"Veerius's the name! Well, let's cut the chitchat and get out of here." The brown-haired man amicably greeted as he pushed one of the outclass humanoids away.
"Veerius?!" Scar exclaimed as he eyed Red, wondering whether to tell the man or not.
"SHH!" Red gestured to keep quiet about his name. "As far as we know, this guy might be an enemy."
*Swish*
Red and Scar didn't see the man as he picked them up off their feet. "You're heading to the forest, right? Let's get out of here." The man just chuckled as he sprinted full speed on the rooftops. Red and Scar helplessly dangled from both his arms as they resigned to their tiredness.
"By the way, did you guys know that there are shock absorbers underneath those outclass humanoids' exoskeleton?" Veerius looked from his shoulders. "I mean, how you were able to send them flying is beyond me. You sure you're just teenagers? You're stronger than most workers out here, you know."
The outclass humanoids didn't waste any time in chasing Veerius. Still, Veerius was as fast as the breeze itself. It's as if he was just taking a leisurely walk as he fled from the humanoids. He was even talking casually towards Scar and Red! Adding to that, it didn't seem like he was running out of air.
"Man, I envy you too. If I had trained as hard as you did when I was that age, I would've been stronger than I am now. Nowadays, I'm just a fast runner." Veerius reflected.
"Stop with the bluff, I can clearly see that you could carry me and Scar while running at maximum speed to boot." Red called out. "Anyways, who are you and why are you helping us?"
"First off, this is not my max speed, kid. This is my jogging speed." He pointed out. "Second, I'm helping you because I support Block-16 as a whole. We can't have you dying before the Runners Survivors, right? That would be anticlimactic for those of us who want you to win." Veerius explained. "If you're wondering why, then ask your block owner, Jarxen Vaurg. He was the one who told us about your incredible feat of beating two outclass humanoids by yourself. Frankly, that gave us hope... "
"... If we can't escape, then we'll support those who could. That's just how we decided to live our lives. That's why, I'll say it again, we can't have you dying during the mock battle now, don't we?"
"Hey Red, got any idea what this man's saying?" Scar cluelessly asked. It was the first time he heard someone talking about Runners Survivors.
Well, it was a give since Red never told them any details about it.
"So, who are you? Really." Red asked. "Is Veerius your real name?"
"Tell you what! Let's talk about it later."
With a strain on his ankles, Veerius burst forward, running at an unimaginable speed. Even Red was surprised, he knew he couldn't run half as fast as the man. In just a few seconds, the man scaled the last kilometer of the City-section and arrived at the Forest-section.
Red couldn't help but close his eyes the whole way since the strong winds almost dried them up. When he opened his eyes, He was dropped to the ground. Scar soon followed.
"We're here." The man wiped an imaginary bead of sweat as he sighed. "That was a good workout. I might do that again on my way back." He smiled.
"Now tell me, who are you? And what're your ulterior motives?" Red bombarded him with the questions again as he stood up. He then distanced himself from the man who was calling himself Veerius.
"Relax kid. If I had any intentions of killing you, I'd have left you for dead amidst the hundreds of countless humanoids." The man shrugged. "Ulterior motives aside, I just saved your life. Shouldn't you be thankful?"
"Sorry, mister. My friend is just a bit shaken up at the moment. Thank you for saving us back there." Scar respectfully bowed in gratitude. He then sideglanced towards Red, telling him to just play dumb and not rile the guy even more.
Of course, Scar didn't want to resort to this, but after witnessing the man's raw power output, Scar was confident that he can't take him on even if Red was with him.
"T-thanks." Red finally said as per Scar's request.
"No worries kiddo. And as for ulterior motives. I don't have one." The man finally confessed. "I even separated from my block just to rescue you two."
As much as Red hated to admit it, he could tell that the man wasn't lying.
The faint rustling of the leaves drowned the awkward silence that befell the trio. For a split second, Red and Scar looked around the Forest-section. They couldn't believe that they finally got out of their sticky situation. Their adrenaline-rush finally left their body as they fell on their knees.
Veerius saw that as a signal to excuse himself. "I'm guessing you're fine with me leaving you here. You can meet up with your group without my help right?"
Red and Scar nodded.
"Right-o! I'll be going first then." Veerius bode farewell as he headed back to the City-section.
"Hey, tha... !" Scar pointed to Veerius as he entered the City-section once again.
"This is a shortcut." Veerius smiled, stretching his calves and arms as. He wasn't even the least bit afraid of the countless outclass humanoids that were about to chase him if he went inside the City-section alone. Judging from his expression, Red and Scar concluded that he was brimming with confidence.
Before Veerius could charge straight into the City-section, Red called out to him once more. He still won't believe that the man's surname was identical to him. "Hey! Is your name really Veerius?!"
"Yeah! Veerius Genesys's the name. Don't forget!" With a wave of salute, Veerius trailed off, leaving Scar and Red befuddled.
"You got the same name?!" Scar exclaimed.
.....
Forest-section, southwestern part of the map.
Sunlight peeked through the sparse portions of the forest, giving it a summer-like atmosphere. It was beginning to get warm as well, due to the artificial sunlight. As trees swayed on the gentle gusts of wind that whistles past the trees, five figures could be seen, making their way through the undergrowths. A few of them were struggling and just from their shadows alone, one could tell that they were running out of 'battery'.
The figures were walking on the border of the Forest-section and City-section, hoping that no humanoid would jump on them. After all, they don't even have the strength to walk, much less run.
"That's it! I'm going back!" One of the figures stopped short and turned around.
It was Blond.
"Wha?! Blond, are you crazy?" Freckles grabbed Blond by the collar and shook him off. "What if the outclass humanoids followed us here? Going back would only make Scar and Red's decision fruitless. They sacrificed their lives so we could move forward."
"Still," Blond gently pried her fingers from his collar. "I must go back. All of you set up camp here for a few minutes. I'll be back soon."
"N... no! Don't go." Freckles lips tightly pressed together as she tried to hold off her tears. "We just lost Red and Scar, we can't lose you too!"
"Relax, I'm just going to check something. If I sense any danger, I'd immediately go back, promise." Blond patted her on the head before he set off.
As soon as Blond vanished from their sight, Freckles and the others fell to the ground. They were only pushing forward even though they don't have enough strength left in them. But now that their leader left for a short time, their body suddenly screamed for a brief rest.
"Would he be alright?" Freckles looked at the group with worry in her eyes. "He'll come back soon, right?"
"Don't worry. I got him on cam." Gadge responded as he watched the footage from his small remote. He couldn't believe that no one in the corporation took notice of the drone. At least, it was a better option compared to sending Cat ahead of them just to reconnoiter the area.
"That's a relief." Freckles sighed.
Just like the rest of them, they still couldn't forget what had happened to Red and Scar. At the back of their minds, they concluded that it was their individual incapabilities that led Scar and Red to their deaths. Although they didn't see them die, they knew that no one could survive hundreds of outclass humanoids.
After all, just two of those humanoids brought Red on the brink of death back when they were still in the Testing room.
"Red *sniffle* I'm sorry... it's all my fault." Curl silently sobbed as she blamed herself. She was the root cause of why Red had to hold off the humanoids and that hit really hard on her conscience.
"I'm so sorry." She repeated.
Amidst the steady breeze and gentle sways of trees, a faint wailing could be heard, akin to a whimpering ghost. The source of it was Curl as she cried to her heart's content. The breeze carried it through the entire forest.