Six Warriors

Merman Guardian - (Miguel)

Everyone was looking at the guy who had just killed that furious kraken in a few seconds. Everyone was impressed, including the bigwigs Calico Jacques, Edmond Turrier and Bradford Saggingsails. The storm had given way to a very strange calm, the high seas seemed too calm, and there was a large bloodstain spreading where the corpse of the great sea monster sank. The man, whom they were calling The One who Stopped the Storm, didn't even look at the ships and their crew, just put the sword on his back and lights enveloped him until magically the sword was sheathed.

He turned his open palm back and magically unleashed a stream of light that made the boat move at an incredible speed, as if it were motorized and he was heading towards Trident Island.

"That man is definitely not a good thing." Yumi said as if she had a bad feeling.

"Are you kidding? He saved our lives!" Miguel replied.

"Don't mess things up, Miguel, he just got an obstacle out of his way, now he's heading to Trident Island, with what intentions, don't you ask?" Miguel didn't know what to say, "Do you have enough control over the waters to swim at a good speed? We can, you and me, water magic users, get there before the others. Stanis and Victoria stay here and help Calico if they have problems with the other sailors, if everything is right they will help us too."

"Hey, just be careful." Victoria told her fellow travelers. Miguel nodded to her. Yumi then jumped into the sea and Miguel noticed the girl swimming like an underwater torpedo, just like Evagore could do.

"Miguel, let's just finish solving things here, so then we're going to go get the hidden treasure, okay?" Calico smiled at Miguel who confirmed everything and then jumped off the ship into the salty sea water.

The boy felt at home and welcomed when all that water surrounded him, he was underwater and somehow, like he had a sonic radar or something he could feel the nearest piece of land, it was like all that water said to him where was the dry land that was not a place where he would feel so welcomed.

The chosen one of the water then felt himself sliding through the water, as if the aquatic oxygen propelled him like a turbo and he swam faster than he had ever swam before in his life, feeling the piece of land approaching faster and faster. Near the island, Miguel saw the island and its pile of rocks, in it was a trifurcated sea cave and the blue hole that Izette had said led to the underwater caves where the scroll should have been. Yumi was there, she rose above the surface and stood over the water, looking at the blue hole.

"Entering the blue hole we will reach the submerged galleries." She said when she saw Miguel approaching swimming. "Are you ready? Diving into this blue hole is not going to be like diving into normal water."

"I'm ready." Miguel said.

"Very well then, let's go." Yumi jumped headfirst into the blue hole, Miguel dove right behind her.

The water here was darker, although Miguel could partially sense his surroundings with his "radar", it was still difficult to see there, coral stalactites could be seen there, and a wide variety of shells crept through the submerged rocks. As he swam through these more oppressive waters that even made pressure against his chest and lungs magically adapted to breathing underwater, Miguel, with his ability to sonar underwater, felt other presences there, presences that did not seem to be marine animals. Yumi seems to have felt it too, as she stopped swimming and started analyzing things around her. Due to his extrasensory perception based on the water that was linked to Yumi's perception, on an almost telepathic level, although somewhat more rustic and less sophisticated, Miguel felt that Yumi was trying to warn him of some danger.

!!!

A half humanoid creature half abyssal marine animal attacked Miguel, he was huge with almost three meters tall, was like a macabre and big mermaid, that was a creature called a formoraig aka merrow, a sea monster that attacked all who dared cross its sea paths and slew them with exquisite cruelty. The monster's claw scraped the flesh of Miguel's shoulder and caused a great pain and burning, the blood of the water only seemed to draw the attention of other of those creatures, as two more of them appeared.

They moved with great agility, even more than Evagore and Miguel was still at the beginning of his journey as a hero, it was true that he had made a lot of progress, but it still wasn't enough. Furthermore, it was ironic that he had difficulty casting his magic there, as spellcasting required calling out the name of the spell used and he couldn't do it there.

"SPIRALED BLADE WATERS!!" Yelled Yumi, turning her staff until her magic was cast, creating a kind of water tornado that rushed at the two merrows that had appeared and ripped them to shreds. Miguel then hit the monster that had attacked him with a kick, causing him to be also dragged into that vortex of cutting water that Yumi had conjured.

