Chapter 172. Water Fight (1)
The moment Anagin identified the presence beyond the thread using Yul(εὐ), he pulled out a pouch of money from his chest and tossed it onto the table.
Thud-!
Judging by the heavy sound, it was filled with gold coins—more than enough.
After paying for the meal, Anagin immediately stepped out of the restaurant.
The moment he left his seat, he heard the woman sitting across from him lose consciousness and slam her head onto the table, but Anagin didn’t care.
Getting to the presence beyond the thread was far more important.
'It's damn far away.'
Anagin thought as he looked toward the distant shoreline—the fishing harbor.
Though it was only for a brief moment, the presence beyond the thread had clearly been there. At the shore.
It might have already fled, but Anagin decided to go anyway without giving up.
Even if it was gone, confirming it in person mattered.
Thud!
Just as he was about to dash forward, an arrow flew out from beyond the fog, aiming for his head.
An archer hidden nearby had taken aim at him.
“.......”
It wasn’t particularly surprising.
Though it looked normal on the surface, this place was still under the influence of the Barbaroi Cult.
Of course, just because it wasn’t surprising didn’t mean he wasn’t annoyed.
Thwip-thwip-thwip-!
Multiple arrows shot out from the thickening fog, and Anagin leapt onto the rooftops to evade them.
They were as annoying as flies, but he decided to ignore them for now.
There was a priority to things.
Rather than dealing with pests, catching the presence beyond the thread came first.
Nine times out of ten, it was related to the Barbaroi Cult, and judging by the abilities shown, it was at least a priest.
Someone at that level would surely know something useful.
Still, for some reason, it didn’t feel like the presence beyond the thread was just an ordinary priest.
Maybe it was because it had tried to make a deal with him, but it felt more like a priest on the verge of becoming a bishop—the kind the mages had been trying to capture.
‘Just a feeling, though.’
If he was right, great. If not, then not.
Shaking off unnecessary thoughts, Anagin moved.
“Pairon.”
First, Anagin had Pairon, hanging at his waist, take out the Beast Devourer. Then he threw Pairon straight to the ground.
Boom—!!!
As Pairon hit the ground, the surroundings trembled, and a heavy sound rang out.
After devouring a monstrous crab, its weight had increased several times over.
And it wasn’t just the weight that had increased.
Transforming into a boar from an Interspatial Bag, Pairon had grown far larger than before.
Even the archers hidden in the fog seemed startled, as their arrows stopped for a moment, and Anagin used that opening to give an order.
“I’ll go ahead, so hurry up and follow.”
With that, Anagin began sprinting across the rooftops toward the fishing harbor.
It was much faster to move over the buildings than between them.
And after shedding Pairon, his body felt as light as a feather, allowing him to move even faster, almost like the wind.
Thanks to that, Anagin crossed the fishing village in an instant and reached the harbor.
Tap!
Leaping high from the rooftop, Anagin looked down below.
The thick fog made it impossible to see clearly, but that wasn’t a problem.
He hadn’t jumped to see—he had jumped to be seen.
No matter how fast he arrived, if the opponent wanted to run, they could have escaped already.
So instead of searching, he chose to expose himself.
If they had already fled, nothing would happen.
If they were still there, they wouldn’t ignore this moment.
Whoosh—!
His prediction was correct.
As Anagin floated defenseless in the air, something shot through the fog at high speed.
Using his wing guards as a shield, he blocked the incoming attack.
The force was considerable—his body was pushed back slightly, and a handful of Harpy Witch feathers covering the guards were torn away.
‘Seawater.’
Seeing the droplets scatter after losing momentum against the wing guards, Anagin identified the nature of the attack.
It was an attack made of seawater—it was wet and carrying a salty smell.
Whether he should call it a coincidence or not... it left a bad taste in his mouth.
It reminded him of the Siren Orpheus had summoned.
Well, that was that, and this was this.
Anagin plucked a feather from the Harpy Witch feathers attached to his arm guards and threw it toward the direction the attack came from.
Then he landed on the ground and surveyed his surroundings.
The fog was still thick, but it was better than being in the air.
At least now he could see his attacker with his own eyes.
