Vol 3 Ch 9: Hydrophobia
“What do we do? What do we do! They’re gone!” Christina collapsed on the wet floor.
They’re not dead, are they?
Christina got a look of horror on her face. “Nooo!”
I smacked Raishin. Look what you did!
Sorry! So ehh. What do we do now? I don’t think we can follow them.
This is a big problem yes. We should make our own versions of these bubbles in case something happens to Agnis.
Raishin and I combined our efforts and make our own bubbles. They were quite crude but they did the job. How much time had Agnis put into perfecting these? The realization set in that we needed to do this without Agnis, our water user. I started to shiver.
Greg, are you cold?
No. I’m fine.
“How can you guys be so calm! Our friends and my dog just disappeared!”
Panicking will get us nowhere, right Greg? Greg?
I tried to control myself but fear started to set in. Maybe Agnis and Raishin were correct. I should have prepared better in those 4 years. Raishin was keeping up the air bubble.
I clenched my fist. It’s nothing. They got moved east; we might find them if we follow that direction. My shadow clones are on it.
It didn’t take long for monsters to appear and they all started to attack us with water magic.
Hey Greg! You’re not fine, are you? I guess this is too much water for you. I will take care of this. Cristina, can you protect us?
“I will do my best!” I tried my best to be help but all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and be somewhere warm and dry.
I don’t understand how Agnis and Raishin can be fine with all this water around. Raishin used [Wind Blasts] to keep the monsters away. He was acting strange. He wasn’t blowing them up like he normally would do.
Is this way east?
That’s west.
So this is east?
Raishin started walking south.
“Raishin, east is the opposite side of west!” Raishin pointed at a wall and looked at Christina. “Ok you have a good point there, how do we go east in a labyrinth?”
They all looked at me but I had difficulties in formulating a plan.
I guess Greg’s brain shut down which puts me in charge! Lets go this way! Raishin grabbed us with his tails and tried to run away.
Whoa, Agnis makes this look so easy. Ugh! I can’t lift you with my tails!
Huh? Hmm that’s strange.
Curiosity overpowered my hydrophobia and tried to try it out with my own tails. It was indeed impossible. There is a slight difference in the length of our tails and fox tails have more volume but there shouldn’t be this much of a difference in strength.
Running it is! Come on!
Wait do you know where to go?
Nope but my intuition does! We need to go this way!
I doubted it at first but my shadow clones that had spread out confirmed that Raishin was taking all the right turns. What is going on in his head? I already never understood what was going on in Raishin and Agnis’ heads but I was truly stumped.
We kept running through the drained labyrinth floor but the lingering puddles ranged from just a puddle to being ankle deep. I refuse to deal with any amount of water!
We encountered countless skeletons. So they have succumbed to the terrible dangers of water too. I can relate.
“Eww! What is that!” Christina pointed at a creature resembling a humanoid whale. It’s head was anything besides humanoid though…
A Whalezor! Or a Whalelord! Or a Whalezoid! Take this! [Anti Whalezoid attack]!
“You just made it angrier!”
Take this! [Meganova Blast]!
Huh where did he go?
You vaporized him… I think he is weak to lightning.
Yes! I can finally be overpowered! This dungeon is going to be a breeze!
Raishin kept dragging us through corridors and blasting everything that moved with lightning. I felt guilty for being so useless.
It took a while but we found a bizarre tube that went inside the ground.
Uhh this thing is suspicions. I don’t trust it.
It should be near midnight. I don’t like this but we should rest up. Raishin… can you keep the bubble up around us?
Why? It’s dry on this floor. Well, kinda.
What if the water returns while we’re sleeping?
“They’re alright right? Hayley, Haroldus and Agnis?”
Of course, they are! They are probably doing better than us! Agnis had spent months living underwater! He will be fine!
Raishin made the air bubble around us sturdier but I just couldn’t calm down. The water might return at any moment. It might inundate us before we realize and then it’s too late. I started to recite literature to calm myself.
Christina and Raishin had fallen asleep hours ago. How can they sleep in a situation like this? I was reciting novels now. I sensed monsters in the distance but they left us alone.
Tailed beasts don’t have to sleep every night. This night is the same. It is just that staying active for too long in exhausting environments will require us to rest. This situation was one of those. I was mentally exhausted but I couldn’t manage to fall asleep. Besides having to rest, nights tend to be boring since most of the dominant races on this planet sleep every night.
The hours crawled by. I kept track of the time and was waiting until Christina and Raishin woke up. 07:00 passed. Still asleep.
08:00 passed. Still fast asleep. Raishin was sprawled on the floor.
09:00 passed. How long do they intend to sleep? I was curled up in a corner. Going to the beach and having that boat trip was a terrible idea. I should have known. Nothing goes well with these 2 around.
10:00 arrived and I had enough of waiting and sent some [Shadow Tendrils] at Raishin to wake him up.
Hey! Wake up!
Ugh… 20 more minutes.
I gave Raishin 20 more minutes and poked him again with my shadows.
10 more minutes!
I waited for 10 more minutes and wanted to poke him again when the whole labyrinth rumbled. The floor under us started to tilt.
Huh what?
Help!
The floor was moving way faster than I remember. We got dunked into cold water and I tried to keep myself from drowning and completely freaking out. I didn’t have time because we moved again and again and again. I was in distress; I couldn’t take it anymore. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Raishin swimming toward me and pulling me up.