Chapter 187: New Targets
Chapter 187: New Targets
Zach frowned as he was forced to pause, tread water, and look over his shoulder at the two stragglers who were splashing around like idiots.
“Guys, at least try to keep up,” he called to them. Everyone else had been following along just fine except for Tyson and Jimmy, the two sharing their mutual agony as they panted stroke after stroke while swimming through the ocean. “I don’t want to waste the whole day traveling. Move it, you two.”
“Goddamn, Zach, give us a fucking chance,” Jimmy said, looking like a man on the verge of drowning. He was breathing so hard it actually worried Zach.
“The Gods save us both!” Tyson cried out. “Why is there no mercy in this cruel world?”
Zach couldn’t believe how hard of a time they were having. They weren’t even going that fast! This should’ve been an enjoyable, relaxing swim through a calm ocean beneath a beautiful, warm, and cloudless blue sky. Instead, Jimmy wasn’t faring any better than he had the first time they’d come through here, and Tyson, amazingly, was actually performing slightly better—though emphasis here was on slightly. Both looked like they could run out of energy and drown any second.
At the moment, the seven of them were nearly to the point where the water turned shallow, and they’d get plenty of rest once they started wading to the shore. Grumpily, Zach gave them a few seconds before losing his patience and swimming off, demanding that they follow or he’d let them sink. He didn’t mean it, of course, but Jimmy and Tyson had way less stamina than they should have at their respective levels. Especially Jimmy. That buff of his, Breath of Invigoration, was incredible and astounding—but it was also like a poison to Jimmy, as he rarely pushed himself and thus was falling further and further behind where he should’ve been in terms of endurance.
“We’re almost there,” Zach called back behind to them. “Another minute. That’s all.”
Somehow, the two managed to hold out just long enough to cross the last bit of distance, and looking behind him once again, Zach could actually see the relief in their eyes as their feet touched the ocean floor. Now, walking forward through the water, it became shallower and shallower. And as was normal for him these days, Zach waved, shook hands, and greeted people all the way from the beach to the boardwalk. Upon arriving, Trelvor called for a pause.
“One moment, please,” he said, stopping. He happened to be located ahead of all of them. Everyone was still soaked, and although the intense sun was doing a good job of drying them off, Trelvor seemed to want to hurry the process as he squeezed portions of his white cloak to release the seawater faster. Then, glancing around, he said, “Our weapons may make the people here nervous. We should conceal them.”
With that, he did something that Zach couldn’t believe. He knew it was going to break him even before it happened. He could only watch in mute fascination, frozen in shock as Trelvor unstrapped his beautiful new flute from his chest, which he’d won on the Mare of the Primordial Void raid, and then tucked it inside of his vest and out of sight. Even as this was happening, Zach spared a moment to glance at Rian, whose eyes were opened so widely that, if Zach didn’t already know better, he might’ve thought Rian was afraid.
Did he just seriously…?