Kelvin, not wanting to be outdone, tried to smash the ground with his fists.
Though the uneven ground visibly bore a pit, his hand was bleeding too.
Cheyenne, feeling a pang of sympathy, hesitated before softly saying:
“Why don’t you just give up and wait for Mr. Lara to rescue us?”
As the saying goes, one shouldn’t just sit and puff in pride; Kelvin did not want to sit around waiting for his rival to save him.
How embarrassing that would be!
Omari added fuel to the fire from the side, “Yeah, Mr. Foley, if you can’t do it, don’t force yourself, let me do it.”
He also wanted to play the role of the knight in shining armor to save his princess.
Though his knightly appearance was more akin to a beggar’s, charisma is something that comes from within!
When Kelvin heard this, he almost spat out blood in frustration.
“I don’t need you to judge whether I can or cannot.”
He murmured under his breath, “All that matters is that Cheyenne knows.”
Cheyenne immediately widened her eyes.
“What nonsense are you spouting, get to work.”
Spurred by the challenge, Kelvin pushed his body to its limits and punched a hole through the ground with three punches.
He was not pleased with the result, which was exactly as he had expected, with Omari laughing heartily next door.
“Kelvin, you have to admit that I’m better.”
“Childish!”
Mr. Foley commented disdainfully.
Cheyenne crouched down, reached into the hole, and unexpectedly touched something.
She pulled it out curiously.
It was a small boat.
“Why would there be such a child’s toy here?”
Kelvin also came over, his keen eyes noticed something inside the boat, so he decided to tear it open.
He found that it was covered in indecipherable markings.
“Like hieroglyphs, what the hell?”
But Cheyenne recognized it at a glance; this was Oliver’s creation.
She was both surprised and worried.
“It’s Oliver who’s come; this drawing is the message he wants to convey to us.”
Kelvin thought she was delusional, checked her forehead with the back of his hand, and whispered, “No fever, why the nonsense?”
“I’m not speaking nonsense, this is a code between Oliver and me; the large circle represents my location, and the small one represents him.”
“Your son is smart, not only using scales to express time but also clarifying directions.”
From the drawing, it was evident he was at the three o’clock direction.
With White Sand Isle at the center, that direction was northeast, exactly where they had landed.
“The three wavy lines represent rivers, and the triangle represents boats.”
Oliver was asking for their exact location and indicating that a message could be sent through the floating boats in the river.
After hearing her interpretation, Kelvin was amazed.
“So it really is Oliver, how did he get here?”
Given the perilous nature of the island, where even they were trapped in enemy territory, how much more so for a child?
“You can guess he didn’t come alone; I wonder if it’s Master Iker or Mr. Murillo who came to rescue us.”
“They must be ensuring Oliver’s safety for now.”
Cheyenne found a charred piece of wood to use as a pencil, recording their information on oil paper to send back.
Two days later, the third match of the bet finally commenced, with the content of the bet proposed by Hayden.
The game started the night before, at three in the morning, when everyone was sound asleep.
Kelvin and Omari were forcibly taken away by two strangers in black clothes.
“What are you doing?”
Startled awake, Omari, caught off guard, questioned loudly:
“Who are you, what do you want?”
The group didn’t answer but rudely covered his head with a black cloth bag.
Kelvin, on the other hand, appeared much more composed.
“Cheyenne, don’t worry, I believe we’ll see each other again soon.”
“But…”
Even though she knew Hayden wouldn’t kill them just yet, they were bound to suffer.
Not to mention Elsa, who hated her to the bone.
And that was exactly as Cheyenne had guessed.
For the third match, Hayden challenged her to find Kelvin or Omari within 24 hours.
Cunningly, the two were held in different locations.
With limited time, she could only choose to save one.
And she was told going left meant choosing Kelvin;
Going right would mean Omari.
Since Kelvin couldn’t swim, they had him confined in a water prison filled with numerous venomous creatures.
The various secreted toxins mixed together, forming a pool of colorful liquid.
From the surveillance camera, he could be seen tied to a cross, his lower body submerged in water.
The venom continuously eroded his body, distorting his handsome, icy demeanor due to the pain.
Omari, too, was in extreme danger.
He was confined in a large underground laboratory, with a huge, four to five-meter-long black python in the cage at the center.
Its head was an odd oval shape, and its body as thick as an adult man’s thigh.
And Omari was tied up on an experimental platform less than ten meters from the cage.
The cage wasn’t fully locked.
Only one locking latch remained, and the python, starved for three days, ceaselessly gnawed at the lock with its sharp teeth.
Once it broke free from the cage, Omari would become its meal.
Above her, Elsa’s maniacal laughter rang out.
“Cheyenne, you can only choose once, have you decided who to save?”
Regardless of her choice, the other would inevitably become a regret.
The dilemma placed before her instantly plunged Cheyenne into a quandary.
Choosing Kelvin would mean betraying Omari.
If she chose Omari, her child might end up fatherless.
After pondering, Cheyenne answered this difficult question with imposing confidence.
“Children make choices, adults naturally want both. Both of them are important to me, and I’ll save both!”
Hearing her confidently spoken words, Elsa couldn’t help but clap.
“Fine, then I really want to see who you can save! Don’t blame me for not warning you, the time started the second you and I began speaking.”
By now, 10 minutes had passed, leaving her only 23 hours and 50 minutes.
Cheyenne scoffed internally.
So what?
She was confident she would not lose.
Kelvin had the Golden Silkworm Magic, usual toxins wouldn’t affect him; though the venom pool was potent, he could still hold on for a while.
Omari’s situation, on the other hand, was more urgent.
Cheyenne even suspected that the giant python might be the source controlling these biowarriors, the mother parasite of Bane Magic.
Hence, her mission was not only to rescue Omari but to also destroy the snake.