10 A Dance of Death

Raptor quietly remained still, his machine gun out and a woman with an exploded skull lying in front of him.

Azuma's gaze was upon the scarlet wrapped around Raptor's wrist and those fingers twisted in odd angles.

Haru's eyes widened as he threw a brief glance at her.

"No way…" she muttered but her throat went dry.

Azuma cried as loud as she could, "Everyone down!"

Saying that he grabbed Haru's wrist and instead of getting down, he hauled her away. She looked at him in horror but there was no time to even try to reason when they were surrounded by such a dreadful air.

A deafening crack of thunder filled the chamber as Raptor pressed the trigger and rained down the bullets all around him. The sound was so loud that it suppressed all cries and Azuma felt like his ears would bleed.

His heart was hammering against his chest, Haru was frozen from fear as he brought her behind a statue.

Even though the seekers were trained to face fatal dangers, those dangers seldom came from humans.

When the ammo ran out, there was a deathly silence in the chamber.

Haru had narrowly escaped the raining bullets because Azuma decided to run away at the last moment. She let out a shaky breath and grudgingly pulled her hand away.

"Have lost your—!"

Azuma winced and hastily clasped a hand over her mouth.

"We can't let them hear us," he whispered.

Haru was at a loss for words but then he nudged her further in the shadows and gestured at the center of the chamber.

The golden ground was stained in blood.

Raptor was trying to fill ammo in his empty gun even though there was none left. Only four other hunters have survived, three of them struggling to breathe.

But the odd thing was the way few hunters stood up despite their seemingly fatal injuries. Their faces bore pained expressions and yet those eyes were as cold as death.

All of them carried some kind of small scattered cuts and each one of them had a part twisted oddly.

Earlier, a flicker of silver light had caught Azuma's eyes from one of the statues. It was too thin, fading away as soon as he saw it. He blinked in confusion.

Cobwebs?

They were like silver threads, too thin to see at first but now he found them spread all across the ground. The threads stretched towards the statues, disappearing behind the shrouded areas of the chamber.

"These cobwebs," Azuma explained warily, "they're the same scarlet spider silk we found before entering the chamber."

"And that means…?"

"The silk is red because," Azuma pointed at the pool of blood, "it feeds on blood."

It was hard to see at first but then Haru noticed that some of those cuts were actually stained pieces of the spider silk.

But that wasn't the only thing. This silk was also entangled around the hunters, causing their joints to be bent or twisted strangely.

Haru narrowed her gaze, "It's alive."

Azuma nodded, his mind reeled back and cold sweat appeared over his forehead as he asked, "and parasitic?"

"Mister Han…?" Haru furrowed as she saw the man take out his pickaxe, "what is he—"

Haru flinched back, Azuma stopped her before she could rush in but her resolve shattered soon as a sickening sound followed.

She averted her eyes, body slightly trembling.

Han ended the man who was trying to get up, not stopping to bring down his axe even when the man was no longer moving.

Azuma suppressed a shudder as he concluded.

"Parasitic."

Haru had no words to say as the weight of the situation dawned upon her. She was nervous, biting her lips as she blankly stared at the bushes behind them. They weren't even able to properly spot the silver threads, then how could they hope to put up a fight?

And what if they too succumbed to the parasite?

"There has to be a way…" Haru said more to herself than him.

"What's that?"

Azuma asked as he caught a glimpse of something odd behind the green and lilac of those bushes.

Haru peered behind and gasped.

He almost thought she found an exit.

"Cocoon," she said, pointing at a giant ball of silver spider silk.

Azuma frowned, but before any of them could think further about this strange finding, a swift arrow landed right next to Azuma, grazing the side of his neck.

He let out a shaky breath, "We need to escape."

Haru swallowed hard, "They won't let us."

Azuma whispered, "Then we must make a way."

She held his gaze for a moment. None of them had any idea about how things might end now but backing down was not an option.

"Fast," she added.

Haru dashed away first, taking out her gun and immediately changing a few controls as she dodged an arrow. Her boots crashed as she slid to avoid another strike while simultaneously blasting an energy beam through a hunter.

The next hit brought her on her knees.

Azuma took out two of his knives, slashing them across a hunter who looked unfazed. He let his instincts take control, to have the system guide his moves as he was slammed down on the ground.

It felt like his skull might burst open but then Azuma was pushing through, plunging his knife deeper within his opponent, thrusting it with all his strength.

They both somehow managed to overpower the hunters, but Azuma and Haru were still unable to shake the raw fear of a looming danger. A moment too late and they might become like others..

Azuma disliked prolonged fights, and they were already short of time and so he focused on restricting the mobility of his opponents—managing to chop off a few wrists and wound a leg.

Soon it became clear that whatever controlled the hunters from within wasn't affected by injuries. The body acted like a mere shell, being used like a puppet with silver strings that craved blood

Azuma gave up on trying to land blows as they were all futile, instead, he dodged and tried to stay away from the hunters yet not too far. There was already a constant pain that throbbed over his leg, he can not afford to do anything else.

His eyes were searching for something as he forced his nerves to remain calm. Haru fought but it was clear that she won't be able to hold on for too long.

She snarled at him as one bullet went through her shoulder, "If you're not fighting, at least escape!"

Azuma didn't hear her, his lips lifted into a tired smile as he realized something.

Haru grumbled under her breath, face burning as she barely avoided a beastly blow from Raptor.

The hunters were beaten up, some with drooping limbs and some with fatal wounds. They were like walking dead in the fight, lifeless yet unrelenting.

"To the exit!" Azuma called out, "Now!"