novelraw Chapter 196: Coward
Chapter 196: Coward
The four people walked in the woods beneath the hazy moonlight. They didn't light torches, merely relying on that little bit of simple blue water flow above Jasmine's head, who led the way at the very front, for illumination.
Their advance was actually quite quiet. Even with hooves, Xi Yate would not make very loud sounds when not running, let alone Miss Anna who was wearing traditional Naris attire.
Although she wasn't wearing complicated high heels, even wearing the flat shoes of an ordinary lady, walking on this kind of mountain road was still extremely forced.
Her advance speed had always been very slow, fundamentally unable to keep up with the few people in front. But she very strongly didn't say a single word, only doing her best to follow everyone's pace.
Fisher noticed her predicament. Speaking of which, it was strange; his "Fisher Intuition" always felt she was extremely dangerous the first moment he laid eyes on Anna, but after getting along specifically, he only felt she was an ordinary lady without any means of resistance.
Apart from that surpassing beauty, there were no other surpassing qualities on Anna's body.
Speaking of which, her appearance was entirely that of a West Continent person. Yet she herself had once said she was a human from the Southern Continent. Fisher had once seen humans from the Southern Continent; roughly speaking, they were the kind of people wearing hula skirts with complex patterns drawn on their faces using natural dyes. There should still be a certain gap compared to the appearance of West Continent people, right...
Suppressing the questions in his heart, Fisher didn't act like a warm man and extend a helping hand towards her either. Anyway, as long as she could roughly keep up, it was fine.
"Is this underground dark river really this far, Jasmine?"
Xi Yate looked at the continuously swirling blue water flow on Jasmine's head. It had been pointing towards Nari Lake in the distance without any signs of deviating. This also showed that there indeed should be a passage in Nari Lake that could return to the sea.They had already walked for over half an hour, yet still gained nothing.
"En... I don't know either. We should be able to discover it if we walk a bit more."
Jasmine poked the blue water flow on her forehead. It firmly and unshakeably pointed at Nari Lake to the side. Fisher glanced at the endless dense forest ahead, shook his head, and said,
"This won't do. Our advance speed like this is too slow, we must speed up..."
Upon hearing this, Anna pursed her lips and spoke to the three of them with some apology,
"I'm sorry, it's my problem."
"How about... let me carry her on my back. This way we can also walk a bit faster..."
Fisher looked at Xi Yate who opened her mouth in astonishment, or more specifically, he looked at that not-so-broad horse body behind her,
"You?"
As mentioned before, a Centaur's horse body was actually not as good as a true horse's. When Fisher was studying Xi Yate, he felt the part behind her actually wasn't broad. Using it to carry people seemed a bit forced.
"En, if this lady isn't very heavy, I can still give it a try."
Xi Yate also had no choice. This Anna's walking speed was truly too slow. She had to rest after walking a few steps. Although this lady didn't give her a good feeling, after getting along for a period of time, she didn't have any other problems either. Her carrying her for a distance wouldn't be too big a problem either.
"Let me give it a try."
Anna also didn't try to be brave. She slowly walked to Xi Yate's side. Fisher supported her as she climbed onto Xi Yate's body. The horse body behind didn't have items like saddles, so sitting on it was a bit forced. For a time, Anna hugged Xi Yate's waist with some fear. As a result, this intimate action instantly made Xi Yate's small face turn red; she almost ran directly out.
"I'm sorry... Am I hugging too tightly?"
"It... it's fine."
Fisher used dead fish eyes to look at those two ladies hugging together. He always felt this scene had quite a harmonious feeling, but maybe it was just his appreciation as a gentleman towards ladies acting up...
"Since that's the case, we'll advance at full speed and strive to arrive a bit earlier."
"No problem, hold tight."
"En..."
Xi Yate raised the horse hooves in front of her. Jasmine and Fisher's stamina were both acceptable. Running with all their strength was of course not a problem.
Watching as that Centaur Xi Yate fiercely took a deep breath, and then charged forward.
