SUTA POV

'Hehehe... critical hit!' Suta chuckled with a playful grin. The double blow sent the beast staggering backward. He watched with stars glittering in his eyes as it whined and growled weakly before trotting to one side and keeling over.

And just like that, Suta had killed his very first monster on his own. There was little time to revel in this incredible feat. He saw the two remaining creatures react, sending an ear-screeching cry into the air. After this, they moved upon him, no longer tricked or held in place by his confusing movements.

Now they had become single minded in their actions, with one sole goal in place.

To kill.

Suta's eyes flashed wide open again seeing them close the distance so quickly. His breathing became a little rapid forcing him to roll to one side before using the momentum to spring away to the opposite way. He narrowly avoided the incoming hammer blows descending one after the other. The two creatures didn't relent, they turned around sharply before pursuing him again.

'Damn it, they're getting faster.' He noticed their bodies charging directly towards him with a spryness in their hulking frames.

He gritted his teeth and scanned his surroundings intently; his dagger was still buried in the torso of the dead creature to the side, which just so happened to be facing away from him. With its strange large body slumped to one side, he would need to flip it over to retrieve it.

'There's no time for that, tsk! Think, Suta, think!'

Searching for anything to help solve this matter, he still had to maintain his precise dodging. His footwork relied on creating enough distance to sidestep and dash at the moment. He had first noticed Anak displaying this during their constant sparring these last few days. And if performed correctly, it would create the illusion of someone vanishing from your eyes. The moment Suta laid eyes on the footwork, he had already begun breaking it down piece by piece into his own way of understanding.

He twisted his body and just about avoided a blow spearheading straight for his head. He ducked desperately low and front rolled away. He sprung upright in a flash and ran , his gaze bounced off the carcass to the side. And then it hit him.

'Wait! That's it!'

The answer to his problems appeared within the slumped carcass to the side of the ship's deck.

'Friendly fire, heh? Damn, it's quite a risky move, but... I don't have a choice.'

Suta could feel his reaction time getting slower. He needed to catch his breath, but he wasn't given much time to do so, so he had only one logical door left open.

Finishing this as quickly as possible was the only feasible option. The ghostly hallucination of his dad appeared in a smoky wisp floating beside him. His focused gaze was filled with a slightly curious look encircled within them. He kept smoothing his chin as he looked to be deliberating things.

The more attention Suta paid to the strange ghostly image of his Dad, the more concerned he became inwardly.

'I must be finally going mad by the looks of it,' he thought to himself, unsure if things had gotten so bad that he needed to rely on an imaginary friend, thinking of which he could've sworn that was a sign of a mental problem, Nevertheless, Suta still waited for the expected advice from it.

'It's tricky, Shoba, but I like your thinking.

You see, it's all about timing!

The finer details, of course, that, and good old-fashioned luck!

And what did I always say to you about luck...?'

Suta furrowed his brows a little, trying to remind himself of such a topic being spoken to him while still unsure if this was healthy, talking to a ghostly version of his dad.

He twisted to the side slightly, with an uncertain look drawn against his face.

'We create our own luck.'

Suta's gaze narrowed , seeing those monsters bearing down upon him. He crouched a little before kicking off from his heels and leaping to the space towards the right side, narrowly avoiding another thick pincer slamming down. He turned on his heels and ran away again; turning around wasn't necessary since those grotesque-sounding growls followed him. He could already feel them pursuing him eagerly, tethered hungrily to his shadow.

He found himself almost running away with his back turned towards them. His eyes never stopped scanning the ship's deck. Then he locked onto a nearby space where three large crates of sealed cargo had been placed. He increased his pace with vigor and a plan of action. He nervously peered over his shoulders, and just as he expected, the two shrimp-looking humanoids were closing in.

His heart was racing, but his mind never stopped thinking. Out of instinct, he spun around in a full 180-degree motion, narrowly missing the barrage of bolstering pincers agonizingly skimming past his side. A surge of warm pain covered his entire right-sided ribcage. He knew he failed to avoid the desperate attack perfectly from this angle.

'Bear it, tsk! Bear it a little longer.'

