Limits

We dived deeper, inside the pond. When I wasn't able to see anything, I closed my eyes. I focused and tried to awaken my Darkness Perception. After about 40 seconds, I opened my eyes and my vision awakened. I motioned to Frosty, for it to take the lead, and we dived deeper, towards the bottom of the pond.

Frosty headed straight to the location of the Water Stones. After a while, we reached the bottom of the pond. The only way to go for us, was to turn left and follow the tunnel further. Frosty did just that, while I swam after it. The tentacle creatures were nowhere to be found at that moment, but I didn't hope for them to not appear. I knew they could appear any second, the deeper we went.

We've been under water for about 2 minutes, and the Water Stones were still not in sight. After another minute, we arrived at a large opening of the tunnel, almost like an underwater cave. 'So, this is where those tentacle creatures are' I thought. Frosty looked behind and pointed at a certain location. There were 2 blue stones, edged into the wall, where Frosty pointed. I knew I had very little time, so I swam there as fast as I could, in order to grab those stones.

I made some disturbance, but I didn't care anymore. It was either, get them or leave. I arrived in front of the Water Stones and thought about depositing them in my Storage Feather. The stones disappeared, which was a sign of my feather collecting them. What appeared on the other hand, were the tentacle creatures, quite angry at that.

I quickly turned around and started swimming back. Frosty was already on its way back, so I didn't have to worry about it getting left behind. The problem was me, not Frosty. I was not as fast in water, as I was on the ground. The tentacle creatures behind me gained on me pretty fast.

'If I just swim, I have no way of outspeeding them. I need to get faster!' I thought. It was easier said than done. As a human being, I was able to swim, but no matter how strong I was, a creature that was born in the water and was adapted to it 100 percent, was not something a land dwelling being could beat at swimming. I decided to give a certain idea a try.

'So far, I've been using my hands to swim, just like any other human being, but what if I use a skill?' I thought. At this stage, my air was almost gone, the pursuers were much faster than me and sometimes, my ideas might've been stupid, but usually saved my life. I turned around, to face the tentacle creatures, and used the Pressure Dagger skill, but without holding a dagger in my hands.

I punched, as if I would an enemy, with the real skill. Due to the friction of water, my muscles started to heat up rather quickly, but a miraculous thing occurred and I did speed up. Although I was happy at first, my face quickly lost that happy expression. The reason? One of the tentacle creatures became much faster. 'It must be the leader… I'm in deep shit, if it catches me' I thought and punched as much as I could.

The creature was getting closer but I also managed to punch my way to the bottom of the pond. My air was almost non-existent at that point, and only willpower kept me going. I had about 30 more seconds, until I reached the surface. But, the tentacle creature had different plans. It managed to catch up to me close enough, so that one of its tentacles caught my leg. 'Shit!' I thought and punched the tentacle, but nothing happened.

I was in the water, so my strength was limited by a lot. The creature itself, was like rubber, punching it, didn't produce much of a result. I tried swimming but the tentacle kept pulling me backwards. 'This is bad. I have no way of using Yellow Dust here, my weapons are useless as well. My strength limited… How do I break free?' I thought. I then felt something moving on my arm. It was Frosty, who became a tattoo again. 'It's worth a try, I might as well try and freeze it' I thought and placed my right hand on the tentacle.

'FREEZE!' I screamed in my mind. I could feel extreme coldness seeping from my arm. The tentacle holding my leg, froze almost immediately. I was surprised by that myself, but I had no time anymore. My air was gone, the only thing I could do was swim. The tentacle broke off from my leg and I could hear a screech coming from the bottom, but I didn't pay attention to it. My only goal, was to swim.

Before I reached the surface, my vision got darker and darker, until it went completely black. I lost consciousness, due to the lack of air. I don't know what happened, in the time I passed out, but when I woke up, I was outside the pond. I could hear Frosty's cries, then a loud splash. When I finally woke up, I found myself laying on the ground, while the tentacle creatures emerged from the pond.

