Dodging falling pieces of wood, metal and massive boxes, Sera was quickly losing momentum and worse she was running out of energy.

“How hasn’t the ship sunk yet?”

Pushing upwards she narrowly missed getting hit by what looked like a falling cannonball.

Even in the water the fire thundered, the noise of water whooshing around her gave Sera enough time to move, but it kept her in a loop, she was only reacting.

She needed to start predicting, looking straight up instead of side as Sera saw the obstacles and her goal.

Above her the ship was in her opinion miraculously floating, despite the fiery wreck losing its support and there being massive holes in the ships hull it still somehow stayed afloat.

If anyone’s still alive, they could tell me where land is, Sera dodged another piece of lumber as she got closer to the surface.

The soot began filling the water and Sera was almost choking on the intense amounts of charcoal leeching into the water.

About to breach the air she saw a circle in the sky suddenly appear around the ship, then a bright red light came down and-

Shot through the hull of the ship.

The whole underwater world was pulled down towards the blast reaching the seafloor.

Sera’s ears were ringing as the surrounding water was heated, despite it she still screamed “IVA!”

The explosion was too close to the cliff where Iva was, but Sera didn’t have time to worry about her friend as everything surrounding the ship was beginning to sink.

Including the ship itself.

Now close enough to touch, Sera desperately began pushing off box to timber to barrel, trying to escape being pulled down further.

Going into overdrive, Sera didn’t have time to think.

Box.

Lumber.

Crate.

Deck.

Wait DECK.

Sera slammed into the intact floor of the ship before being dragged down again.

Her world swam as the clutter she just swam through began to hit her back and legs.

She was going to be pancaked.

Desperately grabbing onto the desk, Sera tried using it as a handhold, as began pulling herself away from the middle.

Now dodging the barrels and crates that she was going towards, Sera couldn’t rely on her eyes, her ears gave her hardly a second before a crate, box or sharp lumber would crush through the deck.

Right through her.

Pulling and shoving the debris coming her way her arms quickly tired, and her legs started to become numb.

Breathing became hard as the hot water was finally affecting her gills.

Her vision was beginning to darken as the ship above her was finally leaving the air and coming down to a warm tomb.

Not.

Ripping her knife from her pouch, Sera quickly began sawing against the quickly darkening deck.

This.

Her ears quickly filled with thousands of different noises of boxes slamming into the surrounding deck.

Shit.

The water bubbled as her knife drilled through the burnt deck.

Again.

Then finally the last embers of light reaching through the holes in the deck came to an end.

All she had was her ears, and they were telling her to swim away.

I’m halfway-

Sera didn’t feel the box smash into her back, but she did feel her face splinter into the crusted wood.

The rest of the wood was push off as the hole Sera made was big enough for her to push through.

She kept swimming up, trying to ignore the pinching pain her back gave off.

It couldn’t be anything she hadn’t handled before.

All that was left above was the few pieces of lumber that hadn’t sunk to the bottom of the seafloor, any chance of someone surviving quickly met zero.

Crap… Wait where’s Iva. Sera quickly looked towards the sandy cliff but found it covered in a layer of ash with Iva nowhere to be seen.

Dammit Iva, not now I need to make sure-

That’s when Sera noticed something strange.

Her legs were moving, but they felt like they should’ve been moving faster.

What was weirder was she couldn’t feel her legs at all now.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Did I push myself too hard? Yesterday was… hard as well. Fine, I just need to find Iva, I’ll look for my pack tomor-

Blood.

Even with the moonlight the water was just shadows right now, but her nose told her there was a stench of blood here, her kinds blood, nerieads blood.

It was like a shock to her body, it froze then she could feel the adrenaline pump through her body, Sera desperately began swimming away-

Only to find her feet weren’t moving at all.

And she was beginning to float towards the surface.

Her arms quickly began cleaving into the water, trying to swim down, trying to swim away but they were tired enough as is.

