"Is there anyone else in there!?" Evalyn roared, walking onto the beach with a furious expression.
The beach was dead silent, each person trying to avoid her gaze. No one had ever seen the Ice General angry before, so they were more fearful than usual--and for good reason. Her plan was in shambles just minutes after it got fleshed out, so she was in a foul mood.
"First person to answer me gets the day off!" She snapped angrily, lacking patience.
"A few swam further, trying to find a way around!" A man yelled instantly, "We haven't seen them since!"
Evalyn took a deep breath, looking at the crimson ocean. The water was seemingly boiling from creatures moving underneath the waves, and dozens of body parts and appendages floated on the surface. It was a gruesome sight.
The Ice General closed her eyes, thinking about the report she had gotten a few minutes before.
-
--10 Minutes Ago | Meridian City Beach--
"AGahhhHHhHhhH!" Eddy moaned with his hands up, "This feels AMAZING!"
All the soldiers grimaced, seeing his smiling face. They didn't want to incur Evalyn's wrath, but they were all hot, tired, and wanted to swim.
Seeing him splashing around with a beaming smile and unburned skin filled everyone with envy.
"Come on!" Eddy yelled, "Fifteen minutes to recuperate. As long as we go back to work, we'll be fine!"
"Screw it!" A black-haired man yelled, healing his skin and running forward.
"I'm in." A brunette said, pulling off her shorts and t-shirt, and getting down to her yellow bra and panties. She healed her skin gracefully, stunning people with her radiant skin, and then ran into the water with a playful expression.
Within a few minutes, ten people were splashing in the water with beaming expressions.
A debate broke out between the other 190 people on the beach, discussing working in shifts, a short break, and other items.
It was a universal discussion, as team members leaving to swim destroyed the operation. Losing too many heaters stalled the operation and required those working to work twice as hard.
No one wanted to work twice as hard while people swam, so a bitter debate played out.
While the fight raged on, the number of people increased to thirty, and others were stripping and healing one another. Confidence built up, creating a [General Skye can't punish all of us] mentality that spread like wildfire.
However, a disturbance abruptly stopped it.
"Stop that, Eddy!" Marie, the light-haired brunette, snapped, "Just because you got me into the water doesn't mean I'm into you!"
Everyone abruptly turned to the confused man, looking around.
"Yo, I'm not near you." Eddy said, hands in the air, "I'm just swimming. Don't give anyone the wrong impression."
"Don't lie." She snapped, "You're the only person within touching dist--"
Before anyone could heat up or step up, the brunette's face turned ghost white when she felt something slide against her thigh--and no one was around her.
"Look, I'm not lying." Eddy scoffed, continuing on, "You're tripping."
"H-Help me!" Marie stuttered, "It's t-touching me!"
"Marie, Eddy's nowhere near you." A blonde said, wading toward the panicked woman.
The light-haired brunette's eyes trembled in the water. "N-No, I'm telling you--"
SPLASH!
Just as Eddy was preparing to deny her words again, she disappeared under the water and swam back up, shaking. "Marie... are you okay?"
She reached her hands under the water and pulled them back up, her fingers flowing with red water.
The world slowed for the soldiers as Spirit Qi shot through their brains. Watching with hyper-attention, they could see patterns moving around the woman in the crimson water.
Marie's body jolted down unnaturally, and she took a sharp breath, fighting against a force. When she pulled her arm to the surface, everyone saw she had pulled something back with it.
On her forearm was a moray eel biting into her arm. However, it was far from a normal fish.
Regular moray eels are five feet long with the circumference of a tube pillow. Before the rapture, there wasn't a recorded death from one, and wounds stopped at missing fingers.
However, this eel's head was larger than the brunette's, and its jaws were pierced into the skin of an Earth Realm cultivator. It was a horrifying sight--that became gruesome.
CHOMP!
Marie trembled, looking down at her missing left arm in shock, watching her blood gush out of it. A moment later, she opened her mouth to scream, but the eel returned above the water and bit her shoulder, dragging her underwater.
SPLASH! Splish! Splish, splish, SPLASH!
"HELP!" The brunette screamed, surfacing momentarily before getting dragged back under.
After the moray eel resurfaced and pushed her further under, it was clear that she was already gone. So the soldiers needed to act to save their own lives.
"GET OUT OF THE WATER!" Eddy yelled with a pounding heart, trying to swim. Unfortunately, the Soul Qi seeping out of Marie had attracted more attention. "AGH! WHAT IS--"
SPLASH!
The man's sentence was cut short the next moment when a force dragged him underwater, triggering crimson-red bubbles to form in the region.
Soldiers in the water started screaming, swimming toward the shore. Twenty of the thirty-one in the water got out without issue. Unfortunately, the situation wasn't promising for those remaining.
Eddy returned to the surface with a deep breath, getting away by losing his leg. He immediately screamed for help and swam forward, but a barracuda, the size of a tigerfish, bit his arm while he swam, sending him rolling into the water.
Two other barracudas ate people alongside the moray eel. The fish was strong and vicious, ripping off limbs with single bites as it whipped its jaws back and forth.
It was a massacre.
"GO GET GENERAL SKYE!" Berry yelled, grabbing a man swimming to shore. A brunette nodded in a haze, thankful to leave, and rushed across the water to their camp.
When Berry pulled the soldier to shore, everyone grimaced, seeing that the fish had already eaten his lower half. It was gruesome and made Eddy's red-haired coworker fall with a shaking body.
"GET OUT OF THERE!" A brunette yelled, rushing into the water and pulling him.
Just as they got into the shallow area, the moray eel shot at them, getting caught in the sand, wigging itself loose from the sand, and swimming back into the feeding frenzy.
Three soldiers smart enough not to get close to the blood decided to swim further to go around, praying the entire time.
That is what happened a few minutes before the Ice General got there.
-
"What do you want to do?" Kaze asked with vibrant green eyes, studying her expressions, "I'm taking requests, whatever they may be."
Evalyn closed her eyes and took a deep breath before reopening them with a fierce gaze. "Find the soldiers, dead or alive. Kill every damn fish in this area if you can!"