Night Raid

"Let's deal with this bird and eat before we go looking for Mr. York."

Watching the clumsy bird drop from the sky, Perkin made up his mind. "Without Mr. York, we won't find the place. We couldn't even get back safely if we tried to turn around now."

Everyone knew how important Mr. York was. They'd argued back there only because they didn't want to head out in the middle of the night to look for him. Now that Perkin had made the request, naturally, no one objected.

Their guide, Lai, set about preparing the clumsy bird, hoping to get food ready as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the swordsman and the female knife-thrower sat back down. They'd already figured out that, no matter how nicely everyone put it, they'd be the ones doing the searching. If they didn't get some rest now, they might not even have a chance to fight back when trouble came.

As they waited, Perkin kept glancing toward the direction Mr. York had gone. He was starting to have a bad feeling, but still didn't want to trust his instincts.

He knew how dangerous their destination was. Without an expert in jungle survival to protect them, not one of them would make it there alive.

At the thought, Perkin's expression darkened. He pressed a hand to his chest and took a deep breath, as if trying to stand.

Just then, their guide, Lai, who had been muttering under his breath, seemed to sense something. He looked around and saw that everyone except Perkin was staring at something behind him with shocked expressions.

Lai lowered his head and looked at the clumsy bird he was still working on. Then he glanced at the others. He felt something brushing back and forth against the back of his neck, and tears streamed down his face. He kept murmuring, "No, it's fine. It's not real..."

Before Lai could finish, an enormous snake's jaws clamped down on his upper body and dragged him into the woods.

Once the giant snake had disappeared, everyone stared at the clumsy bird lying on the ground, looking completely dazed.

Only then did Perkin look up. He blinked at the scene in front of him, puzzled. Had another person disappeared while he'd been distracted? Where was the guide? Where had he gone?

Before Perkin could ask, the others finally snapped out of their daze. Lloyd forgot they were in the middle of the jungle and let out a scream.

The swordsman rushed over and clamped a hand over Lloyd's mouth. "Don't scream! Do you want to die here? Mr. Perkin, you've seen the situation. We may not be able to go any farther. If you're still willing to trust us, we can protect you on the way back and get you out of this godforsaken jungle."

Perkin understood the two remaining mercenaries' position, but he pressed a hand to his chest. "No. It's too late. I have to go there."

"Why, Mr. Perkin? We have no guide and no survival expert. It's dangerous to keep going like this." The swordsman tried to reason with Perkin.

"I said no! I'm out of time. That place is my only hope of survival. So now, right this moment, we're leaving."

Seeing how determined Perkin was, the swordsman felt helpless. He took his hand off Lloyd's mouth. "All right. But with just the two of us, I can't promise we'll get you there."

"You only have to keep us safe. I'll find a way to navigate."

Since Perkin had made himself clear, the swordsman couldn't keep objecting without disrespecting his employer.

He could only agree, while the female knife-thrower stood silently to one side, staring blankly at the clumsy bird on the ground.

"Stop staring. Let's pack up and get moving once we've eaten." Seeing his companion's gaze, the swordsman felt awkward. Everyone was hungry, sure, but there was no need to stare at it like that.

The female knife-thrower shook her head. "No. I was wondering if someone sent that bird flying over here to mess with us."

"..."

The other three thought it over, then all moved a little farther away from the half-prepared bird.

At last Lloyd laughed. "Who would mess with us out here? You're overthinking it. Let's pluck this bird and take the meat with us."

Despite what Lloyd said, he made no move to deal with the bird.

The swordsman and the female knife-thrower were even less inclined to go near it.

Finally, Perkin shook his head and set down the backpack he'd been carrying. "Forget it. It's just a bird, and there's barely enough meat for two bites. We'll be fine without it. Once we reach somewhere safe, we can find something else to eat."

With that, Perkin took some dark, lumpy food from his backpack—the same food he'd eaten earlier. It was a local specialty, extremely high in calories and sweet, though it wasn't filling.

Perkin had originally brought it along to replenish his own energy, but since no one had eaten, he could only share it with them.

After eating some of the food the locals called "bitter water," the swordsman and the female knife-thrower finally felt a little better. They looked up at the sky, and the swordsman asked, "Are we leaving now?"

"Let's go. We can't stay here long. I'll release something to help us find our way, but you'll have to deal with the dangers along the way."

As he spoke, Perkin rummaged through his backpack and took out a jar full of fireflies. It was clearly a fine piece of equipment, decorated with many strange patterns painted in different colors.

After taking out the jar, Perkin sighed. "I was going to use this to mark my target, but there's no other choice now. You two need to be careful. Once it's daytime, these things will be almost impossible to spot, so we have to keep following them."

With that, Perkin opened the jar and released the firefly-like creatures inside.

They flew off in one direction, forming a glowing trail in the air shaped like an arrow.

Perkin slung his backpack over his shoulders and pointed in the direction the trail was flying. "Quick, follow them!"

The swordsman and the others hurried after him. The female knife-thrower took the lead, while the swordsman brought up the rear.

Watching them rush off, Liu Zhi, who had been hiding in the treetops nearby, was dumbfounded.

He hadn't expected Perkin to have so many useful things in his backpack. Even without a guide or a jungle survival expert, Perkin had come up with a way to keep moving.

Still, they'd underestimated how dangerous this forest was. If they went deep into the jungle in the middle of the night, they might not even know what killed them.

Liu Zhi chuckled to himself and followed from a distance.