A Bored Lich

Chapter 167 - Underwater

"Let's go," Elero said as she and Thomas approached Doevm and Frey. Large, dark shadows darted in the thick white fog behind them. The wet slaps of flesh against the mud and water grew louder by the second. Louder than that, however, were the army's thunderous croaks. Doevm let Frey hobble towards one of the Amphiboard, wincing when the giant fell right off of it. Thomas's unstable legs couldn't keep him balanced either. Elero scrunched up her lips. "Maybe we can carry you two and pull your Amphiboards from behind?" She looked over to Doevm, who shook his head.

"The Amphiboard can just barely hold Frey by himself, let alone two people." He glanced over to the deep craters the Bullfrog made. "And around this kind of season, just before winter, they get especially voracious. They won't let anything go."

"Should I just use this then?" Elero asked as she pulled out the artifact General Marble had given her. "If we can't run and can't fight, then we should just surrender and try again next year." She bit her lip. "We have no other choice, do we?" She cursed several times before looking at the rest with decaying hope in her eyes.

All cast their heads down, all but Doevm, who reached into his spatial ring. "So what if we can't fight or outrun them?" He pulled out four pieces of wide bamboo and gave one to each member of the group.

Elero stared at it and blinked twice. "What?" She could barely get anything other than that single word out as she creased her brows. "How in the world is a stick supposed to help us against those?" She pointed at the rapidly growing army of shadows. "We only have a minute or so. I don't know if the Generals will get here in time even if I activate the artifact. Please, for the love of the goddess, don't joke around."

"I'm not joking." Doevm shrugged as he held the bamboo to his mouth. "We will hide while using this to breathe." He gave one piece to everyone, tied the Amphiboards and paddles to a nearby fallen tree with a bit of rope, then put on a faint smile. "Everyone into the water, quickly." Everyone but Elero waded into the shallower parts of the water and under collections of thick plants and moss. "Get low and use this to breath." Frey and Doevm lay back. Nothing but a small piece of bamboo stuck through the plants and water, which sounds of soft breathing came from.

Thomas stopped just shy of the water and looked back to Elero, who was still standing on the shore. "Elero are you coming or what?"

Elero sighed. "So, just to get this clear, you want me to hide underneath a literal army of Bullfrogs. This is assuming that even if they don't immediately find us, we are not accidentally trampled. Nope, I'm out." She pointed the artifact to the sky only to realize that it was gone from her hands.

"Miss Mech," Thomas put on a smile as he held out the artifact. "While I may not be the best at combat, the one thing I do have, is trust in my friends," he glanced back at Doevm. "Or their plans anyway, that damned enigma. Anyway, now you have no choice but to come along." He disappeared into a mess of plants, taking the artifact with him.

Elero cursed and punched a tree next to her. She could make out the shadows' details. Their yellow eyes were almost glowing with an insatiable hunger in the fog. "If I die, I'm going to curse you and your family with my last breath." She stepped into the water and pulled plants and moss around her. She lessened the amount of life essence around her legs as she drifted down into the mess of plants. The swamp went quiet when the slightly less than lukewarm water surrounded her ears. She held the end of the bamboo stick just above the surface of the water and slowed her breathing.

While her world was quiet and dark, it still shook. The water rippled, moving her about. She drove her longsword in its sheath into the mud and held onto it. She pulled herself downwards, letting her back lean into the mud.

She couldn't see the rest of the group, but felt their drifting, limb bodies occasionally bump into her. The water swished around, threatening to thrash her about if she let go.

'At first, I thought they were normal,' Elero thought. While she didn't see it, she definitely felt it: the water around her shooting up in miniature gyzers as the first Bullfrogs reached the area. The stifled thuds rang out, breaking the quiet. While she held on, water dripped into the tip of her bamboo stick and into her mouth. She spat the foul-tasting water to the side, afraid of drawing any sort of attention to herself. 'They're just a group of babysitters. Why would Thomas listen to Doevm? Now that I think about it, why did he let Doevm order him around at all? He saw how many there were, so how come he didn't even hesitate to dive down here?'

More gyzers erupted around her, splattering more disgusting brown water into her tube. She inhaled some. She didn't let her body cough it up, no matter how much she wanted to. Any noise could give her away. Pieces of mud and shattered bits of wood from the fight tapped against her.

She couldn't help but slightly lean up and peer through the plants, an action she immediately regretted finding the dozens of Bullfrogs just like the first around her and the rest of the group. They ate everything, even some of the trees. One tried to go for their Amphiboards and immediately coughed it back up with a low murmur.

