"W-what was that?!"

The Red creeps stumbled to a halt, their advance coming to a stop as they stared at the massive cloud of dust trailing away from where Adam had been standing just seconds before.

They couldn't even see what happened due to all the sand.

"Did you see—"

"What the hell was that blur?"

"Where's our leader? What happened?!"

The creeps immediately started asking questions. But most of them had been too far back to see anything clearly—it all just happened too fast for them.

There was one, however, who slightly saw what happened. Since she was literally an arm's reach walking beside Adam, she caught a glimpse of it. Her face went blank as she processed what she'd witnessed.

Someone had swept Adam away. A Hero.

She opened her mouth to speak, then clamped it shut. The last thing these people needed was to know they were now facing a Hero.

But alas, someone else realized this too.

"That was a Hero!" a veteran creep shouted from behind her. "A fucking Hero just took him!"

"W-what?!" And just like that, several creeps at the back of the formation turned and started running in the opposite direction.

"Wait! Don't run!"

"He's probably dead already! Fuck!"

"No! Don't run back, we might get burned by the Administrators!"

"It's a fucking Hero! Shouldn't this be counted as a valid retreat?!"

"How is this valid when the Hero didn't attack us?! Think clearly!"

"We're not safe!"

"You wanna gamble that?! You wanna be burned? Nuh uh. Not me."

The opinions of the mob were mixed—but ultimately, the threat of being burned prematurely by the Administrators prevailed, and everyone started running toward the enemy's Crystal.

Hannah watched the group slowly fracture its previous confidence, some even pushing each other to run ahead. She wanted to run too. Every instinct screamed at her to turn around and flee as fast as her legs could carry her.

What could any of them do against a Hero? What was the point of continuing without Adam?

But she stayed. She stayed in hopes of maybe helping Adam defeat the Hero. Her eyes remained fixed on the distant cloud of dust, squinting hard to make out any shapes in the swirling sand.

And soon, a figure emerged from the haze.

Hannah's heart leaped for a moment—until she realized the silhouette was wrong. Too tall. Too broad.

"Run," she whispered, then louder: "Run!"

She turned and sprinted after the others, her feet slipping in the loose sand. Behind her, she could hear the sand move violently.

The remaining Red creeps scampered. Some stumbled, others helped each other up, but all of them ran desperately like prey.

Hannah's lungs burned as she pushed herself harder than she ever had. The knife in her hand felt pathetic, useless against whatever was behind them. She could only grit her teeth and follow the others, her legs pumping frantically through the sand.

They ran until their legs gave out, until some collapsed from exhaustion, until the adrenaline finally wore off and left them gasping in the desert heat.

When they finally stopped, Hannah realized she had no idea how long they'd been running. Minutes? Hours? The sun hadn't moved much, but time felt warped in this place.

But very soon, they all had to force themselves to move again… because the creeps from the Middle Crystal were across the horizon. The two sides spotted each other simultaneously.

"There they are! Destroy their crystal. Get past them!"

"Kill them!"

"Protect the crystal!"

The battle erupted instantly. No formation, no strategy—just desperate people swinging weapons at each other in the sand.

Hannah ducked as a fist whistled past her ear. She drove her knife forward, stabbing the attacker in the shoulder. The man screamed and stumbled backward. He couldn't even fall on his butt before someone else stabbed him in the neck.

It was just… chaos, again.

But unlike Hannah's first Game, she could tell friend from enemy now. The halos made it simple—blue meant death, red meant ally. She moved through the chaos, striking at anyone with a blue glow above their head.

A woman with a large rock lunged at her. Hannah stepped to the side and slashed across the woman's thigh, sending her crashing to the ground. Another attacker came from her left—she spun and drove her elbow into his throat.

It might seem as if she knew what she was doing, but no. It was clumsy, very much so.

And she wasn't alone. People slipped in the sand, weapons got stuck inside bodies, and more than one person died from tripping and landing on their own blade.

Hannah panted as she looked toward the pillar of light marking the Middle Crystal. Still three, maybe four miles away. It's close, but not just quite.

But then, this short glimpse made her realize something.

She glanced back toward where they'd come from, scanning the horizon for any sign of the Hero who'd taken Adam.

Nothing.

Where… were they? Did they realize Adam was the only threat, and once they eliminated him, they moved on to the next lane?

If that was the case… then they were wrong. Adam was going to stand up back again, she was sure of it.

But before Hannah could look away, she finally saw a figure emerging from a slope in the distance. She squinted, shielding her eyes from the glare.

"Adam…?" she whispered. But soon, she saw the name hovering above the man's head—and that meant it could only be a Hero.

And very soon, he drew close enough for everyone to see his name.

[Gardo, The Faithful Arrow].

The Blue creeps started cheering, their voices carrying across the battlefield as they gained confidence after seeing their Hero approach. The Red creeps, of course, started losing hope—they'd seen what a powerful creep like Adam could do, and a Hero was more than double that strength.

"Oh… oh no! We're… we're fucked!"

"What do we do?! Shit!"

Due to this distraction, the red creeps started dying more. Hannah found herself struggling against two attackers at once. Around her, the sound of the Red creeps falling mixed with the victorious shouts of the Blue team.

But then, everything changed when they heard a scream. Not from them, but from the distance.

They all looked back toward the approaching Hero—only to see he almost hadn't moved an inch from where they'd first spotted him.

"What's… happening?"

Everyone watched as Gardo rolled down the sand dune—and there was someone else with him. Adam.

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