"I swear, this is definitely the most smelliest and dirtiest river I have ever seen in my life", after she had walked less than ten steps Matoimaru started to complain "It's more disgusting than the smelly ditch in front of my house. That thing was full of all kinds of animal shit. It was the worst in the summer, almost unbearable. I thought that thing would be the worst, but I didn't expect to encounter something even worse."
Lin Ye was deeply fascinated by what she said. He felt that with his current mental state still mending, walking through the river would be an increasingly distressing experience.
Whenever he lowered his head, he would sometimes see the carrion and broken bones floating in the water and felt the resistance with every step he took. Lin Ye felt like his sanity was dropping with every step that he took in the "river".
He still has the habit of taking deep breaths when he was nervous. However with him standing in the river, he could only try his best to repress that habit, otherwise his sanity would drop faster with each breath he took. The smell of decaying flesh still continued to attack his senses.
"Matoimaru, be careful. Don't run off too far from me", Even so Lin Ye still had to endure the nausea to warn Matoimaru who was walking in front, "If you go too far, I will have trouble helping you if something goes wrong."
"What's the worst that could happen?" Matoimaru didn't really seem to care about Lin Ye's warning, "And if something did go wrong, what could you even do for me in that situation? Don't underestimate me, I'm still a combat operator while you are not."
"I meant in the case that you might slip and fall, I can help you up" Lin Ye explained.
He would hate it if he fell into the water. So he was looking out for her. Any normal person wouldn't want to fall into the river's water.
Matoimaru was silent for a while, then she felt what Lin Ye said was reasonable. So she slowed down.
"Good call doc."
Lin Ye had already stuffed Vector back into his bag before going into the river. Originally he thought that in such an environment, guns were much better than Melee weapons. However he now understood that guns would only be effective against things that could be killed in a traditional manner..
So Lin Ye had a sudden epiphany that he would be facing things that clearly couldn't be explained using the scientific knowledge from his world.
So using like against like seemed to be the most appropriate course of action.
Like a God's Sword.
Therefore, Lin Ye firmly gripped Maple in his hand while wearing Liz's white amulet around his waist, in order to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.
"Doctor Lin Ye" Magallan's voice rang out from his earpiece, "I have positioned one of my drones directly above the suspected place where Miss Skadi is located. You just need to go there. It's not too far from where you are now. After surveying, it's only 56 meters away from your current position. But be careful, my drones are not waterproof after all."
Lin Ye took a deep breath "I got it."
Then he immediately covered his nose. The smell was becoming more unbearable the further in they moved.
…I'm glad that Lappland didn't follow me here. I think she would die from the smell alone.
Lin Ye thought to himself.
Matoimaru walked in front of Lin Ye while Blue poison followed from behind. The three of them kept about two meters between them. This way they could act accordingly if anything happened.
56 meters, even Lin Ye in his middle school days could run that distance in less than 10 seconds. But in their current environment, every step was frightening to take, and the drone beacons that initially seemed to be very close, appeared to actually be very far away. If such a simple thing like distance could be warped, then what other senses of theirs could already have been affected? This made them all the more apprehensive about moving forward.
"Honestly" Matoimaru who was walking in the front queried, "Where did these corpses come from?"
"It's probably the townspeople from Harlan Town," Lin Ye answered in reply, "These look to be recently deceased corpses judging from the fact that they're just starting to decompose."
"Then how did they come here?" She continued to ask, "I really can't think of any creature that can quietly snatch a large number of people from a town overnight, plunder them here, and then kill them. It's too bizarre."
Lin Ye obviously had no answer for Matoimaru. In the end only Blue Poison could have possibly answered her question. However even Blue Poison, the most experienced in the field, could not give an explanation for what kind of creature could cause all this damage.
"You will never be able to imagine what kind of monsters there are in the depths of the ocean" She said, "Honestly speaking, anything can come out from the deep ocean."
Matoimaru simply curled her lips and didn't seem to want to dig deeper on the issue.
After twenty seconds of silence, Lin Ye felt that it was better for them to speak about anything but the ocean. It would be much better compared to the monotonous sound of running water.
Lin Ye cleared his throat and tried to say something to break the awkward silence.
But before he could speak, Matoimaru spoke first.
"I always feel like there's something in the water," She glanced down, "Something's scratching my feet."
Lin Ye's expression suddenly stiffened.
"Really?" He became nervous, "What is it?".
"I don't know" She stopped and swiped her sword under the water.
Nothing seemed to be there.
"Is it another illusion?" Blue Poison became vigilant, "It's better to be careful. We can only hope that it was just that."
"Understood" She nodded, "I'll pay attention moving forward."
Even if Matoimaru said that Lin Ye still tried to communicate with Magallan via communication.
"Magallan, let the drone fly a little lower."
The drone next to Matoimaru slowly lowered itself. It finally stopped at about 20 centimeters from the surface of the water.
Although it did not penetrate the surface of the water, they would be able to see anything that tried to move under the water's surface.
It took the three of them ten minutes to complete the 56-meters distance. The more they moved towards the centre of the river, the more rapid and deeper the water became.
Previously, the water lever was only at ankle height, but when they reached the spot marked by the drone, the water almost reached their waist.
The good news was that this was the deepest part of the river.
