Both boys prepared to fight underwater against the beasts.

The combat scenario is not at all favorable for them. Since, being under the sea we lose much of the mobility, on the other hand, as James mentioned, these creatures can move especially well both at sea and on land.

This can go very well, as it can also go very badly.

"Haaaaaaaaaa!"

Without a second thought, the short-haired boy used his wind magic to give himself forward momentum and deliver a surprise and quick attack on the beasts.

"I'll finish this in the blink of an eye!"

The boy, the moment the momentum carried him to stand in front of the beasts, shouts that, while raising his sword.

In the process that he raises his sword, a white aura begins to spread from the sword, causing its size to increase by at least 3 times.

I see...

The plan that the boy has, is to use that move to finish off the 4 beasts at the same time.

"Wind Stretch!"

The boy shouts that, at the moment the sword already reached a considerable size to perform simultaneous damage to all the beasts.

"Wind slash!"

The boy shouts that last move and attacks with the sword forward.

"What?"

The 4 beasts dodged the move....

All moving to different places at incredible speeds, even not needing to move their arms or legs at all to swim at high speeds underwater.

As they escape, they open their mouths to spew a red liquid, very similar to the blood we humans have.

Could it be the blood of all the corpses they have devoured?

But why spew it out like that?

It is assumed that these damn creatures have been devouring humans for years, so it is not possible that they do not digest anything they eat, because then, they would only be devouring us for fun.

Anyway, this is not the time to start thinking about it because if the boy continues to stand there, he will totally lose sight of them, just as I lost sight of them when I descended here.

And if that happens, he will have no way of knowing what is going on around him....

He can't let that happen, because with the speed those beasts have underwater, they could kill him without him being able to notice.

"Boy!"

"You must get out of there right now!"

"Your life is in danger!"

I shout that to the boy, desperate, trying to force the threads that still have me trapped, but all movement is futile.

As I try to force the threads by performing force on my arms in the upward direction, I look down. In order to see the current state of the beasts holding the threads that prevent me from moving.

"What?..."

I mutter that the instant I see how both beasts are totally paralyzed as if they were statues.

They even keep their eyes closed, as if they were dead....

But they are smart enough to tie the thread to their arms, while they are in that state.

Maybe we could attack them without them realizing it?

Or is it a trap?

If only I could use my thread magic to explode their arms in the blink of an eye?

But unfortunately I can't do that because my thread magic is only limited to one thread per arm and I can only manipulate it to my liking for the first few seconds. Since, after that it becomes an almost ordinary thread, with the only difference being that it has a supernatural toughness to it.

"Damn, I think I definitely have no way out of here."

I say that, while biting my lower lip and start moving my arms in every possible direction.

But it's still useless.

I can't extend the thread either, because for that I would have to have physical strength beyond that of the beasts, but I clearly don't possess that....

"Damn..."

I mutter that, as I'm just beginning to realize that right now I'm back to being a burden, just like on the bridge....

"I just hope the danger the guys can finally make their way to the island."

I mutter that, as I slowly look forward again to pay attention to the current state of the short-haired boy.

"¡¡!!"

I was shocked to see that the area where the boy was supposed to be standing is now just a blood red cloud in the sea.

In addition, we also have no sight of the 4 beasts that were also there a moment ago.

I try to look everywhere, but I can't find them.

Could it be that they camouflaged themselves in the red zone?

"Fuck!"

I start to stress, because I can't let a boy as young as him die in a situation like this, besides, I bite my lip so hard from the tension, that I cause it to start bleeding.

I look towards the long-haired boy who is just standing there.

"Hey!"

"You must help him!"

I yell that at him, but the boy just watches me for a moment and looks away.

What's the matter with him?

Is it his brother? From the similarity in appearance I'd say he is, but then. Why would he leave his brother alone in a situation like this.

"Hey!"

"React!"

"You can't leave him alone!"

"We don't know what these things are capable of!"

"Don't let him die!"

I yell all those things at him, desperate, as blood begins to drip from my lip.

The boy this time doesn't even look at me, he just continues to stare at the red area of the sea, where his brother is.

He just stands there, arms folded, as if he doesn't care about anything.

"Hey you!"

I yell at him again, trying to get his attention.

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Your voice is unbearable!"

"Froilan knows perfectly well how to deal with this situation!"

The boy yells that at me, without directing his gaze at me at any time, just talking, while observing the stage.

So, Froilán is the boy's name.

"Wind zone!"

Soon after, you hear Froilán shout that.

************************

Inside the red zone, Froilán, tries to regain vision of his surroundings using his wind magic. So he positions his hand in front of his face and then moves it directly towards his chest.

After that, air starts to come out of his whole body at an incredible speed, as if it were a small hurricane.

When he finishes this movement, he begins to look around, only to realize that the movement he made was completely useless. Since, the whole area of blood remains exactly the same.

