Due to the lack of strength and panic, Timothy did not have enough strength to be as impressive as he thought in his head by pulling back Miriam since she was a D-ranked Hunter.
Due to that fact, she willingly jumped back again after Timothy pulled her back.
Everyone now stood guarded looking grimly at the guy who sat on the floor in panic.
He was too afraid to turn back; he sat frozen, their eyes trailed behind him, and their breaths were caught in their chest.
The blood that flowed down from the ear of the kid formed a pool of blood behind him.
It was like there was an attraction force that pulled the blood toward the area where it settled.
And coincidentally that area happened to be the center of this hall.
The hall, which seemed to not have a semblance of a hint of structure, now made space to accommodate the blood.
"Healers is there nothing you can do to stop the bleeding?" Mr Cyril shouted out for them to hear.
Four people suddenly stepped out of the crowd, and three of them were male; all were healers, and Miriam was among them.
Some faces are familiar to Timothy, but at this point, every face is familiar.
They stretched forth their hands while keeping their distance with a few others in front in case things went sideways.
Still, the bleeding felt like it was amplified, and now the guy was turning pale.
It was visible on Mr Cyril's face that he felt the pressure of this kid dying on him.
"He'll die of blood loss, do something!!" Mr Cyril barked again
"We're only D rank, we've tried our best." One of the guys said.
"We'll need to save Mana; we don't know where the next problem might come from." Another guy said.
A moment of silence ensued.
"So we're supposed to let him die?! " Miriam said
And truly that was what was on everyone's mind.
Truly, humans were hypocrites; they pretended to want to help, but everyone was a wide range away from him, me, even Mr. Cyril.
Self-preservation? Maybe.
Soon, the guy was a mere wrap of flesh and bones, but weirdly enough, he wasn't dead.
As he kept muttering something under his breath.
Everyone watched.
And once the pool of blood stopped flowing to the now-looking pond, tension hung in the air.
"Is that all?" Magnificent said with his deep voice.
*Slush*
The pond vibrated, the ground trembled and shifted and some lost their balance and others wary.
A small drainage was made on the center of the pond leading away from Them but as it went on ahead, it spread.
Blood seemed to move in networks on the floor as it opened up even more networks to accommodate the blood and soon all the blood in the pond was drained.
And an image of the floors close to a section of the wall was drawn with blood.
"You just had to jinx it!" Someone said referring to magnificent
Since it was on the ground, to get a good look would require one to levitate; that was advanced magic that none of them had here.
They could only tell tidbits of information, like a part of the drawing was a wing but more like an insect wing considering its light ink color.
This drawing was so detailed.
"Is this a clue?" Timothy whispered to himself
"It's a mosquito" someone suddenly said
Everyone turned to him and saw two boys, one standing on another's shoulder.
These boys were the scouts that were sent in.
Timothy couldn't get a look at their faces before, but now he could tell why they dressed similarly.
They were a twin.
"A mosquito?" Mr. Dede suddenly asked
"Yes," The boy standing above said and started elaborating
"I would have missed it also but I have knowledge in these things, look closer a the wing over there and the legs though it seems different, its features are that of a mosquito," he said
This was something only someone versed in education would know, and everyone stared at him weirdly, but he did make his point.
The drawing lay on the ground, drawing attention with its hauntingly human-like stance.
The monstrous mosquito stood upright, its elongated body bent slightly forward as if preparing to pounce.
Towering at twice the height of a human, it exuded an aura of dominance and malice.
It felt so real.
Its legs were thin but disturbingly sinewy, resembling steel cables twisted into jagged, angular forms.
Each joint ended in a hooked claw, sharpened to a wicked point, poised to rend or anchor into anything in its path.
The creature's wings stretched beside it in an unnatural spread, their membranous surface etched with intricate vein patterns that seemed to pulsate even in the static image.
The blood made this effect even more weird and the more one stared into the image the more it felt ... Alive
The head was the most unsettling part of the depiction.
Its massive compound eyes were carved with hypnotic detail, faceted like gemstones, each facet reflecting warped, distorted images of them.
The proboscis jutted forward slightly.
Adding to its menace, the thorax swelled unnaturally, depicted as if pulsating with life, while the abdomen curved downward, segmented and bloated, hinting at an insatiable hunger.
Its posture was eerily human-like, with its upper body tilted forward and two of its forelimbs crossed in a mockery of contemplation or dominance, as though it were assessing its next victim.
What truly made it unnerving was the faint glow emanating from the carving.
Everyone was so focused on the drawing that no one seemed to see someone move from behind them.
It was not until the blood image seemed to disappear that they all came to their senses.
Truly it was like a hypnosis.
And now turning around left them with another scare of their lives.
Statues popped up when they had no idea about them.
And under one of these statues was the guy who was supposed to be bleeding to death.
He shouldn't have been able to walk, but there he was, kneeling under a statue.
He shouldn't even be alive...
Looking at the statue that was very huge made one wow in admiration but then recognizing the shape of the statue was no more than the mosquito which had been drawn was unsettling.
Timothy looked around, and as a matter of fact, all the statues were insects.
He immediately ran towards the twin scouts from before.
"Tell me you know what these statues are?"
"They're insects arranged in the order of taxonomy" One of them replied calmly.
"Hmm, meaning we may have hit a jackpot this time!!" Someone said.
"Yh, now the clues are in front of us, we should just solve them"
Timothy wondered if these people were mad and how they could be calm in this situation.
"Let's go check out the Kid first," Mr Dede said this time.
Some agreed and walked with Mr Dede and part of them was Mr Cyril and a few others
Meanwhile, the rest of us decided to admire the view.
Not Timothy, though; he was already preparing for the worst.
"My father once told me... anything that was taken by blood the debt won't end, what's seized in strife, more blood will send; at some point, this was a motivation; at other points, it was a warning. " Timothy said
"Then you're father must be a smart man," Matthew suddenly said from behind him, along with his friend who was always with him.
He gave no reply to Matthew and just stood at the center of the hall.
"Everyone has gone back to normal and taken this like a usual dungeon hazard but this feels unsettling," Timothy said
"I understand what you mean, and frankly, I feel the same way, and that's why until that door opens, I want us to form a team!" Matthew said suddenly
Timothy instinctively gave His friend an eye.
Noah, on the other hand, only harrumphed.
"No problem!!" Timothy said
"Good then let's shake on it"
They shook hands, and from the corner of his eyes, Timothy could already assess the situation, apart from the group that followed Mr Cyril to check on the bleeding guy.
Everyone else was in groups.
"Ahhhhh!!!!"
Mr Cyril suddenly shouted out and drew everyone's attention.
His left arm was on the floor, and along with it was the head of two other healers.
The guy again, who was supposed to be dead, was wielding his sword, smirking in front of one of the headless bodies as it fell to the ground, and the third reverberated in this hall.
As if it wasn't worse enough, flames suddenly lit above every statue's head.
Twelve of them.
In Mr Cyril's anger, he shouted with all the strength in his lungs
"Run!!!"
He swung his sword without Mana towards the guy who was again supposed to be dead but an arm suddenly reached forward and blocked it.
Now everyone's face was pale.
The statue just moved.