Chapter 114: Collision Course
The open wooden carriage rumbled violently along the dirt road, cutting through the vast green expanse of the valley. A heavy wind swept across the field, shaking the tall grass and swaying the scattered trees along the path. Ben, Lucy, and Naomi sat inside the rattling carriage as the pair of horses galloped forward at full speed. Ben stared bitterly down at his leather boots, his brow furrowed in anger and frustration.
Opposite him, Naomi faced the driver's back, her frame wobbling with every bump in the road. Her expression remained calm, though a troubled shadow hung in her eyes. Then there was Lucy, who looked completely relaxed. She leaned back, resting both arms casually along the wooden edge of the carriage, staring up at an awkwardly shaped cloud drifting across the sky.
Ben let out a low growl, lifting his head to glare at Naomi. "Can't you just teleport us there?" he asked.
"We're still too far," Naomi answered without turning around.
"Yes, but if you teleport us twice, we'd get there faster," Ben insisted, his tone rising.
Lucy lowered her gaze from the sky, shifting her eyes toward Ben. "Are you stupid? She can only teleport three times a day. If she teleports us there twice, she'll only be able to teleport us back halfway on the third time. Then we'd have no choice but to carry an unconscious body all the way back to Aria on foot."
Ben's face flushed. "I'm not stupid! I didn't know how many times she could do it, okay?"
Naomi turned her head, her eyebrows lifting in genuine surprise. "How did you know about that?" she asked Lucy.
Lucy shrugged her shoulders carelessly. "Oh, Katherine told me."
Naomi let out a long sigh, resting both elbows on her knees and leaning forward, her face in her hands. "Seriously... she's always so quiet, but when you actually need her to keep her mouth shut, she can't."
"What? You didn't want us to know about it?" Lucy asked, tilting her head.
"Yes," Naomi answered bluntly.
"Why? We're a team, aren't we?" Lucy pressed.
Naomi looked at her with a tired gaze. "You don't know a lot about guilds, do you?"
Before Lucy could respond, Ben interjected, his voice dripping with spite. "Yeah, it's obvious. Ever since she got recruited two months ago, she hasn't done a single thing except run that stupid mouth of hers."
"What?!" Lucy exclaimed, her eyes widening in offense. "You must have been an asshole ever since you joined this guild!"
"What the fuck did you just say?" Ben barked, his face twisting as his right fist clenched tight. "I dare you to repeat yourself right now!"
Naomi raised her hand, glaring at both of them. "Hey! Seriously? You two are seriously about to fight inside the carriage?"
Lucy glanced at Ben, then looked over at Naomi and folded her arms across her chest. "Well, he started it."
"Started what?" Ben growled, leaning forward over the seats. "You're the one always riling me up with that shitty mouth of yours!"
"And what are you going to do about it?" Lucy challenged, leaning in to meet his gaze.
Naomi pressed her fingers against her temple and closed her eyes, a heavy sigh escaping her lips. *For fuck's sake, it's like riding with a bunch of teenagers.*
Looking past them toward the horizon ahead, Naomi spotted a cluster of trees surrounding several wooden structures in the distance.
"We're close," she announced aloud.
Both Ben and Lucy immediately cut their bickering short, turning their heads to look forward. Naomi stood up from her seat, the wind catching the hem of her brown cloak as it billowed behind her.
"I can teleport us from here," she said.
"Finally," Ben grunted, pushing himself up off the bench as well.
The old driver glanced over his shoulder, his eyes going wide with alarm at the sight of them standing in the speeding vehicle. "What are you people doing? Sit back down, otherwise you're going to fall out!"
Lucy stood up as well, ignoring the driver. Both Ben and Lucy reached out, placing their palms against Naomi's hand.
The moment their skin touched, all three of their bodies dissolved into dark soil, the wind catching the earth and scattering it across the open road in an instant.
The old driver gasped in terror, pulling hard on the leather reins to bring the horses to a sudden halt. He whipped his head around, searching the empty carriage. The open valley lay dead silent around him, save for the howling wind whipping through the grass.
"They... they just vanished," the old man muttered under his breath.
****
Meanwhile, back at the hunter base, Tyler stood frozen in front of Rebecca, wide-eyed with shock at what he had just done. Behind the counter, Serena's hand slowly dropped from her mouth.
*He hit her.*
Serena stood speechless. If this were anyone else, she would have immediately ordered them not to fight inside the tent, or even stepped out from behind the counter to intervene. But this was different. The outburst felt entirely unexpected, especially coming from Tyler. Judging by his polite speech and modest behavior, she had never imagined Tyler to be someone who would plainly strike a woman like that.
Rebecca snapped her face back toward Tyler, her eyes burning with rage. "You motherfucker!"
She threw a wild right hook, but Tyler dodged it easily with a fluid sidestep.
"Hey," Tyler said nervously, raising his hands in defense.
Rebecca threw another strike, driving her fist straight for his jaw. Tyler slipped to the right, letting the punch whistle past his chin.
"Let's calm down," Tyler said, a wry, nervous smile touching his face.
