Mr Cyril stepped back, along with Miriam, who seemed to be behind him.
Even in this situation, she was trying to stop the bleeding by healing him.
Mr Dede and two others had already run and regrouped with everyone.
We were now a distance away from the scene of slaughter.
We could see them freezing under the uncertain glare of the mosquito and it looked at them.
Instinctively, everyone else looked at the other statues, and indeed, they all had their eyes staring at them.
Though none of the others moved.
Timothy was already hyperventilating.
When Noah suddenly shouted.
"What are you doing? We should be helping them!!"
Everyone turned to look at him including Timothy.
"This is just a D-rank dungeon; we should be able to do it as long as the other statues don't move!."
Immediately afterwards he ran towards Mr Cyril.
At this time, one of the flames above the statues quenched, and it suddenly moved.
"Jesus" magnificent said as he now moved further away from both angles of danger.
The one that moved happened to only break free a part of its arms and remained idle like that.
No one knew why, nor did they go to check.
Noah almost reaching Mr Cyril suddenly heard him yell
"Stop!!... Don't come any closer..." Mr Cyril said
"If I'm right, mosquitos cannot see very well, but they can sense vibrations. There's no time to run as that thing just killed a person swiftly in front of us..." Mr Cyril then turned his neck to look at Miriam, who was healing his arm, and Noah, who now stood till.
"It's okay, Miriam, take this opportunity to run away; as for me, I won't let that bastard leave."
Almost immediately, he launched himself forward, after being stable a little, and used the mana blade skill to attack the guy who lost all his blood but was still alive.
In this movement, the statue of the mosquito moved again, but this time, it was its proboscis that came out swiftly and pierced Mr Cyril's chest.
This didn't stop him as he pushed forward, he was almost near him.
"Edward you bastard!!!" Mr Cyril shouted and took even more mature steps towards him.
"Kill him, kill him, kill him!!" Edward said frantically
Multiple proboscides jutted forward, stabbing Mr. Cyril all over his body as he used his sword to protect his head, and now he was just lying limply on the razor blade proboscis.
Looking at Edward who stood smiling just a metre away from him.
He also smiled back...
Immediately, his Mana blade turned into a wind blade; he swung it with every remaining strength in his arm before it fell limp, and he died.
"You finally reached C rank at the end of your life!? Too bad I was not within reach..." Edward said.
Only to turn around and find that he was bleeding, a straight line from his neck down to his stomach.
It seems Mr Cyril's attack wasn't in vain.
Everyone watched this in awe, pain, anger, and grief.
Miriam had already been pulled over by Noah and they were now with the group
There were now three hunters dead, and of the three, two were healers and all male.
So their head count was now 21 people, 1 of them was rogue, and of the remaining 20, 11 were females, and 9 of them were guys.
Timothy, on the other hand, wasn't paying attention to the death; he just found a clue.
At the bottom of each statue or rather the stand on which each statue lay were words...
"Kill them, kill them all!!!" Edward seemed to have finally lost it as he kept barking orders at a statue.
Timothy heard it all but his aim wasn't there.
The insects of each statue were recognized easily and each word seemed to have a meaning
The mosquito wasn't the last but the first. The remaining statues aren't recognizable, but they had their defining features that one could guess them by.
Regardless of Edwards barking the statue returned to its shape and didn't move anymore.
"Hey! I suggest we stay away from these statues," Noah suddenly said to the team.
The statues were laid on the wall and only rounded up to half the hall, the other halfway seemingly empty.
They decided to move towards that area.
By this time now Edward just sat down still in front of the mosquito statue.
Everyone kept an eye on him, but regardless, he cared not and rather watched them with vicious eyes.
Soon, another flame went off above the statue, and it shook visibly hard before becoming still again.
They all saw this.
"Something is wrong, there's is something we're not understanding..." Timothy said but no one paid heed
The remaining guys weren't very dependable.
Noah was talking to Miriam.
Magnificent was visibly scared shitless with the last healer and two girls.
The twins were calmly analysing but they weren't one for talks.
Mr Dede was mentally shaken.
Matthew seemed to keep looking at his palm from time to time.
The last two guys were already shaken in their boots, panicking and embarrassing themselves, to say the least, but no one cared for them.
Frankly, though, it was annoying as one of them was the one with a shield and the other probably a mage.
Timothy then approached Matthew.
"Hey," Timothy said
"Hey" Matthew replied
"You okay!"
"Yeah, just thinking, what are the chances we'll be rescued," Matthew said with a sigh
"Frankly I think it's low."
"I feel like we're running out of time"
"I know, right, but I'm trying not to panic; no matter how I try to piece things together, I still don't understand."
"What's there not to understand, Tim? There are twelve statues with flames above their head, and after a certain time, the flames go off, and then there's also that guy sitting calmly under the protection of one of the statues," Matthew said reluctantly.
That seemed to click in his head, he had been thinking solely on the statues to begin with and forgot about Edward.
"Why does that statue protect him and kill others and obey him to an extent? Why do the other statues vibrate after a certain time? Plus, the statue that Edward is under did light up a flame above its head like others, which could only mean ..."
"We're the key here" Someone suddenly said from behind Timothy and Matthew.
They turned back in shock and discovered the twins looking at them calmly.
"Hi," Matthew enthusiastically said a handshake, to which they didn't seem to reciprocate, leaving him hanging.
"What do you mean by we're the key?" Timothy asked.
"I think, though only hypothetically that we need to be under each statue before the time runs out." One of the twins said
"That's impossible. We'll die before we get close to it." Timothy replied
"Not necessarily, have you read the words below the statues?" They asked.
Timothy remembered there were a bunch of phrases he couldn't understand
"Yes"
"Now have you read the words under that statue?" they said again, pointing towards Edward.
Whom now stared back at them
"No" Timothy replied.
"It says "Blood is life but survival is balance, feed and breed"... I couldn't get the last words from this distance and he is purposely blocking it from view I think"
"What does that have to do with the statues not killing us?" Matthew asked
"Personality" Timothy answered
"I would say Sacrifice, but nevertheless... It's a huge risk to take but we chose this, didn't we " The twins said
"That's not the problem; the thing is, there's twenty of us left and only 11 statues remaining; if what you're saying is right, then what'll happen to the remaining 9 people, and if you're wrong, what'll happen to the remaining nine people?"
"What nine people?" Noah had come over to His friend Matthew.
He wasn't alone, he came with the healer Miriam.
At this time, another flame went off, and a statue shook slightly before going still again.
"This was the third flame that went off suddenly. Hopefully, it's just a timer," Matthew said, waving off the glare that Noah gave him.
"What nine people Tim!?" Noah suddenly directed his glare to Tim who stood unfazed.
"There's also another way to confirm our theories" The twins suddenly said.
No one paid heed to Noah.
He was probably already known as a hothead.
"Which is?" Timothy asked
"We'll have to ask Mr Edward over there"
Again, they turned and looked at Edward, who was staring intensely at Mr Dede, but suddenly turned their direction and smirked again.
Sending chills to one's spine.
Everything was so uncertain, and Timothy felt a strong sense of repulsion from going anywhere near Edward and likely did anyone else.
At this moment, he remembered he had a family at home, and his heart wavered. He felt the need to cry and just wish this was a dream, but he held it in and decided to stuff up himself.
"Don't worry, we're very confident in our speed, and as long as we're within talking distance and on guard... We'll be okay; on another note, I'll need you to do something else." They suddenly said to Timothy.