275 Solid Water

Putting two and two together, Vy realised that they were using these earrings as communication devices. The voice emitting from the earring must be their comrades. After relaying the information to Aether, the Familiar suggested that they traced the source of the sound. 

"But how are we going to do that? I don't have that ability, do you?"

Aether examined the earrings in Vy's hand closely. After some thought, he came up with a plan. 

"In order for these to work, there must be a trace of magic between the devices. That trace would have come from the person using it to transmit, all the way to these."

"So all we need to do is trace the trail left behind?" Vy put the pieces together. 

Aether nodded. 

Vy nodded as she understood what she needed to do. Her Dark Kyu form's eye had the power to see things otherwise hidden in plain sight. As her pupils darkened, Vy blinked her eyes twice. She looked down at the earrings in her hand. 

As it continued to emit the soft light, she noticed a trail of magic particles. The trail was sparse and fading quickly. If they wanted to see where it led, they had to move quickly. 

"What about these two?" Lycster asked. 

"They're too heavy to bring along, so they will have to stay," Vy replied with a grin. 

Together, they took off with Vy leading the way as they continued to follow the diminishing trail. The trail was fading fast, so all of them sped up their movements with little care of what went on around them. 

Soon, their trail of breadcrumbs led them to what looked like the entrance to a large abandoned building. The door was left half-open, there was no light beyond as it cast a dark shadow. 

With her sight, Vy could see that there were people in the building, seemingly waiting for something or someone to show up. 

"This is definitely the place," she whispered. 

They all crouched at the side of the door, beneath the windows so that they would not be seen by the people inside. Vy could see the trail of magic going through the slightly opened door. Whoever was communicating with the two mercentaurans was inside this building. 

-How many are there?- 

Vy looked towards the building. She did not need to be able to see through the surface to see how many people were in there. After counting for a bit, she turned back around. 

"Eight, maybe more."

"That's definitely what we can manage," Lycster whispered confidently. 

"Even if so, it would be too risky. We are not exactly in our element" Vy warned. 

"What's taking so long?" one of them asked anxiously. 

"They have not responded back in a while either."

"You two, go check on them," a third voice ordered. 

Vy cursed, "Damn it, they are coming out."

The three of them swam swiftly, turning a corner to hide before two mermen came out of the building and swam towards the path they took to come to the current location. Lucky for them, the mermen did not notice them hiding. 

"We don't have much time left, we need to act quickly." Lycster urged. 

Looking down at her hands, Vy recalled the abilities she had. Her fire-based abilities were completely obsolete since they were in the water. She needed something to use the water to her advantage. 

Ice. 

"I have a plan," she declared as the gears in her mind churned out a plan of attack. 

Aether would use his cloaking spell to get them into the building undetected. Lycster will provide support with the use of his crossbow. Once they were in, Vy would use her Dark Kyu powers, turn the water into ice and freeze everyone in place. 

Everything went according to plan, as they entered through the front door. Careful as to not make too much noise, they swam into the hallway of the building. They noticed a light coming from one of the rooms on the left. 

-There's two down the hall, and four in that room. Let's tackle the ones in the hallway first, then the ones in the room.- Vy instructed through telepathy. 

Moving together as a unit, they swam towards the end of the hall, where two mermen were. Each of them held a weapon in their hands, scouting the hallways for potential intruders. Aether's cloaking spell kept them hidden from the merman. 

When they were only metres apart, Vy summoned her powers at once. Within the blink of an eye, both mermen were frozen solid. Their expression of surprise was trapped in ice like a sculpture in time. 

-Two down, four to go.-

But just as they were about to continue their way down the hallway back to the room, the front door of the building burst open. 

"We need to go, now!" the merman at the door shouted into the hallway, "Our comrades have been compromised!"

Vy bit her lip, their plan was incomplete! The narrow hallway limited her speed. These people were about to get away! Without much time to think, Vy immediately changed her form, taking to her full water animal form, Gourami Fighting Fish.

Within a split second, she swam through the hallway. Aether's cloaking spell was still intact. All the mermen at the door felt was a sudden wave of energy pushing them out of the door as Vy headbutt them. 

The mermen were knocked off their tail fins, surprised by the sudden attack from a creature they could not see. Lycster on the other hand swam up ahead with Aether by his side. He drew his crossbow and launched a few arrows at the mermen, successfully injuring them on the arm and tail. 

Vy swam swiftly into the room and froze the four before they had a chance to react. With that settled, she swam out to meet back with Aether and Lycster. Aether lifted the cloaking spell, just as three more people turned up at the scene.