Seeing the whole monster was just a reminder of what had happened in the past, but the sight of blood on the harpoon was like a trigger. Seeing the stains of her previously red blood, as well as the blood of her husband, made her lose all strength. Navia’s hand slowly moved to her chest, an itch reminding her that there was a hole in there. A fetal wound made by the monster in front of them.
August tried to speak to her, but Navia didn’t hear him; the blood pumping through her veins was much louder than his words. He reached his hand to grab Navia’s shoulder and shake her, to wake her up from her daze. Instead, a warm red liquid splattered on her face made her come back to her senses.
The monster now stood a few feet away from the group with its harpoon raised in the air. Navia trembled as the monster was close, fear that grew with every creature’s step. Fear that she wasn’t able to save the man right next to her. She moved her head with hesitation, preparing for the worst.
August was lying on the ground, three people standing right next to him, kneeling and looking at his wound. He wasn’t dead, but the wound was heavy. His whole left arm was severed from his body. Blood was flowing out of his wound, a concerning view as he could die out of blood loss in a minute. The people were too shocked and terrified to do anything; they either looked at the monster, frozen, unable to move an inch, or there were people who would rather look at a dying man than the death itself. Hoping that they won’t die if they don’t look at it.
The Anglerfish didn’t move at all; it just stared at them. It was enough to give Isabell a heart attack. Yet again, another person was touched by the cold grasp of death, and no one dared to do a thing. Fear of being the next one to die prevented them from moving.
Seeing as no one did a thing, the Anglerfish brought down the harpoon, this time slicing a man in half, from his head down. Two parts of his body fell into the greenish water, mostly covering the gruesome view. The people moved for the first time, stepping away from the corpse and the monster. Leaving Navia, bleeding August, and dying Isabell to the monster’s hands.
The Anglerfish tilted its head as it looked at Navia. It remembered her face, it knew about her death since it killed her. Seeing her alive confused it, but not for long, as the usual thought passed through its mind. Kill.
Harpoon towered over Navia as the monster lifted it up into the air and swung in an arc to finish off Navia for good. She could only watch the blade moving toward her. Head spinning and mind going blank, she was about to die again.
“No!” She heard this shout loud and clear as she was suddenly pushed to the ground, feeling the weight pressed against her, she lifted her head. August was lying on top of her; he saved her life. He could see Navia’s confusion and fear, but there was no room for that; he saw a bit of light in her eyes. “Snap out of it! You are the only one who has a chance of beating this thing! Please! Save US!”
She heard those words many times in many different situations. Save us. That was her goal as a warrior of the order: to save people and protect them. Seeing the monster made her forget about her oath.
A memorable ceremony, at the main hall in the order’s stronghold, all the recruits were gathered in one place, all one hundred of them finished their training and were about to become official members. Real warriors of humanity. At the podium, the grand master of the Order, Seravik Blitz. He was the only one wearing armor in the hall and the heaviest out of them all, only taking off the helmet so he could speak loud and clear. He had long blond hair which shone in the sun like gold, except for his left side, with a scar like a thunderbolt along the head, preventing the hair from growing.
“Recruits! Today is the day when all of you look at your past with pride; your training wasn’t for nought. All the sweat and tears will be remembered and laughed about compared to the tales you will witness. You are no longer considered weak and hopeless. No. You are WARRIORS OF TOMORROW!” The man’s voice echoed through the hall like thunder; everyone could hear it and feel it making their whole body vibrate with excitement.
The Grand Master lifted his weapon, a massive war ax with a golden sun engraved on its blade. “I am the warrior of humanity! A warrior of tomorrow!” He shouted, and the recruits followed. Once they finished, he continued, “When the night is dark, I will be the sun! When people lose hope, I will become the hope! When people fear tomorrow, I will show them tomorrow's sun! I am a warrior, and I shall fight for another bright day!”
Back then, Navia repeated those words with excitement. This time, she spoke to them with pride and confidence. She gently placed August on his back and sealed his wound with her dark blood from the sword he held. As she was about to leave him, she noticed his right foot was also severed from his body when he saved her from that slash. Using bits of blood from her bracelet, she sealed the other wound.
Fear was growing inside her, but beside it was another emotion, the feeling of responsibility which she took on herself that fateful day. That’s why her next concern wasn’t the monster but Isabell. There was still time to save her, but no one seemed to know what to do. Except for one person who constantly looked at the monster and Isabell, back and forth.
Navia made eye contact with the ship’s chef and shouted, “Diana! Help Isabell! I’ll take care of the monster!” Her voice trembled, but there was a light pinch of confidence in it which the chef noticed. As soon as Diana nodded her head, Navia dashed forward with a long sword in her hand. The Anglerfish brought its harpoon up to block the attack. Navia struggled against the monster while using both of her hands.
She struggled while the monster barely noticed her presence. With a light swing, it swept Navia away like a fly. To this creature, most humans were like bugs, weak living things which it could squash with barely any effort, yet it found a cockroach that wouldn’t die so easily.
Even though she was sent flying into a wreck of a ship, Navia was able to land somewhat gently and kill the two nearest frogs to her with a long spear. The Anglerfish had a lot of time to go after the other people, but it seemed to focus on Navia, the only bug that survived an encounter with it.
Navia ran forward with a long spear in hand; the monster followed a moment after her. Its harpoon was twice as long as Navia’s spear, and the speed at which the anglerfish moved was terrifying. With each of its moves there was an uncomfortable creak, making everyone shiver as if someone was scratching a blackboard.
