"Hold on!" Officer Logan shouted. "The number of harpoons is limited. If we hold on a little longer, we'll survive!"
Before anyone could respond, another scream rang out.
Turning around, they saw it was Sasha Venus.
Unlike Emily Parker, Sasha Venus wasn't as fortunate. The harpoon that pierced through her hand caused her to lose strength, and the table in front of her was knocked askew by the incoming harpoons.
"Be careful!" Vincent Moretti gritted his teeth and reached out to grab the table in front of Sasha Venus.
In that split second, a harpoon shot through the gap and pierced Damien Reid's shoulder.
Damien Reid let out a pained scream but still tightly gripped the table.
"Don't panic!" Officer Logan reached out to support Damien Reid and then split his hands to prop up half of the table.
Vincent Moretti made a quick decision and helped hold the table steady for Sasha Venus.
Fortunately, both of them were strong enough to stabilize the formation once more.
As the crashing noises gradually subsided, the group realized how reasonable their formation had been.
Had they followed Officer Logan and Dr. Clarke's suggestion to stagger the tables, with each person holding them, the harpoons would have easily pierced through because the tables would have been held perpendicular to them.
Now, in the "bamboo shoot" formation, the contact surfaces of the harpoons and tables had become slanted, drastically reducing the harpoons' penetration power.
Especially the harpoons coming from directly above—thanks to the cone shape, their paths were redirected.
After a while, the sounds from outside faded completely.
"Is it over?" Damien Reid asked through gritted teeth.
"Wait another minute," Elliot Hayes replied.
The group held their tables up in silence, waiting for another minute, and then confirmed there was no further sound outside.
Vincent Moretti cautiously created a small gap in their formation and peered outside.
"Fuck…" He was stunned by the sight before him.
The others slowly moved the tables aside and saw that the ground and the tables were littered with harpoons.
Two bodies lay on the ground, gruesomely impaled, looking like two hedgehogs, completely covered in spikes.
Each harpoon was connected by a rope, with the other end tied to the hole in the wall, leaving the room in chaos.
Dr. Clarke quickly rolled up his sleeves and approached Damien Reid.
His condition wasn't looking good; the harpoon had pierced his shoulder and needed immediate attention.
Damien Reid sat down slowly, giving a bitter smile. "I was just wondering if I was that unlucky... Guess I really was."
Sasha Venus looked very guilty and quickly apologized to Damien Reid.
But everyone knew this wasn't Sasha Venus's fault; she had also been struck by a harpoon in her palm.
"Hey, come over here," Vincent Moretti waved. "I can bandage you up."
"Huh?" Sasha Venus froze. "You can do that?"
"Just a little bit," Vincent Moretti replied.
He tore a piece of suit fabric from the deceased Basic Gemini, cutting it into two pieces.
One piece was tightly wrapped around Sasha Venus's arm to stop the bleeding, while the other was carefully wrapped around the wound.
"I used to get hurt a lot on the streets, so I taught myself how to bandage," Vincent Moretti explained.
Sasha Venus nodded slightly but didn't speak.
After coming this far, the group had a rare moment of peace, as if they had temporarily escaped the shadow of death.
But the door was still nowhere to be seen, and the cursed room kept them trapped.
What kind of place was this?
What was outside the room?
Less than a minute later, Dr. Clarke let out a sigh from his position.
Elliot Hayes turned to see Dr. Clarke, who was working on Damien Reid's injury, looking troubled.
"What's wrong?" Officer Logan asked. "Is the injury that serious?"
"It's not that bad," Dr. Clarke shook his head. "It's just that I can't get the harpoon out."
Everyone leaned in closer and saw the problem: The harpoon had barbed tips, making it incredibly difficult to remove without causing more harm.
And the harpoon was attached to a rope.
At this point, Damien Reid was like a fish caught by the harpoon, unable to escape the pull of the rope.
"We'll have to cut the rope and pull the harpoon out from the front," Dr. Clarke said. "But I don't have any sharp tools."
Damien Reid's lips had turned pale, and the harpoon in his shoulder was causing him immense pain.
"Use another harpoon," Officer Logan quickly suggested. "Though they're sharp, they're still tools."
"That's all we can do," Dr. Clarke nodded. "Writer, I need you to lie down in the most relaxed position possible. We need to cut the rope on your back. Don't rush, take it slow. Be careful of the harpoon on your front, don't get injured again."
Damien Reid nodded and slowly began shifting his body.
Elliot Hayes watched this with a feeling of unease.
Take it slow?
Is there really time for that in this situation?
He glanced at the ropes scattered across the ground, and an ominous thought crossed his mind.
If he was right, they were still racing against time.
"We can't take it slow!" Elliot Hayes suddenly spoke up. "Get the harpoon out of him now!"
He quickly approached the doctor and said seriously to Damien Reid, "Hold on, I'm pulling the harpoon out now!"
Damien Reid was confused but didn't refuse.
"What are you doing?!" Dr. Clarke angrily shoved Elliot Hayes aside. "You'll make the injury worse!"
"There's no time! If we keep delaying, he's really going to die!" Elliot Hayes pushed past Dr. Clarke, grabbing the harpoon from Damien Reid's back.
A blood-curdling scream echoed through the room.
The barbed harpoon was easy to pierce but incredibly hard to remove.
"Hey!" Officer Logan ran over and yanked Elliot Hayes away, shouting angrily, "Are you trying to kill him?!"
Elliot Hayes, frustrated by the interference, grimaced.
"I understand you want to save him, but if we don't hurry..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the sounds of chains moving echoed again, as if some massive mechanism had been triggered once more.
At the same time, Damien Reid's agonized screams echoed through the room.
It was then that everyone realized that all the harpoons, under the pull of their ropes, were slowly retracting.
Damien Reid's body was being dragged toward the wall by the enormous force.
Elliot Hayes had noticed this earlier—the ropes attached to the harpoons weren't just there for show; they were going to pull the harpoons back eventually.
The group, panicked, tried to keep up with Damien Reid, but Officer Logan's attempt to hold onto the ropes and resist the immense force was futile.
The table panels, pierced by harpoons, were now being torn apart, slowly retreating.
This kind of force that could penetrate wood could not be countered by mere human strength.
Though Damien Reid was in excruciating pain, he soon realized another problem.
If he was pulled to the wall and couldn't free himself from the harpoons, he would be nailed to the wall to die.
Realizing this, he painfully stood up, grabbed Elliot Hayes, and said with urgency, "Help me get the harpoon out! Get it out now!"