"Keep running." Chrollo commanded calmly to everyone around him, effortlessly knocking back the giant bug that tried to attack them with its horn.
The troupe was making a circle formation with Chrollo running at the front, making it pretty obvious that they were protecting someone while running at the top of their speed in the middle of the giant forest.
Well, not exactly someone since there were two of them. Running in the center of the protective circle was Kurapika, eyes blazing scarlet, one hand with chains materialized, the other holding a sleeping Woble tightly to his chest.
Apart from the fourteenth Prince of Kakin who was still a baby, everyone else was ridden with various degree of fatigue and wounds.
"Duck!" Machi called out from behind Kurapika and every single one of them ducked their head in unison, dodging the sharp claws of a gigantic bat that just tried to swipe their head from their body collectively.
Nobunaga who stood in the north-east of Kurapika's current position lost a few strands of his black hair from the top of his head, barely managing to duck in time from the deathly swipe of the gigantic bat, face rapidly paling even more from before.
"Starting to lose your touch, Nobu?" Feitan called out to him from beside Kurapika.
"Shut up!" Nobunaga shouted with a tired huff, voice not as loud as usual, showing just how truly exhausted he was in his current state.
Just a few days ago, the sole surviving prince of the Kakin empire had fallen ill from being exposed to the wilderness for far too long. They were in the ruins of an ancient city with a mysterious labyrinth, most of them were already injured at that point from the numerous battle against the rest of the princes and their bodyguards in the black whale ship and various encounters with countless abominations on their journey in the dark continent.
They found some herbs that were able to cure different illnesses in that place. Unfortunately, they encountered one of the five known calamities, a guardian of that place, the botanical weapon, Brion. Half of them formed a protective circle around him and got their hands on the herbs while the other half fought the guardian of that place. Nobunaga was part of the fighting team and one unlucky moment got him almost completely skewered in the most horrible manner. The nastiest part was that it didn't just stay dead no matter what they did to it. After they managed to evade it and got out of the ruined city, they found themselves running non-stop in the sea of trees days and nights.
Chrollo glanced back a little, quickly assessing everyone's current condition in a second before looking forward again, sensing something from the thin air in front of him.
"Don't fall behind." Chrollo said shortly before materializing his book in one hand and flipped it expertly to a certain page, a poisonous short knife immediately materialized in his other hand and he quickly used it to stab a monstrous beast that suddenly appeared in front of him, toppling it to the side.
Phinks who was running beside Kurapika suddenly turned his head to the side and punched what seemingly was an ordinary thin air and something suddenly crashed into a few trees behind it, revealing itself to be some kind of a huge reptile.
He neither saw anything with his gyo activated and eyes blazing scarlet nor did he sense anything unordinary, these untamable wild dragons' sense was out of this world, they were truly anything but normal.
"Watch out! Some of these creatures can make themselves invisible!" Phinks warned the other before he pushed Kurapika's head down with his hand and duck his own head to avoid the long tongue that just tried to take off their head.
Franklin who was flanking him on the north-west side raised his hands and fired off many bullets from his fingers in an instant from where he stood, making many holes in the large tongue and a howl of pain from the huge creature.
They were suddenly swarmed by a group of giant wasps with a body as hard as a steel, Feitan managed to slice one off with his umbrella sword before another one pierced his left shoulder with its stinger.
"Can I burn them all off?" He asked with a growl, a dangerous light glinting from both of his eyes.
"No." Kurapika answered before throwing his chain to the air, making a net of steel and captured all the giant wasps in one go. He saw Feitan's capability in the fight against Brion. He did rather not have him used that Rising Sun technique anywhere near Woble or him.
"Who ask you?" Feitan said snippily in response before they all started running again, the end of the forest was still not in sight.
Woble was wide awake in his hand, as quiet as ever, simply moving her head from side to side, trying to get a look on her surrounding silently.
"Hey, the little princess is awake." Phinks said with a grin, waving his hand to get Woble's attention.
Kurapika smiled softly at Woble who smiled back at him in the cute baby way, fearlessly looking into his scarlet eyes. Kurapika hugged her tighter with his hand to make sure that the baby won't suddenly fall to the ground, although he was pretty sure that the spiders would scramble to catch her before she hit the hard ground and her nen beast would protect her from the harsh impact without fail.
She was the reason of this absurd alliance after all, it would never happen without her. Their alliance was solely based on their own interest in Woble's safety.
The catalyze was nothing but desperate words from a dying mother.
"She will become an exceptional king. She will bring a change into this world. She will bring a prosperity in her time. Even Ryuuseigai will flourish under her rule! Protect her with your life!"