A loud band cracked the air.

The group to the west jolted, a lizard men started to thrash in the water as it's head had nearly been completely shattered to pieces.

From afar Himenez let out a breath of hot air creating a small cloud of vapor infront og him.

"I won't sit here and just watch, I am a man am I not? I can't be afraid of everything, I went on this trip to overcome my fears! I can't just stand here and do nothing forever!" Himenez spoke to himself trying to hype himself up.

Acosta watching as Himenez prepared his rifle to fire the next shot remembered something just then.

'Why did that man's foot get cut off when he tried to enter the lake? Because he tried to stop someome else from entering. Why can Himenez enter the lake but not exit? Because this event hasn't ended. Then as long as we don't interfere with the event itself can we provide a different kind of assistance?

"Load your guns, we can't enter the lake ourselves but maybe we can pass him our rifles" Acosta couldn't be sure but he had to try.

"But our bullets just bounced off earlier"

"It's an impenetrable barrier boss, how can we pass our rifles to him?"

"We cannot help him from outside, not with force" Acosta would attempt everything he could to help Himenez, even if it may fail.

"Lets hope you're right boss, wet gunpowder helps no one after all" Acosta and a few of his men reloaded their rifles with haste.

"We should just let those heathens pay the price for messing with witchcraft sir Acosta, we should head back to the nearest town and ask for help" the monk did not care if Himenez was stuck behind this invisible wall, as he saw it everyone that had entered the lake was already dead.

Like those that ran away earlier he feared the unknown.

"I will not abandon my men, if you wish to leave then go! With Gods grace I will fight for every one one of them!" Acosta not willing to abandon Himenez and his primary goal dismissed the monks pleas.

His remark earned the administration and loyalty of his group, if he was willing to fight for each of them why shouldn't they fight with him.

The western group receiving the help from Himenez took a moment to reorganize their strategy.

"The water is getting deeper, the longer we wait the worse the outcome for us becomes"

"If we enter deeper water now we might be able to repel them for a while but look at what happened to the group infront of us"

"That will happen to us even if we choose to wait here"

"But we don't have any methods to fight in the water!"

"Then what do we do?"

Huitaca listening to the debate couldn't come to a decision quick enough.

Should they stay here? The water is rising and rising fast, it was only a matter of time before they had no choice but to fight with a disadvantage.

Should they fight in the lizard men's home advantage now? But what if the other groups manage to eliminate most of the lizard men on their own, wouldn't that spare her group from further injury? By then her group could just do clean up.

'No, I can't rely on the other groups. With the water rising even if they eliminate most the lizards we will still be stuck fighting in deeper water, its better to kill as many of those lizard now to avoid future trouble later'

Huitaca waved her hand, the group quite'd down awaiting her orders.

"Split into two groups" Huitaca didn't explain further.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"What?"

"What do you mean?"

"The only reason those things avoid us is because we outnumber them!"

"Exactly! They won't get near us aslong as we hold the advantage in numbers, we must split!" Huitaca was not eager to do this either but in order to kill the lizard men she must first break the deadlock.

"If they don't get near us, how can we kill them? Look! They basically killed everyone to the east, while the groups in the south seem to be disorganized. Even if that group has bow's and arrows what can they achieve when no lizard men gets near them?!"

The kids in her group did not like this.

"But if we split up we can't-"

"Can't what!? If we simply sit here and do nothing then we will eventually die just like them!" Huitaca was starting to see clearly.

Her group while reluctant eventually had to agree with her, they couldn't simply sit still.

However even if they agreed it did not mean that they wanted to split up.

"You know what forget it! I'm going alone!" Huitaca seeing that her words weren't getting throught decided to simply leave, she knew at least a few would be willing to follow her.

The argument wouldn't simply end here after all, she knew that a large portion of the group was simply trying to argue for arguments sake, they had no real plan to offer and were simply delaying because they they had nothing to offer.

If words don't work then maybe through action she would lead.

Her group seeing her venture alone went silent.

"Dammit! Fine will go with you"

"I can't let you guys go alone"

Huitaca looked back for a breif moment 'Only two? Should I really keep going...'

To the east Nand fought to save his comrade slashing blindly at the water, every movement he made missed by a large margin but every swing carried such momentum that a single hit would send limbs flying.

The lizard men watching moved back unwilling to get near while those that entered his range had their eyes carved out before they could even get a bite in.

"I can't keep this up forever! Move closer to those girls hurry" Nand grabbed the shoulder of the boy with the mace.

"I'll try..." The boy replied weakly.

"No you will! Move hurry!" Nand didn't want to hear the words 'I'll try'.

"I'll guard the rear as best as I can, just swing your mace down every now and then to ward them off!"

The boy did as told, he didn't want to die either but he was severely wounded spilling blood with every step he took while the water was simply freezing slowing his movements further.

The freezing water didn't only affect the boy, the lizard men being cold blooded had started to feel the affects of long term exposure to the cold.

Having just been born less then a few minutes ago their skin was extremely fragile, they did not have a method to regulate inner temperature, they did not even have the stomach's necessary to digest any of the flesh they had consumed earlier.

While all the initial fighting allowed them ignore these faults at first, the longer they took to kill the children the more difficult it became to move.

"The lizards seem slower now?!" Nand took note of the lizard mens slowing movement.

"Why are they so slow?" Nand was confused.

As a lizard men larger then the rest watched Nand and the boy successfully flee from the encirclement it growled in disappointment.

"We made it out! It wasn't so hard..." Nand felt relieved yet at the same time felt immense regret.

He was the one who made the choice to stay in the deeper part of the lake close to his allies that had turned to gold, while he couldn't know what was to happen, it was still his decision that lead them to their current state.

While he had attempted to set up a defensive wall it worked against them, causing many of his friends to drown underneath the water buried by a mountain of lizard men.

Even now, he could only just save a single one of his friends by sheer luck.

"I fucked up".

Bran Ai didn't manage to get his hands on a spear this time, he instead got a dagger made of bone off of one of the dead bodies floating in the water.

'With this I should be able to fight'

He grabbed the body dragging it back to the shallow part of the lake.

'The elder should know what to do with... Them'

Walking in the direction of elder Qez the surrounding children watched as the body simply floated with no movement of it's own.

"What's he doing?"

"Hey what are you doing?"

"Why isn't the kid moving?"

"Why is he dragging him?"

"Hey wake up! Why are you sleeping in the water?!"

"Whats wrong with his hands?"

Bran Ai reached the barrier, he attempted to step out but just like everyone else he was stuck inside.

Leaning on the barrier with his head, he drew a breath.

"Elder Qez, I don't know if you can hear us but please, take them!" He pointed at all the floating bodies in the water.

He didn't know what else to do.

Most of the children didn't seem to know the concept of death still, most adults probably couldn't even begin to understand the word 'Death' let alone kids like them.

If Bran Ai had not watched the slow eventual death of his mother via starvation he would be non the wiser currently aswell.

Elder Qez could hear Bran Ai clearly.

'...This kid has quite the temperament, such a shame'

He felt remorse for those that died, he truly did but... He simply couldn't stop this now.

'After this, No after we return to the sect, If any of them manage to survive I will personally recommend them a teacher, yes that much should be enough'

'My goal is near, My goal is near...'

Bran Ai seeing no movement from the elder tried to hold back his tears, he felt alone right now.

'No I can't cry now, not now'

He started to think about his goal.

'To live a good life. To live a good life. All I need to do right now is survive. SO DONT BREAK DOWN!'

With that he let go of the hand he was using to grab the childs body.

He looked at the elder one last time before turning away with determination.

'Too survive I must not cry!'