"Where the heck is the boat?!"

Ashley’s voice rang across the open cargo area, momentarily stilling everyone even as the sound of gunfire lingered in the air.

Now that she was fully visible, Rus finally noticed how out of breath she was. Her hair was disheveled as if she had just crawled out of a catfight. A crumpled white tissue was stuffed into one of her nostrils, stained with blood.

"Shit," she breathed out heavily as she yanked the tissue free to stop the nosebleed.

Her eyes searched for Rus before sweeping over the armed men taking cover from her sudden assault. The situation alone already told her that Rus had cornered himself.

"Can’t you see?!" Rus shouted back. "I’m trapped here!"

The anger that had been slowly consuming him earlier subsided slightly now that there were at least two of them.

But his relief didn’t last long.

"Well, you’re not the only one!" Ashley shouted while turning her head frantically. "Hey, you! Let’s switch opponents!"

Ashley winced when she spotted Carrot Man climbing onto one of the containers, followed by more armed men appearing from different directions.

"What?!" Rus shouted.

"Let’s switch opponents!" she yelled again before snapping her head toward Carrot Man. "Why are you still alive?! Leave me alone!"

Rus’s face twisted in confusion, unable to understand why she sounded so genuinely distressed.

Then he followed her line of sight and immediately realized something horrifying.

Ashley hadn’t come here to save him at all.

If anything, she had simply dragged another nightmare into the situation, and now both of them were cornered.

Rus gasped. "I... hate her."

Meanwhile, the man with the mole on his face furrowed his brows as he shifted his attention from Ashley toward the figures climbing onto the containers.

Then, atop one of them, he spotted the unmistakable bright orange hair.

Carrot Man’s expression twisted irritably.

Blood stained the corner of his mouth. Bruises had formed along his cheek, and a cut split through the edge of his brow.

What the mole-faced man couldn’t see from this angle, however, was the blood dripping down the side of Carrot Man’s head.

"C—"

"Shut up!" Carrot Man snapped before the other man could even start speaking, glaring at him furiously. "Stay out of this lovers’ quarrel!"

"You shut it!" Ashley shouted back in disgust. "Hey, Mole Guy! Let’s fight instead, okay? I don’t want to fight him! I give up!"

She pointed directly at Carrot Man while looking at the mole-faced man standing near Rus.

"Give that other dude to Carrot Man!"

Carrot Man?

Everyone furrowed their brows at the visibly distressed Ashley before slowly turning toward the orange-haired man.

And almost simultaneously, the exact same thought crossed their minds.

Was it because of his hair?

"I told you it’s not carrot-colored!" Carrot Man shouted indignantly. "My dear fiancée, it’s sports car orange!"

"I don’t want to hear another word!" Ashley screamed while covering her ears and shaking her head violently.

Everyone who had originally been chasing her paused awkwardly.

Even Rus’s expression twisted.

"What the fuck is wrong with those two?" he muttered before quickly snapping his attention back toward Mole Guy.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Rus cautiously stepped backward, only to freeze when Mole Guy casually slid his eyes toward him.

"Do you think I’m not paying attention just because I’m wondering what the hell happened between those two?" Mole Guy asked calmly while raising his gun toward Rus.

Seeing the muzzle aimed at him, Rus instinctively took another step back.

"So now that she’s here, you don’t need me anymore, huh?" he laughed bitterly, though deep down he already knew he was doomed. "Shit."

Just as Rus prepared to bolt, he caught the flash of a spark from Mole Guy’s muzzle. But at the same beat, another spark exploded beside it.

Rus flinched.

The bullet abruptly shifted off-course and slammed into the wall beside him instead.

Meanwhile, the pistol in Mole Guy’s hand flew from his grip.

"What?!" Rus blurted out while watching Mole Guy frown.

Both of them immediately turned toward where the shot had come from.

Their eyes landed on Ashley.

"I said... let’s switch," she breathed out heavily, fully aware these people wouldn’t dare kill her.

They needed her alive for something, and she had been gambling everything on that fact.

But Rus?

That protection didn’t apply to him.

Mole Guy frowned, but Carrot Man’s expression darkened even more.

"Why? Why? Why? Why do you hate me so much?!" Carrot Man cried dramatically. "Wait... are you and him... cheating on me?!"

"Yes, I am!" Ashley yelled back without hesitation. "So go kill my lover already, you psycho!"

