When I was a student, I used almost every excuse in the world to avoid swimming lessons, even the most basic dog planing, and at this moment it seems tantamount to chronic suicide.

Probably because I was bitten by a dog when I was a child, and it was a relationship twice, although I was vaccinated more than once, but I always thought that in the nerve endings deep in the blood that white blood cells could not recognize, lurking the rabies virus, this elastic shape of single-stranded ribonucleic acid through cellular reactions directly to the cerebral cortex, controlling the body's senses of the outside world, especially the fear of water, I have struggled to wake up from the nightmare of drowning more than once, and the oppressive feeling of hypoxia is like being there.

Counting the time when he followed His Majesty Otto in Italy, this was the second time that cold water was poured into his throat, and his whole chest was hot and uncomfortable, as if a pair of invisible giant hands could easily pinch and burst the alveoli.

"Bang bang bang!"

It is the same as the fish maw that adults throw to children when they kill fish during the Chinese New Year.

There is a classic swear saying called the brain into water, and the moment I fluttered and hugged the floating row, I actually gave a thumbs up to the inventor of this sentence, what is it like to have a brain in water?

The chaotic consciousness is like a laptop computer with a burning CPU resistance, garbled and stuttered, countless stored images flash and disappear quickly, no matter how you hit the keyboard, you can't get a response, and you have to watch the chassis die in a wisp of green smoke.

The eye is probably the only organ that is still holding on, even if it is mostly not in focus, the morning fog is still pervasive, the sound of water is monstrous, close but not clear to see the companion who is struggling to swim across, hazy a pair of powerful hands grasp the disobedient arm, and throw the delirious me onto the floating row.

"Cheer up! Splash fast! Or you'll sink! "The wind was so strong that it tore the other person's words to pieces, giving me the illusion that I had just crossed over.

It's that time, right? I struggled with my floppy will, trying to regain control of my body, and a rapid current of air flew across my cheeks and made a sound as I burrowed into the water.

"What's that?"

I muttered and tightened the rope that bound the floating row, and the broken can went with the flow.

"Archers! Dodge! ”

The one who was not afraid of death answered my question with a loud voice, and then drowned out the roar of more air currents.

The left side of my face hurts after realizing it, maybe the skin is broken and bleeding, but I don't have time to care about other things, it's important to save my life!

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

There were no less than three or four arrows that beckoned to this side, but fortunately I was a fool and a fool, and I didn't look up when I held on to the rope, and the arrows were captured by the wild current and floated away.

"What's going on?" I swirled in place with the raft, the soles of my feet on the soft sand.

"What the hell?"

This time there was no answer. At least I'm the only one on the float.

"Damn, what are you doing with me!"

The soft sand of the riverbed seemed to be inhabited by life-seeking water ghosts, and they stretched out their hands to climb the rare substitute ghosts, and pulled them down with all their strength, and the floating raft slowly tilted, and the rope suddenly fell off.

"Don't make a fuss!"

The instinct to survive immediately prevailed, and I paddled my arms hard, choking my nose coldly, and the water ghosts became more and more excited to take advantage of this opportunity to drag me into the water, and the scene in front of me changed, as if peeping through the concave and convex mirrors, the clear river water was not completely clean, and bubbles and impurities danced in a staggered manner, showing the wonder of another world.

"Ahh

With a free kick of my right foot and my head barely protruding from the water, I gulped in the air, never feeling it so fresh.

"Gollum ......"

A wave hit, a string of bubbles connected to the corners of my mouth, and I returned to the fight with the water ghosts, my left leg sinking to my ankle, almost out of play.

A black mass of stuff went down the river and hit me hard, if it weren't for the buoyancy of the water, this would have to be a good touch, and when I looked closely, I was greeted by a swollen face filled with water, and the eyelashes trembled elegantly, as if to greet me warmly, but unfortunately its owner was dead.

With an idea, I kicked the corpse with my right foot and escaped from the water ghost's entanglement.

"I'm sorry, buddy."

My vision suddenly cleared, the air quickly filled my lungs, and I was free.

Before I knew it, the current had lifted me out of the middle of the river and drifted close to the shore, where several rocks of various sizes stood like pins of the sea, splitting the raging water into trickles.

"That's it!"

I subconsciously touched the dagger on my waist, and the moment I touched the handle, it was like taking a reassuring pill.

Wet ashore, except for the dagger in my hand, at the moment I sell no better than the soup chicken, left and right Sama Sama to confirm that I am indeed on the opposite shore guarded by the enemy, I crawl on the ground with both hands and feet, hiding behind the stone to probe my brain to observe.