This was actually Fisher's first time seeing this Centaur's appearance when running with all her strength. That speed was truly like a flash of lightning. Even on uneven mountain roads, she could walk on it as if it were flat ground. It was hard to imagine how beautiful she would look running on a grassland.
Jasmine and Fisher exchanged a glance, and also ran quickly to keep up. After all, Xi Yate was carrying a person. Fisher and Jasmine very quickly caught up to her pace. They could also see Anna hugging Xi Yate with her eyes tightly closed; this speed was truly a bit too fast for her.
"Clack, clack, clack!"
"Wait a moment, the direction changed!"
Not long after, as they were running and running, Jasmine beside Fisher suddenly spoke. On her forehead, that light blue water ring violently turned its direction. She stopped her footsteps, looking at the direction the water ring pointed towards.
Xi Yate and Anna also stopped. As a result, before Xi Yate even turned her head, Anna was already covering her mouth, almost falling off.
"Are... are you okay?"
"Blergh!"
The moment Anna got off Xi Yate's body, her face turned pale as she walked towards the trees at the side. She bent over halfway, almost throwing up all her stomach acid.
She was going up and down on the Centaur's body, just like riding a roller coaster, and the speed was so fast. To Anna, who had zero experience, this was like a strong emetic.
Fisher looked at the continuously vomiting Anna with quite some sympathy. He was previously still considering that if humans sat on a Centaur's back to fight it would also be pretty cool; looking at it now, it was worse than riding a true horse, not only safe and reliable, but also more flashy.
He didn't bother much with Anna. Together with Jasmine, he stood at the edge of the cliff in the jungle beside the road. Looking along this direction, he saw that amidst the concealment of the distant mountains, a river resembling a jade belt passed through the dense forest, heading towards the distant ocean.
Here could no longer be considered Saint-Nazareth's scope, and that river was also quite far from Nari Lake. But since Jasmine's hair ring changed direction here, it also showed that underground at this location, there was an underground dark river connecting Nari Lake and the distant river. But the problem lay in, how could they find the specific entrance?
"Let's search in the surroundings and see if we can find the entrance to the underground dark current..."
"No need..."
Anna walked back with a pale face. She had clearly almost finished vomiting. She surveyed a circle of the dense forest surrounding them, then her nose twitched slightly as she said to Fisher,
"I faintly smelled the scent of water flow and rocks. It's right near here. That unique scent of a cave, it absolutely won't be wrong."
If she hadn't said it, Fisher was almost about to forget that this fellow Anna's nose was incredibly sharp. She could even smell his original scent through the slightly faint perfume Elizabeth gave him.
Fisher had her lead the way. Anna then went all the way forward following that scent. On a distant mountain peak, Fisher could even faintly see a watchtower built by the Royal Family. They enclosed the entire scope of Nari Lake within it, not letting anyone get close.
However, it was currently nighttime, and their distance from there was incredibly far. Even if there were any detection magic, it wouldn't be able to discover them.
"It should be right here..."
Anna's voice ended their search. They followed her and walked a distance. Very soon, what appeared before Fisher's eyes was an expanse of gigantic rocks. She pointed at a gap between two large rocks, and spoke to Fisher and the others like so.
The gap between those rocks was incredibly narrow, roughly looking like it could let one person pass through. Under the moonlight, the space inside was pitch-black. If it weren't for Anna's reminder, Fisher and the others absolutely wouldn't have been able to discover this hidden location.
Reaching the location above the underground dark current, the hair ring on Jasmine's head basically didn't move again, just pointing towards the underground direction, so Fisher also had no way to confirm whether what was beneath was a true dark current.
"Let's go take a look..."
Having no choice, Fisher could only take the lead and squeeze into that gap in the rocks.
But what gave people a headache was that the walking stick Renee gave him was lost to who knows where, so he had no way to use illumination magic to check the surrounding situation. However, Jasmine following behind him had night vision ability. After walking a few steps in the narrow and damp fissure, Jasmine behind him suddenly pulled Fisher,
"Fisher, there's a slope ahead."
