“How great…we didn’t even need to wait long,” The shorter of the two super soldiers said as he let out a sigh of relief. “How lucky, huh?”
“H-How did you…?” Dumbfounded by this sudden confrontation, Lilith uttered as sweat ran down her face. “I-In the dead of night?”
“Heh, you are a highly wanted criminal, so of course we’d be searching for you. Today we just tried our luck with this forest, and I guess it paid off,” The super soldier said. “But with the way you're sweating, maybe it wasn’t dumb luck. Maybe you live somewhere nearby, haha.”
The soldier’s words garnered panic in Lilith. Catching herself quickly, Lilith suppressed her panic to be nothing more than just widened eyes.
“Pfft, there’s no way she’d live anywhere near here, don’t be a kidder now,” The other super soldier remarked as he shrugged. “She was just taking a walk and we luckily ran into her.”
“Heh, yeah, you’re right.”
Lilith’s eyes slightly relaxed in response to their conversation, though she still seemed on edge judging by the continuous sweat down her face.
I don’t know…but I have an odd feeling they’re lying about it being just luck. Lilith pondered. This encounter happened around a mile of my home…it’s too close for comfort.
“Anyways, let’s stop talking about how lucky this is, and focus on who we have in front of us now,” The soldier recommended. “You’re the one who messed up our ally recently. She was beautiful too…now she has a screwed up face.”
There’s two super soldiers…and I’m by myself. Lilith continued to ponder. Hesitating will get me killed. Do I have it in me to…take their lives?
“Well, it seems we get to spin back for our ally, huh. We came prepared and on the off chance we found one of you guys around here, hehe,” Suddenly rummaging in their backpacks and sparking surprise from Lilith, the super soldiers each revealed a pair of goggles. The lenses were dyed with an orange hue. “Let’s make this quick, shall we.”
Immediately fixing the goggles over their eyes, the two super soldiers slinked dashed into the darkened forest.
“W-What?” Lilith uttered as she quickly unsheathed her katana. Were those night googles!?
Their quickly tapping footsteps only became softer and softer as Lilith frantically looked around. In this near pitch black environment, Lilith did her best to keep her guard up. Despite her readied sword and attempt at observing her surroundings, Lilith could already feel the disadvantage creeping up on her and about to bite.
Like a cheetah locked onto a prey, her enemy charged at her through the forest from the side. Whether it was out of luck, or she spotted that white uniform in the corner of her eye, Lilith reacted fast, parrying his kick with the side of her blade.
BAM!
Before she could even hope to counter or even move, Lilith experienced a hard sensation to her jaw as the second super soldier backed up his partner by striking her in the face. With the impact forcing a sonic boom, Lilith was launched into a tree. Upon impact with the solid bark, splinters and chunks of wood were thrown around from the now destroyed tree.
Wasting no time, Lilith recovered herself as she flipped back to her feet. Much to her dismay, they hid once more in the forest.
“...This is bad,” Lilith muttered. “This won’t be good for me…”
- * * *
While these super soldiers were hunting Lilith in the woods, their superiors were up to their own actions in the night. Not nearly as active as the duo, the new gen of blessed hunters were sitting atop the walls of their military base.
“I can’t believe we stayed up so late sparring with one another,” The Queen Deathbringer remarked. “This is the latest we’ve ever stayed up to spar. You guys are quite motivated.”
“Well, yeah. I can’t let myself go out of form for even a moment,” Mohawk replied. “Not until I make sure to eliminate Zack at least.”
“The real reason is that we actually like sparring and talking with you,” Twintails countered, much to Mohawk’s surprise. “Isn’t that right, Mohawk?”
“...Sigh, yeah, sure.”
Their chief couldn’t help but smile and even giggle slightly at what they said.
“Haha, I do feel the same way honestly. I haven’t felt this way in a while, to be honest,” The Queen Deathbringer expressed as she turned her gaze to the moon up above. “I feel…thankful that you two…are here.”
“Huh?”
The two looked at their chief in slight confusion as she remained silent for several moments. It’s as though she was thinking of her next words.
“...Listen, you two. It would be better if you could get along with the rest of our comrades,” Their chief advised. “They are still your comrades, you know.”
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“What? It’s not like we despise them,” Twintails said. “And unlike this ruffian, I don’t beat on the others.”
“That’s a lie, and you know it, Twintails. You may not beat the shit outta them like I do, but you’re no saint,” Mohawk countered. “I’d hate to be forced to become your moving target…like some of 'em.”
“...Shut up.”
“...Uh, and that’s the opposite of what I wish for you guys to do,” The Queen Deathbringer said. “I know you were taught to be ruthless soldiers, but everyone here has value…we should show each other respect.”
“...But that goes against what we were told by the president,” Twintails said. “Are you saying…she’s wrong?”
“...The president is definitely right in her beliefs. Her beliefs and methods brought this world out of a lot of its mess, after all,” The Queen continued. “But…I think she can be harsh and cold…even cruel.”
The two immediately recalled the harsh berating Mohawk received from the president after failing to eliminate Zack, despite the overall damage he did to the Blueblood organization. It’s as though they used that memory and reflected on the chief’s words.
“But I believe the president still has done good things and will continue to do good, despite that,” The Queen Deathbringer continued. “She’s the one who made me meet you two, as well.”
