Even though Dullip received a mild power-up thanks to the robust support of the people in the harbour, it didn't change the situation much.
After all, he was against two Spirits and Keyn Garobu, the Apostle wielding ten percent of the Sickle Deity's strength.
Moreover, a dozen Priests had arrived at the shores, split between the two sides. They were all brought by Keyn Garobu, having the sole intention of capturing Dullip.
Priests were groomed to be innately loyal to the Faith. That was what it meant to become a Priest. They could never go against the orders of someone from the Faith.
But of course, there were levels to it. A Laurel Priest could decide to not follow the orders of a Spirit. After all, they were created using the Deity Organ of an Apostle. So, in theory, they were only meant to serve the Apostle and above.
This also meant that when there were conflicting orders from two or more Spirits, the Priests would simply follow the orders of the one with a stronger Faith.
And in this case, it was Keyn Garobu, the sole Apostle in Garobu City. The only entity with a stronger Faith than him was the Sickle Deity himself. So, when he passed the order, all Priests moved to heed it.
Iota crouched after observing the state of things, stealthily plunging the blood of a Nasp into his body. This was the Nasp carried by Royl. It was the last on his being.
With that, he focused on the various scents around him as he muttered, "My friend, Dullip, can you make a hole?"
He pointed at the water tank, "Make a hole that reaches the bottom, large enough for a fish to peak its head through."
"This isn't the time for your nonsense," Dullip whispered, unwilling to lose his focus as he still wasn't able to get a clear picture as to what the heck Keyn was scheming now.
"Trust me, I'm on your side. Or rather," Iota said seriously, "You're my shield in this world. So, your survival is my priority for self-preservation."
"Don't make me regret it," Dullip said as a sickle extended out of his feet and punctured a large enough hole in the boat, causing water to begin gushing inside.
Iota observed the crack, watching a group of fishes peek through it, their eyes full of intelligence, "Aim at the glass spheres in their possession."
The fishes swam deeper and vanished from view. They were fed his blood beforehand, in preparation for anything that might happen once Dullip arrived at the scene. It was only after that was he ready to face Dullip.
"Are you intending to flee underwater?" Keyn snorted in disdain, "You think you can survive there long enough? All the Priests will be keeping watch here. You won't escape."
"Why would I escape?" Dullip glared in response, "As long as your ugly mug remains an Apostle, I won't be satisfied. You just lack the stature for one."
At the word 'stature' being used in the context, Keyn erupted with a torrent of killing intent. It was always his inferiority complex, for he was the shortest among his many siblings. When those like Dullip were blessed with the genes to go well beyond six feet and almost reach a height of seven feet, he, on the other hand, couldn't even touch five feet.
He was one of the shortest in the entire Garobu City, a fact that scarred him for life. And at its mention, he couldn't maintain his cool any longer.
Swoosh!
Right as he was about to attack, syringes shot out of the water and slammed into the glass spheres in the hands of the Priests.
"What the…?" Upon sensing a projectile coming her way, the Laurel Priest accompanying Keyn Garobu, Larru instinctively caused her clothes to turn puffy and defended herself. Unfortunately, she wasn't the target but the glass sphere in her hands.
The first syringe stabbed into her puffed clothes and was intercepted. But a second syringe followed right in its shadow and stabbed into the glass sphere, immediately sucking in all the Nasp's blood.
Iota clenched his hand into a fist, causing all the syringes to vanish as they appeared on his body as tattoos. He focused, unable to sense any more Nasps in his vicinity. As they were trained to his scent, he was able to smell them when injected with the blood of a Nasp.
After all, they too were trained to follow his scent. It was through this that he sensed the two Spirits approaching their way, for they had a Nasp each. And during their arrival, the effects of the previous Nasp blood had yet to wear off.
He used the first one within the pipeline and the second one after arriving at the boat, using it to perfect his scent-masking disguise. To prepare against any variables, he remained in wait to consume the Nasp's essence as little as possible.
That was how he was able to react to that attack and retaliate, thereby preventing Dullip from suffering from the sneak attack.
Thankfully, the unexpected attacks from the fishes worked, allowing him to nab all the Nasps in the vicinity.
Swoosh!
The Priests attacked the river water but by then, the fishes had retreated deep into it. Iota got up as he whispered to Dullip, "Can we escape? I can assist with that, but fighting these people is beyond me."
"Do you have a good method?" Dullip observed Iota's change in appearance and asked, partly confident in the other party's resourceful nature.
"Just defend us from their attack. Leave the rest to me." Saying so, Iota stabbed two syringes into his thigh, almost grunting from the side effects. One of them was fish blood while the other was Royl's blood.
He also stabbed a syringe with fish blood into Dullip right after the latter severed the boat into two.
"Keuk!" Dullip grunted in pain as his Faith countered the energy within the syringe. It caused him unimaginable pain. But having experience with the previous attempt, he had braced himself for it, hence still able to maintain his focus.
He purposefully retracted his Faith, watching the essence within the syringe flow to his neck, becoming a pair of gills there. They also congregated around his arms and legs, leading to the creation of fins.
If he didn't retract the Faith from the respective areas, the essence of the fish blood would have been countered and ejected out of his body by now. 'I can now breathe underwater?'
He looked around in surprise, observing that he could also see clearly at the depths, despite the sunlight turning dim here. The fins allowed him to keep balance and move forward while facing the least water resistance.
Iota employed Royl's power, sending out a string that coiled around the unconscious figure of Royl and pulled him closer. He stabbed a syringe—with fish blood—into him, allowing him to survive underwater for longer durations.
Grabbing Dullip using the same string, Iota swam forth like a fish, collecting the floating figures of Canl and Menl after stabbing a syringe—with fish blood—into them. This way, they'll be able to breathe underwater.
Attacks trailed after them relentlessly deep into the water, but Dullip focused all his attention on defending against them, parrying them enough to allow ease of movement for Iota.
With that, three Merit Shamans, one Spirit, and one otherworldly entity escaped through the depths of the river.