Eunice reaches the subfloor main room with Nayoung and Jieqiong in tow, she is about to go up the stairway when Heehyun descends with a bloody Jenny that is supporting herself on the redhead’s shoulder, limping down as slowly as she could, blood splats tainting the metal steps with each step taken.

“What happened to her?”- Jieqiong asked from behind Nayoung, her voice clearly full of concern.

“The three of us were checking the perimeter one last time when we were ambushed… Jenny got the worst part of it, we rushed back as fast as we could. I counted seven men in total, but there could be more”- Eunice hastily said before turning back to Heehyun. - “Take her to Eunchae, she’ll know what to do”

“What is the situation?”- Nayoung did not have to turn back to recognize that voice as Chaeyeon’s.

“I have Eunjin and Yebin in the ground floor, covering the front windows and the entrance, here is what we’ll do, Nayoung, do you know how to shoot one of these?”- She asks her as she brings out a massive sniper rifle Nayoung had never seen. That thing must weigh at least 12 kilograms, enough for the recoil to dislocate her shoulder if she used it in the wrong position.

“Umm”- Nayoung was battling against herself right now, this was the kind of situation she wanted to avoid, and now she’d be far, far away from here if it wasn’t for Heehyun –“Yes, I can do it, where do you want me to go?”

She’ll help just this time, only because she doubted the people outside would give her mercy.

“Go to the second floor, take out as many as you can”- Eunice answers, passing her the sniper, earmuffs and a revolver as a sidearm – “I’ll take the backdoor with Jieqiong just in case they want to flank us from there, Heehyun will aid Eunjin and Yebin, then…”

“What’s going on?”- A soft voice echoed in the metal hall, although this time Nayoung couldn’t recognize it at all.

“Dani, sweetie, don’t worry, let’s go back to your room”- Chaeyeon’s sugary voice filled Nayoung’s ears and she hated every second of it.

The teenager looking girl looks puzzled as she looks at the three armed people in front of her, then a realization flashes in her eyes.

“They came for me, didn’t they?”- She asks Chaeyeon

“You don’t need to worry about it, it will be fine”- Chaeyeon reassures her one more time, but Nayoung can tell the girl is not convinced.

“Stay with her Chae, we have this under control, we won’t need you”- Nayoung wonders how could a blind person aid them at all as Eunice casually interrupts before barking some more orders- “Move, we don’t have much time”

They rush up the stairs, Eunice is the first one to reach the top and her machinegun doesn’t lower, not even for a second, as she sweeps the area with her eyes, scrutinizing it for any sign of hostility, before sticking herself to a broken window and remained there, immobile.

“Jieqiong, guard the other window, you two, keep going”-She says without looking at them, Nayoung waits for Heehyun to go ahead and throws one last glance at Jieqiong before exiting the room. She shouldn’t be worrying herself over trivial things in the middle of a shooting.

They reach the lobby and Heehyun sprints directly to join the two girls that were there already without even looking at Nayoung, the latter just kept walking with the rifle dangling from her shoulder until she found the stairs that led up. She climbed the old stairway until she reached the second floor. There was a couple of old windows but sadly none of them was broken, Nayoung tried with the lock of the one right in front the stairs, no luck.

She could have tried opening the other one but instead of that she choose the shortest way, she lifted her right leg and rotated her torso, launching a quick side kick that obliterated the frail glass in the first try. In the next few seconds she was already kneeling down with the rifle aimed downwards, the barrel resting on the window sill. She takes a moment to put on the earmuffs before grabbing the rifle.

She looks through the scope at the treeline that was almost ten meters ahead of the house and suddenly spots someone dashing in between two trees. The very next moment, a group of 3 came out of the treeline, moving quickly towards the house, while two others covered their advance from their position.

“Got you”- She tenses her index and takes a sharp breath, steadying herself. She then presses the finger and the sniper emits a loud boom that is muffled by her ear protection, one of the men that was running towards the house falls almost comically and the grass behind him is smeared by his grey matter-“One less to worry about”

Nayoung takes a second look through the scope before reloading the sniper. Surprised by the sudden fire, the two men that were covering their mates stopped shooting and went back to hiding behind the trees and that left the other two as an easy prey for the three girls inside of the house.

And so it happened, the sound of machine guns rapid fire filled the air and soon enough, the two men that were running through the open field were lying down next to the one Nayoung dispatched not too long ago. Nayoung could feel a smirk forming in , she had missed this.

