man leapt down from the tree himself and sprinted past the giant in the direction Rulu and Kallen had gone.
At that moment, the giant moved. It broke into long strides and charged after the Large-eyed man, swinging its club with full force at the back of his head.
The Large-eyed man sensed movement behind him and couldn't help glancing back. When he saw the giant's club bearing down on his skull, he was seized with pure terror. There was no time to dodge — in desperation, he threw up his left arm to block the blow.
With a sharp crack, the giant's club came down hard on the Large-eyed man's left arm and snapped it clean. Clutching his broken arm, the Large-eyed man howled in agony, rolling and scrambling across the ground to get away from the giant. He made no further attempt to pursue Rulu and Kallen.
Kallen sprinted through the forest with Rulu on her back, repeatedly glancing behind her in fear that enemies were giving chase. Fortunately, after nearly half an hour of running with Rulu on her back, she saw no sign of anyone behind them. Somewhat reassured, she lowered Rulu from her back and pulled the arrow from his left arm.
"Rulu, how are you feeling?" Kallen said, supporting him. By now Rulu had recovered a little and could stand on his own, but he had lost a fair amount of blood from the arrow in his left arm, and on top of that he had taken a brutal battering from the giant's throws. His injuries were not light, and he still looked weak, his face drained of color.
"I'm alright — I just can't do anything strenuous." Rulu said. As he used his Psionic power infused with Magic to freeze the wound on his left arm and stop the bleeding, he muttered to himself: "I never expected Princess Meiyu's subordinates to include a creature capable of manipulating people's minds. I really miscalculated this time."
Kallen thought back over what had just happened and felt a chill run through her. "I can't believe how ruthless this Princess Meiyu is," she said. "We only came to gather a little intelligence, and she tries to have us killed outright. She's truly vicious."
Rulu said: "Of course she is. She'll stop at nothing to win this competition. Killing us would dramatically improve her odds of winning — naturally she'd do it."
Kallen said: "Doesn't that count as cheating?"
Rulu said: "This survival challenge is a traditional competition held in the Sanctuary. Its rules are set by the Emperor himself, and they contain no explicit prohibition against attacking the other party's members. So what they did doesn't technically count as a violation."
Kallen said in disbelief: "Really? Then wouldn't this competition eventually turn into both sides trying to kill each other — a fight to the death?"
Rulu said: "That's entirely possible. Though the usual outcome of doing so is that both sides suffer. And this kind of competition is typically only held among members of the imperial family, so both parties generally have reasons not to attack each other's people. But this time is different. It seems that Princess Meiyu is determined to win this competition no matter what it costs."
Kallen let out a quiet "oh" and said thoughtfully: "You said earlier that it was Princess Meiyu who orchestrated the Hydra incident. I wasn't entirely convinced at the time — but now it seems very likely she really was behind it."
Rulu gave a cold snort. A look of bitter hatred flashed in his eyes. "Better to know now than never," he said. "Since she's this ruthless and wants us dead, I see no reason to show her any mercy. I'll settle accounts with her sooner or later."
Perhaps the surge of anger had aggravated his injuries — after those words, Rulu broke into a violent coughing fit. Kallen quickly said: "Alright, let's put that aside for now. You're hurt — we need to get back to the others immediately. If we run into more Strange Beasts out here, we'll be in real trouble."
"You're right, Kallen. Give me a hand — let's go now."
With Kallen supporting him, Rulu made his way through the dark forest, the two of them picking their path westward together.