The Fishmen Who Control Water
The Fishmen Who Control Water
I thought the fight was over after Rebecca's slash.
But strangely, the carriage's buzzing alarm still hadn't stopped.
"Luke. The carriage is still making noise."
"It doesn't seem to be over yet."
I wondered if more fishmen were leaping out of the river, but the water was calm.
However, a moment later, I realized I was looking in the wrong direction.
"Kyaaak!"
Because Bella's scream rang out from the rear where the carriage was.
The enemy hadn't attacked from the river, but from the land at our rear.
A full twenty fishmen had been hiding in the forested riverbank.
"Kh! Stone Spike!"
Hannah raised stone spikes to block the fishmen's charge, but she couldn't handle them alone.
Disaster struck before my party could reach the rear where the carriage was stationed.
"S-save me!"
A fishman who finally broke through Hannah's defensive line snatched Bella. Hannah tried to use magic to protect Bella, but her vision was immediately obscured by the swarming fishmen.
The fishmen, teeming like insects, blocked the path between Bella and us.
"Bella!"
"Vice Guild Master!"
Splash!
The brawny fishman who had hoisted Bella over his shoulder kicked off the ground and threw himself toward the river.
We couldn't all chase after him, because the twenty fishmen weren't about to let us go.
In the end, I made a decision.
"Rebecca. You and Hannah pin down the fishmen here! I'll go after Bella!"
Rebecca nodded and began carving up the fishmen swarming around her. As I tried to plunge toward the river, some fishmen swung long Water Whips to try and snatch me.
Slash!
But when Rebecca swung her curved blade as if performing a dance, every Water Whip flying at me was severed.
I was able to jump into the river without being grabbed by the fishmen.
"Water Walk! Liquid Ring!"
The moment I landed on the river's surface as if it were solid ground, the water beneath my feet turned into a wave and propelled me forward.
Wave Riding!
It was a movement technique applying Water Walk and the Liquid Ring spell.
I rode the wave and chased after the fleeing fishman carrying Bella. True to its race, its swimming speed was extraordinary. The fishman fled downstream at a speed matching my wave riding.
Of course, just matching its speed didn't mean there was no way to catch it.
Surface combat on water is the stage of a water-attribute mage.
Here, I could push my magic to its limits.
Whoosh━!
"Stop!"
The Stop spell that hadn't worked on Banner, the Blue Claw Tribe chieftain!
But it was effective enough against an ordinary tribesman. I focused my mind on the water's surface where the fishman swam. At that moment, the fiercely downward current began to slow down.
"M-magic?! Kyururu!"
Only then did the fishman sense the anomaly, but it was already too late.
As if it were stuck in a swamp, the fishman's swimming speed slowed noticeably.
I sprinted on the waves and precisely slammed a mana sphere into the fishman's fish head.
Splat!
Bodily fluids and brain matter sprayed everywhere.
The dead fishman dropped Bella, but as she surfaced on the river, she didn't drift downstream and stayed still in place.
Because I had manipulated the water's flow to stop Bella's body.
"Luke! You came to rescue me!"
Bella looked like a drowned rat, her eyes brimming with tears.
I barely managed to grab onto the arms Bella stretched out to me.
"Hm?"
That was the moment.
The current, which had slowed due to my magic, began to flow fiercely again.
It felt like a tug-of-war with the water.
I was trying to pull the river water upstream, while someone else was dragging it downstream.
"Kh!"
"Wh-what's happening?"
"It's a fishman's psionics! Someone's pulling the river downstream! No ordinary fishman has this kind of output!"
The countless fishmen I had fought on land.
The most they could do was hold me in check with a Water Whip, much like myself back when I had no tier. Their water-manipulation output was remarkably weak, making it impossible to alter the river's flow.
But now, an adept with power rivaling mine was pulling the river downstream.
Bella and I had no choice but to be swept downriver.
"C-can't you stop the river?!"
"A fishman with power similar to mine used their ability from downstream! And rivers naturally flow from high to low!"
If our power was similar, it was only natural we'd be swept away.
After all, according to the laws of nature, water inevitably flows from high places to low places.
"Hup!"
I extended a Water Whip, trying to coil it around a tree jutting from the riverbank.
But before the Water Whip could reach it, Bella and I were floating in the air.
Because we had reached the waterfall where the diagonally flowing river ended.
"Waaah!"
"Ugh."
They say falling objects have weight.
Bella and I naturally had weight too, so we plummeted helplessly downward.
What I saw below was a large valley, and even if we hit the water, the impact would be no joke.
The waterfall was as high as a four-story building, and if we hit it with our bare bodies, both of our bones would be shattered.
"Water!"
I summoned a droplet of water beneath my feet and used a spell to fix it into a round shape.
Infused with all my magic power, the water droplet was large enough for two people to cling to, and having at least this cushion beneath us would absorb the falling impact.
"Cling to the water droplet!"
Swoooosh!!
The moment we rode the water droplet and collided with the valley's surface, I knew my judgment had been correct.
As the giant water droplet shattered into pieces, we slowly fell downwards.
My whole body was soaked, but at least my bones weren't broken from the fall impact.