She prepared the rifle again and started searching the treeline again, she didn’t have to search for long as a head popped up from behind the trees, the poor guy was probably looking for her, she felt her smirk grow bigger as she pushed the trigger once more.

"Boom"

Red mixed with the brown of the trees.

She reloaded again and kept looking. A few minutes went by with no movement at all, then the last guy came out and started walking calmly towards the mansion. Nayoung face morphed from ecstasy to confusion in a couple of seconds, what were the girls waiting for? She imagined the girls here would be capable enough of shooting a man at that distance, moreover if he was walking in a straight line.

She waited a little more, the man was about to leave her field of vision when she decided to kill him herself.

"Boom"

He fell, limp.

Eunice said that she had counted seven, but there wasn’t any more movement in the vicinity. She was still baffled at the inability of the girls two floors below to shoot an easy objective. Maybe that was even more reason for her to leave this place, they wouldn’t last a minute if a battalion were to knock on their door.

Nayoung was immersed in her own thoughts when a noise brought her back to earth.

The floorboards creaked behind her.

Her brain started to flow with electricity, millions of jolts sending signals to different parts of her body altogether, she spun around, letting the of the rifle fall to the ground with a loud "Clank" , while taking out the revolver that was holstered on her belt at an amazing speed.

There was nobody there and after a quick examination of her surroundings she finally relaxed, letting her right arm fall. She holstered the gun again and grabbed the rifle before depositing it in the floor, she’d come back for it after she checked in with Eunice.

She starts going down the stairs, this time a little bit more agile than when she went up since she wasn’t carrying the rifle, but something was off.

She stopped before going down to the ground floor, there was no sound at all, maybe the girls had already gone back down, and that was the most logical explanation. Something in her gut told her that this wasn’t the case.

She starts going down agonizingly slow, step by step.

First step, she holds her breath.

Second step. The boards creak under her feet.

Another step, she clenches her jaw.

Nayoung can now see the door (or lack of it, to be exact) of the mansion. The floor seemed to be deserted but a wall blocked her view of the left side so she wasn’t entirely sure.

Last step, she moves towards the wall and sticks to it before peeking.

Nayoung sees two bodies, one of them was Eunjin, so the other presumably was the girl Eunice addressed as Yebin. Heehyun is nowhere to be seen.

She walks to them as silently as possible, paying close attention to her surroundings at all times, it was clear that something was wrong. She kneels down next to Eunjin, grabbing her wrist and putting her index and middle finger against it.

<…>

She was getting discouraged when she felt it, pulse, the girl was alive. A sigh leaves Nayoung’s lips after she fails to suppress it.

She was about to get up when she noticed it, a shadow projected in front of her by the moonlight that came through the window. She turns around but it’s too late, surprise is replaced in her eyes with pain as a foot digs itself in her stomach, making her tumble and trip over the unconscious Eunjin.

She falls down and her muscles protest, feeling sore from the afternoon fight, when she tries to force them to get up again. Her efforts are cut short by another kick, this time hitting her face. Her head bounces back against the floor and her eyes see black for a moment before readjusting themselves, everything was foggy now.

She tastes something metallic, her blood, and a warm sensation spreads along her jaw. She doesn’t want to but her body makes her surrender forcefully, leaving her with no other choice but to remain on the ground, grunting while the pain started to set in.

Her eyes slowly adjust again and the fogginess clears, although the ringing in her ears and the crippling pain in the back of her head persist as strong as before. The first thing she sees when her eyes adapt to the moonlight are a couple of girls standing above her, and just then she realizes that one is grabbing her by the collar of her shirt, aiming a fist at her that would surely finish the job.

They were talking but Nayoung couldn’t make out the words, besides, the brown haired girl that held her didn’t even take her eyes off her for a second. Nayoung tried to raise her own arm in a pitiful attempt to block, but it was quickly swatted away.

She saw the other girl nod in confirmation and the brown haired one tightened her fist even more.

She blinked, the pressure on her chest vanished and the girl was no longer on her. Her eyes then lazily searched the room and found her, trading quick blows with another girl.

Jieqiong.

A pair of arms unexpectedly gripped her shoulders and forced her to stand up. Her senses started coming back as she looks at the face of her savior. Eunice was currently trying to support her, all while moving as quickly as possible towards the stairs.

