The white mist gradually dissipated, revealing two figures lying on the ground at the edge of the pond. The burly bald man in uniform had blood streaming from his forehead, his body convulsing repeatedly. He was still breathing, but his eyes were bnk and empty — he looked close to death.

  The other figure, a young man dressed in bck with a mask on his face, slowly pushed himself up from the ground. He reached up and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, picked up the pistol lying nearby, and fired several more shots into the bald man's head. The man's body shuddered violently a few times, then went still and stopped breathing.

  "General Feihu, you never imagined it would end this way, did you? Your mistake was choosing to help that Prince Suwen — and making an enemy of me." Rulu gnced at the now-dead General Feihu, then shifted his gaze away. In the distance, a rge number of soldiers along with humanoid armored soldiers were surging toward him.

  "Time to go — any longer and I won't make it out." Rulu rode the wind into the wooded grounds of the Governor's compound and, using the trees as cover, fled rapidly toward the compound's outer perimeter. Before long he reached the outer iron fence, rode the wind over it, and nded on the city streets outside.

  "Someone stop him — the assassin's out!" Without warning, a humanoid armored soldier and roughly a dozen ordinary soldiers appeared near Rulu. Spotting him, they immediately rushed in his direction and opened fire.

  Rulu judged he couldn't afford to engage and evaded them, riding the wind to flee swiftly elsewhere in the city.

  But less than a minute into his escape, he ran into another patrol of soldiers. The moment they saw him, they opened fire, forcing him to change direction again.

  No matter where he fled, soldiers and humanoid armored soldiers cut him off. It felt as though every military unit in Blue Sea City had been mobilized at once — vast numbers of troops bnketed the entire area surrounding the Governor's compound, sealing it off on all sides.

  "Damn it — where did all these people come from? How am I supposed to get out?!" Rulu darted through the city's streets and alleyways, trying to break through the encirclement, but the soldiers were relentless in number, pouring toward his position in an unending stream and firing without pause. With a sharp hiss, a bullet grazed Rulu's side, tearing into him. Blood seeped through his clothing, staining it red around his waist.

  Rulu let out a grunt of pain. Pressing his hand against his left side and gritting through the agony, he ducked into a narrow alley cluttered with odds and ends, pulled a rge bamboo basket over himself, and hid.

  Rulu tore open his clothing around the wound and used his Magic Psionic power to freeze the injury shut and stop the bleeding. The bullet had passed clean through near his waist, leaving nothing inside and missing any vital organs. Once the bleeding stopped, he felt considerably better, and the wound no longer burned as sharply as before.

  Then Rulu heard nearby soldiers shouting:

  "Where's the assassin? Where did he go?"

  "Not on my end — I saw him run that way just now."

  "He must be close, probably hiding somewhere. Surround this whole area and search every inch — don't miss a single spot. We have to find him."

  The soldiers began combing the area around Rulu's position. Before long, some twenty soldiers and two humanoid armored soldiers entered the alley where Rulu was hiding. The two humanoid armored soldiers sealed off both ends of the alley while the regur soldiers moved inside, tossing aside the scattered clutter as they searched.

  "What do I do — at this rate I'll be found." Crouched beneath the bamboo basket, Rulu's mind raced with desperation. He was wounded, and with humanoid armored soldiers on the scene, fighting his way out was out of the question. Using Spiritual-power to control a soldier was equally impossible — he had already pushed it to its limit, and failure was all but certain. And even if it worked, he could only control one person at a time; with this many soldiers around him, controlling one wouldn't accomplish anything.

  "It's really over this time. I don't think I'm getting out today." With no solution in sight, Rulu began to sink into despair. The searching soldiers were getting closer and closer — they were almost on top of him.

  A tremendous boom shook the air. In the distance, fmes shot skyward — somewhere, a violent explosion had gone off.

  "What was that — why is something exploding over there?"

  "It must be the assassin — let's go check it out."

  "Move fast, or the assassin will get away!"

  The soldiers searching the alley heard the bst, immediately broke off their search, and rushed out toward the source of the explosion.

  "I don't know what caused that explosion, but whatever it was — I just got very lucky." Rulu let out a long, slow breath from under the bamboo basket, feeling like a man who had just escaped death itself. He shoved the basket aside, quickly scanned his surroundings, and prepared to seize this opportunity — with the soldiers drawn away by the explosion — to make his escape.

  Hurried footsteps rang out. Someone came striding into the alley and was walking straight toward Rulu's position. Thinking it was a soldier, Rulu quickly raised his pistol and aimed.

  "Come with me — this way!" A familiar voice reached Rulu's ears.

  "C.C. — is that you?!" Rulu froze. He lowered the gun and stepped quickly toward the figure. It was a young woman with long green hair. If not C.C., who else could it be?