Suta's gaze trailed towards the second creature standing the furthest away. Without a second thought, he positioned half of his body behind the back of the monster standing the closest to him. Just as they locked eyes with the fiend, Suta saw the dull eyes of the beast swiftly filled with rage. And in its fury, it shot forward, sending another pincered attack towards him. He reacted and moved to shield himself fully behind the second monster. The pincer refused to relent and violently struck its counterpart in the process. The beast cried out in terrible anguish.

Seeing his divisive plan bearing fruition just like before, Suta moved again. This time, he circled the wounded monster and stood right before it, his eyes goading at the crying beast to remind it that this small human had caused it so much distress. That familiar glint of anger swelled with fury within it, and just like its counterpart had done, the creature lashed forward in an attempt to crush him. Suta could sense or rather smell the creature towering slightly behind him. Thankfully, its right arm was still lodged between the thick shards of scales from the beast before it. He purposely placed himself towards the free arm of the creature and the one poised to strike.

Now he was truly standing between the belly of the beasts so to speak. One wrong move and there was no escaping his unsightly end. The two beasts jerked their arms back in unison before thrusting a powerful strike towards Suta. Standing so tightly close between the two offered him the perfect opportunity to duck and roll to one side with the precision of a gymnast. Without even sparing them a second look, he heard the horrible sound of colliding thick-shelled arms puncturing an immovable hole against one another.

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Suta couldn't hide the cruel smile plastered against his face at this.

'It's just like what I expected. There's a pattern. A code almost like they're created to respond a certain way.'

He swiftly rose to his staggering feet and took a blind dash to the side for good measure. His plan had worked better than what he had expected. Pools of blood already gathered beneath the feet of the two creatures. With both now suffering grievous wounds, purple blood continued to pour out of the gaping fresh wounds they had given one another. Suta took this opportunity to finally catch his breath, ensuring he kept a close eye on the two creatures struggling to find their feet again.

Watching them struggle in pain, a wry smile creased against his disheveled childish features.

'Seeing them slowly dying is making me feel... relieved? Heh! When did I become such a machinist?'

He reflected to himself, finally feeling confident enough to lower his guard. Suta sat down cross-legged against the ship's deck rather nonchalantly, considering this situation was quite tense. Watching the two mindless creatures continue to struggle, only furthering the two pincers deeper into one another's bodies, a curious notion appeared in Suta's thoughts. He wondered if the blue castle was made especially to keep those inside away from the monsters that appeared during the eclipse.

But that would be the wrong way to look at it. Lysann's incantation was cast in response to the hellish world he found himself within.

And that told Suta that these monsters were already here once Lysann arrived.

'The blue castle arrived here afterward... did he create it himself? Ergh, why am I thinking about all of that now? No-Suta, we know why. It's because this place is so strange.'

His brief peace was swiftly disturbed not by his indecisive thoughts but by a sudden memory. He remembered the dagger he left buried in that vile creature. With haste, he moved towards the carcass left to the side. He stood beside the shelled thing cautiously, slightly towering over its long and scaly body.

The strong stench was troublesome; somehow, its being dead only made that smell ten times worse. Come to think of it, Suta realized this was the first time he had experienced death. 'In fact, the first time I had killed something...' He couldn't fight back that sickening feeling stirring in his gut now that he was overthinking things.

Because of his animated mind he needed a few deep breaths to temporarily quell the nausea. He inhaled a large breath before holding the breath from escaping his nostrils. He leaned over the dead carcass cautiously, slowly moving his hand around until he could feel that familiar warm feeling within his hand.

A wave of delight spurned through his body. Suta grappled the handle and slowly pulled the glass dagger away from the squelching flesh. The purple blood slid down the dagger-like water, dazzling Suta's eyes again.

'This is a pretty neat dagger, I must say. Kind of not trying to remember what this is made out of, though.' The scene of Anak's blood pouring out like a faucet still bothered him.

"Grrrrrriiiiiiiaaah!"

A blood-curdling scream pierced the air. Suta twisted around quickly and beheld the other side of the ship's deck. At that moment, Anak's arm moved forward and landed a devastating blow, half of his arm buried into the muscular, contorting flesh of the imposing beast with four arms and a large frame.

