Sweating heavily, Mark sprinted in the Colonel's direction. There had been another emergency. Being a military man, he had experienced a lot of emergency situations like this one. He had also been trained to perfection to always be prepared for such urgent events, but he still needed to pay careful attention each time. Especially since he was Daisy's entourage, the missions they accepted were always dangerous. Being an outstanding female officer and the youngest colonel in S city, Daisy was famous for her bravery. She liked challenges, so she always forced herself to face more and more perilous tasks. She tried her level best to complete them without considerations for her own safety. It had gained her merits but also put her life under threat more times than she could count. Mark could never be too careful when it came to the Colonel. Knowing her so well, he knew he needed to hurry or the Colonel would be in danger again if he was even a minute late. On his way there, he heard a loud gunshot echo through the hills. Mark started sweating profusely. His hair stood on end and his entire body went rigid. The situation was worse than he had thought! The Colonel must be in extreme danger.
In the previous situations, Colonel had been harmed when he had not been there by her side. This time, he couldn't bear to think of her being injured again when he was so close. Besides, Edward's wrath would be impossible to take if he let his beloved wife get hurt again. So, despite the burning sensation he felt because of the branches and thorns scratching against his skin, he kept running. Several times, he almost stumbled due to the vines under his feet. Still he didn't stop. He found the Colonel eventually. This time at least, he could help her.
Daisy was soon finding herself in hot water. Danger seemed to surround her as the bullets kept shooting at her from all directions. She had to change her hiding places continuously in order to save her life. Even though she had great combating skills and was agile enough to change positions, the bullets kept flying at her mercilessly. Even a small and nimble rabbit couldn't have avoided being shot by so many bullets under the circumstances. Several times, Daisy almost got shot. What was worse was that she didn't even have a weapon to fight back with. The only things she could do was find covers, avoid the many bullets, and try to stay alive for as long as possible until Mark and the other soldiers arrived to help her out of this situation.
"Colonel, are you all right?" asked Mark in concern. Finally, he managed to make his way to Daisy when she was on the brink of exhaustion. Seeing that she was alright, he exhaled a breath in relief. He tossed his pistol on the ground in front of Daisy so she was no longer empty-handed. Her fighting skills could finally be used against these gunmen. It was time these drug traffickers saw her for what she could do. Daisy could never be easily beaten.
"I'm fine. But their bosses have run away. I need to go after them right now. On my orders, issue the highest alert level immediately! Make sure you capture all the drug dealers. Remember, don't kill any of them if not necessary," commanded Daisy quickly. With Mark there, she rolled over and got away successfully. She ran toward where Yama had gone. She must capture him immediately! If they managed to escape, there would be endless troubles for the society, the country, and maybe even the world.
Everyone raced against time. Every second counted in the situation. They were all gambling their valuable lives in this fight. No one wanted to lose, because loss would result in their deaths. Knowing how severe the consequences would be for the drug traffickers, Mark could doubtlessly tell that it would be a ferocious fight. A fight with no mercy. So he chose to follow his Colonel closely, just in case she needed any help if she went into trouble. The number of the drug dealers was not small and each one of them had at least a gun in his hand. The Colonel might not be able to cope with all of them at once. Even though she was excellent, she was still a human being with flesh and blood.
The mountain was covered with high grasses, branches, thorns and even vines. This complicated topography was not expected by the drug traffickers, so they were largely slowed down by the natural barriers. Apparently, they had not been trained to run or hide in the hills with so many obstacles, nor did they know what to do in this situation except scurrying blindly. They were unprepared and taken unawares in the emergency situation. On the contrary, Daisy had been trained hard for exactly these kind of events: surviving in the wild, chasing opponents, dealing with gunmen, tracking and anti-tracking, and so on. Fortunately, this big difference between their abilities and intelligence gave Daisy a chance to catch up to them quickly.
"No one moves! Or I will fire my gun!" shouted Daisy. She had told herself that as long as these drug dealers could be persuaded, she would not fire a shot arbitrarily to injure or kill any of them. Just like the order she had given to Mark - there would be no killing unless there was no other choice. She knew what the consequence would be after her shouting, but she still warned and persuaded the rebels not to run further. However, the drug dealers didn't give a hoot for what she yelled at them, they turned around and fired their shots at her in turn.
It was obvious that these gunmen had no intentions to surrender easily. Daisy took a deep breath, closed one eye to aim at her target and pulled the trigger without any hesitation. She was careful to avoid shooting any vital parts of the enemy. Instead, she struck his right hand that was holding the pistol to make sure he would not pick up a weapon to attack or threaten a life again. Coming from behind Daisy, Mark was not bad either. As several guns dropped from the drug dealers' hands, he shot down some more of them. Coordinating perfectly with each other, in moments Daisy and Mark had shot everyone except Yama. The hit gunmen fell onto the ground holding their injured hands, howling painfully. There was nothing else they could do. However, while Yama stood in front of them, Shura was long gone. Presumably, he had run in the other direction.
"Mark, is it okay for me to leave this here for you? Can you handle this?" asked Daisy. Her entire body was covered with weeds and mud. Daisy could not be described as elegant in that moment. However, she held a different type of countenance. She might be beautiful, iron-strong and powerful, but none of these words would be accurate enough to describe her. Perhaps, one could only say that she looked proud and mighty like a goddess.
"Yes, Colonel! You be careful too!" answered Mark in affirmation. He didn't care to pay much attention to a drug trafficker, but the safety of his Colonel was of the highest priority.
"Of course! I know how to protect myself. I'll be careful," replied Daisy, assuring him. She didn't want him to worry too much about her. She followed a path in a different direction to see if she could find Shura. She could tell without even taking a look at herself that there were a lot of small wounds on her body - lesions that were scratched and stabbed at by the thorny vines. She deeply felt the prickling sensation on her skin, especially since she was sweating heavily. The salt from her sweat increased the pain even more. Ignoring the uncomfortable feeling, Daisy focused on the task at hand. In any case, these were just minor wounds that were neither serious nor too important. She had experienced more severe ones before. As a military officer, she was used to them. It was part and parcel of her job. Her performance should not be affected.