Ch 209 – Underwater Escape
In the pond, propelled by the absurd amount of speed Deacon had generated in the instant before the smoke engulfed the Hoarder, the four of them speared into the pond, plunging nearly thirty meters beneath the surface. The flames beneath his boots finally sputtered out, smothered by the murky water, killing their momentum and leaving them suspended in the radioactive depths.
A single shared thought ran through all their minds: What the hell do we do now?
All four of them held their breath in the radioactive water, their lungs already beginning to burn from lack of oxygen as they tried to think of any possible way to escape their current predicament.
Deacon had made the split-second decision to blast them all into the pond because, given the incredible speed the Hoarder had displayed by vanishing completely from sight and covering well over a hundred meters in what seemed like the literal blink of an eye before reappearing directly in front of them.
The thought of the four of them successfully escaping by running into one of the tunnels or even managing to reach a tunnel entrance before the Hoarder would make it out of Bonehead's smoke screen was both foolish and unrealistic.
They would have been as good as dead if they'd tried to run into the tunnels, because there was nothing in those passages that could actually hinder or slow down a Tier Two climber like the Hoarder.
The mutant creatures wouldn't even be considered a legitimate threat to someone like him, and any attempt at collapsing a tunnel to block his path would be pointless since his speed would allow him to catch up to them before the collapse completed or he would simply use his Tier Two Strength to physically move the rocks out of his way, or he might even use whatever control he apparently had over the Thousand-Mouthed Stone Worm and its offspring to locate them and set up a prolonged cat-and-mouse chase before eventually killing them all and looting their corpses.
Diving into the radioactive pond had been the only rational choice Deacon believed they had available to them, because maybe, just maybe, if the pond's contaminated water hindered his own vision and sensing skill the way it had when he'd dove in to save Bonehead earlier, then perhaps it would also hinder the Hoarder's ability to track and locate them.
Activating Power Boost and pushing it up to 10% as the four of them began swimming deeper into the depths of the pond while ensuring they stayed close together so nobody got separated, Deacon made the decision to push Power Boost even further to 15% biting back the pain that immediately shot through his body as it simultaneously flooded him with an even more substantial boost of power.
Grabbing hold of his two nearest friends, specifically Bonehead and Valorie, as Leon lingered just above and slightly behind his sister to protect her, Deacon began kicking his feet faster and with more force to propel all of them downward at an increased pace.
During their frantic descent deeper into the radioactive pond, the Hoarder was hovering in the air just above the water's surface at the shoreline, and he could only sigh heavily and shake his head in complete disbelief at what had just happened.
"Are we being for real right now?" the Hoarder muttered to himself in genuine confusion.
Why the hell were a group of Tier One climbers even bothering to try to escape from him when the power gap between them was so large that any attempt at resistance was completely pointless?
"Was I gone from the public eye for that long that people have actually forgotten about me and my reputation?" the Hoarder asked aloud to nobody in particular, his tone carrying a mix of offense and bewilderment.
"No, no, that can't be right," he consoled himself while recalling the previous group of newbie climbers he'd robbed and killed just before coming across this group. "They recognized me and called out my name, so I definitely haven't had my legend and reputation covered up or suppressed like what happened to the Thoth worshipers or House Thades after their spat with that Monster of the El-Hindi House.
Coming to a sudden realization that made him smack his fist into his open palm, the Hoarder concluded "These particular kids were probably hit in the head one too many times during their training in the Academy of Beginnings, which damaged their memories enough that they simply don't remember who I am or what I'm capable of."
"Well, can't have that misunderstanding continue," he muttered to himself as he activated his ocular skill to track the newbie climbers attempting to escape from him, causing his eyes to shift from their walnut brown into a glowing orange that pulsed with magical energy.
Only for the ability to activate and immediately cause him to frown in confusion and frustration.
"The hell?" the Hoarder muttered to himself as he stared down at the pond's surface.
He couldn't see through the water at all despite his enhanced vision ability being active, which should have allowed him to see clearly through all sorts of matter – it was how he was able to bypass that Monster’s Vault.
Lowering himself down from his hovering position until he was standing on the rocky shore, the Hoarder crouched down and dipped his hand into the pond before pulling it back out to examine the water more closely and see if there was anything obviously unusual about it.
Finding nothing particularly odd about the liquid other than a slight and barely noticeable stinging sensation coming from his wet palm, the Hoarder decided to take a more direct approach and dunked his entire head into the water while keeping his ocular skill active.
Lifting his head back out of the water after several seconds of observation, the Hoarder found himself staring at the radioactive pond in complete disbelief at what he'd just experienced.
"What the fuck?" he said incredulously. “I can’t see shit.”
Swimming deeper and deeper into the pond, moving far beyond where Bonehead and Deacon had previously found and collected the Warrior Statue, the group of four remained completely unwilling to look back over their shoulders in abject fear of finding the Hoarder floating directly behind them, ready to kill them all.
They just kept diving deeper and deeper into the radioactive pond, completely uncaring about how the water was now actively burning the skin on their faces, or bones in Bonehead’s case, and slowly eating through their armor.
