Chapter 142: Sharks and Birds Against the Abyss Part 2
Chapter 142: Sharks and Birds Against the Abyss Part 2
…… For the time being it looked like I managed to shake the monsters off, so I used that opportunity to climb onto the roof of one of the taller buildings in the vicinity and have a look around my nearest surroundings.
「There’s a citadel in the center, and four towers at the perimeter of the outer walls. Yeah, this is basically screaming “capture those locations if you want to fight the boss in the citadel”……」
As for other players or save rooms, so far I had no luck with finding any of that at all.
I kick a fishmen who came really late after me off the rooftop and jump onto another roof with a double jump. Whatever fishmen tried to follow me met the same fate as their brethren not so long ago.
「Stealth action…… Oh well, for now let’s just stick to the roofs and see how it…… Hmm?」
Someone was running. They were clearly running away from the fishmen as well, but the way they were doing it was rather bizarre and scary. It looked like they were trying to tend to their wounds while simultaneously running away, so that means they were intelligent, right? But who could that be?
「They are a little bit far away, but…… Obviously they are not human, that’s for sure.」
At first glance, it was a big creature. So that excludes people like Emul, Sickle, Stude, Rust and Akitsu Akane. Could it be Rei or Mold? No…… Well, I mean…… Neither one of them had a tail, right? Like, a fish tail? …… Does that mean it was some kind of a fishman as well? But were the fishmen intelligent enough to be running and tending to their wounds at the same time?
「…… Suspicious, really suspicious.」
I could almost smell the odor of flags and events that were afoot…… and it was really fishy, no pun intended. Surveilling the area, if I went over there, I could probably intercept that creature.
「Alright, let’s give it a go.」
Using as little stamina as possible I jump off the rooftop and take the initiative to capture this strange creature. Using the rooftops as shortcuts, I follow its route, hoping to intercept it at some point. Having recast times reduced was a great help here, as it increased my mobility tremendously, opening up new possibilities. It was nice to be able to run parkour-style like that endlessly, but I also needed to make sure that I won’t lose the sight of my target along the way.
In this area any sound was already hard to hear, but somehow I could clearly hear the angry screams of fishmen coming closer and closer, and also……
「Haah…… Haah……!」
「Why hello there, half-fishman who seems to be rather intelligent. Mind if we converse by using our vocal cords for a moment?」
「Kuh, did you come here in some roundabout way……!? And what is the Bird-clan guardian doing here in the first place?
「Guardian?」
This…… right in front of my eyes, there was a strange new kind of fish man that swam right next to me, holding onto its arm from where traces of red blood were slowly oozing out. Based on his physique and voice he must be male…… But compared to other fish people I’ve encountered so far he looked different. He looked like a hybrid of a shark and squid mashed together with a human, and was wearing some sort of strange diver’s suit. He looked really surreal, but compared to other monsters he didn’t attack me right off the bat and instead spoke to me in some strange words the meaning of which were well beyond me. All the while, I was pretty much stunned.
However, there was no doubt that the shark creature followed me all the way up here, so it should also probably mean that other fish monsters were not all that long behind him, which could basically mean that he led them here!?
「Ahhh, sh*t! We can talk later! For now, drink this and run!」
「Eh, ahh, I don’t know what you are talking about, but I’m grateful either way!!」
When I came to this underwater city I was looking for a bunny. Or a sh*thead pirate. Or one of the other players. So how come that the first sentient being I encountered here was a freaking shark-squid hybrid?