Following the water ring exuding light on Jasmine's head, Fisher looked down, only to discover that the space before his eyes had become quite a bit more spacious. A gigantic slope composed of crushed rocks before his eyes plunged straight towards somewhere underground. An occasionally transmitting cold wind carrying a chill made Fisher aware that the space below was highly likely incredibly large.
"Below is an incredibly large cave..."
Fisher and Jasmine turned their heads to confirm whether Anna and Xi Yate kept up. Amidst an expanse of darkness, Fisher could only faintly see the shadows of the two ladies. After confirming the two had kept up, only then did Fisher continue walking forward.
"Splash, splash, splash..."
The further down they went, the more obvious the sound of water flow became, and the more spacious the surrounding space became. It seemed air was blowing from all directions, reflecting that this could be an extremely complex underground network. But amidst the darkness, Fisher could also only follow the position of that water sound, occasionally still having to check whether the people behind him got lost.
"You guys hold hands, to avoid getting..."
Fisher turned his head preparing to instruct like so. Their party of four, the sequential order was Fisher, Jasmine, Anna, and Xi Yate. Following the dim blue light of the water flow, Fisher looked back, doing a headcount.
Jasmine...
Anna...
Xi Yate...
And... eh?
As he counted and counted, Fisher abruptly discovered that a figure was still following behind Xi Yate. That is to say, amidst the darkness, a person suddenly additionally appeared behind them?
Fisher's heartbeat sped up for a second. He suddenly stopped his footsteps, staring deadly in Xi Yate's direction, but he could only vaguely see her figure and the shadow behind her; no matter what he couldn't see clearly exactly who was behind her.
"Don't move first..."
Fisher's voice suddenly echoed. By the time Jasmine also sensed something was wrong and turned her head to look, her vision was better than Fisher's. Once she saw that figure behind Xi Yate, her small face froze. She subconsciously pointed at Xi Yate and shouted,
"Xi... Xi Yate! There's a woman following behind you!"
"Wo-woman? Waaaaaah!!! There's a ghost!!!"
Fisher didn't even have time to stop her. Behind them, Xi Yate was frightened until her small face was deathly pale. She subconsciously raised her horse hooves and delivered a backwards kick towards the figure behind her. Whether the kick landed or not Fisher didn't know, but right now they were on a gigantic slope. Under that fierce kick, the entire team's center of gravity began to tilt.
"Grab onto me!"
Fisher cried out bad secretly. He desperately used his strength to bear the three of them up so they wouldn't fall. But he didn't know when the rocks beneath their feet had already become covered in moist water vapor, becoming incredibly slippery. Even if he wanted to support them, he had no way of achieving it. He could only watch helplessly as his own body lost control and fell towards the pitch-black space below.
"Aaaaah, Fisher!"
"Ghost!!!"
"Ugh!"
For a time, apart from Fisher who didn't make a sound in the entire pitch-black cave, those three ladies seemingly produced a chain effect as they screamed one after another in succession, screaming while sliding towards the depths of the cave.
Amidst weightlessness, Fisher did his utmost to grab whoever he could grab, to prevent them from sliding to other places. This way could also guarantee that he would land first when falling, avoiding them from getting hurt. But as a result in the mid-air fall, Fisher only grabbed one lady, and didn't know who it was either.
The screams continued. Fisher's group fell along the darkness for who knows how long, and then Fisher suddenly felt a substantial contact on his back.
"Splash!"
The sound of falling into water resounded simultaneously. Fisher's group fell straight into some water. That water flow basically had no current; it was more like a quiet pool of water. Splashes resounded in all directions, symbolizing that all four people landed simultaneously.
"Fisher!"
Jasmine's mind was still incredibly clear, ringing out at a slight distance away.
At this time, Fisher's hands were still hugging a soft body. That lady hugged him with a trembling body. Fisher laboriously identified her before discovering that the person hugging him in his embrace like an octopus was exactly Anna.
"Where is Xi Yate?"
Since Anna was still here, Fisher maintained his floatation and shouted towards Jasmine.
