Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of the witcher. Those are property of Mr Sapkowski and I using Netflix series canon mixed with the books and my twisted version of the lore.

Warnings : blood, wounds, a bit of gore. Geralt whump.

Notes : This is a action pack chapter. It is a bit claustrophobic.

A little sacrifice - Part 4

Breathe

###

It was still dark outside when they went out. They drove to the coast and left most of their stuff in Roach. Geralt took only his silver sword and attached some potions at his leg with a leather band. He had taken two doses of cat elixir and killer whale. This could be handy. Jaskier was accompanying him but he knew that was only for a part. Geralt would have to dive and swim at some point so he left his phones behind. Jaskier kept his. With the same idea in mind, they also had left their boots and shoes behind. First it was easier to walk on the sand. And secondly, they didn't want to have bags or their hands full.

This felt strange to go on a hunt that way, Geralt was thinking. This was almost like a nice promenade. Jaskier walking with him, with his hands in his pockets, just added to that impression.

- "You should have stayed in the city. You can't do anything if I have to go underwater. You will just get bored."

- "Nah ! I never get bored following you. And if I understood correctly, the Dragon Fangs are where the famous aquamarine gems are found. Maybe I can stumble upon magic and find one. A natural one. My Poppy will love that. That will make a good present for her birthday."

Geralt smiled.

- "Yeah. Probably."

They didn't speak much after that. The witcher could feel his friend repressing many emotions. Sad ones. There was a kind of fatality in this hunt. This was the last one before a very long time. And even if this was not the end. He could understand the pain of being separated for too many months. He was sad too but differently. For Jaskier, this was all about freedom, friendship and muses. For him this was about being robbed of the time they could have shared. His friend would grow old away from him most of the time. And that meant that he would flicker away faster in a way. Father had won in breaking their time together.

The Dragon Fangs were too far away for them to reach properly and, even from here, they could see that the bottom was way deeper than any low tide could reveal. Also, speaking of which, the tide could be treacherous. So they aimed for a cave they noticed on the cliff. They came here from the land the first day, but it was not noticeable from upper ground.

The entrance was large but it was easy to see that with the tide up, it would be almost integrally submerged.

###

The dark lava stone was sharp except where waves had polished it. They could walk easily on it bare foot. Geralt felt his medallion vibrate when they entered and warned Jaskier about the concentration of chaos rising rapidly.

- "This means magic and possible traps. I don't think we are welcomed." Jaskier took his phone.

- "The signal cannot reach here but it still works."

He used the flashlight of his phone to light their way and demonstrate his point. Geralt didn't needed yet, he could still see, but the further they went the darker it got, and he wanted to delay his potion use, so this wasn't a bad idea. Also Jaskier needed it to move forward with him.

There was a long tunnel that was going slowly down.

- "There should be water." Whispered Geralt at some point.

He could feel that they were too deep now, and that the gallery they were in should have been submerged from a long time. It seemed the water had been drained. The ground was barely wet.

- "I don't like the idea of walking deeper and deeper, Geralt." Said Jaskier softly. "The tide would come back at some point and if we are under the sea level… Well you don't have to be a genius to understand what can go wrong. I wouldn't risk more than one hour to be secure."

- "I agree."

The gallery went deeper and the inclination was harder but they still could progress without problem because the rocks were forming some stairs. Sometimes on the side they could see some cracks, the size of a short man, opening to some parallel tunnels. But they couldn't see or hear anything from there.

- "Can we agree that this isn't natural ?" Asked Jaskier.

- "Absolutely. And this goes with my theory about the Vodyanois. I am guessing this is a passage they use to get to the lands."

- "How can Vodyanois breath outside ?"

- "They can't. Only mermaids and nixas have the double respiratory system. But Vesemir told me some stories about the Vodyanois. They are not simple fish men monsters. They have a whole society and some rudimental but extremely adapted technology. He had seen some with water pockets around their faces and gills so they could walk in dry lands. This was a very long time ago, probably more than two centuries. They might have evolved, like humans did. I don't know what we will find now."

