I rested my back against the sword and a voice called out to me again. "Heo? Is that you?"
"Oh, Elli!" I exclaimed.
A woman in her late thirties walked up. She had on a brown cloak and scarf over a white dress. Chain mail strung between the cloak and dress. Parts of her dress and cloak were leather. She wore leather boots and a black hole church symbol in her blonde hair. Her blue eyes peeked out behind her large scarf. Swaying in her hands was a white staff.
"You didn't wanna text much while you were in Fayha did you? Glad to see you so strong though."
She walked closer and laid a hand on me. My small wounds and bruises along with the rips in my clothes were all fixed. Healing magic worked by using magic to supplement where the damage was taken and taking over those functions temporarily with magic. Its complication to apply the effects of healing made mastery of that type of magic hard. The clothes' material must have been maríft wool, otherwise it would be pointless to use healing magic on it.
"Thank you."
"Don't worry about it." I stood up and she hugged me. "But you should have said bye."
"It was spur of the moment."
"When isn't it with you? Haha." She laughed softly.
"Hey." We pulled apart.
"Nice sword but you didn't seem to be using it a lot."
"You saw that?"
"Yes. I saw most of the fight." Her face softened and she stared me in my eyes.
I walked over and used the new amount of magic I had to put it back in the backpack. Elli walked over and looked into the bag.
"When'd you get enough to buy something like that?" She kept that same face.
"I have ways…"
"So you won't tell me?" She crossed her arms. "I'll find out."
"A gift from someone."
"Who?" Her eyes remained on mine.-
"Y- you wouldn't know 'em."
"Someone in Fayha?"
"I- I…"
Was it someone in Fayha? I'm pretty sure it was Primé right? Keeping my cards close to me I refused to answer. What Universal Being was is still a mystery to me. What if I get drafted because of it?
She let me go after a few more minutes of repeated questioning without me answering. It took a long time but I was finally able to ask her about the other adventurers she was with. Apparently I had stirred up more criets than the one who attacked me
Her party was the one who found me and Stella on the beach fourteen years ago. Her party consisted of Elli as the healer and primary spell casters, Noah as their quicker mid to front line, and Liam as their tank.
"Be honest though." Elli said. "You knew we were down here."
"I- I did. I just came to practice a few things while I'm back for the night."
"You can't get past me. Hehe." She took my hand, her eyes finally failing from mine. "If you're up for the night you can have your first legal trip down here."
I smiled, showing a bit of my sharp teeth and followed her. We walked on the blue sand. I looked up at the moon.
"You noticed the moon right?"
"Of course I have. Hero syndrome Hero of Horror in Fayha. I was worried while you were there by the way."
"Her name was Baydí…"
"You knew her?"
"The sword's hers. She spawned it while trying to kill me."
"Oh, no. I'm sorry." She slowed her pace and squeezed my hand.
"It's fine…" I shivered.
"Did you…" She looked me in my eyes strangely once again. "Did you kill her?"
"Helped." I quickly added on. "But it was Rex who actually fought and killed her!"
She slowed, her hand loosened. She looked me up and down. She sighed before squeezing it again.
"You don't feel anything for it do you, Heo?"
Her question silenced the ocean shore. Both our bodies froze still. I looked her in her eye, the words falling out naturally.
"I know I should. She's actually the second, third if you count I unintentionally caused the death. It didn't look nice. I don't like the sight of it. I ended up seeing a lot in Fayha. I-" She stopped me.
She looked away before looking back at me. Her face fell behind a shadow of her bangs. She shivered for a second, sighed, and looked me back in the eyes.
"I'm glad you made it out." I took a step back. "You didn't deserve the situations that made you do that."
"I didn't?"
"Of course not, Heo!" She hugged me again.
After a long moment she let me go. I slid back from her warm grip. Her eyes looked up to mine.
"There's a study I've heard of…" She patted my head. "I think it relates to you, Heo."
"How so?"
"Effects on the human brain from magic usage at an early age. Some of the symptoms documented reflect you a lot. I know some of the team on it, if you'd like to help them."
"Sure." It would get me out of that house.
"Good. Now cheer up a bit. I didn't mean to make the mood down."
We headed off down the beach a bit farther, eventually finding Liam and Noah around a few more corners.
Noah had dark brown hair that was puffed up then faded at the sides of his head. Two dreads came down from his hair at the top and fell down his face at the sides. He had red eyes representing how good he was at fire magic. He wore a similar brown cloak to Elli. The cloak had a middle piece of cloth with red paint scattered on it. The cloth also had burn marks over it and over his silver armor. He swiped off a short sword and sheathed it next to a similar sword.
Liam also had brown hair, his slicked back with gel. He used to keep the gel at my house because he was there so much. His eyes were a dark golden yellow. He had the same brown cloak on as his group. He wore thicker, more worn silver armor. He was the tallest in the group around six five. Three inches taller than Noah, and ten inches taller than Elli. Most importantly, he had a giant curved thick sword that rested partially on the sand by his leg.
Once they both saw me and Elli, they hawled over like semi trucks. They crashed into me and chucked me up into the air before catching me on the way down.
"Woah, you came back with muscles finally!" Liam said.
"Finally started to miss us, did you?"
"Hey let me down! Haha!" I laughed.
"Heo is gonna spend the night out with us."
"I did kinda stir up the criets."
"Don't worry about it. Sometimes Liam blows a strong gust of wind down on the water so they fight us."
"You really do?"
He straightened and slicked his hair back. "You know wind is strong but hard to master, gotta make sure I stay on top of it. We've been going at this for nearly twenty years. I don't want to slow down on progress."
