Wild Dragon of Rome 35 (Patreon)

I didn’t say anything for a moment as I stood at the riverbank, watching the raging river, appreciating its majesty as it roared, reassessing the danger.

I had already known that the river was dangerous. It was hardly a secret that a fast-flowing, mana-rich river with a lot of third-order beasts might not be a location for a casual dip. But, standing at the edge, close enough for the occasional burst of water washing my feet, I could feel something different.

Bloodlust. I could feel the centuries of endless fighting had left its mark, radiating a suffocating threat despite its faint nature. I wondered why I hadn’t felt it before. Maybe it was the fact that I had just killed. Or maybe, it was a side effect of my botched meditation.

An interesting phenomenon. The kind of thing I wished to see once I got free from my uncle's shadow to travel the world.

Too bad I had other pressing concerns. Astrid opened her eyes once again when she realized we stopped moving. “Is your base on our side —” she started, then looked at the river, and noticed there was no crossing in sight. “What are we doing here?”

“We’re going to make sure your pursuers can’t catch up with us,” I said.

She looked at me like I had just promised to extinguish the sun. “How, by killing ourselves?” she said.

“Not particularly,” I said even as I took a few steps back, and let her sit on a rock. I could explain my situation, but instead, I decided to show by jumping into the river. She cried in shock, blanching as she thought that I had just killed myself.

Only to stop when I appeared on the surface again, easily floating on the turbulent and fast-flowing water with a few easy strokes, my legs doing the lion’s share of the work.

Astrid looked at me in shock as she realized the extent of my strength. “What kind of shaper are you, able to show such strength with such a minimal transformation?” she asked even as I pulled myself back to the surface.

“It’s complicated, hence the reason I need the help of a priestess,” I said. “A favor for a favor. Simple as that.”

She didn’t look convinced, but her situation was desperate enough to ignore her reasonable doubts. “Aright. What’s the plan?”

“The immediate part is simple. You’re going to do your best to hold onto my back as I swim upstream until we’re unlucky enough to deal with a third-order beast in the water. We’re going to pull out, circle around, and do our best to leave no trail as we return to the campsite. Then, we’ll move away from the river, and find a safe location.”

“We need to stop at one point. I’m completely drained of mana.”

“That, you can do at the camp,” I said. The camp didn’t have the densest concentration of mana, but considering neither Lillian nor I bothered to siphon any, it should be enough to keep her going for a while.

As for the secret of my mana generation … it would continue to stay a secret. I wasn’t wholly comfortable even with Lillian knowing about it, and our fates were tied together.

“Alright,” she said, not resisting the plan. She said nothing as I looked around, finding an overgrown ivy. It was an imperfect substitute for a rope, but it was better than nothing. It wouldn’t hold her alone, but it would share the load and make it easier to hold on. “You can’t be serious,” she said.

“Stand behind me,” I said. She hugged me from behind, and I tied it around our waists as tightly as I could. Without my new strength, it would have been a death sentence, but with it, it should be manageable. “Don’t forget to warn me if you can’t hold on. I don’t trust the ivy to hold on for long.”

The moment she confirmed it, I threw my spear to the other side of the river, which was only possible with my strength. I hoped that it would be another evidence of our passage, still stained with the blood of her pursuers. A good use, since I couldn’t carry it with me while swimming.

Even with my strength, swimming upstream in a raging river while carrying a deadweight was not fun, though the balance had been a bigger issue than the power. “Hold your breath,” I ordered as we dove down. It was easier to swim without the turbulence of the surface. And, as an added benefit, it protected us from accidental observers.

I had to adjust our direction several times, sometimes getting away from the shore to avoid the beasts concealed along the riverbank, looking for easy prey, and sometimes getting closer to the mud to dodge the carnivorous fish.

Deep in the water, the sense of bloodlust was even stronger. Immersed in the water completely, I could develop a better understanding of it. It wasn’t a sharp, directed sense of murder, more like the imprints of untold number of deaths that had happened around it. Wars, raids, slaves trying to escape, hunting accidents… All washed away by the raging streams of the river, but not forgotten.

I shook my head, forcing myself to focus on the present.

Even with all the impediments, I was fast enough to travel two miles in less than ten minutes, which was a welcome development, as even with all the benefits, I could feel Astrid’s grip weakening. So, the moment I found a nice, rocky edge that would leave no footprint, I pulled out, and dashed into the forest without wasting a second, still afraid of an accidental observer.

I didn’t put Astrid down until we were three miles deep, and came across a nice grassy, concealed alcove. She was panting hard, barely able to hold on. She was too exhausted to walk.

“We will rest here for a minute before we start moving—” I started as I finally loosened the rope, and let her down. However, the moment I turned to face her. I was silenced by how she looked. Luckily, she was too busy trying to catch her breath to notice it.

The reason for my sudden silence was simple. When I saved Astrid, she had been covered with mud and dirt due to her escape attempt. While she had healed her wounds, the dirt had remained.

After ten minutes of swimming through raging waters, all that dirt and mud was gone, leaving the job of hiding her body in her clothes, which had turned into scraps during her escape. And, being drenched didn’t make them any more modest. It revealed a lot of her curvy body.

And, I had to admit, I liked what I was seeing.

The show started with her hair. I had already seen its color, but after the water washed away the mess, it revealed a bright, almost flaming quality. Even as it stuck to her body, it looked amazing. I found myself wondering how it would look once it was free, flowing with the wind. Her beautiful face, adorned by her bright emerald eye, looked even better, her pouty lips inviting. If she was dressed properly, she could easily pass for a scion of a noble family.

As she tried to catch her breath, my gaze dipped down even lower, catching more than a glimpse of her curvy body that showed through the gaps of her shirt, multiple tears that she acquired during her long escape revealing a delicious show of pale skin underneath.

Her waist was thin, but the same didn’t apply to her hips, which showed particularly well with her drenched skirt sticking to her skirt. Her legs were long, and toned enough to make them particularly appealing. The fact that I had spent the last ten minutes with those legs wrapped around my waist was fun.

I was suddenly hit with the temptation of repeating the same pose, but this time with her hugging men from front rather than behind. Desire rose in me … too intense to be just my own desire.

My instincts from my transformation were acting up once again. I sighed even as I turned my back, avoiding the unintentional show. I didn’t want to make a move on her, which wasn’t a wise move in the first place considering we didn’t trust each other, no matter how tempting was her beauty.

Not to mention, I was still afraid of indulging those foreign instincts. So, I walked around while she recovered, and hopefully fixed her clothes as much as it could be done. “Ready to move?” I asked a moment later.

“As long as you continue to carry me, yes,” she said, her voice resentful.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh great priestess, your chariot awaits,” I said as I crouched down in front of her, and she wrapped her hands around my neck once more just like we did minutes ago.

Unfortunately, with the memory of her beauty, it felt much different. I sighed, and started running…