'That's a stupid idea, but I want to do it,' Alex thought. He felt nervous but also excited.
Alex went over to the sled wagon and pulled it over the slope's edge. The sled wagon started to slide down, and Alex jumped on top of it. There was enough space in front of the Ice Wood that he could sit down, and he did just that.
The initial acceleration was somewhat slow, but then it became faster and faster.
First, Alex felt nervous.
Then, as the sled wagon became faster, he became excited.
Then, he became nervous again.
And then, he became terrified.
After around 20 seconds, the sled wagon had accelerated to impressive speeds, and it only seemed to become even faster.
At first, the sled wagon had only brought a breeze to Alex's face, but the breeze had quickly transformed into a terrifying storm.
Alex felt the sled wagon below himself shake, and he was sure that he heard a crack at some point!
Alex's breathing and heart rate quickened as the sled wagon reached 150 kph in a matter of seconds.
Then, it reached 200 kph.
Then, 250 kph.
That was already a bit faster than terminal velocity for a falling human. The wind was as strong as the wind a skydiver would experience. However, skydivers had goggles on their eyes. Alex didn't.
Alex already started regretting that he had gone through with that stupid idea!
The slope would even out about a kilometer in front of the city, which would give Alex enough time to slow down the sled wagon with his feet, but he had quickly realized that he might have overlooked something.
'Can the sled wagon even stay in one piece?' Alex thought in fear. 'There's over a ton of Ice Wood on the sled wagon! Is this sled wagon even designed to resist something like 300kph or something? Seriously, I think I'm moving even faster than the hedgehog when it chased that octopus!'
If someone stood beside the passing sled wagon, they would only see a shadow pass by them, and after that, they would be assaulted by a terrifying storm.
Alex had already slid for nearly four kilometers when something happened.
Three people jumped out from behind a tree in the distance and walked to the slope.
Alex's mind nearly stopped working when he saw those three men.
Were they suicidal!?
Alex was sure that they had noticed him since they were looking at him at this very moment.
"That guy seems to come from Coldew Village! We've hit it big, boys!" one of the men said with a smirk.
One other guy laughed, while the third guy only looked solemnly at the approaching sled wagon.
"Hurry up! The guards have probably already seen us!" the third guy shouted.
"Yeah, yeah. Just chill for a second, okay? We got this," the first guy said with exasperation.
"Let's go!"
Then, the three guys charged towards the approaching sled wagon.
"Move!" Alex shouted with all of his power. Sadly, he was still too far away, making his voice very quiet.
"He said move," the second guy said with a snicker. "Does the guy not realize that we are bandits?" he asked.
"Plenty of villagers believe that they are uncatchable when they're sliding down the slope," the third guy explained. "They think that no one would be willing to stop their sled wagons."
The first guy looked with a smirk at the approaching sled wagon. "Sadly, they don't realize that we are all in the Mid-Soldier Stage! We can easily stop a mere sled wagon."
Meanwhile, Alex looked with terror at the people running at him from a distance.
'Are they insane!? Even I would be absolutely obliterated if I got hit by this sled! That sled wagon weighs over a ton and goes like 300 kph!' Alex thought.
"Move, or you will die!" Alex shouted.
In these couple of seconds, Alex had already moved several hundred meters, and he was only about 200 meters away from the three of them.
The three guys continued moving towards Alex, but they slowly came to a halt.
"Isn't that sled moving a bit too- oh shit!"
Ever seen anything speeding right at you from a distance?
It's difficult to see how fast something is going when it comes right at the viewer.
The bandits had thought that this was just some guy from some village who came to buy something. They had thought that he was probably here to buy medicine or something like that. After all, people from the villages rarely came to the city without a good reason. Dragging the sled wagon up the slope was just too tiring and too much of a hassle.
They had also been sure that Alex had had no major wares on his sled wagon.
Why?
First of all, Alex had been very far away.
Second, Alex's body was blocking a major part of the Ice Wood behind him.
Third, no merchant or delivery person would risk their cargo by sliding down this slope.
So, in the minds of the three bandits, this sled wagon had probably weighed something like 150 kg, including the person riding it, and it would also probably only go 100 kph, max.
Two people would have simply grabbed the sides of the sled wagon to stop it, while the third one would have threatened the rider.
Sadly, they had been off with their calculations.
Even more, they had only noticed something when Alex was 200 meters away.
How fast were 300kph?
Something moving at 300kph moved a bit less than 100 meters per second.
That was a kilometer of distance in a bit more than ten seconds.
It was ridiculously fast!
In short, after the bandits had become suspicious, they only had two seconds left to dodge.
The third guy of the group had immediately jumped to the side since he had been very careful the entire time. Thanks to that, he had just barely evaded the sled wagon.
The other two were not as lucky.
The first guy had managed to jump to the side, but his legs were still in the sled wagon's path.
As soon as the sled wagon hit the bandit's legs, an explosion of blood occurred. One leg was flung into the distance while the other one barely held on by some flesh and skin. The bandit's body started rotating at insane speeds, and he fell to the ground.
The second guy hadn't managed to jump very far.
The right side of the sled wagon hit him in the abdomen.
A shower of blood assaulted Alex, and a severed leg hit him in the chest, cracking several ribs.
However, Alex didn't care very much about his injury since his mind was preoccupied with processing what had just happened.
'Did I kill someone?' Alex thought in shock.
For some seconds, Alex's mind just wouldn't work, but the urgency of the situation quickly woke him up.
'The slope's angle is evening out! I have to stop the sled wagon!' Alex thought.
Alex put his legs to the ground, but he immediately pulled them back.
When he had just slightly touched the ground, his leg had nearly been torn off!
'I can't brake!'
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ For the first time in a long while, Alex was genuinely terrified.
'I'm going to hit the city walls!'