บท 25: The Chase

Ray and Yuki were running towards the west side by side. Sakura was sitting on Yuki. She was silent. Ray noticed it and tried to initiate a talk with her.

He said, "Uhm... So, you fight with a bow, eh?"

Sakura just replied. "Hmm."

Ray again asked, "You said you work straight under Lost Eden. It must mean you're quite good, right?"

Sakura again replied in a single word, "Maybe."

Ray felt awkward as Sakura kept replying to him in single words. Ray didn't try to extend the talk more, as he felt Sakura would just keep replying to him in a halfhearted way like this.

Both of them kept running together, following the GPS location.

Suddenly Sakura talked. She said, "Were you... Weren't you scared when you decided to run away in the wastelands?"

Ray was taken off guard by the sudden question that he almost lost his footing, but he stabilised himself and said, "Uhm... Yeah. Of course I was scared. But my only other choice was to get killed for something I didn't even do. There's also someone who wants me to live on."

Sakura replied, still looking forward, "Oh."

It became silent again. Ray thought that the conversation would go on for longer, but it didn't.

Ray was constantly looking at his tablet, looking at the location of the puppeteer.He suddenly stopped, seeing that the GPS locator of the puppeteer had stopped.

Yuki stopped too seeing Ray and turned back.

Yuki asked, "What happened?"

Ray replied, "the Puppeteer has stopped moving."

Sakura asked, "Where?"

Ray looked closer and said, "It's close. We can reach in 30 minutes or so."

Yuki said, "Nice. Let's move then. We keep him there until others come."

Ray nodded and both of them started running again.

Following the GPS locator, they soon found themselves in a clearing. It was a big grassland surrounded by trees. Ray and Yuki stopped behind some trees and peeked through the trees.

They saw the puppeteer sitting on a rock and tapping on the land with his cane.

Ray asked Sakura, "What do we do?"

Sakura said, "He's just sitting there. Let's just wait until the others come. No need to attack now."

Ray nodded and said, "Yeah. Let's do that."

Ray and Sakura were going to get to a little better position to observe the puppeteer when the puppeteer suddenly got up. He started spinning his cane in a playful manner and said, "So boring."

Ray, Sakura and Yuki got on their guard and looked at the puppeteer. The puppeteer continued, "I felt someone following me, so I decided to stop and play with them for a moment. But it looks like you guys don't want to play."

The puppeteer jumped and, in a split second, came in front of Ray. Before Ray could realise it, the puppeteer kicked Ray and sent him flying towards the clearing. Ray was able to block the kick with his hands, but it wasn't enough.

The kick hit like a truck.

Yuki jumped on the puppeteer and tried to bite him, but he moved away fast and went back to the open field. He said, "Come out in the open. Let's play here."

Ray got on his feet and quickly said to Yuki through telepathy, "Yuki, tell Sakura to stay behind the trees and fire arrows from there. You come and help me."

Yuki said, "Yes, master."

Sakura was going to jump out, but Yuki stopped her. She said, "Don't. Change positions and fire from behind the trees. I'll go help him."

Sakura said, "But..."

Yuki said, "A bow isn't a long-range weapon."

Sky turned into a bow while saying, "Yuki's right, mistress. We should do as she said."

Sakura looked at Sky and nodded. She jumped on top of a branch and started moving to a new location.

Yuki too jumped back and stood in front of the puppeteer. The puppeteer said, "Oh. It's the kitty from before."

He looked at Ray and said, "Oh, and you're the interesting boy."

He jumped on top of the rock where he was sitting before and said, "Awww. Did you guys come to play with me again? I'm moved. Let's play."

Ray handled himself and stood in a fighting stance and said, "Yeah. Let's play."

Yuki too stood opposite Ray, keeping the puppeteer in between her and Ray.

Ray jumped in front and, in the blink of an eye, came in front of the puppeteer and punched an uppercut on the puppeteer. The punch lifted the puppeteer up a meter in the sky. Yuki ran and jumped with the stone as a foothold. He bit the puppeteer and threw him to the side. As he was flying away, Sakura shot a few arrows, which pierced the puppeteer in the body. The puppeteer hit a tree and fell down.

He stumbled to get up. As he got up, he had a devious smile on his face. Ray, Yuki and Sakura—all three of them got shocked as they saw Puppeteer smiling.

The puppeteer said, "The playing field is a bit unfair, don't you think? Let's fix that."

The puppeteer slammed his cane on the ground, and suddenly the ground started shaking.

Ray and Yuki started looking around in order to figure out what the puppeteer had done. They didn't have to wait long, as soon as many ant entomorphs started popping up from the ground.

The puppeteer said, "Now it's even. You three vs. me and my army."

The ants started attacking. Yuki and Ray dodged the attacks and started fighting the ants. Ray was noticing that he was burning through his knives, but there was nothing to do as the ants were relentless.

Sakura too tried to help by shooting down many of the ants that were trying to attack Ray and Yuki from their blind spots.

Suddenly the ants stopped attacking Ray. Ray got surprised at this and started looking around.

He saw the puppeteer come and stand in front of him.

The puppeteer said, "Now. Neither your kitty nor my ants will disturb us. Let's play. Just you and me."