Chapter 4: Relentless

James flailed his arms and legs around him struggling to get control of himself in the water. His lungs burned, and his eyes stung, but he still persisted on. His head slammed against a rock, making him black out for a second, but he regained consciousness a second later and continued his struggle.

He used his arms to push on the water and was able to get his head above the water enough for a single breath, then the current once again dragged him down under the water.

This cycle repeated itself for who knows how long. Flail around desperately in the water, get a quick breath of air, get pulled back under the water, and repeat.

But James would not give up. He had already exhausted his body running from the wolves, but he refused to let his body rest until he knew he was safe.

[User has gained title {relentless}]

Suddenly, James got a notification from his system. He couldn’t spare the energy to focus on the notification, but he did feel as if his aching muscles were suddenly relieved a little. However, this did not prevent the river from continuing to drag James down itself.

Scrapes and bruises built up on his body as he slammed into rocks and other obstacles in the water. But James would not let those stop him from continuing to desperately fight the current.

After what felt like forever, James spotted an opportunity to get out of his dangerous predicament. Just as James was taking a quick breath out of the water for air, he managed to spot a tree branch resting a foot and a half above the water. He immediately knew that the tree branch was his shot at escaping from the river's merciless current.

James was once again pulled under the water, but this time he prepared his body for this chance at escape. He compressed all his muscles in his body, then suddenly released them in a powerful push, bringing his upper body completely out of the water. He quickly shot out his arms and dove in order to get a grasp of the tree branch. Then, with his hands gripping the tree branch, he slowly maneuvered himself towards the bank of the river.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Moving one arm after another, his lower body still stuck in the river below, James slowly moved closer to the bank. And after a short, yet exhausting time, James threw himself onto the bank of the river.

Almost immediately after, James lost consciousness.

---

James slowly opened his eyes to unfamiliar surrounding

James immediately sat up as he took stock of his surroundings. The sky was a deep orange, but due to the fact that he was in a canyon, and that its walls blocked any view of the sun, he couldn’t tell if it was dawn or dusk. He supposed he would find the answer to that in a few minutes when the sun either rose or set, so he decided to inspect his immediate surroundings while he waited.

He was still stuck in the canyon. Currently, he was sitting at the edge of a large bend in the river, where it seemed the water had eroded a small part of the cliff, creating the thin and sandy bank he currently sat on. A couple dead trees also had grown on that bank including the one he had managed to grab on to before he fell unconscious.

Next, James looked down at himself. He seemed to have lost his shoes somewhere along his rough journey down the river. His clothes were an absolute mess, and sported many new holes. His previous dress of a black cotton t-shirt, and some jeans had been seemingly transformed into rags. They seemed to have mostly dried out after he made it to the rivers bank previously, however, they were still a bit damp, and a thin layer of sand was clinging onto the clothes making him feel uncomfortable. ‘This is why sand is overrated,’ he thought to himself.

He also noticed that his skin now was almost just as beat up as his clothes. Many cuts and bruises ran across his entire body, but luckily it seemed there was nothing too major. He put his hand to his head, and noticed a large patch of dried blood on his forehead. It seemed that this wound was quite serious, but as it had dried out, and he had stopped bleeding, he figured he would probably be alright. He did worry a bit that it would get infected, but there was not much he could do at the moment.

Lastly, James focused on his body’s immediate callings. He noticed that he needed to relieve himself, but that was solved quickly by a short trip to the river's edge. He also noticed that he was extremely thirsty, but that could also be solved by the river.

He was also quite hungry, but since he had no food on his person, and the river was moving too fast for a beginner fisherman like him to catch any fish, he decided to ignore that for now. Eating would go a long way towards helping his body recover from his recent battering, but he knew that the human body could survive quite a while without food.

Something that James did not feel that surprised him, was that he didn’t really feel cold at all. Considering that it was either late evening or early morning, and that he did not have any warm clothes on himself, he would’ve thought that he would be extremely cold. But he didn’t really feel cold at all. James decided he would investigate that later.

James glanced up at the sky and noticed that the sky seemed to have brightened a bit while he was thinking. ‘So it’s a new day, I guess,’ he thought. ‘Well, I should probably start the day off by looking at all these system notifications I got before I fell unconscious.’