357 Chapter 357: Don’t Kid Yourself

The Jack-o'-Lanterns shrank back when they noticed the growing storm of pink Sakura petals that fluttered around me. Being the intelligent monsters that they were, they quickly turned to flee.

Unfortunately, they weren't smart enough. Otherwise they would have retreated long ago, instead of waiting until I finished casting my spell.

Swinging my sword, I unleashed the blizzard of razor-sharp Sakura petals in all directions. Despite their preternatural speed, the Jack-o'-Lanterns found themselves consumed by the expanding cloud of pink petals. A few of them spun around to counter the petals with their scythes, defending themselves with consummate skill. I could see them hacking down swathes of pink Sakura petals with their deadly weapons, cutting out a safe zone.

Those who chose to run, unfortunately, found themselves cut apart and shredded into pieces. In less than half a minute, fully half of the Jack-o'-Lanterns were slain, their horde decimated by just a single spell. The rest fought bravely, their twirling scythes a black blur that sliced through the dense fog of Sakura petals almost effortlessly.

However, while they found themselves pressed and cornered by the overwhelming number of deadly petals, I seized the chance to cast a second spell. Thick green vines whipped out of the ground and ensnared them, catching them by surprise. Coiling around their limbs, they yanked, turning taut as the Jack-o'-Lanterns strained against their new restraints. A few of them responded with impressive reflexes, working to cut apart the fresh bonds that now ensnared them, but more than a few were stunned by the sudden onslaught.

That split second of hesitance proved to be the difference between life and death. While they froze, the razor-sharp petals cut them apart mercilessly, turning them into bloody ribbons of flesh. Even those who did manage to respond in time to cut themselves free weren't able to fully escape the ferocious assault of the Sakura petals, and they barely broke out of the clouds, bloodied and severely injured.

By then, I had yet another spell prepared for them. This time, black petals rained down upon them, cutting through their arms and disarming them. Their scythes clattering onto the ground uselessly, still clutched by disembodied hands, the remaining Jack-o'-Lanterns were shredded by the ravenous black petals.

A few of them survived, and ran, grasping at their amputated stumps, but I had decided to finish them off personally. My two swords flashed mercilessly, the black and white blades behading the fleeing monsters. Even though they were still as fast and agile as ever, their injuries had dulled their reflexes and movements. Not to mention, the drop in their morale had psychologically impacted them to the point where they were essentially routed. It was but a simple task to clean them up.

Even before I could finish the dwindling horde up, Redfield marked his arrival with a flaming spear that pierced through a fleeing Jack-o'-Lantern, causing the poor creature to combust instantly. As its brethren milled hysterically about it, trying to duck and dodge with their incredible speed, Redfleld appeared within their midst after retrieving his spear. Unbelievably, the veteran mercenary was much faster than even them, his spear cleaving through their broken forms and cutting them apart into flaming chunks.

Unfortunately for him, there were no more than a handful of Jack-o'-Lanterns left. I had claimed most of the kills. As I cut down the last of them, I straightened up and sheathed my swords before turning to the kids.

"Are you guys all right?"

"Yeah!" Adrian jumped up to me brightly, his eyes shining in admiration. "That was amazing, Brother Richard! I'll make sure to learn from you!"

"Uh, no, you don't really have to…" Then I remembered that I was the one who told him to watch and learn. Never mind. As long as he got something out of this mess, that was fine. More importantly, I had questions that needed answering. "What are you guys doing here? How the hell did you end up in the middle of Aurora Forest?"

"…long story." Adrian turned serious, his expression changing from admiring delight to sullen glumness in under a second. "Our bus was attacked, and we were forced to escape into the forest after the driver was killed."

"Attacked? By who?" I raised an eyebrow questioningly. Adrian shook his head.

"I don't know. I've never seen them before. They were wearing hoods and cloaks, looking suspicious and all that nonsense. You know, like the characters from Assassin's Creed."

"Assassins," Redfield murmured. He had his hand to the com bead, evidently having reported this situation to Feng Hai. "But why would the Assassins Guild target you guys?"

"Huh? I don't know. But we tried to escape them by running into the forest. I think we managed to lose them quite some time ago, but we ended up running into monsters." Adrian shrugged, looking more exhausted than angry. "If you hadn't shown up when you did, Brother Richard, we would probably be monster chow by now."

"Uh huh." That made no sense. I recalled the Veneneum Assassins who Redfield and I had been tracking in hopes that they would lead us to Anastasia, but it occurred to me that they weren't looking for the green-haired ex-Assassin but were instead trying to kill these kids. But that made no sense. If they really wanted to kill the kids, they had plenty of more efficient and certain methods to do so, especially with their poison. Why go through the trouble of calling down a pack of rank E monsters on them, and leaving before they could confirm that the monsters did the job?

That made no sense whatsoever.

"By the way, those Assassins who attacked you…were they dressed like ninjas? With masks, and a metallic headband?"

Something about Adrian's description caught my attention. He mentioned hoods and cloaks, but while the Veneneum Assassins I had spotted wore hoods, they weren't wearing any cloaks. They were, well, dressed like ninjas.

"Huh? No. Though their features were mostly concealed under the shadow of their hoods, I'm pretty sure they weren't wearing masks. And like I said, they look more like the assassins from the game Assassin's Creed than ninjas."

In other words, the group of Assassins who attacked Adrian's party was different from the Veneneum Assassins I had spotted and was tracking until they took out my Corvus. Now their modus operandi made sense. They had lured the monsters here because they caught sight of the kids, and aware that I had been tracking them, they decided to use the kids as a distraction to throw me off their trail. They must have known that I would go help the kids instead of pursue them, though that was one hell of an assumption.

