We headed into the cave and I lit the dark passages with a bright [Fire Dragon Dance]. Since we have a Silent Night and a Grumpy Blowfish, I can sit back and play a supporting role.

“The race that can blow up cities on a whim wants to be a support?” Kyle asked mockingly. I wanted to retaliate but nature did that for me as he slipped and almost fell.

“I think it’s fine, he did bring us here all the way he will surely help us when things get spicy.”

“Are you sure about that? He let me run around in the jungle being chased by dragons while it didn't have to be that way.” It was good for your character, stop complaining. I will make sure that you two can do your job don't worry. And Thalia, you’re too close!

“I don't think I am!”

“Ugh get a room you two. Hey since I’m a Silent Night and all shall I leave you... I mean go and scout the area?”

Thalia smiled. “You are as bad in deception as Agnis… sure go ahead.”

Kyle went out to explore but he came back in 3 minutes. “Guys we have a problem, it’s a dead end, there's water everywhere.” I looked down. Nope, there is a lot going on down there.

“You can't be serious; my donkey suit will get wet!” Donkeys can swim, let’s go!

“What about Thalia?”

“I don't mind getting wet.” She’s like wearing a swimsuit kinda, she will be fine. We dove in the water. And I made the bubbles.

“Oh right, you told me you spent a long time under the ocean.” Yup, this feels nostalgic.

“Wow, so this can also be done with water, I still have a lot to learn.” Thalia said as she was staring a bit too much at my movements. Why can't I do anything normal?

“Well, this guy spent days living under the ocean. Don't expect anything normal from him.”

“If that is required to master water, I shall consider it.” Ooh, I like that passion! I will warn you though, I almost drowned multiple times and my tails were a great help, be extremely careful when you do so, there is a merfolk village off the coast of Gavin near the coral reef. I would recommend practicing there, if you happen to drown, they will most likely save you. When they do tell me you know me and tell uhh whatshisname Shadin or something I haven't found his friend Norya yet. A sharp pain went through my head and I almost popped the bubble.

“Are you alright?” Images of a pink-haired 9t chick flashed through my head and the nightmare played off again. Ugh, I think something is wrong with my head.

“You don't have to tell us.” I sent Kyle into another bubble and slowly filled it with water. He seemed to be yelling something like ‘I’m sorry.’ I let him back in.

“You’re merciless. What is that there in the distance by the way?” Kyle asked while pointing at something in the distance. It's just a piranha, a bit big but just a piranha.

“Just a piranha? Don't they appear in jungles or tropical areas?”

“How big are they?” Thalia asked the important question as I noticed that their size was a bit problematic.

Just human-sized, oh ew they even have human teeth, I think we found our anomaly.

“I see, it is just 1 piranha but I can see how those teams must have disappeared, I don't think many adventurers are skilled in underwater combat.” I hate to burst your bubble, which I won't, don't worry, but there is not one, you see that black spot down there? That’s the school feasting on whatever is left of the precious adventurers.

“Look Agnis, I know that panicking isn't really your thing but should we be chilling here when we’re clearly screwed?” Kyle said but he wasn't panicking either.

And do what? Move so that they feel the disturbance in the water and turn us into a pile of bones? And something isn't right. I can hear a crunching sound from somewhere else but I can't see where it's coming from. There is something else here.

“So even though I like to see, wouldn't it be better to get rid of this bright dragon so we’re not giving our location away?”

“I don't think it matters Kyle, having the light suddenly disappear will also be quite noticeable, we are stuck here… How much air do we have?” We have air as long as I’m alive and I can move.

“Well, keeping you alive was part of the plan so that works.” Kyle said as he took out some daggers. I think we should eliminate them. No matter what we do we will probably draw their attention so might as well eliminate them.

“How? We don’t know how to fight underwater.” Yeah, don’t worry Thalia, I got this, I will try to create opportunities for you though. I got my tails out.

Kyle seemed surprised that I took my tails out. “Is it that serious?” Yeah, if I screw up you 2 die, I might be ok if you kick the bucket but I certainly want to keep Thalia alive.

“Hey!”

I split the bubble in 2, one for Thalia and one for Kyle and grabbed them with a tail each and I covered myself with the water veil. Thalia started buffing Kyle’s offense. He would be throwing poisonous daggers while I would be the taxi, a highly offensive taxi. I told Thalia to focus the buffs on Kyle because I won't be attacking constantly, at least not yet.

