Fishing II

"Damn, you." Kaalsuo thought. He was absolutely furious. His brother had, unbeknownst to him, schemed something unforgivable. He could feel veins bursting in his head, thinking about the actions Zweschez had done.

'Was he trying to kill me?' He thought. He scavenged for every memory of him with Zweschez. Kaalsuo figured that there was no way in hell that he had done something that would lead Zweschez to murder him in cold blood.

Still, Kaalsuo felt weird as he was submerged in the water. He had a strange and unusual sensation inside him. His whole body felt like it was confused. Kaalsuo felt as if he could breathe underwater.

"Now that I think of it, it's been minutes since I've been underwater." Kaalsuo thought. Usually, he could only last a mere minute underwater by holding his breath. However, Kaalsuo remembered that he didn't have any difficulty as he fell into the water. Surely, he would've inhaled some water by accident but obviously, that did not happen.

At the same time, the murky waters slowly began to change. It became more clearer which helped Kaalsuo locate plenty of fishes in the proximity.

"..Ahem. I'm sorry but I couldn't resist myself from an epic prank." Zweschez's voice had suddenly appeared inside Kaalsuo's mind which stunned him. Still, upon hearing that it was a prank, Kaalsuo was relieved considering it wasn't a scheme to murder him.

"That's evil as hell." Kaalsuo responded. However, Zweschez didn't respond back which irritated Kaalsuo. Kaalsuo's temper was slowly rising back. 'Can't you talk back??' was what Kaalsuo thought.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not literally talking inside your mind. It's called telepathy. By the way, you can't talk back since it's just one-way." Zweschez said, answering Kaalsuo's question without knowing.

"Well, I already knew that." Kaalsuo inwardly responded. He knew that he couldn't reply back. He just decided to do it regardless.

"If you're wondering why you're even underwater, change of plans. Dad said just sitting around and waiting for the fishes to take the bait was boring. Therefore he decided that we should all dive in and directly fish." Zweschez informed Kaalsuo.

As Kaalsuo heard the info, he couldn't help but think that his father must be a combat maniac. Even after quitting as a barbarian, he still carries on the traits of one. Regardless of that, he now knew why Zweschez seemed to be tried earlier. Poor dude had to use magic underwater.

Although it was just his assumption, he had a theory that Zweschez's magic affinity was fire. Based on the fact Zweschez usually only uses fire and his powerful spells are all fire, it was safe to say that his affinity was fire.

Of course, Kaalsuo had seen Zweschez cast spells other than fire such as wind to cool down but oftentimes, he would only use fire as offensive spells.

Kaalsuo was about to ask Zweschez about where Alsram was when he remembered he couldn't.

"I know you tried to ask a question. Let me guess, it's about where Dad is, right?" Zweschez said, briefly pausing before continuing. "I don't have to say anything cuz you can already hear him."

"Hear..?" Kaalsuo was confused. However, he immediately knew what he meant shortly afterwards. He caught a glimpse of a small pebble darting past him with extreme speed, evaporating the water around it within a meter radius.

Kaalsuo couldn't turn his back towards the lightning fast pebble as he was too slow. By the time he looked back, the pebble had already hit its target. Obviously, the pebble overachieved its goal by obliterating the poor fish into dozens of bits and pieces.

After only a mere seconds later, Kaalsuo could suddenly hear a loud boom from where the pebble originated. In a matter of seconds, Kaalsuo suddenly spotted a huge figure zooming past him. For a brief second, Kaalsuo could see two pairs of eyes fitting for a predator and a large humanoid body the size of a large boulder.

Kaalsuo could feel shivers down his spine the instant he spotted the figure. His instincts were screaming at him to swim as fast as possible, no matter what. Even his body were acting on it's own. Kaalsuo had subconsciously activated his flight or fight response and chose the latter.

"Oh hell nah, I'm not dying today." Kaalsuo thought whilst using the entirety of strength into thrusting himself upwards to the surface. He, without a doubt, knew that he had no chance in defeating that menace of a creature. Let alone harming it.

Kaalsuo still had something to live for. Even if he couldn't use magic, he still could witness the phenomenon in front of his own eyes. He had yet to travel around the world to sightsee mythical monuments. Thus he couldn't die yet.