The two enemy soldiers wielded crossbows, while controlling the strings while aiming at the target in the water, the remaining servant who seemed to be a lowly servant, without armor, not even a piece of broken leather armor, could only carry a spear with a small head and squeeze it on the bank, and when the corpse in the river was approaching, he couldn't wait to hook and fish back, picking up the spoils for the other two, Rao was so hard and had to be reprimanded by the other party, and his black face was obviously unhappy.

I pressed my beating heart to settle down, closed my eyes and thought about the response plan for the meeting, and was just about to leave when I was stopped by shouting:

"Wait!"

"Who!"

I took an alert attack stance and shouted in a low voice.

"My own people."

The voice came from a figure with short hair and a stick tied to the float.

"Let's deal with them together."

"You? Holding a stick? ”

I shook my head suspiciously: "No need, I can do it alone, you pay attention to the side of the dot, let's do it." ”

"Less nonsense, I'll go out and lure them away first, and you go around and kill one."

He gestured with a simple gesture: "Do one less one, let's work together to clean up this waste is more than enough." ”

As soon as he said it, the man jumped out like a cheetah, rolled around, raised his stick and swept the legs of the nearest enemy, knocking down one of them neatly, and the other two were frightened by the sudden change, and for a moment they were at a loss in place.

The timing was just right, and I had quietly circled behind the enemy to lock on to my prey, and directly stabbed the crossbowman in the back of the heart with a dagger.

"Ahh

He touched the wound in disbelief, and wanted to turn around to take one last look at the attacking opponent, but of course I would not grant his wish, and the knife fell in my hand to cut the carotid artery, and the blood poured wildly, and the crossbowman went to see God with regret, and the ragged servants watched the whole time, and did not make any resistance.

"I surrender, sir, don't kill me."

He threw away his weapon, kowtowed to his knees and begged for mercy:

"For God's sake, I'm just a forced peasant, I haven't killed anyone, and the priest said that taking people's lives is to go to Hell to be tortured by the devil, and I don't want to go to Hell Fire!"

"You mean we're going to be tormented by the devil?" The Nijmegen soldier with the stick broke the archer's neck in front of the servants, and the crunch of the dislocated joints was like a hound crushing a hare's throat.

The servant's face was as white as earth, and after a while, the smell of fishy was everywhere, and it was estimated that this guy was exaggerated and scared, and he muttered nervously: "Don't kill me, don't kill me......"

"Tell us what you know, and promise not to kill you."

The Nijmegen warrior signaled me to be on guard, and he continued:

"I will not break my word, I swear to God."

"Really?"

The servant came back to his senses and cautiously tested: "I am willing to say anything, I am willing to do anything, please spare me......"

"Are there any of you guys nearby? How many? ”

"Threesomes, we're at the end, the downstream is gone, they're all upstream."

The servant swallowed and foamed, and looked at the fierce warrior in horror.

"The Earl is staying at the base camp, as are the knights and the heavily armored infantry, and he ordered everyone to carry lanterns to the shore to guard, deliberately making some noise to deceive you......"

"Lie to us? What's the deal with the horse barking? I asked.

"It's just two old horses that are fed, and someone whips them every once in a while, and they scream so badly that it's just a sin!" The servant soldier was crying, and the smell of feces and urine became stronger.

"Are you sure the rest of the people are on top... Swim? ”

The short soldier pointed to the corpses tumbling and floating in the river:

"The specific number of people, say quickly!" He raised his eyebrows, and his tone was suddenly fierce.

"I don't know...... I really don't know, probably, about two dozen people, archers and crossbowmen account for more than half of ......"

Before the servant could finish his sentence, the whites of his eyes rolled and he swallowed, and the Nijmegen warrior clapped his hands, picked up the crossbow on the ground and fiddled with it twice in my surprised eyes.

"I am avenging my brother who died in battle, Lord Duke said that kindness to the enemy is cruelty to oneself, you should understand?"

Don't understand?

That's what I said! Snatching the white snatched the founder's head, and I was scolding with pity.

"Go upstream, the people who are looking for us, maybe drift too far, and only the two of us will go ashore for so long."

He pricked up his ears to make sure he was in the right direction, but his hands were busy checking through the dead enemy:

"Listen, there's a fight, it seems to be very close."

The short man dug into the pocket under the dead man's leather armor again, and finally scolded in disappointment: "I don't even have a knife, bad luck!" ”

"Hurry up, time is pressing, the sun is rising so high that nine times out of ten it is past the time for the afternoon prayer."

I walked first to find my way, my short right hand carrying a tightly wound crossbow, and under my left arm the servant's pitifully small spear, and hurried in pursuit.

"My name is Short Binlop, what about you?"

Depend on! Do you want to be so accurate, he is really called short? It's a fitting name.

"Me? Belch...... Randy, Randy the Maniac. ”

"Randy?"

