Chapter 278 - The Quest For Distractions (Part Two)

It was a clear windy day. 

Should have brought my jacket. 

Oh wait, I didn't have a proper jacket. 

It was one of those rare days, I missed Merin's wardrobe.

But- it didn't matter. 

'He's probably alright.' His name wasn't on the deceased list. Actually, I didn't know anyone on that list apart from just the French teacher. 

Sigh. 

I just flew. 

There was a reason why I wanted Enira to come out. 

One, I needed her firepower. Two, her intelligence on things was mostly right. And three, I missed her.

It was odd. I hated when she teased me and all that, but despite all that, I found myself missing her. I concluded this feeling to be love- but it could have been something else. Something that I didn't understand. 

Anyway- I kept going north but, so far, nothing. 

The water was kind of dark blue, and I couldn't see much. And nothing was out of place. 

The scent of salt irritated my nostrils. I never liked the smell of the ocean. 

'Why did I think this was a good idea again?'

Actually, I hadn't. I just wanted more and more things to distract myself. 

I was just running away in the end. 

Sigh. 

I dropped down and made a barrier over the water. I sat down. 'Should have at least brought a fishing rod.' 

The barrier swayed with the water. There wasn't much tide. There was wind but- the water was rather calm. Hard to imagine this was a freaking ocean and not a lake. 

The sky was really clear, not many clouds. The few that were here, were white and fluffy. The seagulls were flying around. 

But, but I felt melancholic. Almost like, 'What the hell am I doing?'

I just stared at the water- my reflection. 

I hadn't seen my face in a while. 'Are those, pores?'

I actually grew hair on my face! That was new!

They weren't mature enough to be called facial hair though. 

Also, my hair was a mess.

***

I kept on just sitting in the middle of the ocean, looking around for signs. But even after half an hour, nothing. The sun was warm and not burning. 

It was still pretty early- maybe nine-thirty.

So, I stood up and made a small plasma ball of sorts. I used the ball to pulverize a shark that was coming this way. 

It was just a tiger shark, nothing fancy. But now I had a bait. 

Hopefully the sea monster or whatever it was, fancied cooked shark. 

Sigh. 

But still nothing. 

Half an hour turned to a full hour, and then two. 

The sun kind of got hotter and now I was sweating buckets. There was water everywhere- but I couldn't drink those. 

I was also rather hungry. 

I tried the roasted shark- it was terrible. And now I wanted to drink water even more. 

It was time to go home. 

Splash!

I was about to lift off when- the water kind of rushed up and sprayed everywhere like a fountain.

It was hard to see because of the sun but a fish- no a girl- no, MERMAID had jumped up high. 

'Wow!'

It quickly again dropped on the water. I'd just witnessed something spectacular!

I hurriedly looked down but sadly couldn't see anything. 

Bits of air bubbles came up. 

And then came up a face.

Mermaids!

"Oh, Comrad!"

Yes, but actually no. 

It was our old reptile friend. 

Sigh. 

What a disappointment. 

"Hey, long time no see. Didn't think I'd see you out here."

To my surprise, the second half which I thought to be that of a fish, was actually a snake. I guess I might or might not have assumed too much.

"I was hunting. Sig and the others are hunting as we speak."

Her name was probably Remia? I couldn't quite remember. I guess I got too hungover when I saw her top portion, which actually did look fairly human. 

"Oh good. I heard there was a sea monster sighted here. So, I came to investigate." And kill it and take its core. 

Obviously, I couldn't say that to her, after all, these people were also monsters, but they did have conscience.

Though I still didn't know if categorizing them as Mutors was even ethical at this point. 

"Oh!" She gradually got on top of the barrier. "This is nice." She looked over the barrier- a tad surprised. Her lower body was basically that of a snake's. The top part was humanoid. And she was wearing just a swimsuit on top: I was definitely not staring at her chest. "There's a massive sea serpent to the north of here. That way." She pointed. "Though I don't think you can win against it in water."

A sea serpent?

Then I guess the core would be a dragon-type one? After all, both were lizards. 'Then I'm lucky?'

Then again, dragon types were kind of, well, tough. 

"I can fly."

She formed a half-smile. "I don't think that'll help. It's really fast and rather tall, so it'll be easy for it to get you."

I couldn't help but use the 'I can fly' card. It was my new power and I wanted to flex a little. 

But- disappointment. 

"What is wrong Remi?" Another geyser erupted and sprayed water like a fountain. "Oh, Comrad!" A familiar deep voice. 

This time there was a full-blown lizard. There wasn't even the slightest chance in hell I'd mistake him for a mermaid. 

He also crawled up the barrier. The whole thing swayed. 

It was hard to make it big enough to not be too close to each other. 

"He wants to fight the Lexan," Remia said. 

I guess they had a name for it. 

Wait, I actually remember hearing something about a sea monster near the island that surfaced every decade or so, to eat the migrating fish. 

I couldn't really remember where I heard that but it was supposedly a great threat to the local fish markets and they often tried to attack the monster but they never found success and the large monster is still undefeated even after ninety years. 

'And here I thought that was just a folklore.'

"Oh, Comrad, you want help!" This lizard- Sig, wanted to help out. He was a full lizard, almost like an alligator. 

I kind of owed him from before too. He'd saved my life when I was about to drown- or rather, I'd assumed as much. But I did like the guy. Which was why- "I think I'll be fine." I didn't want them dying on me. 

They could survive underwear, I could not. 

But that also meant they were at a far greater risk than me. 

"Oh." He was disappointed, heartbroken even.

Well, that was exaggerated. "I'll let you see my fight though. I'll put on a flashy display." Besides, lately, I was really confident in my plasma balls. "But you'll have to stay a fair distance away unless you want to be roasted with radiation."

"You're serious about fighting it?" Remia said, a bit concerned.

"Uh-Huh."

If it got a bit too hairy, I could always just run away. 

For now though, I wanted some good old quality distraction. 

I tried lifting up. "That way, right?"

I didn't immediately undo the barrier. 

"Yes."

"Kay, seeya around."