Chapter 371: The Bait

Holly screeched.

"Are you mad?!"

The sound cut through the cold air like a blade, sharp and furious, making even the forest seem to flinch.

Sophia barely reacted. She didn’t raise her voice. Didn’t bristle. She simply looked at Holly calmly, like she hadn’t just told Holly to sacrifice herself.

"No," Sophia said evenly. "I’m not."

Holly stared at her like she’d just been slapped. She hated that Sophia even replied to her, and calmly at that.

"Don’t be ridiculous," Holly snapped, barely controlling her anger. "You’re clearly mad,"

"If I was mad, you wouldn’t even be standing here talking with me right now," Sophia replied calmly.

But Holly didn’t hear her at first; she continued her rant. "...and it doesn’t matter what you say. You just told me to put myself in front of a Tidebreaker as bait!" Then she paused. "Wait, what did you just say?"

Sophia gave her a look. "You are rather slow in the uptake, but to answer your question, I told you I am not mad, and if I was, you wouldn’t be speaking with me right now. One could only imagine what a mad person could do, especially when provoked," Sophia told her calmly.

Holly glared at Sophia, who pretended like there was dirt on her shirt and was dusting it off.

"Don’t look at me like that," Sophia told her when she noticed that Holly was still looking at her like she wanted to rip Sophia’s hair off her head.

"You’ve been the least helpful in the team so far," she said. "Being bait would at least mean you’re doing something useful."

The silence that followed was loud. Joren coughed, hiding a laugh. Sophia could really handle herself when it came to Holly, and he was glad that Sophia’s plan included Holly being the bait because she was the least helpful in the team.

Holly’s face flushed red.

"You— you can’t be serious!"

She spun toward the others, wild-eyed. "Did you all hear that? Are you seriously agreeing with her right now?"

No one answered her, because contrary to what Holly thought, they all agreed with Sophia’s plan.

Miles cleared his throat and turned to Sophia.

"Wait," he said carefully. "Even if we ignore... all of that... would the plan even work like that? Don’t we need impact for the blackwater berries and bitter veil to activate? Isn’t that what you did before?"

Sophia shook her head.

"I used impact because Joren, Uther, and Bianca were surrounded," she explained. "The sound helped snap the Tidebreakers’ attention instantly. And you and I were a bit far from them, so I needed the scent to spread quickly."

She gestured toward the forest around them.

"But what matters isn’t the impact. It’s the mixture. Blackwater berries and bitter veil, mixed or ground together. Just the two of them as a paste creates that foul odor they seem obsessed with."

She paused, then added calmly, "The impact just helped spread it faster."

Holly let out another shrill sound, half-scoff, half-scream.

"Are you even listening to yourselves?!" she cried. "Did any of you hear what she just said about me?!"

Uther rolled his eyes.

"If you’re that desperate to get attention, you could just scream at the Tidebreakers that we’re here," he muttered. "Would save us the trouble."

Holly whipped around on him.

"Oh, easy for you to say! You’re not the one being told to risk your life!"

Uther’s expression hardened.

"All of us are risking our lives right now," he snapped. "That’s kind of the whole point of this test."

Holly opened her mouth to argue again, but Joren cut in before she could.

"Sophia," he said, ignoring Holly entirely. "Do you remember where the blackwater berries are?"

Sophia nodded. "Yes."

"And the bitter veil?"

"They grow close together. That’s how I noticed them before."

Joren exhaled slowly, then looked at the others. "Then we can do this."

Sophia continued, "We’ll need to rub the paste on ourselves. Not throw it."

Miles blinked. "On... ourselves?"

"Yes," she said. "We become the scent. That way, the Tidebreakers follow us, not a trail on the ground."

Sophia’s plan was quite simple when being spoken out. All they had to do was get the paste and rub it on themselves, then lure the Tidebreakers one by one. They would be in teams and try to lure each of them.

Holly would be the bait that the Tidebreakers would first notice and pursue before they would notice the others, who would lure them in different directions, then take a different path, meet up, and take down the Tidebreakers one by one. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"You know," Bianca began, "I have to say this plan really does sound simple enough, but it’s a bit dangerous."

"That’s because it’s dangerous," Joren uttered with a laugh. "Sophia’s plans are always like that."

Sophia laughed. "But it does the work." She gave them all a look. "So... what do you guys say? If we work together, we can finish this before the time is up."

Miles sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I really hate that this makes sense... but yeah. Let’s do it. You did good with saving Joren and the others, and I’m kind of excited too."

The others, except Holly, laughed at his words.

Sophia finally looked at Holly again. "Bait, are you in or not?"

"I’m not bait," Holly growled out.

"For this plan, you are," Sophia told her.

Holly stood stiffly, jaw clenched, eyes blazing with anger and fear tangled together. For a moment, it looked like she might actually refuse.

Then she huffed sharply and folded her arms.

"Fine," she muttered. "But you should know that I am just doing this because it’s the test and I want to pass it."

"Duly noted," Uther replied dryly, making Sophia’s lips twitch.

Sophia turned without another word and headed into the trees.

The others followed immediately. They had one destination, or rather two, and that was to get to the blackwater berries and the bitter veil.

Sophia didn’t even care that Holly grumbled all the way to their destination. She didn’t care that Holly kept on complaining throughout. And she wasn’t going to care too, because Holly was always going to be Holly after all, and the test wasn’t about Holly but the others.