Free Web NovelChapter 68: Karathese Tower! (2)
The three of them walked in a group across the vast, sandy plain. They gazed upwards to see the ocean floor with schools of fish and other sea creatures swimming above.
"How is that even possible?!" Holo exclaimed with a mix of shock and amazement.
"Where are we even meant to go? How troublesome...this is my first time inside a tower." Weiss mumbled to himself as he darted his head around. Shun didn’t stop to look and just walked on. They both followed Shun, who also had no idea where to go and was just following his gut.
"Mister Weiss, do you know what...the tower is?" Holo asked as he also heard those same words that everyone else heard, ’You have now entered the tower’.
"Hm? You’ve never heard about them even though you’re an adventurer...Ah! I guess you are still just a kid and you only joined recently, right?"
Holo nodded his head.
"Well, I’ve never been in one until now...but it’s a place that’ll test you and grant you treasures that’ll give you abilities...something along those lines?" Weiss scratched the back of his head. "Ah!...Make sure you’re always on guard, Holo...I’ve heard that these towers have taken the lives of countless people. Be careful."
Shun’s eyes narrowed as he overheard Weiss talking to Holo and slowed down his pace. Right now, the only thing that mattered to Shun was to protect Holo and for them to escape this tower. In the distance there seemed to be large amounts of white buildings, which surrounded a large marble pyramid structure with a golden tip. However, there didn’t look to be anybody inhabiting these buildings. They made their way towards these eerie rectangular structures to investigate. Each building formed a massive circle around the pyramid.
All of them became slightly more tense and on guard as they looked around these empty buildings. In their search, they found that each building had a mound of sand inside. Shun, feeling curious, swept one of the sand mounds away and found a sleeping woman. Strangely, her skin was blue and she had gills on her neck. Just like a human, she did have a full set of hair but coloured blue. Holo and Weiss peered over.
Weiss crouched down to take a closer look. "How strange...she looks like a mix of a human and a shark?"
"I know! Maybe she’s like me!" Holo pointed at his ears with a gleaming look on his face.
"...A demi-human?...I’ve never heard of a shark demi-human though. It could be a monster...let’s kill it before it wakes up." Weiss stood up and took out his battle-axe.
"Wait!" Holo intervened frantically, "You don’t know that she’s a monster. At least wait for her to wake up...please." Holo’s ears flopped downwards.
"...You’re right, I’m sorry. This place is just giving me the creeps." Weiss put his battle-axe behind his back with an anxious look on his face.
Shun looked at the shark girl and then slapped her.
"H-Hey Shuros! What do you think you’re doing?! That’s rude, you know!" Holo pulled Shun’s ear as a form of punishment.
Luckily, Shun still had his bag strapped to his body along with his pen and notebook. Weirdly, the notebook was completely dry even though they were underwater. As soon as he realised this another thought came to his mind. "How am I breathing underwater?!"
"H-Hey? Why do you look so surprised?" Weiss asked as he saw Shun’s facial expression change to shock.
Shun then scribbled down his thoughts. "I slapped the girl to wake her up. Also, we can breathe underwater! :O" He childishly drew a surprised face at the end, which caught both Holo and Weiss off guard. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
"A-Ahem! I see...still, it’s impolite to slap someone awake."
Shun then gazed down, showing some remorse. Suddenly, the shark girl sat up and rubbed her eyes and spoke in a quiet voice, "I-Is it feeding time already?" She stretched her arms while yawning. This shark girl had fins protruding from each elbow and even one large one on her back. She blinked a couple of times, showing black sclera eyes with a white ring. Her arms also had black stripes and the shark girl’s neck had gills. "Eh? Who are you people? What are you doing in my home? Don’t you know it’s rude to barge into someone’s home uninvited?"
They all stood there in shock for a little while as the shark girl got fully out of her sandy mound. In the centre of her chest was a white stone and surrounding it looked to be red glowing veins. Weiss immediately whispered into Shun’s ear, "T-That’s a magic stone, isn’t it? Doesn’t that mean she’s a monster...what should we do?"
Shun responded by shrugging his shoulders as the shark girl strolled out of her barren home. She turned to the right and looked at the pyramid in a daze. Her mouth was open as drool came down.
They all stared at her with confused looks on their faces before following her. Weiss then placed his hand on her shoulder nervously, "H-Hey? What’re you looking at?"
"I’m waiting...you lot woke us up early."
"U-Us?" Weiss tilted his head in confusion. Just then, a bell could be heard in the distance that was seemingly coming from the pyramid. After the bell rang a third time a melodic and beautiful sound started to fill the air. Just then, a bunch of similar looking shark girls walked out of their homes and turned to the pyramid as well.
Weiss stumbled back a little, letting go of the shark girl’s shoulder, as he clutched the handle of his battle-axe. His eyes narrowed as he looked side to side. The melody stopped playing. In unison, all the shark girls’ heads turned to the group. Their white circular eyes turned red. They all smiled showing their sharp and jagged teeth that had drool coming out of their mouths. They all collectively spoke as one, "It’s feeding time!" Just then the shark girl lunged at Weiss, which made him fall to the ground. She attempted to bite her jaws into Weiss’s throat, however he used the handle of his battle axe as a muzzle before kicking her off. The shark girl stuck her long salivating tongue out. Veins popped out of her, "Let me eat!"
Weiss stood up and stanced himself, he held the long handle of his battle-axe with two arms. Sweat trickled down Weiss’s forehead. "Sorry! But I’m not dinner..." He gritted his teeth. The shark girl charged at Weiss with her fangs, however she was swiftly taken down by a powerful vertical swing from his battle-axe. It severed her body in half. Her eyes looked up at Weiss before her mouth spewed blood onto the ground. The red-ringed eyes became white once more.
"So...you were a monster." He looked at the corpse before grouping up tighter with Holo and Shun.
They all then faced towards the hordes of shark girls coming at them.
"S-Shit! There’s too many of them."
They all turned opposite of the pyarmid and ran, however they were blocked by starved shark girls. A few of them charged at the three of them with their teeth and claws. Shun took out his blade and severed the arms of the shark girls reaching for Holo before disconnecting their heads from their bodies. Weiss’s body splattered with more and more blood as they came at him. They were slowly progressing out of this building, however the huge horde behind them were gaining on them at a faster pace.
"Haaaah! Haaaah! There’s so many of them!"
Even Shun was struggling to keep up with the great amount of monsters coming at them. Holo was following closely behind Shun while he shakily held his wide-bladed dagger. They kept running like this for twenty minutes, the layout of the buildings seemed to change. It only took them about a few minutes before they stopped and checked inside one of the identical buildings so it didn’t make sense for them to have not escaped. They were able to outmanoeuvre the horde and were resting between two buildings.
They sat on the ground, still on edge. Weiss leant and slid down the wall with an exasperated and pained look on his face. "What do we do now? These monsters are everywhere and we can’t find an exit!" He then slammed his curled up fist onto the wall and looked at his other hand, which had a bite-shaped wound that trickled blood. In the time they were running, Weiss had sustained an injury on his hand and a chunk of his calf had been taken. "Dammit! I’m struggling just to walk!"
Holo took out bandages from Shun’s bag and wrapped Weiss’s wound. He ruffled Holo’s hair, "Thanks kid. You alright?"
Holo nodded his head, fortunately he was unscathed thanks to both Weiss and Shun protecting him. Weiss then looked up to see a smiling and leaned-over figure on top of the building. Drool fell on top of Weiss’s head. His eyes widened, "S-Shit it’s–"
"–Found you!"
