After shaking off Wapol and his men, Luffy carried Sanji toward the summit. The closer he got to the over-five-thousand-foot-tall Drum Mountain, the thicker the snow on the ground became. Walking through it was a grueling struggle.
The biting wind grew stronger and stronger; the weather turned colder and colder.
His feet sank deep into the thick snow. By the time Luffy carried Sanji to the base of Drum Mountain, his feet were already frostbitten from the icy, penetrating cold.
Luffy looked up at the towering peak. The mountain's base was extremely steep, a solitary, abrupt pinnacle thrusting into the clouds. It was massive, like a cylinder. He couldn't see the summit, and there were no visible paths leading up. He decided to carry Sanji and free-climb this sheer, vertical cliff.
Using his jacket as a rope to secure Sanji to his back, Luffy, dressed only in a thin, sleeveless vest in the freezing weather, began to slowly climb, gripping the protrusions on the cliff face with bare hands.
Time passed minute by minute. Over three hours went by in the blink of an eye. The snowstorm intensified. Carrying Sanji, Luffy kept climbing upward, his mind fixed on reaching the castle above to find a doctor. Blown by the icy wind for so long, he had developed extensive frostbite, and the struggle was immense.
The wind howled fiercely. White snowflakes danced in the biting gale. The rampaging cold wind kept roaring, and the feeling of it hitting his face was like being whipped repeatedly, excruciatingly painful.
Luffy was made of rubber, but carrying someone and climbing this sheer, perilous mountain in such harsh weather was exceptionally arduous. While climbing, his finger accidentally got scraped by a slightly sharp rock on the cliff wall, sending waves of deep, bone-piercing agony through him.
As the saying goes, the fingers are linked to the heart. Luffy's hands were already frostbitten, and now with cut fingers, the heart-wrenching pain was such that even with his incredibly resilient will far surpassing an ordinary person's, he cried out in anguish on the spot.
After enduring the intense pain and trying to continue climbing, Luffy found the knot securing Sanji with his jacket had loosened considerably after three hours. The moment he reached for a protrusion above, Sanji slipped from his back.
"Whoa! Sanji!"
Realizing Sanji was falling, Luffy's eyes nearly popped out of his head in shock.
Holding onto the cliff with both hands, Luffy urgently stretched his neck and bit down on the falling Sanji.
That was close!
Despite the snow-filled sky and howling wind, Luffy was still so frightened that cold sweat poured down his back. With no way to carry Sanji on his back now, he continued climbing, clenching his teeth tightly and biting onto Sanji. Unbeknownst to him, his hands had been ground raw and bloody.
Luffy's arms were numb from the cold. His entire body frozen stiff, his climbing speed slowed. His movements were incredibly stiff, making him look like a sluggish robot. His pupils had slightly turned pale and were trembling uncontrollably—a sign someone was about to lose consciousness. But Luffy still held on, relying on his extraordinary willpower.
Meanwhile, Tom was frozen to the point of barely being able to move. His skin was pale and icy cold; his muscles, even his bones, were frostbitten.
The blood flowing in his body seemed to have congealed. His hands, a mangled mess of flesh and blood from the coarse rope, were covered in red ice crystals.
Normally, a person frozen to this extent would have completely lost motor function. But Tom, hanging upside down from the thick rope with Nami on his back, could still continue along it.
However, with every move he made now, his brittle, frozen bones would emit crack-crack sounds. It felt as if an enormous force was tearing his body apart, the heart-rending agony unbearable.
But the remaining consciousness in Tom told him that if he fell from this rope now, he and Nami would surely die.
His body had become extremely sluggish. If he lost his grip and fell from hundreds of meters in the air, in his current state, he wouldn't be able to react in time to land safely. He and Nami would be smashed to pieces.
Hanging upside down, Tom didn't know how long he had been climbing on this rope. He simply kept repeating the same motion through sheer willpower, gripping the rope tightly and pulling himself forward.
The silver-white storm filling the sky obscured his vision; he couldn't see what lay ahead.
It was like a road with no end, and this was the most torturous part—you never knew when you could stop this tormenting activity.
Just as Tom felt he was nearly at the summit of Drum Mountain, the rope he was gripping tightly while hanging upside down... snapped!
The sudden break made him gasp, his pupils dilating sharply. Still clutching the rope, he swung forward through the air.
Fortunately, the other end of the rope was anchored at Drum Mountain's summit. Still holding the broken rope, Tom, along with Nami, didn't plummet from the sky.
Even so, Tom was in a bad way. As he swung forward holding the broken rope with Nami on his back, the oncoming bone-chilling icy wind felt like sharp blades scraping his face, intensely uncomfortable. His eyes ached from the wind, but he couldn't, and wouldn't, close them.
He had to see what lay ahead to prepare a timely response, especially with his body stiff as stone. Without prior preparation, he wouldn't be able to react at all.
Hmm, looking at the cliff wall ahead... if I crash into it with my body in this state, I probably can't withstand that kind of impact.
I'd better grab this rope and climb up from the cliff face instead.
While tightly gripping the thick rope, Tom tried to stretch his feet forward to stop his momentum before hitting the cliff wall. But his legs were extremely stiff; just the simple act of extending them used more than half his strength.
The moment his feet touched the cliff wall, the recoiling force made his already numb and frozen stiff feet hurt as if they were being chopped off alive.
"Which bastard cut this rope?! I won't forgive them!" Tom nearly lost consciousness from the pain. He knew the rope was sturdy; it wouldn't just break for no reason without someone tampering with it.
In fact, the rope was cut on Wapol's orders. Initially, when Wapol spotted Tom hanging upside down with Nami, he ordered his subordinate Jes to shoot the rope down.
