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[Merfolk Princess] - 13278/13278

This is pretty terrifying for the little squid girl. She might not look particularly scared, but that's probably because her facial muscles are frozen from the terror. On the other hand, the pretty face of the Mermaid is twisted with some kind of uncanny emotion. Mari doesn't exactly know what it's supposed to be, but she knows for a fact it's not something good. The law of the deep is a ruthless one, "kill or be killed," as someone once said. But that is mostly with the goal of survival. In this case, there's something more to it, a deep resentment in the eyes of the Mermaid.

The Princess lifts her right hand and Mari almost chokes on the amount of [Mana] appearing out of thin water. The [Mana] is drawn to the Mermaid who further concentrates it on her outstretched limb. A light sparks into existence and a second later it becomes a blinding beam of pure energy. It shoots toward the squid girl, evaporating the water in its way with furious hissing. Even looking at it hurts her vision. Before Mari has the chance to move, to turn around and run, the magic is already in her face with a buzzing sound reminding of a lightning.

Shit shit shit! Mari strongly closes her eyes and not knowing what to do just rolls together into a ball, her human arms protecting her head. Though her tentacles have other plans. They whip to the ground and grab the stones lying there in hope they'll stop whatever attack the Princess has conjured. Still, the tentacles shake in fear, making it harder to pick the debris up as they imagined. They can't get a proper grip around them, resulting in the stones slipping out multiple times until they finally run out of time: The beam easily penetrates her excuse for a shield and disintegrates four of her tentacles and one arm. The pain shocks Mari momentarily as she lets out an agonized cry. The clear vision she was relying on until now blurs and she loses all senses of front and back.

She raises her head out of the sand and drags her body to where she thinks a coral reef should be in the distance. The beam was slightly off to the side, if it hadn't been...

It's the only reason Mari survived the attack. Now she doesn't know whether to thank or curse her luck. Thank it because she survived, and curse it because she was in the hands of such a dangerous... Monster.

Mari turns back and sees the Mermaid's lips turn into a vicious smile before she shoots toward the girl at ridiculous speed. Before she knows it, the Mermaid has a hand squeezing around her throat and slams her to the ground.

"Agh!" Mari feels her breath knocked out from the impact. She grabs the Mermaid's arm with her own, desperately trying to get it off her throat, but in response, the grip only tightens. Mari's mind momentarily turns black as her eyes roll back. Still, she wraps all her alive tentacles around the arm with an iron grip and stabs it with her spikes, converting her Mana into the [Curare] poison faster than what feels healthy. The Mermaid's eyes widen in shock as she swings her other hand in a fist, sending Mari through the water. Mari feels her insides turn and vomits blood, but thankfully she got sent the way she wanted to go:

Only a bit... and I can hide... The coral riff... she wheezes while pulling herself through the sand and rocks. Her hand stops at a figure in front of her. Mari almost sobs a tear from the unfairness and looks up, expecting the Mermaid Princess, but it's not her:

[Merman] - 4327/4327

[Merman] - 3458/3458

[Merman] - 4128/4128

Are you kidding me?! Mari cries, her lip trembling in fear. What have I done to you that you hate me so much anyway?!

The three Mermen raise each a forked spear in their hands and Mari prepares for her heart to be skewered. She presses her eyelids together and grits her teeth so hard her mouth begins to bleed. Or maybe her mouth was already bleeding from all the injuries she's sustained. Honestly, she doesn't care.

