As if it was assuring Lyla that it was the person she was thinking of, the clump of water nodded slightly and searched her entire body.
Slide.
The clump of water moved its arm. Since it was made up of a liquid, it looked like it would probably be impossible for it to grab something like a real human’s hand. Yet, the clump of water stretched out its fingers and— clutch—and gripped Lyla’s neck.
“Wa…ump!”
Lyla opened her eyes wide at the wet sensation squeezing her neck. She tried to scream instinctually, but the clump of water blocked her mouth with its other hand. She couldn’t see her opponent clearly in the darkness. Yet, she could tell that it wasn’t a normal human by the sensation she felt on her skin. She began to run out of air and her mind seemed to fade. Since her lips and nose were blocked, she couldn’t even let out a proper sound. It was an urgent situation for a normal person and the worst possible situation for a mage. She couldn’t cast her spells or focus her mind to do so.
However, Lyla wasn’t a normal mage. She pointed her arms towards her opponent and activated a magic spell.
‘Kuh!’ she had barely recollected her mind before it was distorted again. Water rushed into her nose, passed into her airways, and seeped into her lungs. Even Lyla couldn’t keep her senses intact in such a situation. She flung her arms around and tried to hit her opponents’ hands. However, her opponent had vital strength made up of water, and Lyla’s arm simply passed through its body. Yet, her useless attacks seemed to have angered her opponent, and it strengthened its body’s pressure as soon as Lyla’s arms were inside it. Lyla’s arm stopped as if it was frozen inside ice. Lyla would lose her life if time continued to pass like this.
Crash!
The room’s walls burst open. The clump of water raised its head like it was surprised. A black shadow blanketed it.
Slice!
A sharp sword sliced off its arm. Although Lyla’s arms had failed to land any hits on its body, the sword’s attack made an impact.
Plop!
The thing’s arm separated from its body. The sliced arm turned into normal water and rained down on Lyla’s face, pillow, and bed.
“Kuh! Cough! Cough!” Lyla turned over and coughed up the water inside her body. A potion was handed to her and she hurriedly drank it. The pain she felt quickly settled down.
“Are you okay?” Zich stood in front of her and asked.
“I’m—cough, fine.” Lyla threw up some of the water remaining inside her body and staggered up her bed. Then, she lit up a ball of light. The dark room instantly became bright, and Lyla could finally see her ambusher.
“…What’s that?”
“I’m not sure. It’s my first time seeing something like that,” Zich answered while pointing Windur at it. Even after all the mess he had gone through before the regression, it was still his first time seeing a creature like that.
The thing was looking down at its own arm, which was cleanly severed from its forearm. Then, it stared at Zich—well, at least, that was what it seemed to be doing; it was difficult to judge whether or not the two holes on its face without any pupils could really be used for sight.
“You don’t know either?”
“That’s what I actually want to ask you. I mean, it obviously came for you.”
“I think I would remember such a ‘unique’ friend, don’t you think?”
“That’s true.” Zich took one step forward towards it. The thing looked back and forth between Zich and Lyla. Zich thought that when it was looking towards him, it was looking more at Windur than him. Yet, it was impossible for even Zich to tell what a pupil-less monster was really looking at.
It suddenly lost its shape. Perhaps, it was planning to attack, and Zich rushed towards it. Lyla also prepared her magic.
Slice!
Windur sliced its body into two, making water splash everywhere. The thing lost its human shape and slumped down to the floor. In case it might rise again, Zich heightened his guard at the water on the floor. However, it showed no response. Zich struck the soaked, wet floor a couple of times with Windur. His attacks only made the sound of a sword slashing the floor, and the water didn’t attack or make any more movements.
“How is it?”
“It’s just normal water,” Zich extracted back his sword and said. “It ran away.”
* * *
Hearing the commotion, the lodging owner came to check up on the situation. When they looked outside the door, they saw other lodgers looking outside of their rooms to see what was going on. Zich came up with some excuses to the owner, saying that mana accidentally burst out when he was swinging his sword. The owner was displeased to hear this, but when Zich pushed a considerable amount of money towards his direction as an apology, the owner’s facial expression quickly changed. He treated Zich politely and changed rooms for them immediately. As expected, the power of money was amazing. It wasn’t that bad since no one was hurt by Zich’s actions either. Still, it seemed the owner of the lodging couldn’t leave without saying anything and left after warning Zich to not swing his sword again.
After sending his other companions who came rushing into the room when they heard the noise, Zich and Lyla gathered in their new room.
“Why did you lie like that?” Lyla asked.
“I thought it would just become annoying if I told them the truth, and it’s not like we can get much help from them anyway.”
“Well, considering that thing, that’s true.” Lyla thought about the clump of water that she had seen under the firelight and scowled. She had almost died and didn’t know what the thing was.
“What in the world do you think that was?”
“I never saw anything like that before I regressed. I can’t really think of anything right now besides the fact that they used water as their medium.” He was sure of this since it returned to ordinary water at the end.
