Observing as the last of the guards enter the slums, Sunny notes the time to be around 6:45, and follows behind them. His plan is not to follow behind the knights towards imminent slaughter. No, he intends to circle around the slums and approach from the block behind the cul-de-sac.
There may only be one street entrance and exit to the Loot Barn, but that's only from the street view. Surrounding the cul-de-sac was a collection of dilapidated buildings, fences, and junk that formed a natural barrier sealing the Loot Barn inside.
Chances are, there's a hidden path from the back, and he will find it.
Still following the knights at a brisk pace, he comes to a halt. Up the street, at the entrance to the cul-de-sac, the guards have huddled together with various orders being thrown around from the superiors.
'This is taking too long. Elsa's probably inside already; if that's the case, Felt and Rom will be the first to die.'
'And if she's still in the water tower, then she's watching them right now. I bet she'd be debating whether to run away or massacre them all, but that's only if she's up there.'
No matter how the guards approach this, blood will follow. Meaning—Sunny's time following them is over.
Taking a left, he follows the streets and passes through a few alleyways until he reaches the street behind the cul-de-sac. Most buildings are pressed tightly together, and those that don't are separated by fences that block passage.
Hurriedly, Sunny approaches the tallest fence and begins to climb. Why the tallest? Because he's banking on Felt. He saw the way that girl leaped fences and climbed buildings with near superhuman agility, so if she had cleared a path back here, it would be hidden behind the tallest fence.
Reaching the top of the fence, it seems his intuition paid off. The alleyway continued forward, getting narrower and narrower, before it looked to open up into a small area.
Excitedly, Sunny drops from the top of the fence into a roll and rushes through the narrow gap. Exiting the alley, he is greeted by the sight of mounds of trash and scraps. It seemed like a small playground area had been converted into the local landfill.
Taking a brief glance, he spotted an opening to a small crawlspace on the ground. It was about the size of a small child.
'Not ideal, but I can manag—'
"RAAAAHHHHH!!!!"
Out of nowhere, a chorus of roars and the clangor of blades filled the night sky.
Sunny flinched slightly, only out of surprise; he did expect this outcome after all. But the sounds of battle only a couple dozen meters away made him hesitate.
'On second thought...'
Double-checking the area, he found no other paths through. This was troublesome. If he enters the crawlspace he will not be able to turn back, and he can't retreat when shit hits the fan. He could force his way through the junk but he'd get a bunch of nasty cuts in the process, and he still wouldn't be able to run away fast.
The only viable option was to sit and wait. It was unfortunate that he could not watch the battle, as he would have liked to get an accurate judge of the knights' strengths. But as it stood, he could only listen to the fight from afar.
This was enough for him; Even though he could not tell what exactly was happening, he could figure out the general results from listening.
With great effort, he could make out the sounds of a leader shouting orders. Interspersed with the clanging of blades was an occasional 'dull echo' and 'crisp splitting' sound that he struggled to understand for a while.
Then it hit him.
He remembered seeing some knights equipped with bows, and others with large shields. He figured this would explain the odd sounds he was hearing.
It was likely that the knights had divided into three groups. Defense, Offense, and Ranged. Honestly, not a bad strategy all things considered, but he doubted this would be very effective in the face of Elsa's overwhelming skill.
As long minutes crept by, the once energetic battle cries from the knights had transformed into screams of anger and despair—the clangor of blades dimmed. Eventually, a cold silence filled the air.
Silence meant defeat. If the guards had won, there would certainly be cheers of victory.
'Damnation, she really did slaughter 30 guards. I hope it was mutual destruction, but that's wishful thinking.'
Wasting no time, Sunny squeezed back through the alleyway and rushed over the fence into the street. Right now, he needed to put distance between himself and the battlefield, so he ran in the opposite direction of the Loot Barn, towards the furthest southeastern section of the slums.
Running down the dirty streets, Sunny was contemplating things again. Mainly, he was concerned about what would happen next. He knew little of the Nightmare Spell, outside of some webtoons he read many years ago; So he was worried about getting stuck here if he doesn't pass the trial.
'That would not be ideal.'
After running for a good ten minutes, he slowed his pace and caught his breath. It was late at night, and the streets were empty. All the residents of this area had retreated into their shacks, tents, and wherever else.
All, except one person.