บท 35: The Twelfth Night - Part 2 - Fleeting Courage, yet, Stronger
With the moon in front of him, Renir's face was being showered by the scattered moonlight while finding the Water Sentinel.
He faced forward with little hesitation. He did not owe any favor from Sceke but he had to go and save Sceke even with a price of a bead of revival that was literally equaled to one precious life of his.
Renir knew the horror inside the Water Sentinel's stomach with the concentrated energy within it that was continuously trying to collapse one's body into its own.
Currently, no water creatures could catch up with Renir's speed.
Since unbelievably, Renir's speed increased in the waters after his first encounter with the Water Sentinel.
That was without a doubt because of the concentrated energy of the water element that he took a sip of.
Not even a hundred chylefruits could compare to a single handful of that concentrated energy.
Renir looked and learned that he currently had a water affinity of [15].
Before it was just [7] but it increased by another eight after a few gulps.
However, even with this number, Renir still had no clue how to use elemental energy.
It was said that it could be used to manipulate its manifested material. In Renir's own understanding, it is simple as the power to manipulate water using water energy, fire using fire energy, and so on.
But even when he was always in the water with [15] levels of water affinity, he couldn't grasp the "manipulation" part.
Renir worried, it is either elemental energy has no connection to elemental affinity or his water affinity was still not enough.
So while searching the Water Sentinel, Renir grabbed as many water creatures as he could and eat it.
After taking gulps from the concentrated energy while inside the Water Sentinel, he felt both fulsome and dissatisfied with the water creatures.
The concentrated energy was too much that it instantly healed Renir's fatal wounds in a matter of seconds when he was spat out but was still too much that he lost consciousness because of its overwhelming trait!
After he woke up, he was still feeling a bit dizzy from his own energy but didn't notice it because of the joy he had meeting others.
Renir had no time and knowledge to study how these energy works that was so far from common sense and laws of the world but if he had to guess, he thought that the energy he was consuming was being processed by his own energy first before he could use it as his own.
That was the only explanation he had now from observing the instances that occurred to him:
From being able to use the energy from these mysterious creatures to taking time for him to actually use it.
It wasn't the same as filtering. Since if it was, then he should've found something dirty, dangerous, or incompatible energy that might leak somehow, somewhere out of his body.
His guess would be that it is energy conversion. This is an unfounded theory, nonetheless, so Renir chose the put it aside from his mind first.
In Renir's mind, his only chance of defeating the Water Sentinel was to complete the second rune's trial and gain its power.
Like the Strength Rune, doubling his physical strength, there is no way the second rune would give him little power.
However, the problem was time.
Renir didn't think about it and left as soon as he could. He should've asked Hanzee how many beads of revival Sceke had so he knew if he will take it slowly to be sure or rush it and find a way on the process.
He was doing the latter since he didn't know how long would Sceke last.
Now that he had the time to think, he regretted his action.
But even if Sceke had ten beads, Renir wouldn't hesitate to help him.
The answer to why Renir would help someone who he only knew the name and had exchanged a few words with was still unknown
But when he saw the glimpse of the others' mourning faces for Sceke with tears flowing relentlessly, Renir just couldn't bear it.
Renir hated himself because of this. Why couldn't he steel himself and just let them be?
Because of guilt? A factor it was but Renir knew it wasn't entirely because of that.
He just had to.
Like the moment he saw his mother got a chance to be happy with his abusive father, he accepted it and took the abuses his mother "reluctantly" did to him.
Does he have a choice?
It would make his mother happy, wasn't that enough?
Renir didn't feel sad because of his dark past, but because of his dark life.
It was simple, it was yet to become a past...
But Renir shook his head!
'This is different...', he thought.
How was it different? A part of him asked.
'...', for a moment, Renir couldn't answer but when he finally sensed the Water Sentinel, an answer was like a spark of thought, 'Because I will fight!'
Whoosh*! he glided through the water at a speed faster than before. The little hesitation he had was no more.
Fight.
Fight!
Fighting was something he didn't do. He just accepted things, hoping for it to be fine for others and eventually, for him.
But today, no!
Tonight, he will fight for both his life and the others.
It is not wrong to secure others' happiness but his way of doing, hurting himself on the process was wrong!
Renir found courage and ambition as he confronted the Water Sentinel that long have noticed him like a dot far away in the flood.
He thought to himself that if he could ever go back to his old world, he will change his life!
In that instant, he remembered all the faces who had harmed him in any way; his classmates, the teachers, the bullies, and most of all, his father. Although he would not resort to violence, he will gain anything necessary to protect himself!
But that would be for later, now was not the time.
Because in front of him was the Water Sentinel that was wary of him. Renir felt like it stared at him as its enemy unlike the prey he was before.
Renir clutched his fist tightly, readying himself for any form of attacks that the Water Sentinel may give him.
But as his fist tightened, somehow, he felt his surroundings were also tightening up.
Currently, he was underneath the water with his hair hovering above him and his white jacket softly waving through the flow.
But slowly, pressure from all sides was pressing against him as if holding him in one place!
His surroundings looked wavy and dizzy but that was because his whole being was being compressed by water that was obviously controlled by the Water Sentinel.
Renir found it hard to swim now so he was many times slower than before.
It was obvious even for a child that the worst environment that one could fight the Water Sentinel was in the waters. But does Renir had any choice when the whole Gantlet was drowned with the great flood?
Even after all the courage he mustered earlier, he felt fear when he saw the Water Sentinel passing through many light rays that were swayed by the waves from the surface. The way it slithered its body was faster than the little fishes Renir knew about.
While Renir was slowly swimming away, the Water Sentinel was getting faster!
There was no way he could escape that so Renir chose to stay and wait for it.
The dot before became as large as a house in front of him and it was still not near him!
But Renir steeled himself and like he always does to evade, he immediately thrust all his limbs on the side to dodge. Even though he was slower, he still has some speed to do so.
However, the Water Sentinel's size wouldn't let him escape by just a small distance.
The height of its head alone was four times bigger than Renir!
But Renir knew that, and before a few meters they will come into contact, he swung his whole arm with all his power.
'ARGHH!!', he wanted to scream underwater.
He swung his arm to slap the Water Sentinel on its face!
Bogsh-!* the sound of an explosion underneath the water vibrated at large proximity that even the surface above them was disrupted to the point where big waves vanished in an instant.
The wave of impact in the water traveled far...
Renir did not slap the Water Sentinel with the intention of hurting it but to move himself out of the way.
As a result, the Water Sentinel was slightly moved while Renir was pushed out at a distance that the Water Sentinel only managed to scrape his left palm that was too late to get out of the way.
Renir was just glad that the white jacket was not damaged. He already learned to take the least damage to his clothes since it was the only clothing he had now.
He realized he should just take it off first before going against the Water Sentinel.
But still, it was strange that he was still concerned about his clothes amidst the fight.
But as the Water Sentinel passed through, Renir forgot the strong whirlpool that will follow!
When the whirlpool hit that even sucked the unsuspecting water creatures in the large area in its vigorous twist, Renir felt the hold of water to him was loosening so he could easily escape the whirlpool.
Renir was baffled to see how big it left compared to the Giganslik.
Yet, unlike the Giganslik that would take time to maneuver itself to attack Renir again, the Water Sentinel didn't have the slightest problem about it.
While Renir fought off the whirlpool, he saw the figure of the Water Sentinel behind him and felt the stronger hold of water around him.
'... I... I can't dodge this time!', Renir thought as the metal claws came out of his fingers.
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