A tail started to work out how to dynamically change the pressure within their bubbles. Humans are fragile. After working this out I started spinning my tails and used [Waterfall] and aimed for the swarm of feasting human-sized piranhas.

Kyle spread out a poison cloud in the water. I made sure that the water veil was protecting me because I didn’t know what poison he was using. Thalia was safe in her bubble. I evaded some bites and sent out daggers and [Water blades] out whenever I evaded. I used [Waterfall] to get out of this swarm of piranhas who had me as their target now. Kyle kept throwing poisonous daggers at them while I was getting away. Most of the daggers instant killed the piranhas because of Thalia's buffs. She also threw some water attacks around that were quite potent. She used some ice torpedoes or trapped them in water bubbles.

I made another evasive manoeuvre and cut some piranhas and I also left some [Ice mines] behind. I was hoping those things were smart and avoid them. I wanted to set a whole field up and set them all off as a chain reaction and freeze the whole area but these things kept swimming into the mines and turning into ice cubes.

[Tempest Step] and tornado kick also saw some use as it made swirling masses of water that shot out [Wind Blades].

We kept this up for half an hour and it didn't seem like we were putting a dent in their numbers. I apologized to Waleed in my head and chucked out 3 big pieces of high-quality meat he gave me. The piranhas beelined for it but after taking some bites started to fight each other. I guess that works until all the meat is finished. I got us all in a big bubble so we could talk.

“Whew, there’s no end to these.” Kyle wiped off sweat from his donkey forehead.

“I’m sorry, I didn't expect this mission to be so difficult, I think we should retreat.” Nah, I think we need a different approach. I think I need to get serious.

“How about you don't, I like being alive.” It will be fine, I will make an enormous bubble on the floor where you guys can fight, and I will fling piranhas into it so you can kill it. They should be harmless outside the water.

“Wait, you can do that?” Dunno but it’s worth a try, they ate all the meat, we gotta go for it. I grabbed them again with my tails and used [Counter Spin] and created a big dome of air while spinning around. I anchored it to the floor with [Pressure] and kept it fed by the ambient leylines. I stopped my movements to check if it would persist. The bubble shrank when I did but not by much. We entered the bubble and I broke our fall with a weak [Waterspout] as we landed on the floor.

“Wow wind element can do this? I should practice this in case I ever have to fight underwater.“ Kyle, I'm leaving Thalia to you, it’s time to push some piranhas around.

The two ran to the middle of the bubble while I jumped back in the water and started creating currents and started to [Flush] the piranhas into the bubble. As predicted, they became quite harmless and Kyle and Thalia had no trouble finishing them off. I pissed off a big group of piranhas and made them follow me into the bubble to which we all finished them off.

“Hey Agnis, what to do about all these dead piranhas? Do we eat them?” Kyle said as he pointed at the piranhas.

Hell no! Most ugly creatures taste disgusting, I don't even want to eat them.

“I agree with Agnis, these things look hideous.” Just burn them.

“How? Neither of us have a fire affinity.” Be creative!

I jumped back in and killed some piranhas and lured or [Flushed] most of them into the bubble. All went well until some big strange sharks appeared. They were way faster and were casting lightning magic. I made my water veil thicker and redirected some. I [Flushed] 1 into the bubble but there it grew legs. What the fuck are these things. Kyle and Thalia seemed equally shocked. It seemed to take Kyle quite some time to finish it off. I [flushed] 4 more into the bubble and zapped 3. They were quite sturdy so I kept evading until the [Water blades] did enough damage so that I could decapitate it with a [Tempest step] kick. One tail slammed me but my water veil protected me, it did send me flying into the bubble. Whoa, these things are annoying.

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“Yeah. what are these things?” Abominations Some sharks jumped in the bubble.

Right time for my secret weapon. I opened a vial and the smell of fresh rain wafted out of it. I manipulated the poison and got 10 drops out and made them land on my fingertips. I flicked the droplets at the sharks and licked my fingertips.

“Was that the Millennial Foxbite?” Yup.

“Millennial Foxbite? What is that? It smells very nice though.”

