Submerged Fish Hunt - 2

A guttural roar echoed throughout the caves, following along with a crazed scream.

"Help! Somebody help! Please!!!" Shibisu yelled as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Behind him was a large behemoth coloured in red and black. It was a strange creature, humanoid in shape with a tapering tail behind it. From it's head extended another appendage that it held in front of it, the top of which holding a small light. It's maw was vertical in alignment with the rest of the body, appearing odd and it held a strange spear like object in it's hands, something that was an extension of its tail.

Roooar!

The roar of this strange creature seemed alien to anything one may try to associate it with; unlike any other roar that could traditionally be recognized by a normal man.

The creature extended it's maw, wanting to bite off Shibisu's head.

"Wait! Let me tell you something! Let me tell you something!!" He yelled, narrowing dodging the bite.

Then, the tail of the creature, as if possessed or with a life of its own moved to wrap around Shibisu's tail and lifted him off the ground.

Crash!

The Bull slammed him right back into the ground with a large sound. Cracks spread over the ground as his eyes momentarily lost their luster.

Then, just as the creature was about to open it's jaws again to gnaw on his face, it stopped, as if frozen in time.

"Eh?" Shibisu said dumbfoundedly, looking at the creature that was shaking slightly, as if trying to break out of a binding.

Just then, a voice called out from the side.

"You okay?" The voice said.

With an imaginary tear in his eye, Shibisu looked towards the right, where a peculiar man with dark hair stood tall. The man had a relaxed disposition and a smile on his face.

"W... Winton! My saviour!"

"You're way too happy to be saved. At least pronounce my name correctly..." Winston shook his head and chuckled.

The Bull wasn't too hard to freeze. Although it could break free within 30 seconds, he just had to cast reverse flow control again. And along with the Trickmaster's freeze spell, the deadline was extended to a whole minute.

Winston himself was very pleased with his rate of progression. Such strength might not have arose if not for the digestion of his sequence 8 potions, enhancing his talent further and making the spells stronger.

"I'm sorry for pronouncing your name wrong!" Shibisu yelled as he broke free from the Bull's grasp and ran towards him, his arms spread out as if wanting to embrace the world within them.

Winston didn't dodge, letting Shibisu hug him.

However, after about 3 seconds, it became awkward.

"Aren't you getting too comfortable?" He said with a displeased tone, the smile still on his face. However, now, the smile held a slight edge.

"Sorry..." Shibisu backed off without a word. Then, his eyes shone suddenly.

"Winston!" He yelled.

"Yes?"

"Can I call you my son from now on!?"

"No way in hell."

Shibisu slumped his shoulders.

Then, voices came from behind them. It was two feminine voices arguing over each other.

"They're here." Winston said.

With that, two beautiful looking young women walked out from the dark, their eyes locked in a crazed battle and their mouths constantly moving in tandem to through insults at each other.

Stopping for a moment, they looked over towards the frozen Bull as well as Winston and Shibisu.

"See? I told you he would take care of it." Endorsi shook her head, throwing a glance at Anaak.

"You just don't want to move your heavy body." Anaak scowled.

"Who are you calling fat!?" Endorsi yelled.

"Did I say fat? Your words, not mine."

Winston and Shibisu both deadpanned at their display.

"Winston."

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you came with them."

"Somehow, me too."

Both of them breathed out, feeling annoyed at the princesses. Although the duo was supposedly their strongest, save for Winston, they could not work together at all.

Roar!

The bull broke free, regaining the command over it's body. Immediately, it rushed straight towards the biggest threat it could feel, Winston.

Freeze!

The bull stopped again, its body in an awkward motion of going in for a bite, the spear it held in it's hand also ready to be thrown.

"It's easy to freeze a target like this." Winston smiled.

Indeed. When one could make 3 baangs, reverse flow control could turn the tides of the battle in an instant.

Shibisu called Khun from his pocket.

"Khun, the bull has been neutralized. It won't cause a problem anymore." Shibisu said.

Khun from the other side breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the princess duo hadn't somehow messed everything up.

"It seems sending in Winston with them was a good idea." Khun nodded to himself, sitting in the lighthouse.

Shibisu chuckled.

The princesses continued their useless banter while Khun provided them with a status report of the rest of the team.

The Herders had started to move, while the thieves had started their own shenanigans. The worms, it seemed had already begun to drill into the soft dirt to steal the fishes. When the herding begins, the flow of shinsu would automatically guide the fishes, and possibly Bam and Rachel right into the worms' stomach, thereby failing the test.

"And where are the dogs?"

"70% of the paths have been blocked. They might encounter each other any moment." Khun explained.

