"We all owe her our lives."
Watching the petite silhouette vanish into the depths of the jungle with the pterosaur hot on her heels, Banner slammed his fist heavily against a tree trunk. The rough bark tore the skin off his knuckles, causing them to bleed, but he didn't seem to notice at all. His face was entirely consumed by regret and self-reproach.
As the oldest and most educated person in the group, he was supposed to be the protector. Yet here he was, letting a fifteen-year-old girl act as live bait.
This crushing moral guilt made his already sensitive heart feel as if it were being roasted over an open fire.
"God bless her."
Though Hughes still looked completely terrified and cowardly, his hands were frantically tracing the sign of the cross over his chest. He muttered under his breath, clinging to this final mental straw.
"The last time I prayed to God with this much devotion was right before the Olympic finals. I won the gold medal that day. I firmly believe that with God's protection, Alice will lead a charmed life and turn this misfortune into a blessing."
"Stop spouting useless nonsense."
Strange coldly interrupted the archer's prayers. Though the doctor's face was also slightly pale, his eyes were exceptionally resolute.
"On this godforsaken island, God is far too busy to care about us. The only person who can save Alice right now is herself."
He stared in the direction Alice had disappeared and spoke in a low, grim voice. "She may just be a little girl, but the look in her eyes tells me she's stronger than any of us. She's like a feral jungle cat with an unyielding will to live. Therefore, I fully believe she will make it back."
"Let's move. We cannot waste the chance Alice bought us with her life."
Banner gritted his teeth and hoisted the heavy ELT transmitter onto his back.
"Get up the mountain. As long as we can transmit the signal and get the rescue team here, we'll have a chance to save her."
Without another moment of hesitation, the three men seized the opening Alice had created. Like madmen, they charged toward the summit.
...
Meanwhile, deep within the jungle.
Alice was currently experiencing the most utterly terrifying moment of both her lives.
Her goal was to completely lure the pterosaur away from the mountain peak. Because of this, she deliberately held back from activating the System and equipping her [Megumi Kato] template.
She couldn't use her highly reliable, super-weak presence ability. If she used it, the pterosaur would immediately lose its target and fly straight back to the summit to hunt the highly conspicuous group of snacks she had left behind.
She had to make herself the brightest, most obnoxious, and most aggravating target possible.
"Come on, you stupid oversized chicken! Is that all you've got?"
She sprinted through the dense forest, deliberately making as much noise as humanly possible. She snapped dead branches and kicked rocks out of her path.
Overhead, the pterosaur's massive, terrifying shadow followed her like a grim reaper.
In truth, this part of the mountain was so steep and densely forested that there were absolutely no trails to run on.
CRACK!
A deafening noise rang out. The pterosaur's steel-like wing sliced violently through the canopy, cleanly severing several branches as thick as human arms and sending wood splinters flying everywhere.
Alice felt a vicious gust of wind smash against the top of her head. The overwhelming pressure made every hair on her body stand on end.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a massive, hook-like talon piercing through the leaves, swiping directly toward her back.
In that split second, Alice didn't have time to think. Relying purely on raw survival instinct, she violently threw her body forward. Like a slippery loach, she hit the dirt and scrambled frantically into a massive, hollowed-out, rotting tree trunk lying horizontally across the forest floor.
BANG!
Almost the exact millisecond her heels cleared the entrance, the massive talon slammed violently into the trunk just above the opening.
Wood chips exploded outward. The prehistoric beast actually managed to gouge three deep, ten-centimeter trenches into the incredibly hard redwood.
However, the hollow trunk was far from an impenetrable sanctuary.
Before she could even catch her breath, a sickening tearing sound erupted from directly above her.
RIIIIP!
The rotting bark and the underlying layers of wood were brutally ripped open by the pterosaur's other talon, instantly tearing a massive hole in the roof of her shelter.
A single beam of sunlight pierced through the darkness, illuminating a massive, terrifying reptilian eye peering inside.
It saw her!
Alice's heart hammered wildly against her ribs. Terrified to stay put, she scrambled forward on all fours, desperately crawling toward the other side.
Because of her sheer panic, she completely failed to notice that the exit on the opposite end of the trunk was completely overgrown with dense, thorny wild roses and briars.
As she forced her way out, the razor-sharp barbs carved dozens of bloody scratches across her bare arms and smooth calves. Fresh blood welled up, stinging with a fiery, burning pain.
But at this moment, she couldn't even afford to look at her injuries.
Emerging from the log, she faced a shallow, four-meter-wide trench filled with jagged rocks.
Behind her, the wind howled as the pterosaur adjusted its posture, preparing to dive-bomb her again.
Alice gritted her teeth. She took a two-step running start and leaped with all her might.
She extended her body mid-air, her hands desperately grabbing onto a sturdy branch jutting out from the opposite side of the trench at the very last second.
"Hyaa!"
With a violent twist of her slender, incredibly flexible waist, she used her momentum to swing completely across the rocky trench like a pendulum.
As she landed, she seamlessly rolled forward to completely absorb the impact.
Using her toes as a springboard, she pushed off the ground and shot forward like a cannonball, entirely ignoring the pain as she dove headfirst into a towering, wall-like thicket of dense shrubs.