He glanced at me suspiciously: "How dare you take the name of the Duke?" ”

When I arrived at the main landing ground upstream, the fierce battle had just ended, and a few men who looked like apparent sergeants were counting the losses of their men, the wounded were gathered and bandaged, and the corpses floating on the river were tangled with each other, almost blocking the running water, and the heavy smell of blood filled the air, and the stone beach on the shore was dyed red, and the scene was terrible.

"Your Excellency!"

Owen didn't know where to come from, anxiously crying, checking my body up and down.

"God forbid, you're fine, it's okay, but it scared me to death, I thought it was ...... I can't find you anywhere, everyone is going crazy! ”

"Isn't this alive? Don't worry, my life is great, and God will not want to summon him to heaven for a while. ”

I joked and joked: "I have to thank him well, thanks to ......"

Before the flower finished speaking, the short Binlop interjected in disbelief:

"Are you really the Duke? Damn it...... Oh no! I didn't say you deserve to die, I deserve to die! ”

The lovely Nijmegen soldier couldn't say a word when he found out who I was.

"Please forgive me for my faux pas, Lord Duke!"

"Faux pas? Where to start, it's too late to thank you. ”

I patted the short man on the shoulder, trying to introduce him to Owen, but the former refused.

"I'll have to find my team, Lord Duke, Sergeant Asamotte must be mad." Binlop hurriedly saluted, and ran away as if he had disappeared, as if I had eaten him any longer.

"Who's that?"

Owen smiled and asked, "Quite a funny guy." ”

"The people who helped me. Short Binlop, we killed three of our enemies, a few hundred meters downstream. ”

I retracted my mind and asked, "Is it going well on your side?" ”

"The sum of the dead and missing in the battle is almost a reduction of forty people, not counting the lightly wounded soldiers."

Speaking of casualties, Owen's eyes immediately dimmed:

"But none of the enemies let go, all of them are gone!"

He showed a relieved expression: "The battle damage of one to two is somewhat reasonable. ”

"Does that make sense?"

The haunting voice sounded, and we both looked at each other in surprise. Sure enough, a black robe appeared, not who the code name four was.

"Why did you come along? Didn't you stay at the base camp to heal your wounds? ”

I glanced with concern at the blood-soaked bandages on her shoulders, arms, and forehead, and my heart ached with worry.

"You dare to disobey even my orders, is your so-called loyalty here?"

The Assassin Leader grinned disapprovingly:

"Keeping you safe is my loyalty."

Her mind was spinning fast, and she always had something to contradict me: "Don't be complacent, you let seven people go, knight." Codename has an inexplicable smile on the corners of his mouth, taking pleasure in squeezing Owen.

"Seven? No way! The knight was immediately furious, and he was not convinced.

"Four deserters who are not in the limelight and run away, three enemy scouts."

The scout was accented by the code name four, and I listened thoughtfully.

"Seven hundred and seventy-two sacrificed, one hundred and seventy-three seriously injured, if I hadn't joined, five hundred and eighty-six would have been more than lucky, the opponent's strength was very strong, and he didn't spare his life at all."

"Then ......" I didn't say, but the meaning was obvious.

"The enemy's side is not much better, they shouldn't have many scouts left, and I and five hundred and eighty-six can barely deal with it, so ......"

She paused, staring at Owen with a fiery gaze, whose eyes widened uneasily, confused as to what was going on.

"Isn't that the opportunity you've been waiting for? It's your turn to perform. ”

"Of course!"

The knight stiffened his neck in refusal to admit defeat, and immediately sensed that something was wrong: "What do you mean?" We're always trying to get things done, okay? ”

"Okay, okay, let's get serious."

I waved my hand to stop the friction that was about to begin:

"At the moment, this number of troops is simply not enough, and we have to let Cornflower and Violet come over."

"I'll arrange for five hundred and eighty-six to go back."

Codename Four made a gesture secretly as he spoke, and an afterimage flashed, as fast as a meteor.

"The lightly wounded warriors will stay here to meet them, and the rest will go with me first."

Owen rubbed his hands eagerly, and Code Four was as calm as ever, and I turned to her and asked, "According to you, the enemy is still in the dark and doesn't know about our landing, right?" ”

"I can't guarantee it any longer, be decisive, sir."

Her face twisted, and the frost effect froze me for a while:

"That direction is the enemy's base camp, and there is a shortcut."

"Let's go!"

The tall cedar trees are dense and impermeable, and the bushes dot the giant's feet, painted in a lonely cold color, almost like a live-action location for Frozen, and a gray owl closes its eyes and tilts its head curiously, wondering why so many humans invade its territory early in the morning.

"Goo, goo......"

Its mournful chirp drifted far away, probably signaling its nearby companions.

(End of chapter)