Chapter 970 970 The Great Lake
"This certainly poses a problem." Marcus mumbled under his breath.
After their success in slaying the wendigo, the expedition squad had continued their journey without much issue, but after around a week of exploration, they found their path towards the center of the island blocked by a massive lake.
In front of them was an endless sheet of blue that encompassed everything going forward.
Even using Miguel's summoned Aurumvorax that could perceive farther than anyone else thanks to having originated on the island could only see the lake spreading out before them.
"Mraz, do you think you could make us a road?" Marcus asked.
"Yeah, I could do it, but we have no idea how wide this lake is. Multiple days with only ice as our solid ground could prove dangerous. I am sure all manner of monsters and magical beasts reside in this lake." Mrazivy said, looking out at the water that became too deep to see the bottom of about two hundred meters out.
With a decision needing to be made about whether they would proceed along the shore or cut through the lake, Mrazivy went to gather the other leaders to plan.
While waiting, Marcus moved tot eh shore of the lake and stuck his hand in it.
'As I thought, there is no life other than plants within the range of my senses.'
Along the floor of the lake Marcus could see plenty of grasses growing, but he did not sense a single fish, crustaceans, or other type of creature that normally lived within water.
Marcus could only think of a few reasons for the lack of life, and none of them were particularly good.
Conducting a few more tests Marcus found that his boots still worked perfectly fine and allowed him to stand atop the water like it was solid ground.
'Okay, I should be fine even if I end up in the water. Some of the others might have some difficulties though.' Marcus thought looking back at the expedition squad.
Some of the members would have difficulties swimming due to the physical characteristics of their bodies.
The members of Fianna's party in particular would have a difficult time in the water.
Having the lower half of a spider, Fianna herself would not be able to swim particularly gracefully.
Then there were the two giant twins Fenmaer and Petlar who had dense bones that caused them difficulty staying afloat.
However, the member of their party that did the worst in water was Ashton. As his body was composed of rock, he would sink to the bottom without being able to maneuver much at all.
Marcus could even hear Fianna loudly making these points as she made her case to avoid going across the lake.
This would not be like when they first arrived on the island and needed to travel a distance from the middle of the ocean to the shoreline of the island.
They had no idea what lurked in these waters nor the distance that they would need to travel to reach the other side. The lake could be just a couple kilometers, or it could be several hundreds.
Marcus could easily recall Antim Lake in Aezam that had been truly massive to the point of looking like an ocean, and even on Earth, Lake Superior at its widest point was well over two hundred kilometers across.
'Looks like they're done. Though all of us already know the decision they came to.' Marcus thought as Mrazivy returned to their group.
Naturally, with each member of the expedition being high-level adventurers, their hearing was far superior to normal people. It had been easy enough to listen in on the heated arguments that the four leaders had presented.
"Looks like we will be counting on you. I'll make sure to support you in any way I can." Marcus said to Mrazivy upon her return.
A smile forming on her face, Mrazivy thanked Marcus. Evette and Cassius had been in favor of crossing over the lake by using an ice bridge in spite of Fianna's opposition. Of course, Mrazivy with her ice magic would be the one that would be freezing over a section of the lake for them to walk across.
After a few minutes for everyone to rearrange themselves into a new formation, Mrazivy placed her right hand on the surface of the water and used her ice magic to create a path.
A thick sheet of ice rapidly formed and soon extended beyond the fog and disappeared.
"That should have reached about a kilometer. Can your summon still see the end of it?" Mrazivy asked Miguel.
"Yes, the ice has reached nearly the edge of where my summon can see. As of right now, it does not appear that anything has come to investigate." Miguel replied.
For another few minutes, they waited and watched to see if any sort of beast or monster would come to investigate the ice, but everything remained quiet.
With everything seeming to be safe, Mrazivy led the way, with Marcus following right behind her.
When they reached the end of the current path that Mrazivy had created, she froze another section of the lake.
Nearly an hour passed this way, and the other side of the shore did not seem to be anywhere in sight.
At there current pace they had covered nearly thirteen kilometers and all that surrounded them was a deep endless blue.
Below them the water was crystal clear, but even then, it seemed to go endlessly into a dark abyss.
Everything appeared calm, yet all of a sudden Marcus felt his danger sense begin blaring in his head.
He looked around to see what the cause might be, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary and his life sense did not pick up on anything.
The only thing he could see was the alarmed look on everyone else's faces. Telling him that their skills were reacting as well.
It was not until the attack hit that any of them realized what was going on.
All at once, the ice that was under them shattered, and a huge pillar of water shot up from the lake.
At the last second most of the members of the expedition squad had been able to jump back and land on solid ice, but a few had been scattered into the water.
"Shit, something is coming."
Looking down, Marcus honed his senses and could make out the water moving. Something from far below the depths was firing off compressed balls of water at them.
They appeared almost invisible while under the surface, but Marcus already knew how much power was packed in each of these projectiles.
Without hesitation, Marcus leapt into the water himself and moved to intercept. His boots allowed him to move around in water without restriction, and since he could not fly right now due to the island's rules, his maneuverability was actually greater underwater than on solid ground.
'Iron Ramparts.'
Casting a tier five iron magic spell, Marcus erected several iron walls that stood in the way of the water blasts coming toward them.
Each wall intercepted the attacks as anticipated, but Marcus winced when he watched the walls buckle after one shot and break apart after being hit with a second.
'I can't keep up.'
The barrage of water blasts outpaced the speed at which Marcus could create barrier to impede them.
Unfortunately, underwater he was unable to properly use lightning and fire magic, making iron magic all he could rely on if he wanted to continue concealing his light and darkness magic.
Yet, as Marcus thought he would be overwhelmed, he felt some movement in the water next to him and noticed several golden walls appearing to pick up the slack.
Looking to see who was assisting him, Marcus found Miguel riding atop a giant deep purple whale that roughly resembled an orca.
'The others are regrouping right now. I'll help you off the attacks until their ready to move.' Miguel said to Marcus over telepathy.
Wearing a smile, Marcus thanked Miguel for his assistance and focused on blocking the ceaseless barrage of attacks coming from the water's depths.
Without letting a single water blast through, Marcus and Miguel coordinate their magic and protected the rest of the expedition squad.
'Looks like whatever is targeting us has gotten fed up with its attacks being blocked.' Marcus thought, noticing the bombardment slowing down until it had stopped.
This did not mark the end of the attack, however.
From out of the blackness of the deep water, a giant form began to surface.
At first it only looked like a blurry dot, but the creature moved rapidly and soon Marcus and Miguel could clearly see what had been attacking them.
Easily over eight hundred meters long and nearly as wide, a truly colossal beast that resembled a snapping turtle was swimming towards them.
Its shell was jagged and protruding out of it was what appeared to be several cannons, giving it the appearance of a moving fortress.
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