Arc 2, Chapter 25: Water Now?

"Gurgle, grumble…" It sounded, before it noticed a target. The construct of water, began running towards Jotou in a frantic motion and colourless form.

"Zap!" Jotou slashed and with a fizz of electricity the construct gurgled and burbled itself as arcs of electricity ran through its watery form; it turned back into a puddle and sank into the sand.

"They seem relatively easy to take down. Still, they're little nuisances that come after you so we better to get rid of them first," Jotou could see the shadowy form breaking into the safe-to-swim zone.

The tail flapped back underwater—it was only a matter of time before it revealed itself.

Fumeko ran up in a sundress and with a dagger she—"Slash!"—through the watery form.

Fumeko looked up to the figure, blinking. Shadows disappeared as quickly as she did, appearing next to Jotou, "Easy!? It's probably because lightning against water genius!"

"Well, I'm the perfect counter then, don't get mad at me!" Jotou argued back. "I meant that they're not velatos, we don't need to overestimate them."

Fumeko thought upon that statement, "Hotaru!" Hotaru who stayed a little back looked over. "Could you use your little water trick to disassemble them!?"

"I can try!"

"I hope Asobi can do it," Jotou saw the magician running to the side, past all of them. They in fact, seemed to ignore the three of them standing in the middle of the forming hoard.

From anyone else's view, they would see a rain drop, but never see it hit the sand in one particular spot; a spot on the move, like a dome.

Stood in the dome that kept them invisible from the watery constructs were the three; they watched as the magician stood on top of a sandcastle that appeared out of nowhere.

The dome moved over when Jotou did, keeping them in a small radius till one of the water constructs disappeared from the beach, engulfed by the invisibility dome.

"Take this!" Hotaru threw her hands into the overgrown puddle and extracted the liquid form—splashing it onto the ground, where it seeped into the sand below.

The bits of 'water-flesh' she smacked off the creature fixed itself before the creature looked at Hotaru and raised its 'hand' in attack. Jotou was about to step in before-

"Don't touch me! Go away!" Hotaru winced her eyes. "Splash! Splish! Splash!" She batted the water with her hands, taking away the water bit by bit in a fluster.

Splash and splash it went till it just turned back into a puddle and deformed into the sand. Hotaru opened her eyes fully and peered down, "Go figure, it did work."

Fumeko's eyes drooped, "Great, you can just slap away and take them down, but a dagger? Oh no, that doesn't make any sense."

"Greetings water babies! Welcome to the world, but unfortunately, you're friends with an icky velatos! As such you must be assas-sand-inated!" Asobi used an announcer voice as she stood atop the castle.

She lit up a light on her wand and waved it in the air like a spotlight under the darkened clouds, "Please! Come meet my friends, they will take you away and you too can become a fantastic sandcastle!"

Under the light appeared illusions of the three of them, as Asobi appeared right next to them from the top of the castle, "Now, now, one at a time, we can't handle all of you!" the castle dusted behind her.

The 'water babies', turned their attention to the loud, shining stage where the bait was set. They ran towards the spotlight.

"Are we really calling them water babies…?" Fumeko asked.

"Who cares? Let's get into place. We know I don't have to thundering strike them now," Jotou ran in the direction of the spotlight. The other two followed behind, "Spark!"

The illusions of them ran away from where the water babies were gathering—the velatos approaching closer. The water babies chased them around and round, getting together in a closely-knit circle.

The rain was dissipating, no more puddles were forming and all the creatures were chasing false people before those illusions dispelled.

Asobi appeared, behind where the sandcastle was, "What a lovely crowd you've all been! Followed our plan exactly, you could be quite the troupe if you tried.

But to say I want you and your whale friend around would only be if I lied. Sadly, our curtains have to close for this show and so I must bid you all a farewell and may like the water, you flow," she bowed, tipping her hat.

"Now!" Hotaru shouted as the invisible dome over them disappeared and they stood in between Asobi and the water babies.

"Zap!" with both hands on the handle she swung, the 'water babies' ran straight into her blade, into their watery graves of sand. They sparked, they fizzled, but alas, they were just constructs of water.

