Origin ARS 3 (Origin A.R.S.) (10 page)

When they reached the water she sighed softly. She leaned back and unleashed a cute pout.

Scott smiled at her in a friendly way. “Well, this is where you get off.”

She reached up and patted him on the cheek. “If the world was, like, a little more fair...”

Scott blinked at her and she giggled softly before starting to wriggle in his arms. He was forced to release her into the water. He turned around in a circle as the beautiful girl swam around him twice and allowed her tail to brush his legs.

Neira lifted her head out of the water. “Listen to big sister’s love advice... It’s good for you.” She gave him an exaggerated and saucy wink before diving forward into the water again.

After she was gone Scott sighed. “It’s the fins... It’s gotta be the fins.”

He flexed his fins open then grinned. Hell yeah.
Bitches
love fins. He felt bad for a moment after thinking that, but since it actually elevated his mood a little he chose not to dwell on it.

Scott stepped further into the water and then walked down into the sea. A single breath was all it took to readjust to the watery lifestyle known to ocean dwellers.

He slipped through the water like a knife through butter. A creature of the sea, he was as at home there was he was on land. Scott equipped his underwater gear and pulled out his coral spear. It was time to work off some of his frustrations.

It took a few minutes, but he located a small school of finnies. The smiling bastards sped toward him. Their teeth gleamed in the light. The calypso beat of steel drums and soothing island music shifted to one of vigor and battle.

Scott wasted no time. He quickly whirled his spear around above his head then cried out, “Howling Gale!”

The spear slammed downward. A ripping, shredding, current raced outward like underwater tornado. The dozen or so finnies in the school were sucked into the effect despite several of them being outside the immediate area. That was the greatest thing about this attack. It sucked in nearby monsters, a factor that made it difficult to defend against.

A series of damage numbers rapidly rose above the heads of the smiling beasties, and the entire school of finnies burst into light. He was several levels higher than they were, and his overall damage potential with this ability in the water was well beyond their natural resistance.

The battle had ended too quickly for another group to appear, yet. A loud and joyous victory tune played in the background for a moment and a battle report appeared.

<<<
Battle Report
>>>

You defeated fourteen Razor Toothed Finnies in a solo battle!

+ 840 EXP

+ 670 Fayth

+ 14 Ability Points

Item(s) Acquired

Silvery Fish Scales X 14

Finnie Fangs X 6

Fresh Finnie Fillet X 7

Fish Eye X 3

<<< * >>>

Scott dismissed the battle report then continued the hunt. Since he had acquired survival skills he had managed to gain a little more whenever he killed an opponent. Finnies now dropped fillets, and had a flavor similar to tilapia.

“Come to daddy you smiling bastards...” said Scott with a smile of his own. It did not take long to find the next group and then the next.

His new capacity to synchronize his spells with his weapons was clearly overpowered when fighting monsters on or below his level. Over an hour passed and he had slain over two hundred of the rapidly spawning fish monsters before something changed.

Scott had moved farther and farther out to sea. He had expended over half his mana to annihilate several schools of the smiling fish, and had reached a point where he was roughly half way to reaching level nineteen.

He was excited at that prospect, but he would not willingly go to the next level. He planned to spend his experience points and ability points to upgrade Ero a little. If he could manage to help her reach level ten it would make battles easier. As it stood, he was a little over a thousand points shy of raising her level two more times. He had emptied his entire experience pool into her earlier, much to her enjoyment. It would take around thirty-thousand total experience points for the perky fairy to go from level six to level ten.

Something strange had started to occur during the last few battles, however. Chunks of finnie were left behind in the water. Just like the chunks of burning Shar-Shar that rained down when he used his burn spell, the finnies started to leave their blood and entrails behind in small amounts.

Scott had become unnerved by that, to be honest. Yet, he decided that it was just an idiosyncrasy of the world. He was probably killing them so fast that the chunks did not register as monster parts. It made as much sense as burning merman chunks raining down instead of turning into motes of light.

He did instinctively turn back toward the shore, however. The ocean grew darker once you left the shore. He could see much better in the water now than he could before, but his vision was still not perfect. There could literally be anything hiding beneath the surface.

The sorcerer felt a strange chill in the water, or perhaps it was his own fear that he felt. He did not know why, but the fun and easy hunt he had been experiencing up until this point had suddenly become cold and dark. The water was quiet. There were no finnies anywhere to be seen.

In fact, there were no fish anywhere. I was like the entire ocean had undergone a mandatory evacuation. The only thing in the water nearby was the blood and guts of his recent opponents.

Scott stared at the guts floating in the water. Should it be suspended in the water like that? The hair on the back of his neck rose up. He realized what must be going on, despite a distinct lack of system messages.

The sorcerer turned quickly and swam toward shore at all possible speed. He struggled with everything he had, but his heart sank as system messages finally appeared.

<<<
Message
>>>

Predators of the deep have sensed your indiscriminate slaughter. The waters have been chummed with the blood of gore of your opponents....

<<< * >>>

Chum! The waters had been chummed. Scott tried to move his body faster, but it was futile. He could hear the fun and friendly calypso music slowly ebb away.