Kyle explained what it was. 45 seconds passed and the sharks started to become extremely bulky and became many times stronger. “Hey Agnis, a question, what happens if you hit a target with Millennial Foxbite, that can live longer than a millennia?” Well, you have a prime example here, they will get millennium years stronger.

“... Shitty fox.” Hey, come on how was I supposed to know that these things could become that old?! I created a [Frostwal]l to block charge attacks of 3 buffed-up monster sharks.

“I don't want to be mean Agnis, but I can see now why people are worried about you and why your race might be low on numbers.” Not you too Thalia!

“Hmm, I wonder, will those piranhas turn into sharks when you hit them with Millennial Foxbite?” Good question, let's try. I sniped a piranha with a Millennium Foxbite droplet and it evolved into a shark 45 seconds later. How does this make any sense… shouldn't they turn into bigger piranhas?

“I can't believe you even went with Kyle’s suggestion. We have to deal with 10 buffed-up sharks, 4 regular sharks, and a horde of piranhas now…”

“Thalia and Agnis, back off, I’m going to test out my new poisons.” Oh shit, time to get away!

I grabbed Thalia and brought her to the edge of the bubble and made a bubble around her to be sure.

Kyle can easily solo this, I think, I will throw piranhas at him, keep the buffs up on him. Thalia nodded and sent attacks out but also buffed Kyle to the moon. The thing with Kyle was, he only needed 3 days to get immunity for most poisons, 5 days on very strong and special ones. I picked up a monster...

The only thing that made him not as scary was the donkey suit he was wearing. Truly a Toxic Donkey. I kept [Flushing] piranhas in the bubble. Kyle was running around in stealth leaving poison clouds behind. A regular shark walked into it and its flesh started to melt. Yeah, Kyle was a killing machine now. The buffed-up sharks didn't melt but they were a bit too slow to catch him.

He dropped out of stealth after he melted all the faster regular sharks. He took out 5 vials and coated a dagger with each of them and threw the 5 daggers at one point on the buffed-up shark and its flesh started to rot. It slowly spread until the shark was unable to move and its torso fell off the rest of its body. He took some short breaks to take some notes. And continued.

The whole bubble slowly started to fill with some poison gas so most piranhas I [Flushed] in kicked the bucket quite swiftly without Kyle having to do anything. Thalia was safe in her smaller separate bubble. After 20 minutes Kyle gave me a sign. He probably wanted me to refresh the air, the poison gas didn't do anything to him but the oxygen was probably running low.

I entered the big bubble with a bubble around me and used [Counter Swirl] and sent all the poison flying to the edge of the bubble and then expelled it out and refreshed the air. I also refreshed Thalia’s bubble and went back to sending the piranhas in the bubble. It took us almost 4 hours to get rid of everything. I had to refresh the air in the big bubble again but this was so we could rest.

“Phew, that was rough, I didn't know you could also increase the potency of poisons Thalia.”

“I can do it all! I have to.” Good job guys, you guys did well!

“Why do you sound like you didn't do anything you did well too!” We ate some stuff and Kyle told Thalia about his training and the properties of some poisons.

“I should work on my other affinities as well.” Thalia said after she finished listning to Kyle's stories. What more affinities do you have besides water?

“Earth and wind.”

“So sand and windy sand…”

“Yup! I don't get what you guys have against sand! What affinities do you two have?”

“I have wind but I’m not good at it yet, dark/shadow, and that's it.” They both looked at me. What?

“Tell us!” Nah, I feel like I’m bragging.

“I don't mind if you brag a bit from time to time.”

“No don't do that! Don't stroke his ego!” Kyle can be such an ass...

I thought for a bit. Do you guys hear that?

“Stop changing the subject! I don't hear anything, now I’m curious, you can brag just a bit.” Thalia seemed insistent on me bragging. I can guess the reason but I'm more interested in something else at the moment.

Maybe I was just hearing things. I have an affinity for fire, frost, lightning, spatiotemporal, chaos and spirit magic.

“Whoa, wait no water? And what is chaos magic?” Well, whenever someone gets born with frost magic affinity he gets a free water affinity and well about chaos magic, I have no clue, it's lost magic but even my mother had no clue how to use it and she had the same affinity.

“And spirit magic is because you’re a spirit fox?” Yeah! Listen you can't imagine how surprised I was when I learned that I'm also a spirit!