"Phew."
I grabbed Bella and floated up above the valley water.
Holding my hand, Bella found it hard to believe we had survived the waterfall plunge.
"Cough! We're alive! This is insane."
"What's insane about it?"
"I thought we were going to die here without a doubt! I even left the Raven Ring that transforms me into a crow at home. I never knew a mage's power could be this useful...."
Indeed, the ring always seen on Bella's finger was gone.
Without the Raven Ring, plummeting from the air would have meant certain death.
That is, if I, a mage, hadn't been here.
"If you didn't know mages were useful, why were you so obsessed with recruiting them? You always complained about the guild lacking mages."
"That was a judgment made solely from the charts I saw in the office. There's always endless demand for mages from adventurers and clients alike."
"You have Mage Hannah right beside you."
"That's true, but... this is the first time I've ever been threatened with murder. Being on the verge of death made me realize that Luke is an indispensable asset to our guild."
An indispensable asset to the guild, huh.
Whenever Bella said things like that, she always had a blank expression, so I assumed it was just flattery.
But this time, the look Bella gave me was filled with earnestness.
"I need you, Luke."
"......Okay."
Meeting Bella's eyes made me feel awkward for no reason.
I've never experienced receiving sincere recognition from someone of high status, even back on Earth.
Reincarnated into this otherworld, I was persecuted everywhere I went because of my lowly Dream Demon origin.
Having the woman who would become the guild master of Gjallarhorn tell me 'I need you' made my heart ache.
It felt like the years I'd spent scraping the bottom were being rewarded, just a little.
"Sniffle."
"Wh-what is it? Don't tell me Luke is crying?"
"Absolutely not. I've always had rhinitis."
"Ah, rhinitis, I see."
I barely managed to hold back the tears that surged from the overwhelming emotion.
I blamed the touching atmosphere on rhinitis and walked out of the valley with Bella.
Now it was time to find a way back up the river and rejoin the party.
They'd probably finish off the fishmen soon and come down looking for us.
Of course, there was Hannah, a mage of my caliber, and Rebecca, who teased me and called me third-rate but was undoubtedly strong.
They aren't the kind of women who'd be taken down by mere ordinary fishmen.
And Kate's survival ability, at least, is certain, so she's probably hiding somewhere well, waiting to deploy healing spells.
"Wait. There's someone up ahead."
But before finding a path, there was an opponent we had to deal with first.
Not long after walking out of the valley, we came face to face with a fishman.
The moment Bella saw that fishman, she ground her teeth.
"Blue Claw Tribe Chieftain Banner! So you were here!"
Chieftain Banner, who managed the fishmen's ferry.
That rotten, pollack-eyed bastard who deceived us and ran off blocked my and Bella's path.
Banner sat on the ground near the valley, sitting in the lotus position like a Taoist hermit.
A fishman sitting in the lotus position like that was a sign they were channeling the full power of their water-controlling psionics.
I realized Banner was the culprit who dragged the river downstream and dropped us at the bottom of the waterfall.
"It was you. You brought us here. Right?"
At my question, Banner nodded calmly.
"I was the one who dropped you beneath the waterfall. I thought I was matching power with a mage of my own caliber while manipulating the river. That mage was you, blonde incubus."
"Thanks to you, I nearly died."
"It's a shame you didn't."
Banner seemed genuinely disappointed that we had survived.
A crazy murderer was smacking his lips right in front of us.
Bella stared at Banner with a horrified expression.
"Banner! You weren't originally like this! You worked as a boatman just fine for 30 years!"
"I was always like this. I was just holding back all this time. I've hated humans since long ago. No, not just humans. I'm a person who thought every race on this continent except fishmen should die. Kekek."
Madness oozed from Banner as he let out a laugh, as if his mind had snapped.
I realized instinctively that this wasn't someone who'd repent his sins through words.
Saying everyone except fishmen should die, this bastard is like Hitler.
"H-how can you think such horrible things! That's racism!"
Bella trembled as she looked at Banner revealing his true feelings.
But my heart was utterly calm as I looked at Banner.
"Racism is possible, Bella."
"What?"
"I actually hate fishmen too."
Hating other races was something I shared. Especially the fishman race, whenever they open their mouths, a fishy stench comes out from their maws that I can't stand. Those fish bastards don't actually smell if they wash well, but they deliberately go around reeking of fishiness.
I'd just been holding it in well all this time.
A really long time.
I turned my head and spoke to Banner.
"Your name was Banner?"
"It is."
"Fine. You can have those kinds of insane thoughts."
"......What did you say?"
"Actually, I've fucking hated fishmen for a long time too. The fishy stench that comes out when you fuckers talk has always pissed me off. I've thought to myself that every single one of you should be exterminated from this continent."
Banner was bewildered by my heartfelt words.
"I-insane...! Exterminate us fishmen?"
He probably never imagined his racist remarks would be met with equal racism.
So what.
An incubus is the race that can taste the extremes of all racial discrimination.
"You bastard, do you want to die!"
To Banner, who spoke with murderous intent, I answered like this.
"The time has come to exterminate the fishmen."