“After I went out of my way to show you kindness, and this is how you repay me… stabbing me in the back…”
A small ferry floated quietly atop the rough sea.
Sitting on it was a woman—the real Barbaroi woman—speaking leisurely.
She lounged lazily, glaring at Anagin as if everything bored her.
For the record, not a single feather Anagin threw had touched her.
The seawater surrounding the ferry had risen like a living creature, blocking every feather.
‘Hm? Is that bracelet the magical tool that the fisherman mage mentioned?’
Anagin instinctively thought as he looked at the bracelet on her wrist.
It didn’t look like much at a glance, but something about it stood out.
If controlling seawater wasn’t her own ability, then it had to be the bracelet’s power.
“Not listening, are you?”
While Anagin’s attention drifted to the bracelet, the Barbaroi woman drew an imaginary bowstring in the air.
Before he could react, she released it—and the wall of water around her instantly transformed into hundreds of arrows that shot toward Anagin.
An attack that switched instantly from defense.
Anagin drew the Beast Devourer and swung it as he dodged, but still took a few hits to his shoulder and thigh.
"You're slower than I thought."
Her voice came closer.
Thinking she was approaching, Anagin turned his head—and saw a mass of seawater, gathered like a giant mollusk, lifting both the ferry and the Barbaroi woman onto land.
Then it charged straight at him.
Boom!
The massive, mollusk-like lump of seawater was solid and heavy, and Anagin was pushed back.
‘Isn’t bringing seawater onto land kind of cheating?’
Even as he was pushed back, Anagin had the leisure to think something like that.
But that didn’t last long.
The Barbaroi woman stood atop the ferry and began forming a trident out of seawater, swinging it at him.
Slashslashslashslash—!
Not quite on the level of that horse-headed bastard, but her spear skills were decent, and the three-pronged trident made it even harder to block.
‘And swinging it from atop the ferry makes it even trickier to deal with.’
Because she could move freely using seawater, her attacks came not just from the front, but from both sides and even overhead.
In the middle of it all, she spoke again.
“Go on, tell me. I went out of my way to be kind—why did you refuse?”
With a wide swing of her trident, she sent Anagin flying.
It wasn't so much that the attack itself was powerful, but rather the trident felt heavy.
While being thrown back, Anagin pulled out feathers from his wing guards and hurled them at her.
Fast enough to give her no time to react.
"Do you think an opportunity like this comes easily?"
The Barbaroi woman continued her speech without even blinking.
This was because the seawater around her rose like octopus tentacles and blocked only the feathers Anagin had thrown with uncanny precision.
‘She might be even trickier than Pigmenes.’
As his attack failed, Anagin felt a small shock and began thinking about how to deal with her.
‘For now, maybe I should pretend to move around and lure her further inland?’
Judging the troublesome seawater to be the biggest obstacle, Anagin considered drawing her away from the sea.
He felt like he could do something once he created some distance from it.
Fortunately, since she had already come onto land, leaving her advantageous terrain behind, it didn’t seem too difficult.
Just as Anagin finalized his plan and was about to act—
Splash.
Water paths suddenly formed on both sides of him.
Paths made of seawater.
The problem was that these waterways caught Anagin’s ankles.
It wasn't to the point where he couldn't shake them off, but his feet were momentarily stopped.
Crash—!
Seizing that opening, the ferry the Barbaroi woman stood on slammed into him.
Not just the ferry, but the weight of the seawater supporting it concentrated on him in that instant.
Anagin was pushed back and smashed into the side of a building.
After breaking through several layers of walls, he finally came to a stop.
The Barbaroi woman pressed him in that state and pointed her trident at his face.
As if declaring victory.
Savoring her spoils, she mocked him and asked.
“Or did you think that if you captured me, you’d get everything you want?”
Guguguguk…!
The mollusk-like mass of seawater pressed down on Anagin, crushing him.
A grotesque creaking sound echoed from both the building behind him and his own body.
“...And if I did?”
“Ha! Then you wouldn’t have any complaints even if you lost everything, right? Not even considering the possibility of defeat… how arrogant. Just like a Gigant.”
"You seem to think I’m fighting seriously right now."
