6: Loyal Companion?

{What happened to him...} Hayat narrowed her eyes, focusing on the unconscious Lynx lying flat in the dirt.

She tightened her grip on her daggers, but her muscles throbbed all over. "I need to heal my wounds first."

She channeled her remaining mana to patch up her cuts. {I hope no one disturbs me. I am already severely lacking mana. This is all I can do.}

Lynx's eyes snapped wide open without warning.

His heart hammered against his ribs as he lunged forward into a sitting position. He kept his face turned away from the girl, staring blankly at his own shaking hands while his breath came out ragged and panicked.

Hayat caught the sudden movement out of the corner of her eye, but she kept her concentration locked on her spell.

"Nine... no, ten kilometers," Lynx muttered under his breath, his voice dry and strained. "The city gates are exactly ten kilometers from this ridge. That must be the threshold."

He grabbed his hair with both hands, pulling hard enough to make a cold sweat break out across his neck.

{Heart rate one hundred forty. Tremor checked. Keep the eyes vacant,} Lynx thought, picking up the sharpness of her intent. {If she thinks I am looking at her weapons or overacting, she will behead me without hesitation.}

"The loop... it actually broke." He let out a flat, dry laugh that sounded unhinged. "The bastard's mana could not reach past the tree line."

He turned his head as if noticing her for the first time. He scrambled backward across the dirt, intentionally putting a thick trunk between them while he stared down at his boots, panting for air.

Hayat watched his spastic movements, genuinely confused by his behavior.

Lynx raised his gaze, letting his eyes track her daggers before looking down at his own dark, cracked tunic with disgust. "So that is why he dressed me in this garbage... I was the canary in the coal mine."

Hayat let out a dry scoff, lowering her blades a fraction of an inch. "You do not need to act..."

Lynx's mind froze. {Did she see through it? I need a backup plan quickly!}

"I know you were being mind-controlled." She lowered her weapons completely, turning her side to him to check the long cut on her forearm.

Lynx kept his face terrified on the outside, but inside, his thoughts settled into a cold calm. {Good. She bought the act.}

Lynx kept his posture weak, his teeth clicking together. "You didn't attack me. Are... are you not one of them?"

"No. I should be the one asking you."

Lynx dropped his chin toward his chest, his voice lowering. "I was forced into a contract in the city."

Dry leaves rustled from the thick woods. Multiple figures moved toward them through the brush at high speed.

{Perfect,} Lynx thought, narrowing his eyes slightly. {While I was faking unconsciousness, I used my IiR to slightly amplify the scent of her blood and shift the footprints, leading them directly to us.}

He had set the lure because she was clearly hiding from pursuers who were already close by.

He pushed off the ground into a stance. {She is still recovering. If I save her now, she will think we share a common enemy.}

Three assassins leaped out from the branches, dropping straight toward Lynx's back.

Cold sweat broke across Hayat's forehead as her breath hitched at the sight of the descending blades. Her fingers trembled, but she forced herself to keep channeling her mana, refusing to break her healing spell despite the incoming threat.

{They are faster than I thought.} Lynx dipped his shoulders to dodge the first blade, grabbing a heavy rock off the ground and hurling it straight at the attacker's face.

The leading assassin slashed his sword downward, cutting the heavy rock clean in half into a cloud of stone dust before landing on the turf.

One assassin broke away from the group, throwing a barrage of knives straight toward Hayat. Lynx lunged across the grass, grabbed her by the waist, and sprinted into the dark cover of the trees.

Once he put enough distance between them and the pursuers, he set her down behind a massive granite boulder.

"Don't move." Lynx kept his voice low, matching the desperate tone of a protector. "Hide here so you can recover. I will hold them off."

Hayat gave a sharp nod, pressing her palms firmly back against her bleeding arm to keep pushing mana into her wounds without a pause.

Lynx sprinted back into the brush, snapping dead twigs with every step to draw their focus. He ran deeper into the forest. Then, he stopped dead in his tracks.

He let out a loud, ringing laugh that carried through the branches.

The lead assassin snapped his head toward the sound, his eyes locking onto the direction. Without a second thought, the pursuer bounded from tree to tree through the canopy, tracking the noise straight toward Lynx.

"Why did you intentionally expose yourself?" One assassin dropped down from a high branch, landing two paces ahead of him.

"What good will knowing do for a bunch of dead men?" Lynx dropped all panic from his voice, his face turning completely flat.

The three men charged him at once. Lynx closed his eyes, trusting his instincts.

He slipped past their coordinated slashes, but their movements kept picking up speed.

Then, he snapped his eyes open the second an opening appeared.

Lynx ducked under a horizontal blade, wrapped his fingers around the first assassin's neck, and snapped it with a sharp jerk of his wrists. The man collapsed instantly to the dirt.

The second assassin lunged, driving the blade straight toward Lynx's left eye. The steel grazed his forehead, cutting away a patch of skin right above his left eyebrow as warm crimson blood trickled down his temple.

Without blinking, Lynx stepped straight into the strike and drove a solid fist directly into the man's midsection near his liver.

The assassin gasped, dropping his dagger as he doubled over in crippling pain.

Lynx snatched the dropped weapon off the dirt and drove the blade straight into the assassin's neck, watching the man slump over dead.

The third assassin swung around behind his back. There was no space left to pivot, and the blade was already dropping toward his spine.

Lynx didn't move an inch, having picked up her footsteps seconds ago.

"It's your turn."

A light flashed past his shoulder. Hayat cut horizontally across the gap, executing the third assassin before his blade could slice into Lynx's gear.

She landed lightly on her feet and wiped the blood off her daggers. "Are you okay?"

Lynx ignored her completely, dropping to his knees to strip the sheath belts and daggers off the corpses.

Hayat crossed her arms, her brows furrowing into an annoyed glare at his complete lack of manners. She let out a loud cough to force his attention back to her. "My name is Lucia Isotta."

Lynx froze mid-reach. A broken memory surfaced in his mind. After she had named him Nx, in return Nx had given her a name and it was Hayat.

Lynx stood up with the salvaged gear, turning his back to walk into the brush. "Yeah, I'm okay. Follow me Lucia. I know a safe place nearby."

She followed behind him. As they pushed through the dark woods, the adrenaline wore off, and her legs began to drag across the dirt. "Are we there yet?"

"We're here." Lynx pointed toward the hidden opening of his mountain cave.

As they stepped through the stone entrance, Lynx checked the registration tag pinned to her torn tunic. In two days, the tournament would officially begin.

He needed to hunt down opponents to qualify, and now he had a teammate capable of dealing with the summoned fighters and their strange gifts.

Lynx stared intently at the gear and the badge with a piercing gaze, resembling a starving child locking eyes with a feast. Lucia shifted uncomfortably under the intense stare, pulling her collar up as a wave of awkwardness washed over her face.

"So, um... what is your name?"