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\'Eh?\'

Cecilia stared in shock as Sato had dived into the river.

\'Was he actually planning on suiciding all this while? Did I push him too far?\'

Unsure of what to do, Cecilia immediately dashed towards the river\'s edge to have a look. She didn\'t get too close, however, for fear of attracting the monsters within. With the degree of disturbance that she had caused on the shore, one couldn\'t say for certain that no river monster was attracted by it.

\'I can\'t find him.\' Cecilia grimaced.

While there were other reasons as to why she couldn\'t find Sato -such as the blue colour of the river that made it harder to see deeper or the fact that she wasn\'t close enough to the river\'s edge to spot him- the most possible reason were of two categories; either Sato had been killed by a monster already or he decided to use the river as a means of escape.

If it were the former, then remaining behind would be pointless as she might attract the monster\'s attention. But if it were the latter, things would become a lot difficult and might even end up in the same result as the former.

Using the river as a means of escape sounded like a reasonable plan but it was filled with far too many uncertainties. There was the fact that dangerous monsters made a home out of the river. To escape using the river meant that Sato would have to encounter these creatures along the way, and any one of them was capable of tearing him apart with ease. Even if he was in luck and didn\'t die immediately he dived in, he would still die later as compared to land, the river was the home-ground of the monsters. Not only can they demonstrate their full strength there, but their sensory abilities had a wider range in there.

"Damn it. It\'s my fault for going easy at him from the start. I should have eliminated him from the very beginning." Cecilia gritted her teeth as she stomped her right foot in fury.

\'Do I scan the river for him? Maybe he\'s still alive in there. But if I do, I might attract the attention of some tough beast.\' Cecilia frowned as various ideas flashed through her head.

"If he\'s still alive, he most likely won\'t take the risk and remain here. That bastard possibly followed the flow of the river to escape or swam against it. He might have even taken the risk to go to the other shore... though I doubt that."

Compared to going front or backward, swimming to the other shore was much dangerous as one wouldn\'t be able to escape in any direction. At least if Sato decided to swim against or with the current, he could stay close to the river\'s bank and retreat once he felt things went awry. It was for this reason that Cecilia refused to believe that Sato would try swimming to the other side.

\'It\'s difficult to swim against the current underwater and he\'s already a bit exhausted. I\'m guessing he would rely on the current to aid his escape.\'

Having considered certain facts, Cecilia immediately ran in the direction of the water\'s flow, hoping to find Sato.

Meanwhile, deep down, about 7 metres deep within the river, Sato held his breath as he clung close to the boundary of the river. Just as Cecilia had guessed, Sato didn\'t have any plans of suiciding. Instead, he wanted to find a way to escape this terrifying pursuer. Hence, Sato had been plotting from the very second he had escaped Cecilia.

Many ideas had been coursing through his head and the most viable one was escaping. Facing off against Cecilia meant certain death and Sato was not a fool to offer himself up like that. Even though there was a tiny chance of victory, there was a higher chance of escaping. Anyone with half a brain would know which to pick.

Having decided on escaping, the problem lay in how to pull it off. The canyon was a totally exposed area with barely any obstructions or windy roads that Sato could use to throw off Cecilia. Even if there was, Sato felt that she would still be able to track him down somehow as even monsters didn\'t rely on their eyes alone, let alone an expert NPC. And it was during his run for survival that Sato recalled the river.

Sato\'s first idea was to draw Cecilia close enough to the river while baiting a tough monster to the surface. Then he would find a way to make the duo fight each other. This was actually a difficult plot to pull of but Sato didn\'t feel like it was impossible for him. Sadly, Cecilia had increased the intensity of her attacks just before Sato could complete that plan, forcing him to move to plan B; escaping via the river.

While there was a risk in this plan, in the form of the river monsters, it was this risk that surprisingly increased the success rate of the plan. The monsters would act as a barrier between Cecilia and Sato, preventing her from catching him. The river itself would provide a cover for vision as well as erase his smell, making it difficult to track Sato down, and unless the opponent had a supernatural means of doing so, Sato would be able to escape their pursuit.

Even if Cecilia took the risk and dived into the river right after him, Sato would then revert to plan A and bait a monster over to battle her. With the home-ground advantage, there was even a higher chance that the river monster would kill Cecilia.

All in all, plan B looked like a nice plan but only on the condition that Sato was not assaulted by any of the river monsters as that would turn this plan very much into an act of suicide. To even reduce his chances of getting caught by one, Sato decided not to escape by using the river as a route, but instead hiding within it till Cecilia left, before he returned to the surface and made his escape from there.

Luckily for him, no monster had spotted him so far...yet.

\'I don\'t feel her aura from here. She should be gone.\' Sato thought as he held his breath underwater.

Despite the conclusions he had reached, Sato still didn\'t exit the river but held on. He had a nagging feeling that Cecilia wasn\'t gone yet but was keeping a lookout for him. The very second he would rise to the surface, she would make her attack.

3 minutes went by and still, no strange event had occurred in the river or the bank. A few seconds later though, a shadow appeared close to the river as a dissatisfied grunt sounded.

\'He still didn\'t come up? Is he still here or has really died? Did he really use the river\'s current to escape?\' Cecilia couldn\'t help but panic a little bit.

Even Cecilia had her doubts when she saw Sato dive into the river. She had even thought that he was trying to fool her when in reality, Sato was just using the water as a cover and himself as bait. In her own opinion, Sato\'s plan was to draw her into the river and then bait in a powerful monster and set them both up to battle it out. Obviously, Cecilia wouldn\'t talk for his \'trick\'.

Cecilia had decided to fake her departure to give Sato a sense of calm and relaxation. At the same time, the threat of the monsters in the river would also force him to withdraw from it under the pretext that Cecilia was already gone when in reality, she was hidden close by. If he was indeed still hiding within the river, Sato should have left within these 3 minutes as any second more spent there was a risk not worth taking. Yet, no one appeared. The Lorls river still remained as calm as it was before.

"Damn it." Cecilia gritted her teeth.

"That b*stard must have escaped already."

While it was indeed her intention to stay behind, Cecilia had decided to just explain this error as her being tricked by Sato. In her mind, it was better to be tricked than to have made such a mistake a \'childish\' mistake.

\'After him.\'

Cecilia didn\'t waste any time as she dashed in the direction of the river\'s flow.

Who knows how far he had gone or whether he departed the river from elsewhere? Even Cecilia with her impressive strength, couldn\'t admit that she would find him again.