Feeling sick, Sera tried feeling her back for where she got hit.

She could feel her body shiver as it ran over the wound, directly on her spine.

Sera’s eyes widened as she played the events back.

The heavy object landing directly on her back at an angle, her legs slowing down and finally her losing feeling to them.

I… I’m going to die.

She couldn’t survive in the ocean without her legs, if she found Iva the small seal could help, but how long would it take to heal? Didn’t it take years?

Sera’s strokes slowed as she began panicking.

I need Iva… Where is she?

Her head snapped around at her surroundings but found shadows and murky water, the charcoal and soot did a number on the water.

I can’t find her she needs to find me-but at this rate.

Sera could only stare up as she slowly met the surface air.

What she was desperately trying to do before now would be her grave.

At this rate the reaper will find me, if morning comes, and I’m still up here-

“No,I-I need to calm down and think,” Feeling at her neck, her gills were fully opened and pulsing, trying to get as much air as they could from the water.

Closing her eyes Sera took a precious minute slowing her body down.

Opening her eyes again, Sera slowly felt her gills, they had creased and shrunk a bit, enough for her to think clearly at least.

First, she was still gripping the knife, it felt like a part of her, especially since it didn’t’t slow her as she swam with it.

“I should put it away,” Opening her pouch Sera’s hand stuttered at the entrance but finally let go of the knife.

Her body tensed, but then her shoulders sunk as she stared up at the moon.

It was almost gone, but it still shown down as it had in her own world.

Sera raised her hand, about to reach out to it but then stopped and let it flop back down to the water.

“I’m not going to die.”

Her arms then began to raise above her head and then push into the water, Sera slowly began to backstroke.

Barely able to see anything behind her, her hands smacking into wood was often the first indication that something was there.

After the third time of smacking a piece of lumber, Sera slowed down, I’m tempted to swap to a backwards breaststroke, but if my hands aren’t hitting the floating wood…

It was a simple question, hands or head.

Trying to get her mind of the chance of hitting something other than wood Sera looked around the wood she passed, so far everything was burnt to a crisp.

Anything identifiable about the ship probably was down at the seafloor, which normally wasn’t a problem.

Feel her wrist hit another piece of wood, Sera tried to focus on something, anything, but her mind kept coming back to Iva and what could be on the ship.

Minutes of mindless swimming was soon interrupted however, much to Sera’s surprise by a voice.

“...ned depths.”

The voice was so weak, Sera stopped paddling her arms and listened again.

At first, she thought it was her mind playing tricks with her like it used to but then she heard the voice again.

“Damned Forlorn Magi.”

That was no hallucination.

“H-hello?” Sera nearly dunked herself in the water as she tried sitting upright, “Where are you? I can help… a bit.”

Her voice died down when she remembered her, sudden predicament.

There was a long pause, too long.

Sera was about to shout out again only to hear the voice croak again.

“Here… but ‘less you have healing, there’s not much yo-” Hearing the wet coughs, Sera heard what sounded like him clearing his throat before smelling the blood like a strong perfume.

Swimming towards the man’s voice, Sera’s stomach pulsed weirdly, but she pushed the hunger away this wasn’t the time to be worrying about food.

Bumping into more pieces of wood, Sera unconsciously began zeroing in on the smell before hearing his voice again.

“Were… you on the ship? Ah.”

Getting close enough to speak without shouting, Sera was about to reply when she finally saw him.

He was elevated on a piece of broken lumber, but his body was just barely out of the water, without the wood there he would’ve sunk long ago.

His whole body was covered in burns deep enough to touch bone, the smell of burned flesh now wafted freely towards her, almost making her choke.

Then came the skin burns-

Sera had to look away.

His shaky breathing now filled her ears.

“H-how are you still alive o-or conscious?” Yesterday’s events still played smoothly in her mind, the pain had even made her faint, how he could talk despite feeling it…

“Can’t feel burns lass, doesn’t matter for either of us anyway, your legs haven’t moved once since you swam over.”

