Months have passed and now Guy, Arian, and Nero are traveling to Waterland, to the high hills in the kingdom of Springs, in their first attempt to get integrated to the combatant force by completing their first quest.

— Why the hell did I come along?! — Complained Nero.

— Because you are the most powerful among us, petit garçon — said Arian, also having trouble with the climbing.

— I can’t complain… — said Guy, looking up and seeing both coworkers’ butts.

Nero noticed what he did and extended his energy to the rope that was keeping them together. Making the rope an extension of himself, Nero pulled and sent both Arian, Guy, and himself up, to the top of the steep hill instantly.

— What did take you guys so long? — Said Bard Aqua, 23 years old, Piscian, cyan eyes, the local combatant in training that would be guiding them in the region.

Bard’s look called the trio’s attention. He was wearing his Pierrot uniform, composed by a large white shirt with bouffant long poet sleeves and large black buttons, white gloves, wide black and white checkered pantaloons, and black slip-on laceless shoes with long white socks. To complete the look he had a black skullcap over his head and white makeup covering his face and neck, except for the black shadow in the eyes, the black lips and eyebrows, and the well-known Pierrot mark, a black teardrop under the left eye. His cyan hair was cut short and dyed black. As anything coming from Waterland, this isn’t unusual. The look is part of the Waterlings power and as such, is made to amplify their abilities. In his case, it helps with the Pierrot skill based on strategies and counter-attacks. To finish, Bard is a minstrel, and his instrument is an enchanted lute carried in his back.

Bart brought his lute to his front and, strumming, sang a simple chorus:

— Come on my friends, it’s time to fight! Come on my friends! Let’s take out the blight!

His voice sounded clear like water and invigorated his workmates, feeling them with energy.

— Thanks, Bard — said Guy, recognizing him from his profile on Wave Box.

Wave Box is an app used for any kind of work, principally as a way of communication between bosses and their employees. The app is also used to announce quests and to make reports about it. Heroes can take quests for their city and near region, while combatants can take intercontinental quests.

— You are welcome, my friend — said Bard, making a reverence bowing his head with his right hand on his chest after pulling his lute back to his original position. — C’mon, we are not far from the cave!

With agility, Bard jumped to the place using his buoyancy, having no trouble to pass above the sharp stones. The field was gloomy and surrounded by fog and it didn’t let they see far as Bard simply disappeared in it.

— Can’t you clean up this weather, Arian? — Asked Guy.

— Non. I’m already charging my powers on to keep the fog away from us. If I weren’t, the fog would already charge us off.

— Can you help him, Nero? — Guy turned to his little friend.

Nero nodded and shared his power with Arian, making the fog go a little out of the way.

— That’s not good — said Guy. — The place is still covered in fog.

— Oui — said Arian. — Whoever is charging this place over is not low voltage.

— I have an idea — Guy tried to use his field control power and sensed all the shadows in the area, looking for the source of the power and only sensed an evil power coming from a cave just a little far. — You two, focus your powers in that direction.

— Roger — said the two.

— It’s showtime! — Guy took his large and heavy sword from his back and, with one single stroke, he wiped out all the sharp rocks from the way, revealing Bard at the cave entrance, who felt the blow in his face.

— Did you need to do that? — shouted Bard from afar.

— Run! — said Guy to the other two, while the rocks started to grow back to the middle of the path and closed it back again right after they entered the cave. — Damn! That was a close call!

— Holly buckets! That was dangerous! — exclaimed Bard.

— So, which part of this trouble didn’t you tell us? — Guy suspected.

— You are supposed to enlighten us about any shock we might have! — Complained Arian.

— There was no shock back there! — Replied Bard, annoyed. — If I knew it would react like that, I would have told you guys. Gee Wiz!

— That’s a pretty reason why we need to know field control — said Guy. — This place is filled with dark energy!

— I can feel it too, there’s an evil creature ahead — completed Nero.

— You are pretty much enlighten — said Arian. — You are really into field control!

— We had a good teacher — praised Guy, giggling. — We really had!

— But watt do we charge now? — Asked Arian. — I don’t know how to discharge those things so well…

— No worries — continued Guy, leading the way — we just need to track down the creature.

— It’s a watermaid — said Bard. — I know how to take them down.

— I’m… not so sure about it being a watermaid — questioned Guy.

