The sound of a boom washed over Cale's cold body.
Despite that, his movements did not hold an ounce of delay.
He continued spearing right through all the landmines.
'They're getting smaller!'
Compared to the start, where each detonation was life threatening even with the delay.
They were noticeably getting weaker as time pulsed on without stop. Devolving into just ordinary bombs with a delay.
'Haste does make waste huh?'
By now, he has realized most of the conditions required to make these bombs, the most important being time.
30 minutes of constant dodging weren't wasted on nothing.
And, it taught Cale one more thing.
The white line that appeared that made his body move, it wasn't invincible.
'It chooses the best route'
That being.
Boom!
"Ugk!"
Avoiding the explosions that ripple. Not making use of the way it amplifies Cale's body at all.
The white line isn't sentient, it just acts as its 'programmed' to do.
Running straight into danger goes against that 'programming' it is set to by default.
That is why it reroutes when detecting danger.
It doesn't know there is a delay within the bombs, in fact it doesn't even realize it's a bomb, just that danger lurks and suddenly poofs itself out of existence.
Which ultimately makes Cale's path.
'Crazy predictable'
A passive ability that couldn't be controlled by the user. Yet, also doesn't make the absolute best decision because of the fact it is not intelligent.
"Haaa!!!"
Veins cropped up on his features.
"There is always a damn catch huh?!"
At this point of time, Cale desperately hoped for some plot device to turn this entire ordeal into a power fantasy that didn't require any running away or any brainpower to be used.
"And anyway...How the hell can they even see me?!!"
Seeing how the coat did not hold its end of the bargain, Cale protested for a refund.
'Isn't this thing supposed to make me harder to look at???'
At the thoughts.
"Ah"
His eyes narrowed at his illiterate self.
'This coat....don't tell me..'
Lips twitched and he could feel the stress boiling.
His hands itched to tear this useless cool coat apart.
"It makes me harder to identify?!?!"
Vocals rang out distorted and cracked, strained from the screaming.
For context, the only reason Cale even got this item in the first place was because of the 'Allowing detection to be left as a mere suggestion' description.
'Catfishing! Blatant at that!'
"Whoever wrote that flowery description must be laughing their fat asses off huh?"
T-Tok!
"....!"
Branches tangled and stone twisted the terrain, weight pushed down on the ankles, spraining them.
A yelp was caught dry in his throat.
Vision twisted upward as his head crashed into the snow.
Cale closed his eyes, awaiting for a spark to shatter away his insides.
But no matter how much he awaited, nothing came.
"....?"
He had been running along for a while, so it wouldn't be surprising for them to have set away more and more landmines.
The silence felt spine chilling.
'How anticlimactic'
Eyes shot open.
Sp-Spark!
Sparks continued to condense. However, they were placed too far away to deal any real damage.
Boom!
Another explosion washed over him, the flung pounds of snow fell on him, burying everything in an instant...Almost everything.
His right eye could see through a crack and it looked upwards.
Gazing at the clouds, his ragged breaths from the constant moving slowed, the heat that rose in him dissipated and a familiar cold hugged him from every flank.
At the time, Cale thought to himself 'They are going to set off another one if I stay here...' but he stopped before making any rash decisions.
'Follow your intuition....'
He decided to be patient, not knowing if another white line would appear again.
Eyes narrowed, ears perked up to hear anything, a step, a breath or even the sound of a mine possibly being set next to him.
Fingers tightened on the steaming blade next to him.
'Will they come?'
After they saw him get buried in an instant, they either would set another one off or come check the corpse themselves.
'If I was them, I would explode one more for good measure'
Time dragged further, no bomb exploding in his face like before.
Fingers clamped down harder on the dagger, steam flying from his palm.
The slow beating heart raced.
'What if....just what if they are charging up a big powerful one I can't avoid?'
He gulped, body ready to raise itself from the coffin of snow.
Every sense in his body stretched to detect anything, anything at all.
But the stifling silence choked him.
Thoughts voiced their concerns.
Why weren't they doing anything?
They must be preparing for a big one...No they have to be!
Otherwise...Otherwise....
What can I even do when the enemy can't be seen?
His entire body tensed, unable to bear it any longer, he decided to make his presence known first.
As he was about to burst out of the coffin, something blinked in his vision.
Something resembling thin flesh like string.
At first, he didn't think much of anything, but his body beamed with honesty.
Flicking an eye towards it, his mouth hung down and his pupils quaked.
The string pulsed and moved erratically, the movement unnatural.
Naturally, he began to trace the direction it came from.
As he did, he noticed something round dangling far away, hiding within the branches.
A red eyeball dangled. Twisting constantly
His heart slowed to a crawling chill.
The burning heat from the blade stopped registering.
Cold lips parted.
"How lethal"
He mumbled, blinking his burning eyes once.
"For you"
*
*
*
"Shit, where is he..."
Carl looked to his side at the panting green bush.
A small puddle of blood formed below her.
After the last attack, their prey somehow snuck away.
'Not a free kill anymore huh?'
Slim fingers clawed at one side of his malformed head.
