Chapter 69 - THE DEAL

The Riverhill soldier and Arthur made a deal. The soldier would let Veronica go and retrieve the crystal magic ball.

As he slowly pushed Veronica toward Arthur, Arthur stepped closer as well.

As if time had stopped. The movements were slow and careful. No one made a reckless move.

Just the moment Arthur's hand reached Veronica, he grabbed her and threw the crystal magic ball up. The soldier's eyes were fixed on the magic ball. He raised his head and moved forward to hold the magic ball.

The moment the soldier let go of Veronica's arm, Arthur pulled her toward her. His arm tightly held Veronica's waist.

Veronica's fingers clasped his clothes. "I-I'm sorry. Because of me…" She was so ashamed that because of her lack of flexibility, they were at a disadvantage right now.

"It's fine. I'm more worried about your neck." Arthur frowned as he checked her wound.

"It doesn't hurt much but the crystal magic ball…" before she got to finish her sentence, she saw Arthur's left leg flew in front.

He kicked the soldier aiming at his stomach. After getting a hit on his stomach, the Riverhill soldier fell on his butt. He looked at Arthur and saw the ball landed on his hand.

The soldier realized that he had been tricked and slapped the ground. "You son of a bitch!" he cursed and glared at him.

"You didn't possibly think that I would hand over the object I found after so much effort, did you?" Arthur smirked. Without looking at Veronica, he told her, "Close your eyes for a moment, okay princess?"

"Okay…" Veronica already got used to complying with his words. She moved away from him and obediently shut her eyes.

"Aaagh!" In that second, the soldier stood up and dashed toward Arthur while shouting.

When he almost touched Arthur, he swiftly moved away and kicked the soldier's shin. The soldier fell to the ground again. Arthur took the dagger from his hand. After that, he held the soldier's arm high and said coldly, "This is for touching my wife." And then, he sliced the arm in one slash. The blood splattered everywhere.

"Aaah!" the soldier let out a painful scream. It even made Veronica flinched. She started to tremble.

Arthur caught her arm and said, "He screamed too loud. We have to get out of here as soon as possible."

Veronica opened her eyes. "We are taking the healers, right? But we don't know the magic spell to activate the crystal magic ball. How are we going to do it?" She disclosed what she heard from the enemy soldiers.

Arthur frowned. He almost forgot that there was a spell they had to recite or the crystal magic ball wouldn't work. He looked at the healers who were tied up and asked, "Does any of you know the magic spell?"

The healers exchanged glances. They were healers, not magicians. It was understandable if they didn't know the spell.

Arthur probed persistently, "You might have heard your abductors recite the spell. If you remember it, it will work on us."

Everyone heard a commotion outside. The soldiers close to the tent might have heard this soldier's scream and were coming to look inside. The time was running out.

Veronica said, "Look, we came to save you. You are contracted. You cannot abandon the Synetians. They are not being treated properly. Please…"

Upon hearing her words, someone said, "I think I can do it because I was the closest to the abductor. But, I hardly remember what he recited."

It was the voice of the female healer whose mouth was uncovered by Veronica.

"Whatever is it you heard it and it's enough." Arthur untied her hands and handed over the crystal magic ball to her. He calmly assured her, "Don't worry about the mistakes. Just repeat whatever you heard that night."

His handsome face was close to her. The healer's face blushed in shyness. Understanding the urgency, she shut her eyes and tried to recall what she heard.

The footsteps came closer. Veronica became nervous. She didn't want to lose hope. But, looking at the healer and the magic ball, she found no changes. She began to worry if the healer's magic spell would actually work or not.

"What's going on here?"

"We heard a scream!"

Just as she feared, the soldiers of Riverhill burst into the tent and began to ask questions. It didn't take time for them to notice the unusual atmosphere inside the tent.

"What's this? Our soldiers…" the soldier was quick to notice. He saw their fellow soldiers lying on the ground and the crystal magic ball in the hands of an abducted healer. He pointed at Arthur and Veronica and shouted, "They are spies. Spies of Synetian bastards!"

The Riverhill soldiers directed their swords at them. They were ready to attack.

Just then, a pure light illuminated. Everyone noticed the light came from the crystal magic ball. Before the soldiers could react, the pure light touched their skin.

Wherever the light touched, it burned everything. The same was for the soldiers. They screamed as their bodies began to burn without fire. They could feel every burn and pain before death.

The pure light flashed in the dark desert night and blinded everyone. In the next second, the light was gone, along with the abducted healers, Arthur, Veronica, and Remus, leaving the soldiers of Rivehill dumbfounded.

Just like the group of people vanished from the Riverhill camp, the same way they ended up in the Synetian camp. Although it seemed like a flash, they had to go through a blue vortex. They could see time and space between worlds and whatnot. They were moved so fast that they were unable to breathe. One minute seemed like one year. When they finally landed on the ground, most of them fell as they were unbalanced.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!" Veronica coughed hard like the rest of the healers. She envied Remus who was still unconscious.

"Easy there," Arthur patted her back until she stopped coughing.

Veronica wiped her mouth and then looked at him. Seeing that he had not suffered like the rest, she couldn't help but ask, "How come you are okay?'

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