"What?"

Froilan says that, trying to understand what is happening because he has never seen anything like this before.

Froilan starts to move his hand to the surroundings to check the density of the red area, as well as making sure if it's blood that's around him or if it's some kind of chemical that belongs to the beasts.

After doing that action, his thoughts are correct, it is blood that is around him, but it is much denser than the common blood type of a human.

To achieve a density of this caliber, you would have to mix the blood of a human with a variant of chemicals.

But I don't think the beasts have the aforementioned chemicals in their bodies to achieve something like that.

The other way is that they have to devour an impressive amount of humans, so that all kinds of blood mix in their stomachs, forming a density like the one in this area.

This kind of density is so permanent and stable that I can't get it to disperse even by moving the water with my wind magic to make it run its course.

So, I guess the only answer there is that each of these beasts devoured a very high amount of humans, but that doesn't even sound that convincing because the digestive system of the beasts is faster than ours, that means something like the blood of the human body would be the fastest to digest.

Oh no...

I think I already have an answer...

I hope it's not what I'm thinking, because or else it would be a completely horrifying and grim thing to pose this scenario in real life. For, if a beast consumes humans, it satiates its appetite and allows it to continue to maintain its energy, but if it consumes more than it should. Its stomach becomes overloaded, causing other parts of the body, such as the esophagus, to begin to accumulate.

I hope I'm wrong, because if that's the answer, it would be too gross and scary. Plus it would give way to other combat techniques for the beasts that we haven't even thought of yet.

But what disturbs me the most is.....

"Fiushhhhhhh!"

A sound of an object moving starts to be heard in the surroundings.

I try to look everywhere, attentive. To try to find out where it comes from, but everywhere I look I only see blood.

That's when I perceive a green trail from a small opening and I could notice a green object moving at full speed towards me.

"It can't be."

"It's another one of those acid attacks from these damn things."

"But this one is different than the ones I've seen before."

"More than an acid bubble, it looks like an acid bullet."

It's too close, I won't be able to dodge it.....

I'll have to split it in two with my sword.

Being the bubble only 1 meter away, I raise my sword, with a bit of air floating around it, with the purpose of dispersing as much of the acid that splashes after I make my attack. For, if it lands on my body, I don't know what might happen.

Then, I charge forward with my sword to attack the acid bullet, quickly piercing the entire half of the acid bullet, perceiving at a glance the cut I just made.

As a result of that blow, the acid bullet exploded, splashing acid everywhere.

At that moment I covered my eyes with my hand so that no drops of acid would fall into my eyes.

Several drops of acid grazed my body, but luckily, none of them caused me any harm.

I think that in addition to the technique I used to defend myself, I must accept that much of it was due to the form of the acid attack. Since, if it had been a bubble, it would have been easier for it to land on my body.

"I think I saved myself..."

I mutter that, as I start to remove my hand from my eyes to see again.

"¡¡!!"

Now, I start to make out the shadow of a large object approaching.

Its speed is faster than that of the acid attack.

This time I must think fast.

As it gets closer, I can make out what it is.

"¡¡!!"

This is a beast!

It's going to attack me directly!

Damn it, because of the bloody bloody area I can't see for sure how it will attack me, therefore, I can't rush to make any attack that might harm me.

What do I do?

Damn, damn beasts, they did this to play with me.

They alter the perception of the combat zone and reduce my ability to move.

"¡¡!!"

I am dumbfounded the instant I have full vision of the beast.

His mouth is open, I can see all his gigantic mouth and all his terrifying sharp teeth. It also has hellish eyes, watching me as if I were a prey that fell into its trap and is about to be devoured.

With its attack, it is aiming directly at my head.

Fuck, I won't be able to attack, I can only defend myself right now. Since, it will take me several seconds to channel any attack. So I'm already going to be dead by the time I can launch the charged attack.

Finally, I decide to put the sword in front of me in a horizontal position.

The beast gets close enough to me to be able to attack. So, I had the right instant to position the sword in front of me and have it bite the sword.

At the moment the beast bites the sword, I can notice how its strength in its teeth is such that it leaves all its sharp teeth marked on the sword.

It is incredible, the strength it possesses, I do not know how the sword can resist the bite.

Luckily, the bite didn't hit my body, because if it had, I think at this moment I wouldn't even be alive.

"Fuck!"

I shout that, while trying to keep my arms stable to counterattack the strength possessed by the beast, however, the momentum and the speed at which the beast was approaching, made me lose my stability in the water. So I am being pushed by the water.

I try to move my arms forward to stop its great speed, but it is impossible. Its strength is much greater than mine, so I can only stay in a defensive position in this situation.

I would like to know where I am at the moment, and where I am heading, but the blood zone does not prevent me from seeing much further than 2 meters away.

Is the blood zone still extending? Because it seems endless.

"No..."

"This can't be happening..."

