---Vicinity of New Hope---
The search party riding their mounts was nearing a dark lakelet at the foot of a rock wall, hidden in a grove of trees. The water was a gradient of dark green and almost black toward the center. The benches were overgrown with moss and shrubs; however, there was a single animal trail leading up to the water.
"Are you sure this is the place, Nose?" he asked the scout beside him. The man was nicknamed Nose because his class specialized in tracking targets by scent... and he had a massive hooked nose, like a beak. Otherwise, they would have called him a hound.
"This is where her trail ends," Nose confirmed, his massive smeller sucking in and processing air like an industrial fan. He clicked his tongue. This was already the third time a member of a beginner party had vanished in these woods despite their efforts to secure the area.
The groups established in New Hope after Epsilon arrived were still trying to keep order and regularly patrolled these woods to subjugate beasts and raise their levels. To use the place to raise young people who recently chose their class, they had gotten rid of anything that would have endangered beginner parties.
Only creatures that could be easily killed by a party of players were left here. Yet, three children had vanished. All three had been young women coming here to raise their level with their party. According to their companions, they were simply gone from one moment to the next.
Until now, none of them had been found. They had even suspected their parties, but they had been proven innocent through lie detection skills. This was the first time they had a clue, since the girl was an alchemist and used a particular, self-made perfume Nose was able to track.
They had come across her trail while looking around the place she vanished and followed it all the way here. Looking around, there was nothing but the lakelet before them. All this time, not even the wind had disturbed the surface of the water. It was definitely weird and somewhat disconcerting.
"Was there always such a lakelet here?" Someone else suddenly raised a question quietly.
"Yeah, but I don't think it always looked like this..." another answered in a whisper, but he didn't seem confident in his memory.
"Do you think something is hiding in the water?" one of his party members voiced out the same thought he had just had. There were all manner of beasts exiting from dungeons or coming from the portals, maybe something new appeared and managed to evade their patrols so far...
"Try firing a spell at the water. Maybe we can provoke whatever is in there," he asked their mage, a woman specialized in fire and lightning magic. Whatever hid in there, a lightning strike would probably cause a reaction.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? Maybe we should get reinforcement first? We have no idea what could be hiding in that..." she argued hesitantly, gesturing at the still, dark waters.
"How am I supposed to explain calling reinforcement on water, when we don't even know what is inside? We are the search and rescue party of the Pike Guild, none of us is below lv.60. Show some confidence. Whatever is inside, we can take it together."
"What if we hurt the girl?" another asked a much more stupid question.
"The girl has already been gone for half a day. At this point, she would have drowned or been eaten," he said pragmatically. "But if you are so worried, how about you enter the lakelet and see if you find her? It wouldn't hurt you," he countered, offering the warrior a bath.
"N-no, I'm good," the warrior who spoke up said meekly.
"Lightning Strike it is," he said, looking at their mage expectantly. The wizard gave a defeated sigh and started chanting her spell while their rest of her party got in formation for battle. 10 seconds later, thunder shook the forests as a lightning bolt as thick as a tree struck the surface of the small lakelet.
It was the first time since their arrival that the water surface was disturbed. They watched expectantly as the waves of the strike crashed against the benches, but nothing emerged. Whatever enraged beast they expected, it wouldn't simply jump out to attack them. They were about to lose their focus when someone spoke up.
"Why aren't the waves stopping?" Nose asked with suspicion, glaring at the water. He was right, at this point, the water should have already calmed down, but it had not. Once disturbed, the lakelet kept rippling with waves and-
"Aren't they getting stronger?" the mage asked, mild concern in her voice.
"Everyone, hold formation. Bole; get ready to take the aggro, Hale, keep an eye on him, and don't forget the buffs. Maggie, start casting. I want to blast that thing the moment it comes out!" he started barking commands.
What emerged from the water was like an elemental. A snake with a kind of horse-shaped reptilian head. The creature made of water screeched at the part. Bole immediately used
Before it could attack again, the thing was hit by another lightning strike, which exploded its watery body in all directions. Bole regained his composure, ready to continue the fight, but the water didn't make a move to continue the fight.
"W-Was that it?" Bole tempted fate, only for Nose to bear the consequences.
"Urgh!" The scout suddenly let out a gurgle and fell to his knees. Buried in his guts was a black, wet, shiny tentacle that extended out of the water. Nobody had seen when it happened, or heard anything before Nose was already on the ground.
"AHHH!"
Hale tried to cast a healing spell, but Nose was suddenly pulled away with incredible force and speed, into the depths of the seemingly shallow water hole. The whole party was stunned, frozen in stupor.
"Bole! Don't lose focus!" he suddenly screamed, despite not having recovered from the sudden loss. The tank raised his shield just in time to evade suffering the same fate as Nose.
"Something is coming up!" one of the melee warriors slightly behind Bole shared his observation with the party, who were watching the same thing happen in horror.
At first, it looked like the whole lakelet had turned black, then the water's surface rose and broke, revealing a giant beast that looked way too big to have been hiding on the bottom of the small body of water.
Shiny, smooth, skin covered in a pattern of deep black and dark green. A head resembling a horse that stole the dentures of a crocodile. The body of a horse, but it was almost impossible to determine what number of legs were hidden behind the curtain of black tentacles or barbels that hung down the sides.
Nose was still impaled on one of those, like a small figurine or key chain used for decoration. He also saw the body of a woman, impaled on another of the tentacles; the skin of the corpse was already bloated from staying under water for so long.
Emerald green eyes, glowing with malicious fire, were directed at the horrified search party. He swallowed. Maggie was right; they should have called for assistance. This was far above their skill level.
"Lightning Storm!" he heard Maggie shout, summoning a small cloud above the massive beast. The strikes kept hitting the creature, shaving away single-digit permilles of its health bar, barely dealing more damage than it healed... They were cooked.
"Everyone on your mounts. Return to base, I will distract it!" he commanded and used several consumables, including an alchemical smoke bomb and paralytic poison bomb, covering the creature in a screen of gases. The guild distributed these to party leaders exactly for moments like this.
"Fire Edge!" he cried out as he wielded his bastard sword and shot a burning edge of fire into the cloud, causing it to explode in a massive fireball. Then, he also got on his mount and fled. He had layered several crowd control effects on the beast, which would buy him time, while he should have gotten its aggro with the last attack. Once the effects wore off, the beast would hunt him, allowing the rest to return to base and get help from the guild aces.