Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 38

Chapter 38

[Countdown: 00:01]

[Fifteen minutes have passed.]

[Hunters are now entering the field.]

[Players-have a… pleasant death.]

The System’s voice rolled across the entire forest.

Lyra sat on her branch, eyes locked on the ice tree in the distance.

Creeeak-

ខ

A grating screech of tearing wood. The trunk twisted hard. Huge mounds of soil heaved as thick roots ripped themselves free of the earth.

Dirt sprayed everywhere.

Countless mud-caked tendrils writhed across the ground, hoisting the massive trunk upright.

The canopy stretched outward. Leaf edges hardened, sprouting rows of wooden spikes that gleamed with cold light.

Lyra narrowed her eyes. All ten ice trees had come alive.

They didn’t gather-they scattered, thick roots crawling across the leaves in alternating strides.

Fast.

Rustle-rustle-rustle-

The sound of death closing in.

Lyra turned her head left. One of the ice trees had stopped at the edge of a thicket.

Without a wasted motion, two barbed branches plunged straight in.

“AAAHH-!

A short scream tore through the forest’s silence.

When the branches pulled back, a man hung from them-wooden spikes driven through his flesh, blood running down the limbs in steady drips.

He thrashed twice, then went still.

The ice tree shook its branches. The body thudded to the ground, and the tree crawled on toward its next target.

Lyra arched an eyebrow. Their tracking was too sharp-sharper even than the Wraiths in the back half of the last two

rounds.

No searching at all.

Bushes blocked sight, but they couldn’t block sound, body heat, or the scent of a living person.

Then what about underground?

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Chapter 38

She looked down. Every root system was crawling along the surface. Once they ripped free of the dirt, they stayed above it. not a single tendril dipped back down to probe.

Underground was safe. For now.

If the ice trees no longer rooted down, then soil would insulate most of the heat coming off a human body.

But first she had to confirm it, whether they really hunted by heat.

Lyra slid down the trunk and landed cleanly.

She glanced left and right, then quickly raked together a small pile of dry twigs and leaves.

She pulled out the fire starter Lina had given her, popped the cap, blew once-sparks flared-and pressed it into the heart of the pile.

Dry grass caught instantly, and flames whooshed up.

Lyra didn’t linger. She grabbed the fire starter and bolted.

About a hundred feet out, she caught the trunk of a thick brown tree and clambered up, hand over hand, until she perched on a high fork.

Good view from up here. She could see the little fire clearly-burning hotter, the air above it warping.

Seven seconds.

A heavy rustle tore in from the northwest. An ice tree burst into view, roots flailing, racing straight for the flames.

Countless barbed branches hacked down at the burning pile in a frenzy.

Leaves flew everywhere. Sparks splashed onto the gray bark, the ice tree didn’t react, just kept thrashing its branches through the fire.

Only when the flames were fully out and every last bit of residual heat had dissipated did it stop.

It shook its branches, turned, and moved off in another direction.

“Heat. Knew it.”

Now she felt steady.

She dropped out of the tree and headed back the way she’d come.

The pits Lina and the others had dug weren’t far. All they had to do was hunker underground and stay quiet. Ninety minutes was nothing.

She didn’t run hard, keeping an ear on her surroundings. Screams broke out now and then from the outer woods, players hiding out there.

As she neared the pit area, her feet stalled.

Noise was carrying from behind the trees, not the scrape of ice tree roots through leaves. People. Talking. And vicious cursing.

Lydia shouted in Ursarian, “Get out.”

“This is our spot!”

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Chapter 38

Ursarian. Lydia, swearing up a storm.

Then a dull thud.

Lyra’s face hardened, and she crept toward it.

She slipped around a waist-high thicket, and the scene snapped into view.

A crowd ringed the pits.

Eight or nine of them, all in different clothes, all from different countries.

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On the ground, Sergei was getting jumped by three men-a fist had already caught his face, blood smearing the corner of his mouth.

“Should’ve handed the pit over earlier. Now you’re getting your teeth knocked in.”

“You… scum!”

Lydia was tangling with five guys at once and somehow holding the upper hand.

“This crazy bitch chugged a Strength Potion and a Speed Potion. We can’t take her.”

“Move it. We’re running out of time,” one of the bald guys snapped.

Lina was being hauled out of her pit by the hair.

“Out of the way.” A man’s boot drove into her stomach.

Lina curled up around the pain, both fists clamped around two reed stalks.

“Give them here.” The man stooped to wrench them away.

Lina gritted her teeth, twisted her head, and sank them into his wrist.

“Aaargh.”

He yelped and backhanded her hard across the face.

Lina hit the ground. A red palm print bloomed across her pale cheek,

“You want to hide underground, then dig your own pits. Why are you stealing ours?” Lina spat through clenched teeth.

“Tch. Death wish.” The man snorted, didn’t bother answering, and pulled his foot back to kick her again.

Shink.

Blood splashed across Lina’s face.

Thud.

The man crumpled.

The sudden shift froze everyone in place. Lyra strolled into view, the oversized Wraithslayer hanging from one hand.

“You stealing the pits I dug?”

“Fun, is it?”

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