Dearest Anonymous, Let Me Be

Chapter 13: ARC 1 - The Lost Princess

When faced with extremely horrifying circumstances, one may either find themselves running away from it immediately or fighting it without any preliminary thoughts. It can be either fight or flee. Yet sometimes, or most of the time, one can also find themselves incapable to move and/or process a thought for a while.

It was like time froze itself or their brain just simply malfunctioned.

Anyhow, Umi didn't have any single care of how others might respond to a situation similar to her current predicament since she herself wouldn't know what to do too.

Trying her best to not make any sound, she stood erect on her spot while covering her mouth tightly to prevent any sound coming from it. But life is indeed unfair, no matter what the situation is, things never go well the way one wanted it to be most of the time.

Either Umi might smell of sweet pastries right now after stuffing her mouth with various delicacies or the mutated lizard must have had a strong sense of smell since birth, Umi didn't have the time to think about the reason why the horrendous creature seems to have realized her presence just now.

If Umi were to use the proper words to explain what she was feeling right now, it would be the words "aghast" and "petrified".

It was like that situation where you crossed a wide highway and when you reached the middle, a fast-approaching sports car is about to hit you but instead of running away, you only stupidly stood erect on your spot instead.

Whether it was called "accepting one's reality" or just "plain stupidity", Umi just wanted to get out of this dire situation that she walked into with her own two feet.

Finally, Umi woke up from her shocked state, and with a sudden burst of power and a bit of courage, without wasting any precious time to stop for any hesitation, Umi channeled the mana on the surroundings and for a split second, all the surrounding trees were uprooted to the ground just in time for when the mutated lizard was about to charge to her direction.

With one step of the lizard, Umi threw five trees towards it in return. When she had finally thrown all the trees available, she made a barricade using a few of them and placed it in between her and the lizard that is somewhat distracted by the thrown trees only a few meters ahead. She used the barricade to hide her small body and followed with a swift movement, she took out the dagger that her grandfather gave her and smeared it with a special paste made from poisonous herbs that are lethal to reptiles.

Umi then once again channeled the mana from the surroundings into her body and started to control the dagger by just using her mind.

When she looked back behind the barricade, the mutated lizard, now in a fury and seems out of control, started to charge forward. With every leap, its weight crushed the ground beneath it, making small cracks on the ground and causing earthquakes at the same time.

Umi narrowed her eyes and steadied her breathing, waiting for the lizard to get close enough for her attack.

It was a 50-50 situation, and either one of them can only get out of here alive.

Just when the huge lizard reached the barricade, it suddenly stopped and the two heads carefully sniffed along the wall made of trees, looking for any signs of its target.

If Umi wasn't careful, she could be this creature's next meal. She had to execute her attack at the right timing, or else, it could be game over for her.

Counting slowly under her breath,

One...

Two...