After what felt like an absolute eternity with their hearts pounding frantically in their chests and their lungs screaming for air, they finally reached the bottom of the pond, much to their collective horror and growing desperation.
Where the fuck are we supposed to go now? Deacon thought to himself with rising panic as all four of them touched down on the silty bottom of the pond, unable to see anything beyond approximately a foot and a half from their outstretched hands in the murky darkness.
Though that issue was at least partially uplifted as the three Floating Mana Lanterns belonging to Leon, Bonehead, and Valorie moved closer together and combined their illumination to assist and bolster the glow coming from the portable mana lantern still attached to Deacon's hip as well as the faint luminescence emanating from the Soul Bottle housing Esmerelda's soul, and allowing the four of them to be able to see their immediate surroundings of around a few meters.
The dread continued to well up in all of their guts as they fully expected the Hoarder to just suddenly appear beside them at any moment and kill them all.
Suddenly, Valorie's arm shot out, and she pointed frantically toward their eleven o'clock before turning back to face the rest of the group with wide eyes.
Unable to see whatever Valorie was pointing at, even as they all squinted hard at the darkness in the direction her finger was indicating, they watched as she began kicking off lightly from the pond bottom to swim toward whatever she'd spotted, waving and gesturing emphatically at them to follow her lead.
Leon followed after his twin sister without any hesitation whatsoever, while Deacon and Bonehead exchanged a quick glance with each other before ultimately deciding to follow along.
Just as Deacon and Bonehead began swimming to catch up with Valorie's lead, a massive drain pipe slammed down from above and struck the pond bottom directly between the group with a loud thud and with such force that it sent up clouds of disturbed silt, the shockwave from the landing causing all four of them to scatter away from one another.
Barely able to see each other anymore with only the faint glow of their separated mana lanterns, all four of them could clearly see the panic and fear written across each other's faces, and that shared expression of terror only worsened significantly as many more of these massive pipes began slamming into the bottom of the pond one after another in rapid succession.
"Ah fuck!" Bonehead's garbled words managed to pass through the water and reach everyone's ears before they all began frantically swimming in the direction Valorie had originally pointed toward, following her lead as best they could while dodging the falling pipes.
More and more massive pipes continued slamming into the bottom of the pond all around them, forcing the group to zigzag erratically between the boulders on the bottom of the pond as well as the massive pipes falling in their path.
As they swam desperately in the direction Valorie had pointed, they gradually drew closer to one of the pond's walls, and as they neared it, Valorie suddenly came to a complete stop.
As the three boys caught up with her position, they were greeted with the bizarre and completely unexpected sight of a small metal garden gate that was embedded into the solid stone wall.
What the hell? Deacon thought in complete confusion as he stared at the random garden gate embedded in the wall. As he stared at it, suddenly a look of realization came upon him, causing him to swim forward and press both hands against what was clearly a somewhat rusty metal gate that had been hidden in the darkness.
Grabbing hold of the gate's handle, Deacon pulled it backward and grimaced slightly as he discovered the gate was deceptively heavy, but it did swing open on its rusty hinges to reveal a tunnel beyond the wall, a passage that was large enough to fit two Leons standing side by side with one another that would lead them down somewhere deeper.
Frantically gesturing and ushering the other three to enter the tunnel immediately, Deacon watched as all three of them stared hesitantly at the dark passage beyond the gate, clearly uncertain about swimming into an unknown tunnel.
Just before Bonehead could lean forward to enter the tunnel first, yet another massive pipe slammed down from above and struck directly behind the group with tremendous force, the impact creating a powerful shockwave that forcibly threw both Bonehead and Leon straight past the open garden gate and sent them tumbling down into the tunnel passage before they vanished completely into the consuming darkness as their Mana Lanterns shakily followed after their bodies.
The same shockwave slammed Deacon backward against the stone wall as the garden gate swung shut, catching and sandwiching him between the metal bars and the wall, while simultaneously Valorie was sent tumbling to the side where her head bashed violently against one of the many large boulders scattered across the pond floor, her body immediately going limp as streams of air bubbles began leaving her mouth as her body then began to start floating upward.
Squinting against the pain as he was squished uncomfortably between the gate and the wall with the metal bars pressing into his face, Deacon could barely make out through his limited field of vision that Valorie's body had gone limp and was now beginning to float upward.
Shit!
Grimacing as he painfully squeezed himself out from behind the gate and freed his trapped body, Deacon immediately kicked off hard against the pond bottom and swam upward as fast as he could manage, his expression hardening even further as he caught sight of a faint dark trail of blood streaming from somewhere on Valorie's head.
Grabbing hold of her floating body and pulling her close, Deacon had to swallow back a curse.
Bringing her head close to his own, Deacon pressed his lips firmly onto hers and pushed some of the air he still had remaining in his lungs into her mouth before gripping the water with his stamina and mana and launching both himself and Valorie toward the slowly closing garden gate, barely managing to slip through the narrowing gap while still maintaining his hold on her.
Just as the rusty metal gate slammed shut behind them with a muffled clang, both Deacon and Valorie, along with Bonehead and Leon, who had been thrown deeper into the tunnel, all vanished entirely, and the rusty garden gate shimmered before blending seamlessly into the wall around it as though it was never there to begin with.