Two horrifying trails of blood snaked across the floor tiles, silently telling of the two players' helplessness and despair.
"Help me... help me..."
The player being held by the ankle struggled to lift his head, straining to look toward his teammate with his one remaining eye. "Please save me..."
Under that gaze, his teammate involuntarily took a step forward. The eyes of the player being dragged away instantly lit up. He opened his mouth, about to say something more, only to see another player suddenly grab his teammate, who had been about to keep moving toward him.
"Do you have a death wish?" the player holding him back whispered. "Those two already broke the rules the NPC told us earlier. There's no saving them now!"
"But..." His teammate watched him being dragged farther and farther away, still desperately craning his head to look back at him. His face filled with anguish. "But are we just going to abandon him?"
He's clearly... clearly still alive...
"What else are you going to do? Go up there and take that NPC head-on?" The player holding him back pointed at Miss Nina's retreating figure. She looked slender, yet she carried two grown men with effortless ease.
"Can you beat her?"
His teammate fell silent at once.
Under the disbelieving gaze of the player being dragged away, he retreated, one step at a time.
The light in the other player's eye faded little by little. But even until the very last second, he kept his gaze fixed on his teammate.
Only after Miss Nina disappeared completely into the stairwell did everyone let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"That was terrifying..."
"Yeah. We don't even know why the NPC attacked those two."
"Hey!" One of the players prodded the teammate who was still standing there