Oraru- a bass type fishman- was standing guard at a watchtower just outside the aboveground sector of the fishmen village when he noticed a black-purple blur in the distance.
Most of the huts on the aboveground sector of the fishmen village were made of straw or basic wooden materials, as most of them were not used to house the people but rather as simple workplaces.
A few watchtowers made of wood, straw, and with palm leaves as roofs served to allow the fishmen to keep watch over the horizon, and currently Oraru was stationed at one of them.
The purple blob seemed to be radiating a foggy aura. Oraru could barely make it out, but it was not something he had ever seen before.
'What is that.... I can't exactly make it out... either way, I need to inform the chief of this...'
"There is a strange presence coming towards the village! Send out a team to find out who or what it is!", he shouted down to some other guards who were sitting about near the houses.
The guards stood up and a few of them immediately set out to figure out what was going on.
"Lets move out!"
"Do you have any more details, Oraru?"
"Just that it's... purpleish and it's coming this way. It's almost like it has a layer of fog surrounding it... it could be some sort of magic. Be careful!"
"That certainly is strange... I've never heard of any magic doing something like this, but I suppose it's possible..."
The guards set off to meet the approaching being.
----
Claire had made her way past the lizardmen village and was supposed to be arriving at the fishmen village very soon, according to the information she recieved from Arlo before she left.
'Ok... ok... ok.... this time for sure, I will make sure that I can help the people of this village! Wait a minute... didn't Gary say that they were going to be attacked soon!? This is a really important matter then! Ok! It's my time to shine, and save these people!'
Claire reaffirmed her purpose here before seeing that a few large humanoid fish were running towards her. They wore tribal leather cloths stitched together with shells and seaweed to cover themselves and wielded trident like spears
'Ah... here we go again... please don't force me to do something strange...'
The three fishmen ran closer and closer before slowing down when Claire was within 30 meters of them.
They slowed their pace.
They stopped.
They turned around.
They ran.
They ran faster and faster away from the carriage.
Their breathing was ragged, and they seemed to be shoving each other out of the way and climbing on top of each other in order to escape.
Claire heard their screams from where she was.
"Out of my way!!!"
"It's a vampire!!! Run for your lives!!!"
"She must have come from the haunted realm!!! I've never seen anything like that carriage before!!! Just look at the way she carries herself!!! She must be some sort of vampire queen!!!"
'Geh.'
Claire's face was completely rotten at this point.
Claire blew her hair out of the way of her face, dramatically.
'Can't I go anywhere without the people around me losing their minds these days...'
----
'What is that thing in the distance... is that a carriage?'
One of the guards- a troutman was thinking this as he approached the hazy blob.
'Are those... wings? Wings on the side of it? What am I seeing here?'
He began running closer to get a better look at who or what was approaching the village.
That was when he saw the woman's face as she sat in the drivers seat steering the carriage of death.
She was wearing a pure white dress, and had long beautiful silver hair. She carried herself like a princess, and seemed to be condescendingly staring right at him.
'This woman... her stare is as cold as ice!'
The troutman slowed down his pace and came to a stop.
'She's staring directly at me!!! Who is this woman!? Where has she come from?!'
At this point, all three of the fishmen who had been sent out had come to a full stop.
"That woman doesn't look normal.... is that a human? No...."
'What is this terrifying sensation I am feeling? I feel that if I don't turn tail and run back right now.... I'll be killed!'
The guard found himself turning to run from the woman subconsciously. His body was moving on its own.
One of the other guards pushed him out of the way, and began running back to the village.
"Out of my way!!"
The other ran behind the one who had just pushed him down.
"It's a vampire!!! Run for your lives!!!"
"She must have come from the haunted realm!!! I've never seen anything like that carriage before!!! Just look at the way she carries herself!!! She must be some sort of vampire queen!!!"
The guard who had been pushed down thrusted his body upwards with everything in his being.
Hearing these words sprung him into action.
Vampires were monsters who tended to be in the 7th or 8th tier in strength- only second to demons, dragons, and molten elementals.
The strongest fishmen were only in the upper 5th tier, and having a run in with a powerful vampire could lead to hundreds if not thousands of deaths for the fishmen.
His legs bursted forward with a fiery sprint that he never believed he had in him.
He had to run. He had to escape. Both to save himself, and to warn his people.
'A vampire queen.... what could she be doing in these lands... is another war about to break out among the upper echelon of the monster realm?! I have to get this information to Ploritan...'
However, when the guard looked back, he saw something that almost made his very soul leap out of his body.
The dark horses which propelled the chariot were running at a furious pace, and the woman had an excessively irritated look on her face.
