Having already broken the city rules, Lyra knew that they had very little time left for their mission.
Moving her gaze from the eye-catching commotion, she steadied herself, holding her side in pain. Turning to her partner, she smiled wryly.
"I never really got your name. How about we have a reintroduction... I'm Lyra Voss," she said, stretching out her hand.
The young man raised an eyebrow at her sudden change in demeanour, his confusion evident. "Should we be doing this now? I mean, Mr. Rhett and the rest might be in trouble."
Lyra's eyes locked onto Victor's, her gaze unwavering. She cracked a small, determined smile, and Victor's expression softened. He shook her hand, a hint of curiosity in his eyes. "Well, I'm Victor. Victor Payton."
Noticing his doubts, Lyra smiled, but it looked a little sad. "I don't know what might happen after this... but I at least want to know the name of someone who saved me."
"I've also had some stereotypes towards you before, and I'd like to apologize for them," she chuckled lightly as she ensured her tools were intact.
The young man shrugged. "Who doesn't?" Then they shared a laugh at his words.
"The fight?" Clearing her throat, Lyra asked, nudging to his empty sleeve.
Victor nodded, as he shifted on his feet.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"You don't have to be," Victor muttered as he walked over to pick the damaged electric bomb.
But their gazes deepened as they turned to the northern part of the city.
Soon, a smirk appeared on Lyra's lips, a determined glint in her eyes.
"Let's go find them."
Lyra and Victor headed in the direction of the yet-to-die-out lights, their figures cloaked by the shadow of the night.
After running for a long time, they slowed to a halt, their minds racing at the sight in front of them.
A small wrecked building stood before them, the dying flare right above it. But that was not what grabbed their attention; it was the large heap of combative NPCs' bodies that littered the area. It was obvious that a fight had occurred here.
Lyra felt her breath hitch in her throat. She knew for a fact that if she and Victor had been chased by a horde half as large as this, they would not have been able to survive it.
Was this caused by the team? She had no way of knowing that, since she knew some players may have gone against the rules despite the consequences.
After walking around for some time to find clues, she paused, her hair rising.
It was that feeling again. She was being watched.
As she stood there, the feeling intensified.
Clenching her fists, she turned, her eyes searching through the darkness.
But like before, she saw nothing—no one.
The silence weighed heavily on her, making her wonder if she was just being paranoid.
Suddenly, her name echoed through the air, breaking the silence.
"Lyra!"
She spun around, her heart beating against her chest, to find Victor holding a lady, her hands draped around his shoulder, with a frown on his face.
"Oh my God, what happened?" she quickly asked, walking over to support him.
"I dunno, just saw her lying over there. She's part of the team," he replied, his brows creased as they laid her down.
"...Then... t–the rest of the team?" Lyra whispered, her voice trembling. She couldn't imagine what had actually transpired.
But Victor just stared silently into the darkness. The same question resounded in his head
What the hell happened here?
----------
As their minds wandered far, they both heard a cough.
Bringing their gazes back to the incapacitated lady, they watched as she opened her eyes—though barely, her lips moving.
Lyra hesitated, then bent over, her ear directly above the lady's lips.
"S–save... save me," the lady muttered.
"We will. Just tell us where the rest are at," Lyra promised.
The lady gasped for breath, then began coughing vigorously.
Victor helped her sit up, leaning her against a nearby structure.
"They're gone," the lady said after her cough subsided.
Lyra felt like she was struck by thunder at the lady's words.
Grabbing the girl by her shoulders, her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Gone? Gone? What do you mean gone?"
The lady started coughing again, her eyes dropping.
"Don't get her agitated if you want answers," Victor cautioned, his hand pushing off Lyra's from the lady's shoulder.
After the girl calmed down, Victor asked her again, his voice soft, "What do you mean by they're gone?"
"They left. I don't know where—cough... probably to find you cough guys or to find the teleportation portal," she replied.
"What of you?" Lyra piped in. Relieved that the rest team were okay.
