As my friends swam to the bottom of the lake, more and more monsters followed after them. Without Rick holding the front of the horde back, the monsters at the back where pushing them forwards and into the water. We watched in fascination as nearly 3 feet long piranhas surrounded them and went into a feeding frenzy. More and more carnivorous fish were attracted to the blood and the massive shark from before came by and began to feast on the piranhas who were too out of it to realize they'd become someone else's meal for once.
They couldn't touch me due to the lightning shield. The longer I spent in the water, the more comfortable I felt in it. There's a lot to be said about training 'One with the Storm' but one of the greatest benefits is that because of my affinities and control over the environment my ability to survive in any environment is nearly unmatched.
In comparison, Rick had to activate his Holy Shield and Beth her Earth God's Armor. The piranhas couldn't hurt them through their abilities, Connor wasn't quite so lucky. It's nearly impossible to defend yourself under water with a sword. He had to swim as fast as he could, trying to keep up with Rick's plummeting form and stay within the Holy Shield. The weight of Rick's armor was making him sink far faster than the rest of us. With a final lunge of strength, he wrapped arms around Rick's helmet and hung on for dear life.
A couple of minutes later, we'd all grouped up at the bottom of the lake and were trying to communicate through hand signals.
Beth was chopping her hand like she was using her greatsword to chop through monsters and pointing up, like she'd rather be fighting to the death than underwater and unable to do anything. Connor had found a rock somewhere and was using it to draw words in the sand, while Rick had closed his eyes in meditation. He was maintaining a holy shield around all of us to keep the fish away, and it had to be draining him quickly.
I shook my head at the stupidity of their actions and opened up the group chat and used the typing function. An invisible keyboard appeared in mid air and I started typing at them.
"Why aren't you guys using the chat function?" I typed into the group chat.
Instantly, Beth and Connor froze in their actions as they read my message. Connor slapped his head in slow motion, the pressure of the lake made it difficult to move. Meanwhile Beth started typing furiously.
"I'd rather be fighting then stuck in the bottom of this shit hole with nothing to do for hours! We can't even take a nap!"
Above us, I watched as a massive bear was torn to pieces in a feeding frenzy. "Yeah, we'd be so much better off up there." I sent back sarcastically.
"Did you find anything down here?" Connor sent, trying to focus on what we can do since we're stuck down here anyway.
"Yeah, I found a couple statues of cultivator's fighting. They're really mysterious and interesting, we can check them out if you want." I typed back.
"YES! LET'S DO SOMETHING!" Beth typed.
Rick suddenly opened his eyes and started typing furiously, "I can only hold the shield for half an hour before I'm completely dry, we need another plan."
"Let's head over to the statues and dig out a cave, that way we only have to block off one entrance. I can cover the entrance with ice while you rest." I sent back before standing up quickly and walking towards the center of the lake.
10 minutes later, we were at the statues and Connor and Beth came to a halt suddenly as they stared at them as if they were seeing god. For some reason, Rick wasn't affected and shrugged in confusion when he looked at me. Looking at the statues, I could feel the pull from earlier, but was able to push it away. Walking up to Connor, I slapped him on the head and broke his line of sight knocking him out of his trance.
Looking around, I found a boulder nearby and decided to dig out a cave near the boulder so we could find it more easily. I headed off without stopping to wake up Beth, someone else could deal with that hot potato.
10 minutes later, we were all sitting in a small cave that'd been dug out. I'd reinforced the walls of the muck with ice, and covered the entrance in ice so Rick could let his Holy Shield down. Not a minute too soon either, as Rick typed in group chat. "I'm pretty much empty, I need to meditate for at least an hour to recover. How do we breathe? Going to the surface is way too dangerous."
"I can create an air bubble around each of your faces for around 10 seconds at a time, or I can infuse water with a ton of oxygen and you can try breathing in the water." I sent back, and Beth looked like she wanted to kill me for even suggesting making them breathe water.
"Try out the air bubble." Connor sent back, and I created one around Rick's mouth and nose. He gasped and took a couple of breaths. I waved for him to hold his breath and a moment later it disintegrated.
Rick's thumbs up was all the confirmation we needed of our ability to stay down here at least for a while longer.
An hour later, we left our hideout and made our way back the statues. This time, I let myself get carried away watching them fight along with Beth and Connor until Rick smacked us back to wakefulness and we made our way back to our hideout. While he was recovering his energy, Rick asked in the group chat, "What's so special about those statues?
"They come to life when I stare at them, as if they've been fighting non-stop for thousands of years." I typed.
"The one on the left is the legacy of a Swordmaster so profound that I've just barely scratched it's surface. Watching the two statues fight I've already begun to understand sword intent!" Connor wrote excitedly.
"The one on the right is a Berserker skilled in any and all types of weapon and barehanded fighting. It's got to be a legacy too!" Beth sent.
"If only we knew how to access them." Connor sent, a sense of wistfulness could be felt from him as he wrote that.
Closing my eyes, I remembered everything that I'd seen while watching the statues. I can understand why they think that they carry a legacy, but for me the experience was different. As if I could observe the fight, but not learn from it.
Opening my eyes, I sent them a message. "Next time, you two should try and approach the statues. I don't have any resonance with the legacies like you're describing. I refuse to believe that someone would build something like that and not leave a way for people to access it."
Rested again, the four of us made our way to the statues and Rick and I watched as the two of them stepped forwards as if in a trance. As they got closer to the statues, their form's began to blur as if they were being transported to a special zone. Just before they could disappear, the massive shark from before swept in and attacked.
Beth and Connor were too absorbed in whatever the legacy was doing to respond, so it was up to Rick and me to save them. Rick charged forwards, the holy light covering his body expanding and turning him into a blinding beacon while I pulled out my staff and followed behind him. I couldn't do much in this situation, the shark is immune to the level of Lightning Elemental Energy that I could output and I can't use Air Elemental Energy to much effect while underwater. The only thing I could think to do is freeze the water around the shark, but I'd have to be closer to the shark to even try it.
Just as I came to the conclusion that we were too late, Rick spun and threw his shield like a discus. It slammed into the giant shark, knocking it slightly backwards and giving our friends just enough time to finish their transition to the special zone.
The shark changed it's target, charging directly for us. This time, I created a Water Barrier around me and stepped forwards activating Defense of the Light. Underwater, I was unable to completely activate the technique, but a weaker version of the barrier was still erected. Nearly 7 feet wide jaws stretched wide in front of me, and in desperation Patrice and I combined our energies and froze the water around me.
Snapping it's jaws closed, all the shark got was a massive chunk of ice that it only managed to get halfway through before being forced to spit it back out. Taking advantage of it's surprise, Rick appeared with his mace and slammed it into the sharks ribs drawing blood. That's when I looked around and realized that the water around us was filled with piranhas attracted by Ricks light. We watched in wonder as they attacked the bleeding shark. More and more of them appeared, and I sent Rick a message.
"Cut off the light!" I erected a water barrier around the two of us as Rick grabbed his sheild and we booked it for our hiding spot. I refroze the barrier over the tiny entrance just in time to watch as thousands of piranhas swam by, forgetting about us and heading to the surface to feast on the beast wave.
Opening up the group chat, Rick and Connor's name was blanked out with the mesage, "In a special zone no contact allowed."
'Good luck' I thought as Rick and I hunkered down to spend the rest of the night in our little cave.
'At least there's more room with only 2 of us.'