Chapter 625 - The Prey (4)

I rose from my bed, finding the hour passing into the next day. If I managed to recover Luke from his cold, I may not have to get hunted for the rest of the day. I knocked on Alex's bedroom first, wanting help in collecting the herbs again. Thankfully, he was a light sleeper, opening his door while looking extremely annoyed. Both of us were in our pyjamas, completely unprepared to get them dirty.

"You told me to call you when I plan on entering the restricted areas. I have to enter the garden again. I have to collect more herbs," I explained.

"Didn't we pull out all the herbs?" Alex recalled, clearly suspicious.

"You'll see once we get there," I ran to wake Ethan.

Instead of knocking on his door, I slammed it open. I dashed to his bed, jumping on it to wake him. Ethan ġrȯȧnėd, slowly rising and wondering what I wanted from him. I tried to pull him out of his bed, "we need to collect more herbs in the garden. You wanted to pay me back."

I dragged Ethan towards the garden, taking advantage of the fact he was half-awake. Alex was stunned, facing the plentiful collection of herbs in the same area we collected the previous day. Since I didn't have much time, I urged the both of them to begin gathering them. This was how we went through the same process as yesterday, using the entire night to create the medicine. All of us felt like we were dying from my never-ending failures.

I yawned as I entered Luke's bedroom, shaking him awake. I needed to explain how to use them, tiredly mumbling to him, "the bowls of soup can be spread out for each meal. You can apply the oils and creams wherever you're feeling stiff and unwell. Everything is safe. Alex helped me with them."

"It's true. We spent the entire night on them. Listen to Rika," Alex leaned against the door.

Luke stared at the supply of medicine placed in front of him, clearly wondering how I became allied with Alex. However, we didn't have much time to wait for his response, pressuring him to quickly answer. He ended up nodding his head, agreeing to all our demands, knowing both of us still had to prepare for the first event. Once I left his room, my vision slightly wobbled, feeling a bit dizzy.

"I'll do everything for you. Catch up on your sleep," Alex suggested.

Accepting his offer, I found myself in the hover car when I woke from my nap. Surprisingly, Ethan rode with us, appearing equally exhausted as Alex. I thought he would leave earlier in the morning, recalling his response from yesterday. But I didn't bother to ask, stretching my arms, slowly detaching myself from leaning against the window instead. Since his mansion was destroyed, we were heading towards one of his partner's mansions anyways.

"Are we almost there?" I ġrȯȧnėd.

"We have around ten minutes left," Alex checked the map.

[Round Start: One minutes remaining]

My eyes widened from the notice, desperately scanning the area below me. I had to hope the hunter wouldn't come inside the hover car, there was bȧrėly any room to escape inside here. I slightly began to tremble in fear, racking my brains to create a plan. If I increased the altitude, it would take me a longer time to fall. It was the only choice I had, turning to Alex, "we need to raise the altitude as high as possible. I'm going to become a target within forty seconds."

"You also have to let me open the door, so I could escape when things get too dangerous," my voice shook.

"How do you know?" Ethan searched if anyone was following us.

"Let's just say the incidents at your mansion and Oili's wasn't an accident. I was the target the entire time. I dug the holes since I wanted to hide from the person targeting me," I revealed.

"Why didn't you tell me anything?" Alex pressed the accelerator, disappointed in me.

"I did tell you. You lost your memories afterwards. You're going to soon forget everything that I'm telling you right now too," I wished I had more help during the rounds.

As time increasingly approached the start of the round, I found both Ethan and Alex mindlessly staring into the car walls. I sighed from knowing their memories were getting erased, the mediator not wanting them to interfere. After their eyes became clearer, I revealed everything I could without any consequences, "we need to continue raising the altitude, someone is after us."

Alex immediately started to adjust the controls again, repeating the same actions as a few seconds ago. I was glad that Alex believed me, not wasting a single second. Maybe the hover car crashing into the ground in the previous day helped. This gave me a chance to tightly grab onto the handles, trying not to get swept into the rising pressure in the air. Thankful Ethan was with us, ȧssigning himself to a role, manipulating the air to prevent the oxygen levels from lowering,

We were a nice team together as the hover car rocketed higher into the sky, close to reaching another stratosphere. As soon as the timer had one second remaining, I yelled at them, "it's time to jump. This hover car will blow up soon!"

[Round Started: Five minutes remaining]