Chereads / Lumen Homestead (BL) / Chapter 15 - Alluring Waters (Part 2)

Chapter 15 - Alluring Waters (Part 2)

"Argh!" Zeke yelled out, breathing hard, palms sweating and vision swaying. He felt gentle, nervous taps on his sweat-ridden face and he heard his name being called out. Suddenly, an incredible beam of light burst out of the mark on his hand, shining, piercing through the depths of the lake, making the surroundings darken and the atmosphere thrum with overwhelming magic.

Zeke panted, breathing shallowly as the pain and the light fades away still unaware of his own surroundings. A moment, then a continuous tapping of your cheeks brought him out of his delirium.

"Boss! Boss! Wake up boss! We need you!" he saw Dirk tapping his cheek, shaking his body lightly, intense worry and horror clear from his otherwise handsome face. He realized Zeke was slowly gaining consciousness.

"Boss!" he shouted, hugging Zeke in the process he felt his stiff body relax a little. "I'm so freaking glad, we got so worried when you suddenly collapsed, and— and— the monster!"

He looked away staring straight at something, he saw three of his farmhands fighting something, something that he cannot see at the moment.

"Wulfric, Magnus and Hawke needs my help boss, are you gonna be okay now?"

"Yes, I—I am perfectly fine now," Zeke felt his mind regaining control of his entire body, "I will help, let's go."

"But—"

"No, let's go Dirk, this is a direct command," Zeke replied with surprising authority.

He looked at him defeated and determined at the same time. "Affirmative, let's go master"

The two of them ran towards the rest of the party.

As they get nearer the other three, Zeke could finally see the monster, a horrendously enchanting and almost otherworldly creature hovering, no, levitating on top of the lake, the entire atmosphere and time itself almost feels distorted and wrong. Its appearance suggests that of a beautiful woman, eyes without a pupil endowed with a seductive and alluring body, while the bottom half consists of several octopus-like tentacles.

"A Siren." Hawke murmurs as he grits his teeth. The moment he says its name, it lets out a severe and ear-piercing screech.

"Argh!" Zeke covered his ears, trying to block out the agonizing scream.

"We must…we must silence this abominable wretch," Hawke says as his face contorts into a pained expression.

"But how?!" Wulfric shouted in response, "we can't—we can't do anything because of all this screaming.

"I—I have an idea.." Magnus said, beside Wulfric, "although, it—it needs utmost coordination from us, and we must also eradicate this monster quickly, no second chances and without mistakes"

"Whatever it is, just tell us" Dirk yells over the continuous madness of screaming.

"Alright, first and foremost, judging from its overall appearance, its elemental affinity seems to be water, so we must have electric-based weapons," Magnus started to explain over the deafening song of the Siren, "Wulfric, I believe you got that covered"

Wulfric nodded.

"Then we must do a pincer movement to outmaneuver and distract the enemy, with Dirk and I on the left, boss and Wulfric on the other, Hawke will barrage it with electrically infused bullets," he continued.

"While distracted with Hawke's onslaught we will charge, and this can only be done once, it's crucial that we must execute this flawlessly as the enemy is floating above the lake, it'll be harder to fight it in its natural habitat."

That's a lot to take in but Zeke nodded in understanding, he cannot fail now, this is his moment. All of them readied their weapons as Wulfric started to chant gibberish words Zeke has never heard of before, then suddenly Zeke's weapon glows a fluorescent yellow color, crackling with tamed electricity, he almost couldn't believe his eyes.

"Ready yourselves everyone, at my command we will commence our plan," Wulfric said with a booming voice so that everyone could hear him.

Zeke took a huge, deep breath.

Hawke's magical homing bullets started to hit the enemy continuously, and as its screams of agony intensifies Zeke and his other three farmers initiates their plan.

"Boss! Now!" Magnus yelled.

Zeke doesn't know how he did it but he jumped at an incredible speed, along with Wulfric lunging at the distracted Naga as he readied his weapon to attack its weak point. He saw Wulfric doing the same with his enchanted rapier, gracefully piercing the enemy's side. Dirk stabbed his daggers which are serrated with what seems to be poison into the Naga with unnatural speed, while Magnus swings his great sword with inhuman force.

Zeke set his polymorph sword into its speed form and he moved with incredible speed as he lunged to pierce the monster's heart. It stopped shrieking seemingly dead, and fell into the lake with a huge splash.

Along with the other three farmhands, Zeke fell into the lake from that attack, hoping that the Naga is dead. He swam upwards then maintained to float as he tried to look for the others,

He saw them not far from him, with Wulfric beside him and the other two on the other side of where the monster fell.

"Are you guys alright?" Zeke yelled, both of your hands keeping him from sinking. They all responded with an affirmative yes and he also saw Dirk giving a thumbs up while grinning.

"Do you guys think it's dead?" Dirk said, as both he and Magnus swim towards Zeke and Wulfric.

"We will see," Magnus replied, frowning hard.

Suddenly, as the purple light from your mark wanes, the usual burst of bright, warm light now emanates from it, you feel and hear a resonating sound coming from deep within the lake. You and the other three see the source of the light go upward and out of the depths of the lake.

"Hey! What are you guys still doing there!" Zeke could barely hear Hawke from afar.

The orb of light thrummed with magic and warmness, this must be the seeds just like the ones from earlier. Zeke swam towards it as it descends gently in both of his hands, while doing so he almost lost his balance but Magnus caught and supported him.

The pouch felt heavier this time, and more grander looking, before he examine the contents the four of them decided to swim towards Hawke first.

"Everything alright?" Hawke said as Zeke and the boys emerge from the waters, his monotone voice betrays his worried expression, seeing this Zeke nodded warmly in response.

Still soaking wet from swimming, Zeke put the huge pouch of seeds on the ground which still glows in a warm inviting light. He opened it and inspected the contents. He was surprised that there's actually nothing inside and it is only that, a glowing light.

"What does this mean?" he asked no one in particular, "aren't there supposed to be seeds inside?"

Before any of his farmhands could respond, he tried to shake out the contents of the pouch and while he does, a barrage of seeds came out of the light inside the huge bag.

He tried to stand and shook the pouch a little more and even more seeds came out. Huge amounts of seeds he doesn't know are strewn about on the ground, and when he looked at the pouch he's holding there appears to be a name materializing in front of it, "Potato Seeds" just like the ones from earlier.

🥔 Obtained Bag of Infinite Potato Seeds

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📙 Bestiary:

Naga — A creature that resembles a woman in a snake-like body, strong against water but weak against lightning. Can levitate.