I took out a cylindrical object from my storage.
It was a metallic cylinder and its length was a bit adjustable. It had a bunch of inscriptions on it. It was a sorry excuse of camera lens that I made. It was still in a research state. Of course, we did have monocular telescopes and stuff.
That was the principal that I used to make these lens. But I didn't have that monocular telescope with me at that time.
I saw the sea and the rest of the destroyed city.
For some reason, the demons were not charging towards us as I expected.
In fact, I couldn't see a single demon. Their tents were still there in the camp, but the camp itself was abandoned. Many soldiers who were part of the attack are standing up from the rubble. They were even helping their comrades.
This all seemed a little odd.
After all, what was the point of such an attack if they don't want to follow up.
It would be a wasted effort.
I tried to look for Arun's location, but I couldn't find him. I took some pictures just in case. Even though it was the result of an explosion, the beach more or less looked like a tsunami came and paid its greetings.
I didn't find anything on the beach or the city, or even the Sea.
When the attack happened, I thought that I saw the Sea level rise. However, now that I looked at it, even with the zooming effect, there wasn't any difference. In fact, it was way too tranquil. Even the pollution created by the Demons and the battle was not there.
I came down and reported the situation to Dhana. Dharma also returned.
"I couldn't find Arun, but I gave the news to one of his subordinates. Everything is too eerie outside. I think it is better if we let the citizens evacuate." Dharma suggested.
Even we felt the same.
The silence and the calm of the Sea was not at all calming or peaceful to us. It was just like the silence before the storm.
"Most of the people here are safe anyway. But how are we going to arrange the transport?" I asked.
Once again, we fell into silence. There were thousands of citizens left behind. They couldn't be transported by the beasts. Because of they were too few and are not enough.
We don't have any other transportation means. The mana levels of the citizens is also low, so they won't have enough strength and speed to keep up the pace needed.
If we let the beasts take the transport duty, the rest of the people will be sitting ducks awaiting any possible demonic attack.
After discussing some ideas, we still decided to start moving first.
We decided to keep the highest possible initial distance first. Whatever beasts we have in hand will be used to transport a few people out of the city. But instead of another city deep inside, they will be transported to the nearest fishing village.
The same one where Ash burned down a restaurant.
There is also a shortcut through the woods. While they move through the route accompanied by Bubble and another soldier who recovered well enough, the beasts will keep on making round trips to move them to the fishing village.
The people that went there will also start evacuating.
The nearest city was the Koram City. A Marquis city of the Anta Duchy. And according to the rules, that's where the refugee camp for these people would be arranged. So, we contacted that Marquee and made arrangements.
Since Dhana is also there, we had enough authority to make the bureau move.
Once the plan was set, we started evacuating immediately.
While the evacuation process was going on, we recovered as well. But as we did, I started having a sense of trepidation. An eerie chill slowly crept up my spine. It felt like an ice cold snake was crawling up against my body.
I involuntarily started trying to shake it off and every time I touched my bare back not finding the snake, I found myself deeper in that pit of trepidation.
Once the people were gathered, the beasts were about to move, however at this moment…
*RUMBLE*
We could all hear a faint rumbling. A very gentle vibration escaped the ground that were standing on. I could feel it through my boots. It was very comfortable too, the rhythm and frequency were just right to make my feet feel a bit tingly.
But of course, that was the last thing I thought of in my head.
Because as the rumbling slowly intensified, all of our gazes were attracted by the sea. The Sea still appeared calm. However, the calm was not the same as the one before.
If the previous calm looked like the middle of a peaceful night, this looked like the calm of a dawn. And what does everyone do at dawn? Wake up.
And right in front of my eyes, I felt like the Sea was stretching its body lazily trying to wake up and get rid of that drowsy feeling.
A few meters away from the sea shore, a water curtain was slowly raising. From my position it looked like the wavy velvet cloth being picked up gently in its place. It was growing taller with every passing second.
"Is that a tsunami?"
Dhana asked in horror.
I wanted to say something, but I wasn't able to. My body froze. My heart was beating like a rattle drum. I could hear its beating in my ears and for the next few moments, that was all I could hear.
And at that moment, I spotted Arun.
Who was standing far away from us, almost close to the shore alone without knowing what to do. I could see him, but not clearly enough. But for some reason I felt like he was shivering there in fright. I even felt like his breathe of despair all the way from here.
The next moment, Arun's mana riled up. His sword is covered in his aura creating the largest aura sword he could manifest. The rising curtain of the water was still not moving towards the shore. Instead, it was just rising high there.
Soon it was high enough to cast a large shadow on the shore.
Arun's figure was swallowed by that shadow. But that raging aura and mana that came out of him, made him look like a flickering candle in the stormy darkness of a moonless night.
I had an urge to take the picture of his.
Even with all the differences we had, all the annoyance he put me through, in this situation, he was there standing up alone against whatever that was coming for us.
At that moment, the curtain finally moving forward while the water was still raising.
And Arun also made his move. I saw him through my camera lens as he ran on the water with a speed that I could never fathom or comprehend in my natural state. Even the water took a few seconds realize that Arun has stepped on it and even went past it.
The ripple came two steps late.
His translucent mana converged into his aura sword as its blade grew larger and it left behind a large line behind as he walked through the Sea.
Dhana cast a defensive spell and even Dharma used up all of his trinkets that he had that could aid in defense. I started channeling my mana, getting ready for my spell.
At the same time, Arun reached the huge wave that was moving forward slowly.
*BOOM* *SPLASH*
He kicked the water surface and rose into the air with an explosive slash. He held the aura sword that looked like a large feather crafted out of the froth of those waves and slashed.
The muscles on his arms were torn and bled out, his veins popped all over the body. He started bleeding from his orifices, the sword ray that grew out of that aura sword emerged like a horizontal crescent moon and went against the huge wave, covering all of its area and cutting it in half.
*SNAP*
And that's when I captured the image.
When the wave and the sword ray hit, Arun fell into the water, with no energy left to stand.
*BOOM*
With an explosive sound the water and the sword ray collided, blocking its momentum. In the face of the sharpness of that blade, the water wave looked like a solid block. The upper half of the wave separated from the lower half for a moment.
It looked magical.
Arun was at the base of that wave, his blood being spread out to the surrounding water.
*SNAP*
The base of the wave collapsed the next second and the upper part was also about to crash into the sea itself.
*SIGH*
And that was when I jinxed it. Not just me, the hopeful sighs of all of the people there were jinxed the next moment.
*CRASH* *SPLASH* The water that was about to hit suddenly morphed.