When Clayton came back for the last time, recovered and they put Beata on his back, he asked Nick, “Do you want to go first? Or should we go together? It’s a pretty steep climb.”
“Nah, you go first. We’ll sit here for a bit more.” Nick answered.
Clayton shrugged and brought Beata down the cliff. Although she decided to follow Nick’s advice, she postponed the part about enjoying the trip until they got down and just closed her eyes pretending to be asleep. She didn’t know Kate did exactly the same thing.
When Clayton got down, the other three run up to them.
“Where are they?” Steven asked a bit worried.
“Should be coming down, I guess.” Clayton plainly said, “We can go a bit further, maybe we can see them climbing and cheer them on.”
They moved a couple hundred meters away along the shore and the beautiful cliff wall was standing tall front of them. Currently the sun was setting almost directly to their left and it’s rays illuminated some parts of the cliff and threw long shadows on the others.
The five of them looked up while trying to discern the Nick’s small figure with YunYun on his back, but they were nowhere to be seen.
“Oh god!” Clayton suddenly exclaimed and helplessly sat on the ground, clearly refusing to look up.
“What is it?” Kate anxiously asked, but he could only weakly point upwards.
Suddenly a scream full of excitement reached their ears and soon they saw a small figure darting down the sunny part of the cliff, but it more resembled a small spider than a human. The setting sun created a disproportionately large crawling shadow and it looked like a giant monster was moving chaotically on the steep wall.
When the small figure was only two hundred meters away, they finally saw what Clayton’s Qi master’s eyes could discern from further away.
“Oh god!” Kate repeated what Clayton said few moments ago.
“Those two psychopaths!” Steven felt his hair standing up while Conny grabbed and squeezed his hand.
Nick, on his fours was running down the cliff wall head first while YunYun on his back waved excitedly with one hand and screamed for him to go faster!
“Sigh, these two are destined for each other.” Beata shook her head and couldn’t watch as well. This sight alone might be scarier than all the time they were captured by the pirates counted together.
After the duo got down, others heard YunYun cheering, “This was great! Let’s go again!”
To what Kate almost fainted.
Nick looked back at YunYun’s face that was blushed from excitement, he said, “Alright, but this time I’ll be on your back!”
And then they ran towards the others while loudly laughing. Even though it was not easy and took quite a toll on his Qi, for some reason with YunYun on his back he didn’t get tired at all, just like when they went down the emperor’s tower.
Weirdly enough their five friends refused to speak to them, but at this moment the duo didn’t care. The adrenaline was still pumping through their veins and they went for a swim in the lake that was formed below the waterfall. They were back in the tropical jungle once again and the permanent thin rain made of the falling river made surroundings even more humid. Therefore a cool swim was just what they needed.
There was a short awkward moment when they started to take off their clothes, but it was quickly resolved when Nick turned around, dropped all but his underwear and jumped in the water. YunYun soon followed and they soaked there for almost a full hour until it turned dark.
Later they found the others at a nice campfire and the five still looked a bit upset. But as soon as Nick started to cook, everything was forgiven and they began to plan their next step. Clayton couldn’t calculate the distance to the horizon they saw from the top of the cliff. Looking from a top of high mast it could be up to ten kilometers, but from a one kilometer high cliff? Nick kicked himself again for neglecting the math, but soon they agreed that even if it was hundred or two hundred kilometers this information didn’t change their situation.
Going through the jungle was a nightmare and the guys experienced it for a couple of hours after they left the desert, therefore everyone unanimously agreed on building a raft and then going down the river, while enjoying the shade of the trees.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The river here was not as wide as in Olava, but apparently deeper and the waters were slower as well. It only meant that they would spend more time on the way, but the ride would be more comfortable. There was also a probability to meet people from the jungle villages and they could exchange a boat or two for tools or weapons.
After they ate the dinner and decided on everything, Nick and YunYun took the first guard shift and the rest went to sleep.
They both did feel a bit guilty and woke Steven up only an hour after midnight and he, on the other hand, didn’t wake Clayton up at all and prolonged his shift till the sunrise when Nick opened his eyes and tried to sneak out for morning workout.
Unfortunately or maybe fortunately for him, YunYun woke up as well and followed him back to the waterfall, where under her confused eyes Nick to performed weird stretching exercises and later his usual physical exercise routine. YunYun didn’t utter any sound and imitated his every action and when the others woke up they saw the couple of baldies walking in circles on their hands with their legs high up.
When they finished, Nick took off his clothes and jumped in the lake below the waterfall to take a swim just like yesterday and YunYun, after a long contemplation, joined him prior instructing him to not peek. It was not as dark as yesterday evening and she felt so shy that not only her face, but the whole body was burning red from embarrassment.