But the Mermen only swim a big circle around her and face their Princess, who has caught up to them by now. They make wild, almost furious gestures and even more emotional facial expressions. Yet in all this hectic, not a single sound escapes their lips. The Princess ignores them and locks her attention onto Mari with bared fangs, to which they protectively raise their spears in a cross between Mari and the Mermaid who has half-killed her. The Princess stumbles back and catches herself with a stroke of her fin. Her face freezes at the guards who just pushed her back, but her confused state of mind is not for long. Her whole demeanor darkens as she grabs their spears, Mari didn't think the Princess could get any angrier but here it is. She breaks the coral material with her bare hands, causing the guards to retreat a bit but still remain between dying girl and the monarch. It's very obvious that the Princess doesn't like that, if not from her emotions being written all over her face, then from the spark that starts forming in her hands. The guards fall to the sand and raise their hands almost pleadingly, their morale breaking quickly.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The Princess is just about to blast them with her attack, seemingly caring very little for her entourage, when a dozen Merfolk clad in armor appear behind her. One of them steps forward and grabs her by the shoulder. She looks at him with a glare that could kill—honestly, with what Mari has seen from the Mermaid, maybe it really could kill. The disdain pierces the Merman's soul and they lock into an intense staring contest, until the Princess is first to avert her gaze. The look of hatred seems only to have gotten worse as she yanks her arm away from the Merman soldier's grip and turns her back to the group. She runs a hand through her crimson red hair, making it just a bit more disorderly than it was before, then crushes a rock that is in her path with that same hand.

Mari's mind races from the progression of events. The last time she has felt this powerless was back when she was a stupid squid, when half of her group was slaughtered by a giant of the ocean in a split second. Back then she had just fled while making herself as small as possible to avert attention from herself, but... She looks up at the dozen Mermen who have just saved her life and are now positioned in a circle around her. She opens her mouth, about to do... something with it, as a clod of dark blood floats into the water. It disintegrates there, though a steady supply keeps escaping her mouth.

One of the Merfolk soldiers—the one who had also held the Princess back a moment ago—swims closer to her and raises his spear. Mari flinches without averting her trembling gaze and the soldier notices her fear and quickly withdraws his spear. He gestures slowly with his hand that everything's okay, or that's how Mari interprets it anyway, before pointing at three crystals embedded in his spear. Mari feels a certain unease creeping into her body looking at the deep purple color of the right one, then a pleasant warmth from the green left one. Before she can understand the yellow middle one, the Merman takes the green crystal and holds it against Mari's head. The girl doesn't dare to move. A moment later, the crystal radiates a bright green before it crumbles into pieces. The light spreads through Mari's body, and she feels the pain stop. Then, her limbs reappear as if they weren't blasted in the first place.

Mari's eyes widen into the shape of two big and round pearls. First, she gets obliterated by the Merfolk's princess, then she gets saved by their soldiers. She doesn't know anymore how to exactly feel about that. Definitely not thankful though. Maybe skeptical?

All of a sudden, the soldiers begin moving. Mari quickly gets to her feet and stumbles from a small push to her back. The Merman who helped her heal swims closely behind her while at the same time forcing her to move forward in a sense.

Mari looks up and notices how she could just swim out of the two-dimensional formation, or how something could swim inside of it. She guesses their lineup is meant to protect the person in the middle—though it still escapes her why they would want to protect her. A moment later, all the Mermen in the formation raise their spears which begin to lighten their surroundings. Or more specifically, the yellow gems embedded in the middle of the spears begin doing so. Their light materializes into something more physical that encloses Mari in a half-circle from above. Mari stares momentarily, then swims up and gives the translucent barrier with a yellow hue a weak kock. A damp metallic sound reverberates, and small ripples jump in waves from the center to the end of the half circle, where they travel further into the water around them. Mari descends back to the ground and looks at the soldiers' spears:

Only the yellow stone, no green or purple...

She then looks at the soldier's spear behind her, its yellow gem also powering the barrier while the dark one remains and only a socket where the green one was.

Right, so weapons can be this versatile. Also, you're the leader then, huh? she wonders for a moment. The Merman leader just smiles when she turns to him. So, where are you taking me? What do you want from me anyway? she tries to gesture.

The soldier's smile doesn't fade, but that's about it. No answer or anything akin to it.

...

I see. What the hell have I gotten myself into...

Mari looks to the front where her circle seems to have caught up to the Princess and now keeps pace with her. For a short moment, the Princess looks back and they lock eyes. A cold shudder runs down Mari's back. How the hell did the leader manage to keep that up?! she yells internally. From this point, her entire being is in the hands of the Merfolk; she hopes for the best but only expects the worst.