— Why are you doubting me? I’m sure it’s a watermaid! — Bard felt offended by it.

— Because watermaids don’t do this kind of thing? — Asked Guy.

— I believe in the people who said it was a watermaid! They heard her singing. I would know if it’s not a watermaid!

— And if it’s not a watermaid? — Questioned Nero, seeing how stupid Bard was being.

— It is a watermaid, dammit! I should have refused to get support! Now I’m stuck with three useless idiots! I’m done! — Bard gave his back to them and made his buoyancy jumpy walk deep into the cave.

— What a temper — said Nero, hiding how crossed he was at Bard.

— It’s okay Nero, that’s why we are here — said Guy. — We need to protect him too because his mates couldn’t take his bad mood anymore.

— Thanks, Guy. I wouldn’t know how to charge this myself so well — complimented Arian. — Now I know why people feel so enlightened by my brother…

— Your brother is quite off — replied Guy, in a way Arian would understand well. — I prefer you rather than him to be on charge.

— Do you light it so?

— Sure! — Guy smiled under his armor.

— Are the two little girls done praising each other? — Complained Nero.

— Are you done searching for the creature's power source? — Guy asked back.

— Yes… — replied Nero, a little frustrated how he knew him so well. — But Bard went in the wrong direction. He’s closer to the creature's mouth by now.

— Well, guess we need to be quick! — said Guy, going to the power source direction.

— But watt about Bard? — Asked Arian. — Shouldn’t we power him up?

— We will, and that’s what we will do now by cutting the power source — replied Guy.

— I think it’s a high-powered plan — said Arian. — As your teacher, I tell you to charge up ahead! If we were as fast as lightning and finish this, the faster we can discharge the creature and help Bard!

— I can’t believe you two! — Complained Nero, even though he liked the view of Guy walking ahead.

— I can’t believe them… — said Bard to himself, still walking in the tunnels without realizing he didn’t know where he was going. — We just met! Why people like to be against me?!

The buoyant skill made Bard feel like going inside the cave was just a walk in a safe park, while he couldn’t take his thoughts from how people are always planning against him.

— I’m from the Aqua family! I know about watermaids! — Bard was talking about his own familiar, a beautiful Yara, or watermaids, like people like to call them. — They are tricky, they like to sing and sometimes they kill people! They just want to keep their souls as companions! Watermaids are vain, but also too lonely.

Bard brought his lute to his front, tuned the instrument a little, and tried some notes:

— Doe, ray, me, far, sew, la, tea…

— Doe, ray, me, far, sew, la, tea… — made a feminine voice just a little far.

— Who’s there?! — startled Bard. — I’m friendly! You can come out! — He walked in the voice direction. — I… I just want to talk!

The voice giggled and a soft high-pitched voice welcomed him.

— Come here, boy… Come here…

— You are a watermaid! — The voice sounded just like watermaids to Bard — I knew it!

Some steps later, Bard got into a wide-open grotto, flooded with crystalline water and a small opening above letting some sunlight shining right through. Three watermaids were giggling and calling for Bard. Watermaids, different from their male counterpart, the Yakuruna (waterman), have part of their fish aspect like humans, mostly face and breast, which helps them calling men's attention. They have green fish scales that shine with green and blue colors, bluish skin, piranha teeth, long hair, sharp claws, and humanoid appearance, sometimes having fishtails. Bard, on the other hand, got all shy and nervous.

— Come swim with us! — They were saying, splashing some water with their hands.

— I… I will… — Bard went into a trance and couldn’t think for himself anymore. He felt like he knew those watermaids so well. In his mind, they were friendly and wouldn’t harm him.

— Take those clothes off — said one of the watermaids.

— Don’t get them wet, silly — said another.

— Yes — replied Bard, sounding emotionless.

He started by his black slip-on shoes, taking each one of them off with the other foot and pulled his socks off with his hands. He unmade the strings of his pantaloons and they fell to his ankles, revealing his white boxer shorts. Then he unbuttoned his shirt buttons and, taking his lute with one hand, slipped his shirt off, along with his gloves, laying them close to his other clothes. Now wearing only his skullcap and underwear, he got into the water still holding his lute. In the middle of the way, his translucent fish scales in his back and arms shined under the weak sunlight under the cave opening. His eyes turned into more fish look, bigger and round than before, proper for swimming. He swam a little keeping his lute over the water and reached close to watermaids.

