The water slowly grew deeper the farther I went into the slot canyon. And so did the shadows. They clung to the rocks forming shapeless blobs that singled my nerves. The pale rock colors of the river bed under the clear water slowly shifted to a dark brown, blending in the shadows. If it wasn't for the ebb and flow of the stream drifting around the jagged walls and the deep blue sky barely visible overhead, I might have thought I was in a cave.
Still, the Guide's GPS pointed me forward and even gave a helpful Ding! [100 feet to destination.]
I was almost there.
Levi shifted on my shoulder, peering down into the water. He wanted to swim in it, but didn't think that was appropriate right now. After all, we didn't know what was in it.
I reached up and ran a finger over his small forehead, trying to reassure him.
He slapped my finger with his tail. It didn't hurt, and he didn't have any malicious emotions behind his actions, but it was still a brat move.
Annoyed, I flicked his tail and ignored him when he head-butted my neck in return. I should be too old to squabble with a snake like this.
The water rippled against the current ten feet behind me.
Levi and I froze at the same time. What was that?
I looked around, searching for whatever moved. The canyon walls were sheer and there weren't any pockets a monster could hide in, like the lichen rats from earlier. I pushed my aura out, stretching it the whole ten feet, feeling for movement around me. As far as I could tell, there wasn't anything breathing around. Just me and Levi. Unfortunately, my aura didn't reach below the water surface.
I peered into the darkening water. I couldn't see anything, but my instincts screamed that we weren't alone. I took my sword out of my Items Bag and gripped it hard. Potentially a useless move — whatever it was could be immune to weapons — but it soothed my fraying nerves.
I didn't have time to stand here forever. I still needed to get out of this forest before night fell, which was only a couple hours away.
My nerves jumped and twisted in knots as I walked farther into the canyon. It was a horrible feeling, knowing that an unseen monster was close, and understanding that I was probably walking deeper into its territory. What else was I going to do? I needed to get that spring water, or I'd fail another task. I already came this far, I wasn't going to fail now. Or give up without even trying.
It wasn't just about losing the System. Once I made a choice, I had to follow through like a respectable Hunter. If I gained a reputation that I gave up easy when things got tough, how would that reflect in my family's business when I took it over with Micah? Granted, I didn’t have an audience to blame me right now, but I didn't want to make it a habit. Even if it was just for my conscience, I would uphold that standard. Or die trying.
Levi flicked his tongue in agitation and weaved back and forth on my shoulder, his smooth scales slipping along my neck — which totally didn't help my anxiety. He dipped and slithered his way down my body, coiling around my walking left leg, all the way down to my foot. He wrapped around my ankle and stuck his head in the water.
I paused, waiting to see if he saw anything.
Suddenly the water agitated ahead, sending a wave of thick silt and mucking up the clear stream.
Levi jerked his head out of the water, blinking silt out of his double eyelids.
"Are you okay?" I whispered, unable to resist voicing my worries. Damn, I hate being so blind. I could sense the movement of the water and feel everything in the air. Why was I so blind with my element?
Furious, I pushed my aura down into the water. It resisted at first, like a blow up ball in a lake, the water wanted my aura to just float on top. But I pressed down. Slowly, my aura sank into the stream and merged with the water, spreading out like dye in a cup.
My lips parted as I panted from the effort. It felt so unnatural to meld with the element, yet so natural that I had an ah-ha moment. This is what a true elemental mage could do. Not just direct the element, but blend with it and conform it to your own awareness. Although my aura could spread ten feet through the air, I was hard pressed to merge with the three feet of water around me. Sadly, even with that, I was just as blind as before because of the silt.
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Sweat rolled down my forehead. Irritated, I pushed away the inch. As I did, I caught sight of my arm — and the build up of blood leaking from the wound the lichen rat bit earlier. That’s right, I hadn’t stopped enough for Regen to start working yet. At the moment, it clung to my armor and leaked inside, causing me to itch there too — just not enough to do anything about it. But when I moved my arm, a drop of blood collecting around the rim of the under armor rolled. And fell into the water.
The sound of it dripping in the stream was like a tidal wave in my startled heart.
Levi paused, just as alarmed. Then he flooded my mind with accusations for not covering my wound with a water band aid.
