6.

image [https://i.imgur.com/2gJu0fa.jpeg]

‘The sea is a fickle mistress, Djina,’ Mother said to me once before leaving. ‘You must hold on to her with all your might or you’ll lose her.’

I hadn’t understood what she meant at the time. Of course, I’d also forgotten to ask when she returned. Mother’s presence in my life was more fleeting than the seasons, after all. She came home twice a year for a few weeks. When she did, she would take me sailing, teaching me about the different creatures that lived within the ocean. Sometimes, when the mood struck her, she would even drag them up from the depths. I loved those times.

But why am I thinking of you now? I thought.

May and I twisted in the air. The snarls of the beasts below faded into a blur. A feeling of serene emptiness struck me, and the ceiling of the cavern replaced my view of the water. Moss, like in the rest of the cave, colonised the roof. Their light beamed down on me. For an instant, I was an angel. Not falling but soaring up to the heavens.

That’s when I realised we were going to die. The revelation struck me with all the grace and might of a titan from above, pounding my hopes into the crust of the earth.

May was great with a blade. But what good would her skills do in the water? Her flames would be blocked, too, meaning she was less than helpless. Defending us would fall to me.

Yet what could I do? I had a little more than a quarter of my maura left. Could I enhance and propel myself in water like I could on land? I didn’t think so. Then, there was my shaping. I could produce a puddle of water…how very frightening that was. Maybe if I had been able to form a spear that would do the job. But I couldn’t.

I tried to go over my options one by one. All the while, our tumble continued. Death in the waters faced me again.

[Name: Corrupted Nixie - Grade: E]

There were but a few metres and seconds before the school of dozens embraced us. I closed my eyes. Death. I tasted that bitter word. It made me want to laugh and cry.

I was going to die to chase a woman I had seen for less than half a year of my life. I squeezed my chest. That’s regret, Djina. An emotion I’d abandoned. Switch gears and advance.

My eyelids shot open. They latched onto a large, stone piece sticking out of the water. A descending staircase not that far away from us, which vanished into the lake. It was attached to the other pathways at the top. We could get out if we made it there. But how? I didn’t have anything to use.

It’s simple, my rushed mind offered. ‘We battle and grow through conflict,’ I heard May say. And she was right, wasn’t she? Because what else was there to do, really. I just needed to make one correction:

I reached for May’s collar, yanking as hard as I could. We flipped and turned and ended up face to face with me below her. Her eyes were far from the clarity that had consumed them before. They were wide, filled with angst.

My expression hardened. Dead weight had to go.

‘I’m going—’ I curled my feet, aligning my heels with her stomach. ‘—for a swim!’

Her mouth couldn’t possibly open wider.

‘Stop—’

My soles planted in her stomach. Her belly caved in, and I deleted the breath from her lungs. She launched backwards, flying back over the edge of the stone landing. Physics was real. So, naturally, I launched the opposite direction, transforming into a human torpedo that smashed through the surface of the lake.

The water enveloped me with a deceptive softness. Like that of butter. The cold that cloaked me was hard as iron. If I wasn’t awake yet, I was now.

Speed left me, and I came to a standstill. I puffed my cheeks, holding onto the air inside. No jaws immediately locked onto my neck or limbs. My head swivelled, and I saw why: the school had made way for the missile I was. The circular hole in their number I’d barged through closed. I went quiet. There were more than a few dozen monsters here. There must be at least a hundred. Closer to two hundred. There was nothing I could do if they assaulted me all at once.

They didn’t. Leisurely, like they were taking a stroll, the corrupted nixies took their time to surround me. Big, orange eyes leered at me as they gathered in the shape of a twister with me in the centre.

My feet floundered desperately to maintain elevation as every avenue of escape slammed shut. I clutched the dagger in my hand like a babe would its mother. Sound was damped here, but I thought the water trembled. They were laughing.

The twister shrunk further. Finally, the beasts fully caged me in. This close, I got a better view of them. Though their faces were human-like, they were slightly too big. A rib cage protruded over the skin of their lower body, which was that of a fish. The white, thin bones curved around their belly, forming a layer of protection. This was not a creature that was supposed to be smiling like a fool. But it was. Had I not been losing my breath, I would think them a horrific construct of my mind. A dream more than anything.

The beasts started rapidly changing angles, weaving between and around each other. There was a rhythm to it—they followed an inaudible lullaby—and the movement quickly became hypnotic. They were dancing, I realised. Courting. Deciding who would get the first bite of their snack.

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There was a ping in my head. A system notification. I ignored it, for I had no attention to spare. Instead, I spread my spiritual senses. To my surprise, it came easier than normal, and though I couldn’t decipher individual beasts, they were visible to my sixth sense as a blue fog whose general trajectory I could sense.

Besides my thrashing feet, I made an effort to keep myself wholly still. The cold soaked my robes, washing away the dried flakes of blood, and pierced into my chest. It lessened the pressure on my lungs and throat. My breath would last longer for it. Let go of doubt, Djina, I said to myself, staring directly into the eyes of whichever beast was swimming opposite me. I was as ready as I could be.

I was getting out of here.

A cloud separated from the twisting fog behind me and speared forwards. I threw myself to the side without hesitation, enhancing my legs like I did normally to increase the force. I didn’t launch away or speed up greatly despite attempting to. Rather, I displaced the width of a step, barely dodging the jaws of the beast. It shot past me and into the school on the opposite end, joining the dance again.

