FI CH 14

Chapter 14: Rainforest Siege (VIII)

Their luck was truly terrible. Barely an hour after their escape, the real sentinel caught up.

The rainforest was pitch black, not even a hand in front of one’s face could be seen. Yet the brown-haired sentinel had excellent night vision. Following the faint traces left on the ground, he quickly tracked them down.

By the time Bai Hua heard movement, it was already too late to hide. Hearing the sound of something slicing through the air, he didn’t hesitate—he immediately threw himself in front of Kurosawa to shield him from the attack aimed at capturing him.

Although Kurosawa couldn’t see, he could hear the clash and knew they had been found. He quickly retreated several steps, pulling away from the fight to avoid dragging Bai Hua down.

Sentinels and guides each had their specialties; neither of them would act recklessly outside their realm of strength.

Kurosawa said calmly, “Don’t worry about me.”

But it was the brown-haired sentinel who responded: “Neither of you are getting away.”

As those words fell, the clash of battle erupted in the darkness. Bai Hua was clearly at a disadvantage, taking several hits head-on. He knew he couldn’t defeat this sentinel—but that wasn’t a reason to back down. He understood that if they were captured again, they might never escape these people’s hands.

At least one of them needed to get away.

Suddenly, Bai Hua shouted, “You go first!”

There was a brief pause—two seconds of silence—before another voice responded:

“Alright.”

Without hesitation or a single glance back, Kurosawa turned and ran.

Bai Hua let out a breath of relief. He had expected convincing Kurosawa to be a struggle—but it seemed there was no need for that after all.

The guide continued running farther and farther away. Because of the darkness, he stumbled frequently. Though his pace wasn’t fast, he would soon be out of sight of the two sentinels.

The brown-haired sentinel glanced at Bai Hua, then looked toward the guide’s direction. He seemed a little hesitant.

A sentinel-versus-sentinel fight was typically close combat—direct and with few surprises. But guides were different. Their unique mental perception abilities made battles unpredictable and full of unknowns.

The brown-haired sentinel didn’t hesitate for long. He immediately changed targets and dashed toward the guide. Years of combat experience had taught him: he had to capture that guide first and eliminate all possible variables.

Once he made a decision, he would act on it immediately.

Bai Hua couldn’t stop him. He could only watch helplessly as the brown-haired sentinel ran toward Kurosawa. He tried to stand and chase after him, but just then, a familiar scent of pheromones reached him.

He halted.

Only after the brown-haired sentinel had disappeared into the distance did he turn around—and who else would it be if not Kurosawa?

At the same time, as the brown-haired sentinel closed in on the guide, the figure ahead of him suddenly vanished into thin air, as if it had never been there at all.

The sentinel froze for a moment, swept his gaze around the area, and immediately understood—he’d fallen into an illusion created by the guide.

He’d been too careless. That guide hadn’t used his spiritual power at all along the way, making others assume his senses were still sealed. But in truth, he had only been waiting for a chance like this.

It had been a long time since the brown-haired sentinel had fallen for a trap. For once, he gave a faint smile—then quickly sobered and began searching for the illusion’s weak point.

Meanwhile, the real Kurosawa stood right in front of Bai Hua and said, “Did you really think I’d leave you behind?”

Bai Hua sighed helplessly. “You didn’t tell me ahead of time…”

“You have to fool your own people first if you want to fool the enemy.”

“That was really risky…”

“Thank you,” Kurosawa said softly. He understood what Bai Hua had been thinking when he shouted for him to leave. Even if it had been a tactical decision, he was still thankful for such genuine kindness.

Bai Hua felt a little embarrassed by the sudden gratitude and didn’t know how to respond. So he simply asked, “Your mental power recovered?”

Thinking back on everything, he could more or less guess what Kurosawa had done.

“Not fully recovered yet,” Kurosawa returned to the matter at hand. “So my mental landscape won’t hold for too long. That sentinel is formidable—breaking through it is only a matter of time. If we try the same trick again, it won’t work on him.”

Bai Hua gave a soft grunt of acknowledgment, his gaze sweeping the surroundings as if contemplating which direction they should head. Although they had temporarily delayed the brown-haired sentinel, dawn would arrive in just a few more hours. The watcher and captor were not to be underestimated either. Once the three worked together again, escaping would be nearly impossible.

Even though the three didn’t reveal much, it was still obvious—they had been captured because of the derivative ability he and Kurosawa had awakened.

It all matched Kurosawa’s earlier speculations: they would either be eliminated or coerced into joining. So far, it seemed more likely to be the latter. But Bai Hua doubted these people would try to recruit them through normal means. He hadn’t forgotten how Jing He had once had a portion of her memory wiped. If these guides were capable of memory removal… they might also be able to alter memories.

“Don’t worry,” Kurosawa suddenly said, perhaps because Bai Hua had been silent for too long. “We won’t be caught.”

“Where’s that confidence coming from?”

Kurosawa smiled. “It’s not my confidence—it’s ours.”

Even without any solid proof, the familiar tone in his voice still made Bai Hua feel oddly reassured. He shook his head and pushed away all lingering thoughts of despair. “So, which direction should we take now?”

“Let’s go back to where it all started,” Kurosawa replied. “If reinforcements have arrived, someone will be waiting for us there.”

“And if they haven’t?”

“Then we’ll swim all the way back if we have to.”

“Do you ever know when it’s the right time to joke and when it’s not?”

Kurosawa gave a helpless laugh. “I wasn’t joking.”

Bai Hua didn’t know how to respond to that, so he simply fell silent.

The two of them continued navigating the darkness. By the time they left the marsh, the sky had already begun to lighten. Bai Hua used the faint morning glow to judge their direction, heading deeper into the forest.

As they passed a stream, Bai Hua suddenly came to a halt—he seemed to have heard something.

“What is it?” Kurosawa immediately noticed his shift in mood.

Bai Hua didn’t answer right away. Instead, he listened for a while longer before lifting his head to look at the sky. The early morning mist was thick, a sign that today would bring good weather.

Kurosawa followed Bai Hua’s gaze. He hadn’t heard anything—but he saw it. A military helicopter for sentinels and guides was approaching from a distance, heading in the direction of their original landing point.

Perhaps everything they had endured over the past few days had made Bai Hua overly cautious. He turned to Kurosawa and asked, “Is that real?”

When Bai Hua asked that, even Kurosawa hesitated for a split second. He chuckled at himself before replying, “Don’t worry. It’s real.”

The two exchanged a glance, and in that moment, it felt like all their exhaustion from the past few days had vanished. They quickened their pace immediately, determined to reach the rendezvous point before those three could catch up to them.

But whether it was just their luck being too awful—or the enemy being too skilled—they were found once again.

Just as the sun rose above the horizon, they saw the brown-haired sentinel already standing ahead of them, waiting.

(To be continued…)
T/L: The brown-haired sentinel is kinda… (⸝⸝๑  ̫ ๑⸝⸝⸝) (no.. I should stop myself right? lol)