Somebody blocks their way. Chubby cheeks and short hair that ironically matched her own height were enough to describe her. Nayoung almost chuckled at the sight but a sharp, sudden pain in her nape turned that into a low grumble. She looked at Eunice and saw the girl frown menacingly at the shorter girl.

Before Eunice could get into position for a fight Jieqiong makes another appearance, violently drop kicking the girl that stood in Nayoung and Eunice way. Jieqiong gets up remarkably fast while the short haired girl struggles to properly regain her breath and Nayoung can’t help but feel a little bit of amazement, it was the first time she was watching her in action, not counting the times they fought against each other.

“Move, now, I’ll hold them off”- She says, determination written all over her face.-“Go get Chae”

Chaeyeon name is mentioned again and whatever amazement Nayoung was feeling was wholly replaced by a strange mixture she could not understand. She doesn’t comprehend why everyone is so keen on getting the blind girl there.

Eunice doesn’t waste a second and resumes their trip down the stairs, by the end of it Nayoung was already walking by herself even with the soreness that tormented her body.

“Dani’s room is at the end of the hall, we just need to…”- Eunice is interrupted.

A scream.

From upstairs.

Nayoung recognizes it.

It was Jieqiong.

“Nayoung! What are you doing?! Come back!”- Her voice no longer reaches Nayoung’s ears.

-----------------------------------------------

The knife glinted, blood on its tip.

It was Jieqiong’s blood.

And now the knife was dangerously close to

“Doyeon! Hurry up and knock her out! We need to pursue the others, they might be planning their escape and we need that child!”- The girl with short hair panted, looking tired after the short fight with Jieqiong.

“Knock her out? After the way she kicked you? Nah Yoojungie, I think I’ll have my way with this one and… wait… what the f…”- Doyeon wasn’t able to finish her answer.

There was a roar that sounded almost inhuman and, just like a raging bull, Nayoung was now charging against them. Jieqiong used the surprise to separate the knife from her neck in a swift motion using her left hand to push away Doyeon’s.

The tall girl didn’t seem to notice as she prepared to catch Nayoung.

What she did not expect, however, was the girl viciously tackling her instead of stopping for a kick. Nayoung pushed her back until they crashed against a window, both of them ending up in the front of the house and breaking the glass in the process.

By the time the pieces of glass impacted the floor Nayoung was already up despite the pain she was in. She saw the other girl getting up too but she didn’t have the chance to attack, Doyeon’s face now sported a few small cuts but her eyes didn’t show anything but rage in the purest of forms. She lunged at Nayoung.

Nayoung barely blocked the punch before stepping back as quickly as she could. Doyeon followed with a sequence of kicks and, in spite of the amount of cortisol and adrenaline rushing through her veins and the blood flowing rabidly all across her system, she couldn’t do anything but try to defend against Doyeon’s hits.

She blocked the first kick.

Then the second one.

The third one connected with the left side of her pelvis.

The fourth one sent her straight to the floor.

The adrenaline disappeared and the pain comes back. Her 100% only lasted for about twenty seconds.

She feels Doyeon grabbing her like Eunice did not too long ago, she tries to fight it but her arms stopped responding to her brain commands. She is dragged to the porch again and, in a swift motion, Doyeon throws her back in through the same window they broke earlier.

She could feel them, the little bits of glass that remained attached to the frame of the window, slicing her body before her back fell hard against the floorboards. An inaudible and almost pathetic grunt escaped .

"Crack"

Doyeon entered, hoping over the window, and glass cracked under her feet, as if signaling the arrival of Nayoung’s executioner.

But said executioner got distracted, her eyes were fixed on a spot past Nayoung, looking at the two girls they left behind in the middle of their own fight. Doyeon started walking against them, her eyes set on Jieqiong, who was pinning Yoojung against the floor, overpowering her, with her right knee pressing Yoojung’s right arm and holding it in place while her left arm restrained Yoojung’s left arm behind her back.

“Stop…”-Nayoung forced the words out of .

Jieqiong wasn’t paying attention, she wasn’t aware that Doyeon was walking to her.

“Stop”-Nayoung said again, this time louder, but to no avail.

Doyeon raised one leg, most likely aiming at Jieqiong’s head for a swift knockout.

“Stop!”

It wasn’t Nayoung this time.

It was Chaeyeon, who stood exuding dignity at the top of the stairs. She had both arms stretching outwardly, joined by the wrist just as if she was handcuffed. Her fingers were separated, looking exactly like