"Ugh" I picked myself up with a groan, grabbed Frosty and ran. I was already in weakened state due to the lack of air. My speed was of course affected, but I didn't stop. The pursuers behind me, chased after us relentlessly. I headed toward the Valley entrance, in hopes to attract the attention of the Avians. Fortunately, the pond was not that far away from the Valley entrance.

The creatures behind me would use their tentacles to attack once in a while, when they got into the range. Thanks to my keen senses, I was able to avoid most of them. Some tentacles grazed me, but thanks to my new set of clothes, the damage was minimal. We finally arrived at the Valley entrance, and I screamed "HELP US!" at the swarm of Avians.

The Avians, fortunately saw my predicament, and loads of them flew over to help me immediately. When the creatures saw the amount of Avians flying towards them, they stopped and retreated. I could finally rest. I fell down on my ass and breathed heavily. 'This was close, really close' I thought. A few of the Avians landed in front of me, while others chased after the creatures. One of the Avians asked "What were those things?". In between my breaths, I said "Those things… come from the pond…. in the Valley". The Avian was visibly shocked, he said "We never saw those creatures. The pond you speak of, is known to us, but it never had any creatures. Why did they chase you?".

I said slowly, while taking in breaths of air "It's… because I wanted to explore… the pond…. I found them… at the bottom". The Avian responded "We need to notify the King. Wait here, I will return with the King". I nodded my head. I wasn't about to go anywhere anyway. I was too exhausted to move.

After a while, the Avian I spoke with, returned with his King. She asked "How many of these creatures are there?". I said "About 15 of them. Although, that is how many of them I saw". She nodded and asked "How strong are they?". I thought for a while and said "They are like rubber, physical attacks don't seem to do much to them. You can either burn them down or freeze them, this seems to work as well".

She asked "How can we burn them in water?". I replied "Not in water, but on land. You can blow them up, with the Yellow Dust. I already killed one of them like that". She nodded and asked another question "What type of number of them, would you say is there, in overall? I know you only saw 15, but you are not stupid. You could figure out the number of Corpse Dogs, so what estimate do you have for that creature?".

'I have to admit, she isn't stupid either. She knows, that I know much more, than I told her' I thought. It was true, I only saw 15 of them, but there was a 2nd tunnel in the large underwater cave. This could only mean, there must've been more of these creatures. The ones I ran away from, were only guards.

I looked her in the eyes and said "I know you helped me, but I want more herbs". She didn't seem surprised and said "I knew that already. I will provide you with some more. Now tell me". I nodded my head and said "There was another tunnel. I have no way of knowing the exact size of that underwater maze, but if 15 of them were guards, my estimate is that there are around 800 to a 1000 of them. It of course depends on the size of those underwater tunnels".

She seemed surprised and asked "That many?". I said "Yes, that is my top estimate, my lowest would still be around 500-600. 15 guards, including one Elite or Variant. There must be at least 500 of them". She nodded her head and asked another question "What about threat? Is it big, just like the Corpse Dogs threat?".

I thought about it and said "Bigger, if all of them invade. You would need a few Avians, just to kill one. Of course provided, you didn't use the Yellow Dust. With the Yellow Dust, the threat is smaller. But you would still receive some damage". She seemed shocked, while I continued "My sincere advice is, collect the Yellow Dust and store it. If they invade, you can just explode them. Also, make sure to protect some animals and plants, in order to rebuild the Valley in the future. With that many of them pouring out, you will have to destroy some of the Valley for sure".

I could see fear in her eyes, when I finished speaking. After a while, she asked "Can you deal with them?". I shook my head and said "No. They are underwater. I have no way of igniting the Yellow Dust. I also barely escaped with my life, I don't want to return there". She asked "What if, I have a proposal which will change your mind?". 'Hmmm? Interesting' I thought.