Read Even After The Fall :: The Boy of The Sea

A gylph formed in front of my palm, I put a lot of concentration to channel mana, apparently It's really hard to do It while riding a-not-normal horse even though i'm not the one who hold the bridle. A flock of flying stingray has ganged up upon us around five kilometers from our destination. They are not that big compared to our horse, but they are still bigger than a normal stingray. Their tail are sharp and strong, instead of attacking us, these stingrays are aiming for our horses, a smart strategy to hunt a horse-riding preys.

"SHOOT IT!" Ali shouted while avoiding attacis. A stingray swooped in front of him, Ali pulled the priddle which startled the horse. He tapped my shoulders and pull my head down along with him. In that moment i finished channeling mana into my palm, it's our chance to strike back

"VICAE!" i shoot a big blast towards the stingray that failed to get us. it's too big and fast to be dodged, my spell hitted it right. The blast caused a small explosion which hitted another stingray that are heading to us. Both of them fell to the sandy ground.

I looked back, Narcissa's horse was lying in the sand without Narcissa. The stingrays sucsesfully attacked the horse she was riding, me and Ali were lucky because we ride the same horse. We splitted our job pretty well, Ali with the horse and i'm taking care of the stingrays but Narcissa is riding a horse alone. She's fighting a lot more stingrays than we did, maybe because she's in the front, It's like they know it's easier to gang up on someone that ride a horse alone. Ali pulled his sword and trying to back up Narcissa, She's dodging stingrays that comes after her, while shooting a few bullets. A stingray appear from under the sand, the string ray flew behind Narcissa's back. The tail sucsesfully stuck her shoulder.

"These fuckers.. Hey isn't it cheating!"

I have to help her, I channel my mana to my palm, a gylph appear in front of me. Ali also spurred the horse to move closer to Narcissa, we almost reach her, he swung his sword before a stingray that has been hiding under a sand strike the horse's leg leaving both of us fell to sand and made me failed to cast the spell. I looked at Narcissa, she's in the air bending her legs and back, dodging attacks from the stingrays. She looks like those acrobats or gymnastician, each dodge is always followed with a sound of gunshot. The remaining stingrays is grouping up, it looks like they are going to attack simultaneuosly now. which makes it harder for to be dodged.

Ali wiped the sands from his face and quickly channel a spell "SIc In-" A magic gylph formed under the stingrays

"Celer.. Silens... ." Narcissa jumped higher, higher than before. Her ears move followed with her eyes that are shining gold. She bended down, tracking with her optic and tuned her riffle.

The stingrays didn't let her finish her preparation they changed target and coming to two people that are lying on a sand, me and Ali. Our horse fell on us which makes it harder to be dodged.

"Vicae!" Ali shoot a blast since it's the fastest spell that can be casted without long preparation.

"Cast your spell Ian!" I casted vicae multiple times alongside Ali. The stingrays sucesfully dodged most of our attacks, there are too many of them.

Before i shoot my last vicae, I looked up and see Narcissa still in mid-air it seems like she almost finished her spell. I have to make the bet. I stopped holding my mana, i tried to pull every mana i could feel on my body to my palm, the blast in front of my palm getting bigger and bigger.

A sound of thunder could be heard, This is the time. "VICAE!" I shoot my magic blast that are as big as our horse towards the swarm of stingrays. A big explosion can be heard, it hitted every stringrays that are heading to us the stingrays slowed down and fell to the ground one by one
"Atta boy!" Said Narcissa in a happy tone

"Mortalis!" The sky turned bright, She shot the nearest stingrays to us, then another stingray that are laying closest to us, each shot is faster than before. At some points where multiple gunshots is heard each second, i could not even see her move, it looks like a white object is moving at a high speed,

She really finished each one of them... Ali pushed the horse away and went to check its wound. Narcissa walked to me and offer her hands and her ears wiggled "Nice work there." said Narcissa happily.

"The horse are fine, i treated them with elixir, but we have to walk from now." Said Ali

"It's okay, If malin and the group are moving we'll meet them at some point, we're on the main road anyway." Replied Narcissa

"She's right, it's better to not use a horse just in case another horde of... those flying stingrays are coming again." I said it to them, both Narcissa and Ali nodded in agreement.

"I actually never go this area before so I'm not familiar with any monsters that live around here, but Malin is different, I'm sure he will handle this situation better." Explained Narcissa while brushing her clothes which covered in sand.
"That boy is specialized in aquatic area you'll understand after seeing him in person." Narcissa let out a small laugh.

"Well... speak of the devil." She pointed something with a small gesture of her head. A medium sized tide wave hits a coral reef, a dazzling light appeared from the sparks. The sea is moving, divided into two area with leaving a road-like space between them.

"Hahahaha." A boy appeared from one of the sea walls, he looks a bit young... Maybe around my age or he could be younger, he clapped twice and looked back to the sea wall. "Come here, they are my ally." After the boy said It, a large number of people started to appear from both of the sea walls. I could see the confusion in their faces, they stepped out in doubt, Ali sheated his sword and Narcissa putted her riffle down so they would trust us.

"Why didn't you sent any update to Captain?" Asked Ali to the boy in front of us while Narcissa is busy counting the survivors.

