Without hesitation, Tokarine darted forward, short legs pounding against the wet earth.
There was no way she could defeat all three on her own. She wasn't that kind of Hunter. Her Nen was support-type—fragile, defensive. Her aura couldn't match theirs. Her attacks wouldn't leave a scratch.
But she didn't need to defeat them.
She just needed to save him.
Hold on, she thought. Just thirty more seconds. Maybe sixty.
If she could just hold out long enough, they could both escape—through the Spiral Slide, the last resort.
She surged forward, closing the distance.
Then, the creature flicked its claw.
Steiner's body was thrown into the air like a broken doll. He screamed, twisting as he fell—straight toward the gaping mouth that waited below.
Tokarine's heart seized.
She reached out, arm stretching, fingers trembling.
But the distance was too great.
Far too great.
And in that instant, she knew—this would be the moment that haunted her dreams for years to come.
A flash of white light streaked across the sky, lighting up the cliffs and jagged rocks along the shore like it was broad daylight.
Only after that came the rumbling sound of thunder.
Tokarine's vision went blank in that instant. When her eyes finally refocused, she didn't see the monster chewing on Steiner's corpse like she feared.
Steiner was gone.
And the monster—suddenly, like a slab of ribs on a chopping board—was split clean in half. With two heavy thuds, both halves hit the ground.
What just happened? Tokarine couldn't wrap her head around it.
She vaguely saw a flicker of something—a blur of a figure—but it vanished so fast that she wondered if she had imagined it.
Boom—
The second monster was sent flying, as if it had taken an uppercut straight to the chin.
God, that thing was massive… yet it soared through the air and crashed back down with a sickening force!
The third monster was just as confused as Tokarine. But at least it had the instinct to back away. Step by step, it retreated.
Then, a streak of blue-green light flashed.
The next moment, that huge beast collapsed like a crumbling mountain, its body breaking apart into chunks of flesh and blood.
The battle was over before she even realized it had begun.
Three monsters—each terrifying and difficult for Tokarine to handle on her own—had fallen in mere seconds.
She wasn't even sure if three whole seconds had passed.
The storm's howling once again drowned out all other sounds in the darkness.
Tokarine wiped the rain off her round, chubby face. Squinting, she finally caught sight of a figure.
The rain couldn't even touch the pointed hat and long robe he wore—it was deflected outward by the force of his aura.
In his hand, a giant sword-shaped glow of green-blue light faded away, vanishing like a dream.
He tipped the brim of his black hat slightly upward, revealing a pair of eyes in the shadow.
They were still and dark, like deep, unmoving well water.
The man was walking toward her.
Tokarine froze.
Her arms and legs flailed in a brief panic. Should she stay put or teleport away immediately? For a moment, her mind went blank—until a single name snapped her back to reality.
Steiner.
Right. She couldn't just leave him behind.
She whipped her head around, eyes scanning left and right, searching for the man in glasses.
But before she could even spot him, a towering figure—nearly two meters tall—appeared beside her without a sound.
"You're reacting like that?" a rough voice said. It was a voice both familiar and foreign at the same time. "It's been so long since we've met... have you already forgotten me?"
Tokarine looked up, staring carefully at the stranger's face.
Her eyes widened.
"...Bisky?!"
The words escaped her in a gasp. "It's really you? But how... why... how are you even here?"
She knew the roster of the current Hunter Association expedition team by heart. No matter what had changed, there was no reason for Chairman Netero's student to be part of this mission.
That's when she noticed the person in Bisky's arms.
With care, Bisky gently laid the limp body down on the ground. He was trembling—unable to even sit upright—but Tokarine recognized him instantly.
Steiner.
He was alive.
Bisky had saved him.
A wave of relief washed over her, draining the tension from her limbs. She opened her mouth to speak again, but Bisky didn't answer her earlier question.
Instead, the woman simply looked down at the man she had just rescued and sighed deeply.
"Never thought I'd wait decades for a princess carry..." Bisky muttered. "And in the end, I'm the one doing the carrying. What a letdown."
A soft laugh came from nearby.
"I've been carried like that a few times by Germain," said a new voice.
A young woman stepped into view—someone Tokarine didn't recognize. She wore thick black-rimmed glasses, and the weight on her chest looked just as heavy as the lenses.
Still, one word in that sentence caught Tokarine's attention.
Germain.
Why are they bringing up Germain?
Bisky turned around, resting her hands on her hips.
"Shizuku, what exactly are you bragging about?" she huffed. "If I wanted a princess carry, I could get one anytime."
"Oh yeah? How would you get one?" another voice cut in.
Tokarine stared, stunned.
Yet another person who definitely shouldn't be here had just arrived.
"'Boar' Ging walked over, his beard scruffy as he teased, 'You're going to convince them with your fists? Honestly, asking them to carry someone as strong as you is a bit much.'"
"I can convince you to stop disrespecting me—with my fists," Bisky threatened.
"Heh, I'm not disrespecting you. I'm just stating facts…"
"Enough."
The final voice dropped like a heavy hammer, silencing their conversation and even calming the wild wind and rain for a moment.
'Rat' Germain, wearing his triangular hat, walked over. He first glanced at the stunned Tokarine, then reached out a hand to Steiner lying on the ground.
Steiner, a little calmer now, instinctively grabbed the hand and was lightly pulled to his feet.
He steadied himself, adjusted his glasses, and looked at the four strangers who had appeared in the dark night. Then, his gaze shifted to the only familiar face here.
Though Tokarine was still confused, she had at least come out of her shock.
She pinched the fat on her waist hard, making sure she wasn't dreaming.
So, when Steiner looked at her with a pleading expression, Tokarine spread her hands and said,
"You've always wondered why the whole group of twelve Zodiac members wasn't gathered for this colonial voyage, right? Well, here are the last two."
Steiner was stunned for a moment before realizing, then he turned back to look at the faces of these four—especially the two men.
They weren't strangers after all. Steiner had seen these faces before in the Hunter Association's public member photo list.
'Rat' Germain, 'Boar' Ging, 'Gem Hunter' Bisky, and… who's this girl?
The young woman with big blinking eyes and short black hair—Steiner didn't remember seeing her in the Hunter Association member list.
Maybe she was a less well-known professional Hunter?
Just like many of the faces in this expedition team were new to Steiner.
But, whether it was the Hunter Association's exploration team or Tokarine, they all insisted that 'Rat' Germain and 'Boar' Ging weren't part of the group.
So, how did they get here? Did they cross the vast sea to fly over?
Tokarine herself didn't understand the situation, let alone answer Steiner's questions.
She just said, "Well, now the two of us are safe."
"I'll introduce myself. I'm a professional Hunter Tokarine, mainly responsible for transporting personnel and supplies in the Hunter Association's exploration team."
"This is Steiner, a special commissioner from the International Permit Agency. I'm ordered to ensure his safety and take him away from danger."
She then turned to the still-shaken Steiner. "These three are professional Hunters: Germain, Ging, and Bisky."
The young woman blinked her big eyes.
"This one…" Tokarine hesitated, "I don't think I've met her before."
"Just call her Shizuku," Bisky helped her out. "She's an Rookie Hunter… but trust me, she's more professional than many pros."
*******
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