“It’s an ability that can transform water into a human and use a great amount of physical force. It seems like a troublesome ability to handle.” Remembering how water passed through her throat and even reached her lungs, Lyla shuddered.
“I think the main thing we have to think about is that it was targeting you.” Zich stared at Lyla suspiciously. “You are not doing bad things behind my back, right?”
“…I don’t even feel enraged hearing that from you. It makes me feel remorseful about my life,” Lyla sharply retorted to Zich.
“Well, I suppose that’s the case. You don’t have the type of personality to induce other people’s grudges anyways. I don’t think you got ambushed because of me either. I don’t remember doing anything that could leave grudges against me.”
“Are you seriously saying that you did nothing that could make anyone hold a grudge against you?”
“That’s not what I said. I said nothing that could leave grudges against me. No grudge is left since I kill most of them.”
“Ah, fine.” Lyla nodded soullessly at Zich’s confident words.
“It’s not like I have absolutely nothing in mind. The gaze you felt by the ocean yesterday—I think there’s some kind of connection to that.”
“A gaze? I didn’t imagine it? Wasn’t it an empty, vast oc—!” Lyla stopped speaking. Then, she fell into deep thought with a serious expression on her face. What ambushed her was a monster in the shape of water, and the place where she felt like someone was watching her was the ocean, which was full of water.
‘Now that I think about it, the water was salty!’ Memories that she hadn’t thought of began to come back to her after she settled down.
“When you were ambushed, I couldn’t feel any presence. Even if I was asleep, I should’ve felt it if something trespassed into your room,” Zich said.
“Then how did you know that I was ambushed?”
“I was concerned about the gaze you felt at the ocean, so I kept my guard up around your room. Then, I felt your presence disappearing. I thought for a moment that you might be using magic, but it seemed unlikely considering the situation, so I rushed in.”
“…You kept watching the whole time?”
“You know, Lyla, I evaluate your skills to be much higher than even you do to yourself. If you say that you felt something—even if there’s a possibility that it could be your imagination, I would definitely be suspicious of it.”
“I see.” It was surprising for Lyla to hear that Zich valued her skills even higher than she did. Embarrassed, she rubbed her clothes with her fingers for no reason.
“Since that monster could hide its presence by that much, I can’t ignore the possibility that the gaze you felt at the ocean is the same person.”
“I suppose that means we have a place to check when the day gets brighter.”
“Yeah.”
Both Zich and Lyla looked outside the window. Even though the darkness was still everywhere, there was the giant ocean in that direction, so deep and wide that it was impossible to uncover everything it was hiding.
* * *
Zich and his companions went to the harbor at the bottom of Shootuol early in the morning. Even though it was early in the day, the area was buzzing with laborers and fishermen.
“It’s probably around there.” Lyla pointed at the area where she felt a gaze. Like yesterday, the place didn’t have any characteristics; all that existed there was the blue ocean and occasionally colliding waves. Not only was the area far away, but there was also nothing that specifically pinpointed the place, so it was difficult to assess its exact location. Even Lyla was making a rough guess as she pointed towards it.
“Would we need to dive in?” Hans asked Zich.
“If we need to. But let’s search above the waters for now.”
Zich headed towards the place where the fishing boats were gathered. After offering a sufficient sum to borrow the boat, Zich and his companions headed towards the ocean, and Lyla pointed out the location. Although Lyla’s directions were vague, the captain drove the boat without any complaints—which a sufficient amount of money made possible.
“I think it was around here,” Lyla said. However, there was no confidence in her voice. Now that they were eyeing the area close up, the place was much bigger than they had imagined. Zich looked down at the ocean. Dark blue waters covered his view, and Zich scratched his head.
“Were we too simple-minded?” It wasn’t that he suspected Lyla’s words, but he thought they might have been a bit mindless for deciding to search the ocean after a gaze. Yet, it was also true that this was a place where they could possibly find a clue.
‘After lengthening the time we borrow the boat, I should go inside in person,’ Zich thought. He had experience diving into the ocean. If he used mana, he could stay underwater for a long period of time. Furthermore, since the ocean here was pretty clean, he had a wide sphere of vision. Zich was about to gather his companions and inform them of his plan when—
Whoosh!
He turned around. To be exact, his eyes shot towards Windur’s hilt.
‘This guy just vibrated.’ After a momentary surprise at Windur’s vibration, Zich’s eyes went towards the ocean again.
‘This is…!’ Zich flung Windur down. His companions had gathered after hearing his call and asked in surprise, “Sir Zich! What happened?”
“Feel the presence under the ocean.”
Like Zich told him to, Hans focused his senses towards the under areas of the ocean. After a moment, his face stiffened.
“It’s a monster.”
“Hey, Captain!” Zich shouted.
“Turn the ship around immediately! Let’s head back!”
Not long after Zich’s command…
Crack! Sharp nails came out of the ocean and clutched the boat’s hull.