New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1070: A Stupid Idea

In the forest next to the highway the group was previously cruising on, two shapes were blurring away on foot, before stopping abruptly at an intersecting road.

Kary started looking for a way to traverse the intersecting road safely without catching people’s attention, but Alex suddenly froze while looking at the asphalt ahead of them.

“I can sense Violette’s mana on the road,” he said, pointing at a spot on the road.

Since they weren’t constantly active, to save mana, Kary had to expand her senses, and she sensed a blotch on the road, too.

“Could it be a coincidence?” she asked, unsure of the mana’s provenance.

Her senses weren’t as precise as his, and she couldn’t tell who the mana was from, making this suspicious.

But Alex grinned.

“No. It’s hers, I’m sure. And she shaped it as a triangle, pointing that way. And I can feel other marks like that one going that way. She’s leaving us a sign that they changed direction. That beautiful little genius,” he said, getting ready to head in this new direction.

Kary looked at him with a slim smile.

‘He may be stupid in many matters, but his instincts are sharp as always. Reliable in the times we need him most,’ she thought, launching behind the eager Alexander.

Unfortunately, all this running was doing a number on her cardio and mana supplies.

Alex did a lot of running all the time, and running at full speed like this, even if he had to charge his leg muscles with mana, was almost second nature already to him. Kary couldn’t claim to be the same, though.

Her legs felt like they were on fire, her lungs matching in pain, as her breath was getting heavier by the minute. Alex only noticed her ragged state when she started losing speed.

After ten minutes on the new path, he skidded to a stop, seeing Kary’s wet hair sticking to her face.

“Are you okay?” he asked, watching her bend over to catch her breath.

Kary looked at him with a sharp glare, her voice rasping as she answered.

“Do I look okay? We’ve run for easily forty miles! I’m exhausted! How do you still look peachy?” she growled.

He smiled sheepishly at her, shrugging.

“I don’t know. I’m used to it, I guess?”

He didn’t want to tell her he had actually been holding back his speed to match hers. Otherwise, he would already be a dozen miles ahead of her and still feel fine.

“I know that I said you needed to stay in shape, but maybe you are focusing on cardio too much?” she joked, trying to stand up straight.

A vertigo spell hit her, and she wobbled up, Alex rushing to her side to catch her.

“Woah… I think I need to sit down,” she mumbled, latching onto his shoulder.

Alex looked at her worriedly before setting her on a nearby boulder.

He looked at her, trying to think of a way to accelerate their progression. Even if they were running nearly thirty miles per hour, which was already faster than speed record holder Usain Bolt, they weren’t going fast enough to catch up to the car that had to leave them behind.

Alex wanted to pick up speed, knowing he could go faster than this alone. Much faster.

‘But I can’t leave her behind, and if I have to hold her, I can’t go full speed either… There is no way she’ll hold on to my back at full speed either if I have to change direction quickly,’ he mused, trying to find solutions.

He was thinking of melding with white, which would give him a lot more leg strength, but then he would need to lower his posture as he ran, almost to the point of reaching on all fours. He couldn’t carry her if he were that close to the ground.

And tying her to his back seemed like an impossible solution, since they didn’t have a harness, or rope, to do so.

He looked down at his belt, shaking his head inwardly, cursing at how small the darned thing

was.

‘I’ll never be able to secure her to my back with just my belt…’

But his eyes landed on Kary’s midsection, and he noticed she was wearing a belt on her pants, too.

Although his was a leather belt, and hers was made of nylon, he grinned as he imagined a way to fix them together.

He pointed at the belt, grinning stupidly, and Kary frowned when she saw him.

“If you weren’t running, would you need that to hold your pants? Or was it just a fashion accessory?” he asked, his stupid grin making the question awkward.

Kary looked down at her belt and back at him with a cocked eyebrow.

“It was more of an accessory. I don’t buy pants that don’t fit without a belt. Why?”

Alexander’s grin widened, making her feel bad for answering his question.

“Take it off and give it to me. I just found us a way to follow the cars better,” he said, pulling his own belt off.

His pants became a bit floppy on his hips, but he knew that once he melded with White, they’d tighten up again, so he wasn’t worried.

She gave him her belt, wondering what he was on about.

‘How would taking off their belts make them faster?’ she wondered.

It didn’t reassure her when he saw him tie the belts together, making one long belt out of

both.

“What are you doing?” she asked, getting confused.

He grinned at her before his hair turned white, and his eyes took on a beastly appearance.

“I’m calling you an Uber,” he joked, his body bulking up a bit as his pant legs became tight on

his skin.

“Get on my back,” he added, going to his knees.

Kary looked at him with a dumbfounded look.

“Huh?”

“Get on my back. I’ll carry you the rest of the way. We’ll make much better time this way, and you can rest. I can feel your mana reserves dwindling. Mine are fine, so let me do this,” he

claimed, staring at her.

Kary was stunned at the simplicity of his mind for a second before she laughed.

“Hahaha! You’re insane! How am I supposed to hold on to you like this? I’ve seen how you run when melded with White. I’ll be flinging on the back like a flag on hurricane lane. Hahahaha!”

Alex frowned, his furry cheeks raising as his lips parted.

“Why do you think I did this?” he said, waving the belt around.

She looked at the tied belts and shook her head.

‘Yeah, he’s definitely stupid…’