Chapter 221: Always in time
"Is this... the peace of death I’m feeling?" Victor murmured, his eyes slipping closed as he lay face down on the ground. His body was covered in wounds, every inch of him burning with pain—yet suddenly, that pain no longer mattered. A strange calm pressed down on him, as if all the fear and suffering had simply been erased.
"Get up. You’re not dead... yet." Dalin said, pausing deliberately on the last word as she kicked him in the side.
"What...?" Victor stirred, forcing himself up from the ground and looked around in confusion.
Then he saw them. Dozens of mutants stood frozen in front of them, clutching their heads, trembling violently, unable to move. The sight pulled a sudden, almost hysterical laugh from Victor.
"You see? I never run out of brothers to save my ass," he said, looking far too proud for someone who had been crying moments earlier.
The moment they saw the mutants in that state, both of them understood the reason. This power could only belong to Adyr.
Victor’s grin widened as he looked at the nearest mutant, cowering in fear. "You don’t look so scary anymore, huh?"
Without hesitation, his right hand shifted as his nails extended into metallic claws. They looked damaged, cracked, and dulled, but he didn’t care. Shouting recklessly, he charged forward.
"Die, you motherfuckers!"
The moment his claws struck the mutant’s chest, the sharp sound echoed around them.
Crack!
Victor let out a scream, filled with agony. "Aghhh... my hand!"
Feeling the pain of his blood-soaked fingers, his shattered claws dripping, he cried out in pain.
"You really are an idiot, aren’t you?" Dalin muttered, covering her face with one hand as she watched.
"Damn... I thought I could split it in half with one hit. Why did this happen...?" Victor groaned, wincing as he stared at the mess of his ruined hand.
It wasn’t entirely his fault. Adyr’s oppressive Presence, which had frozen the mutants in fear, had also bled into him, feeding his confidence, pushing him to believe he was stronger than he actually was. For a moment, it had felt like nothing could stop him. But his worn, cracked claws hadn’t shared that illusion.
"Now you’re completely useless. Congratulations," Dalin sighed, though she chose not to press him any further.
After all, Victor had been the one who killed the most mutants among them. Even in the worst situations, he had kept moving, cutting down enemies in the dark like a shadow, his claws protecting the group time and time again.
The state of his hands now was simply the price of pushing his limits too far.
Seeing Victor fall silent, his pride clearly wounded as he dragged himself to the wall and sat down, both arms hanging uselessly at his sides, Dalin turned her gaze back to the mutants.
"This is just... insane," she muttered.
Watching the creatures that had moments ago been hunting them now frozen in place, too afraid to even move, felt both terrifying and strangely fascinating. What unsettled her more was the simple fact that the one responsible wasn’t even nearby.
He has probably gone after them.
Dalin thought, certain that Adyr’s target was those two strange mutants and that he had already gone after them. She had no idea how long the fear-induced paralysis would last on these, so wasting time wasn’t an option.Without hesitation, she opened her palm. A small seed appeared—a faintly glowing ember at first, then igniting into a swirling flame as she activated her Spark skill. The burning seed pulsed with restrained energy, casting flickering light across her mud-streaked face.
She spun on her heel and kicked the mutant sharply in the jaw, forcing its mouth open. In that instant, she threw the burning seed deep into its throat.
The effect was immediate.
From the outside, its thick, plated skin remained untouched. But deep inside, the seed ignited. Flames consumed its organs from within, its throat bulging and smoke pouring from its mouth as it staggered and then collapsed.
Its body collapsed to the ground with a heavy, dull thud. There was no struggle, no sound, only black smoke curling slowly from between its teeth as it lay motionless.
Dalin didn’t even glance down at the corpse as she moved to the next.
—
"Ten meters ahead, left side. There’s a narrow passage we can hide in," Evangeline said, her voice strained as she ran through the wide, lightless corridor.
Her slender frame looked worn, shoulders heaving with exhaustion, yet her amber eyes burned with quiet determination. She wouldn’t stop.
