A tired looking man was sitting at a table, the wood was old but stayed strong, the table did not move despite the man sometimes striking it as he recalled the past month, he had thought that some adventurers would be able to take care of all of this but they had only ended up like all the previous victim, gone without a trace, the most one could see of the victim was their blood before it dissipated, after that, it was as if they had disappeared, many people still held on the thin threat of hope that the ones they had lost hadn't fallen victim to the lake but had simply disappeared and still lived.
A hope that allowed many to avoid falling in a vicious cycle but one that was ultimately fake, the lake was the closest source of water to their villages by far, being drinkable, it was where everyone would go to go get some water but this had recently changed.
A month ago, the man had already felt the change, as he was at the edge of the lake, filling a bucket with water, he had noticed how dead the lake felt, it was as if everything inside of it had suddenly died, he couldn't say whether or not his feeling was true or not but he immediately left the area.
The very same day, the first person disappeared, they vanished after going to get some water from the lake, everybody had believed that they had had an accident or that they had been ambushed by monsters or bandits but the man had already started to believe that it was inside of the lake, he decided to keep a watch on the lake at night, to try and get a sight of what he had convinced himself was hiding underwater, he didn't see anything, nothing showed up, the water barely moved at all.
None of his nightly surveillance bore any fruits, as such, he started watching it during the day and immediately, it saw more success than the previous attempt, the man, however wasn't happy with his discovery as the proof of his unfounded belief was a child being dragged into the lake.
He barely had time to even register what was happening and it was already done, something wrapped around one of his legs and in a flash, the child was gone, only leaving the bucket that the child had brought.
As the month progressed, the creature in the lake must have gotten bolder as it started dragging more and more people, it had already killed thirty people, the man was no fighter and had no experience at all in anything that could even allow him to stand up to the monster, adventurers had already failed and he was currently waiting for the second team of adventurers to perhaps come back.
As expected, even after waiting for a whole day, no signs were given from the adventurers, the man stood up from his chair, using his hands to maintain himself standing by leaning on the table.
The man looked even more tired than before as he walked up to a closet, opened it slowly and grabbed something from within, a trident with three prongs, a weapon that used to belong to one of the man's ancestors, a simple thing to catch fish with, being the best thing he had, the man walked out of his house holding onto it.
He walked at a regular pace to the lake, the sun was on th verge of setting, reflecting on the surface of the lake, making a gorgeous sight to behold, if excuding the large stain of blood in the water, most likely belonging to the adventurers.
The man took a few steps forward, bringing him dangerously close to the lake, he looked into the water with empty eyes, despite his outward appearance, the man was fuming on the inside, not at whatever was in the water, he had learned early on that death was a common occurence and that the act of killing was something natural to most beings, he was wrathful toward himself for only coming here now.
He should have been in this situation the moment he had felt something was wrong with the lake.
Suddenly, a tentacle-like thing jumped out of the water going straight toward him, with a loud grunt, the man pierced the tentacle with his trident, twisted the weapon, causing a portion of the tentacle to be ripped off the monster.
It was a surprise to be sure, he had barely been able to see the monster's movements the first time and yet he had been able to precisely strike at one of its tentacle.
The action was repeated a few times as more tentacles sprouted out of the water until eventually, the monster chose to take a more direct action.
After a few minutes of nothing but silence, a humanoid figure came out of the water, it seemed to in the process of turning into something capable of walking on land, once it was done, it ressembled a tall and lanky creature with blue fish-like scales on its body, terrific looking claws on its hand and no facial features at all, on its back, tentacles swayed around.
A mouth opened on its face, revealing a mouth filled with rows of teeth, like the inside of a sharks mouth, it gave a horrifying howl that seemed to be drowned in water.
The man could feel his legs wanting to give in and his heart beat getting faster and faster to the point of causing pain in his chest.
As he was on the verge of collapsing from sheer intimidation, he tightened his grip on the handle of his trident and pointed it at the monster, charging forth with bloodshot eyes.
This went nowhere, despite the man's best effort, the trident didn't even pierced the monster's skin and it swiped its right claws at him, sending him flying away and cutting deep into his chest, up to his ribs.
The man spat some blood as the monster advanced toward him, it felt an eternity as the monster ran to him to finish him off, he looked at his hands and saw that he hadn't let go of the trident, he had done his best but he clearly was no match for this monster.
Still, he pulled himself up using his trident as support and stood to face the incoming monster.
Unbeknowst to the man himself, a golden energy came out of his body, forming into a small ball above his head before suddenly exploding, sending golden light everywhere around them, lo and behold, a phantomatic figure that was of a slightly transparent bright orange in color appeared in front of the man, it was holding what looked like a mace that was just like the rest of his body.
With a simple swipe, the incoming monster was sent flying, its arms shattered after trying to block the gust of wind sent by the simple movement.
The monster was able to understand that the balance had severely shifted and it took off running in the opposite direction, using the tentacles on its back to jump from trees to trees.
The man fell unconscious and when he woke up, day had risen, the orange figure was not here anymore and the monster was nowhere to be seen, the lake still felt dead but the sinister feeling he used to feel was completely gone.
The monster was gone and he had somehow survived.
Inside of world, few were the ones capable of going against him, even in the form of an apparition, few were those willing to fight, even the mindless would realise that they stood before someone that shouldn't be messed with.
A venerer had and would never run into the real one and yet, they all could recognise that being as something to be avoided at all cost.