After giving their new member enough protection as they can spare, the trio moved on to see what they would meet next.
As they moved in one direction, they decided to check every door in case they need a way out of a dangerous situation. Eventually, they found a crying child. The child was facing a wall and crying softly.
Helen ran up towards the child, but Vain and Athena had enough knowledge from Pops that they knew to be careful. Vain grabbed Helen and stopped her before she got close. "Wait." Vain spoke in a commanding tone.
The child appeared to be a girl wearing a frilly skirt and shirt. Her legs appeared to be bruised and didn't have any shoes. Everything about her was dirty, which isn't that rare since everyone gets dirty in this place. Her hair was long and reached her waist. Her clothes were ripped with an occasional stain randomly on her clothes.
Helen was just about to complain, but then she saw Vains eyes threatening her to shut up. Having just escaped from traffickers, Helen couldn't stand straight looking at Vains eyes. While Helen began trembling, Vain paid no attention to her and spoke loudly to the child, "Kid turn around. I know you are scared, but if I can't see your face I can't help you at all."
The child on the other hand stopped crying and waited a full thirty seconds to which Vain just stood still and waited. Eventually, the kid turned around and angrily attacked the group with a knife. Two kids came out of nowhere and attacked at the same time. The three children with knives didn't have normal faces like a child should have, but instead, they had a face without any facial features. It was a completely skin-covered face.
Vain was prepared and shot his bow that was pointing at the child the entire time. Killing the child, the others screamed and ran away. Although Vain didn't know how they were even able to scream without a mouth, he didn't pay any more attention to them since they had already ran.
Turning to his group, Vain saw that Athena was comforting Helen who was trembling violently. Confused Vain asked about it, "What's wrong? This might be your first time dealing with Facelings, but you should have at least heard of them, right?"
Helen cried softly and looked away. Athena ended up glaring at Vain leaving him helpless to do anything. Vain could only wait it out, but this calmness didn't last for long since a new entity was heading their way. In the darkness, there was a bright glowing smile that showed the sharp teeth of the entity. A soft creepy laughter was also heard in the distance.
The entity was a decent distance away, but was moving quickly towards them. It had two bright glowing eyes and the glow of its teeth allowed one to see how sharp its teeth are. The darkness didn't allow one to see a body that should be there for a living creature.
Vain was the first to react, throwing his flashlight he yelled, "RUN!"
Smiler. Energy entity. Even guns have zero effect on such creatures. Vain and Athena have zero way to deal with such an entity. Very quickly they learned how slow Helen actually was since Athena was basically dragging her along. Vain cursed his luck since Athena didn't want to leave this new person behind for her safety, he slowed down and saw the Smiler catching up quickly thanks to the slow-moving Helen.
Vain threw another flashlight before picking up and carrying Helen over his shoulder to run faster. Their speed almost doubled. They were running, but still carrying such a burden would only keep slowing them down, so checking a few doors every now and then, Vain found a door that led to another hallway that was similar to the one they are running through.
Running and shutting the door behind them, the group ran through and found themselves in another hallway with pipes, but this time they could slowly slow down to take a breather. Apparently, entities avoid doors that are already closed, so they normally won't follow you through doors unless you leave them open in the first place.
Breathing heavily, Vain really wanted to just yell loudly to vent his frustration. He finally understood why Pops liked to speak loudly whenever it was safe.
Vain let Helen down on the ground since she could no longer stand becoming weak-kneed. The pair ignored Helen together this time since they needed to make sure they were safe in this new area.
Looking around the pair saw that there were some hounds that were heading their way, with a few Wretches. Staring at the large group of entities, Vain shot his bow and killed everything he could.
The group consisted of one hound leading two more behind it. Because of the narrow halls, the hounds were in a direct line charging at the group one after another. The Wretches were skinnier and could fit shoulder to shoulder to charge at the group. The Wretches numbered six which were in pairs every single one.
The hounds fell one after another, blocking the way slightly, but the corpses meant nothing to the Wretches' sharp yellow nails. Vain used almost all his arrows he could, with only three misses since it hit the randomly waiving arms of the Wretches. Vain had killed two Hounds, killed one Wretches, and immobilized one of them. Athena on the other hand hadn't yet used up all her crossbow bolts, having missed twice, again on the arms of the Wretches, she killed one Hound, killed two Wretches, and immobilized one.
At this point, the only working Wretch had reached the group, but Vain was ready and used his shortsword to first cut the working arm of the Wretch, since the other arm was useless with a crossbow bolt directly in the elbow. The Wretch now used its' last weapon. Trying to bite Vain, it then got a hatchet directly shoved into its' skull. Vain then continued to decapitate it.
It was obvious that this Wretch was smarter than the first group that they ran into. It used its' arms, which had nails that could infect a wanderer, to keep Vain away from the most sensitive part which is its' head which would immobilize it for a while.
Athena reloaded her crossbow while Vain again killed the immobilized Wretches while picking up all the arrows and crossbow bolts. Helen on the other hand had just gotten her strength back, despite having just watched a massacre of entities. She had at some point gotten a bottle of Almond water and was drinking some of it.
She turned to the pair and full bowed ninety degrees, "I'm sorry for my reactions, I just went through a lot recently, and with the sanity aiding effects of this water I feel much better."
Helen suddenly became much calmer which confused the pair since they knew that the sanity aiding effects of that water wasn't so much that it should have such a huge immediate effect, but Vain wouldn't complain about having a more rational person on the team. In fact, Helen became so calm that she had her crossbow ready, and not just there.
The group took a break right then and there, eating a quick snack and water break, since they didn't know when it would be safe again.
Ten minutes later they moved their way. Checking the doors along the way. Thirty minutes later, they eventually ran into another group of people instead of entities. After doing the quick check again, for Skin Stealers, the groups walked closer to see each other better, but at this point, Vain noticed something strange.
The vent was open and not covered as it should be with a normal case. This was the tell-tale sign of a trap set up by a Clump. Stopping a few meters away Vain looked at the vent with great intensity. The other group on the other hand didn't pay any attention and walked closer to them. As Vain wasn't looking at them he didn't notice that they had already gotten too close to escape from at least one death, so when Vain noticed and yelled at them to run, it was too late.
Out of the vent came several large hands that quickly dragged two of the other group's members. Athena had also noticed the irregular vent and shot her crossbow at one of the arms making the Clump take it back before it could attack and kill another group member. The other group also noticed although it was too late for their members.
Even as they attacked and tried to retreat, they were getting knocked down one after another. The crunching sound that came from the vent had a great demoralizing effect on the group which made them lose more and more hope.
Before things could get worse the lights suddenly flickered. The Clump disappeared, but so did the members that it had taken. Suddenly it was very quiet which was needed since what had appeared were several groups of Scratchers.