Lilah wobbled unstably, but managed to stay standing with Lully offering support next to her.
"I-is it over..?", Lilah put a hand on her neck and tried one more time to stand up on her own, to her success. She caught her breath before looking around, wary.
Handon put a hand on her shoulder, "It's over."
"Heyy!!", from far away, Millie shouted over the distance. She waved her hand up high, "You guys okay?!"
She ran with Cael following slowly from behind. Upon reaching them, she immediately inspected their bodies for injuries, and gasped when she got to Lilah.
"Oh my- Lilah! Are you okay?!", she put her hands over her mouth.
Seeing Millie as cheerful as ever, Lilah smiled, "Yeah! Tis' but a scratch! I'll get better in no time."
"Still, you should bandage it.", Cael soon arrived and inspected her back injury too. Blood was still pooling out and would drain Lilah's strength away any minute.
"Fine, fine. Handon, could you..?"
He nodded, and went over to Verna's corpse, the sword still stuck in her chest, and ripped a lower piece of her sleeve. He handed it to Lilah, "Here."
"...", Lilah stared at the piece of fabric.
Millie rolled her eyes, snatching the torn sleeve away from Handon, "Ugh, are you dumb? She can't stuff it on her own!"
"...Wait, I thought we were going to bandage it..?"
Millie's eyebrow raised, and she smiled, shaking her head, moving to her back, "This is the most efficient way to do it."
"Ahhh!", Lilah immediately cried out in pain as Millie violently stuffed the fabric into her wound, "Ow, ow, that hurts!!"
"There's not enough cloth anyway. Plus, Cael is doing just fine! Just endure it!"
"You-!! You!!"
Meanwhile, Cael looked around, slightly worried.
Handon tilted his head, approaching him, "Are you looking for something?"
"Hm? Oh...I was just worried...What if Esteine predicted this would happen and is waiting nearby? Especially with how loud Lully's explosion was, he could have heard it too."
He held his chin, and inquired, "Then what do you think we should do?"
Cael looked around one more time, and whispered closer to Handon, "Well, he might be heading toward us right now...What if he's looking for Lully too? We-"
"Huh? Who's that?", Millie looked beyond the distance, tuning into her enhanced senses. Far from what everyone else could see ordinarily, a vague silhouette was approaching steadily.
Cael's breath hitched, his eyes widening, "It's him. I'm right, Esteine predicted all of this."
Handon frowned, seeing everyone who was unsure how to react, and ordered them loudly, "Millie, Lilah, stay here, we'll prepare to meet him. Cael, Lully go far away and only come back if you hear another fire signal. Prepare to fight!"
Cael, tilting his head curiously, accepted it and guided Lully to leave quickly, while Millie and Lilah turned to face the direction where Esteine was approaching.
"Stay safe.", he looked behind him.
Handon nodded.
Not long after, both Cael and Lully had left quite some distance away. Lully looked behind him, where he could no longer see the others clearly. He turned to Cael.
"Um, are they going to be okay?", he fidgeted nervously, "Why did we separate from them? Wouldn't it be easier if there was more people to fight Esteine?"
Lully looked up at him; Cael seemed relaxed, but his expression was dark, and his gaze was absent.
He didn't respond.
***
Esteine finally arrived with his entourage.
Millie clenched her fists, "What do you want?! What, disappointed your pawn couldn't achieve what you wanted?"
Esteine paused momentarily upon hearing her, and scoffed, "Hah, pawn?"
He glanced at Verna's corpse, and kicked it away before looking back at Handon, "That's funny."
Thud! The corpse hit the wall.
Then, his voice suddenly went cold.
"Where's Luliak?"
One of the blonde twins looked around, "Hm, the red-head isn't here either."
A tense silence ensued between them. A sense of unease falling upon the area. It seemed like a battle would break out any moment.
"And why do you need him?", Handon stepped forward, his grip on his sword tightening.
"Why are you protecting him?", Esteine threw a look of disdain, "The Bruin family isn't worth shit."
Handon clicked his tongue. This time, Lilah spoke up.
"Seriously, what is your problem? Everyone here just wants to survive. What did they ever do to you?"
"Huh. I see now. Did you guys get so immersed that you've forgotten the world outside of the entrance exams?", Esteine spun the sword in his hand, "Come on, we're all nobles here. Ah, except you, of course. You should, at the very least, know that not everything is so 'happy-go-lucky' and we all LOVE each other here. Hahaha."
Handon frowned, and stood resolute, "But still, Lully is our friend now. You'll have to defeat us first before you get to him."
He beat his fist to his chest, "I stand by my word on that!"
One of the twins standing behind Esteine tilted his head, his eyebrow raising. He wanted to say something before his twin sister threw a sharp glance at him, and he closed his mouth to await orders from Esteine.
Both Millie and Lilah nodded their heads at Handon's sentence, getting ready to fight.
Esteine's gaze lingered on the three for a few more seconds, "Oh, I guess I'll have to take you for your wor-"
Suddenly, before Esteine could finish his sentence, Handon rushed up to him and cut his hand. He thrashed his hand at him, splashing blood all over Esteine's face. A few droplets got into Esteine's eyes.
"ARGHHH!", he staggered back, covering his eyes. He opened them with his vision dyed red, but it didn't prevent him from seeing Handon swing his sword at him.
Reacting quickly, he blocked the sword with his own. Clang!
Sparks flew between their swords, and Esteine shouted to the twins, "Attack!"