The idea behind the test was simple. The little girl they had with them was an anima user, and using Laure's help, they would find the burrows of the Dogs and crash them, eventually drawing them towards the Thieves and causing conflict.

With that done, the spear bearers would impale the worms from above and eliminate all chances of failure from the equation, securing a victory.

Feels like a perfect plan... almost too perfect. Winston mused, still feeling a bad premonition in his head.

He looked over towards the Bull, who had been frozen for the 7th time.

"..." Winston narrowed his eyes at the beast, feeling a bit unsure about it.

Isn't it a bit too weak? He scratched his head.

Just then, Anaak and Endorsi came forward towards him and proposed something.

A short game they could play while they wait for their victory. The prospect was quite simple, each one of them would take 5 minutes to battle the Bull.

Whoever could kill the bull first would win the game and could request something that the other two had wagered from them.

Anaak had already bet the Black March to Endorsi, while Endorsi had bet her freedom to Anaak.

Hearing their words, Winston immediately shook his head.

"No chance." He declared with a stern expression. The smile on his face, which seldom leaved was absent.

"Why?" They both screamed.

Winston continued to look on with an uninterested expression.

"There are several reasons, but I won't bother explaining them to you. Now run along and argue with each other. Shoo!" Winston waved his hand, 'shooing' them away.

With that said, the princess duo both had a vein pop on their heads.

Their eyes held murderous intent. If looks could kill, Winston felt that he might be dead 10 times over by now.

"You're a mood killer!" Endorsi poked her tongue out to him.

"And you're an idiot."

Endorsi froze as she was going back to stand at the side. Anaak snickered.

Damn... Shibisu sweat dropped at the side.

Endorsi mechanically turned her head back, a strange smirk on her face.

"What.. did you just say?" She said calmly.

Winston raised an eyebrow.

".. you're stupid." He said. "Wait no. I said you're an idiot. Not stupid. I mean, it doesn't really matter since they all mean the same." He scratched his chin.

Endorsi clenched her fist.

At that moment, Winston suddenly felt weird.

Why.. am I provoking her? He wondered, his eyes widening a tiny bit. A strange premonition again welled up inside his heart.

However, as he was contemplating, a vision overlapped with his senses. He saw himself getting punched right in the face, his body sliding back several meters.

Winston ducked without a second thought!

Whoooosh!

A punch passed above his head, making a whistling sound as it did so.

Winston looked above. Endorsi stood in front of him, her arm outstretched.

"What... are you doing?" He asked, having already cast the freeze spell of lesser intensity.

Just then, a roar interrupted his thoughts. He hurriedly turned his head, finding the bull dashing right into the darkness. In the moment of confusion just now, the control over reverse flow control had waned, making the creature regain dominion over it's body!

He stretched his arm towards it and prepared to cast another spell. Just then, his intuition warned him of another attack!

He jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a kick aimed at his back.

He turned to the princess with a pissed smile.

"Are you actually insane?!" He asked.

Endorsi huffed.

"Let's go, lizard! We'll make do with hunting it like this! 5 minutes!" She yelled and ran into the darkness behind it.

"Wait! That's not fair!" Anaak yelled in frustration, dashing behind her.

Winston and Shibisu stood still for a split second, unsure of what had just transpired.

They looked at each other.

"The princesses ruined it again..." Shibisu lamented.

"Indeed, they did." Winston shook his head.

Then, the shinsu around him moved and reinforced his legs.

At the same time, he activated his spirit vision and dashed into the darkness.

Whoosh!

Boom!

An explosion of air rang behind him as cracks spread out from the ground in the form of spider webs.

"Wait for me!" He heard Shibisu yelled from the back. However, he wasn't keen on waiting.

As he ran, one thought clouded his mind.

Something's wrong... why did I provoke her without reason? He looked on with the help of his night vision and spirit vision.

...Is the bull able to influence thoughts and emotions? Turning people rash? Or is it something else?

As he ran, he prayed that it was the bull that had messed with his thought process and not something else.

~~~

~~~

"Hehe hehe hehe." A low chuckle rang out in the cave. A rice ball like being sat atop a rock, a burger packet and a drink box scattered at its feet.

"They took the bait successfully. Though I almost thought I would need to do something extensive." The rice ball, the Ranker teacher of the wave controllers shook his head.

Then, his smile opened up a bit, revealing two pale dots shining in the darkness inside.

"Let us commence the clean up." He bellowed.

~~~

A/N: Throw some stones.

Also, the first volume would be ending in about 4 or 5 chapters I assume. Perhaps even three.

Cheers~~~

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