I swallowed the lump of breath in my mouth, and the cold in my lungs retreated. This is what I’d been afraid of. On land, accelerating was like becoming a leaf on the breeze. Here, it was like gathering mud and trying to squish it between my palms—

The attack came from my left. I balled up and spun on my axis to dodge, but I was too slow. My upper right arm turned on fire. I tried to scream in pain, realising too late that I was still underwater, and I lost half of my precious air. The beast was back in the school before I could retaliate.

My left arm cradled the wound. Red ink spilled from the shoulder missing a chunk of flesh, painting and soiling the otherwise clear waters. The strength in my muscles faded with the lack of oxygen, and I started losing elevation, sinking to the bottom of the spiral. Air gathered in my head, making it lighter. My heart rate hastened like a rocket. I twirled in place, trying my damnedest to see where the next attack was coming from, losing more breath in the process.

I jerked as my senses flared. Instead of shoving, I kicked the water, imagining a hard surface beneath my feet. It worked. Some. Yet it came too little too late. My lower back lit up, and more red ink joined the rest. The beasts unleashed a flurry. I dodged one, got hit by another, swung my knife arm despite the pain to make the metal collide with the teeth of the next. Then, a fourth beast tore into my leg, and I had to bite down on a scream.

More came after me. For every one beast that I dodged or intercepted, another left their mark. Yet not once did any of them go for a vital spot on my body.

They are playing with me, I realised.

All around me, the waters shook, the trembling laughter rising in volume. It was in my eardrums, invading my skull. It migrated to my core, making me shiver from inside. Suddenly, my entire body went frigid. My throat locked up. The breath stored within was depleted. I hurt all over, but I only had one free hand to caress my open flesh.

The drum of my heart reached the edge of the world and left the atmosphere. This was it, I thought breathlessly. I glanced around me. The twister became an indiscriminate whirlpool, swallowing any warmth I had left inside. There were just too many. Even if I somehow managed to kill a few, the rest would never allow me to make it up to the surface and catch my breath. Then, there was all the blood I was losing…I had minutes at most.

I chuckled silently. All that talk about improving through conflict, but I really was going to die. In the water of all things, no less.

On a whim, my gaze turned down. Had the lake always gone this deep? Someone must’ve pulled a curtain over the light piercing down from the surface because I could no longer see below me, where the tail of the spiral made by the malformed beasts slowly came together in a point and vanished into the dark. I was in a waterway that descended into hell.

A pair of round, orange-hued mirrors opened at the bottom of the gateway. In the reflection, I saw myself. Without all the blood and grime, I’d call my pointy ears cute. My slightly high cheekbones as well. Yet my most standout feature was definitely my emerald eyes. Those were what made me the spitting image of my mother.

…what would she think of me dying? I randomly thought. Would she feel anything at all, or would I be an afterthought?

My instinct flared again. Something bulldozed towards me from my right. I didn’t have to look to know what it was, and to be honest, I couldn’t bring myself to care. Those two questions repeated in my mind for what felt like an eternity. No matter how hard I thought, though, I had no answer.

Does it matter? I asked eventually. I closed my eyes. It was true that Mother hadn’t trained me. Perhaps the reason she gave me for it was an old wives’ tale, and maybe she had abandoned me like May said. But what did it matter? Me or anyone else could believe anything they wanted, yet there was one thing she’d left me which was undeniable. One connection between us that could never break.

‘Daughter of Aysu, the Tidal?’ I heard Elder Sui say as she had on the first day of class. I was sitting on the chair, listening to her speak. ‘The Assessor has been tested rigorously to stop any mistakes from occurring,’ she said. ‘Its readings are precise.’

The group of rejects laughed in tune with the trembling of the water. But the beep of the Assessor overshadowed all the howling around and inside me.

‘Potential:’

‘Rankless.’

The beast was almost on me, yet I didn’t hurry. Slowly, without consciously commanding them to, my feet lifted. They were poised to jump.

‘You must hold on to her with all your might,’ Mother said. Maura surged into my legs. I didn’t hold all of it in. Instead, I pushed part of it outside the sole of my feet, creating a sheet that wrapped around my foot. I curled my toes, and my feet latched onto the water like it was solid ground. The entire world curved and twisted, my vision lashing out at the sudden change in velocity and direction.

In a moment of inspiration, I formed the sheet over my dagger, and a disgusting tear—like paper ripping but more warped—sounded.

When my vision locked back in place, black ink had joined my red one, forming an intertwined duo of colours that painted the canvas that was the water. Behind me, one of the beasts split in two, their entire spine carved through.

The bones and skin dissolved, becoming one with the water. The classroom of beasts fell silent, and in the quiet, I finally allowed the system to speak to me.

Environment change! You’ve surrounded yourself with water, leading to an elemental advantage. Maura cost of water-based abilities is reduced by fifty percent.

The following ability, Basic Maura Nature Manipulation (Water), is boosted. Current ability rank: B-.

New Ability unlocked!

Water Striding I: you’re a true daughter of the sea, who is learning to wade through water like you walk on land. Efficiency and effect increase with rank.

New Ability unlocked!

Basic Weapon Enhancement I: envelop the weapons you wield in a razor thin sheet of water. Increases the sharpness of your weapons.

The lull ended as the voice of the system faded. Hell rose from the depths, breaking loose in a tempest that tried to swallow me whole.

I smiled, accepting it with open arms.