“Do not panic; hold your formation! Everyone, clear this area with the utmost speed!”
From the front, Helm’s urgent shouts rang out,
“Make for the shallow water!”
With the water roughly a meter deep, their movements were severely impeded.
For those who couldn’t swim, such a depth could prove lethal with a single misstep.
Those nearest the banks began to retreat, while those further out scrambled ashore, recognizing this as the most optimal strategy for their dire circumstances.
“Bang, bang, bang—”
A few sharp gunshots pierced the air, and another figure was violently dragged beneath the water’s surface. Merely three or four seconds later, a body, grotesquely severed in two, bobbed into view, its eyes wide and vacant, entangled with river weeds, reflecting utter horror.
The creature, cunning and elusive, remained hidden beneath the murky depths, its form never once breaking the surface.
“You cursed animal! I’ll fight you to the death!”
Several agents, their composure shattered, could bear it no longer, unleashing a frantic barrage of gunfire upon the water’s agitated surface.
It had been their comrade, just moments before, guarding their very backs, now vanished in an instant, leaving behind such a gruesome demise.
A flurry of surgical knives followed, vanishing into the water without effect. Even bullets, let alone blades wielded by human hands, lost most of their lethality once submerged.
Dr. Callan’s expression was grim, her singular hand dragging the young girl by her thigh as she scanned their surroundings with intense focus. They were trapped in the very middle of the river valley, the water rising past their navels, leaving them unable to advance or retreat.
As her heart hammered frantically, Ghervil, clinging to the woman’s neck, suddenly grasped a crucial realization and shouted to the agents,
“Discard your torches and swim towards the banks!”
“But…”
Confused murmurs rippled through those nearby.
To abandon their torches meant surrendering their sole source of light, rendering them utterly vulnerable and making evasion impossible should another assault occur.
“Get away from this area; its target is me. Reach the shore and use your flashlights to provide illumination!”
The agents were deeply reluctant to make such a choice, having been explicitly informed of their mission’s paramount objective before their arrival.
Their charge was to protect the nun, for if Solis Abbey fell, it would spell doom for the entire city, and for their own loved ones within it.
“Do as she commands. I will ensure her safety.”
Upon hearing a steady, resolute female voice, the agents finally committed, discarding their torches and swimming desperately towards the distant banks.
As they retreated, the sounds of gunfire and splashing water punctuated the air. Those who had already reached the shallows provided covering fire, yet not a single soul noticed the dense swarm of rats emerging from the crevices in the valley wall behind them…
“Put me down, I can walk on my own…”
Before the words fully escaped her lips, Ghervil remembered a crucial detail: she couldn’t swim, not a stroke, utterly devoid of any skill.
In over a meter of flowing water, it would be easy to lose her footing. Without external aid, she was essentially doomed, likely to be torn apart by the unseen aquatic predators before she could even drown.
“Do not speak.”
Dr. Callan, who had been slowly moving while carrying her, paused, her voice heavy with gravity.
“Our path is sealed. There are at least three of them in the water.”
“Hold your breath; it’s coming!”
Her head was gently but firmly pressed into something soft.
The cacophony of gunshots and human cries faded, replaced by an abrupt silence, as if she had been transported to another realm entirely.
What followed was a suffocating chill, and the metallic tang of blood permeating the water.
A colossal dark shadow brushed past them, the displaced water propelling them deeper into the current.
A violent *thwack!* A fierce impact slammed into her back, and with a gasp of pain, she involuntarily released the breath she had been holding.
The woman’s hand, which had held her, was violently torn away.
She recalled the chilling words: ‘at least three’.
They had only evaded one.
The world reeled around her.
She lost all sense of balance and direction.
Plunged into darkness and overwhelming terror.
Her hands flailed wildly, instinctively grasping at anything within reach in the churning water.
It was a futile struggle, for without the ability to swim, she couldn’t even orient herself, much less break the surface.
The burning agony in her lungs intensified with every gulp of water she involuntarily swallowed.
Her consciousness began to fray at the edges.
On the riverbank, Helm watched with a churning heart as the slowly moving torch in the river’s center vanished from sight. Yet, they were too engrossed in their own desperate fight, as an unending tide of rats surged forth from the misty darkness.
“Hold your ground! Don’t hoard your bullets as if they were rations!”
He bellowed commands to his subordinates, simultaneously firing his weapon and retreating further into the water.
Having learned a harsh lesson from their previous encounter, they had ensured they carried ample ammunition this time.
