Karisa was racing after Ayuka, nauseated and screaming in panic, with dozens of agents trailing them, attempting to strain them, while Ayuka maintained a solemn countenance, showing no symptoms of brief shock or fear.
"Why is there thrice the number of agents after us now?! What did I do to deserve this?! I'm just an innocent, pretty girl!"
"Don't let them escape!"
The agents began firing their weapons, with several bullets aimed at Karisa, who leapt between them with a loud girlie scream, grasping the top of her head, and squirming between the next several rounds.
"Shoot them!"
Karisa's eyes bulged out from her eyelids as she quickly turned behind, yelled out loud and made an angry face.
"I thought you just wanted to strain us! Not kill us, you lunatics!"
However, her comments were ineffective, and the guns were fired at her again as she continued to dodge bullets while screaming with her tongue whirling out like a snake.
"Do something about this, Ayuka!"
Regardless of Karisa's cry, Ayuka's face went blank. She kept running, scarcely moving an inch away from the bullets that had missed her. She turned around the corner, scratching the top of her head.
"This way."
Karisa had already run passed the corner with a loud, confused expression before she could hear Ayuka. Ayuka was able to deviate and hide between two streets, whilst the agents continued to run straight past the corner, their gaze fixed on Karisa, who screamed with terror, dread, and depression.
"Ha...? W-Wait, Ayuka? Ah, where the hell did you go?! Don't leave me hanging! Ayuka!!!"
Ayuka shifted between the walls, sighed a sigh of relief, and quickly snuck her head around the corner to check the coast of the street for agents, hoping that Karisa would make it.
"It seems that they were too preoccupied with Karisa to notice me switch lanes. Then, once again... What was she thinking, that girl? I told her to turn around at this corner, and I said it loud and clear."
Karisa, who was fleeing, and the agents chasing her began speeding through the streets of Oxfell Arton. Their yells and moans could be heard all over town as they ran a marathon through the streets, the dust beginning to float over the rooftops. They made left, right, and left again turns. They sprinted straight or crossed their previous tracks at times, and the running raged on for several minutes. Karisa was competent, lucky, and relieved to have escaped so many bullets, but she remained fatigued and afraid, and she suddenly spied a narrow back alleyway into which she plunged and vanished from the agents' vision. They rushed by, oblivious to the fact that they had lost sight of their adversary, while leaving Karisa free.
She took a few moments to regain her strength, then formed a forlorn look, feeling betrayed, and abruptly rounded her cheeks. She peered around the corner carefully and quietly, and was delighted to discover that there were no more agents after her.
"Finally. I was afraid that all of this running might break my legs. And what was the matter with Ayuka's demeanor? She simply left me hanging in order to throw others off her backside. It makes no difference. Later, I'll put some pressure on her. For the time being, I need to locate a safe location to hide before another enemy appears and tries to kill me."
She overcame her tiredness and made plans to depart, only to be jinxed when she heard a feminine voice behind her. She froze when she heard it and stealthily peered behind her, only to see a woman with blonde short hair, blue eyes, and an elegant black suit, with a book pressed beneath her armpit, standing behind her.
"You really can't trust some freshmen to chase down a lonely girl. How irritating."
Before Karisa could get away, a sharp figure pierced the side of her shoulder, causing her to gush blood, which she quickly clutched, and convincing her to gasp in pain, only to dart back out of the alleyway's darkness.
"A spike?! Where did that come out from?!"
Karisa shifted her palm away from her wound, which was oozing abundantly, and saw how the woman stepped out of the street with a confident and seductive body stance, one hand pushed against her right hip.
"Isn't it unfortunate that you were discovered at such an inopportune time? I am one of the Oxfell Arton's 'Foremost Agents,' accompanied by a trio throughout the city. I'm Naeve, and I'm the epitome of a seductive woman."
Karisa calmed down, but made a tired look with sweat flowing down her side and maintained her stare on Naeve, who made a very irritating noise laughing into her hands.