Close behind, Selina followed in silence, trusting the information without question. Her midnight-purple ponytail streamed behind her like a shadow stretching into the darkness, blending with the black corridor around them. Pale skin glimmered faintly under the dim emergency lights, cold vapors rising from her body with every step. Wherever her boots touched the stone floor, thin layers of ice bloomed silently behind her, turning the ground into a treacherous, glass-smooth surface.
It wasn’t accidental. Nor was it unconscious.
Every patch of frozen stone was intentional—each step carefully calculated to slow down the two massive mutants chasing close behind. Even if she couldn’t stop them outright, restricting their movement with a thin trail of ice was enough to buy them precious seconds.
A deliberate, strategic move—one more barrier between survival and death.
As the two ran desperately, they reached the narrow passage Evangeline had discovered moments earlier through her Investigation skill. Without hesitation, they slipped inside.
It wasn’t a long corridor. In truth, it was one of the small alcoves branching off from the main tunnel—cramped, with a narrow entrance and no other exit. Entering this place meant abandoning all escape routes. They had willingly trapped themselves inside. But continuing to run wasn’t an option anymore.
Selina’s ice-coated footsteps, though effective at slowing the mutants behind them, had drained her energy reserves to the brink. Every step that created more frozen ground burned through her limited reserves. And both of them, after constant running and the battles before, had long since spent their stamina. Their legs barely carried them now.
Selina positioned herself at the very back of the pocket-like cave, pressing her back against the cold stone wall, her breathing uneven, but her focus sharp as she kept her eyes locked on the entrance.
"Do you think... they won’t fit through?" She asked quietly, her voice strained but steady.
"I hope," Evangeline replied, too exhausted to offer certainty. The answer was something they could only learn by watching.
They didn’t have to wait long.
With the sound of grinding stone and a roar like a collapsing building, one of the massive mutants rammed into the alcove’s narrow entrance like a living bulldozer. The entire cave shook violently. Dust rained from above. Chunks of stone cracked and tumbled down as debris scattered around them.
But the narrow gap worked in their favor. The mutant’s colossal frame was simply too large. Its armored body wedged into the opening, shoulders scraping against the stone, unable to force its way through.
Realizing it was stuck, the creature thrashed in fury, bellowing with animalistic wrath. Its plated arm, like a metal-covered battering ram, reached blindly into the alcove, claws swiping desperately for the two small figures trapped inside.
Selina and Evangeline stood motionless, pressed against the stone, watching those clawed fingers slash through the air, just meters short of reaching them.
Outside, the second massive mutant wasn’t idle. It attacked the wall relentlessly, trying to widen the passage by sheer brute force. Every impact shook the alcove as cracks spread across the walls around them.
Behind the two giants, their minions—the smaller mutants—crowded the tunnel. Though unable to enter, they waited silently, staring at the blocked entrance, their twitching bodies eager to follow once their leaders cleared a path.
The trap held for now.
But neither of the two women doubted their borrowed time was running out.
"Can you get any signal?" Evangeline asked, her voice tight, eyes flicking over the wrist device as she searched for anything—any line, any flicker of contact.
Selina checked her own display in silence, then shook her head once. Whatever was blocking them, it wasn’t natural. The signal had vanished entirely, like something was deliberately jamming their link. No backup calls were getting through.
"I just hope Victor and Dalin found a spot stable enough to get a message through to Player Headquarters..." Evangeline muttered. She slid down until her back pressed against the wall, sitting heavily on the cold stone floor. The strength in her legs was gone.
The sound of grinding stone filled the space again. Every second, the mutant wedged in the narrow opening thrashed harder. Its armored body tore at the stone around it, grinding boulders into dust as cracks spread outward like veins. It wasn’t giving up.
"I only have enough energy left to seal the gaps with ice," Selina said quietly, eyes fixed on the giant hand clawing through the rubble. "But I doubt it’ll stop them. At best... a few minutes. Maybe half an hour."