The lady's eyes brightened as she grabbed at Victor. "We were... together, about to escape... but it was... took me and I couldn't... it knows. It knows we are—" Suddenly gasping, her breathing became erratic.
"Hey... hey... what's wrong, don't..." Lyra stifled a sob, watching the lady go limp, her eyes dulled.
Victor turned the lady over, the marks on her back showing that she was already dying.
"Soul attacks..." he sighed as the lady's body dissipated, fading into lingering specks of light.
"What do we do?" Lyra murmured, distressed.
"We find the others," Victor confidently replied, his empty sleeve flapping in the wind.
"How? We don't know which way they went," Lyra asked.
Victor replied with his gaze, his eyes pointing to a path that was littered with bodies of NPCs. They had yet to regenerate.
They must have fended them off while escaping, Lyra registered in her mind.
So they took that path, walking carefully, their minds on high alert as they merged with the darkness.
Behind them, a figure walked out of the shadows, a broad scabbard attached to his back that shimmered against the moonlight, his shoulder-length hair dancing in the wind.
"Mhmm... interesting," he muttered, leaping onto a roof as he followed them.
---
Lyra and Victor continued on. Every now and then they found a trail that egged them on.
"I think we should be close now," Victor whispered as they turned a corner.
But what they saw was a large swarm of NPCs, their backs to them as they marched into the distance.
An NPC turned, sensing something, but before it could notice them, someone pulled them into an alley.
Lyra felt her heart quicken, but it gradually settled as she came face to face with Mr. Rhett and the rest of the team.
They all looked distressed and scared. One of the team members even seemed traumatized as she muttered over and over in shock:
"Rachel... it took Rachel... it will—it will take us too."
"We have to leave," Mr. Rhett urged, a slight panic in his tone. "We've been discovered."
Turns out the AI's base was in this city itself, and it had discovered them from when they had first set foot into the city.
It suddenly made sense, why the spirit snatchers had congregated around the group she and Victor had latched onto.
She had first brushed it off as coincidence. But now it was obvious that it was the AI's doing. It had been playing them right from the start.
She couldn't help but shiver at the thought, feeling as though an invisible eye was watching them, laughing at their plans, viewing them as puppets. It was terrifying.
"You saw her?" Mr. Rhett asked, his gaze on Victor, an undescribable emotion in his eyes.
"Yeah... she didn't make it," Victor replied. He knew who he was talking about.
Lyra watched as Mr. Rhett's eyes dimmed for a second before he nodded, then turned to the rest of the group, telling them something.
Soon, the reunited group rushed in the direction of the portal. Lyra had heard the player group she latched onto discuss it, and fortunately, it wasn't far from their location.
But escaping from someone who always seemed a step ahead of you was frustrating. Lyra could definitely relate.
That was the thought in her mind as she watched the large group of NPCs surrounding the team, the portal behind them.
Her eyes were cold and calculating as she whispered to her teammates. Then, in the next moment, they split up, facing different sections, struggling to hold off the large group.
They had exhausted their crowd-control tech weapons; all they had now required close combat.
Lyra dodged and struck, using basic skills and instinct. These were just low-level NPCs, so it was easy to fight them off. What was overwhelming was their numbers.
Meanwhile, Mr. Rhett worked on tweaking the portal to allow the entire group to enter at once.
As Lyra pushed an NPC to the ground, two lunged at her from behind. Quickly dodging, she backed away, her breath hitching in her throat.
The NPCs were getting too much for her and the rest of the team to handle—it was like they were an infinite swarm.
Just as she cut down an NPC getting close to her, Mr. Rhett shouted, "It's done! Move, fast!" The group broke into a run, sprinting toward the portal.
But a timid team member cried out, held back by a phantom hunter. Victor rushed to her aid, narrowly avoiding a spell. He grabbed the lady, held her firmly with his right arm while kicking off the NPC, then ran toward the portal.
They disappeared beneath the portal's arch just in time, escaping the pursuing NPCs.