Trixie and Kai were among the first people who had returned to the petrol station where the trucks were being kept. The good news was, the guards that were there appeared to be unharmed, and it was the same with the trucks. The Lupus gang had to still be unaware of the operation, or at least the real reason behind the operation. A group that was confident in defeating its enemies regardless of equipment didn't need to target the equipment in the first place. "It's good to see the two of you are okay," the hunters said as they saw Trixie arriving. "We received your report, and we stayed on the lookout, but we couldn't see anyone following the two of you." One of the hunters had climbed up to the roof of the petrol station and was keeping an eye out as all of the teams made their way back. It didn't matter though, Kai already knew that there was no one following them, due to the smell from his nose. A little while later, two more groups of people had come back. The first to appear had reported they had been attacked, but there were few of them. They had gotten out of the hotel fairly quickly, so they were unaware if there were more in the hotel. Kai and Trixie did somewhat search the hotel for anyone else but didn't have time to thoroughly search. "It's okay," Trixie explained. "The good thing is we've startled them, and gotten rid of quite the number of them. So it lessens the chance when we head into the Garden for disruption." Then the second group had come back, and immediately Trixie knew there was something wrong, because they had returned with one less member. This was one of the groups with more hunters compared to the others; it was also one of the things Trixie was worried about, which was why she had taken the newbie with her, so there could be more people in one of the other groups. Trixie could tell from the look on their faces what had occurred as well. "It's okay, this is my fault," Trixie said. "I was the one that sent you in there. We could have sent one team first to scout out the hotels. If we found out that there were members of the Lupus gang, we could have then informed everyone. "Or maybe we should have just travelled as an entire group and headed inside as one." Trixie continued to mumble off to herself while she was biting her nail. It was the most startled Kai had seen her, and maybe it was because they had fought side by side, he didn't want to see her this way. "If you did that, they maybe would have informed the others as well," Kai said. "It takes one simple text for them, so they're alert, and we could have all then died. "When people get into a car accident, they start thinking about everything they could have done to avoid it. What if they had spent longer brushing their teeth? What if they hadn't been in a rush? What if they woke up earlier? Then maybe it wouldn't have happened. "We can't see the future, and we can't see the paths; all we can do is choose what we believe is the best option, and I think you have a good enough head on your shoulders to have picked the best decision." The other hunters didn't say a word or interrupt Kai when he was speaking. If anything, they were somewhat in amazement. None of them knew what to say to try and cheer up Trixie; some even believed that it wasn't exactly a cheerful moment, so why should they try to cheer her up? Yet, Kai had spoken—the apprentice had said words as if they had come from a place of experience. And the words of Kai seemed to work, as Trixie had at least stopped talking to herself and had stopped biting on her nail. Now, they just had to wait for one more group, and she could see them just up ahead—Kim along with the other two hunters. Seeing all three of them, Trixie had breathed a big sigh of relief. 'You can say one thing, this woman does care for the people under her,' Kai thought. 'And I was starting to think that all of the top Altered hunters were like that Siaber guy. I guess it was a good thing that I got to go with Trixie rather than what the other two got.' For a moment though, Kai was holding that thought as he looked Kim in the eye. From the beginning, she had it out for him. Always complaining about what he did, and he still didn't understand it; why did Kim do what she did and tell Trixie to put the two of them in teams? As they got back, Kim went on to speak about the details of what happened to them along with the other hunters, and then they heard the news of the devastating loss they had on their side. "We can't let this make us lose focus," Trixie eventually said. "We managed to stop an even bigger disaster from unfolding, and we still have an important task to complete. "Now, all of us, we should head and follow the trucks to the Botanic Garden. There's an underground car park, and we can go from there." Trixie moved her hand up as she was ready to rally everyone up until a person spoke out. "Wait! Don't you think it was strange that… the Altered, those from the Lupus gang knew where we were? I think… there's a clear answer, and we need to figure it out before we head to the garden… there's a traitor among us." **** 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂 For updates for MWS and future works, please follow me on my social media below. Instagram: Jksmanga P.a.t.r.e.o.n: jksmanga When news of MVS, MWS, or any other series comes out, you will be able to see it there first, and you can reach out to me. If I'm not too busy, I tend to reply.