Forbidden Constellation's Blade-Chapter 170: Is There Such Thing As A Hero?

"Gaghhhh—!"

Fritz gasped as his eyes snapped open. The faint light from the sky burned as his eyes readjusted.

He coughed up the seawater that was still lodged inside before fully turning his body upward.

The beam was still there, high in the sky, snapping him out of his stupor. With a trembling hand, he managed to push himself up to one knee.

Water was still everywhere, dripping down from his blonde hair, and lodged into each and every joint inside his armor

I’m...back?

Fritz remained still for several seconds, staring at his gloved hand as water continued to drip from the seams of his armor. He flexed his fingers slowly, watching the way the joints responded.

And, I’m alive...?

But that wasn’t what bothered him most. It was the memory that still clung to him like salt that refused to be washed away.

The blurred shapes of his parents, the storm, the book that he clutched with his small, trembling hands.

And the question that had surfaced in his mind as the water closed in from all sides.

Is there really such a thing as a Hero?

He swallowed and forced his breathing to steady, trying to separate dream from reality. Maybe it was a hallucination due to lack of oxygen.

Fritz pushed himself to his feet.

That was when everything else around him finally registered. All he could help was a single word under his breath.

"Woahh..."

On both sides of him rose immense walls of ocean, towering curtains of water that stretched upward almost endlessly. They were not frozen in ice like Ryn’s earlier miracle.

No, they were frozen in time.

They moved, just barely, as he noticed the surface trembling with subtle ripples. Yet the water itself didn’t seem to spill outwards, it just simply...stayed.

It was as though the sea had been sliced cleanly apart and didn’t yet know how to recover. The corridor extended forward into the distance, a path carved through the depths.

"What in the..." Fritz started before he realized.

At first, it was only a flicker at the edge of his vision. Yet he noticed more and more to count it as a coincidence.

Shadows swam within the walls of water, one to his left, and another higher up on the right.

His fingers tightened instinctively around the hilt at his side.

The shadow moved again, this time clearly visible beneath the translucent waters. Fritz drew his blade in one clean motion, steel ringing out in the silence.

"Of course," he muttered under his breath.

The first strike came without warning.

The left wall exploded inward as water ruptured around a shape that tore free from it. A creature burst into the dry corridor. Fritz just barely managed to step back, but not before its claws managed to leave a small scratch on his face.

Using condensing Wind Essence into his palms, he pushed it into the ground, separating himself and the monster.

Fritz landed in a crouch before standing back up quickly. That was when he got a good look of what had attacked him.

It stood taller than him, broad and full of layered scales, with fins jutting from its forearms like crude blades. Its wide maw peeled open, rows of curved teeth glistening as water streamed down its body.

He could only describe it as some kind of malformed fish that grew legs and learnt how to stand on them. There was no monster ever described in any history books that looked like this.

Fritz knew that for a fact.

It stumbled awkwardly toward him, giving the feeling that it didn’t quite understand how to walk on two legs yet. Fritz relaxed just a tiny bit before it disappeared.

"What—?!"

A set of claws carved through the air toward Fritz’s throat a second later. He twisted aside and brought his blade up in the same motion, eyes wide as the creature was suddenly in front of him.

The impact numbed his forearm, but he stepped forward instead of backpedaling, slamming his shoulder into the creature.

It staggered backward, giving Fritz the opportunity. Wind condensed on his blade as he drove a slash right down the middle of the creature’s chest.

Even while accelerated by his wind, the slash was shallow, mostly because his blade had passed through a section of thick mucus that slowed the impact.

"Tch," Fritz clicked his tongue.

He yanked his blade back before ducking as a set of teeth snapped shut inches above his head. He rolled under its follow-up attack and came up on its flank, slashing hard across the back of its knee.

The monster felt it immediately, dropping forward onto one leg.

Without hesitation, Fritz brought up his blade for the killing blow.

That was when another shape from the right wall tore free in a burst of water and blitzed him. Fritz barely managed to pivot his attack, raising his blade just in time to block as the creature slammed head-first into him.

He went flying into the wall of water, all sound drowning out immediately as his vision was blurred by the muddy, black water. The only thing he could make out was the shadows rapidly approaching him.

This isn’t good. I’m in their domain!

Fritz tried to kick hard and swim back to the dry corridor, only to be slashed right across his left arm. He tilted to see that his armor had taken the brunt of the force, but had caved in from it.

Another strike tore across his side before he could fully regain footing. The creature’s claws scraped along his armor, and this time something warm splashed across the exposed gap near his shoulder. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

At first, he ignored it, his main priority to get back to dry land.

Then his muscles seized. Fritz looked down, eyes wide as a burning sensation spread from the injury.

The black brine that had coated the creature’s claw wasn’t washing off...It was sinking in.

Poison.

Fritz staggered, vision blurring as the shadows in the water approached once more.

Both creatures raised their hands in unison, ready to deliver his death sentence.