~Chapter 8 – Revenge Solves Nothing~

            The following morning, like Sehun had said, Luhan woke up feeling like hell. His head throbbed and he felt sick to his stomach as he groaned and kept his eyes tightly shut. 

            "Here," it was a quiet whisper and then Luhan felt a small pill slip into his mouth followed by water.

            Luhan swallowed it since he knew it was Sehun's voice.

            "It's hangover medicine, I bought a pack before we left the village. You should be up and ready to go in about thirty minutes or so, you drank a lot last night so it's not really a surprise that you feel like at the moment," Sehun was careful to keep his voice down so Luhan's headache wouldn't worsen.

            Luhan gave another quiet groan as his nausea began to very slowly go away, he cracked an eye open slightly to see Sehun standing by the bed with a blank expression waiting for the medicine to take full effect.

            The medicine was definitely working, Luhan could feel it but it was just too slow for his liking, with a lot of effort Luhan croaked out, "What happened?"

            The last thing he could remember was being at the table and drinking the water Yoona poured into the cup and everything after that just drew a blank in his head.

            "Yoona confused water with the strong soju we bought during our trip to the bar, so she poured it into the cup you drank last night," answered Sehun.

            Luhan groaned again, there was no doubt in his befuddled mind that he did something outrageous under the influence, "Did I do anything…"

            "No… Well you got clingy and tried to take your shirt off but you didn't do anything other than that since I forced you to go to bed," answered Sehun promptly without much expression. There was no way Sehun was going to tell Luhan the complete story of what happened, he already felt nervous enough approaching Luhan since he was afraid Luhan would remember what happened last night. It was purely the fact that Sehun was able to control his facial expressions well and have been around Luhan for so long that he was able to keep his cool all the way until this point.

            Luhan frowned but accepted the answer nonetheless, "Okay, where are the others?"

            "Everyone's out in the living room getting ready to leave. I already packed our things, we have five more towns to go and then we'll reach Healer's Fields Kingdom. The main goal today will be to just get through two towns and if you feel up to it, hopefully the third town too," replied Sehun.

            "Okay I'm starting to feel a lot better than before, ugh drinking is terrible I don't understand how you could drink so much and not even get a buzz," complained Luhan as he lifted his hand over his eyes.

            Sehun scoffed lightly, "I just have a higher tolerance than you."

            "Which I find completely unfair."

            "Yeah, yeah, you find a lot of things unfair."

            The corner of Luhan's lips twitched into a smile before he moved his hand away from his face and looked Sehun in the eyes. Sehun appeared to be fine but Luhan couldn't shake the feeling that something was sort of off with the younger.

            "Are you sure I didn't do anything weird while I was drunk?"

            "No, everything was fine."

            "Mmm okay then, maybe my senses are just off from being hung over."

            Sehun internally sighed in relief as the conversation was dropped.

            Once the hangover medicine took full effect on Luhan, the entire team headed for the road. Their travels went pretty smoothly and since the two towns were in close proximity to each other the entire group was able to make it to the second town way before nightfall.

             "Should we take the chance and head for the next town?" asked Kyungsoo as they were taking a short break.

            Sooyoung and Yoona were sitting on the grass eating a few snacks between Kai and Kyungsoo as Sehun and Luhan laid out the map before all six of them.

            "The last town takes us through a thick forest, it shouldn't be too difficult to navigate our way through. But how is everyone's condition? Can we all handle another trip to the next town?" questioned Sehun as he looked at each member in his squad.

            The other three nodded back at their squad leader, "Yes."

            "If you're all sure then let's make the trip," decided Sehun as they began packing up and heading out.

            Their way through the forest began easy enough as they trekked forwards through the thick foliage, it was already the late evening and Sehun was beginning to worry if they would be able to make it to the next town before nightfall. Being in the thick forest surrounded by darkness is one of the worst things that could happen at the moment, well that and somehow getting attacked by wild animals.

            Yoona seemed to also notice the setting sun and asked Luhan who was carrying her, "Are we close to the town yet?"

            "Ah, I think we should be reaching it soon enough," replied Luhan before looking towards Sehun, "We'll be reaching it soon right?"

            "I'm hoping so, if not then we're going to have to set up camp or something before it becomes completely dark," answered Sehun.

            Everyone stopped walking at hearing Sehun's words.

            "So our course of action will be what?" asks Kyungsoo.

