Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The wall shattered

Ten red-robed Wraiths streamed out, the same charging momentum as last round. Box their movements were completely different.

They didn’t look around.

No eyes, no looking around.

The lead one tilted its head, ears swiveling forward like radar dishes. Then all ten Wraiths’ ear’s rotated in unison.

Lyra sat on the courtyard wall, watching the Wraiths through the gaps in the bamboo leaves, just sixteen feet away.

One second.

Three seconds.

Five seconds.

The Wraiths still hadn’t moved. Their ears twitched faintly, as if trying to catch something.

The whole garden was silent except for the wind whispering through the bamboo.

Ten seconds later, the lead Wraith snapped its arm up, pointing northeast.

All ten Wraiths shot off in that direction as one.

Lyra narrowed her eyes. Northeast-that was where…

‘Clack.

A piece of broken roof tile slid off the outer wall of the pavilion and hit the stone floor. The sound wasn’t loud, but in this kind of silence it might as well have been a gong.

Lyra looked over. A player was hanging from the outside of a second-story window, the upturned eave under his foot

rumbling away.

His whole body was swaying as he fought to steady himself, fingers clawing into the brick seams, faint streaks of blood

r dready showing.

The Wraiths were already picking up speed.

About fifty feet. Lyra estimated the distance between where the tile had landed and where the Wraiths had been when they bolted.

A sound from fifty feet away was enough to pull them in. Their hearing range was wider than she’d guessed.

The Draconia stream’s chat exploded.

LyraMyldo!. [Oh no oh no oh no! That guy on the wall is exposed!]

NeverAteVeggies: [The tile fell. That’s more than enough for them to lock on ]

15

33 am

63

kyk on save dude Do NOT move Don’t make another sound]

BornToCuss (Copy the homework but at least check if the question changed Last round they had no ears. This round they DOT

NeverAteFruit (Obviously. They don’t have a gods-eye view like us ]

AnotherDayAlive Hes about to die. I

On screen, the player had clearly realized the danger had frozen against the wall, holding his breath

But it was already too late.

The Wraiths reached the base of the pavilion. The leader tilted its head

Then it lifted its hooked sickle and hurled it upward

“Boom

Aaaagh The sickle struck home and the player screamed.

The scream had barely left his throat when three more sickles came down at once.

The sound cut off

‘AAAH

Another scream tore through the air.

Another player hiding behind a window ledge had been shaking so badly from fear that he’d knocked loose a chunk of the

window frame.

Five Wraiths locked onto his position instantly.

Sickles swung. Wood splinters and gore flew together.

Lyra sat on the courtyard wall, watching the chaos erupting around the pavilion.

Fifty feet. Sound-based targeting. Reaction time about two seconds.”

Her gaze drew back, settling on the arched gateway beneath her feel

Three of those ten Wraiths had passed through that very arch.

And she’d been sitting right on top of it the whole time.

Her breathing. Her heartbeat. They hadn’t picked up either.

So-breathing and heartbeats don’t count.”

Lyra let out a quiet breath, the corner of her mouth tugging up.

Made sense. If they could hear that, the game might as well be renamed [Just Die Already)

r

In the command center. Lana stared at the data recorder. Write this down Breathing and heartbeats are not within the Wraiths auditory range Trigger threshold is approximately-

25

133 pm

Kold part wound Fifty feet. Mc Reed cut in eyes never leaving the screen

Lana nodded and turned back to 1yra’s spin screen feed

Tyra’s lips curved She felt along the top of the wall picked up a pebble about thee of a fingernail and weighed it in her palm

Let’s try something else

She looked at the Wraiths still wreaking have neat the pavilion and gauged the distance

A fhick of her wrist sent the pebble arcing through the air It landed precisely on an open patch of ground about thirty feet from her

Tap

Just a soft click

Almost instantly, the two nearest Wraiths whipped their heads around those huge ears angled straight at the spot.

They abandoned what they were destroying and charged over without a moment’s hesitation.

BOOM

BOOM”

Two hooked sickles slammed down in a crossing arc. gouging two craters into the stone floor and sending shards flying.

Their attacks were more direct, more savage than when they d taken down the players.

The viewers’ hearts were in their throats.

LyraMyldol [Holy crap. That reaction time.]

NeverAteVeggies: [Thank God Goddess Lyra didn’t move. Thank God. thank God.]

LuckyKoi: [Am I imagining things, or… did the Wraiths attack drive just spike? They didn’t go this hard on that player]

BornToCuss: [Duh. That was an accident. This time our Goddess is actively provoking them. Of course the treatment’s different]

GoDraconia: (Could also be because the sound was closer ]

୮

Lyra watched the two Wraiths come up empty. Their ears swiveled, found nothing new, and they turned and drifted back to the pack

“Attack lands exactly on the sound source.

And if no new sound follows, they dont expand the search.

So what about a continuous sound?”

She glanced around. Her eyes settled on the bamboo grove beside her. She reached over, snapped off a slender stalk and stripped the leaves from the tip

The bamboo was hollow inside A crude little whistle.

33 am

Chapter

In the command sauter, Lana’s pupils contracted sharply “What is she doing?”

M

Ms Reed’s brow furrowed too. “This is too reckless. A continuous sound-they’ll almost certainly stay locked on”

Quick Tell her. Make her stop Lana practically shouted.

But before the comms officer could even move, on screen Lyra had already lifted the bamboo to her lips.

She drew a deep breath and blew, hard.

‘Shrieeek!”

A sharp, piercing note sliced through the silence of the garden.

This was nothing like the soft clatter from the player knocking something loose. It was sharper. Longer.

In that instant, every red-robed Wraith in the pavilion area froze.

Ten Wraiths. Twenty massive ears. All swung as one toward Lyra.

They d locked on.

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