Most were covered in fresh wounds and bruises. They hopped in seemingly random directions, croaking and screeching if they bumped into each other. She closed her eyes and put her head back into the filthy water. 'Why do strange things keep happening to me? First that healer, then this group, then this plan?'

A gyzer rose up next to her and a crushing weight pushed into her free hand. She suppressed a scream as pain erupted through her creaking limb. She gripped her longsword so hard that her knuckles turned white. She relaxed her other arm, refusing to let it flinch lest the Bullfrog find out who it was on top of.

After what felt like minutes later, the weight increased as it coiled up. As it hopped away, a clear snap rang out in the water and her arm sunk into the mud. The bamboo stick flew straight out of her mouth with the gyzer's fury. Elero grabbed her shoulder, which was the only part of her arm not buried into the mud.

She internally cursed. Gyzers were still erupting albeit at a slower rate, but her lungs began to burn for air. 'If I surface, they'll all go after me, won't they?' She thought as all sound slowly faded. She mentally searched through her spatial ring but thought of nothing of use.

'I guess I can risk it a little. I already took a single peek. If I'm careful…No, I can hold out for a bit longer. Maybe they'll leave.' She covered her mouth to stop anything from bubbling out. Little sparkles danced in her dark world. Slowly, the sensation of floating numbed. Her lungs and mind burned.

'I can't take it,' she thought. 'I'm sorry.' As she leaned up however, her body halted. Her mouth stopped within a couple inches of the surface. Her arm stuck in the mud, anchoring her down. The more she tugged at it, the more pain erupted from it. She made herself as low as possible as she planted both feet into the mud. She increased the supply of life essence to her legs. 'Pain I can handle,' she thought. 'Stupidity, I can tolerate.' She coughed out a few bubbles of air. 'But air…I…can't…hold…on…'

As her mind drifted away from her, memories flashed. Childhood, training, being broken, recuperating, others' laughter and stares, and white. She unsheathed the longsword, her mind made, already imagining the cut. 'Sever it.' A voice urged her forward.

Then the world before her cleared. Her burning lungs gulped down air as a bamboo stick was pressed to her mouth. Something swept over her left eye, something clear. She couldn't help but open her eye to find a blurry picture of the underwater surroundings.

There was Doevm, lying down flat next to her arm. With one hand, he pressed a clear empty glass bottle to her eye. With the other hand, he held a glass bottle to his own eye. 'How did he know to lend me his?' she thought. Elero grabbed the bottle around her eye, allowing Doevm to get a free hand.

Doevm glanced down at Elero's arm, which was stuck in the mud. Even as gyzers erupted around them, his gaze focused on the task before him. He grabbed the lowest point of Elero's arm with steady hands and slowly gyrated it. The second the mud let go of her broken arm, she pulled it out. She sent a bit of life essence to it and it snapped back into place.

Doevm's face went from its pale completion to red, to blue. Elero passed him back the bamboo stick. He swam up and slowly poked the bamboo stick through the surface. His face went purple. He put a hand over the top of the bamboo, which prevented water from entering the tube as he lowered it back into the water, to his lips. He took a breath before handing it back. Elero glanced at the others, who were nothing but dark blurs amidst the green stalks of the plants. Before Doevm could drift away, he held onto the plants, keeping himself anchored. The gyzers were slowing now, with happening every minute or so, yet still they waited.

Doevm tapped on Thomas's shoulder, who's hand turned into a thumbs up. Elero would have smiled if she wasn't afraid of being crushed at any second. 'He's…not like the rest? Then why was he with those people, if you can call them people?' The image of Molly's wide demonic smile flashed in her vision. 'I should warn hi-'

Just as Elero made up her mind, did however, a gyzer erupted on top of him. He curled up in a ball, his bamboo stick falling out of his mouth. His eyes went wide as he let out a scream and puked onto the Bullfrog's foot. The Bullfrog looked back at him. Elero drew her blade and stood out of the mud.

"Hey ugly," She called over as she threw a rock at the back of its head. It turned to her. Two bright, square-like eyes jutted out of a ball of dark-colored, flesh. Two more sets of eyes turned to her from behind the first. Three frogs opened their mouths and let out a low croak. "Uglies I should say." Elero backed away to dry land and held out her longsword. A smile appeared across her lips, brighter than the six eyes combined. "I already killed one. What's three more?"