"A 'Foremost Agent'? More like hyena."
Naeve's eyes immediately turned serious as she opened her mouth wide with rage and in irritation screamed out.
"You sure are a grumpy little child! I wish children these day would have better manners!"
"Says you..."
Naeve quickly regained her convenient grumpiness and shouted in the air to spit on the street's surface once more. "Shut up!"
"But I can agree. Seductive people sure are needy for some romance, I suppose. It's unfortunate that I'm not a man on which your seductiveness could work on."
"Are you insulting me for my glorious seductivness?!"
"No. I'm just saying that a man would be more seductive than a witch like you."
"You little-"
Naeve was overcome by rage, which drove her insane and negligent, and she whipped out a genuine whip that looped above her head. She hurled it forward and prepared to wrap it around Karisa, who luckily saw and darted out of the way with a sidestep, causing the whip to smack into the ground and generate a violent tremor.
Karisa was taken aback; she hadn't expected to see a whip capable of destroying the earth and had instead readied herself to defend against Naeve's barrage of assaults.
"I hope you like spanking. Because an ugly woman like you deserves only that one of a painful exercise!"
"Are you trying to sound like a pervert or what?!?"
Naeve swung her whip around her arm and swept its elastic forward, intending to strike Karisa, but she was thwarted when she noticed how Karisa squatted and jumped out of the way.
Naeve swung her arm behind her back and turned her wrist to spin the whip around, then swung her arm forward to have it follow her movements. Karisa's thighs were prioritized because of her short pants, but it missed when she crouched and slammed her left foot into the ground to make herself bounce toward the right side.
With Naeve's increased twist, the whip regained its motion and speed, slamming back at Karisa, who managed to dodge in time and tumble on the floor. Karisa massaged her bottom on the ground and used her palms to crawl back on the ground after the whip was lifted and then smashed back down, which she sensed with her gaze.
She dodged just in time, but she witnessed the ground shatter into bits in front of her, which astonished her and made her sweat.
"Whoa. That whip sure is tough."
Naeve drew the whip back and began spinning it over her head, a broad grin on her face, which was rather uncomfortable. She laughed in an obnoxious manner that Karisa loathed, and she gulped when she realized how powerful the whip was.
"How do you like me now, huh? A girl like you should've just stayed in the hometown. You wouldn't need to worry about getting spanked by me."
With increased pressure and twist, the whip was swung at Karisa's head, who was caught in surprise. As the wall cracked into splinters and the fragments soared through the dust, Karisa rushed out of the structure and rolled on the floor, then regulated her movement back into a squat while covering her mouth with her palm.
Naeve swung her whip forward and prioritized striking Karisa in the face before she could stand up. The attack was quicker than planned, and the dust stopped Karisa from detecting it quickly enough. Instead, she felt the whip striking her face and pushing her to the side into the boxes, which splintered under her weight.
Her bottom and back were forced against the rough wood, and she had a red mark on her cheek from the strike that had bled. Because Karisa couldn't move right away. Naeve took advantage of the opportunity to raise the whip high above her head and slam it upon Karisa's head from the top. Its weight crushed against the top of Karisa's head, causing another painful cut that dug Karisa's body deeper into the wood and boxes, bruising her in the back with one of the wooden pieces.
Despite the injuries she withstood, Karisa wiped away the blood from her cheek and slowly stood up and happened to feel exhaustion overtaking her body. Seconds pass as Naeve laughed and started to spin the whip on the side of her hip.
"Tell me the truth, but just the truth. Have you ever wanted to experience what it's like to get smacked around by a whip like a bug? Because, whether you wanted it or not, that day has come. I enjoy playing with people's thin bodies because it keeps me awake before I go asleep."
Karisa's gaze was fixed on Naeve as she grabbed for her pole, extended it, and braced herself for a conflict she might never be able to avoid.
To be continued...