"That was a great movie!"
To my immense relief, Myria enjoyed the movie tremendously. She giggled when she left the cinema, recalling the ridiculous scenes that were so typical of B-movies.
"Thanks for recommending that!"
"No problem."
On the other hand, her bodyguards didn't appear to have enjoyed the movie. I didn't know whether it was because they found it bad and cheesy or because they spent more time looking out for threats to the Atlantean princess than actually watching the film.
As for me, I had a good laugh. The Attack of the Killer Whale was one of those movies that was so bad it was good. If you know what I mean.
"Where should we go next?" Myria spun around in the water, floating gracefully as she turned to smile at me. I shrugged, feeling the water ripple off the motion. It was still taking me some time to get used to forming a thin layer of qi over my body to keep the water out.
"You're the host, so you decide. I don't know what's in Atlantis."
"Fair enough." Myria snickered and whirled around gently, waves lapping around her. "I'll bring you to an undersea grill. You'll be curious to see how we ignite fire when we're underwater."
"I can probably guess. A combination of cultivation techniques, spirit stones and forming a layer of qi to keep out the water so that the fire wouldn't get extinguished."
Myria sulked. "You're no fun."
She was so cute. I should have just let her show off and explain the stuff to me. Putting on a smile, I held out a hand.
"Still, I do want to see what kind of food Atlantean cuisine is. I'm guessing seafood, but it'll be fun to actually see you grill stuff."
Myria brightened up. "Yeah! Let's go!"
"We have the restaurant booked, your highness," one of the bodyguards spoke up, holding an underwater cell phone. The Atlantean princess tried not to roll her eyes.
"Fine, fine. Let's go." She turned to me. "Shall we?"
"Sure." I was about to follow her, but she chuckled when I kicked off to propel myself forward.
"You really adapt quickly. It's almost as if you're an Atlantean like us."
"I suspect it has more to do with my cultivation techniques having an affinity with the water element than where I was born."
"True."
Myria pointed toward a restaurant that was built into the opposite side of the mall, an extended ledge that seemed like an outcrop growing out of the dome. She swam enthusiastically toward it, and I saw that like the other stores, there was nothing but vast open space in the center. The restaurant itself was open air, that was to say it didn't have a ceiling and very few walls, with a single one partitioning the kitchen from the rest of the area.
From this distance, I could see the other customers seated at tables, grilling a variety of seafood. As I thought, they used qi to create a bubble around the grills to keep out the water while spirit stones glowed heatedly to generate fire underneath the food. Grilled squid, shrimps and even codfish were laid out over the silvery rails. My mouth began to water, which was kind of funny because I was underwater. Never mind, bad joke. Whatever the case, I looked forward to dinner.
Unfortunately, we hadn't gotten even halfway there when our journey was interrupted. One of the guards surged past me to shield Myria, but she wasn't the target. Instead, I sensed killing intent and I immediately kicked off and launched myself away. A trident streaked past the space I was in, stabbing deeply into an empty wall.
As I righted myself in the depths, I saw tendrils of water snake out to curl along the shaft of the trident, yanking it free and returning it to its owner. Once I orientated myself correctly, I saw a familiar blue-haired dude drifting above me, his handsome features twisted into a sneer.
That wavy hairstyle…wasn't he one of the people who followed Myria during the encounter with the Large Liopleurodon?
"Orin!" Myria's eyes widened before she narrowed her wintry orbs to glare at the approaching Atlantean. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I should be asking you that, your highness."
Orin jerked his chin toward me, his expression hostile. He gripped his trident tightly and twirled it about to point the triple sharp tips at me.
"Why are you bringing an outsider around our city? You know the rules. He shouldn't be here. Now that he has seen our city, he has to die."
"Don't be ridiculous. Those same laws state that we have to honor our debts and repay assistance with gratitude." Myria swam forward to put herself between me and my would-be assailant. "He saved our lives from the Large Liopleurodon. The same spirit beast that was about to massacre us all. Remember that."
"That was just a fluke!" Orin spat and jabbed a finger in my direction after righting his trident. Probably because he was worried that he would accidentally stab his princess. "There is no way someone as weak as him could have stopped the Large Liopleurodon! He even got himself eaten by the beast!"
"Actually, he has a point," I admitted and scratched my head. "I didn't even know you guys were out there or that the Large Liopleurodon was attacking you. It was a total coincidence that I cut my way out when I did. I didn't do it to help you guys."
"Fluke or not, intentional or not, the fact remains that he saved us." Myria was still fixing her gaze on the fuming Orin before he could gloat. "Or do you now have the authority to choose which law we should obey and which law we should ignore, Lord Orin Maroma?"
"N…no! That is not what I mean at all!" Orin backed off, flustered. But he gritted his teeth, refusing to give up. Turning his attention toward me, he snarled. "As an outsider from the surface, you had best not have any designs on her highness!"
"Um, I don't?"
"Stay away from her highness. The likes of you filthy surface scum have no right to swim in her presence."
"Orin, that's enough," Myria said sharply. "Song Jun Wen is our guest here. I will not tolerate any disrespect toward him."
The blue-haired Atlantean's face hardened and he glared at her.
"Your highness, I hope you are not enamored by this surface dweller. You might be fascinated because you haven't met one before, but I assure you, the novelty will wear off soon enough. Please remember your position...and that I'm the one who is your fiancé."