Jotou panted and slouched to her knees, "I, really need to exercise more."

"Rejuvenate," Hotaru splashed.

"How did I do!?" Asobi ran over.

"Good enough, but we still have a whale," as Fumeko replied, the top of its head poked beyond the water's surface. "When's backup coming again?"

"When there's known adventurers in the southernmost part of Kria… In other words, maybe in the next hour, give or take," the redhead estimated.

Jotou stared at the incoming velatos, shadows wisping off of its form, "That thing isn't… surely…" The blonde observed; as more and more of it surfaced, it did not seem to slow down…

"It's too big, it has to stay in the water, what's it trying to do?" Jotou spoke aloud—the winds began to settle down.

"That's equal to asking what any velatos is doing. The answer is that we don't know," Fumeko shrugged.

"Maybe it hates us for killing all of its water babies," Asobi ventured a guess.

Hotaru's eyes widened, as did Fumeko's and Jotou's, "Maybe we should just MOVE!" Hotaru warned as all four of them scattered. The whale rocketed straight for them on the shoreline.

"SPLASH! SWISH!" "HOWLLL!!!" The waves extended past the sand and the water roiled against the dark form—two ruby red eyes to the side as the water came splashing down.

The song howled for a few seconds as it drifted itself into the sand. The splash died down and what remained in the cloudy evening was a velatos, beached at shore.

Its eyes blinked. Was it… confused? Hotaru and Asobi stood far left of it while Jotou and Fumeko made it to the opposite end.

Jotou and Hotaru brought their arm up as cover from the saltwater. The whale was inched into the sand, its tail and some of its back still in the water.

Its flippers laid in the seashore before the sand, like dust, began filling the space.

"What now!?" Fumeko yelled over, walking in front of Jotou to examine the beast stuck in sand.

"Wait for backup I suppose?" Hotaru shouted a reply.

Their conversation was cut short as they noticed its eyes ejected open all of a sudden, its flippers began rising. Noticing this, Fumeko blinked away in shadow.

Jotou quickly grabbed the bottom of her yellow coat and brought it up, shrinking her body and protecting herself in the cape as "SWISH!"

The flippers churned and kicked up the sand in the area. It beat down the shore, kicking up more and more as Jotou hid her face.

The blonde looked up by the time Fumeko returned. She looked to Hotaru who had her ribbon-like sleeves held up to her eyes and Asobi coming out of hiding behind her.

"The middle, get to the middle-!" Fumeko was able to scream out before she blinked directly towards the front of the whale where the sand didn't swirl.

However, besides the sand, the tail at its back splashed in the sea and they saw it rise… to an improbable size for the tail of a whale only that big…

Covered in shadow, the tail rivalled the size of the whale itself; it came smashing down onto the water's surface and with a giant—"SPLASH!"

The waves changed direction, the ripple burst into a storm with a resounding smack. Jotou covered herself once more only to be swept away by the sudden wave.

The saltwater was blocked by her arm as Jotou grunted; her drenched blonde locks weighed her down whilst sand peppered her face.

"Ugh," Jotou got up, expecting her clothes to be heavy, "Huh?" only for them to be not. "Right, enchantments," the water dripped down like it had hit oil.

The flippers were readying for another round as the whale opened its mouth and closed it in an instant. Fumeko shouted, "GET OVER HERE!"

As per her instruction, the four met back up in front. "SWISH!" Just in time before the sand rushed past their faces. Merely dust was leftover in the middle as they faced the whale head-on.

"We can't really stand here and do nothing, right?" Asobi questioned as Hotaru removed the water from the magician's attire.

"What are we supposed to do against that? It's too big," the redhead stated.

Jotou looked at it, the red eyes, the shadowed form… the large size… her brows furrowed and her eyes sparked a little, "We carry on with the plan.

The way I see it, that thing trapped itself, now we can examine it better. Fumeko, look for a weak point, Asobi distraction, Hotaru will try an heal it. Nothing's changed. We kill this thing, here and now!" she sneered.