Honestly, between the shadow cat chasing me and the freaky feeling in the canyon, I'd been too distracted to do it. I mean, it was a very new ability and I wasn't accustomed to using it. Frankly, I usually ignored my injuries until Regen healed them.
At first the stream was calm. The blood faded into the water and disappeared. Even the silt was slowly drifting away in the current.
Then something breached my water aura. Alarm bells screamed in my head, I jumped up as high as I could just as a large, brown head emerged from the water, wide mouth chomping where my foot used to be. It missed my foot – and Levi’s head – by inches.
My eyes widened as I recognized the monster from the Hunter’s Monster Manual: an eel hound. Damn, those things are tenacious. The six-foot long monster can breathe air or water, and once something entered their territory, either the eel hound had a meal or they died trying.
It didn't have any scales or fur, just slimy brown skin. A long floppy reddish dorsal fin started on the top of the monster's triangle head and went all the way down its muscly body to the finned, powerful tail. Matching fins fluttered in on each of its elbows and knees. The eel hound's camouflage with the surrounding rocks was no joke. No wonder I couldn't see it before. Over its head, the title read: Eel Hound, Lv 10.
The monster snapped its sharp teeth together in agitation and flopped back into the water. It barely disappeared under the surface before another eel hound jumped out of the water, just as my jump reached its peak and gravity took hold.
Determined, I swung my Miao Dao at the creature. It jerked to the side, but my blade still sliced across the monster's forehead. The second eel hound flopped back into the water.
Levi jumped off my ankle and dove into the water after it.
My heart jolted in panic. "Levi!" I landed on the surface of the water and looked around, but I couldn't spot the little blue snake.
Only, I could feel the hurricane-like emotions brewing in him. He was determined to kill these monsters. The water pulsed and splashed into the air to my right, and instinctively, I knew that's where Levi was fighting with an eel hound. I couldn’t feel any pain from him, indicating that he wasn’t injured yet – which was good. Unfortunately, his actions kicked up more silt into the water, leaving me just as blind as before.
All I had left was the small circle of awareness I forced into the water. A fin sliced through the bottom, sending a zing up my spine. I turned in the direction the monster was swimming and thrust out my hand, trying to control the water around it. I snagged its back legs and tail, and tried to drag it back. Simultaneously, I lunged forward and thrust my sword down into the water. My awareness didn't move as fast as my body did, so I was half-blind while attacking. The tip of my sword met with a slight resistance as I caught the side of the monster's hip. A ribbon of blood laced through the brown water, but not enough to disable the monster.
It whipped around violently, spraying water everywhere and snapping its teeth. I jerked back and let go of my sword just before the eel hound's teeth closed around where my hand had been. The monster shook its head, swinging the weapon around, then let go when it realized that it wasn't holding flesh. The sword flew through the air and plopped into the water.
"Shit!" I gasped and lunged after my sword, but it sank faster than I moved. In seconds, it disappeared in the mucky water.
My Hunter senses screamed and I threw myself to the side, just as the eel hound breached the water, wide mouth aiming for my head. It was so close, the slimy skin brushed against my chin. My teeth gritted and an arrow appeared in my hand. I thrust it into the eel hound's throat, but didn't know its anatomy enough to get a fatal attack. It flailed and flung its front out. The long claws caught my shoulder and left a long cut through the gaps in my under armor across my clavicle and neck. The force sank my body several inches into the water.
I hissed and retaliated by jerking the arrow out, trying to make the hole in its neck as big as I could. The eel hound dove into the water.
Gasping, I rolled to my feet. My chest and neck burned with each heavy breath I took, but I ignored it as I whipped around, trying to spot where the monster was. Where did it go?
The water where Levi was still rolled and bubbled violently. I could tell that he was getting tired, but his will to win was still strong. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what state he and his opponent were in. Or who was winning.
The monster flashed through the water just behind me. I spun around, swinging the arrow in my hand. It might not be a sword, but the tip was still viciously sharp. The monster jerked its head to the side and I left a long cut across the side of its face. Then its tail broke out of the water. It swept my legs out with a loud slap. I gasped and splashed right into the water. Before I could collect myself and prevent myself from sinking, the eel hound latched onto my thigh with its sharp teeth.
Desperately, I drew a big breath just before water rushed over my head and I was dragged deep underwater.
******