Kaalsuo's head poked out the water. The moment he sensed that he was indeed on the surface, his body automatically headed to the nearest way out of the lake. He grabbed on the ledge with both his arms with full force, even by gripping on it with his fingernails. He lunged himself upwards into the air, landing onto the sharp yet comforting blades of grass.

"Finally. It's over." Kaalsuo sighed in relief. His near-death experience was finally over. He could now rest peacefully on the ground without the need to be anxious of an attack. He closed his eyes until someone or something talked to him.

"Hey." Someone said in a deep voice. It felt familiar but Kaalsuo couldn't be sure and opened his eyes. What he saw was shocking. The eyes of a predator were directly looking at him within a mere arm's reach. It's rough hands were slowly reaching him.

The instant Kaalsuo saw it, his expression immediately became tense as his mind quickly became blank. His entire thought process shut down except for one. That one thought was the thought of accepting his fate.

There was no possibility he could survive this monster. This wasn't a novel where he could type how powerful he was. He had no plot armour after all. This was reality and he needed to accept it. Therefore he waited for the inevitable to come.

"Hey! Relax, it's me! Your dad!" Alsram said, calming himself as his predatory eyes began to disappear. His huge throbbing veins were now slowly vanishing and his stiff hardened muscles began to relax. It seemed that Alsram had deactivated his battle phase.

"Huh? Phew."

Kaalsuo was baffled. As it turns out, it was actually his dad that was the predator. He now knew why he was such a barbarian. He could strike fear into others just by standing still.

Kaalsuo had no doubt that even fellow barbarians would feel uncomfortable sitting with him knowing that this man could slaughter whole towns if he wanted.

"Ah, I forgot to tell you. Your friend here has been spectating from afar." Alsram said, pointing to Etrus casually swimming in the waters. Etrus playfully waved back from afar seeing that Alsram was pointing at him.

"W-what?" Kaalsuo was stunned. Etrus had been watching the whole time and he didn't even notice. However, that wasn't the problem. He had to talk with Etrus. Otherwise, it would not only look weird but also disrespectful avoiding every single gaze from Etrus.

"Oh yeah, he's also following us in fishing."

At this point, Kaalsuo was beyond stunned. Not only was Etrus watching. He was also participating in fishing which meant he had to work together with him. He simply couldn't. Alsram would just force him to learn some values of teamwork.

Nonetheless, Kaalsuo still had a question unanswered.

"Hey, can Etrus do it?" Kaalsuo asked. He wasn't sure that Etrus would be of much help to fishing due to his age.

"Dunno. Maybe he can. We'll just have to find out." Alsram said, simply brushing off the matter by shrugging his shoulders.

"Anyways, why do you have a pitchfork?" Kaalsuo said, wondering about the random pitchfork Alsram was holding.

"The fishing rods broke so I'm using this as an alternative." Alsram confidently said, giving himself a thumbs up for his improvised plan.

"Alright."

* * *

"Good luck down there!" Zweschez said, patting the back of Kaalsuo very harshly as a joke.

"Alright." Kaalsuo said. He was unaffected by Zweschez's harsh pats since he had already experienced this several times from Zweschez's antics. Hence he didn't really mind.

However, Kaalsuo wanted to bring a weapon with him underwater. He wasn't ridiculously powerful enough to launch a pebble hundreds of meters away. Instead, he wanted to use his Mauser with him.

Kaalsuo knew that it would be extremely ineffective underwater due to the incredibly shortened range of the bullet underwater. He figured that he should fire the pistol in close range to the fishes.

However, there was a major problem for Kaalsuo. It was that, like most fishes, they would just flee from danger almost immediately. Kaalsuo couldn't shoot the fishes if the fishes swam away.

"Might as well figure that out later." Kaalsuo thought. There was little to no reason for him to overthink these things. He wasn't even in the water yet. He just had to think during the fishing.

"You guys ready?" Zweschez said, finishing his spells onto the two of them shortly afterwards.

"We've been ready since long ago." Alsram confidently said as he forcefully brought Kaalsuo diving into the waters.

"Finally, I have some free time in my hands." Zweschez then made himself a dirt chair with earth magic and sat back to relax. He wanted to go underwater and have some fun as well. However, relaxing in total freedom was another matter. He just couldn't pass up the chance.