He would stake his very life to pull them from the river’s grasp.
Bang—
Bang—
With a single hand, he dispatched two black-furred rats that lunged before him, then swiftly drew a wood-handled dagger from his waist, clenching it between his teeth. Just as he turned, poised to plunge into the river, Helm’s gaze was drawn by a disturbance on the water’s surface.
Amidst the scattered moonlight reflecting off the water, a single figure slowly surfaced.
His heart swelled with a surge of relief, only for his eyes to widen in sudden disbelief.
For there was only one.
This momentary shock, however, quickly dissipated.
He watched as the blonde woman raised her left hand, pushing back her sleeve, while in her right, she held a scalpel. Without a moment’s hesitation, she drew a long, deliberate gash across her arm.
In the blink of an eye, the woman plunged beneath the surface.
****
Through her hazy vision, Ghervil perceived a colossal, scarlet vortex swirling into existence not far from her.
It slowly expanded.
No, it was rapidly drawing closer.
She barely recognized it as a monstrous maw, formed by countless rats clinging and merging into a single, horrifying entity, capable of tearing and devouring her in an instant.
‘Was this truly how she was to die?’
With a pang of bitter reluctance, she closed her eyes.
One second.
Two seconds.
Time seemed to stretch, both fleeting and eternal.
Then, a ripple in the water disturbed her senses.
Her eyes fluttered open.
Where the vortex had been, a faint light now pulsed, like a tiny, flickering flame.
‘But how could fire exist beneath the water?’
‘Was this a final hallucination, a trick of a dying mind?’
Yet, she quickly realized it was no mere hallucination.
The light drew nearer.
And nearer still.
Until a crimson lotus imprint materialized before her, and her lips were sealed by a sudden, soft pressure.
At last, she received a life-giving breath of oxygen, assuaging the fiery torment in her lungs.
“Huu… haa…”
Supported by a pair of hands, she straightened, her head breaching the surface. Ghervil greedily gulped down lungfuls of fresh air.
Overwhelmed by panic, she clung desperately to the solid warmth before her—a human body—gasping for breath.
It was nearly half a minute before her frantic pulse began to steady, allowing her to slowly release her grip.
“Truth be told, I wouldn’t have minded if you’d held on a little longer.”
The voice came from above her.
“I…”
She opened her mouth, a strong metallic taste filling it, though she couldn’t tell if it was from choking on the water.
She abandoned any attempt to explain her momentary lapse.
While the surge of adrenaline still coursed through her, she quickly checked her body.
Her face, her clothes, her hair—all were drenched in bloodied water.
A portion of the white fabric of her nun’s habit was stained crimson.
Even the nearby water had taken on a reddish hue.
Such a massive loss of blood—was she doomed to perish after all?
No! This was not her blood.
Even adrenaline, potent as it was, could not completely numb pain.
Beyond a pervasive weakness, she felt no trace of injury on her body.
It couldn’t be…
To confirm her suspicion, she slowly lifted her head, and by the faint moonlight, she saw a face, beautiful and uniquely captivating with its wet hair, yet also unnervingly pale from the bloodstains.
*Drip.*
*Drip.*
The sound of water dripping onto the surface.
A scorching heat emanated from her waist, from the hand that held her, preventing her from falling.
This was no normal body temperature, nor the warmth of ordinary blood; it was far hotter.
She quickly pulled that hand closer to examine it.
On the fair skin of the forearm, a long, clean, bloody gash, about ten centimeters in length, continuously dripped blood.
“Quickly, get to shore! I’ll help you bandage it!”
Ignoring her exhaustion, she tried to drag the woman towards the bank.
But the woman remained unmoving.
Ghervil’s strength was too meager.
“There isn’t time.”
“I can give you a blood transfusion! If not me, there are others!”
She was frantic with worry.
How could a doctor not know about transfusions!
Her mind, overheated with stress, had momentarily failed to question how such a clean wound had appeared.
Urging herself to find a solution, a memory flashed through her mind, and she instinctively replicated an action once performed upon her.
She cupped the woman’s face in her hands, forcing her to look directly at her.
Then she froze, the words of persuasion dying on her lips.
It was an utterly cold smile, tinged with a hint of hatred.
“Trying to escape now… it’s too late…”
*Boom—*
*Boom—*
*Boom—*
It sounded like oversized balloons stretching to their limit and then bursting.
Three distinct booms, in total.
Each came from a different direction, approximately fifty to a hundred meters away.