Suta opened his mouth to speak, but the words failed to emerge. Instead, he was startled into action again, hearing the stir of heavy waters rushing behind him. A cold shiver crawled down his arm. It felt just like a warning. In response, Suta swiftly twisted on his heels and darted away from the edge of the boat.

A large spike with damning intentions slammed down, staking the ground he was standing on only a few moments ago. '

What the hell is that-?'

His eyes widened at the emergence of four slime covered tentacles crawling onto the boat, followed by another one of those strange humanoid heads slithering onto the edge. A large, slimy squid's head appeared out of the water with two coiling black and yellow eyes rattling from side to side. The creature caught wind of him, slowly backing away, and climbed into the boat with a loud plop sound. Its entire body was one large mass of grey and pink flesh. It carried no legs nor arms but long, writhing tentacles flailing around.

Seeing yet another one of these obscure, strange creatures ignited a growing fear within Suta's heart. But he steeled his resolve in response and ignored all the little voices telling him to flee.

'Crap! Another one? And just when I thought there was peace for me.'

He knew he was kidding himself. Stealing a glance at the slender mass standing in the middle of the ship, where those little whimsical creatures were still debating on how to activate the rune.

Seeing those guys brought his racing heart into a small sense of calm once again, dutifully reminding him about the sense of purpose he was given to make sure no one crossed this side of the ship.

'That's right, I have a job to do. I need to hold this position.' Suta scanned the strange monster deeply, who already looked like it would be a real handful. He took another deep breath to relax his body, holding the dagger securely in his palms. He felt the fleshy warmth emanating away from its strange metals.

And Suta's mind began to slowly reignite those gears again. He could hear the metallic cogs turning and his state of being relaxing into a state of absolute concentration. But at that precise moment, on the edge of his zenith, he heard the sharp howl of mighty winds moving across the ship.

He turned to his west, where he saw the deep waters aggressively stirring. Suta sensed trouble was imminent, and as he predicted, that trouble arrived sure enough in the form of a group of long-finned creatures torpedoing out from the jade seas. One by one, five of them vaulted onto the ship. Suta counted five in total. All of which were proportioned identical to the next. While the top of their heads were pointed sharp, their torsos consisted of a flat and smooth deposition, likened to a dolphin, minus the long snout. Inside, these creatures wore the faces of flat-nosed fishes with thick, full grey mouths. Their eyes were almond-shaped with a peculiar mixture of blue and silver encircled within them.

Trailing down their elongated bodies were two human-like grey legs. Suta felt his chest tighten watching them form a circle around the slime-covered squid with tentacles glaring at him with an empty expression. Before he could make any rash decision Anak's voice arrived behind him soon enough.

"Don't allow your mind to falter now, human. You've only just scratched the surface." He said,

Suta twisted his neck slightly to one side, where he observed Anak's bedraggled state, his somber bright eyes fixed on the arrival of the monsters beyond him. He could tell the vampire had gone through a tough ordeal, prompting him to follow the trail left behind by Anak. Upon doing so, he discovered a splattering mound of bubbling flesh piled against the deck, making him swallow harshly as he could still vividly recall the sight of that monstrous-looking creature only moments ago.

Shaking his head from side to side, he attempted to dispel those thoughts away and instead channel his focus on the matter at hand. With slightly narrowed eyes, he observed the monsters readying themselves for another fight.

"So-so... what do we do now?" he asked, creasing a wry smile.

"We do what we know best... we hunt."

Suta could only grit his teeth in an attempt of adopting an air of bravery to help him stabilize his racing heart.

With clarity slow returning, that familiar soothing ghostly voice wasn't so far behind.

'Hehehe, as they say, there's no rest for the wicked ay- my son. Arah! But isn't this what you always wanted? A timeless adventure that pushes you to the very limits? A world outside of the confines of the mundane and constant monotonous ways of our own world... hm? Isn't this what you fought both me and your mother for... Shoba-kun?'

Suta bit the side of his inner lip. He shook his head again, trying to free himself from the external thoughts.

'Focus... I need to focus,'

Anak's cold glare found him daydreaming. Sensing the discord in the boy, the vampire delicately placed his hand against his tense bony shoulder.

"This is where the fun begins. So then, show me what all the fuss is about , human, born from the lineage of dawn."