"I think you forgot about me." Etrus said whilst scratching the back of his head. Due to his silence, he was sadly ignored by everyone around him. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk, he was too busy swimming around the lake.

"Tch." Zweschez mumbled as he once again prepared to cast spells onto Etrus.

* * *

"So where are we going anyways?" Kaalsuo said, wondering where they were heading. The lake now appeared more like a cave the farther they went into the lake.

Stalactites and stalagmites were appearing more often and the once flat bottom appearance of the lake became more rough and spiky. The lake seemed to diverge into multiple huge tunnels that went in every direction. According to Alsram, one of the tunnels had a huge aquatic creature at the end of it whose meat was so savoury.

To distinguish the tunnel from the rest, a huge red mark sprayed from a illuminated powder of mana crystals. The red mark could seen from a incredible distance and it's often just a way to head back to the lake.

The aquatic creature was truthfully humongous. It had it's own domain the size of a whole mountain that swam in. It simply stays in the domain for as long as it could due to it's familiarity and safety of the domain and obviously, the lack of resources outside. It was basically it's boss room. It was unknown as to how the creature managed to prevail in such a biologically lacking environment.

Alsram had seen the creature once and could describe the creature in incredible detail. However, he refused to disclose the information to Kaalsuo and insisted that Kaalsuo see the creature himself with his naked eyes.

The only information Alsram had disclosed was that it was indeed big and was blue. In Kaalsuo eyes, that info was basically useless for him. It didn't determine how powerful the creature was and how big it actually was.

Kaalsuo supposed that he should just follow Alsram's advice in seeing it himself.

"We're almost there." Alsram suddenly spoke after several minutes of total silence between them. Kaalsuo didn't speak fearing that the silence was intentional to heading the domain.

"How do you know? And we are gaining so much speed?!" Kaalsuo said as he tried to pick up the pace with all the strength of his legs.

"You see those numerals right there?" Alsram said, pointing to the small wheel marking on the banks of the underwater lake.

"How is that numerals?" Kaalsuo said. He was confused as to how you'd count using simply wheels. Even with his knowledge of Earth's numerals, he still didn't figure how to count with the wheels.

"You just count with each line up to 4 which would look like an X and a cross. To count to 5, just add a circle on the edge of the X and cross which would make a wheel."

Kaalsuo had many questions to ask about the numerals. However, he figured that he could just ask Alsram about it after seeing the creature. It seemed that they were almost there considering Kaalsuo could already see the glow from something bright.

"Hey. You should get ready very soon. We're almost there." Alsram said, preparing for the attack by grabbing his axe strapped on his back.

"Since when did you get your axe?" Kaalsuo said, wondering how on Earth did Alsram get his axe. He had clearly seen Alsram's axe at home before leaving.

"Ah, I thought the pitchfork would break if I used it to attack. So, I figured I should just quickly get my axe." Alsram responded. However, the answer wasn't too helpful for Kaalsuo. It still didn't answer how Alsram had gotten it.

Kaalsuo was about to ask Alsram again when he saw the creature.

"It's gotten bigger the last time I saw it." Alsram said. Preparing to lunge his axe at the aquatic creature.

The creature seemed to look like a sea serpent. It had two heads. The large head at its body and a more smaller head at its tail. It's scales were metallic turquoise and was tinted in various colours. It's most distinguished features were spots of lights running up from it's whole body to the tail. The lights flickered in all colours as it illuminated the entirety of it's domain. It had huge fins unlike the finless fishes from earlier.

It's domain appeared to be similar to the crystal cave Kaalsuo had seen a few years ago. It had the same extremely bright colorful crystals. However, the domain had one major difference, aside from the creature, from the caves at the surface.

Hundreds of thousands of finless fishes swarmed around the crystals. Even tiny crystals weren't spared from getting swarmed. Multiple booms could be heard every second as a result of the movement of the fishes.

"Huh, I wonder why these idiots are inside here." Kaalsuo commented on the swarms of fish.

Kaalsuo had a theory that the fishes might be replenishing their mana through absorbing mana in the domain. However, the fishes didn't swarm the entirety of the domain. Only the crystals. There was no reason why the fishes were instead head to the crystals if it weren't mana there.

