Chapter Ten

Yuri stepped on the accelerator as hard as she was allowed to. She could feel the engines running under the car hoods, so fast and powerful, as if they were about to burst out of it. Sounds playing in her ears were nothing more than the winds and random noises whenever the car collided with some unknown objects which she did not have the time to identify.

Tiffany was seated next to her on the passenger’s seat. She was in the midst of tying her wavy long hair with the help of the rear mirror. Years of missions had already got her used to the bumpy road, so she did not really have any trouble in tying them up. Once she was done with her hair, she inched forward and tapped on the small device that was attached right below the rear mirror.

The screen showed two blinking marks, one in green and the other one in red. The one in green was constantly moving, while the one in red stayed still in its position.

“We will be reaching in about ten minutes’ time.” Tiffany stated as she read the device. She had never felt so heavy before. A few SOS were received at the same time from different places. That could imply that their arch-enemy, Satron, had launched an attack on those innocent beings again.

Just that this time round, victims were not only from one place.

“Satron is craftier than I thought. I am not expecting something like this to happen.” Yuri gritted on her teeth, fists clenching tightly on the steering wheel. If mutants managed to appear in different places at the same, that means the people from Satron were scattered around the world.

Now, it is even harder to catch those villains.

The ride wasn’t long with Yuri’s intense speeding. The car reached the entrance of the small village within ten minutes and now, they were already walking in the village.

“Are you from the Aurales?”

An old, deep and husky voice caught their attention. Tiffany and Yuri reached out for their weapons out of reflex, pointing them at the old hunchbacked man who was making his way out from one of the huts in a very slow pace.

Then, they noticed, people living in the other huts were coming out one by one. Although the place was dark and the distance was far, even with a quick glance, Tiffany could see the fear on their faces and sensed the trembles in their bodies.

Yuri was the first one who reacted. As soon as she realized they were the villagers, she quickly kept her gun and approached them. “We’re from the Aurales. We apologize if we have startled you. We received an emergency call from this village, where is the mutant?”

The old man replied, “It went into the forest behind.” He pointed at the patch of black just behind the village.

One of the villagers stepped out from her hut timidly, “There… there is a shrine in the middle of the forest.”

“What about it?”

She cried out uncontrollably, “A… A young lady is living in there. Pl… Please save her!”

Tiffany and Yuri’s expressions froze upon that statement. They had to move fast, or else another innocent live would be gone. Yuri pulled out her guns again, readying to enter the forest when she noticed Tiffany was still standing on her spot, not an inch moved.

“Fany?”

“I shall leave that mutant to you.” Tiffany’s gaze never left a hut which was located on the far end of the village ever since she pulled out her blades.

She isn’t known as the best hunter for nothing, no matter how hard her preys try to hide themselves, she will still be able to sense them.

Only then, that hut caught Yuri’s attention too, but no way would she stay here with Tiffany to deal with it.

Yuri placed her palm on Tiffany’s shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze, “I will meet you back here once I’m done with the other one.”

“Just go.” There was no time to lose.

Yuri nodded and left hastily.

Tiffany began to move, shortening the distance between her and that hut. Her cold voice echoed in everyone’s ear as she opened and instructed the villagers, “Get back into your house, now!” Her instinct told her this was not a normal mutant.

A normal mutant would not know how to hide its odors.

Finally, she reached the hut. With one of her blades pointing at the door of the hut, she asked coldly, “You don’t think you can get away from me with such trick, do you? Show yourself mutant.”

The door burst open immediately, a dark figure dashed out in the speed of light before anyone was able to react to it.

But Tiffany is not just anyone.

*

Sometimes, Yuri really hoped that her nose was as sensitive as Tiffany’s. For now, she could only run aimlessly in the forest, trying to figure out the mutant’s exact location with her nose. She could smell its rotten odor no doubt, but the odor was kind of faint and worse still, it wasn’t concentrated. Yuri had a hard time searching it before she arrived at the front of a weird looking house.

So… this must be the shrine that villager is talking about. Yuri thought to herself while taking in a deeper breath. The odor was thicker than before, but not concentrated enough for her to locate the exact position of the mutant.

“Damn it.” She cursed. Alright, whatever it is, search for that lady first.

With her hands still gripping tightly onto her guns, Yuri made her way to the entrance of the shrine carefully. She thought about knocking on the door for permission to enter, but then again, who cares about permission when life is at stake?

“Sorry for trespassing, but I’m from the Aurales.” Words escaped as Yuri kicked the door open.

She stood still at the entrance and scanned the interior of the shrine. It is empty? Her eyebrows arched into a deep frown subconsciously as she walked inside. Darn, did the mutant found that lady already? Yuri prayed hard, hoping things were not going the same way as what she thought.

She inhaled a deep breath again, nope, no scent of blood, only stinky odor emitted from the mutant which was hiding somewhere.

So where is she?

“Hey, is anyone in here? Please reply if you hear me.” Yuri moved around the insides, flipping over all the curtains that were blocking her views. She finally came to a stop at the dead corner of the shrine, where she spotted a backpack and sleeping bag lying on the ground.

So that villager wasn’t lying at all. Yuri held up her guns and walked towards the other side of the shrine where she spotted a door earlier on. She almost thought the villager was lying about the lady living here alone. Like who would believe it anyway? Even if it was a guy, it would be strange enough for him to stay in this creepy place alone, let alone a lady!

Yuri pushed the door open, only to find that it was actually an exit which led to the backyard of the shrine. She walked two steps forward and then stopped suddenly when her eyes captured the scene in front of her.

Under the moonlight stood a young lady with long blonde hair that reached her waist. She looked as if she was glowing, especially when her skin seemed so smooth, so fair and so milky in Yuri’s eyes. Her slender body was wrapped tightly by a long sleeveless white dress that covered up to her knees, drawing out the perfect outline of her body, revealing the slim legs of hers.

Yuri felt her heart almost stopped beating when her gaze finally met a pair of melancholic eyes.

Angel.

Yuri thought to herself as her jaw dropped slightly without her knowing. She found herself catching on her breath, not being able to let it out as she stared deeply into the two dimmed black pearls, emanating pools of dolefulness.

Save her from darkness, Yuri heard a voice within her urging her to protect this lugubrious lady. Bring hope to her––

The air, it stinks.

Something rotten had seeped into the air and immediately snapped Yuri out of her thoughts. She regained her composure and shouted at that girl, “Get down!”

The lady was obviously bewildered by Yuri’s appearance, she refused to follow Yuri’s request. “I beg your pardon?”

“I say, get dow––” Before Yuri could finish her sentence, she felt the unusual movement in the air around her. She ran towards the girl as fast as she could and pinned her to the ground. She lifted up her arm and pointed her gun at the empty space above them.