Chapter 902: A Dip in the Sea?
The group’s dangerous journey toward the Regional Capital continued, with several stops along the way in villages and towns where they helped however they could, from small tasks like odd jobs and assisting with evacuations to greater efforts, such as joining frontline Infernal Devil forces against Demonic Dragons during multiple blitzkrieg operations.
At one point, their route brought them near the sea, and when they arrived at a seaside town, Mage immediately made a suggestion that left Elaine blinking in confusion.
"Let’s go swimming!"
For a moment, silence followed, then Lancer quickly responded, "Yes, we should go swimming."
Tank added, "I could really use a dip in the sea too."
Archer hummed thoughtfully before saying, "Sounds like a good idea."
Elaine stared at them in surprise, and seeing her reaction, Mage turned toward her and asked, "What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you don’t know what swimming is."
Elaine’s brow twitched slightly as she replied, "I’m not that ignorant. I know what swimming is, and I know how to do it. I just don’t understand why you’d choose now of all times. We just finished raiding a dragon base in the middle of the night, we’ve barely slept off the exhaustion, and now you want to swim?"
That was where her confusion lay, and seeing it, Mage laughed before saying, "Come on. Once we reach the Regional Capital and get our Hero titles and everything, we’re going to be extremely busy. We won’t have much time to relax, so we want to enjoy ourselves while we still can."
"Exactly," Tank said. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I’ve never understood why they use ’Jack’ for that saying, but the point stands. We don’t want to do nothing but work, so we’re going swimming."
Elaine glanced out the inn window toward the sea, then back at the group, before asking, "Are you sure this is the right time to swim?"
Her question puzzled them for a moment, and Archer turned to look outside, ready to say there was nothing wrong with swimming now, but the instant he did, his eyes widened, and he cursed under his breath.
"Fuck."
Everyone immediately turned toward him, and he said, "We’ve got an incoming fleet of demonic wyrmlings."
Mage shook her head slowly, despair crossing her expression as she asked, "Don’t tell me they’re coming from the sea..."
Archer nodded grimly. "They’re coming from the sea."
That meant they had to kill the demonic wyrmlings before they reached land and destroyed the town, and if they fought them in the water, the sea would end up filled with blood and corpses, completely ruining any chance of swimming. None of them had that kind of inclination.
Hearing this, Lancer dropped to his knees, looking skyward as he cried out in despair, "No!"
The scene made Elaine chuckle softly, but then she noticed someone missing from the interaction. She looked toward Knight, who stood in a corner, silently clenching and unclenching his fists.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Knight looked up when he realised she was addressing him and said, "I’m not sure. Something feels off with my energy circulation."
That statement immediately drew the others’ attention.
"Something off with your energy circulation?" Mage asked, her tone serious as all thoughts of swimming were cast aside, her expression replaced with nothing but concern for her companion. "How long have you felt this way?"
Knight frowned lightly at her question, shaking his head before replying, "I can’t say exactly. It’s been like this for a few days now."
Archer frowned and asked, "Could it be a lingering effect from that dragon’s curse?"
Three weeks had passed since the battle against the first Class 2 Demonic Dragon, but they all remembered it, and the curse that had nearly killed Knight. In the next town over, several healing mages had examined him, but none had found anything wrong.
However, now that he mentioned a problem with his energy circulation, they couldn’t help but wonder if something had been overlooked by the healing mages.
"I’ll run an analysis," Mage said, before calling out to another member of the group. "Archer."
"I know," Archer replied immediately.
Archer covered his left eye with one hand and appraised Knight with the other, while Mage began casting a diagnostic spell.
Both skill and spell returned results simultaneously, and those results had them both blinking in confusion.
"Huh? It says... death energy corruption?" Archer spoke first, reading the hidden ’Condition’ of Knight, listed as a ’Negative Status Effect.’
Mage remained silent for a few seconds, then turned toward Elaine, her gaze returning to Knight as her expression slowly shifted.
She quickly faced Elaine again and asked, "Elaine, would you conjure a small ball of magic power?"
Elaine didn’t understand why this was needed, but she wordlessly complied. Mage’s expression grew even stranger, and she made another request.
"That other energy you use, that strange negative one, can you conjure an orb with that too?"
Elaine had used her anti-divinity repeatedly in battles, and naturally, the Hero Candidates had noticed. When they asked about it, she explained it was a unique ability of hers to harness this negative energy, and they had little choice but to accept her explanation at face value.
Mage requested her to conjure an orb with it left Elaine both wary and confused, but she did it anyway.
The moment she complied, Mage nodded to herself and muttered, "As I thought."
"What is it?" Knight asked, receiving a quick reply.
"Elaine’s energy is mixed into yours, and your body isn’t handling another person’s energy lingering in your circuits very well."
Elaine’s eyes widened at her words, and Lancer, rising from the ground, looked between them and asked, "How did Elaine’s energy even get stuck inside Knight’s body?"
That was the million-dollar question, and Elaine’s immediate reaction of "Ah, that time..." made it clear she knew the answer.
When they all looked to her for an explanation, she elaborated, "To save Knight from the dragon’s curse, I passed my death energy through his body and into the dragon."
They didn’t immediately understand, but Knight was able to connect the dots.
"Oh, I see. I was linked to the dragon because of the curse, and you passed your energy through me and into it through that link. That’s what freed me, right?"
Elaine nodded at his words.
"Yeah. I used my power to drain the dragon’s vitality so it couldn’t maintain the curse. Some of it must’ve stayed in your body. Sorry about that."
"Nah, nah, don’t worry about it," Knight said, waving his hand. "You did kind of save me with that move anyway."
That was true, and none of them could really complain about an unintended side effect like that. Elaine had never passed her death energy into another person’s body, so she hadn’t known it would linger that long.
"Well, if you keep using your magic, you should be able to expel the corrupted energy over time," Mage said, dispelling her diagnostic spell. "Still, this isn’t the moment to talk about it since we’ve got demonic wyrmlings incoming."
Tank and Lancer sighed heavily at her words, clearly disappointed about the ruined swimming plans.
"Let’s use ranged attacks and take them out far enough that they don’t ruin the water," Archer said, lifting his bow.
His suggestion brightened the faces of the two men, and Mage conjured several projectile spell circles, showing she was ready.
The four of them rushed out of the room immediately to get started, leaving Elaine and Knight behind, who just sighed, chuckled, and followed after them.
◇ ◇ ◇
The battle to defend the seaside town went smoothly, and the plan to keep the fight far out at sea worked well, at least at first.
Archer, Mage, and Lancer focused on ranged attacks, ensuring the wyrmlings fell far from the shore. Knight joined in as well, while Tank shielded the party from the demonic wyrmlings’ own ranged assaults.
Elaine had a few ranged spells at her disposal, so she used them carefully, making sure to expend just enough magic to avoid killing any of the wyrmlings.
Unfortunately, despite their caution, they still couldn’t enjoy the swim they’d hoped for, as the blood and corpses of the wyrmlings were carried to the shore by the waves.
With a deadline looming, they couldn’t linger and had to leave before the town finished clearing the remains, clearly disappointed that their chance to swim had slipped away.
