The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 145: An Ally in the Swamp

Carefully, Anna moved around the figure in the bird-beak mask and approached Lu Li.

She already missed the warmth of the hut, but she missed the Bizarre Detective Agency in Belfast even more.

Lu Li pulled the hood of his cloak over his head and reached for the door handle. Just as he was about to leave, the masked figure called out, "Wait."

Lu Li turned. The masked figure was reaching into her pocket, as if to retrieve something.

"You're leaving? Why?" the Inquirer asked from his spot by the fire. The suffocating wind outside was unbearable; he couldn't imagine why Lu Li would want to abandon the shelter of the hut.

"The swamp grows dangerous after dark," Lu Li replied.

"Right, I get it. If it weren't for this wound, I wouldn't want to spend the night here either. I hope you make it out of the swamp safely... Agh!" The Inquirer winced, a clumsy movement sending a jolt of pain through him.

The masked figure pulled something from her pocket and silently held it out to Lu Li.

Even Lu Li couldn't help but pause when he saw the object in her leather-gloved hand.

"This is called a flashlight," the masked figure explained."I know."

Lu Li took the flashlight. It was small but surprisingly heavy. He found the switch and flicked it on. A dim, yellowish beam, much like the glow of an oil lamp, sprang from the bulb at its tip.

"Crow, you're giving that to him?" the Inquirer asked, his voice filled with disbelief, as if he'd just witnessed something impossible.

"An invitation for an invitation," the masked figure replied.

The Inquirer's eyes widened in understanding. "So the invitation came from Lu Li..."

Apparently, the flashlight served as some kind of pass. Lu Li decided to accept the gift. The casing was covered in intricate engravings, but he had no time to examine them now. He looked up and asked:

"Can it be charged?"

"It's battery-powered."

"Thank you."

Slipping the flashlight into his pocket, Lu Li turned, opened the door, and stepped out into the biting rain and wind. His silhouette vanished as the door slammed shut behind him.

...

The deluge hammered the earth, swallowing the landscape in a gray sheet. Eerie bolts of lightning tore through the clouds, but strangely, no thunder followed.

The wind lashed at Lu Li, nearly knocking him off his feet. The flame in the oil lamp he carried sputtered violently, threatening to die at any moment.

Lu Li tossed the useless lamp aside. Guided by the strobing flashes of lightning, he headed north, back the way he had come.

Anna drifted after him, a knot of anxiety tightening within her. As a ghost, she was immune to the storm, and a pang of guilt struck her for it.

The same suffocating feeling the Inquirer had described soon gripped Lu Li. The wind seemed to rip the very air from his lungs. Shielding his mouth with a hand, he forced a deep breath, then broke into a run, leaving the immediate vicinity of the hut and plunging into the trees.

Light and darkness warred violently. Bright flashes of lightning illuminated the swamp in stark, fleeting detail.

A lone figure sprinted through the landscape, crashing through the undergrowth.

But this was a swamp, not a forest. And a swamp, as everyone knows, does not take kindly to being run across.

The runner's foot suddenly plunged into a bog, sinking knee-deep into mud that was almost indistinguishable from the solid ground around it.

Anna, floating just behind him, reacted in an instant. With a surge of her power, she yanked Lu Li free.

The cloak's hood fell back from Lu Li's head, and within seconds, he was soaked to the skin.

Ignoring his sodden cloak, Lu Li grabbed onto a dead tree to steady himself. He squinted, peering into the chaos ahead. In the strobing lightning, the forest floor had become a treacherous morass, making it impossible to tell firm earth from sucking mud.

With a sharp exhale, Lu Li began to run again.

He kept sinking into the bog, and time and again, Anna had to pull him out. But after four or five hundred meters of this, her strength began to fail.

"I'm running out of strength!" Anna cried, heaving Lu Li toward another dead tree. "How far is it to the road?!"

"A quarter of the way," Lu Li replied, panting. Rainwater streamed down his face, gathering into a rivulet at his chin.

His black hair was plastered to his scalp. Though soaked to the bone and clearly exhausted, his expression remained unnervingly calm.

Of the thousands of lightning bolts that tore across the sky, not a single one struck the Tenebrae Swamp. Perhaps it was the power of the Mother of the Swamp, but whatever the reason, it kept Lu Li from being struck down.

"Only a quarter of the way left?!" Anna exclaimed hopefully.

"We've covered a quarter of the way," Lu Li corrected her, pulling out a flask. He twisted off the cap and drained the last of the lukewarm water. Just three minutes ago, when they'd left the hut, it had been scalding hot.

A faint warmth spread through his chest, only to be instantly extinguished by the icy downpour.

Anna clenched her jaw in determination. "Wait here!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I'll look for shelter!"

"Hold on," Lu Li stopped her. When she turned to him with a questioning look, he simply pointed ahead.

Anna followed his gaze. In the next flash of lightning, about fifteen meters away, she saw a six-limbed creature watching them.

"A Six-Armed Savage...?" Anna whispered. The creature turned and vanished into the downpour.

"We follow it," Lu Li said, moving past Anna to pursue the Six-Armed Savage.

The creature seemed to be guiding them. It scurried quickly across the swamp, and every time it navigated a dangerous patch, it would pause and wait for Lu Li to catch up.

"It's leading us!" Anna exclaimed joyfully, her suspicion confirmed.

Wordlessly, his lips pressed into a thin, white line, Lu Li ran on through the deluge, following the crawling figure fifteen meters ahead.

Halfway there... three-quarters... the road was close. Then something came hurtling toward Lu Li, glinting as it cut through the air.

The object passed straight through Anna's spectral form and shot toward Lu Li. A roaring filled Anna's head. On pure instinct, she threw all her remaining power into knocking the projectile off course.

The object veered aside, embedding itself in the dead tree Lu Li was just passing.

Sensing the danger, Lu Li spun around and saw the familiar axe.

He skidded to a halt and looked back. Fifteen meters away, standing in the downpour, was the charred woman from the hut.

"Mother wants to see you," she croaked, and lunged for Lu Li.

Suddenly, a branch shot out from the trees and wrapped around the woman's waist, yanking her sideways.

The branch belonged to a huge, strange tree. Its limbs seemed to come alive, writhing in the wind as they reached for the charred woman, ensnaring her.

"Let's go," Lu Li said, sparing a single glance for the writhing branches that now enveloped the woman. He turned and ran again, following the Six-Armed Savage.

Lu Li's figure vanished into the curtain of rain. Where he had just stood, a charred hand broke free from the tangle of branches, reaching out—only to be swallowed again by new limbs descending from the treetop.