Hordes of people had been stranded in the midst of the flood.
All of them were fighting to stay afloat. They fought for dry land and a place to stand.
The tides continued to rise, the waves nibbled at their feet. Oxhor's culture of power-seeking helped them here. Even the weakest commoner had some kind of practice done. Although they were Rank 0s, they could still parry the occasional leaping fish.
Athelei had turned a small part of his body into an extension of his senses. A wisp of grey fog drifted towards the floods, allowing the boy to witness what he could not see. Unfortunately, it couldn't cross the kilometres worth of distance. He could feel the strain similar to when one part of his fog-body went a tad bit too far from his other particles.
The wisp of grey fog could not break the limit of four kilometres. Athelei felt that if he did so, he might just lose connection to the fog, and therefore lose a part of his physical body.
It would be an injury.
"I do wonder how I can improve myself in this regard. Nightwalker fog-bodies can stray as far as they want from the main body as it is a separate entity, but the fog that transforms from my flesh cannot do the same." Athelei sighed as he pulled back his wisp of grey fog, "The distance limit is similar to the limits of my dispersion when I turn my fog-body into an actual fog."
Athelei's fog-body could disperse and spread throughout the volume of a sphere with a radius of about 4 kilometres. And if he wanted to move, he had to move that vague sense of having a centre he had. To put it in another way, he had to move the core of his consciousness fog.
'Should I go back to sleep?' Athelei thought to himself as he ate breakfast with Aria, 'No... if someone comes to wake me, my identity as a Nightwalker may just be revealed...'
"Hey Orien," Aria suddenly spoke to Athelei while he was thinking.
"Ah, yes Young Lady Aria?" Athelei sat up straight upon hearing the young child's small voice.
"When do you think my father and mother will return?" Aria asked just as the servants took her plate and served her dessert.
"Mmm," Athelei hummed as he gave it some thought, "Perhaps later tonight, but I'm not sure."
"Oh," Aria nodded meekly as she nibbled on a creamy muffin. "I hope they come back sooner,"
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Lady Karire had a headache.
She was standing on an island in the middle of the growing flood. Beside her was her husband Sir Xiu, the carriage driver, and the horses the Arthime family reared.
"It's worse than I thought," Sir Xiu sighed as he looked around, "...I'm going to command the knights... Stay safe, dear."
"Take a few of the squads guarding the western wall," Lady Karire suggested, "The beast tide takes priority for now, and Weizhe should know that... unless of course, the Undead Remnants suddenly start attacking."
Sir Xiu nodded and enhanced himself with a sequence of Mystic Patterns.
Hunter - Haste - Spring - Tailwind
Four milky white pictures poured strength into Sir Xiu's body, allowing him to move with grace and swiftness. He bounced off of dry patches of land and exposed buildings, dashing through the central region of Avina. On his way, he sent out a few attacks using the offensive Mystic Patterns he knew.
Although single patterns couldn't do much, it was better than nothing.
When a ship-sized starwhale suddenly barred his path as it crashed through a building, Sir Xiu willed a Mystic Pattern circle to life. A familiar column of sonic power blasted through the starwhale, delivering a serving of internal haemorrhaging and ruptured organs.
Thus the severely injured starwhale fell back into the waters, wailing in pain.
It would perish after a few minutes of suffering.
"My intuition is telling me this is just the beginning," Sir Xiu continued past the dying starwhale with a gloomy expression.
Meanwhile, Lady Karire had been watching as her husband zoomed through the flooded city. When Sir Xiu disappeared behind a large cathedral, it was only then that Lady Karire placed her focus back on Avina's latest predicament.
The Blessed were an amazing bunch in the eyes of the common people, and even to most of the nobles. Their decisions always seemed guided by the stars above and success was practically guaranteed. Tales of the Blessed always made for legends and famous stories that spread throughout the world.
But Lady Karire did not feel the same way.