- "I love every bit of it."

- "You are nuts." Geralt laughed discreetly.

- "I know." Jaskier was smiling.

They tried to keep an eye on the hour. But soon the chaos interference became more important. The flashlight was flickering sometimes and the screen had glitches. For the light the problem solved itself as they entered a very large cave with white sand on the ground and a very strange phenomenon in front of them.

The water was forming a slightly glittering and transparent wall. The light was reflecting on some apparent aquamarine stones gems embedded in the lava rock. They could see through the ocean life underneath. There were so many fish and plants. It was full of color and life. And that wall was so wide.

Geralt turned to Jaskier who was looking at the scenery with glee and contained emotion. He was purely amazed.

- "Do you think you can film this ? Or take photos ?"

- "Yeah I guess."

The singer manipulated his recalcitrant phone and began to film their progression. The video was a bit glitchy but it worked. He commented what he was seeing while filming it, in case it wasn't clear enough. He kept his voice low, which Geralt appreciated. The rules of the hunt were not forgotten.

The witcher moved forward, trying to feel the chaos energy. This was very strong but steady. It seemed artificial. Like the things the mages mixed with human technology to work complex things, such as trains or the internet. This was probably this level of complexity.

Then he moved away. There was something captivating about this strange window to the ocean world but this seemed like the light catching bugs. He had to get a better global picture. But the ocean blinded him again. He saw the Vodyanois there before those who were in the shadows.

These could be described as ugly fishmen, because of their disproportionate fish head, and the rest of the body was quite muscular and except their skin color and some distinctive appendices, they were very similar to humans. Short but quite wide humans. And there were three visibly strong one mounting sharks like horses, with bone spears in their hands, approaching them from the water side. The problem was the clicking sounds coming from the rocks above that should have been noticed.

It was Jaskier's musical ear that caught them first.

- "Geralt ?"

- "Move away from the water." He said, believing that his friend was afraid of the coming Vodyanois.

-"I see them. They are fantastic and not very aggressive. But there are voices here. Something is talking. I hear… like Sh'eenaz clicks."

When he pronounced the mermaid's name, the clicks stopped, and this was the absence of noise that alerted him. He looked up discreetly and saw the discrete movements of the hidden warriors. They were in between some sharp rock, sliding out cracks filled with water, suspended by the same magic creating the wall.

- "Ah it stopped." Notice Jaskier absently, returning to his task of filming the sea creatures.

Grealt analyzed his options rapidly. He had access to a small gallery, clearly too thin of a Vodyanoi, whose stature was too wide. He would have to take his chance that way if need be. He was too far from Jaskier anyway. But there were likely ten warriors waiting to drop from above and his friend had no chances against them. His hope was that they couldn't understand the common language.

- "Jaskier…" He tried to keep his tone neutral, in case fear could be interpreted by the fishmen.

- "Hmmm ?" Fortunately he was still more focused on filming the Vodyanois from the other side, completely oblivious to the danger.

- "Don't look at me. Continue what you are doing. But you have to listen to me carefully and act as if you are not afraid."

- "I am not afraid… yet ?"

- "Stay calm and do as I say without objection. No isn't an answer."

- "Ok... We are surrounded ?"

- "Almost. You can escape from where we came. I can escape from the tunnel behind me. I can't come your way. They are hidden in the rocks above us."

- "I see…"

Jaskier didn't try to look. He was still acting like he was fascinated by the Vodyanois coming from the water side.

- "When I say run, just run, and find your way outside."

- "But you ?"

- "You can't help me. And staying you will give them leverage to get me. Or they would simply kill you."

- "What if there are some in the tunnel ?"

- "We have to assume they don't come onto the shore. Vodyanois feet are not made for land, they cannot outrun you anyway. Just dodge and run. I will manage those who are here to cover your retreat, and then I will follow you."

The plan wasn't bad but it didn't work as expected.