"Miss Skadi?" Standing under the drone, Matoimaru shouted "Can you hear me? I'm from Rhodes Island. We're here to save you. If you can hear me, come out of the water".
Lin Ye walked out from behind Matoimaru and sighed at the lack of activity after Matoimaru called out . It looked childish but what other choice did they have?
"Skadi, don't play around" Lin said, "Where are you, Skadi?".
They both couldn't hear any reply to their calls of rescue.
"Is the woman we just saw Skadi?" Lin Ye spoke to himself. "If so, did she drown? If not, who is it? No... it should be what is it?".
Matoimaru handed her huge sword to Lin Ye. Lin Ye was stunned by this.
"Hold it for me" Matoimaru rolled her eyes when Lin Ye looked at her weirdly, "Otherwise how else am I supposed to get underwater?".
"Let me do it" He offered.
"Forget it" Matoimaru said, "I've heard that Skadi's stature is not small by any means. You aren't that strong, so you would struggle to even lift her. Let me do it".
Lin Ye felt a little helpless, but he couldn't argue with what she said. So he took her sword. Although there was a sense of weight, he could still easily hold it without any problem.
"Okay, let's do it" The Oni rolled up her sleeves, "I'm telling you this now, I am dreading to do this. As payment for my kindness, you have to invite me to dinner when we go back."
"Huh?"
Before Lin Ye could answer, she had dove deeper into the river.
"Did you find anything?" Lin Ye immediately asked nervously after her return to the surface.
"Not yet... Let me-" her voice became confused, "Weird, are you sure that this is the place?"
"This is the location marked by the drone" Lin Ye confirmed, "it can't be wrong, right?"
"But there's nothing here," Matoimaru replied, "I didn't even find a corpse. I only found stones and mud... Although I don't know if it was stone or mud. It felt like corpses. I don't want to take them out. That would be too gross".
Blue Poison walked up and said "Maybe she was washed away?"
"No, that is absolutely impossible" Lin Ye immediately denied Blue Poison's hunch, "Even if the currents here are faster, even stones can't be washed away by it".
"I think so too" Matoimaru straightened up, "Maybe we should contact the others".
"That would be the best," Lin Ye said as he tried to connect to the communication channel again, "Magallan, we can't find Skadi, and we can't find a body either. Please illuminate our surroundings."
"..."
Magallan didn't not respond.
The drone didn't seem to be moving either. It just hovered in the air.
Lin Ye was suddenly startled by this. A strong sense of anxiety surged in his mind, he quickly turned his head and looked towards the shore.
There he found that the shore was now empty.
There was no one there.
"Fuck!" Lin Ye cursed.
"What's the matter, what's going on!" Blue Poison also noticed something wrong, but before she had time to speak, she heard Matoimaru shout out.
"Hey! Who's that?!"
They were stunned. Immediately they turned their heads and saw a "person" standing in the river ten meters away from them.
The figure was exactly like the "Skadi" they had just seen, only this time it couldn't escape their torches . The second when Matoimaru shouted out, her light lit up the figure.
It wasn't Skadi.
It was a dead female corpse.
It was just standing there. When everyone looked over they saw its head was still moving, and only half of its eyeballs were open. Then even more corpses emerged from the depth of the river.
"What's going on?!" Matoimaru shouted, "Are we hypnotized again!!"
Lin Ye had already seen a living corpse before, so he was sure that this was not an illusion. This was not a normal thing to encounter. But they had already had too many strange encounters in these caves, so this sudden encounter was to no one's surprise.
They needed to get out!
Now!
What they had to do now was to immediately return to the shore to find Magallan and Frostleaf.
However the river suddenly fluctuated. Pairs of dried hands stretched out all over the river.
"Those corpses are alive!" Matoimaru shouted, "What's going on here?!".
Lin Ye gritted his teeth tightly. He had had enough. There was no time. They needed to go.
The longer they spent here, the greater the probability of an accident happening to Magallan and Frostleaf increased.
Skadi has disappeared. If the two of them also disappeared under his own nose, Lin Ye would never forgive himself.
But he needed something to deal with this first.
Then he suddenly had an idea. However, he wasn't sure if it would work or not.
I don't have time! I need to hurry!
Lin Ye unzipped his hood and took out the black amulet from his inner pocket. He threw it into the air.
When the black amulet slowly fell, Lin Ye slashed Maple at it. The black amulet was cut into two pieces in a fluid motion.
In the next second, Maple was covered by black fire. The flame's black amber illuminated Lin Ye's pupils.
After that, Lin Ye pierced Maple into the river water. A black shield covered all of them.
"What is this?" Matoimaru was shocked. Blue Poison also looked at what happening in disbelief.
Lin Ye didn't answer. He held on to Maple's handle.
"Get out of my sight," Lin Ye said slowly.
He turned Maple's handle.
Black flames ignited on the black shield that was protecting them. The shield expanded rapidly outwards. Like an invisible forcefield, it pushed away the river water, bones, and corpses.
At the same time, the living corpses affected by the shield were being eaten by the black fire.
The black fire continued to burn their bones and swallowed their rotten flesh until they all turned to ashes.
Maple: Creed Field.
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Draft by Jaq
Proofread by SM
Edit by Jaq