"She... she sank! She doesn't know how to swim!"
After saying that, she fiercely flipped in the water and swam towards the bottom of the water, attempting to fish Xi Yate back up. Whereas the floating Fisher vaguely saw the water shore in the distance, so he decided to carry Anna to the shore first.
"Ugh..."
Feeling Fisher start to move, Anna instantly hugged Fisher even more fearfully, afraid she would be thrown off by his movements. It could be seen that this fellow also wasn't very good with water.
Fortunately, the distance to the shore wasn't far. Fisher hadn't swam for long before he arrived at the shore, hugging Anna as he climbed up from the water all at once.
"We're ashore, it's fine now."
"En..."
"...So, let go already."
Amidst an expanse of darkness, an Anna who was drenched all over only then realized after the fact that she was still grabbing Fisher's drenched clothes. The next second, she hurriedly loosened her hands, letting Fisher stand his body up.
"Sorry."
Her complexion was a bit unnatural, even her cheeks began to experience a rise in temperature. But fortunately it was too dark here, and no one could see her expression.
"Jasmine!"
"I'm coming!"
Just as Fisher called Jasmine, Jasmine surfaced from the icy pool of water before him like a mermaid, still holding a Centaur Xi Yate who had already been frightened into losing consciousness. Fisher lent a hand to haul Xi Yate up; at least all four people were fine now...
However, that figure they saw behind them on the slope just now, exactly who was it?
Fisher didn't continue thinking. Because after Jasmine came ashore, the entire cave seemingly triggered some kind of switch and became alive. Streaks of light with the exact same color as the fluorescence on Jasmine's body began to spread along the ground. A light source similar to fireflies gradually illuminated the entire cave.
"It lit up?"
Following that light, Fisher looked around in all directions. Only then did he discover that this was a hidden cave room that wasn't considered spacious. A pool of water before his eyes looked incredibly dark and gloomy; he didn't know the specific depth geometry, and even less where it led to.
The four of them stood by the shore. When that light spread in succession, gradually spreading onto the stone wall behind them, twisted and obscure patterns appeared in succession, looking both similar to pictures and similar to text.
Anna sat in place without moving while hugging her drenched body. Her gaze merely followed Fisher, who unconsciously walked forward, sizing up the text on the stone wall before his eyes...
Yes, Fisher concluded that this was a kind of text, only not human, more like that of some demi-human civilization...
"Eh, this is the text of our Whale-kin!"
Beside them, Jasmine, who was squatting beside the unconscious Xi Yate, gently patted Xi Yate's flat chest. And then a mouthful of water spewed wildly out from Xi Yate's mouth, but Fisher didn't know whether her soul also went out along with that mouthful of water; anyway, watching Jasmine's slapping strength, Fisher felt it was a bit terrifying.
"Whale-kin text?"
Wait a moment, a race living in the deep sea ocean trench could actually leave the text belonging to them here?
Could it be text left behind by Jasmine's aunt Muxi? This seemed to explain it as well?
"What's written on it?"
Jasmine slowly walked to Fisher's side, reading it over word by word. But just reaching the first few words, her expression suddenly became a bit strange, looking at Fisher beside her somewhat too embarrassed to speak.
"What's wrong? Does this involve a secret of your Whale-kin?"
"N-no! Um..."
Jasmine's face turned slightly red, and then she covered her small face, somewhat awkwardly opening her mouth to translate,
"This very first sentence writes..."
"'Ahahahahaha, some coward got scared, I'm not saying who it is.'"
Even if Jasmine spoke it using incredibly soft words, Fisher and Anna could still hear exactly how vile the personality of the Whale-kin who recorded this passage of words was.
That is to say, the shadow seen on that slope earlier was left behind by this Whale-kin? It might be a phantom, relic, or might also be magic or the Blessing of that Whale-kin?
And there was no other purpose, just wanting to scare you once?
If this isn't psycho what is?
The cave abruptly plunged into an awkward silence. Within a time, only the sound of Xi Yate's breathing that approximated a lament echoed.