The thin translucent lances levitating above the river remained stationary as the water inside made small swirling motions, their tips facing us. I noticed simultaneously that below them were a bunch of silvery 1-meter long spikes poking out the river. Spearfish! -Or maybe a higher mutant variant considering how the lances were being formed above the river rather then from the tips of their body in the river. They must have been hunting the Flying-Piranha’s. *1
“Freeze…nobody…move.”
At that moment a Flying-Piranha, seemingly unaware of the danger flopped up into the air. At the same time, one of the floating lances shot forth, creating an equally small, but bloody hole in it. It was dead before it even landed.
Gulp.
We all simultaneously swallowed some saliva. The sheer strength in the water lances had been made apparent and we were all awed by it. It could probably cut through most of the jungle’s trees like a knife through butter. The only silver lining was that the magic spears were reliant on the waters high pressure, and thus probably had a maximum effective range.
Formulating a plan in my head, I realised I would need to take advantage of their reliance on motion to escape. Do we all just run for it when another fish flops about, or do we just slowly inch back? Could they only detect sudden movements? Normally, they would also be able to detect traces of magic. While looking down to think, I realised that one of the Flying-Piranhas had been slowly inching back to the river while I was thinking. So it would seem slow movements it is.
“Hey Shiara, Sarra, no sudden movements. Let’s spread out a bit and back out. …Slowly.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing Vixen.”
“…”
“…Just don’t step on any fish and we’ll be fine.”
We started backing out, walking backwards slowly and had nearly left the mass of land stuck fish when a fish next to Shiara flopped.
…Nothing happened. It would have been bad if she got hit as collateral.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
As if the fish had not done enough it squirted water and flopped up again, this time even higher in the air. It even flopped directly between Shiara and where the lances were.
“…”
“…”
“…”
…huh? Nothing happened, and even Shiara who had shut her eyes in preparation for imminent pain and death had opened them again. The lances remained floating above the river. Not understanding the anomaly, I looked towards the river, but the spikes in the water had disappeared.
“Wow that was lucky -ahhh“
PHWOOSH!
And for the second time today, the water in the lake rose up, this time revealing a lizard looking monster. It had a sharp two-meter long natural spear at the front of its head, attached to the top of the skull, that although slightly long, was a characteristic of the spearfish family. However this was clearly an old mutant or evolved variant, as its thick scaly limbs were not a common feature. Although it was a high-ranking monster in the water system, I had never heard of it being able to become amphibious before. After the first one leapt up the bank, another two quickly joined it
“RUN!!”
We started running towards tree line. The reason the lances were not shooting before was probably related to them preparing to jump up onto the bank. Somehow they had not started shooting yet. I sighed in relief as I saw Sarra make it to the trees, followed by Shiara. Due to the proximity of the trees to our original location, the speed at which we ran made less of a difference compared to who was closer, but as the furthest away, I had nearly caught up to Shiara.
Suddenly, I felt my Survival Instincts blaring again. I stopped running immediately, and –OUCH.
“Ssss….”
I gritted my teeth in pain as I ducked behind the thick trunk, which Shiara had hid behind. Three water lances had been launched at me, but they had all barely missed me when I suddenly stopped. One hit the fish in my right hand, jarring my hand a bit. One flew over my head pushing down my hair. The last one had flown over my left shoulder, missing it, but the accompanying wind had thinly sliced my shoulder, reopening the old wound again. I almost felt that my instinct might have a stigma against my left shoulder, but I was thankful nonetheless. Normally, I would be able to detect the magical element in the lance a split moment before it hit, but in this Jungle where we weren’t meant to absorb any of it’s natural mana, that would be impossible.
“You okay? What do we do?”
“Those monsters are coming towards us, and we can’t move or we will probably get hit by the lances. Vixen? What do we do?!” Sarra had crawled towards us from behind her different tree.
I took a peak around the tree-NOPE. I quickly retrieved my head as a splash of water hit me. The spear of water had struck the ground next to me and splashed up. It would seem that five meters was nearing the maximum effective range of their attack seeing how the water dissipated in a splash. Considering the size of the river, five meters would be all they needed. This probably also meant that they were newly evolved or mutated, something that seemed to show by their lack of understanding and control with their own abilities.
CREAK!
We all turned to the noise. Although there was no hole through the tree yet, it seemed that the tree Sarra was hiding behind had been hit one too many times. It cracked, and began falling down on Sarra.
“AHHHHH!” She made a leap to another tree further in from ours. A lance flew by mid-jump, barely missing her torso ripping a hole through her cloak.
“Oooh.”
“I’m fine, it didn’t hit me. Will the tree falling cause others to fall? Shouldn’t we make a run for it?”
No, Sarra could because she had gotten in deeper, but Shiara and me had no other tree we could jump to in time, and the mutant spearfish were only about three meters from us. Big trees prevented other trees from growing too close. Suddenly, I picked up on a faint buzzing noise. Was it just in my head from exertion or-
BZZZZZZZZZZ!!!