They look so stunning to him, so gorgeous.

— Gee Wiz! You are so, so beautiful — said him, still in his trance.

One of the watermaids reached out touch his face and, then, she felt a terrible pain, making her scream. She tried to strike Bard this time and he defended himself with the lute. The watermaid claws touched the magic lute and it made a dissonant sound, finally breaking with Bard trance and with the whole illusion.

— What the… What the shell!

Bard couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The beautiful watermaid turned into a creepy giant ragged lady face, with deep wrinkles, rotten teeth, and skin. The creature writhed in agony, revealing being just one big creature with many eel-like tentacles. She screamed, almost deafening Bard.

— You are not a watermaid! You are a waterwitch! I… I was wrong… — was all Bard could say before the waterwitch started breaking the cave walls.

Bard didn’t know what to do, he couldn’t concentrate to play a song and when he tried to reach for his clothes, one of the large tentacles almost smashed him. He ran in the opposite direction, being stopped by another tentacle. He tried running away in the last direction left and found a small hole where the water was flowing down. He hugged his lute and slid down the hole.

Guy, Arian, and Nero arrived at the grotto and found Bard clothes.

— Oh, non! — Shouted Arian. — That thing consumed his electrified body!

— What? No! — Said Guy, pointing away from the waterwitch. — He is going down there this moment.

— Oh… Oui, I can feel his energy now… — Arian apologized.

— What do we do now? — Asked Nero.

Guy took Bard’s clothes and gave them to Nero.

— We must be quick! His undies are not here! — said Guy, taking his dragon slayer sword from his back and with one stroke he collapsed the cave ceiling over the waterwitch. Then he stuck the sword point deep in the ground and recited some magic words holding the long grip. — Go away, evil creature! A ban you!

The sword reacted and formed a card made of light in front of Guy and he tried to seal the creature inside it. The waterwitch was still too powerful against him and attempted to escape. Nero and Arian helped Guy, enforcing his magic, and finally, the creature subsided.

Guy took the floating card, now showing a moving waterwitch trying to breakthrough.

— We need to hurry! — Said Guy, jumping over the cave ceiling, seeing that the fog outside had cleared.

Through the gap in the cave, Bard got into some old waterway that made him slide to a dark area and he stopped not long into it. After the ceiling collapsed, he freaked out and kept going down until he couldn’t stop anymore, afraid the waterwitch was after him. Bard then slid into an old aqueduct. It was as if he was in the longest and fastest waterslide ride he ever had. He tried to stop at any cost, but he could only make himself spinning in the water. The slide got even more intense as he was getting closer to the water tank and his body was spat over it. This particular water tank was a local attraction, forming an artificial shallow lake before running down to the main water tank. There were plenty of people watching the water flowing, having picnics around the lake is this warm and damp day – a perfect day for Piscians to enjoy a family moment, not minding how cloudy it was a moment ago.

Bard awkwardly splashed into the water and lost his senses for a moment while getting up. All his makeup was almost washed up, he lost his skullcap somewhere in the aqueduct, and, to get things worse, after forcing the water off his face, he noticed people looking at him and laughing.

— Mommy! — shouted a kid. — I can see through his undies!

The kid’s mom quickly covered his fish eyes and pulled the kid away. Bard looked down and saw, to his horror, how see-through the thin white fabric was, panicking. His fly luckily covered his crotch, but anyone could see his backside. Bard tried to think quickly and concentrate on his swim powers to take him out of there ASAP, going down to the water tank. He swam so fast his underwear came right off his body.

Guy finally arrived at the artificial lake, landing right close to it like a cannonball, scaring people away. He saw Bard swimming from afar and spotted only his naked back. He looked around trying to find it and he did. He used his long sword to pick it out of the water and he too hurried out of there.

Guy and Bard had a talk not long after that, where he gave his clothes back. Bard’s boxer shorts, on the other hand, went right to Guy’s Heatwave and undies collection.

— Thank you for rescuing me, but I think I’ve lost my underwear… — said Bard, a little sad.

— Yes, you totally did! — replied Guy, with a smirking smile from under his armor, feeling Bard’s wet underwear soaking his own clothes.

— Sorry for blaming you guys for what I should know…

— No problem! We all have some brilliant ideas! — Guy smiled, thinking about how Bard was freeballing inside his large clothes. — Buy it surely was worthy…