The harpoon thrusted forward, a strong wind following the movement of the blade. Navia barely stepped to the side in time; the tips of her hair were cut and fell to the fleshy floor. Then her hair was pushed against the wind, letting her clearly see a path for a clean hit. There was no way to land an attack with a spear from so close, but that was her forte: versatility. The spear was shortened and turned into a dagger, which scratched its bony leg.
Navia grunted as she hoped to see some kind of damage, but all that was left on the bone’s surface was a scratch. Just a light sting, which clearly angered the anglerfish as it let out a loud screak which made everyone’s hair stand up on their backs. The frogs moved and hid behind the shipwrecks, not wanting to face the wrath of this creature.
Its presence was already terrifying, but it became worse with its bloodlust. Now, Navia wasn’t a bug but a pest that needed to be gotten rid of. It seemed almost as if the monster grew in size, but it was the fear factor that made it look like that.
A feeling of hopelessness lay heavy on Navia’s shoulders, her last encounter with the anglerfish still eating her from the inside. “I can save them… I will save them!” Shouted Navia, changing the dagger into a single long sword. Her legs were spread wide, the sword nearly behind her head, held with a single hand, with the other arm placed in front.
The Anglerfish did recognize her face, but the air around her suddenly changed; even the monster could feel that. The cockroach became a hornet, which came for revenge with its sting.
Nearly at the same time, both dashed forward. The harpoon moved in a straight line toward Navia’s chest while her longsword moved in an arc aimed at the tip of the harpoon. Even with the strength it possessed, a single strike to the tip of the weapon would throw anyone out of balance.
With just two steps, Navia turned her back to the monster and got closer to it with a wide swing of the sword; she was able to scratch its ribs. Once again, all she had left was a scratch, but this one seemed deeper. Finishing another swing, she didn’t see her target but a bony hand reaching toward her face.
Redirecting her sword toward the hand, she watched as the bony fingers wrapped themselves around the blade and crushed it into bits. The blade, which became sturdier than iron, was simply crushed. In a flash, she thought about what would happen to her head if it grabbed her.
Still surprised after watching her blade shatter, Navia barely noticed the blade coming from the side toward her neck. Loosening her muscles, she bent backward and watched the blade flash above her face. The force put behind the swing could be felt by everyone near, as if a wind began to pick up.
Navia placed her hands on the floor and threw her legs back. With the force of the swing, she made a backflip. Before she even landed, she made another sword from the remaining blood attached to her body. Yet as she looked forward, the monster was nowhere to be seen. She instinctively jumped backwards barely in time as the harpoon sank into the fleshy floor, the greenish water rose into the air, and after a moment a whole place began to tremble as the Leviathan felt the pain caused by that attack. All the survivors looked in fear, thinking in fear that the Leviathan would do something to them.
Lifting up her left hand, Navia saw her pinky finger missing, the cost of reacting too slowly. “Can I even kill that thing? Stalling for time is not an option… And we are surrounded… No. Don’t ask yourself if you can kill it… You need to kill it. You WILL kill it.” Instead of making another blade, Navia covered her arms in it. As they hardened, they became gauntlets.
“Just like in the training.” Navia positioned herself sideways to her opponent with an open left hand pointed toward the monster and her right fist close to her chest. Before the monster moved, she quickly collected her thoughts and looked at how things were going.
August passed out, but his chest was still moving up and down; he was breathing. The same couldn’t be said for Isabell, but Diana didn’t stop pressing her arms to her chest, doing the hardest work for her.
Looking back, she saw the harpoon’s tip quickly moving toward her. If she tried to block it, her gauntlets would be fine, but the same couldn’t be said about her bones. She pointed her fingertips toward the harpoon and nearly collided but Navia slid her hand slightly down, allowing the harpoon to move up her arm harmlessly.
The anglerfish was strong, but it lacked technique. With barely any movement, Navia once again got close to him and threw a wide hook to the lower ribs where she could reach them. There was no clear visible damage, but the monster’s scream said it all. It hurt.
As its hand moved to grab Navia, she moved away with a few steps toward the arm that held the harpoon. With another wide swing of her arm, she punched it in the hip. As the monster tried to turn and attack her, Navia stayed on its back and continued hitting its hips. Cracks slowly appeared after three punches. She did some damage; if she just broke its lower body, the monster would be rendered useless.
Using the techniques she learned in the order, Navia forgot about one crucial piece of information. She wasn’t fighting a human but a monster. Angler’s fish legs turned as if looking for Navia while the upper body moved the other way. Because of that unnatural movement, the monster wasn’t able to properly swing the harpoon and hit Navia with its side. She flew like a ragdoll, making the ship wreck collapse, killing three frogs as they got trapped between the wooden planks and impaled by them.
People began to tremble, thinking that the monster would go after them now; their only hope was lost. “I should’ve stayed back on the ship…” They thought.
A scream broke the silence, “Come on, Isabell! Wake up!” Diana ignored the monster standing a dozen feet away from her. Compared to the others, she somehow trusted Navia. “If I want to live… I have to trust her.”
The monster didn’t move because it was aware that Navia had survived; after all, she is a cockroach. Anglerfish was hyper-focused on the single shipwreck, waiting for Navia to come out. Yet something felt off, looking around it saw lying corpses of the barnacles, and Navia stood on top of them. A sword in her left hand and a simple armor covering her whole right arm.
“My right arm is completely broken… Good thing I am ambidextrous. Still… It doesn’t make this fight easier.” Looking past the monster, Navia observed Diana; she stopped resuscitation. Navia waited, tensed, for some kind of movement. For any kind of sign. A light smile was enough. Diana did it, thanks to her, Isabell will live.