'She's going to kill me!!! That look on her face!!! It's as if I am nothing more but an annoying bug that she wants to scrape off her shoe!!!'
The guard felt his breathing become ragged and his bodily functions ceasing their effectiveness. Was this the end?
He had caught up to the other two, who were also running sporadically.
'If I don't do this... I'm done for... this is their fault for allowing me to get behind them....they pushed me down in the first place anyways...'
The guard grabbed the fins on the backs of the two guards running in front of him, and threw them both backwards, causing them to fall to the ground.
The horses were right on his tail.
The trout ran.
He ran, and ran and ran.
He didn't dare look back.
"Aghh!!!! You bastard!!! Betraying us like that!!!"
"Please spare me, o great vampire princess!!!"
"AGH!!!!"
He didn't bother to look back, for he knew the fate of the two he had betrayed.
This was a merciless world of monsters. Those who were not willing to throw their comrades to the sharks would not be able to survive.
----
Claire was beyond annoyed.
'They're running from me without even saying anything?! I didn't even get to introduce myself, and they're already terrified!?!?'
She whipped the horses pulling the carriage.
"After them! I can't allow any further misunderstandings to happen!"
The horses were much faster than the fishmen, and Claire found herself gaining on them quickly.
'I have to stop these three from escaping before they can further embellish rumors about me in this city... I won't allow such a thing to happen again....'
Claire did not realize herself what a disgusted look she had on her face as she chased after the fishmen.
Then, the fishman in the back grabbed the backs of the two others, throwing them to the ground.
'Perfect. Now I just have to stop that one from escaping...'
The two were thrown to the ground, and on Claire's approach she heard them scream many things.
"Aghh!!!! You bastard!!! Betraying us like that!!!"
"Please spare me, o great vampire princess!!!"
Claire swerved the horses around the fishmen, and the carriage skidded before sliding right past the two.
"AGH!!!!"
'I can't let even a single one of you escape... if that happens, it's game over... you are my target!!!'
Claire raced after the fishmen who remained standing.
What was this feeling?
Adrenaline?
Claire felt an excitement at chasing after this fishman.
Was this perhaps what Ashley felt when she taught Rithargus a lesson?
Was this what Garett felt when he tormented someone who was bowing before him?
Claire was... smiling.
A devious and excited smile drew itself across Claire's face.
She was thrilled at the chase. The sensation of hunting down prey, as they furiously tried to escape her grasp in a useless effort.
It was.... satisfying.
However, the chase was over quickly. This sensation only laster a brief moment.
She skidded the cart in front of the trout soldier, who was now on his knees in defeat.
He could not outrun a chariot in the middle of a field- and they were far from the gates of the village.
Not only this, but as a fishman, his lung capacity was limited.
It was a complete loss.
"Geez.... why were you running from me.... I just wanted to have a peaceful visit...", Claire said with a devilish smile on her face.
----
'This woman.... she is truly a demon.... look at that thrilled face... she is enjoying my torment as she chases me down!!! I have to run!!!'
The trout ran and ran after throwing down the other fishmen. His legs felt like they were about to give in, and his lung capacity was failing.
'She completely ignored the other two!!! Is she bent on not leaving any survivors!?! Is that why I am being targeted!?!?!'
He had dropped his trident at this point in order to avoid being held back by it. There was no point in wielding a weapon against this higher being.
However, it was to no avail.
The horses caught up in an instant, and the woman skidded around, blocking his path with her carriage. The bat wings flapped creepily in the wind, and he was engulfed in a nauseating fog that made him unable to get his bearings, even in the face of such a terrifying being.
The woman looked over to him with a creepy smile- that of the hunter after a successful hunt... no, that of a predator after cornering and gutting their prey.
"Geez.... why were you running from me.... I just wanted to have a peaceful visit..."
'Peaceful visit my ass.... just your existence is spouting chaos! I.... I can't feel my legs... If her target is our village, we are all doomed. There is nobody who has the power to fight a high tier vampire in our village... not even Ploritan or Kota... is her goal massacre? Or perhaps she is here to gather troops for some sort of endeavor...'
One could never tell what other's were thinking here in the monster realm. Some monsters merely wished for slaughter and chaos, while others had more intelligent goals in mind.
"I need you to take me to the leader of this village. This is an emergency. If you don't listen, everyone here will be wiped out."
She said this in such a stern and demanding tone.
Was she truly here to take over the village? And if they disagreed, she would kill everyone?
There was no doubt that she could at any moment.
There was nothing he could do but listen. Faced with such an immense power, the guard stood up quietly.