He screamed "run" and Jaskier obeyed. His friend just dashed to the tunnel from where they came. The Vodyanois soldiers did fall from the ceiling of the cave at the same time, understanding that one of their prey was escaping. Geralt took his sword out and engaged them immediately. But they were way more agile on the land than he imagined and those in the water weren't just a decoy. They jumped off their shark and swimmed full speed to the water wall and bursted out with crazy angles, bone spears out.

He got the first one, reading his trajectory easily. With a swift movement he dodge the bone spear and lifting his sword with the right angle he cut off one of its legs, up from the belly. Its dark stinky fish blood spattered around, covering him partially. Geralt stayed focused on the fight though, ignoring the creature screeching and ramping on the ground away from the commotion, leaving a black trail behind it. This had a positive effect. The menace he represented was real enough for dragging almost every warrior to the fight. Only two of them went after Jaskier.

But he had too many targets to deal with.

Those from the top didn't have spears and long range of action but they were fast and some were attacking with some kind of daggers and the others with their bear claws. He killed three of them in a lucky combo. He didn't try to do anything else than that. No mercy. It was him or them. He aimed at the neck and the chest, every vulnerable parts. But they were learning fast and began to read his movements too. And he discovered that their weapons were very well designed and efficient.

One spear caught him on his side. The graze was painful but when the Vodyanoi retracted his weapon, this was when it caused damage. He held his scream when the flesh was cut deep open by the inverse curved head and his own blood splashed out. Then it was a full hand claws that took him from the shoulder to almost the elbow. This wasn't a fatal wound, but it was deep in the muscle and could rapidly be very problematic.

He took down four more of them before they chose to retreat. They plunged into the water wall and Geralt noticed their gills. This terrible fight was just a minute long but they did all that in apnea. They were fast and strong. They watched him from the other side without moving. But the clicking sounds came back. They were chatting.

He tried to get to the main tunnel but one of the spear fishman jumped out of the water again and almost got him. Geralt stepped away. It looked around. He did the same. He had killed seven of them, in a pretty crazy bloodbath. They would not let him go.

- "I was protecting my friend." He growled, shifting his weight on his uninjured side.

The spear man moved backwards to his first victim and kneeled beside it. It was still agonizing. The spearman quickly assessed its chances of survival and finally stabbed it clear in the chest. Then he pointed at Geralt with its bloody weapon. No words were needed to understand that he wanted to kill him personally.

They were not that many now, maybe he could fight them if they came out of the water but he barely escaped that launch attack. His wounds were very painful and he was slowly but steadily bleeding. They just had to wait for him to be weak enough to kill him. He didn't think twice. He had to try that tunnel he found.

He withdrew his sword and without a warning he ran toward his exit as fast as he could. The Vodyanois jumped out of the water in an interception course but he got there before them. He was just slim enough to get between the rocks and find a path. They tried to reach him, but couldn't go further than an arm. He moved further away from the angry clicking sounds coming from the cave but he soon found that he was trapped in a dead end.

- "Fuck…"

He found an alcove of aquamarine gems and nested in lava rock. He could see the cave from afar through a slim crack but there was no other exit for him to the whole cave except the one they came from. He sat on an edge, looking at the glowing blue stones and sighed. His arm and side were killing him. He could already tell his mutant organism was fighting some new bacterias and not very well. His wounds should have started healing but they were not because of that. So the blood loss would be a real problem soon.

He waited in his hiding place for a while. He observed the Vodyanois through his crack. They left the deads where they were and went away, except the spearman who was swimming back and forth behind the water wall. Geralt thought about taking his chance at some point against it but a bunch of new warriors joined him quickly after. They were escorting another creature.

This was a Nixa. It slid out of the water wall almost like a serpent and looked around at the dead bodies. Nixas were often mixed up with mermaids because the female had this very distinctive woman-like body and they could sing - even if they could not form words as they were spoken by the surface humanoids. But they were way bigger and had fins they could use like wings. The one at the aquarium was smaller than the present one. It was probably old and dangerous.

