Chapter 44 – Elemental Being (Water)
••• Aleena’s POV •••
I gawked, looking at what was happening. This is another level of sorcery! I couldn’t believe that the whole place would be transformed. I thought we needed to walk further or even go back to the Elven kingdom before entering the portal again to move to another location. This is simply beyond my imagination!
The earth beneath us, where we were standing, had turned from sand into a concrete floor. There was a pathway straight across the ocean for us to follow, and many large rocks were visible, scattered over the sea on each side of the path.
“I guess we need to walk along the pathway?” I asked Witch Lily, though I already knew the answer to my question.
Witch Lily stepped toward the pathway in response to my question, and I followed her. I wonder what kind of elemental being I need to fight now… Could it be sharks? Whales? Or even giant octopuses?
We kept moving forward, with the end of the pathway still invisible. How much longer do we need to walk? But at least this time, the weather wasn’t as hot as before.
As I concentrated on looking for the end of the pathway, I saw something moving on the water from the corner of my eye.
I stopped on my track and squinted my eyes, trying to see what kind of creature it was. Then I saw something jump out of the water and go under again. A dolphin? Only dolphins jumped out of the water, right?
I was thinking about it when suddenly I saw two human hands emerging from the water and reaching for one of the large rocks. Seconds later, a human head emerged, followed by the human body, and finally… a fishtail. It’s a mermaid!
I was astonished to see a mermaid in real life. I gaped while looking at her, though my shock wasn’t as strong as before. Elves, a golem, and now a mermaid. It seems I have really stepped into a fantasy realm.
The mermaid sat on the rock and turned to face us. I was stunned looking at her beauty. Long red hair, fair skin, and green fishtail. She looked just like Ariel from The Little Mermaid fairytale.
Once she emerged, more and more mermaids joined her. Two others joined her on the same rock, while others sat on the other rocks. The view was so mythical.
They were all so beautiful with fair skin, only with different hair and fishtail colors.All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.
Is my next enemy going to be a mermaid? But they looked so… pretty and friendly. They all had smiles on their beautiful faces and waved at Witch Lily and me. I couldn’t help but smile and wave back at them.
“Aleena, be careful,” I heard Witch Lily’s alert voice.
Be careful of the mermaids. They really are my next opponent? I looked around and saw so many of them, and I became a bit nervous. There was no way for me to win against that many mermaids.
As I was trying to think of how the mermaids would attack me and how best to defeat them, I felt Witch Lily’s hand grabbing mine, stopping me from stepping forward, and I could feel her body tensing.
Witch Lily was looking forward, and I followed her gaze. I was dumbfounded as I saw an end to the pathway. Isn’t the path endless? I swear, a few seconds ago, I still couldn’t see the end of it, but now there it is, just a few meters away from where we are standing! Where should we go now when there is just the ocean across it? Are we supposed to swim?
I saw something that seemed to move in the water, going back and forth in front of the end of the pathway. Another mermaid?
As I was thinking about it, the mermaid jumped out of the water and landed gracefully on the pathway.
I was mesmerized by her. She was different than the rest of the mermaids. She was bigger and had fins where her ears were supposed to be. What caught my eye was that everything about her was emerald green in color, except her skin, which was as fair as the rest. Her hair, fishtail, eyes, and fin ears were all emerald-green.
Even though she gave off a friendly and elegant aura, I knew she was the boss – the next elemental being I had to defeat. And the blue crystal on her forehead was the proof.
I saw her lips curled into a charming smile and her lips parted, emitting a lovely singing voice. Once she sang, the rest of the mermaids followed her lead until all I could hear was their singing.
The emerald-green mermaid’s voice was so enchanting and hypnotizing that I felt drawn to her. She stretched out her hand to me as she kept smiling and singing.
My body moved involuntarily to her. I felt Witch Lily’s grip tighten around my wrist, but I shook it off. I wanted to go to the mermaid. I wanted to be with her.
I stepped forward and took her hand, allowing her to lead me into the ocean. I kept hearing Celia’s voice. It was like she was warning me, but I ignored her. I felt the cold ocean water around me as the mermaid pulled me under the water.
We submerged deeper and deeper into the ocean. I could feel the burning sensation in my lungs as water began to fill them, and yet all I could feel was happiness, as though I would be okay as long as the mermaid was with me.
“… Kyson!” I heard Celia scream in my mind and felt something in my heart as I heard my mate’s name.
“Aleena, wake up! You are going to die if you keep following her! Remember Kyson Night, our mate! He’s waiting for you to go back to him!” I heard Celia’s words, and something snapped in my mind.
Kyson Night… My mate…
Suddenly, I became aware of what was happening. I felt my consciousness begin to fade as I began to drown, but I struggled to free my hand from the mermaid’s tight grip. I couldn’t die now. Kyson and Night are waiting for us!
My effort was futile. Her grip was too firm. But no matter what, I had to survive! I deliberately moved closer to her, placed my feet on her chest, and kicked her away, successfully freeing myself from her grip.
I swam toward the pathway as fast as I could. Once I resurfaced, I grabbed the edge of the pathway, pushed myself upward, fell onto it, and coughed up all the water I had drank and inhaled.