His tone turned from loud and biting to a low burning flame, about to go out.

He must think I’m from the ship, maybe he knows where we are or… what that light was.

“Do you know where we are? Is there land nearby we could swim to?”

The question brought a short chuckle as his voice lost it’s emotion.

“There’s no land for days, or even months out here… and even if there was you would need supplies and-”

His face lit up as he grabbed something from the water.

Sera could hear pouches open and tear before hearing a disappointed almost teary “Dammit.”

“What happened? Did you find something?”

Sera waited hoping for something before hearing a splash next to her.

She saw a black open bag quickly sink into the water next to her.

Sera’s arms darted out but missed the bag, bumping into a piece of wood before it sunk downwards.

“Why-” Sera tried to turn to the man but just heard two wet coughs again before the shaky breathing suddenly stopped.

“Crap-” Quickly swimming over to him, Sera felt at the board he was lying on until she felt his skin-

The moment her hand touched the skin, it felt so soft but broke immediately despite the soft touch.

Sera quickly pulled her hand back and swapped her body around, so she was facing him.

She grimaced, and her eyes shrunk at the sight, it was a miracle he was alive for so long despite the severe burns.

Sera stared at the dead man for a moment longer before turning away.

What… what now.

There was no land for miles and even worse she could barely swim more than a few meters before getting too tired…

“I need to find Iva.”

There was only one way out of this and that was with her friends help-

Maybe the seawater could help her heal faster-or maybe the PID had a cure!

Looking at the dark murky waters Sera hesitated for only a moment before pushing off the board with the body limply hanging off.

Desperately swimming downwards, Sera couldn’t see more than mere glimpses of shadows around her.

But she could see something falling nearby-

Faster than any piece of wood she had seen despite it being brown coloured-

“The bag!”

Banging into barrels or pieces of wood as it descended, Sera could she didn’t have long before it fell completely out of sight.

Putting the rest of her energy into her arms, Sera pulled and pushes the shipwreck’s clutter of the way.

Beelining for the rapidly falling pack, Sera reached out-

“Dammit!”

Barely missing the pack as it fell faster before banging into what looked like a broken wooden statue.

Seeing her chance, Sera chased after it.

Her arms were reaching her limits as she again reached out.

“Yes!”

Screaming the word in excitement, Sera could hear her voice reverberate through the surrounding burnt landscape.

She froze waiting for retaliation from the reaper or another falling deck.

But she found none.

Sera could feel herself begin to ascend again, not wasting any time she looked for the opening of the pack and found-

A sword.

A coin pouch.

A book.

And a red… wine bottle?

Sera nearly threw the bag away in rage before she looked over the items again.

The sword was heavy, and ultimately not useful underwater.

Chucking away the hard piece of metal, it quickly sunk downwards like a falling knife, then Sera could feel herself begin to float upwards faster…

Crap, maybe I shouldn’t have-

But the sword was long gone.

The coin pouch could be used with her materials, Sera was about to put the pouch in her pack before remembering she left it on the sand cliff because it was too heavy to swim swiftly with.

That left the book and the red wine bottle.

“Maybe the wine will dull the pain long enough for me to find something heavy in the water?”

Sera grabbed the red wine bottle but paused as she realised opening it underwater probably wasn’t the smartest idea.

Thankfully she didn’t have to wait long until her head bobbed its way out of the water.

Sera tried opening the cap but then she paused.

“Wait if it was wine why didn’t he try drinking it-I guess he was seconds away from dying, but he didn’t know that, is there actually wine in here?”

Sera couldn’t help herself from bringing out her scanner and scanning the red container.

If it didn’t take hours for a scan to work on me-

Sera was brought out of her thoughts as the blue screen appeared.

Scanner Results

New Recipe Discovered!

Healing potion

* Capable of completely healing a small injury or accelerating the healing of a larger injury.

* Unable to take more than one potion in 24hr as effects decrease significantly.