She opened her mouth wide, revealing the characteristic pointy teeth of the sea monsters and let a long and high pitched cry out. The aquamarine glowed stronger and there was a tremor in the rocks. And he felt before he saw what the effect was. Water was beginning to pour from invisible cracks around him. He could feel cold rivulets on his back. He twisted to see the tunnel from where Jaskier went. There was nothing yet. No sign of water. No sign of monsters.

He was afraid for his friend, but a part of him tried to reassure himself. Vodyanois were not stupid creatures. They wouldn't die pursuing a prey they couldn't catch. They were doing things without breathing. The fight showed him that they couldn't hold more than one or two minutes out of the water under a huge effort. They probably abandoned the pursuit a long time ago, fleeing through some of the side cracks they saw moving down there. He tried to keep away the idea that some fishmen could go the other way round, using the same passages, to catch his friend. No, Jaskier was safe. He had to be.

Now he had not too many options. Wait here, in his alcove filling slowly with water. Or try to escape again, dodging the Nixa and the growing army of Vodyanois, now roaming behind the wall. The air was his safe zone. He looked around. This would take quite some time for his hiding place to be submerged.

This was a bad trap. He was probably missing something. But he was too tired to think correctly.

###

Geralt jolted awake. How long had it been since he was waiting there ? He was dozing off. The wounds were not bleeding anymore but his situation was not any better. The blood loss he suffered for too long was taking him down slowly, as much as the cold. In his sitting position, which was the only one he could take, he had water up his chest now. Shivering, he took a look through his crack to the cave underneath. The Nixa was gone but not the Vodyanois, now swarming behind the water wall, waiting for him to come out or die. He couldn't count them. He had zero chance to escape that way.

The attack of the Nixa had been very precise. His enemies were trying to kill him where he was without touching the rest of the cave. Maybe that place was very important for them. Well that kinda sounded obvious as there was a literal water wall and stairs leading to this place. But what was its purpose for sea creatures…

Whatever was the answer, he had to find something new to escape his dire situation.

He looked up at one of the cracks from where water seemed to come. Above him there was water, that was an easy conclusion. Maybe there were some other spaces. Maybe he could swim away from there if this was not connected to the space behind the water wall. Maybe he would find his end… Maybe not.

He plunged his hand under water and took one potion of killer whale. This shot would give him some extra oxygenation to counter the effect of the blood loss and some good five minutes underwater action before the carbon poisoning would be too hard to handle. He drank the potion in one go. The effect was quite fast, so he didn't wait to act. He casted Aard above him.

The rock was more fragile than he imagined and the crack broke open wide, deversing a lot of water and smaller rocks over him. He had just a few seconds to take the maximum air he could in his lungs. He launched himself upwards, inside the flood, against his whole body protest. As soon as he was fully in the water, there was a strange aspiration and he found a powerful current to drag him further. He didn't control his trajectory and ended up hurting some obstacles on his way up, jolting his current freshly closed wounds. He resisted well the need to cry out in pain and let go of his precious air. And after quite a strange ride in the not natural current, he was expelled to the bottom of the sea and ended up in some long weeds. He swimmed away from the blurred environment, caused by his forced expulsion, to get a better view of where he was.

He was near the feet of the Dragon Fangs. He didn't need much to understand that the long walk through the cavern on the beach led to there and from what he could see, the whole place was a giant nest and a sort of city. He could see the Vodyanois swimming around the massive feet of the very known rocks, disappearing under the ground through hidden tunnels. He saw creatures working together, building some things that seemed natural, as if they were growing rocks as habitats. He could see some aquamarine veins glowing. He saw the other side of the water wall too. This was a massive hole leading to the cave and through that to the dry land through the cavern. Everything was interconnected : the dry land, the bottom of the ocean, the tunnels and the caves, the underground. And everything belonged to them. The humans were violating some places they shouldn't, and all that for some pretty gems.

He looked up, he had a lot to swim back to get to the surface. He had spent hours in there and the tide was growing high. The beach was far away and the inclination of the oceanic ground was brutal and formed some kind of gigantic stairs. The Dragon Fangs were sitting on a lower level, but further this was going deeper, into a very dark zone. Where he was was deep but full of life and colors. He aimed for a diagonal trajectory, trying to reach the first stair of the ocean floor, where he would be able to reach the beach.