At Anagin’s words, the Barbaroi woman, who had been about to thrust her trident, paused for a moment.
A proper fighter would have just driven the trident forward without a word, but perhaps because she thought she had already won, she chose to hear him out.
Well, he had spoken specifically knowing she would react this way.
He figured she wouldn't be able to ignore him after all her chatter earlier.
“Are you going to make excuses about being injured?”
Perhaps the horse-head bastard had told her, she brought up Anagin’s injury.
It wasn’t wrong.
The flames Tramachus had planted were indeed restricting Anagin’s movements to some extent.
Even while running here and during the fight just now, he had been cautious, worried the flames might flare up again.
He couldn’t help it.
Putting aside the pain, once those flames ignited, they were nearly impossible to extinguish.
But that was separate from this. Her assumption was still wrong.
“That’s being unable to fight. I said I’m not fighting seriously.”
The Barbaroi woman frowned, unable to understand.
Not fighting seriously…?
Didn’t that mean Anagin was holding back against her?
It sounded like nonsense, but Anagin was serious.
As if to prove it—
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
A massive rumble echoed—
Screeeech!
Bursting through the building, the gigantic boar, Pairon, appeared and charged straight at the Barbaroi woman, who was pressing down on Anagin.
“Ah…!”
At the sudden appearance of the enormous boar, she froze for a split second.
Immediately, the surrounding seawater moved like a guard dog protecting its master, rising to block Pairon.
But.
Boom!!!
Having devoured a massive monstrous crab, Pairon shattered the seawater with its overwhelming mass and slammed straight into the Barbaroi woman beyond it.
Seawater scattered in all directions, along with fragments of the shattered ferry.
And the Barbaroi woman was flung into the air.
Anagin leapt up and swung the Beast Devourer at her—
Whoosh!
—only to slice through empty air.
An octopus hidden between the buildings had grabbed his ankle, interrupting him.
Pairon tried to press the attack and charge again, but a large volume of seawater surged up from the shore, obstructing it.
Without its momentum, even its massive weight couldn’t push through the water, and Pairon was stopped in place.
Anagin cut down the octopus gripping his ankle and looked forward again.
The Barbaroi woman, barely regaining her composure, glared at him with a shaken expression.
Well, she couldn’t have expected to be hit like that.
“......Did you plan that from the start?”
“How would I plan that when I didn’t even know your abilities? I just adapted as I went.”
Throwing off Pairon earlier had simply been to reduce his weight.
Though, just in case, he had told it to come here. He didn’t know when he might need it.
Hearing his answer, the Barbaroi woman smiled as if amused.
Not bluffing… so he had hidden strength of his own as well.
“I like you. If you join us even now, I think we can still pay the promised price.”
“Sounds like there’s more I’d have to do.”
“Correct.”
“Then forget it. It’ll be easier to beat you down and make you talk.”
“You think you can win just because you landed one lucky hit?”
“Yeah.”
Anagin answered confidently.
At that, the Barbaroi woman raised the hand wearing the bracelet.
As expected, that bracelet wasn’t ordinary.
Anagin watched cautiously, using Pairon as a shield. But nothing happened.
No—more precisely, he realized it a moment too late.
Ssssss…
Like a rising tide, seawater was steadily swallowing the land.
The Barbaroi woman was eliminating the terrain entirely, creating an environment advantageous only to herself.
“What a cheap trick.”
Not intending to play along, Anagin immediately tried to move further inland—but seacreatures-men had already blocked his escape.
They weren’t trying to defeat him, just to hold him in place.
Meanwhile, the rising seawater accelerated, reaching up to his knees, making it harder to even stand.
At this rate, he’d be forced to fight while swimming.
“Regretting it yet?”
The Barbaroi woman asked, standing atop the water.
Of course, he was somewhat concerned.
Anagin wasn’t some kind of masochist who enjoyed fighting at a disadvantage.
But was he that worried? Not really.
It was about time.
Splash!
Right as the thought crossed his mind, the fisherman mage burst out beside Anagin.
[Water, support this man.]
[Water, grant this man breath.]
Having rushed over after watching through the crystal orb, the fisherman mage immediately cast spells on Anagin.
Magic that allowed him to fight even in the sea.
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