Brando swore that if he had known earlier what it would be like to be buried under mud and sand, he would have rather surrendered than chosen to run.
At first, he felt his body plummeting rapidly in the darkness, countless objects accompanied by the whistling wind tumbling down around him, with only a faint light from above—that direction should be the underground hall that’s collapsing.
About one or two seconds later, he felt a violent impact.
A normal person would have shattered on such impact, but for someone with the physical strength of a Golden Peak, it was nothing. Brando only felt like he hit a sloped ground and then rolled down along the sharp rocks. He tried to grab onto something, but it was futile in the darkness, as he was swept downward with a large amount of mud and sand until he collided with a flat rock.
Brando felt the first impact, and then a second impact when a soft body collided with him. He immediately realized it was Qian, as more rocks and mud were cascading down from above. Brando hurriedly pulled the girl downwards and flipped over to shield her with his own body.
In just a fleeting moment, there was a thunderous boom as several massive rocks heavily struck him. Of course, for Brando, it wasn’t much worse than being hit with a few sticks, but the vast amount of mud and sand made him miserable.
He had just coughed, and his mouth was full of grit.
But this wasn’t the worst part; the worst was when he instinctively lowered his head to spit out the sand from his mouth and met a pair of bright, curious, and slightly shy eyes. They belonged to a mountain girl with a long ponytail—Qian was protected beneath Brando and gazed at her lord without moving.
For both Brando and Qian, seeing in the dark was not difficult, and they could clearly see each other’s status.
Fortunately, it seemed that this wasn’t the first time for the two experiencing such a situation; last time at the Trade Wind Ring, when being pursued by the Fog Nightmare, they encountered a nearly identical scene. With one experience, the second time was at least less awkward.
"Lord," Qian said softly, blinking her eyes, "Thank you."
"Ugh." Brando’s mouth was full of sand, speechless with his predicament. He was almost face to face with Qian, and he certainly couldn’t spit the sand onto her face. Outside, the rumbling continued, and it seemed the collapse wasn’t going to end any time soon.
Brando didn’t respond, but the mountain girl was watching him intently. After a while, Brando suddenly felt like Qian slightly moved, then gently leaned her forehead against his chest.
This seemingly unintentional action made Brando pause slightly; he instinctively looked down and saw Qian curled up in his arms like a child.
"Ugh... Qian?"
"Sorry..." Qian seemed startled by his voice, and hurriedly let go. Brando watched as she carefully shrank back and couldn’t help but feel a bit soft-hearted, "Actually, it’s okay... are you scared?"
Qian frowned and shook her head lightly.
Brando was momentarily silent. To be honest, he couldn’t quite grasp what the girl was thinking. Since the battle at Ambeser, Macaro had visited her a few times, but she had refused each time. Usually, Qian was quiet and only occasionally accompanied Romantic—yet according to other members of the Gray Wolf Mercenary Group, she supposedly wasn’t like this before.
He thought about it and decided he wasn’t suited to guess a girl’s thoughts, as in his past life, he was a complete loser in that area. Shaking his head, he decided to change the topic, "Qian, how did you break through Owena’s Element before?"
"Hmm?" The mountain girl was slightly taken aback and looked up at him curiously.
"You don’t know?" Brando was taken aback. He obviously saw no trace of deceit in Qian’s expression.
Qian shook her head, puzzled.
"Strange..." Brando felt more puzzled than Qian. He was well aware of the power of Owena’s Destiny Element. Owena’s Destiny Element was quite similar to a Word Spirit but much stronger. If you couldn’t break through your own fate, you could never defeat her, nor even attack her.
But the problem is, as a being of the Golden Domain, to break free from a legendary hero who possesses the Elemental Power of Existence seemed like an impossible task.