She was bound by an entity she could not escape from. There was a voice always whispering in her mind. The world around her preached that it was a god who was guiding her, but to Lady Karire, it was a devil.
To her, the voice spoke of an endless array of threats. If she did not follow the whispers, somehow, someway, she would always encounter difficult times that bordered on bad luck.
And it wasn't like she made bad decisions. After rebelling quite a few times over the course of her life, she could feel an emotion in the voice whenever she disobeyed.
It was spite and disdain.
More than once had she tried sharing her observations, but each time, something would grip at her soul. If she harboured even a single thought of revealing her secrets, it would always strike. A pain that felt like it had gone on for days would assault her in a single second.
'Is the death of a city the price I have to pay for having a daughter?'
Flames of rage churned inside Karire's mind, but the feeling of being watched never left her. It was unfair how her life was being dictated like this. Karire hated it, but those eyes and that voice seemed delighted whenever her emotions raged just like it was doing now.
This cycle was what gave Karire her frosty aura. She was too absorbed in keeping her mind empty. Allowing those 'gods' to laugh at her misery was humiliating.
And so, like the many times before, she calmed the raging flames in her mind. Her eyes reacquired its resolute glint as she dove into the cold waters that flooded the city she protected.
The beasts that dared invade her home would become tools for her to vent her rage. Their flesh and hide would become resources for the reconstruction of her city. And their deaths would become part of her unyielding oath that one day, she would rid herself of her shackles.
'Die!' Was the only thought that swamped Karire's mind as she tore lightning from the sky and brought it into the waters.
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{[ Eastern Wall, Great City Avina ]}
It was now nighttime, and Sir Xiu had been requested to bring his knights back to the stations they had originally been assigned in.
"My knights are exhausted, Sir Weizhe. We have been fighting the beast tide the entire time. Their blades have dulled and their armour is damaged. Why must you have them march across the entire city?" Sir Xiu's icy expression painted his face as he approached the Eastern Wall and spotted a familiar figure waiting to receive him.
"I know of your valiant efforts, Sir Xiu," Lotus Weizhe did not defend himself, he knew of how much fighting had gone on in the west. Beast carcasses lined the flooded streets and the stench of blood and guts permeated the flooded central area. "And I thank you for your services to Avina as a fellow protector."
Weizhe also knew how Lady Karire had gone on a rampage as she slew hundreds upon hundreds of aquatic life forms, despite having no end in sight. The Rank 2 Artist fought as if she could not tire as the countless waves of beasts roared and swam.
To add to that, the northern and southern harbours were also succumbing to the rising tides. Perhaps in two days, if there wasn't another aqueous monster to hasten the process, then the northern and southern areas would be flooded as well.
As such, when Sir Xiu heard Weizhe's words, he looked rather exasperated as he hissed, "Then let us rest!"
Weizhe sighed, "I know you're tired, Sir Xiu, but please, come with me and you'll understand. We do not have to waste our time arguing."
The man from the Lotus family turned around after his words, forcing Sir Xiu to come with him through his silence and grim appearance.
Sir Xiu followed Weizhe into the Eastern Wall after allowing his knights to rest for a bit. Weizhe walked up a couple of staircases and through a long hallway before arriving at the top of the wall.
"This..." Sir Xiu gasped when he saw a few red wisps of flames dancing in the distance.
"Those red flames that look like candlelights are the cores of Evolved Undead Remnants." Lotus Weizhe elaborated on what he was trying to show, "You can count about a dozen of them now, but last night we couldn't spot a single one of them. They suddenly popped up tonight of all nights."
Weizhe then tapped Sir Xiu's shoulder as he left with the words, "What happens if we let them grow in number?"
"...The areas to our east would completely perish," Sir Xiu quietly answered when Weizhe had already left earshot. "And the Undead Remnants might put Avina in their sights when they run out of food..."
Sir Xiu let out another sigh.
His resolve was wavering.