The hole in the wall had allowed Hadjar to lower the water level for a moment. That had been enough for the water monster to lose the support of its native element, even if briefly. It ended up pulled into that very same opening, and its mouth snapped shut just a few inches from Hadjar’s face.
Down there, a stone fang awaited it. Sharpened by an undercurrent, it dug into the monster’s carcass eagerly, punching through its body. The king twitched a few more times, and then stilled when Hadjar’s sword pierced its head. A red cloud of blood immediately began to float away across the water. Smaller fish swarmed toward the corpse like hungry flies. They gulped the blood down, realizing that it would make them more powerful. After all, when the battle for the ‘throne’ began, they would need every grain of power they could muster.
Elaine swam out from behind the column. She held only one air sack. Hadjar swore — his hands were already trembling slightly due to the burn in his chest. Even such a short battle had cost him too much of his strength and oxygen.
The Princess reached for her knife. She looked greedily at the core of the monster’s power that could be seen inside its flesh.
Hadjar stopped her with a powerful wave of his hand. He caught the end of the rope, tied Elaine to himself, and, pushing away from the monster’s body, rushed toward the second tunnel. She definitely was her father’s daughter. The Princess had probably cried inconsolably over how much of the rare ingredient they’d wasted. Now the monster core was out of her reach as well.
Hadjar, on the other hand, understood that the core wasn’t that valuable. Of course, the fish had been big and strong. However, its energy indicated that it had barely been at the Alpha Stage. If the water hadn’t been hindering him, Hadjar would’ve dealt with it even faster and wouldn’t have spent so much energy and oxygen on it.
The stream picked up the two uninvited guests and carried them toward another stone cave. The flow started to accelerate even further, and the walls of the underground tunnel began to tighten around them. Despite the smoothness of the stones, they still scratched their skin and tore into their clothes. Hadjar and Elaine left a bloody trail behind them.
Hadjar couldn’t see them, but he knew that hundreds or even thousands of fish that had been in charge of taking care of the monster were already following their bloody trail. While they hadn’t been much of a danger to him in the cave, right now... In such a narrow tunnel, he didn’t have room to even unsheathe his blade, let alone wield it.
The burn had already become intolerable. He somehow managed to turn around, only to see Elaine inhaling air from the second sack.
Damn it! Hadjar mentally cursed.
His lungs felt like they were on fire. His body was trying to force him to take a life-giving breath of oxygen. It didn’t understand that instead of air and life, his lungs would only receive water and a painful death from suffocation.
Somewhere ahead of them, Hadjar noticed pillars of golden light. He mentally reached out toward them, trying to make his body hold out a little longer. Just a little bit longer…
The sun’s golden rays were waiting for him up ahead. His freedom and the surface were within reach. However, they were also so far away...
Viscous, cold darkness closed in around him. It clung to his thoughts and body from all sides. He was drowning in it. He tried to endure, but couldn’t. Hadjar fell into it. He fell deeper than ever before.
Then he burned. At first, it was just his lungs, then his mind, and then his whole body.
Hadjar doubled over. He shook as his throat was burnt by the unpleasant taste of water. He coughed involuntarily, trying to expel the water from his lungs. This didn’t happen immediately, and, for some reason, he remembered Nehen.
“Stupid General,” sounded somewhere on the edge of his consciousness once again.
Through the pain, Hadjar inhaled life-giving oxygen with all his might. Coughing again, he repeated the action several times, until he finally felt like he wasn’t going to pass out at any moment.
Sitting up suddenly, Hadjar shook his head like a dog and could finally see normally again. In front of him, on her knees, a blushing Elaine sat. Her wet hair lay across her slightly trembling shoulders, and she kept touching her sensual, pink lips with her hands.
“Thank you,” Hadjar nodded.
He also thanked all the gods that someone had taught the Princess how to do CPR.
“Thank you?” The Princess exclaimed. She jumped to her feet and reached for her belt, but didn’t find her blade there. It had disappeared when the goddamned bat had grabbed her. “That was my first kiss! Who will return it to me now? My first kiss is lost forever!”
Hadjar smiled slightly. The way she was talking right now reminded him of how their parents had used to quarrel. Unlike most children, he‘d never been unsettled by their arguments because they had always known to end them in the warmth of their huge bed, keeping their love strong.
“Actually, my Princess, that doesn’t count as a kiss. You just saved my life, after all. ”
Hadjar rose to his feet and shook off the dirt that had gotten on his wet clothes.
“And I still don’t understand why I did it,” Elaine snorted and turned away.
Her ears were so red that Hadjar had no doubt that, if he were to place Moon Beam on them, the sword would melt. In an odd way, his sister combined militant determination with the shyness of a homegrown princess. One day,