Whoosh! The two twins nodding confidently at each other, they both rushed forward to Millie and Lilah standing at the right and left walls, wanting to engage in close combat.
In the middle of the hallway, Esteine and Handon brandished their swords and exchanged blows, both of them seemingly at equal standing despite Esteine's bloodied eyes.
"Ugh!", Lilah groaned as she took a punch square in the jaw. She gritted her teeth at the abrupt close in and brought herself back to do a headbutt.
"Gah!", the female twin winced, blood streaming down her forehead.
Meanwhile, Millie kept up with the male twin, blocking and punching continuously, the male twin even nearly tiring out from dodging so many feints.
"Haha, not so confident now, are you?!"
However, before Millie could relish in her joy for long, the male twin reached his hands into his pockets and suddenly pulled out a knife.
Not expecting it, Millie attempted to jump backward to dodge it--only for her to lose her balance and stumble. Regaining her balance quickly, she dodged to the left instead, but saw it was too late. Blood streamed down her shoulder, teared open in a small knife-shaped hole.
"Nope, I'm so confident now!", the male twin bantered back.
Shoving the male twin back and gaining some distance, Millie scowled.
"Alright, let's fight then."
Clash!
Esteine's sword was deflected once again, and his arm went flying back.
"I told you. You would have to go through us before you can get to Lully."
Seeing Handon's calm, confident expression, Esteine's composure broke momentarily into a frown.
"How disgraceful, resorting to such tricks when you're a noble."
After dodging one of Handon's strikes, Esteine stepped back and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. Now, his eyes went from nearly opaque red to a blurry haze.
He squinted, perceiving the mana signature and defining Handon's silhouette despite his partial blindness.
Clang! He blocked another strike.
"How can you still see?!", Handon gritted his teeth in frustration.
"I can't. It's your fault for not learning how to hide your mana.", Esteine rolled his eyes. He didn't bother hiding his 'secret'. What could Handon do in the middle of a battle?
And he was right. With some of Esteine's vision restored, he had simply better technique and footwork. With just one step, Esteine dodged Handon's sword, and with another, he was able to strike at his neck.
Handon could barely find openings to swing at or time to cast barriers. Sweat ran down his back, drenching him in uncomfortable unease.
"This is- are you stronger than Verna-"
"Are you stupid?"
Then, with one elbow to the chest, Handon was sent flying back. Esteine scoffed.
"You only won because Verna is an assassin. Did you actually think you won because you're more skilled than her? Ha. And you two, finish them quickly."
At this point, one of Millie's eyes were gouged out, and Lilah was being overwhelmed without distance to cast spells. They both struggled immensely, but all of their advantages had been carefully countered and thought through by Esteine beforehand.
"N-no way...", Handon froze on the ground, looking at the battle that was lost so one-sidedly that it couldn't even be called one.
It was as if something shattered.
"Oh, is that glass cracking?", Esteine mockingly put a hand on his ear, trying to listen, "Is that your ego? Or maybe your pride? Heheh."
One by one, he stepped toward Handon, swinging his sword in his hand again.
Handon looked up, his eyes becoming wide, and hands trembling. He couldn't believe it. Why were Millie and Lilah losing so quickly? No, it was more accurate to say that he couldn't bear to understand it. Perhaps it was because he had changed so quickly, it had been genuine. Giving orders, no longer stuttering nor fidgeting, maintaining a calm demeanor--in reality, it was all fake confidence.
And now it was all coming back. Perhaps he'd really die now?
Step, step, step- As Esteine's footsteps toward him resounded in the hallway, Handon trembled more and more. Reality was slowly crashing down on him.
Then, before he could realize it, Esteine was already right in front of him.
"How pathetic."
"Done here!"
"Done too!"
Shrrk! Both the twins called out one after the other, and dragged Millie and Lilah's bodies closer as proof. Lilah's hair was torn and pulled, and Millie was covered in blood.
Fear overwhelmed Handon. He felt like he couldn't move. His sword was just right next to him, but his fear was so great that he couldn't even look at it.
He gazed right at Esteine, "W-w-wait.."
Pausing, Esteine tilted his head, "For what?"
"...", Handon couldn't move his mouth, his gaze fixed as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Well, I was going to ask anyway.", Esteine stopped swinging his sword, and pointed it at Handon's neck, "Where is Lully and that ra- Cael? Surely, you know, right? You're their leader? Since Verna's dead now."
"...", still, Handon didn't say anything.
Ssss... Eventually, Handon could feel something warm on the crotch of his pants, and an unpleasant smell covered the area.
"UGH! Did you piss yourself?", Esteine's expression twisted as he recoiled slightly, "Damn, is death so scary for you?"
"Fine, if you won't answer, then it's not worth keeping you alive."
Raising his sword, Esteine looked down on Handon coldly, and swung do-
Crackle, crackle- A strange sound hissed up above, and the surroundings lit up with an orange glow.
Sss.. A similar, but this time burning sound made Esteine halt his sword. He looked up.
Immediately, his eyes widened.
A gigantic ball of fire taking up the entire hallway floated above all of them. The heat grew, and the shadows flickered, until Esteine realized--it wasn't floating, it was rapidly approaching!
It was big enough to decimate the entire area and more. Esteine didn't have to look twice to tell--everyone here would die once that thing landed.
Handon also looked up, but didn't move.
Without sparing another second to kill Handon, Esteine instantly turned around and shouted:
"R-RUN!!"
The twins didn't hesitate either and turned around, running for their lives.
But it was too late.
BOOOM!!