Their Mistake, Her Rise - Chapter 534: Chapter 534

Zoe pondered, 'The gunfire had shifted from a hailstorm of bullets to precise, pinpoint shots. Clearly, whoever's pulling the strings must have realized that with Shawn protecting me, they couldn't touch me. So they changed tactics.'
Shawn flat-out refused. "All the more reason I can't leave you behind," he said firmly. He thought, 'It doesn't matter if Zoe is their main target or not. Leaving her here would mean certain death.
'And she is the one I want to spend my life with. I can't let her go. I must protect her.'
Zoe said, "Shawn, don't you understand? Clusia doesn't need a woman like me to win, but it can't afford to have its legendary warrior lose here.
"If your fans in Clusia ever found out you gave up national glory for deadweight like me, you'd be cursed for the rest of your life."
Zoe refused to be remembered as the woman who ruined a national hero. More importantly, she was afraid her true identity would be exposed.
She thought, 'There are bound to be top international figures here. If I run into someone I haven't made prior contact with, my cover could be blown instantly.
That was why she had kept an extremely low profile. She thought that as long as she didn't win the championship, no one would bother to notice someone like her who didn't win.
But Shawn refused to follow Zoe's carefully laid-out plan, choosing instead to stand by her side through thick and thin.
Zoe said, "There can only be one champion. Are you seriously planning to take me with you all the way to the finish line?"
Shawn answered replied, "Why not?"
Zoe snappled, "Shawn, are you insane? You think this is child's play? The ones left are all killers. One wrong move and you're dead."
Zoe jabbed a finger at the four remaining opponents and continued, "They all want the championship too. Do you really think you can beat them while carrying me?"
"Didn't we just take down two? Together, we can handle any number," Shawn insisted, determined to keep carrying Zoe through the challenge.
Zoe asked, "Are you always this stubborn?"
"Have it your way," Shawn replied, for once not arguing.
On one hand, Zoe thought Shawn was being way too cocky. She felt he was bound to get burned for it. But on the other hand, her heart raced.
She thought, 'I have to admit that if he couldn't live up to all this, I'd actually be disappointed. After all, he's the opponent I chose. If he doesn't even have this much confidence, how could he ever be worthy to stand beside me?'
Shawn was determined to stand by Zoe through thick and thin. Seeing his resolve, Zoe stopped protesting.
She thought, 'Worst comes to worst, I'll just hold back at the very end and let Shawn take first place.'
Just then, one foreigner exclaimed, "Damn it, look at that guy! He's been carrying such a dead weight all this time and still outrunning us."
Another said, "If this keeps up, they're going to win the championship!"
One said, "We can't let Clusia show off again."
A foreigner said, "Exactly. Shawn's been using his so-called 'legendary warrior' status to suppress us for years. If this continues, the whole world will only see Shawn as the legendary warrior, and we'll all have to step aside."
The four foreigners exchanged glances. After a quick huddle, they decided that even if it cost them their lives, they had to take Shawn down hard and rob him of the championship.
One foreigner said, :But our last ambush failed miserably, and we lost two good men for nothing."
"That woman is Shawn's biggest weakness," one of them remarked.
The four immediately realized that capturing Zoe would be like having Shawn by the throat, guaranteeing his crushing defeat.
After strategizing, the four decided to use the machine gun positions to let others do the dirty work for them. This required precise execution; the slightest misstep, and they'd end up as human shields themselves.
Zoe kept a close eye on the four, tracking their every move. When she noticed they were closing in, she warned Shawn, "Those four are definitely up to no good. Watch your back."