Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Chapter 190 – 78 Fleeing
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As if a flame was rekindled in an extinguished hearth, Winters regained a trace of consciousness.

He could vaguely sense that he was being dragged, as well as the sensation of floating, the waves, and cries for help.

Another pair of hands joined, and two men propped Winters up, dragging him from the waist-deep sea onto the pebble beach.

One person quickly cleared the water from Winters’ nose and throat, forcefully slapped his back, and then began to press on his chest.

The remaining seawater was expelled from his trachea. Fortunately, he had not been underwater long, and his instinct to breathe remained, the air re-entered his lungs, and through alveoli, capillaries, arteries, in his weak heartbeat, it was pushed towards the organs throughout his body.

His brain again supplied with oxygen, Winters’ thoughts flickered back to life like the flame that had nearly gone out, and his consciousness was restored. He struggled to open his eyes to the light, and before him was an all too familiar, yet surprising face, one with a gap-toothed smile, “…Gold, is it you?”

Before they could exchange pleasantries, a loud shout came from the distance, “Over here!”

This was followed by a series of gunshots, battle cries, and screams of agony.

“The Tanilians are coming!” someone nearby shouted in terror, “The Tanilians are coming! Run!”

Winters struggled to get up from the ground, reminding himself that he must stay calm. The situation gave him no time to think—he needed to quickly assess the current state.

He took a quick survey of his surroundings: beneath his feet was a pebbly beach, ahead twenty or so meters was the boundary line between the forest and the stones. Looking to his right, Bastion, the docks—Red Sulfur Harbor. Looking behind him, the sea.

He realized then that the small boat had been capsized by a huge tide, and Gold had pulled him to shore. According to their relative positions, he should now be on the coast to the west of Red Sulfur Harbor.

The sound of gunfire and battle cries came from the front right, which meant the forces clearing the remnants were coming from Red Sulfur Harbor!

Winters grabbed Gold’s arm, “Into the forest!”

He stood up and shouted at the others on the beach, “Into the forest! Head for the trees.”

Remaining on the pebble beach would make them sitting ducks; they had to find a way to shake off this wave of pursuers first.

Winters ran stumbling towards the broadleaf woodland at the edge of the coast, “Follow me! Everyone, follow me! Into the forest!”

On the beach, aside from Winters and Gold, there were around twenty-odd soldiers and sailors who had narrowly escaped death. The chain of command had been destroyed, but the disoriented Venetians subconsciously obeyed the “officer’s uniform” orders.

Regardless of whether they were sailors or soldiers, all Venetians started running towards the forest to retreat.

A voice with a heavy Tanilian accent called from a distance to the right, “Don’t let them escape! Five Vinets for a prisoner!”

A non-human-like scream followed from the same direction, “Help! Save me!”

Winters fled into the tree line, the resilient branches hit him as though he was being whipped, but he gritted his teeth and pushed deeper into the forest.

Once inside the woodland, their view obstructed by vegetation, they could not see each other’s whereabouts, only hearing rustling sounds everywhere, intermittently interrupted by gunshots and cries of pain.

No Venetians dared to stop and identify friend from foe; they had lost their leadership and direction, and could only run desperately to save their lives.

“Which way to run? Red Sulfur Harbor is to the northeast. The pursuers started from Red Sulfur Harbor, searching from north to south, so there should be no enemies to the south now.” Having realized this, Winters stopped and used a spell to amplify his voice and shouted in the Venetian dialect, “[Venetian dialect] South! South! To the left!”

Before he could run south, suddenly a powerful force hit him around the waist, and Winters was knocked down.

An excited voice shouted, “Here! Here! I’ve caught an officer!”@@novelbin@@

The two rolled around in the muddy forest, the Tanilian trying to use all his strength to pin Winters to the ground, while Winters struggled to fight back, attempting to rise.

This was a grappling match without any honor or etiquette, one driven by bounty and greed, the other fighting for his life.

The Tanilian was not as strong as Winters but clung to him from behind, taking the blows without letting go, just continuously shouting, “Here!”

The human body is not designed to exert as much strength backwards as forward, and being gripped from behind around the waist, even a stronger Winters couldn’t manage to free himself.

Whether hitting back with fists or elbows, he couldn’t exert force, and the Tanilian’s shouts were drawing more pursuers.

Winters suddenly realized this was no contest with rules to follow. He stopped flailing his fists futilely and instead traced the man’s arms to find his fingers.

Found them! The man’s fingers were tightly clasped around Winters’ waist; Winters slid his hand between the man’s fingers and his own clothing, grasping the Tanilian’s two fingers tightly and pulled back with all his strength.

After two snaps, the Tanilian screamed and let go. Free once more, Winters flipped over, pressed the Tanilian beneath him, and clasped his hands tightly around the man’s neck.

But the Tanilian did not rapidly lose the ability to resist; he struggled fiercely, his throat emitting a deep, intermittent growl. His right hand clawed up a rock from the ground and smashed it hard against Winters’ head.

Winters only felt a sharp pain followed by numbness on his head, and he loosened the grip on the man’s throat.

The Tanilian, who could finally breathe again, moaned as he drew a deep breath.

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