Witch Lily! Suddenly, I remembered her and looked around, only to see her stretching her hand toward a group of mermaids a few meters away from where I was. I quickly stood up and ran toward her, intending to save her from their hypnotism.
But before I could reach her, I felt something cold and wet curled around my ankle, pulling me backward, and I fell on my front. I looked back to see what had gotten me, and it looked like a whip made out of water.
I reached toward the Elven dagger on my belt and slashed the water whip with it. Fortunately, the dagger was able to slash it, and the lash curled around my ankle turned into a pool of water.
I stood up again, wanting to save Witch Lily, but I was aghast when I saw her falling into the water.
Oh, no!
I hurried toward her, but suddenly, I felt my cheek being cut by a sharp object. I turned around to see the emerald-green mermaid’s face had turned ugly. She snarled, and I saw her sharp, pointed teeth.
“They are sirens, Aleena! They lure everyone with their songs and pull them underwater, killing them in the process!” Celia explained fast to me.
Sirens? Now I knew why my body moved involuntarily to her. But looking at her now, she didn’t seem like she was going to sing. Instead, she had those water whips around her pointed at me. One of the whips moved forward and grazed my cheek again. Goddess, she could make water into something sharp!
“We must defeat her quickly and save Witch Lily!” I didn’t know how long Witch Lily could survive underwater, and I didn’t want to find out. I have to save her as soon as possible!
She began attacking me with her water whips, managing to slash different parts of my body.
“Aleena, shift!” I heard Celia’s command, and I shifted immediately. “Let me be the one attacking her!” she said, running toward the siren while jumping sideways to avoid the sharp tips of the water whips.
Celia’s claws managed to hurt the siren across her body. The siren’s face turned uglier as green blood started to drip from her wounds. It was not a pretty sight.
I was about to shift back to my human form to stab the crystal on her forehead, but I saw the water whips pointed at Celia from both sides.
“Celia, jump back!” I ordered her, and she jumped back just in time to evade the whips. If she hadn’t managed to avoid the attacks, we would have been pierced by the many sharp tips of the whips.
“I need to bite her neck and make her bleed profusely!” Celia lunged forward again and jumped, successfully digging her claws into the siren’s shoulders. But just as she was about to bite the siren’s neck, we felt her arms wrapped around Celia’s body tightly, and she fell backward into the water, dragging us with her.
Celia struggled underwater, trying to sink her teeth into the siren’s neck, but she gulped in too much water, and the siren’s hold became tighter; it was bone-crushing. “Aleena, I can’t breathe.”
“Hold on, Celia.” I shifted back into my human form and felt that the siren’s hold was quite loose, maybe because I had shrunk back in size from Celia’s bigger wolf size.
Before she could tighten her grip around my now much smaller body, I moved my arms upward speedily with the Elven dagger in my hand and stabbed the siren’s forehead, right on the crystal.
I heard the chilling screech of the siren before a bright light exploded from her forehead, just like what happened when I stabbed the crystal in the golem’s palm.
When the light died down, everything went silent, and I saw the siren turn into foam before dissolving into water.
I quickly swam toward the surface, ignoring the light that was transferring into the m moon-like object, and pushed myself upward to get onto the pathway, coughing every drop of water that Celia and I had gulped, just like before.
I was dead tired, but I pushed myself to a stand and ran in the direction I last saw Witch Lily. Inhaling as much air as possible and holding my breath, I jumped into the water and swam toward Witch Lily, who was floating far underwater.
Grabbing her body, I swam toward the surface, pulling her with me and placing her on the pathway before giving her CPR. After a few minutes, she finally coughed out the water in her lungs and began breathing again.
“Thank you, Luna,” she said with gratitude as her breathing stabilized.
I felt my body become limp as the adrenaline from the fight left me.
Witch Lily wobbled as she stood up and chanted her healing spell on me before healing herself. Just like before, all my wounds were healed, and my energy came back instantly.
“That was more intense than before. We made a great team, Aleena,” Celia sighed in relief after that tiring battle. I was relieved, too, after winning that fight. As Celia had said, it was intense.
I looked around while still sitting down, wondering what would happen next. I had battled the earth and water beings; only wind and fire were left for me to defeat.
I tried to stand up when suddenly I felt the pathway shake violently as if there was an earthquake, and I fell back to a seat. The water around us began to slosh and was replaced by solid ground. I panicked when I saw the land between Witch Lily and me start to crack.
We both looked at each other in alarm and reached out our hands simultaneously, but the ground underneath me shook more violently and moved upward before I could grab Witch Lily’s hand.
“Witch Lily!” I shouted as I saw her figure getting smaller and smaller with the earth underneath me kept moving higher. I could do nothing except sit and keep my gaze locked on Witch Lily’s small figure, hoping she would be safe while being left behind.
The earth stilled after long minutes, and I was way up high in the air. It was impossible for me to get to Witch Lily now. I would die if I jumped down from the high cliff.
Bracing myself, I turned around to look at my surroundings. I wasn’t shocked anymore, seeing how different it was from before. There were many hills of various heights, and steep cliffs surrounded me.
Just as I stood up to check the area, I heard the flapping sound of wings, and a huge bird landed heavily in front of me, causing the earth to shake again.