The smile only fueled Rebecca's fury further. She threw another punch, which Tyler dodged, then another, and another. Tyler evaded every blow, taking light, measured steps backward with each dodge.
"Stop it," Tyler said, but Rebecca refused to slow down.
Instead, an unsettling realization took root in her mind as her fists struck empty air. *He's dodging each and every one of my attacks so effortlessly.*
Behind the counter, Serena watched in absolute amazement as Tyler evaded the assault. In her eyes, Rebecca's fists were a complete blur, snapping toward Tyler's face like cracking whips. Yet Tyler dodged every single one without a scratch. Serena had never seen him fight before. She remembered how he had left Gary in a devastated state, but she had never understood how he had pulled it off until now.
"I said stop," Tyler repeated, his hand sweeping out to slap her away by the wrist.
Rebecca let out a sharp groan as a shockwave of explosive pain radiated through her right wrist. She clutched her wrist with her left hand, clenching her teeth against the agony.
"Who do you think you are—"
Before she could finish her sentence, a second sharp crack echoed through the canvas tent.
*Again?* Serena thought, her jaw dropping.
Rebecca stood frozen once more, completely baffled, the force of the open-palm strike causing her to stagger backward two full steps on the ground.
Tyler felt a fleeting pulse of surprise at his own actions, but the feeling was instantly swallowed by a wave of cold annoyance and bitter rage at Rebecca's ungrateful, arrogant behavior. Memories of how she had spoken to him swept through his mind, including the way she had insulted James, calling a hardworking man Tyler looked up to weak and cheap. In the dark forest, he had felt genuine pity for her when she lay battered on the verge of death. But seeing her lashing out now filled him with sheer disgust.
"I said stop," Tyler said, his voice deep, gravelly, and absolute.
"Bastard, you think you scare me?" Rebecca snarled, glaring up at him with wild hatred.
Her silver eyes flared with a faint gray light as she activated her skill, Archer's Flight.
"You think you're something just because you've grown a little stronger?" she barked, her frame blurring into motion as she launched a high kick directly at Tyler's face.
Tyler raised his hand and blocked the kick effortlessly, the heavy impact vibrating through the air of the tent.
"Tyler!" Serena shouted from behind the counter, her voice laced with panic.
Shock flashed across Rebecca's face as her high-speed strike was caught cold. She yanked her leg back and threw a sharp jab toward his chest. Tyler caught her wrist in a vice grip, held her hand in place, and slapped her squarely across the face with his open palm. Before she could react, he reversed the arc and backhanded her across the other cheek with the back of his hand.
Without letting up the pressure, he instantly swept his left leg behind her right one, striking her face with his palm. The combined force swept her feet out from beneath her, driving her hard onto her back against floor. The crash rattled her lungs, and she coughed violently, her eyes widening in agonizing surprise.
"Stop!" Serena screamed, her hands trembling over the counter.
Tyler clenched his fist, staring down at the archer struggling for breath on the floor. "It was stupid of me to even think you possessed a small ounce of respect," he said, his eyes narrowing into a cold, dangerous glare. He looked down at her as she gasped for air and muttered under his breath, "In the end your still Just an arrogant bitch."
He turned his gaze toward the counter. Serena opened her mouth to speak, but her words choked in her throat the moment she met his eyes.
Her heart hammered against her chest. Tyler carried a completely different aura now, a dark, suffocating intensity that made him look like someone dangerous.
Tyler let out a quiet sigh, his posture relaxing slightly. "Sorry about that," he said softly.
He turned back toward Rebecca. She had managed to push herself up into a sitting position, one eye squeezed shut in a twisted grimace of pain and humiliation.
"Come bac—" she managed to choke out before a violent coughing fit cut her off.
"I heard you've been looking for me," Tyler said, staring down at Rebecca. "If you come looking for me again, I'll put you in a worse state than the one I found you in."
Rebecca stopped coughing as her gaze caught Tyler's eyes, they were glowing with a faint, cold blue light that caught her completely off guard.
Tyler squeezed his fist tight and muttered under his breath, "That's a promise."
Without even looking back toward Serena, Tyler turned on his heel and pushed through the canvas flap, exiting the tent.
The outdoor wind fluttered through his hair as he stepped into the open air. He let out a long sigh, shaking his head.
*What was I thinking? I never should have come here. I could be crafting runes with Hector right now.*
Suddenly, another thought struck his mind.
"Right," he muttered under his breath as his fingers reached up to pinch the small chain of his metal pendant.
*I can actually go in there and test out this weapon.*
He glanced back at the tent one last time before turning his body toward the forest. He resumed walking, setting his sights directly on the monster zones.
At the exact same time, just a few meters away from the perimeter of the hunter base, the soil beneath the grass began to tear up slowly.
The earth bulged upward, then violently erupted into the air as if a landmine had detonated beneath the surface. As dirt and clumps of grass rained down, three figures materialized out of the scattering soil in an instant.
Naomi brushed dirt from her brown cloak, looking toward the wooden structures of the base. "We're here."