Chapter 382: Not Over Yet

As he thought this, the assistant squad leader’s hands did not stop moving.

He drew a vial of Amber Tonic from his potion pouch, twisted off the cap, carefully lifted the squad leader’s head, and poured the liquid down his throat bit by bit.

The squad leader’s throat bobbed slightly as he swallowed on instinct.

Then the assistant squad leader took out another vial and drained it in one go.

As the amber liquid slid down his throat, his brow creased.

The interval had been too short—less than half an hour since his last dose.

The side effects would likely be stronger: headaches, nausea, perhaps even brief blurred vision.

But with the two of them the most severely wounded, he had been left with no other choice.

After all, the Rank-3 Anomaly was dead, but the building itself was far from safe.

Those weaker Anomalies could still pose a threat to them in their half-crippled state.

The sooner they could restore their combat abilities, the better.

The other squad members had not suffered such heavy wounds, so they had not used potions.

Still, each was finding their own way to hasten recovery.

Some dug dried rations from their packs, breaking the hard flatbread into small pieces and chewing slowly. Others produced topical salves and rubbed them into scrapes and bruises.

A few simply sat against the wall, eyes closed, regulating their internal rhythms through deep breathing.

“Assistant squad leader, what now?” A moment later, one of the members moved closer and asked. “Should we continue clearing out the remaining Anomalies, or wait for the squad leader to wake up first?”

The assistant squad leader frowned in thought for a moment before answering.

“Let’s wait for the squad leader to wake up. He can report the situation to Lady Poppy first.”

“As for the mission she assigned... we’ll push it back a bit while we rest and recuperate. Knowing Lady Poppy’s temperament, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

The Rank-3 masters all had their own temperaments, but none of them were unreasonable or aloof.

When faced with genuinely harrowing situations, they generally would not be too demanding.

As for the mission, it would just be delayed a bit—no big deal...

He was still thinking this when the squad leader began to show signs of waking.

His fingers twitched faintly, as if jolted by an electric shock. His brows knitted tightly, the rise and fall of his chest grew more rapid, and his breathing turned coarse.

Hearing the noise, several members hurried over.

“Squad leader?” “Leader, are you awake?” They called out in a flurry of voices.

The squad leader’s eyelids fluttered, then slowly opened. For a few seconds, his gaze was unfocused, as if veiled in fog, seeing nothing at all. Then it gradually sharpened.

Seeing the faces of his teammates gathered around him, he should have felt reassured. The battle was over. They had survived. That was the greatest news of all.

And yet...

The look on the squad leader’s face was wrong. Far too grave.

There was no relief at having survived, none of the release that follows victory. Instead, there was... a deep unease. As if something were still hanging above their heads, ready to fall at any moment.

The members exchanged glances. The atmosphere inexplicably tensed again. Shoulders that had just relaxed unconsciously tightened once more.

“Squad leader... what’s wrong?”

The squad leader shook his head, his voice hoarse and dry, as if forced from a cracked throat: “I don’t know what’s wrong... but I feel strange right now.”

“Palpitations. Like... like that feeling right before we encountered that Bonebeast Anomaly.”

“As if... as if that Anomaly isn’t dead.”

At those words, the others looked at one another, momentarily at a loss for how to respond.

Could there be another Anomaly just as terrifying lurking in this building? Or was that Anomaly simply not dead at all?

If such a thing had truly happened, then in their current half-crippled state, there would be nothing left to do but wait for death.

One such creature, they might fight with everything they had. But two? They might as well give up—at least death would come easier.

The squad members could find no reply. But the squad leader suddenly asked another question.

“...Where’s Betty?”

As he spoke, his gaze swept over the figures sitting or standing nearby. Among them, that round face was nowhere to be seen. “Where did she go? Why isn’t she here?”

With his prompting, the others finally noticed that Betty indeed had not returned.

The assistant squad leader blinked, then explained simply: “Betty said she couldn’t breathe earlier and went to rest in the next room. She should be nearby.”

With that, he raised his voice and called out: “Betty? Betty! Are you there?”

No response.

Aside from the hollow echo bouncing back from deep within the corridor, there was not a single sound from the nearby rooms. That echo seemed to return from somewhere far away, carrying with it an empty chill.

The assistant squad leader frowned. “Betty said she wouldn’t go far... and Jack hasn’t said he sensed her leaving...”

He looked toward Jack as he spoke.

But Jack’s hands were empty—the Wizardry Crystal fragment he used to control the Susurrus Mist had been shattered earlier during the Bonebeast Anomaly’s assault.

Without the crystal fragment, Jack’s perception of the mist had vanished completely. If Betty had truly slipped away, Jack would not be able to sense it now.

But...

What reason would Betty have to leave without telling them?

The assistant squad leader found this baffling. There was no reason for Betty to deliberately keep quiet and slip away behind their backs, and even less reason for her to stay nearby yet not answer their calls...

But the squad leader suddenly seized the assistant squad leader’s wrist. The grip was astonishingly strong, as if trying to crush the bones in his wrist.

The look on his face grew even more strained. His pupils contracted, veins bulged on his forehead, and he kept muttering over and over:

“Something’s wrong... something’s wrong... this place isn’t right... something’s wrong with the environment... that Anomaly is still here. It’s not dead... it’s watching us...”

The squad leader’s words were chaotic and rushed—nothing like the calm, steady leader he normally was. He was more like someone caught in a nightmare, struggling desperately between sleep and wakefulness, trying to force himself awake.

The assistant squad leader’s heart dropped. But he suppressed the flicker of panic and rejected the worst possibility in his mind. If that Anomaly truly was still alive, then that would be too hopeless... And it made no sense.

The shattered remains lay right before their eyes—charred bones, a cracked skull, a dulled bony eyeball... The Bonebeast Anomaly was undeniably dead. There was no reason for it to be inexplicably alive.

As for Betty’s lack of response, he much preferred another possibility—

Betty had fainted.

Yes, that had to be it. She had exhausted herself just like the squad leader, lost consciousness for a while, and so she couldn’t respond.

She had said earlier she couldn’t breathe, her face pale as a sheet. Going off alone to rest in that condition—fainting was perfectly normal.

It had to be that. There was no mistake.