They had no choice.
"Move it to the southeast, angle 220 degrees..." First is instructing her the direction in which she should point her bow and arrow.
Heavien was nervous while holding the weapon. What made it even more difficult was that there was no hole in the middle of the bow. She used her finger to straighten it. She didn't really see anyone, just trees, rocks, bushes, and leaves, so she didn't know if they would hit the target.
"Steady and... shoot!" he instructed.
She let go of the arrow and closed her eyes.
"Nice shot!" First praised her.
She looked up and asked First, "What happened?" She couldn't see anything in particular from that distance.
"You hit Sectwen's shoulder."
Huh? Would she be happy or sad? There was something that stung her heart. She hurt Sectwen.
"The others are already there. We got to go and attack them." First was about to hold out his hand to her when he noticed that she was stunned. "What's the matter?"
"T-This is wrong. This is not the right thing to do," she was getting teary-eyed.
He brought his face close to her and stared at her deeply. "Look at me... Just look at me. Think about surviving, winning. If we don't fight, we won't reach our goals. I know we can do this."
She took a deep breath. She was touched by what he said. He had a point. They would only suffer if they did not want to fight for life.
"But does it really have to be like this?" she questioned him.
"How about… we will go fully on defending ourselves and let them attack first?"
His suggestion made it less deadly. She agreed because she had no better idea. They ran as he held her trembling hand. She stopped crying because she had to be strong like him.
"Someone's following us," she felt uneasy about what he noticed. "We can't just run. We need to face them."
They stopped running and waited for whoever he said was following them. Not long after, it was Karson and Myriana.
"Myriana!" she called and waved. They were just 10 meters away from them. She was happy to see that they were safe.
"H-Heavien…" she stuttered, looking surprised.
"Hey, guys! We've been following noises and t'was you." It was Karson.
Were they following them?
"What're you doing here?" a serious question by First.
"Because my partner heard a fast-crackling sound, probably running. I smelled the scent of a girl, lol. It just smelled like Heavien," he winked at her. "Then we followed you. I wasn't sure if it was Heavien's scent, but it's really you." Karson was talking about scents. His nth sense must be a sense of smell.
"If you can smell Second, doesn't it mean that you already know that I am with her?" First questioned him.
"I didn't tell Aeith that I could smell her, so she insisted we chase you to confirm from whom the footsteps she heard." And Myriana's must be a sense of hearing.
Heavien observed Myriana, and she was just silent.
"Why don't you say... You want to attack us?" First's mischievous question.
Heavien stopped him, but he just gave her a look saying, 'Don't worry, I got this'.
"Ah, hehe." Karson grinned. "What a blunt man you are. Well, accuse us of whatever you want. We don't have a choice because you two are closest to us right now."
Karson pulled out his pistol. Just one click of the trigger and they could die.
Myriana looked at her. "So sorry, Heavien. I have to do this." She slowly took the… grenades out of her suit pocket.
What were they going to do?
First presented his sword to the two of them and then told her, "Ready your weapon."
After he said that, against her will, she aimed her bow and arrow at them. She was trembling.
"Haha! Sword and archery? Traditional yet classy. But ours is more powerful." Karson boasted.
He was Thirtwen, whom she met, was loving to his friends who died early during the tri-games. Now, he had become an overconfident opponent of theirs.
"More useless information," First replied with a flat tone.
Heavien crouched down and closed her eyes as Karson fired his pistol. She opened her eyes and saw that First was still standing.
"Did you just avoid the bullet with your sword?" Karson wondered incredulously.
Wait, avoided? Could First's sword evade the bullet of a pistol?
And with the size of the bullet and not that big of a sword, was he able to aim the sword at the bullet? How unbelievable it just happened. First ran closer to the two.
"Myriana, the grenade!" Karson commanded Myriana.
Because of what Karson shouted at Myriana, she couldn't release the arrow. She ran because they were planning to have it explode. Myriana threw it at them, but the sound of the explosion was not too loud.
Where was First? Heavien hadn't gone far yet, so she inhaled smoke and gunpowder. It felt unpleasant that the chemical was sickening her. She licked her dry lips when she tasted bitterness in the air. Why did she taste something bitter?
Wait, she had to look for First. She coughed.
"First! Where are you?" After several calls, she heard someone coughing too. She approached where she heard the coughing and saw First lying on the ground. "First!" She approached him and helped him sit up properly.
"That explosion was enormous," she commented, rubbing his back as he continued to cough.
When First seemed okay, she continued talking with him. "What happened to them?" She couldn't see them because of the thick smoke from the grenade.
First stared into her eyes. "I killed Thirtwen."
"H-Huh?" She's bewildered.
"Please forgive me. That was the only way. I made the sword invisible and managed to get Thirtwen's guard down after the grenade exploded. I wasted no time. It was instant death for him. He actually planned to attack us first after the explosion, but I went to him faster."
Heavien searched around and saw Myriana running away. Her eyes widened. Karson, on the other hand, had no life lying on the ground. She went towards his bleeding corpse. The view deeply downhearted her. First had just killed someone with his own hands. She didn't know how to feel or react.
When she regained her emotions, she adjusted herself. She helped First stand up and held out her hand.
"It was all sudden." First is limping because of his injured left leg. "I hope I didn't scare you," he grunts.
She remained silent. She was out of words. She made him put his arms on her shoulders. She had no right to judge him because he killed someone. He wanted to protect himself and her from danger; that was why he did it.
They continued walking to find a safer place to rest his injury. "Be strong. Be alert to your surroundings. Ensnare your senses."
When he asserted that, she gulped first and turned a blind eye. She already knew what her nth sense was.