“...Well, way to bring down the mood…with that sentimental crap, senior,” Mohawk muttered before receiving a hammer fist to the back of his head from Twintails. “Ow!”
“Haha, I suppose. But one more thing,” The chief said. “I want you guys…to look after Rebecca White when she’s through with her body modifications.”
“Rebecca White? You mean the one who’s under the surgery of project zero?” Twintails questioned.
“Yes. From the looks of it, it seems like the surgery will be successful and she will be out soon. Rebecca has…experienced a lot of terrible things in her life which would make anyone cold and detached,” The Queen Deathbringer remarked. “That empty feeling will only make you…reckless. If I’m not around by the time she finishes her surgery, I want you two to befriend her.”
“Huh? If you’re not around?” Mohawk questioned. Even Twintails had a raised eyebrow out of confusion to her chief’s words. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“...You never can tell what’ll happen in the future. Either way, you two might not know it, but you helped me a lot more than I have helped you,” The chief continued. “It may be hard to get through to her…but I want you two to be persistent in your efforts.”
“...If that’s what you want, then I suppose we can make an effort,” Twintails responded.
“Thank you. I’ll be counting on you two in the future.”
- * * *
Lilith continued to be hunted in the forest, literally being blasted through multiple tries across the woods.
Ugh, I’m being pressured alot…I can’t fight the two of them at once! Wasting to time to get back on her feet, Lilith began running to avoid being an easy target. It wouldn’t have been so bad…if I wasn’t fighting in the forest in the middle of the night! How would…Nathan handle such a disadvantage!?
Intercepting their opponent, the two super soldiers charged at Lilith from opposite sides. With her sword, Lilith parried a flying kick from one, before stumbling several meters from a kick at her side.
Lilith couldn’t receive any leeway to recover herself as one of them continued to pursue her, hopping into the air.
Narrowly avoiding their attack, Lilith rolled to the side to avoid the downward punch they descended with. A crater ripped itself open underneath his fist, and dirt blasted in the air in a messy spray. Trees dozen of meters around the point of impact violently shook as a shockwave tore through them.
“She’s one durable criminal…agile too,” Pulling his hand out of the crater, the super soldier remarked. “We gotta just keep laying in her with full power strikes.”
Lilith may have avoided one, but that amounted to nothing.
“Have some dirt in your eye!” Sneaking out from behind Lilith, the second super soldier came up close to his enemy. Wasting no time, the super soldier tossed a cloud of dirt straight into her eyes.
“Ugh!” Reflexively closing her eyes and rubbing it with her hand, Lilith groaned. The soldiers gave her no time to relief herself of the obscuring dirt, as she received a strike to her side.
She was launched several meters away, slamming into yet another tree.
“Ha! You’re right! It feels like I’m punching steel!” The super soldier who blinded Lilith uttered as the duo charged at her. “It doesn’t matter though!”
Instantly catching up to Lilith who leaned on the tree, they followed up by punching her in the gut. With a flinch from her, they began to pummel her body with more blows. Creating loud bangs and shaking the surrounding trees with every punch, they targeted her stomach and face.
Lilith had flinched and released repeated grunts, and the tree which she was sunk into.
“Die, criminal!” One of them uttered as they finished their combo with a synchronized strike to her stomach, blasting Lilith and the now uprooted tree she leaned on across the forest. The two projectiles roused up a tracing of dust as they soared, before creating a massive dust cloud tens of meters in diameter after crashing into other fauna.
Satisfied with the pummeling they delivered, the two casually walked towards the crash site with glee on their faces.
“It sucks that this forest has to get messed up by guys that flatten buildings with their punches, but you can’t really blame us when we’re dealing with an S-Class criminal,” One of the super soldiers spoke. “I can see why our comrade lost and got maimed by her, even though she was a weaker super soldier than us.”
“Heh, let’s see her try swinging that stupid katana of hers anymore,” The other super soldier remarked. “If she’s not dead yet, I’m sure she’ll be an easy target to finish off now–”
Out of the plume of dust, an amethyst arc of pure radiance and energy hurled itself at the super soldier on the right hand side of the two. With widened eyes, the super soldier easily avoided the projectile, the arc trimming the tips of his hair as it passed. He barely needed to even move for the arc to even miss its intended target.
“What the hell!?” The super soldier uttered as he gazed back at the arc. It had travelled and struck a tree, exploding into countless purple shards like shrapnel before disappearing.
“Damn…I missed!” As the dust returned to rest, Lilith stood there in annoyance. She had visible bleeding from her mouth and forehead, and bruises on her cheek. I was relying on their voice to aim through the dust…the darkness never helped either.
“What? How the hell are you still up?” The super soldier who avoided Lilith’s attack yelled. “How durable is your body!?”
“...She might still be standing, but she’s clearly bleeding from our strikes,” The other super soldier rationalized. “Our attacks were effective.”
“...Yeah, you’re right. We just gotta keep doing what we’ve been doing,” The super soldier agred. “We’ll just pummel you, over and over again.”
With her breathing patterns increasing, Lilith stared at the two.
I failed to take one of them out…my weakness just shows itself no matter what I do. Lilith pondered. But, I noticed something strange when my skill struck the tree…maybe this is what Nathan will do. I just hope…I can do it before I run out of stamina.