"Wait." Something clicked inside of Kaalsuo's mind. Kaalsuo had just figured something huge. Though, he had to wait until the end of the hunt.

"Hey Kaalsuo, I don't think you can handle this huge bastard so you should just take the small ones down there." Alsram said, pointing on the aforementioned swarms of fish. Alsram had a menacing atmosphere around him. It looked as if he had streaks of golden flames.

"I hope you'll understand, Kaalsuo. This creature's.. mine!" Alsram yelled as his golden streaks of flames suddenly disappeared inside of him.

A split second later, the streaks reappeared. This time, it was completely overflowing. Some of it reached the walls of the domain and even destroyed it unintentionally.

Alsram prepared himself and thrusted his axe, using the entirety of his arms in a downward direction. It seemed that he was planned to chop the smaller head off in one go.

Reacting to Alsram's attack, the creature attempted to flee away from the attack on it's head. However, although it prevented Alsram from chopping off its head, it was unable to flee from the axe hitting them.

Alsram's axe collided with hard scales of the creature, causing the creature to screech in a unusual

"Geez! The previous one before this wasn't this desperate. Kaalsuo! Prepare for a huge wave!"

"Huh?" Kaalsuo said, casually shooting the fishes with his pistol in close range. It was largely more effective to use a spear than a gun while fishing.

However, Kaalsuo found the strange fish's weakness. It was the fact it couldn't detect any slow movement heading towards them. Likely due to the fact they were too busy gobbling up the mana inside the crystals.

Shortly afterwards, an outstandingly loud rumble could be heard from across the tunnels. The rumbling quickly became louder and intense until it hit the climax.

Millions of tiny fishes bursted out of multiple small tunnels hidden out of sight at the ceiling of the domain. The fishes immediately rushed towards Alsram and swarmed around him like a bunch of mosquitoes.

Though, due to the unusual movement of these fishes, the propelling explosions caused a lot of collateral damages.

"Damn, I always hate about this part." Alsram expressed his hatred about the annoying swarms of fish. It naturally blocked most of Alsram's line of sight which diminished his chances of hunting the huge creature faster.

Ironically, the collateral damages by the explosions actually made the situation slightly more difficult as the blood from the fallen fishes essentially became a smokescreen for the creature.

"Cheap improvised tricks, huh? I can still see you." Alsram's pupils began to contract and the surrounding water around his entire body started to evaporate. The golden flames reappeared and immediately dispersed into multiple spike-like structure. The spikes then instantly targeted the largest head of the creature.

Sensing danger, the creature immediately attempted to flee away. It even used its last resort. The resort was using magic to explode itself from danger which would've also harmed the attacker. Unfortunately, the attacker wasn't normal as it thought.

"Tch. This fight isn't as exciting as I thought. Say goodbye."

Alsram casually swam to the bottom of the domain and grabbed several tiny pebbles. He inhaled and exhaled slowly as he prepared to completely decimate the creature.

Obviously, since they were casted with a spell that allowed them to breathe underwater, they could inhale and exhale as if they were on the surface.

However, due to the fact the water was already evaporating around him, he could just breathe normally whilst underwater.

Watching from afar, Kaalsuo already knew what was about to happen to the poor creature. He, himself, witnessed the devastating attack and knew that the creature wouldn't have a chance against Alsram. Alsram likely didn't even use half of his whole powers yet.

Kaalsuo gazed at the creature fleeing away and blinked. The moment he opened back his eyes, the creature was already gone. Huge chunks of the creature collided with the walls as blocks of bones floated around.

In the background, the pebbles created a huge crater on the walls of the domain. The pebbles were so fast that it even hardened and turned the stone around it scorching hot.

Only then did someone suddenly appear.

"Hey guys! Did I miss something?" Etrus suddenly appeared from the tunnel.

"..Everything." Kaalsuo said, pointing the ridiculous events that happened in a short time frame.

"Hey Kaalsuo. I think we're gonna have a huge feast tonight." Alsram grinned whilst intensely swimming around grabbing the huge chunks of the creature's meat.

* * *

"What about me?" Etrus said.

"Sure, here's another humongous block of meat."