With Terence tightly clinging to her, Raven swam across the river, her muscles strained with just a few efforts of strokes, but she didn’t care.
Her eyes were brimming with a frightening resolve as she pressed on despite the slow momentum she was keeping.
Compared to her, the white-haired boy was finding it quite easy to swim.
She smiled for a moment and thought, ‘He’s full of surprises.’
No doubt Northern had proven himself to be just the way she portrayed him to be.
A strong drifter, hiding his power.
‘I wonder what his talent is.’
Just in that moment as she sank into her mind a bit deeper, she suddenly felt a restraint in her movement, particularly one of her legs.
Her eyes widened with dread, and she immediately applied more force to hijack her leg out of whatever had held it.
As she tried to, Terence suddenly let out a wide scream that caused Raven’s eyes to widen even more.
Immediately, she dove under the water to see what was wrong.
And in that instance, she caught a glimpse of it.
Most of its features were obscured by the fog within the depth of the water, but she could tell with those colossal eyes glaring into her soul.
She gritted her teeth and pulled out from her waist belt a curved dagger like the fang of some monster she had slain.
With a swift curve of her hand, she slashed the tentacles holding onto her leg, causing it to explode clouds of gore in the water and convulse on its way to the depth.
Quickly, she grabbed the sinking Terence’s waist and swam to the surface of the water.
By the time she got to the surface, Terence was out of it.
Her golden eyeballs were completely gone, nowhere to be found.
Raven looked at her and gritted her teeth, “Damnit, not now.”
As she tried to swim further, Northern approached her.
Before he could say anything, she spoke,
“Please, safely help Terence to the shore. I’ll hold this for as long as I can.”
“You’ll fight underwater?”
Raven smiled a little bit, but Northern could see its insincerity.
“This thing is actually an old foe of mine. Who knows, maybe I’d be able to defeat it today,” she said.
Northern looked at her with a wistful expression on his face and took Terence, whom he found her state to be quite strange.
‘What the hell? Who passes out in the middle of a river?’
Without a word, Northern held tightly onto Terence, flushed a little by the fact that he had to do that by her waist.
‘Come on, this is a serious situation!’ He stiffened himself up and began to swim away.
Not sparing a glance at Raven.
Carrying Terence along with him cost more effort than it should, thankfully it was just a river, one as wide as sixty meters though.
But the more baffling situation was the strength and force of the waves that crushed upon him.
This particularly made it very hard for him to traverse the waters quickly.
Alas, after several strokes, he finally got to the shore, breathing heavily. He laid Terence to the ground.
Her eyes were wide open, but her beautiful eyeballs were gone.
Northern wiped the water away from his face; his hair was wet and strangely made him look more handsome than he usually would.
The effect of wetness on his pale skin was quite splendid.
He looked at Terence with a strained frown, then he placed a finger beneath her nose.
‘She’s still breathing.’
Her life did not seem to have been in any danger, but what was that scream he heard?
And why was she passed out?
Although he was very curious and worried about what was wrong with the beautiful oracle,
‘At least, she’s safe.’
He turned to the river; the surface was still and serene, only the intermittent crushing of the angry waves against the water bodies.
Northern let out a tired sigh and muttered:
“Should I help or should I not help?”
Just when he was thinking about it, the entire river seemed to shudder, and a tentacle plunged out of it, tossing into the air a lithe human-like ragdoll.
Raven flew across and landed on the barren land, rolling away into the sand.
Northern, with a slightly opened mouth, exchanged glances between the retreating tentacles and the battered girl that was slowly rising to her feet, albeit, in serious groans.
With a dazed expression, he said:
“Please don’t tell me you had a sensible conversation with the sea monster where it decided to let you go?”
Raven stood up and was silent for a couple of seconds. She leaned on her knee while catching her breath and stood straight afterward.
“I could never defeat that monster; it’s a Catastrophe level maelstrom.”
Northern raised his chin a little bit, then belatedly acted surprised.
However, Raven smiled.
“I guess you have faced one yourself. Impressive.”
She walked forward and crouched in front of Terence, touching her head.
Northern looked down silently for a few seconds.
He wanted to see her fight so badly but had missed the opportunity.
‘What did she do… the fight ended too fast!’
He was so curious but didn’t think he and Raven were close enough for him to be pestering her with questions.
And honestly, he just wanted to keep it that way.
Should a day come where he had to make a decision as to saving her or not, he never wanted to be conflicted if he decided to act in his own selfish interest.
It would help a lot to keep himself reminded that this is strictly a business expedition.
She looked up at Northern and politely inquired:
“Can you help me place her on my back?”
“Sure,” he responded with a slight nod and immediately bent down.
It was a little work having to carry her well and making sure he doesn’t touch any ‘places’.
Eventually, Terence was on Raven’s back. Raven glanced back at the river and said to Northern,
“I think it will be safe for us to go farther away from the river; that monster could still be really pissed by what I did. Besides, this place is too open; it’s Slorian territory, and their scouts could be lurking around.”
Northern nodded in consent with her words, and the two of them trekked forward on the desolate plain.
Although until they got to the hill enclosure, Northern couldn’t stop wondering what the hell she had done in that river.
But he was more than resolved not to ask.
Not just this question, every question that would portray him to look a little bit interested in her matters, he didn’t want.
‘Let’s just stay out of hers so she stays out of mine.’