Carrot Man’s face reddened as tears welled in his eyes. One tear slowly rolled down his cheek.

"I loved you with all my heart..." he whispered shakily. "But you chose to break it. Cruel. Love... is truly cruel."

"Fuck..." Ashley muttered under her breath.

She couldn’t hear whatever nonsense Carrot Man was mumbling from that distance, but she could definitely see the tear rolling down his face.

And honestly?

That somehow made everything worse.

As Ashley quickly assessed the situation around her, a growing sense of danger slowly pressed against her chest.

Armed men filled every corner.

If they didn’t need her alive, she would’ve already been riddled with bullets. Honestly, she would’ve never dared stand out in the open otherwise.

When her gaze lowered, she spotted more men rushing across the deck and climbing up the stacked containers.

BANG!

Ashley immediately opened fire at the men climbing toward her before quickly looking back toward Rus.

"Shit," she hissed.

Rus had nowhere left to run either.

They were completely surrounded as more armed men continued flooding in from every direction.

Ashley wasn’t the only one realizing it.

Rus could see it too.

Though his view was limited from his position, he could clearly tell that more and more enemies were climbing onto the stacked containers surrounding both him and Ashley.

"We’re dead," he whispered before his eyes darted toward a lever positioned directly behind Mole Guy. "It’s so close... yet so far."

If only he could reach it.

All he had to do was pull that lever and one of the emergency boats would drop.

Silence briefly settled over the cargo deck, undisturbed even by another smaller explosion erupting elsewhere on the vessel.

Ashley slowly inhaled and clenched her fist tightly. Her heartbeat slowed.

Their chances of survival were slim, but she had been in situations like this before.

Countless times.

And from experience, she had learned one thing:

No matter how tiny the opportunity was, she had to seize it. That was how she had survived until now.

But just as Ashley prepared to blindly gamble everything, she caught some movement from the corner of her eye.

Her brows lifted slightly.

Slowly, she turned her gaze toward the dark ocean surrounding the cargo ship.

At first, the movement looked like nothing more than tiny specks against the water. But from the speed alone, she immediately understood.

Surprise briefly flashed across her face. Then she looked upward. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

And there — barely visible against the darkness— she spotted the silhouette of helicopter blades slicing through the sky.

The aircraft blended almost perfectly with the night.

But in her gut, Ashley knew.

It wasn’t over yet.

Slowly, she turned toward Rus.

"Rus!" she shouted. "Proceed as planned!"

"Huh?!" Rus snapped irritably. "How the hell am I supposed to do that?!"

"Just do it!"

Ashley nodded firmly at him.

At almost the exact same time, Mole Guy barked another order.

"What are you all waiting for?! Stop standing there and get her!"

But before anyone could move, everyone froze at her sudden collapse.

THUD!

All eyes turned toward Ashley as she suddenly dropped to her knees.

"Hic..."

Ashley dramatically covered her mouth before licking her dirty finger and smearing a fake tear beneath her eye.

"Please..." she whimpered pitifully. "Just let me go."

"What the fuck...?" Rus whispered in disbelief while staring at her performance. "This is not the time for this — are you actually insane?!"

"Aren’t you two supposed to be on the same side?!" someone shouted from elsewhere.

Ashley continued acting like a damsel in distress for another second... until she stopped. T

Slowly, she tilted her head toward Carrot Man and Mole Guy, her eyes turning cold. Her expression blank.

"What I’m saying..." she trailed off while scanning every armed person surrounding them. "...is that you’re all so fucking dead."

The moment those words left her mouth, everyone heard a faint but unmistakable sound.

Like something slicing through the air.

But before anyone could even process the realization, another violent explosion erupted across the ship.

BOOM!

But unlike the previous ones, this explosion didn’t come from inside the vessel.

It came from above.

As everyone flinched violently from the blast, a blinding strobe light suddenly illuminated the upper deck where most of the armed men stood.

Every head instinctively snapped upward.

And there, a helicopter was descending toward them.

Ashley looked up as well, narrowing her eyes until she spotted the figure standing beside the open aircraft door... holding a bazooka.

"Lucian..." she whispered softly after catching the fire raging within his usually calm eyes.

"...you really came?"

But unlike her quiet disbelief, those who recognized him immediately erupted into panic.

"It’s the Black Dragon!"

"Dominion is here!"