Though Jes was a master archer, the snowstorm with its strong winds and snow flying everywhere obstructing his vision made hitting a rope hundreds of meters in the air very difficult.
Seeing Jes fail several times, the impatient Wapol couldn't wait. He decided to go to the rope's anchor point at the mountain's base and cut it himself.
While Tom, carrying Nami, slowly climbed the treacherous cliff face by gripping the rope, on another side of the mountain, Luffy also inched upward, clenching his teeth tightly and biting onto Sanji.
The silver-white storm filling the sky also blocked the vision of both Luffy and Tom. The bone-chilling cold wind never ceased, blowing howlingly. Though both were on the same mountain, each carrying someone upward, separated by only a dozen meters or so, neither was aware of the other's presence.
Both Luffy and Tom's physical conditions were already at their absolute limits. Both were holding on by willpower alone. They could no longer hear or feel their surroundings; even what they saw was blurry.
No one knew how long had passed, as Tom mechanically climbed the exceptionally steep cliff face by the rope, his hand, reaching upward to grip it, seemed to touch something else.
At first, with his head spinning and his thinking extremely sluggish, Tom didn't know what it was. After standing dazed for a moment, he finally realized—his hand had touched something like solid ground. Immediately afterward, he was overjoyed, his whole spirit seeming to be lifted considerably.
I'm here!
I've finally reached the summit!
Doctor!
I have to find a doctor!
Crap, my hands won't obey me!
Gotta push a little harder!
In his excitement, Tom tragically discovered his hands wouldn't listen to him at all.
I can't die here!
In his desperation, Tom didn't think twice, opened his mouth and clenched his teeth tightly and bit into the edge of the cliff. Biting down on the snow-covered, hard rock was incredibly uncomfortable. With Nami on his back—meaning he had to support the weight of two people—his tightly clenched mouth around the cliff's edge was soon filled with blood seeping from his gums.
After dragging himself like this for a moment, he finally caught his breath. Barely managing to support himself with his hands on the cliff edge, using tremendous effort and panting heavily from exhaustion, he finally climbed up the cliff with Nami, reaching the summit of Drum Mountain...
A huge castle!
After climbing onto the summit, the first thing that entered Tom's field of vision was a majestic castle.
Doctor, where's the doctor?!
After untying Nami from his back, Tom saw that aside from some frostbite on her face, she was still breathing, though unconscious. Her breaths were weak and irregular. Holding Nami, half-kneeling on the ground, he urgently scanned his surroundings.
He wanted to shout, but he was too exhausted to even muster the strength.
Between heaven and earth was a vast expanse of white. Snowflakes fluttered down from the sky. Tom crouched on the ground, holding the unconscious Nami whose vital signs were steadily weakening. His consciousness gradually became blurred, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier.
After only a short moment, Tom finally collapsed to the ground from sheer exhaustion. Before losing consciousness, he vaguely saw a pair of earth-yellow, fur-covered feet. It didn't look like a human foot; it looked more like an animal's foot.
But Tom couldn't care about that now. He grabbed the fur-covered foot. "Save this woman... She's important to me..."
As he spoke, Tom, lying on the ground, spat out a mouthful of crimson snow stained with blood and continued, "I have two more companions... they might also need a doctor..."
Tom knew Luffy's personality well. Sanji, swallowed by the avalanche, was most likely seriously injured. Knowing Luffy's nature, he would definitely carry Sanji and climb Drum Mountain to find a doctor. But before he could finish speaking, his already severely overdrawn body gave out. Seeing the large, somewhat gorilla-like figure nod in agreement, everything went dark as he lost consciousness completely.
"Ninety percent of his body is frostbitten. There's a bone fracture in his right hand, an injury from a few days ago. And he dared to carry someone and climb here wearing such ragged clothes... truly insane."
"He seems to have climbed using a rope... Did he cut it?"
Wearing a purple overcoat, Dr. Kureha examined the unconscious Tom and chatted with the reindeer, Chopper, beside her. She was about to tell Chopper to prepare hot water and toss Tom in when...
From another direction, someone else carrying a seemingly gravely injured person climbed up. It was Luffy.
After reaching the summit, Luffy glanced at the motionless Tom and Nami on the ground, then looked at Kureha. His lips were dry and cracked, bleeding from the cold wind. Taking a few steps forward with the unconscious Sanji, his body staggered. His vision swam, and he could no longer support himself, finally collapsing.
"This guy is the same as him—frostbitten all over. They must be the companions he mentioned. Are both of them mad? Coming up a mountain dressed like this! Chopper, hurry and throw these two into the hot pool."
Kureha looked at Sanji, then at Luffy, who wore only a sleeveless vest. She could tell at a glance that Luffy's condition was the same as Tom's earlier—both practically dead.
"This one's bleeding is severe. Six ribs and his spine have fractures. He needs surgery," Chopper reported after checking Sanji, finding him gravely injured.
"It seems the most critical is this girl. She's about to die!" Kureha picked up Nami and instantly identified her as the one needing emergency treatment most urgently. She quickly told Chopper to prepare antipyretics, cardiac stimulants, and antibiotics.
Learning Nami was infected with a deadly bacterium, Chopper was about to fetch what Kureha needed when he saw Luffy—who had collapsed nearby—reach out with his hands worn raw and bloody and grab Kureha's arm. He tried to speak, but his body trembled weakly, and he kept coughing, unable to form words.
"I'll heal that frostbitten, blood-covered kid, and the girl too. Don't worry," Kureha said, seeing Luffy struggling to breathe on the ground, his eyes locked tightly on her. Having lived nearly 140 years, she understood perfectly well what he meant.
"They're my crew!" Luffy managed to say to Kureha before his grip on her arm fell limply. His eyes closed, and he lost consciousness completely.
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T/N :
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