“But it says so in your race…” Ok Mr. smartass, but hey do you guys really not hear that?

“I don't hear anything but don't forget Agnis, foxes have way better ears than humans.” I stood up and tried to locate the sound. It was a growling grunting sound. I then saw it, a very weird buffed-up shark coming at us.

Buffed-up shark incoming at 4 o’clock! It crashed into the bubble. I had to stabilize it else it would've popped.

“What have you done to my brethren!” Oh, it talks, we wanted to turn them into fish sticks but they looked quite disgusting to eat so I burned them.

Kyle got up. “Great, another one.” Don't worry I got this. It is something I saw on tv it’s called ‘Talk no Jutsu’ if I talk to it, it will leave us alone, maybe even become our friend.

“You can’t be serious right?” Kyle said as he got ready to act whenever this thing would move suspiciously.

“Let’s see what he does, he is an immortal, maybe they do things differently than us humans.”

“Oh, he certainly does a lot of things differently than humans.”

So, I understand that you're upset but we just acted out of self-defense, they attacked us first! I evaded water blasts, claw swipes some stinky breath, and all kinds of attacks.

We even made some of your fighters even stronger, doesn't that count for something? So, I don't think it's fair that you come at us. Sure, we didn't try to talk it out but it's hard to do since we can't talk underwater. Hey, are you even listening?

“Hey, Agnis! I don't think it's working!” Kyle said as he started flinging daggers.

“You! You smell like the blood of my brethren!” The Buffed Abomination was about to dash at Kyle when I made him slip and froze his butt to the floor. Hey, I was talking to you, you can't just attack the donkey while I’m talking to you, did you understand anything I just told you?

“You will pay!” Hey Kyle, are you familiar with video games?

“Uhh, a bit I used to play some games before our parents got into the cult.” Doesn't this guy sound like a poorly programmed NPC?

“I will kill you!” Buffed Abomination said while drooling like a rabid.. shark.

“Hmm you might be right but what of it? You surely don't think we’re in a game or something?” No, but maybe someone created these things, they surely aren't natural.

“This cave isn't connected to anywhere so this place shouldn't be connected to any other place.” Thalia said while flipping trhought the mission details.

Anyways this guy pisses me off, time to send him to where his ‘Brethren’ are. I disconnected from the ambient leylines and jumped up, used [Azure Spear] and threw it at this buffed-up shark. The enormous force this spear landed cracked the floor.

Oh, I didn't expect this to happen. I dashed to Thalia and the donkey, I mean Kyle, and covered them in a bubble.

The floor collapsed and the bubble popped. I expected there to be more water but I saw magma down below and… a village? I hid my tails after spotting the village. Thalia made a water slide so we could land safely. Hmm, this is strange, magma chambers aren't supposed to have clean air.

“Hmm, it doesn't feel hot with this onesie on.” Kyle removed the hood and he started sweating. “Whoa, that's a huge difference!” He put the hood back on. We looked at Thalia. Whoa, you’re glistening.

She was fanning herself and seemed extra alluring. “Hey Agnis, you’re staring. You can stare all you want but mind helping me out a bit?”

“Hehe, so when’s the wedding?” I threw a dagger at the donkey and made a [Frost cloak] for Thalia.

“Just a question, the fact that you have something for this random situation, you have been in a similar situation before, haven't you?” Ehh, I might have once or twice yeh.

“Heh, I think it would be easier to ask him in what strange situation he hasn't been. We make fun of him but at least he’s reliable.” Thank you, Toxic Donkey.

“Hey, who are you calling a Toxic Donkey?”

“Agnis?! Is that you?” I turned around and to my surprise I saw a severely wounded Esher. Whoa, what are you doing here and how did you get this messed up? I gave him a [Frostcloak].

“Ugh, I know this might be a lot to ask of you but do you have some water?” He was about to collapse and I caught him. We moved him to the side and I gave him some water.

Thalia knew a weak healing spell. It wouldn't help him much but it was something. I wanted to draw the rune for healing but I couldn't remember it that well anymore. It was fresh in my mind after that demon did his bullshit but the very complicated runes didn't stick that well. I put my tails on it but it would take too long to write it correctly. Esher passed out for a bit but woke up shortly after.

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