"Well, our patrol is simple. I think you and Stella know that well." Elli said.
They started to walk along the coast. We caught up and I told them all that happened in Fayha. Their faces contorted as the story went on. I did tell them about the Queen of the Night. I told them about the Crude King nightmare and how I fought Delusion. I didn't tell them about Herika's god, that's something too cool to not keep secret. Finally, I told them about Baydí and the fight with her.
I told them Rex teleported the water away, the same story I've been telling. Elli's face softened and stared me in the eyes.
"The King and the Hero of Horror you don't need to feel bad about. You didn't want to hurt them." Noah stated.
"And you had to defend yourself against Delusion." Liam followed.
The waves from the water fell with a light splash and fell back. Entangled seaweed sat where the water retreated from. The three of them looked at it then at me.
"This is a criet's traps, Heo." Liam pointed.
"When we see these we just drop something on it. Most of the time a handful of sand." Elli bent over and scooped sand into her hand before throwing it onto the seaweed.
The seaweed snapped and crumbled up, before it was dragged into the ocean.
"So do they come up after?"
A small red light peered through the ocean. The waves started to grow a little more restless. Waves crashed up farther, hitting the wall behind us and soaking our legs. The wavy water gave way to another light. The light showed through the water like eyes approaching.
"They only have one eye though, right?" All three of the adventurers were silent.
I turned to face the ocean. The eyes twisted in the water, they stared at me directly. Then the eyes blinked and disappeared. One last giant wave crashed then receded back to the ocean. The clouds in the sky drifted next to the moon, then they warped so as to not touch it.
The world was silent and another quiet wave hit the shore. A small string of seaweed appeared to our left. We all stepped back. Another wave hit and a bundle of seaweed was on the right of us. I slowly slung my backpack to the front of me.
Before I could even think. Fast like the wind Liam blocked a claw heading towards my head. Noah was already spinning mid air while pulling out his short swords to cut the monster. The blades hit another claw on the monster's other hand. A white beam of light shot out at the monster. The area glowed revealing the monster.
The criets I had just been fighting and seen the adventurers fighting paled in comparison. This criet was around fifteen feet tall. Two claw arms. Seaweed wrapped around its neck like a scarf and around its arms like chains. Small strands of water wrapped around the seaweed. Its skin was grey close to a cyan. Of course its eyes were bright red. The mouth of the criet was under the chin if it were human. The mouth had jagged teeth shooting up down and out of the mouth, along with a sharp inner layer.
The two claw arms twisted and threw Liam into me and Elli. Our bodies were thrown to the left side of the criet. Noah was left alone on the right of the criet.
It roared, spun quickly and slashed at Noah. I saw Noah appear around the claw and stab his sword into it. The other claw came after Noah while he was attacking. Right as the claw hit golden light reflected off Noah's skin.
Noah pushed the claw back and took his sword back before being hit out onto the shore, the golden light blocking the attack. Liam shot out, his hand accumulated with wind and he shot it down at the criet. The criet's claw came up and cut the wind around him. Elli was holding her staff aimed at both of them.
I went to help but Elli caught the back of my shirt. She lifted her staff up and a spiral of light came out and formed into a tall sword. Liam hopped back to Noah who placed both of his swords together at the tip. Fire spiraled out of his swords burning the ocean around us into water vapor.
Liam punched and a giant spiral of fire pointed at the criet. It left the criet stunned temporarily, giving Elli room to release her attack. Though the criet wasn't that stunned it's clawed arms raised and split the light in half.The light bounced at all of us, but Elli quickly dissipated the magic only after blinding everyone.
The criet recovered and roared again and charged at us. Liam and Noah started after it from behind but their legs were caught in seaweed. They both stabbed their weapons into the sand but failed to stop the ocean taking them. Elli threw me behind her and defended against the criet.
I fell to the sand, my backpack hitting me in the chest. I undid the straps and pulled out the sword. I ran out to the ocean after Noah and Liam. I whispered the chant of the segmented sea and a trail of water bursted from the tip. I dragged it along the sand. Once I got to the shore I swept the blade above the water.
The tail of water unexpectedly picked up some of the water, while also cutting the seaweed wrapped around Liam and Noah. I flick the water collecting from the ocean at the two adventurers, sending them over to the criet in a mini wave.
The headache I had been forming early was starting to return. My magic had not been recovered enough to fight like the last one. More water flowed into the blade than I'd ever known was possible.
Since the water actually flowed into the blade, the ocean, at least in this area, was magical. The criets must have created it in the area so they could propel themselves out.
My sword hit the sand as the adventures fought behind me. I ran out farther into the ocean and swung the tip of the blade. More water started to collect on the end of the sword as it became heavier. My sword hit the ground as I swung, collecting all the water. Once I was twenty feet out from the initial shore
I dragged the blade across the sand, running as fast as I could. I shot a considerable amount of fire out from my feet to raise myself into the air. The heavy blade flipping from over my head. The weight collected up for a devastating downward attack aimed at the head.
Enhancing my strength I threw the end of the sword down in a narrow line directed at the criet.
The end of the tail of water cut and a spinning razor of water ripped off. It shot out with all the momentum being transferred to a spiralling razor. The ciret turned allowing for all three of the adventurers to land wounding attacks on it. The claw pierced the air to cut the water, the water parted, but only slightly. The weight of the attack didn't get reflected like the light. It ended up cutting the criet into three pieces instead of two.
I came down with the sword, aiming it down. The sword pierced the criet's middle part, then stabbed deeper into the sand. My body wrapped around the tall hilt and I panted. I caught my breath, then slid down the sword.