He turned to the green bush.
"Just keep setting up traps, we'll kno—!"
Bang!
In the distance, a deafening explosion ripped out. Carl instantly switched his vision with another eye and looked at the scene from a high point.
But to his surprise.
"...?"
Nothing was there.
Just a crater.
Boom!
Another mine ripped out a 'come here!' explosion, but again.
"....."
Nothing even breathed there.
Carl's face turned stone cold at what was going on.
'The landmines....'
They were being set off because of the environment.
The environment that once helped them grew against them as time thinned.
He bit his lip.
'Shit....now that we lost him, we don't know where he is at all'
Each explosion that rippled afterwards were due to either the blizzard or just some wild animal stepping on them.
Cale was nowhere to be seen.
He glanced to his side again.
"Ha....Ha..."
With heavy breaths, her chest heaved up and down.
She reached her limit long ago, so much so that the landmines began condensing slower.
"Damn it"
He cursed under his breath.
It was too low of a mutter for his teammate to hear.
Looking at how much she struggled just to not fall down impressed him slightly.
But that was as far as his respect went.
"We're leaving, I'll carry you"
The green bush's body twitched at the words.
"No...Cough! I can still make more landmines..."
Carl's features twisted in disgust.
"You can barely make one in 30 seconds now, and it is still too weak and too delayed to prove any use, that bastard can dodge for far longer than you can create bombs and you know the best part? He used his insight to dodge all the landmines we set up meticulously beforehand"
"....."
She didn't respond.
"Accept it, not only is he far better at controlling his insight than us, he also has better stamina than both of us combined even though he used it to dodge the icicles"
Not only did they get a chance for a free hit, putting the fact that he was also already in a tired state made it obvious that if they were to fight him head on.
They'd die.
'We had the advantage and still lost him, by now he's probably all recovered'
They didn't have a shot anymore, they had it and still lost. Tactical retreat was all that remained now.
Fingers curled into her palms. Digging until they found blood.
She despised the idea of retreating, especially so when her insight fit in the situation seamlessly.
However, she also couldn't deny the words of the man next to her.
He was far smarter than her sheltered self, this she knew well enough.
She wasn't smart enough to pull off a crazy stunt after all.
She was just...
An idiot that did not house any real skills.
Hating it when she was used by others.
Submitting to him now would make her just look like a tool in a shed and nothing more.
"....."
But her life was far more important than useless pride, this....she also knew....very well.
So well that her bones would echo the word to her anytime she slept.
Sighing a breath full of frustration, she decided enough was enough.
"Fine, it seems you can't go anywhere without me holding you up"
Turning around, she looked at the branched eyes returning to the user.
"....?"
Behind them, a dark forest greeted them, not a strange sight.
But.....she couldn't tell herself why it seemed eerier than usual, it just did.
She didn't like the anxious thumps inside her chest.
"Hm?"
Carl caught her daze and snapped her to attention.
"Hey! We gonna move? That bastard won't sit still you know...."
Carl saw it then, the green bush in front of him slowly reaching out her arm desperately toward him, as if trying to drag him away from something.
From where her mouth was, leaves twisted like how lips would.
She was mouthing something to him.
No, upon closer inspection, she was screaming it at the top of her lungs.
For some reason, he couldn't hear her.
An instant was all it took for him to realize the meaning behind her cries.
Woosh!
Something warm slashed through the air and entered his back, poking out of his abdomen.
Eyes crashed downwards at the sudden warmth.
A silver blade punctured him from behind.
Looking behind, he saw the figure they had been desperately trying to find a few paces away from them.
A monotonous voice soon followed suit.
"Found. You."
It was a sickly tone that sent shivers.
Hollow eyes glared at him.
Black coat waved in the harsh wind.
However, Carl couldn't look at their face.
They were faceless, head only a dark silhouette of a human's.
'Ah'
For a few seconds that walked, many question rose.
How did he get here?
How did he know where we were so fast?
And, why is he so far away?
As his mind churned for an answer, he couldn't give a good answer to the first two.
The third one though? Anyone could realize.
It didn't even require any thinking to be at play, the rising heat of the blade answered for you.
It was inches away from exploding.
In his last moments.
Carl flicked his attention toward the rushing green bush.
He knew he was dead, beyond so.
So, as a last action.
Thwack!
"!!!!"
He mustered every bit of strength to play the duty of a comrade till the bitter end.
Flinging her off the cliff and encasing her entire figure in a fleshy round ball.
"Tch"
The being behind him clicked their tongue before turning their back, hiding behind a tree for cover.
Boom!
Out of every explosion thus far, this one was the most brutal one.
It echoed loudly, debris fell from the cliff and crashed down to where Carl's comrade flung across.
But, no harm flew her way. The reason being.
The fleshy walls protected and cushioned her fall, not allowing for a single scratch to so much as breath through the gaps.
Cale soon walked forward to the crater and reclaimed the knife now enveloped in a cold chill.
Its silver gleam reflected his emotionless gaze right back at him.
He reflected back with an expression full of relief.