The Broken System Chose the Antagonist
Chapter 10: An Idealistic Resolve

Chapter 10: An Idealistic Resolve

"HELP ME, SOMEBODY!"

Both Ben and Nadia flinched at the desperate cry, their breathing hitched for a split second. This was the first human voice they heard after almost half an hour of walking.

Before Ben could fully process what he heard, Nadia had already shot into a mad dash towards the suspected location.

After a moment, he too broke out of his stupor and quickly ran to catch up. And when he eventually did, he found Nadia standing outside of a dark alleyway with a grim expression on her face.

Curious, he leaned in, and what he saw shocked him to his core.

Across the alleyway and on another street opposite to them was the man who had cried out earlier. He was hung upside down, slowly being fed into the maw of a Scoundrel, which seemed to prefer taking small bites of him.

On both sides of this Predicament were two other Scoundrels. They were both sitting down, with their backs facing the alleyway. Their head constantly bobbed up and down jaggedly, and stains of blood surrounded where they sat.

Nadia’s brows furrowed darkly.

’It was a slaughter...’

She then returned her gaze to the man.

His face was painted with tears and blood, and was horrifyingly pale. By now, his entire lower body had been devoured.

Nadia clenched her jaw and began to slowly back away.

Taking on one alone was difficult enough, but to take on three was suicide—especially for a man who was as good as dead.

Once the two managed to take a step away from the alleyway and were about to run away, the man who was being eaten alive managed to wake up from his half-conscious state.

The man weakly raised his arm towards them and begged in a small, hoarse voice:

"H-help... me..."

This action of his obviously notified the three Predicaments, who now became aware of Nadia’s and Ben’s presence.

Nadia immediately scowled before grabbing Ben’s hand, dragging him into a desperate sprint to escape.

"We gotta run, NOW!"

By the time the two managed to distance themselves from the alleyway, the Scoundrels had completely finished their meal and prepared themselves for the chase.

With the help of their powerful legs—

CRASH! x3

—They smashed through the half-ruined buildings to get through to the other side, the street where Nadia and Ben were.

Their destruction led to a large, greyish-brown dust cascade, which created an illusion of a large, dirty tsunami quickly flooding the street.

As the two continued to run for their lives, weaving in and out of alleyways, they began to attract more attention from neighbouring Predicaments, leading to what had originally been a group of three Scoundrels to become a group of six.

And if their situation wasn’t bad enough—

"I-I, haa... don’t think I can keep on running..."

—Ben had begun to grow tired.

At this point, he looked completely out of breath and looked more like he was stumbling forward rather than running. If it wasn’t for Nadia pulling him along, Ben would’ve dropped to his knees long ago.

Nadia sensed the man’s hand grow colder and immediately clicked her tongue.

"Just a little further! I’ll find us somewhere we can lose them and rest!"

"Haa... th-the satchels, they’re weighing on me..."

The Heroine’s eyes lit up.

"That’s right!"

Turning back to look at him, Nadia held out one of her hands.

"Pass me one of them, quick!"

Ben tiredly nodded his head before trying to lift one of the satchel’s straps from his shoulders. But in the process of handing it over to Nadia, he tripped over a shallow pit in the road.

This mistake obviously cost the two of them, for the moment it happened, one of the leading Predicaments managed to land a decisive strike on Ben’s back—its claws tearing through his jacket and sinking deep into his skin and muscles.

With droplets of blood flying through the air, a horrified look appeared in Nadia’s eyes, sharply contrasting with her still face.

Ben laid in front of Nadia’s black boots, with three sickeningly deep wounds on his back, while the Predicament stood over them—the others soon to catch up in roughly a few moments.

"Nadia... you gotta run. Away..." The young man groaned, letting go of Nadia’s warm hand, which had become loose with her shock.

Nadia’s still face soon contorted into a furious and complicated expression.

With a wounded ally at her feet and an enemy before her, whose own allies were mere metres away from their position, the only right decision was to leave them behind after retrieving their gear. By doing this, not only would you preserve your own life, but also the valuable things the ally had with them.

But...

SWISH!

Nadia didn’t want to resort to that. She wanted both of them to get out of here alive, so that they could go on to achieve their dreams!

Managing to pull Ben out of the way of an attack at the very last second, she put distance between herself and the Predicament.

She then grasped the air with both hands before magically summoning an elusive silver longsword from nothing. And with eyes filled with resolve, she imbued her weapon with Vitality, whose blade had begun to glow rather slightly.

"It’s now do or die!" Nadia shouted with determination, her heroic stance inspiring the injured Ben, who remained on the ground.

The young man then weakly spotted in the corners of his eyes someone walking up to them.

"W-who..."

Nadia, who was staring intently at the Scoundrel before her, watched as it leapt at her with threatening speed.

She gritted her teeth and stepped forward, prepared to face it and the others behind it head-on.

But that was when—

Swoosh...!

—She felt a faint gust of wind fly past her cheek.

Nadia quickly froze and identified the thing that passed by her face to be a yellowish-green slip of paper, which had a strange marking seemingly etched onto its face.

Her eyes immediately widened.

It was...

"{Flame Wave}..."

A Talisman!

In a near-instant, the slip of paper became ignited into a roaring flame that bursted towards the Scoundrel in a flowing, hot wave—burning it alive and even killing it instantly.

Nadia continued to remain frozen until she heard a voice call out to her.

A woman’s voice...

"Ah... Meine Dame~ what a pleasure to see you again~!"