"But really, why were you all running from me?? What's with those scared looks on your faces? Am I really that terrifying?"
Horrible.
This woman was mocking him now.
Her words suggested that there wasn't anything to be afraid of, as if she was confused by the fear they held of her.
As a matter of fact, her acting was so good that it was almost as if she legitimately meant those words, and was seriously confused as to why the fishmen would be so terrified.
But faced with this elegant aura of power that she held.... that couldn't be the case. There was no other possibility aside from the fact that she was mocking him.
The trout could say nothing, and he simply stood up to lead her through the village.
"I guess it must have been the carriage... perhaps I should leave it outside the village. Do you all have any stables?"
"We do... right this way..."
----
Why did these fishmen look so scared?
Claire finally figured it out.
It was the carriage. It had to be. There was no way that she was a scary person. She was here to help these people. There was absolutely no way it was that they were scared of her.
Right?
It couldn't be because she was just a scary person in general. There was no way! Yes, it had to have been the carriage.
Anything designed by the antiheroes was intended to invoke fear in anyone who gazed upon it, and Claire facepalmed at not having figured this out before.
'Perhaps I should have ditched the carriage before greeting them... no, then I would have had to leave the horses in the middle of nowhere. And if I didn't take the carriage, it would have taken me much longer to get here. Ah well... at least I caught these three before they spread any more rumors about me....'
But what was that feeling?
Claire had calmed down now, but she clearly felt it.
That thrill of chasing someone with fear in their eyes.
'No no no!!! I am supposed to be a hero! A HERO!!! I can't be going and having such evil thoughts and feelings!!! I am here to save everyone in this village from an attack! That's right! I need to get to their chief.'
The fishmen led Claire to a stable where she parked the carriage and unloaded the horses. There were not many people around in the outer area of the village, however when they got closer and closer to the beach the density of people increased.
Many people were staring at her. They looked uncomfortable and even scared, but it was nowhere near the level of fear invoked in those lizardmen back when she visited that village, or those who she had first met. Perhaps it really was the cart that scared these soldiers. Mostly.
They passed many salt collection areas and small buildings made of wood, straw, and palm leaves before reaching a large lake filled cavern.
It was beautiful.
She could see her reflection in the water clear as day, and the rocky material which made up the cave had a glassy look. Rainbows reflected on the rocks wherever light peeked in through the entrance.
It was truly mystical, and something that she would only see in this new world.
"Um... your highness, unfortunately you will have to travel through the water in order to reach the village. I deeply apologize!!!!"
Claire sighed and smiled.
"It's not a problem! I am here to help you all after all! Wait? Your highness?"
"AH! Should it be your majesty!?"
"Sigh. Your eminence is fine."
"T-then, y-your eminence...."
'So she was a queen after all!! How terrible.... she has this terrifying look on her face as if I've said something horrible to offend her, yet she says nothing! And she said that it's not a problem for her to swim!?! Of course it's a problem!!!! What queen in their right mind would want to have to soak themselves to see our leader!?!?'
The troutman felt like he was in a situation where the woman was telling him "Nothing is wrong. Absolutely nothing is wrong. Stop asking me if something is wrong. Everything is perfectly fine."
Everything of course, was not perfectly fine.
However, before he could even offer any other alternative such as bringing the chief to her, she plugged her nose and dived in.
"Eh? Wa-"
She was gone.
-----
Claire dove under, and after swimming for a bit exited the tunnel into an air pocket.
'Ah... that was pretty scary... I've never gone diving before. Now I'm all wet too... Hm? Where did those fishmen go? Don't tell me they got too scared to follow me in here.... geh... now I'm kinda lost....'
Claire emerged from the water onto a black rocky area.
'Ugh... if I don't dry off I might catch a cold or get hypothermia... one of these days I won't have to deal with things like this...sigh....'
Claire looked around after doing her best to wring out her dress and walked down the tunnel before coming across something astounding.
It was an entire city.
It was huge urbanized area, completely formed from coral, sponge material, marble, and seashells.
'Whoa....'
It was even more mesmerizing than the beautiful cavern entrance.
At the front was a large gate made from what looked like an underwater version of bamboo as the posts, and a porous dark rock as the base material.
There was a puffer fish and a seahorse standing guard, both wielding silver tridents.
Claire approached the two quickly.
"Excuse me, could I please enter this city? If I don't, then it will be soon annihilated."
"Eek!!! A vampire!!!", the seahorse squealed.
The pufferfish wielded his trident at Claire, however his entire body was shaking.
"Wh- what are you trying to g- get into the city for, vampire!?! And threatening us as the first thing you say... a-are you here to take over this city for your own?!"