A low, dangerous, tone began to play. *Duh...
Duhn...
Duh...
Duhn
... Duh...
Duhn*

His eyes widened as the simplistic musical score brought to mind a horror movie series that seemed terrifyingly appropriate for the moment. He spared a glance back and saw nothing but darkness.

However, the music tempo increased slightly. *Duh
Duhn
.. Duh
Duhn
.. Duh
Duhn
*

His heart began to beat rapidly as he could feel an impossibly strong presence nearby. His survival skills had granted him observational powers. He could literally feel death coming for him.

*Duh
Duhn,
Duh
Duhn
, Duh
Duhn
*

Like the sinister heartbeat of a practiced murderer, the music perfectly accentuated the moment. Scott glanced back once more. This time he saw a vague outline in the far distance. It was a
big
outline.

“Fuck!” he said quietly before swimming for everything he had. Whatever that thing was, it was freaking massive.

The tempo of the background music suddenly became loud and rapid, like a heart straining with all its might. *Duh-
Duhn
-Duh-
Duhn
-Duh-
Duhn
*

Scott could see the shore in the far distance. If he could swim a little faster, last a little longer, he could make it! He was almost there!

His heart felt as though it might burst due to the exertion. The tempo became a frenetic and angry heart beat mixed with discordant guitar riffs.

He glanced back once more and saw that the shadow in the distance was not nearly as distant as it was before. It was still a vague outline, but he recognized the shape.

Scott tore at the water, desperate to escape oncoming death. He had a strong suspicion that the thing coming for him would prove to be far more than he could legitimately handle. The music tempo continued to increase and the tension mounted more, and more.  He no longer looked back. Instead, he focused on swimming. He was almost to the shore. He could make it!

In fact, the music seemed to agree with him. The dangerous heartbeat background abruptly stopped. Scott glanced back and the shadowy monstrosity had disappeared. Maybe he had swam outside of its hunting area?

He did not stop to assess, instead he turned his head back toward shore. He did so just in time to see the biggest freaking shark that he had ever seen pop up out of nowhere.

Scott barely had time to try and evade, and did so poorly. The shark’s massive jaws narrowly missed their meal, but Scott was scraped by its steel-like scales in passing. A bright red number thirty-two popped up above his head. Simply brushing against the creature had taken more than ten percent of his health!

The sorcerer knew that he would not be able to outrun the monster. It had been stalking him the entire time. Fish guts were not what it had been seeking. With a cry he whirled his spear around and fired off a howling gale.

The underwater tornado hit the powerful monster cleanly, but to Scott’s horror a series of zeroes and ones rose up from its body. His most powerful underwater technique was useless against it.

The creature banked in a slow, casual, manner. It acted like it owned the ocean, and it probably did.

Scott prepared to dodge once more, but the massive shark began to glow with a dark radiance. The sorcerer instinctively hurled his body straight down through the water in a bid to avoid the oncoming attack. It was a movement that would have been difficult for a normal human being, but with the
Soul of the Fisherman
activated, movement in the water was incredibly easy.

A blast of dark energy raced by overhead. His health dropped by another twelve points just for being close to the attack. “Shit!” cried Scott. It was deadly just to be around this thing.

He could feel himself weakening. He had not been hit cleanly, so his body was not damaged much, but he had still lost around one-sixth of his vital energy.

The metal-clad shark lazily swam toward him, its massive mouth open to receive its dinner. Scott did not have the time to synchronize howling wind, but he did have one thing that he could try. It was something that he had learned recently.

“Freeze!” exclaimed Scott while stabbing the tip of his spear forward and into the monster’s gaping maw. His most commonly used spells required no extra effort to synchronize.

A large block of ice appeared inside the creature’s mouth and froze its jaws open. It began to thrash wildly, and Scott took over sixty points of damage in the process of getting out of its way. However, to his delight the shark took three hundred points of damage! It wasn’t some impossible boss monster after all.

He immediately considered escaping, but the sound of ice starting to crack caused him to ignore that impulse. Instead, he chose to do something that he had not tried yet. The freeze spell had limited usage under water. It had proved invaluable for that shark, but he had mostly used it to encase finnies in ice when he was bored or needed to try out crowd control methods.

The
Burn!
spell did not work right underwater, even with synchronization. However, there was a possibility that his other spell might be useful.

Scott reared his arm back and then hurled his spear with all of his might. The attack received a small bonus from his accuracy due to his spear-fishing related skills. However, the real goal was to deliver a shocking surprise to his fishy-foe.

The spear dinged off the side of the monster. It should have done no damage to the beast. However, the
Flash!
spell arced outward with a brilliant light and a loud crackling sound. Scott received a strong electric shock and lost a few dozen points of health, but he was far enough away that he managed to survive the electrical power of his attack. Luckily, he did not become paralyzed from the shock. The shark, however, took
eight hundred points
of damage then stopped thrashing altogether. It was weak to lightning and not a boss monster at all! The mighty behemoth of the deep burst into motes of light. Scott retrieved his spear then smiled at it.

The background music changed quickly. Scott awaited the battle report and was not disappointed.

<<<
Battle Report
>>>

Victory!

You have defeated an Infant Blue Mithril Shark.

+ 240 EXP

+ 52 Fayth