But he didn't take his poor state correctly in the equation, and while he thought his escape could have been ignored, he realized a bit too late that the Vodyanois could smell underwater. His efforts had reopened his wounds. Just enough to bleed a bit more, leaving a very distinctive olfactory trace around him. A quick look to the swarm of warriors at the entrance of the cave was all he needed to see that now his situation was desperate.

This was dozens of armed fishmen that were now swimming toward him, forming a dark creepy tentacle of creatures, stretching to catch him. He was not gonna make it. He was sure of it now. He was going so slow compared to them.

In a last resort, he casted Quen around him when the army actually reached him. The bone spears, daggers and claws didn't penetrate his shield. He continued his ascension, holding the spell onto his dear life, as much as the air in his lungs. But it was too hard. His body was responding less and less to his will. His muscles screamed. His vision tunneled.

One last push and he released the vitiated air that was now poisoning him and formed the Aard sign, casting it full force. The swarm was expelled several meters away. His lungs filled with water the moment he had the reflexe to try to get some air back and he panicked when his whole body just froze. He was drowning and the Vodyanois were regrouping rapidly. He closed his eyes, waiting to be stabbed by a hundred blades.

But nothing pierced him. Instead there was a voice and then a touch. He was pulled toward the surface by something ? Someone. He opened his eyes. Everything was blurry. He was in pain, as his mutated body was fighting his imminent death. But he saw the mermaid. He was almost certain that it was Sh'eenaz. Green air, bluish skin playing strangely in the light. She was swimming to the surface, dragging him by one arm. The Vodyanois were following them from afar, without trying to kill him this time. When she reached the beach she couldn't help him to go on the dry sand. He almost lost consciousness as the normal surviving mechanisms were not taking over.

They were still caught in the surf and moving slowly when he felt other hands gripping his upper body and dragging him with way more force out of the water than the mermaid.

A mouth went over his and air was pushed inside of him.

In his comatose state he believed that it was Yennefer. This was a sweet dream to die. But after some painful pushes on his chest to trigger the gagging reflex, he finally came back to the living. Sh'eenaz was the one that gave him the kiss of life. And Jaskier was on his knees near him. Geralt regained partial control over his body and rolled on his side. He vomited an impressive amount of water. He noticed the blood pool forming at his arm and belly. He took several deep breaths and Jaskier helped him to rest on his lap.

Geralt's brain was having a hard time registering everything and connecting things together. But he couldn't look away from his friend. He was drenched as he was probably the one that went into the water to get him out of it on the last part. And despite the rivulets of water running down his face, he could tell that he was crying. Again.

Jaskier was sad for their last days together. He didn't want that.

- "I will be ok." He forced out of his burning throat.

- "But you are not, right now, buddy. You almost died this time…"

- "But I didn't." He tried to smile.

- "Stop it, stupid arse ! This is not funny !"

- "Please stop crying. I don't want your tears. I need your strength. I need your smile."

This was the first time he said that out loud and there was a strange suspension of time while Jaskier was integrating the meaning of his words. And then, through the tears he smiled.

- "I was so afraid when you didn't follow…" He said though.

Geralt looked at Sh'eenaz who was smiling enigmatically. Then he turned his head. In the surf was standing the army of Vodyanois, observing everything. He turned his head to the other side. There were Agloval and Essi standing near an opened van, labeled to the aquarium brand. And around them there were many people, looking at the sea, with curiosity and fear. Sh'eenaz, Jaskier and him were at in collision point of two worlds.

- "What happened ? What is happening ?" He asked, trying to move to a sitting position.

He was too weak and almost fell back. Jaskier caught him and, with a strength Geralt was not used to, he eased him against his chest and maintained him upright. He felt strangely safe in his friend embrace.

The mermaid looked at them and said :

- "Vodyanois know who I am. They let me save you but they need us to prove that generous gesture was worth it. This is peace or war now."

See you soon for the conclusion of the story :)