            Sehun looked upwards at the trees, "Luhan you're the best at climbing, climb one of these trees to the highest point and tell me if you can see the town. If you're able to see it, we'll just pick up our speed and make it to the town as quickly as we can but if you can't and all you see are trees then we'll have to set up camp."

            Luhan nods and hands Yoona over to Sehun, "Alright, I'll be back."

            As Luhan scales the tree, Sehun, Kyungsoo, Kai, Yoona, and Sooyoung are left at the bottom to wait. Sehun estimated about maybe ten minutes for Luhan to climb to the top of the tree and then come back down but what surprises the whole team was that Luhan jumped back down in under five minutes.

            "What are you-"

            "Move, now," Luhan doesn't wait for the team to respond instead he throws a smoke bomb in the direction behind them and the team immediately take off, following Luhan down the path to the town.

            "What's going on?" asks Kai who's piggy backing Sooyoung.

            "We're being followed, two of them. I was about to climb further up on the trees to check for the town but I heard rustling in the distance and I looked over to spot them," informed Luhan.

            "Where's our course of direction now?" questions Kyungsoo.

            "To the town if possible, don't get separated!" instructed Sehun as he feels Yoona hold on tighter, 'Who in the hell is after us now!?'

            They can hear the footsteps of the pursuers right on their heels, Luhan clicks his tongue in annoyance. The smoke bomb apparently did nothing to make them lose their trail.

            "They're still after us," notes Kyungsoo as he looks back, the two are covered in dark clothing and are hiding their faces behind masks so none of them could make out who their pursuers were.

            "I don't think we can lose them," adds Kai as he watches Kyungsoo throw a few kunais in their direction, unfortunately all the kunais missed as the other two dodge.

            Sehun grits his teeth, "Change of plans, we split up. Two of you take the princesses back, and two of us stay back to fight."

            "No way! That still leaves one team vulnerable!" protested Luhan as they continue running.

            "We don't really have much of a choice!" retaliated Sehun, "Kai! Take Yoona!"

            Kai shoots Sehun a worried look, "But-"

            "This is an order! Do as I say!" Sehun passes Yoona to Kai who immediately takes her into his arms, "Get going! We'll take care of these two!"

            Sehun stops running and immediately turns around, Luhan follows suite since he's not holding on to any of the princesses. The two trailing after them aren't stopping in their tracks as they approach Sehun and Luhan. Kai and Kyungsoo are still on the move but they don't get very far as Kyungsoo yells out a warning.

            "Kai!"

            It was way too late because Kai tripped a wire and triggered the trap causing a metal net to lift from the ground and entangle both him and Yoona in it.

            Yoona let out a loud shriek as she and Kai got lifted off the ground.

            "Kai!" Sehun and Luhan yell out in unison as they watch their teammate and Yoona get stuck about ten feet off the ground.

            Kyungsoo curses under his breath as he analyzes the situation and puts Sooyoung down to take out a medium length blade, "Sooyoung, stay near me and don't move."

            "But what about everyone else!?" asked Sooyoung frantically.

            Kyungsoo looks up at the net and then back to Sehun and Luhan, "We'll find a way to get Kai and Yoona down first, we'll have to try and break the chain holding up the net."

            "Big brother Kai!!!" Yoona screams again as the metal net shakes.

            "It's okay Yoona! I'll get us down!" reassures Kai as he begins analyzing the metal net and grabs a senbon needle out from his back pouch, if he can loosen the top open then he should be able to release the trap.

            As Kai and Kyungsoo work out their predicaments, Sehun and Luhan have their own problems to face as the two enemies finally catch up to them. Sehun and Luhan pull out their own weapons and focus on their main opponent, they trust that Kai and Kyungsoo can handle themselves.

            "Heh finally we've caught up to you," the masked figure on the right pulls their mask down to reveal a much too familiar face.

            Kyubok gives them a disturbing grin as he reveals himself, "Did you think you got rid of me so easily?"

            The second masked figures removes his mask as well to show Chinhwa, "There were a lot of strings we had to pull from our connections in the town over in order to set these traps up to stop you all but it finally pays off."

            "Ugh, you bastards again," spit out Luhan in complete irritation.

            "Nothing more than a bunch of stubborn roaches that keep crawling back," mutters Sehun.

            Kyubok narrows his eyes at the two, "Took the w