{What happened to him...} Hayat narrowed her eyes, focusing on the unconscious boy in the dirt.
She tightened her grip on her daggers, but her body ached. "I need to heal my wounds first."
She channeled her remaining mana to heal her injuries. {I hope no one disturbs me. I am already severely lacking mana. This is all I can do.}
Suddenly, Lynx's eyes snapped open.
His heart pounded rapidly as he lunged forward into a sitting position. He did not look at the girl. Instead, he stared blankly at his own trembling hands, his breathing ragged and panicked.
Hayat noticed the strange behavior, but she did not stop her spell.
"Nine... no, ten kilometers," Lynx muttered to himself, his voice a dry, strained whisper. "The city gates are exactly ten kilometers from this ridge. That must be the threshold."
He violently gripped his own hair, forcing a cold sweat to break across his neck.
{Heart rate 140. Tremor checked. Keep the eyes vacant,} Lynx thought, sensing her killing intent. {If she thinks I am looking at her weapons or overacting, she will behead me without hesitation.}
"The loop... it actually broke," he whispered, finally letting out a hollow, hysterical laugh that sounded entirely unhinged. "The bastard's mana could not reach past the tree line."
He finally seemed to notice the girl. He scrambled backward in fake panic, intentionally passing a thick line of trees. He looked down at his feet, panting. "So once the connection is broken, it cannot reactivate."
Hayat watched him, genuinely confused.
Lynx slowly looked up, noticing her daggers, and then looked down at his own dark, crackled clothes in disgust. "So that is why he dressed me in this garbage... I was the canary in the coal mine."
Hayat could not help but let out a dry scoff, lowering her weapons slightly. "You do not need to act..."
Lynx's internal temperature dropped to absolute zero. {Did she see through it? I need a backup plan fast.}
"I know you were being mind-controlled," she finished, fully lowering her guard and turning her back to him to inspect her injured arm.
Lynx's expression remained perfectly terrified on the outside, but internally, his mind settled into a cold calm. {Perfect. She bought the act.}
"You didn't attack me," Lynx stammered, playing the victim. "Are... are you not one of them?"
"No," she replied coldly. "I should be the one asking you."
"I was forced into a contract in the city," Lynx lied smoothly.
Suddenly, a rustling sound echoed from the deep woods. Multiple presences were rushing toward them at high speed.
{Perfect,} Lynx thought, his eyes narrowing. {While I was faking unconsciousness, I used my 'Imagination' to slightly amplify the scent of her blood and shift the footprints, leading them directly to us.}
Lynx did it because it was obvious she was hiding from someone, which meant her pursuers were not far from them.
He raised his guard. {She is still recovering. If I save her now, she will know we share a common enemy.}
Three assassins burst from the trees, jumping Lynx from behind.
{They are faster than I thought.} Lynx barely dodged the first blade, instantly retaliating by throwing a rock directly at the attacker's face.
One of the assassins ignored him and threw a barrage of throwing knives straight at Hayat. Moving instantly, Lynx grabbed her by the waist and pulled her behind a thick boulder.
"Don't move!" Lynx shouted, playing the desperate hero. "Hide here so you can recover. I will hold them off!"
Without waiting for her answer, Lynx sprinted away, intentionally making noise to draw their attention. He ran deep into the forest, using his Will to let the assassins clearly track his location.
Then, Lynx stopped moving.
"Why did you intentionally expose yourself?" one of the assassins sneered, dropping down from a branch directly in front of him.
"What good will knowing do for a bunch of dead men?" Lynx replied, his voice losing all its previous panic.
The assassins rushed him simultaneously. Lynx closed his eyes, relying entirely on his heightened instincts.
He dodged their synchronized strikes, but they kept accelerating.
Then, he saw it. An opening.
Lynx ducked under a horizontal slash, grabbed the first assassin by the neck, and violently twisted. A sickening crack echoed through the trees as the man dropped dead.
The second assassin lunged, nearly stabbing Lynx in the eye. The blade grazed his face, slicing off a small patch of his left eyebrow.
Without blinking, Lynx stepped into the attacker's guard and drove a brutal punch directly into the man's liver.
The assassin gasped, dropping his weapon as he collapsed to the ground in paralyzing pain.
But the third assassin had circled behind Lynx. There was no room to dodge. The blade was already descending toward his spine.
Lynx didn't panic. He had sensed her approaching seconds ago.
"It's your turn," Lynx muttered.
A blur of motion shot past him. Hayat slashed horizontally, cleanly executing the third assassin before his blade could even touch Lynx's clothes.
She landed gracefully and lowered her bloodied daggers. "Are you okay?"
Lynx ignored the question, crouching down to efficiently strip the weapons from the dead assassins.
She coughed intentionally to get his attention. "My name is Lucia Isotta."
Lynx suddenly froze. A broken memory flashed in his mind: the time she had named Nx, and the name Nx had given her in return was Hayat.
"Yeah, I am," Lynx said, finally answering her question as he stood up. He grabbed her wrist, maintaining the urgency of a survivor. "Let's go. I know a safe place nearby."
She followed him without hesitation. As they trekked through the dark woods, the adrenaline faded, and her legs began to ache. "Are we there yet?"
"We're here," Lynx said, pointing to the concealed entrance of his mountain cave.
As they walked inside, Lynx glanced at the registration badge clipped to her torn clothes. He knew that in two more days, the Tournament would officially begin.
He would need to hunt down opponents to qualify, and now, he had the perfect teammate to counter the summoned participants who were gifted with special abilities.
"So, um... what is your name?" she asked.