"You are not my fiancé," Myria snapped, and I could hear the venom in her voice. Whirlpools began raging around her, her watery qi stirred into a frenzy as she glared at the noble. "I don't know what my father and the Dukedom of Maroma have agreed on, but I can assure you that I will never marry you."
Orin didn't seem bothered at all. Instead, a sly smile crept across his face.
"Your opinion doesn't matter, your highness. As the crown princess, you have a responsibility to the people of Atlantis. Whether you like it or not, you will have to make…political sacrifices for the sake of our kingdom."
Myria snorted. "That's rich, coming from you. I am well aware that the Maroma family has never cared about the welfare of the common Atlanteans."
"Oh, we do. Just not in the same way that you do."
"Only when it benefits you. Why else would you oppose the labor reforms and insist on keeping tax rates abyssal deep?"
Orin lost his smile. His expression darkened as he turned toward me. I felt my heart sink – evidently, I was an easy target for his ire after he got dumped and reprimanded by the princess of Atlantis.
"You have been led astray by the surface dweller, I see."
"Buddy, I've only spoken to her for a day and I haven't gotten involved in your politics or anything. I didn't lead anyone astray."
As I expected, Orin ignored my protests. He pointed his trident at me, his qi boiling around him.
"What say you to a challenge?" He grinned. "I always wanted to see the techniques and skills of a surface dweller. Surely you will not refuse a sparring session with me?"
"Don't be absurd!" Myria cried out, outraged. "It's disgraceful to take out your frustrations on someone else! And it'll be an unfair match! Song Jun Wen has yet to get used to our environment!"
"Does he need to?" Orin scoffed. "I heard that he practices water cultivation techniques like we do. Surely it will not be a problem for him to adapt to the atmosphere of Atlantis already?"
"Um, actually, it is. I'm not that…adaptable."
"Don't worry." Orin's voice carried a trace of mockery. "I'll make sure to hold back and go easy on you. I'll even give you a handicap."
"There's no need to…"
Barely had I finished my sentence when Orin struck. Fortunately, I managed to avoid the thrust of his trident. Drawing my sword that I had taken with me after I was discharged, I parried the next blow before kicking to propel myself away.
Bubbles churned and my vision blurred a little as waves rippled across the surroundings from the violent exchange. Orin continued to harry me, his trident pummeling my position.
"What are you doing, Orin?!" Myria yelled, striding forward, but her bodyguards stopped her, worried that she would be in danger. A couple of them approached to try to stop the duel, but a tidal wave from Orin's swinging trident washed them back. "Sneak attacking an unprepared opponent like that? Have you no shame?"
"Did you not hear him? He agreed to not giving me a handicap, and so I started the duel immediately."
"Stop this at once!"
"It's fine," I assured her, even as I evaded another stab. Twisting my body, I managed to dodge a fatal thrust, but he swung his trident to hit me with its thick shaft. I parried it with my sword, but the powerful blow sent me hurtling through the depths and out of the mall.
I tucked my legs in and rolled about in the water, swinging about to meet his next strike with my blade, deflecting the triple points away from my head. Orin grinned and thrust his trident once more, but this time his attack was accompanied by churning waves and raging whirlpools. I ducked under a serpentine whirlpool that snaked around like a living thing, almost as if it wanted to devour me, and tried to cleave it apart with my sword.
"Whoa?"
As I swung my sword, I felt my blade meet resistance. It wasn't just my counter. My movements felt sluggish, weighed down. I had to expend more of my qi to withstand the colossal pressure at these depths, and it was hard to find footing when I was surrounded by water in all three hundred and sixty degrees.
Realizing the opening, Orin stabbed me with his trident, the weapon wreathed in a raging whirlpool. Despite desperately deflecting the lethal points away in time, I was buffeted by the tremendous tidal wave that washed out of the sea lance and slammed me against a coral reef.
I coughed and gasped, sliding against the broken coral to lay half-buried under the debris. Fortunately, their weight was displaced by the flowing currents that slowly pushed away the rubble, but I continued to lie there, stunned.
"Weak."
It wasn't just Orin who was deriding me. I could hear voices from beyond the fourth-dimension whining about how I was a weak, pathetic beta MC. Probably frustrated readers who got carried away with their self-insert fantasies and couldn't stand it when the protagonist lost a battle. The game master was right. Too many people from the younger generation only wanted instant gratification and didn't have the patience for character development. They wanted overpowered protagonists from the start.
Well, fuck them. And fuck Orin, who was crowing.
"I told you the incident with the Large Liopleurodon was just a fluke," he sneered as he turned to a dismayed Myria. "It's impossible for someone as pathetic as this land-dwelling scum to hurt a Mystic ranked spirit beast. It must have already been weakened by something else."
I coughed and wiped the blood from my lips, shaking my head to reorientate myself after the dazing blow. My body hurt, bruised and battered from the impacts, and the water pressure weighed down on my diminishing qi aura more heavily than before.
Closing my eyes, I calmed myself down. Sure, I was defeated this time, but I had learned a lot from this battle.
Atlanteans, in order to cope with the water pressure at this depth and the resistance of an aquatic atmosphere, had adapted by developing physically powerful bodies. In other words, if I spent some time training in such a brutal environment and acclimatizing to the harsh climate, I would be much stronger than I normally would when training on the surface.
With a grim smile, I slowly drifted upward while mapping out a new underwater training regimen for myself.