"I'm so glad I found you, sir Behlam and sir Polo."
Ariadne said with a tone that was laced with fright and anxiety. Her facial expressions showed that she was still overwhelmed by the ambush she had to face along with the rest of the Spiders.
"Are we expecting more Spiders to use their tracker rune and find us here?"
She asked while looking around her vigilantly.
Behlam and Polo looked at each other and shook their heads. It was apparent that nobody else was coming to meet them at this point.
"Ariadne, right?"
Behlam asked while adjusting his posture from his seated position. He looked at her keenly before responding.
"I suggest you calm yourself first. We are not waiting for anybody because nobody is coming to us. I am surprised you managed to get away.
It means that you started running as soon as you saw the conflict, not even bothering to see if other Spiders needed your help."
Ariadne had a guilty expression on her face when she heard Behlam's conjecture. The latter sighed before commenting.
"Don't worry. We will not hold it against you. We ran too.
We just tried to salvage the situation in any way we could and ended up doing what you had done from the get-go anyway. So it's fine. I just wish more Spiders could be as perceptive as you."
Polo looked at Behlam and spat in contempt. He wanted to say that Behlam's untimely exit from the death zone did more harm to the escaping Spiders than anybody else. However, he prevented himself from saying that for his own good.
Behlam, Polo, and Ariadne got to talking and decided their next course of action. On their way north, they planned to find a colt service from any town that fell into their path. They would journey to the city of Ludan from there.
Ariadne got the two people talking while remaining low-key in the conversation. She wouldn't be able to say much in front of two Awakened rankers anyway. She waited until the two men started arguing about something before making her move.
Boom.
Everything happened at once after Ariadne used a potion bomb. The most peculiar thing about the bomb was the fact that it wasn't a typical, explosive kind. It had some special effects that became apparent as soon as the clouds of green smoke started spreading in the surroundings.
"What the fu…"
Polo took a while to understand what was happening. His vision was compromised as soon as the potion bomb was detonated. But that was not all. He found out that even his mana sense was being affected, preventing him from being conscious of his surroundings.
'These bloody demonic rankers. Always conspiring against the hand that feeds them. I had told Donell that adding them to our fold would be a terrible idea. But he wouldn't listen.'
Behlam understood then and there that Ariadne was probably trying to rob him for the loot he was carrying in his storage. Something he expected from the Stardust guild members as well.
'No Meta would dare to mess with two Awakened rankers. I'll teach this wench a lesson.'
Behlam wasn't as worried as Polo. He got up from his seat and spread his mana sense. Then his face became stressed.
'My mana sense… it isn't working. Does… does she know about my condition? This trap is specially set for…"
"Aaaaaaaaargh! Behlam… help!"
Behlam was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Polo's yell. He immediately rushed towards the voice, making his way through clouds of smoke.
Ariadne had already confirmed that Polo was in a pretty serious condition. Apart from the injuries he had sustained in the ambush, he was injured more by the forbidden potion he had drunk. The guy was easy to target for her. And that's what she did after detonating the special potion bomb.
Ariadne quickly approached Polo and targeted his eyes with the Bichuas. Polo subconsciously deployed his Awakened-rank mana defense layer and prevented her from piercing them. But he couldn't prevent her from attacking his neck and heart next. His atrophied muscles were still recovering. So he was basically helpless against her attacks.
Ariadne's multifront attacks on Polo in a fraction of a second compromised his already precarious defense layer and allowed her to land a successful attack on him. His heart was finally pierced by her Bichua. That's when the assassin asked for help from Behlam.
The illusionist twisted her weapon while it was still inside Polo's heart. She injected her mana into the wound before pulling the weapon out. A highly pressurized jet stream of blood was ejaculated from Polo's wound. But Ariadne had already retreated using her movement spell, letting the blood fall on the ground instead of her clothes.
Swoosh.
Behlam reached Polo's side a second after Ariadne had disappeared into the fog. He knew he was too late to do anything when he felt Polo's pierced heart stop.
A veteran assassin in the Awakened rank had been assassinated by a mere illusionist in the Meta rank. Ariadne had made the right use of her skills to take down Polo. She had set the stage for another ranker's downfall.
Behlam stood beside a lifeless Spider's body while maintaining extreme vigilance. He had two large axes in each of his hands. And he had his head tilted slightly downwards, staring at the void in front of him.
However, he wasn't looking at the man who had appeared not too far from him.
"Yo."
Eren voiced his greetings and used his movement spell immediately. In the next moment, Behlam appeared at his previous position before using his axe attacks on thin air.
Eren smiled wickedly when he saw Behlam attacking thin air. It meant that the information Ariadne provided about him was true.
"This is going to be fun."
Eren said with a tone dripping with joy and excitement. He changed his position and the same pattern repeated itself. The battlemage finally drew his own axe set before commenting.
"You really are night-blind, aren't you?"