Chapter 107
Afer looking at each other, Veronica and the masked man pinned their hopes on the
However, the tree was on the right side, which was also the masked man‘s side.
Veronica moved to the right, trying to give herself the opportunity to grasp the big tree as it might be her only chance to survive. However, the masked man might become the biggest obstacle to her survival, so she had to seize the opportunity.
The two moved to the right together, but just as they were about to reach the tree, the water surged fiercely against them with even greater resistance. As both of them were on the right side, the thick wooden pole suddenly tilted in the water and flowed downstream vertically, dragging them further away from the big tree horizontally all at once.
“You let go of the wooden pole. I‘ll grab you.” Veronica took the masked man‘s hand right away while telling him to let go of the wooden pole and swim to the river bank. After all, even a bit of a struggle could buy them a chance to survive. At this very moment, she had no other choice. Even if the chance of survival was slim, she had to shoot for it–even if the masked man might survive and kill her by cutting the rope. I don‘t want to die! she thought.
With his eyes behind his mask, the masked man gave Veronica a meaningful look. Then, he let go of her. The two had a rope tied between them. After letting go of Veronica, he struggled to swim to the right with all his might.
They were ten meters away from the big tree. Then, as the masked man swam closer and closer to the tree, the distance between them and the big tree shortened. They were six meters away… three meters away… one meter away!
The ten–meter distance was covered in the blink of an eye. At this moment, however, the masked man was still a distance away from the tree.
Veronica‘s nerves were on edge; she was very nervous, for she feared that they might miss the opportunity again. However, at the critical moment, the masked man suddenly took out a dagger and clutched it in his hand. Just when he nearly brushed past the tree, he suddenly thrust the dagger in his hand into the tree trunk.
Immediately, Veronica let go of the thick wooden pole she was clinging onto to prevent the strong current from sweeping the masked man away and ruining the last opportunity to struggle for their survival.
The masked man cluiched the dagger to stay close to the tree. Even though Veronica had put pressure on him, he nonetheless stretched out his arm and hugged the tree trunk Climbing onto the river bank little by little, he successfully got himself out of danger.
Veronica was still in the water, and she grabbed the rope tied between her and the masked man while swimming toward him. However, the man held up the dagger in his hand. With a slight wave of his dagger, Veronica would be swept away by the river!
Veronica‘s heart was thumping; she had never been so desirous of staying alive as she was at this very moment. Without saying a word, she continued swimming toward the masked man. However, just when she was getting close to him, he thrust the dagger in his hand downward right away!
At that moment, Veronica‘s heart sank. She felt like she had seen Death. However, she refused to resign herself to death. At the last moment, she swam against the current with all her strength. Then, she stretched out her hand and tried to hug the tree trunk, but she had underestimated how strong the current was. Instead of hugging the tree trunk, she was swept dozens of centimeters away from it!
Am I really gonna die here? A big question mark popped up in her mind.
Just then, however, the masked man grabbed her hand and pulled her up.
The two reached the river bank by climbing along the tree. Physically exhausted, they lay on the river bank, feeling so worn out that they didn‘t want to struggle anymore.
Just then, Veronica asked, “Why did you save me?” The moment the masked man thrust his dagger downward, she thought he was going to cut the rope and let her fall into the swift river current. To her surprise, the man merely put away his dagger and pulled her out of danger.
The masked man didn‘t answer her question, though.
With that, the two lay on the river bank. After recovering their strength, they stood up and headed into the distance.
As they made their way through the woods, the sound of the fiercely surging river water faded away in the distance. Everything became quiet, and even the rain stopped.
The man was no longer stooping and limping as he had been before. Instead, he stood upright and walked at a blistering pace like a normal person.
Veronica should‘ve found out long ago that this man‘s identity was dubious. However, she and the others had only decided to come to Dawnpol Village not long ago, and the masked man had been in the village before they arrived. Judging by the timeline, she felt that nothing could‘ve been wrong with the masked man, but it turned out that she had underestimated him.
The masked man ignored her as they merely kept walking on. However, there wasn‘t a soul in sight around them, so they chose to climb up the mountain in the end. When they stood on the top of the mountain breathlessly and looked around, they couldn‘t see anyone or any village except the thin haze that was curling upward.
“The flood current was flowing at a velocity of at least 40 kilometers per hour,” Veronica said while raising her hand to check the time on her wristwatch.
Five hours had passed since she woke up in the morning. It took about half an hour to reach the river bank from the village chief‘s house, whereas it took an hour for them to get to the mountain from the river. In other words, after falling into the water, they had held out for three and a half hours. This meant they were already 140 kilometers away, which was a very long distance.
Veronica was unfamiliar with the geographical environment around here, so she was somewhat at a loss for what to do for a moment.
The rain, which had just stopped, continued again, but Veronica felt weak all over, and she walked weakly. She looked down at her right arm, which had a scary big cut that turned pale and swelled up after being soaked in water. Her wrist had a cross shaped cut in order to draw out the venom after she got bitten by a snake while saving the masked man last time. The wound had slowly healed, but the scabs had fallen off after the wound was soaked in water.
Veronica‘s arm hurt very much, but there was nothing for her to reduce the inflammation at the moment. What she feared the most was that the wound might fester. She tied her clothes around her wrist, but it wasn‘t good to do so since it had been raining all the time. Having no alternative, she ignored the wound and let it be,
The masked man took a glance at Veronica‘s wound without saying a word as he headed toward the foot of the mountain.
Veronica followed the masked man as they went all the way down the mountain. After walking for some time, she started walking slower and slower. Unable to keep up with the man, she said to him, “Can you walk slower? You‘re walking too fast.”
Unbeknownst to her, though, the masked man had imperceptibly slowed down his pace a lou. It was just that she didn‘t realize it. He said, “If we can‘t get out of here, we‘ll probably starve to death here.”
If there was still nobody within a 100–mile radius around them, it would be a great challenge for them. After the heavy downpour, there was muddy and yellowish water everywhere, and such water was undrinkable. Moreover, a long walk would consume a lot of stamina. Without any food to eat, they couldn‘t get very far.
Veronica willed herself to follow the masked man all the way forward with strong willpower. In the end, when night fell, she got exhausted and slumped down to the ground, unable to walk anymore.
Hearing the sound behind him, the masked man looked back to see Veronica sitting against a tree with a pale face. After looking at her with a complicated expression, he walked up to her and took out his dagger, aiming the razor–sharp edge at her as if saying, “Since you‘re dying, I might as well kill you myself to complete my task.”
Veronica slowly closed her eyes. She neither struggled nor said anything, for she knew that the masked man would‘ve killed her long ago if he wanted to. Why would he wait until now instead? =_=)
Thud! With a sudden thud, the masked man thrust his dagger into the tree behind Veronica. “I’ll let you off today. If we meet again, consider yourself unlucky,” he said. Then, he turned around and left right away, leaving the dagger to her to repay her for saving his life on the mountain that day.
