525 Weird

As he swam away, Liam examined the map with interest.

The crude ‘x’ shapes were sightings…

Stonefish had immaculate camouflaging abilities. Had Liam not used Spirit Sight, he would have actually mistook them for hills.

It made sense for a few of them to hide around the quadrant and spy on other species.

‘Should I check them out straight away?’ Liam thought, surveying his surroundings. ‘There’s a chance I’m still being spied on.’ Due to the murky environment and restricted visibility, there was a small chance the fish that took his form was still watching him. Actually… no. It probably wasn’t. If anything, it was attempting to beat Liam to the punch and find the princess before he did. What it wanted to do with her, Liam didn’t know. ‘Either they would kill her and make the NOCL look bad, or save her and make AG look good… either way, it’s bad for Billy.’

Liam didn’t give a toss about what happened to Bill or his little company. …But being framed? Being imitated? Unforgivable! Immediately, Liam’s heart began pumping faster. Shadows swirled around him, enrobing him with power, strength and speed. A moment later, he used a good chunk of his ichor to Shadow Blink to the nearest sighting. WHOOM!

Liam’s surroundings changed. He found himself atop a ghetto outcropping of stone spires, stretching hundreds of meters into the air. The water was cold, and dirty, too. He began searching, using his Spirit Sight vigilantly and combing through every nook and cranny. His shadow liquified and stretched, separating from itself and becoming a smaller mass. It had split off, attaching itself to a spire. Liam looked at it with a small smile, then uttered a word.

“Go.”

Instantly, the shadow shot into the distance, crawling across the spire and reaching its bottom, a tiny thread of shadows connecting it to Liam’s.

Liam’s shadows had darkened and strengthened enough to send out on their own little expeditions! He could feel it swimming through the Sea of Darkness like a droplet of thick oil in liquid. 𝓯𝘦𝘸𝘯𝘰𝓿.𝒸ℴ𝑚

Like this, Liam managed to clear hundreds of meters in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, it was a dead end… other than a few traces of pink, crystalline dust that Liam saw drifting past an obscure clearing. It belonged to the princess!

However, there were no hidden compartments or areas that Liam came across, even after three whole hours of arduous searching.

Liam absorbed some of the pink dust into his own body. Clearly, it wasn’t enough to use Admit and take the Axolotl’s form… but he could study its scent and form. ‘Next.’ WHOOM!

Liam used Shadow Blink again, appearing at the next sighting and scouring the landscape once again. An hour passed.

‘Dead end.’ Next!

WHOOM!

An hour of searching.

Nothing.

WHOOM!

Another half hour.

Nada.

WHOOM!

The final sighting.

Liam looked around.

This area was right on the border of both the Moray Eels and the Rock Frogs!

However, it wasn’t on either territory. The landscape itself had thousands of little holes in the ocean floor. They were tunnels and burrows that curved and dug into the ground, resembling swiss cheese. If there was a place to hide, it was here. He lowered himself and split his shadow into four distinct masses, scattering them in opposite directions. Liam began with the center tunnel, shooting through it. It was barely 5 meters in breadth, but it continued for as long as Liam could see. Liam sniffed the waters as he swam. Now that his nose was biologically changed, he could easily filter out the different scents.

A line of tiny eyes emerged out of his scale-covered tail, since spreading his mental waves made him woozy. Hours passed as he moved from tunnel to tunnel. It curved, continued and curved over and over again. The miniature shadows that split off of him had all reached dead ends, converging back to the main mass. Abruptly, three types of distinct smells entered Liam’s nose.

Liam smirked evilly. “Got you.”

Like a rabid dog chasing after a bone, Liam hung onto the trace and didn’t let go of its waning scent. His tail whipped the water behind him violently.

Countless fins grew out of his sides, each one increasing his speed to an insane level. A light appeared in the distance.

An exit!

Or was it an entrance?

Liam unsheathed his swords — all four of them.

WHSH!

Then, he burst through! Then, Liam scanned what he saw. In the span of a seconds, Liam’s speed slowly came to a halt. What he saw was… weird.

***

What Liam saw was incredibly strange. He had walked into something he shouldn’t have, and all those present froze up immediately. On the right side of the vast, cave-like area, there was a group of Rock Frogs.

Rock Frogs, as their names suggested, had a pretty self explanatory description. Their front legs were hilariously short, but chunky and incredibly robust like two earthly gauntlets reinforced with rock and grime. Instead of soft, slimy amphibian skin, it was rocky with dirt-dark eyes. To be perfectly blunt, they had nothing charming or unique about their appearance, the ugly things.

They were just large lumps of stone with two long hind legs, and two chunky front legs. And there were six of them.

But on the left… were the Moray Eels, also six in number. Long, streamlined bodies, covered with black, sword-like scales. Menacing brown eyes, slitted horizontally. A pair of jagged white fangs protruded from their lower jaws. Instinctively, Liam recognized the leaders of each party. The two were at the upper-stage of Rank 4, but a few features made them stand apart. The Moray Eels’ leader had six fangs instead of two, and the Rock Frogs’ leader had a tiny crown made of stone on its head. As soon as Liam arrived, all twelve of the fish species present snapped their alarmed gazes at him. “Gup is this?” the crowned frog cursed in confusion. “Is he with you?” he growled at the six toothed eel.

“No,” the Moray Eel responded with a growl of its own, then glared at Liam angrily. “Who’re you?”

Liam remained silent, scanning the room one by one. The case got just a little more complicated.

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Creator’s Thought