"Hehe I'm sorry, turns out i managed to bring around hundred of defrosted to churchbell, you see the monster swarms right? It's impossible to protect this many people alone you know." Narcissa looked amazed

"How did you convince this many people to follow you?" Asked narcissa, she really counted every survivor alive.

"They defrosted around swamp area.. It's not as dangerous as other place but still can slaughtered confused humans that just woke up from coma." Explained the boy, he combed his brown wavy hair with his hand, some of his hair area are lighter than the other probably because he stayed a lot under the sun during the hot day, Narcissa mentioned that Malin is always assigned to escort people if they're near the southern beach. It is proven with his skin that are almost as tan as Ali, just a little bit lighter shade. I can really see his similiarity with Ali... They're almost the same height too, maybe this one is the talkative version of him.

I observed this dude from head to toe like a scanning machine. I didn't even noticed Malin gave me his hand

"You good? Thankyou for you help earlier, I'm Malin" I shook his hand and smiled, following his friendly attitude

"Don't mind it, my name's Ian," I could felt his grip that are strong and confident.

"I supposed you're Narcissa's party member. saw your action from down here, and all i can say is damn you guys got chemistry already." Said him in excitement. he tapped my shoulder a few times like a proud dad.

"Hah! Of course, my eyes are never wrong, I knew he was good the moment i met him!" Said Narcissa hastily, Malin let out a big laugh and dropped down his javelin.

"Hey, it was real, i SAW his potential!" Narcissa sounds annoyed but it's just made Malin laugh louder, i let out a smile too, just in that moment Ali walked and interupted us. he just came back from checking out the defrosted people

"I just checked them out, I heard that the situation was pretty dire when they defrosted." Asked Ali to Malin, the color on his face started to fade.

He asked us to sit down for a moment, he sat after us, leaning to a big coral reef behind him

"The moment i arrived, people are scattered, i checked the time with a spell and i'm sure that i'm arrived early as usual, I didn't expect them to get out of the cocoon before the estimated moment..." He shook his head, an annoyance can be seen on his face.

"There were more defrosted people than usual too. I tried to look around and noticed that I'm not the only one that arrived late, other adventurers from another base were also there, I was ready to throw hands, but i realized that they had the same confused look on their face so i knew It was not their doing."

He looked at the survivors and sighed, drowned in guilt and empathy

"It was the least of my worries, i just tried to save as much as i can, some of them managed to use mana so it was a big help." He looked at the survivors "You guys see the red headed dude" He pointed to a guy that are leaning to another coral reef with a group of survivors.

The first thing i noticed about him is his ears, it's long and pointy,

"He is Erik, one of the person that are able to use mana earlier, he did a great job to held the slime attack before i came." Said Malin, i put my glance back to Erik, he looks annoyed, people that are circling around him is yelling.
"I knew we should not follow him, Erik! that flying stingray almost made a hole in my stomach!" a man yelled at Erik.

"Hey YOU are the one that wanted to follow us, We saved your ass multiple times at the swamp!" A younger girl interrupted him.

"This brat, how dare you talk like that to an older person!" The man threw his hand and hit the girl's right cheek. The young girl fell to the ground

Erik lifted his face and glared at the guy.

"What do you think you're doing?" Erik pulled his shirt in anger "what I'm DOING? I'm trying to let everyone here stay ALIVE by not following a random person that asked us to join him at his so-called safe-base." The guy exploded in anger, his face is as red as a boiling tomato.

Erik clenched his teeth "Look around" He said it really close to his face, i feel like he's going to punch that man's face at any moment. Everybody is watching them, a few judging face could be seen, a whispering sound is heard, some of them even yelled at the guy. A stone fly across my view and hit the guy's head.

"How dare you hit a younger girl like that..." said someone to him curtly "i saw that random person that u mentioned saved your life before, should not you be grateful?" more people started to yell and threw rocks at him. A young woman helped the young girl stand up "Are you okay? that must hurt." asked her to the young girl. The girl shook her head "It's fine..." She hugged the girl.

"You all are crazy bastards!." The guy's face keeps getting redder, he wiggled to break free from Erik's grip. Malin approached the guy and mumbling something with his mouth a sea wall that has been covering us is creating a small hole that are heading towards the beach.
"Sir.. I understand that you are terribly confused with everything is going on, but i didn't have any intention to trick you or any other person." Explained Malin. "However, I can't tolerate any violence among survivors... If you don't believe me that much, you can leave."

The guy snorted in annoyance, he pushed Erik away and picked a stone from the sandy ground.

"Fine, i'll go and survive on my own, you all are going to die by following this man's lead." The guy walked away

He heading towards the exit hole and bumped onto me

"This crazy basta-" I'm ready to punch him in the face but Ali held me in place, he shook his head

The man arrived at the hole. he looked back and threw his rock towards us. He stepped out of water, a sandy ground is covering his feet.

"Now we wait." Said Narcissa

"Huh?" i looked at her and suddenly a stingray striked the man from aside, followed with more stingrays joining, pushing the man away and tore his body apart.

Everybody screamed in horror, i'm a bit shocked myself, even Ali turned his face away.

"And that's why, we're staying here for a while" Shouted Malin