She had almost an iron will to follow through all these actions and her rationale was simple. For her to keep up with Nick, she first had to understand his training methods she heard so much about when the others teased him. It was confusing for her why an athletic youth like him performed those weird stretches and didn’t just do more push-ups and sit-ups with weights like the ‘regular’ practitioners did, but instead walked on his hands and jumped around like a frog.
Nick would’ve had hard time to explain most of those exercises since, with few exceptions, they mostly came from his football practice and were basically his habit. Their effectiveness was a nice bonus, but he did them just because he liked this way to get ready for the upcoming day and felt refreshed and energized after.
When they arrived at the camp, others were sitting on the riverside and already having light breakfast. The two early birds joined the rest and they started discussing the building process and the size of their raft.
Suddenly YunYun remembered something and requested the leather straps Nick promised yesterday. Nick sighed, took out a bunch and gave her the best few after checking them. Then took out few more and some ropes as well that they could use for building the raft.
While men were getting busy, girls with weird looks on their faces watched how YunYun carefully strapped a very ugly looking sword on her back. She checked the straps multiple times and even did few flips to check if it was comfortable and secure enough.
“Why would you need this ... ugly thing?” At some point Conny couldn’t hold back anymore. The ‘five flowers of Aurora’ were all about aesthetic beauty and for the three who were present this item was simply unacceptable.
“What do you mean ‘ugly’?” YunYun was confused. She had long forgotten her first reaction when she saw the old wooden scabbard, “This is my engagement gift! It’s the most beautiful sword in the world!”
The faces of other girls even couldn't represent the myriad of emotions they had inside. While they were prepared as a tribute for emperor, they felt YunYun was one of them and her bearing, style and knowledge did not fall behind them in any way, but this … this was too much.
“YunYun, I understand that you like your fiance, but there are no strangers around. You don’t have to wear that ugly thing just to please him.” Kate said and the other two nodded.
Finally YunYun understood their confusion.
“Ugly?” She grinned back at them, “Let me show you!”
Nick, Steven and Clayton currently were at the riverside measuring the strips to understand how to better tie the wooden logs together when Nick heard the soft ‘hum’ that was similar to his Wakizashi responding to the Qi infusion.
“Watch out!” He instinctively shouted and looked back at the campsite. He had no idea why YunYun would take out her deadly instrument, but it was dangerous for others, he was certain of it.
But nothing happened for a few seconds. The rest looked at him in confusion, but Nick clearly noticed YunYun landing after a jump and sheathing her Katana.
Only when few more moments passed everyone understood what Nick meant. A tree, so thick that a man could barely hug it, with a loud screech slowly started to fall towards the campfire.
Luckily girls were a bit further back and the others were near the river, so the tree fell on an empty spot only splashing around the sparks from the campfire.
“Dose the fire!” Nick shouted and ran over to follow his own order.
Even if the possibility to start the jungle fire was low, he still didn’t want to create it. The nature was too beautiful to ruin just because of little carelessness. The rest came to help as well while YunYun proudly admired her work.
After they were certain that there was no hidden danger left, Nick called her over.
“Today you will be responsible for cutting the trees for our raft construction.” But when he saw her happily grabbing the handle of her Katana, he added, “But as a punishment for endangering our lives you will do it with this sword.”
Nick came closer, passed over a regular sword and whispered to the upset girl, “It’s training!”
Her eyes lit up again and she energetically went towards the closest tree.
“YunYun, wait!” Clayton stopped her, “Please don’t create a mess like this again. I’ll show you which trees to cut and could you please try to make them fall in the direction of the river so we have to carry logs a shorter distance?”
These instructions were a little too much for her wild soul, but she still complied and for the next hour followed Clayton to neatly cut trees, then clean their branches off and cut the logs in proper sizes as well. Meanwhile Nick and Steven carried logs to one spot and began to make the raft.
Maxwell sisters and Kate were shocked speechless for quite a while. On their way to Olava they saw how YunYun killed those four pirates, but what they witnessed a moment ago was from a completely different reality. When she jumped and that otherworldly weapon appeared in her hand, it left like she became a little bald death god. It was hard to describe, but now they understood what YunYun meant with ‘the most beautiful sword in the world’. Even tied up like she was in the castle, she still had the same aristocratic bearing like them, but in a split second she turned in to a completely different person when holding ‘that thing’.
“No wonder he gave her such gift.” Kate finally sighed and other two agreed, “They are a perfect match after all.”