"It's impossible..."

The sword emits a sound of slowly breaking. And even, the lines of damage begin to be visible along the entire length of the sword.

I started sweating all over my body the moment I heard that sound. Since, if I lose my sword, I will have nothing to defend myself with.

I must attack...

I can't stay like this...

"..."

I'll have to try even if I fail in the process!

"WIND PULSE!"

I closed my eyes and said that without fully channeling my ability.

The point of this, is to have a sufficient distance away from the beast, so that I can launch a ranged attack.

"It worked!"

I said that, as soon as the skill launched a small gust of wind between me and the beast. So I propelled myself backwards and the beast retreated a small distance as well.

"It's now or never!"

"I must do it!"

"Wind cut!"

I raised my sword and again, without channeling the skill too much again, threw a wind blade in the direction of its heart.

The attack must work, because I had no more resources left.

The skill began to head at high speed towards the beast. So it just stood there still, accepting that it would not be able to dodge the skill.

"That's right!"

"I'll finally be able to assassinate it!"

I said that, full of pride.

"What?"

That's when behind the beast another shadow began to appear....

Clearly it's another one of these damn things.

It can't be...

What will it try to do?

As my attack is about to cut the beast's chest, the beast behind it hits it hard on the back and then swims away at once.

"No..."

The beast, after being pushed, instantly began to charge something into its mouth, as if it was about to launch an attack.

However, the attack managed to cut the entire lower part of the beast's body. So that it was left without legs.

"What do I do now...?

I froze as soon as I saw the beast approaching at full speed again, but this time without its legs.

The speed it got, it was thanks to that damn thing that hit it from behind.

My whole body starts to tremble and even if I try to move, my body doesn't react.

The beast as soon as it got close enough to me, it threw directly into my face what it was keeping in its mouth....

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

I started screaming out of panic and terror as soon as I saw what it threw at me.

It was a pile of blood, along with a skull, clearly belonging to one of our fallen comrades.

The skull hit directly against my face, breaking the air bubble that allows me to keep breathing, while the blood entered my eyes, causing me to completely lose my vision instantly.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

I screamed again as soon as the disturbing image of the corpse was captured in my mind, while at the same time thinking that I very possibly know the person behind who is now just a pile of bones.

Then, I tried to open my eyes to try to defend myself, but I could only see in a very blurry way how the beast started to charge his fist to hit me.

I'm thinking of using my sword to avoid the blow, but I'm only going to cause it to break. So I will be left without it.

There is no other option...

I'll have to take the blow with my body and wait until I can resist long enough.

The beast, began to hit me directly in the chest area.

As soon as it struck the first blow, I immediately began to expel all the air I have accumulated, I try to hold it back, but its blows are as if they penetrate my armor.

He keeps on hitting without stopping my chest and stomach at the same time. So based on the sound and the ever increasing pain, that the armor protecting me is close to breaking.

Then, I started coughing up blood. Since, the blows are slowly starting to damage my organs, on the other hand, I start to feel less weight from that area of the armor on my body, meaning that it is starting to come off.

Am I going to die here like this?

Will this be the end of me?

I would have liked to settle my differences with my brother one last time?

And to be able to see his stupid face.

"Kshhh!"

That last sound, finally proved that the armor was already broken.

"Forgive me, brother. I tried..."

"But it's really impossible to fight these things..."

"Go on living for both of us..."

With my last strength I said all that, while blood is pouring out of my mouth and it takes a great physical effort to speak.

I smile for one last time, as tears come out of my eyes.

"Crack!"

Finally, the last blow hit, breaking some bones in my chest.

I am so exhausted from the previous blows that it is impossible to utter one last sound of pain.

Then, I can feel the beast let go of me and drop me to the bottom of the sea.

Little by little I begin to lose consciousness....

*****************************

"Was that Froilan's scream?"

I totally freaked out the moment I heard that.

"He must be in danger!"

"We have to help him!"

"Hey you!"

"Help me get out of here!"

I yell that to the boy standing there, but on his face there is only utter concern. Which, on his face is reflected.

He went from being completely sure that his brother was going to win against all those beasts, to now being completely tense after hearing that scream.

The boy keeps ignoring me.

Damn, I have to break free somehow.

"Huh?"

That's when I then started to see how the red zone started to cover me too, but from below.

The beasts that were holding the threads apparently started to expel that too from their mouths with their eyes closed.

I looked back to the boy standing there, but gradually I began to lose sight of him because of the area of blood.

Until finally the last thing I saw of him is how he used his water magic to approach in the direction towards the last time where we saw Froilan.

"Wait!"

"Don't do that!"

"You'll only end up in the same situation!"

I yelled that at him, but it was useless.

"Damn it..."

"I can't let these guys die.."

"I must find a way out of here..."

I said that, as the area of blood finally covered me to the point where the range of vision is quite limited around me.

...