"This reminds me of the time when you saved me from those Ravagers, Brother Richard!" As always, Adrian was cheerful as ever. Even as the other kids kept their distance, he alone stayed at my side, chattering away incessantly.

"Richard," Redfield called out, lowering his hand from the com bead. "New orders from the top. We're to escort these kids back to the landing zone. We'll bring them back to the hovercraft, where they can seek shelter in, and then we'll resume our search."

"Sounds good to me," I agreed. Adrian blinked and tilted his head quizzically.

"Search? What are you searching for?"

"We're actually searching for a missing friend," I told him. He brightened up.

"Oh…a person? Does she have long green hair or something?"

"What was that?" That caught Redfield's attention, and he rushed over. I almost had to step in to prevent him from grabbing Adrian's collar and hauling him up. "You saw Ana? Where? When?"

"Ana…?"

"The green-haired girl we're looking for," I explained again, placing a hand between Redfield and Adrian. I wasn't going to let the Silver Wolves mercenary manhandle my young friend. "Where did you see her? How long ago?"

"Um…over there…in that direction. She actually helped us. After the bus driver was killed, she showed up and drew away the hooded people, luring them away from us. Then she told us to run. At that point, we were somewhere inside the forest, and have no idea to go, so we were just running randomly, and we got lost. She saved our lives, though."

He paused for a moment, as if trying to remember something. Fortunately, the blond girl stepped up to help.

"We saw her about an hour ago, I believe. Maybe less. It was quite some distance away, but it wasn't very far from where our bus crashed after we were attacked."

"Do you remember where your bus crashed?" Redfield demanded. I gave him a look, trying to resist the urge to roll my eyes. How would the kids know?

"If you have a map, I can give a rough estimation." The girl scratched her head. "I don't know where exactly, but I think I recognize the mountain we were on."

"Thanks!"

Redfield eagerly beamed a holographic map from his smartphone and knelt down so that the blond girl could reach and pinpoint the rough location of where their bus had crashed. Seeing how he was so desperate to find Ana, I sighed.

"You go ahead and look for her, Redfield," I suggested wearily. As much as I wanted to find Anastasia myself, I had a responsibility to look after these kids. "I'll escort these guys back to the hovercraft, and then join you afterward."

"Thanks." Redfield nodded and began communicating with Feng Hai to inform him of the new location. From the information he had just gleaned from the blond girl, we could narrow down the search radius and locate Anastasia quicker. He then turned back to me, looking apologetic. "I'll be counting on you then."

I nodded and watched him go before turning to the kids. Motioning to them, I led the way back to the hovercraft, relying on my single surviving Corvus to lead the way. Green Dragon disappeared for now, on standby until I plunged into combat once more. And in a monster-infested forest like this, I had no doubt that we would encounter hostile life-forms soon enough.

"Brother Richard." Adrian joined me at the front, enthusiastically surging ahead of his peers. "I have someone to introduce to you."

"Uh, okay?" I raised an eyebrow curiously. That came out of nowhere.

"Yeah." Adrian turned around and gestured for the blond girl to join us. She wasn't far from our position, having stayed near the front. I understood why. From what I had seen, Adrian and the blond girl were the main combat strength of the group. Protecting the others naturally fell on their shoulders.

"Greetings, Mr. Richard Huang." The blond girl bowed her head after she joined us at the front, looking a little hesitant. "My name is Melina Franklin."

"…Franklin?" I repeated her family name incredulously. That was a family name I was very familiar with.

"That's right. One of the ten great families." Melina nodded. "I believe you've already met my cousin, Kureha. She has spoken about you. Also…I heard that you fought against my brother and defeated him."

"Your brother?" That took me entirely by surprise. There was no way I could have fought against her brother…oh. Maybe there was. "Are you…Shawn's sister?"

"That's right." Melina nodded, an expression of grief coming over her face. Even though it felt like so long ago, it hadn't been a year since Shawn Franklin's death. "Shawn is my older brother."

"…I'm sorry. I witnessed him…fight bravely until the end."

"Yes. I've heard." Melina glanced at Adrian, who shrugged haplessly. "I…thank you for your kind words. My brother was always on the arrogant side, but there was no denying his courage."

At least she wasn't blaming me for his death. I felt a bit of relief wash over me. I was half-expecting her to launch into a tirade about the whole thing being my fault, that Shawn wouldn't have died if it weren't for me (which was totally untrue), so it came as a pleasant surprise that she didn't hold anything against me. Like Adrian, she was relatively mature for her age.

What, were you expecting the same old cliché from Chinese webnovels where the whole family held a grudge and would go through absurd lengths to kill the protagonist even if he only indirectly caused the death of their beloved son? That sort of bullshit never happened in reality.

"There's another thing." Melina fidgeted a little, but Adrian offered her an encouraging smile to allow her to steel her courage. "I would like to ask a favor from you."

"What sort of favor?" There were alarm bells going off in my head, but I wasn't mean enough to turn away someone who was asking me for help. Come on, it definitely wouldn't be something as ridiculous as asking me to pretend to be her fiancé or something (she might as well ask Adrian for that), or some contrived harem nonsense. Or some other cliché bullshit that would only happen in webnovels or light novels.

"Could you please become my private tutor?" Melina asked as she clasped her hands hopefully. "I would like you to teach me swordsmanship and combat techniques."