When the danger had passed, Miguel wondered how she had done it, managed to talk in the water, especially in the one that was more oppressive due to the water pressure exerted, that's when the boy realized that he still had a long way to go.

They followed their path until they reached one of the galleries of the underwater cave and then emerged to the surface, where there was dry land and air there, even if in stone galleries underwater.

"How did you do that? I mean, manage to scream like that in the water like it was on the surface." Miguel asked.

"You're still learning the extensions of water magic, so I'll explain to you," Yumi replied, "you must know that water molecules are made up of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, that's how we get our breath underneath of water, we manipulate this part of oxygen and use it to our advantage, this is how we swim faster, this is how we do everything underwater, that's what water magic users can do, cool isn't it?"

Miguel and Yumi then heard hurried footsteps and when they turned they saw small humanoid creatures with fish heads, monstrosities that Miguel found almost comical.

"Careful, they're toa-kou, they're evil, don't be fooled by their size." Yumi said getting into battle position, but the small creatures ignored the girl, they just seemed to want to run away from something and spread through the tunnels and water ponds that led to the deep ocean of that cave.

In the next moment two merrows were thrown and crashed against the stone wall of one of the tunnels in that cave. Approaching them, Yumi and Miguel realized they were dead. Not just them, there was a trail of corpses around there and they all led to the same man, the one in the gray cloak.

"You! How did you get here?" Yumi said in a hostile way, pointing her staff at the man. The man partially turned his head as if he had noticed them there, but he didn't pay attention to them, it was not possible to see the features of his face. That mysterious guy continued on his way and Miguel and Yumi went after him, who didn't even bother. Following those underground tunnels and caves, they came to a place that seemed to have been built by the hands of a skilled architect, there was a huge stone gate between two columns, the columns had details of a bluish crystal while the gate had details of a navy blue crystal, both were carved from that underwater limestone that at one point or another had corals embellishing them. There were inscriptions in a strange language on that gate, it seemed to be some kind of riddle, but before Miguel could translate and unravel the riddle, the mysterious man took a parchment from his pocket and read aloud what was in it. There, the columns emitted a magical glow and the navy blue details also glowed, the gates magically opened before Miguel and Yumi and they didn't need to do anything.

When they entered they were in a kind of chapel in a cave, there were stalagmites on the ceiling covered with corals, treasures were scattered around, but on the altar of that strange temple there was a stone tablet full of mysterious inscriptions. That must be the scroll. In front of the altar, meditating in a lotus position was a man.

He wasn't quite a man, he had bluish skin and fish features like gills, Yumi said he was a merman, but he didn't have a fish tail but a pair of legs, he had thick, long hair like membranous dreadlocks that fell over his shoulders and back, he wore a sort of orange robe on his body and on his side, stuck in the ground, was a trident, most likely made of bronze.

"What are you doing here? No one never made it this far before." he said in a soft voice.

"The scroll." Said the man in the gray cloak.

"I understand." The merman said getting up, opening his eyes and holding the trident, "I am Milos, the scroll guardian and I can't let this happen." The merman glanced quickly at Miguel, then looked back menacingly at the man in the gray cloak. "Chosen hero, help me to end this man who is the manifestation of hatred. We cannot let the scroll fall into his hands."

Not waiting for any more answers, the man in the gray cloak advanced with his sword, the merman defended himself with the trident and a fight began. Yumi and Miguel looked at each other and decided they should help the merman defend his post. Miguel took one of the sabers that were among the treasures and advanced against the common enemy, the three then began to fight him, the merman managed to hit the man's armored shoulder, but was hit shortly thereafter by a kick and fell to the ground. Miguel then tried using magic.

"AQUA g*n!!" Shouted the boy, shooting water from his fists, but the enemy just brandished his sword and broke the attack very easily.

"CORAL NET!" Milos roared invoking something similar to a capture net made of coral materials, which covered the man in the gray cloak and immobilized him, Milos lunged with his trident at some point the armor didn't defend. The man roared in pain as the trident pierced the flesh of his belly, piercing menacing holes. "You won't get the scroll!" Milos growled, before the man freed himself from the net and pulled him by the trident's handle and punched him so hard that the merman's blue blood spurted onto the ground, Yumi tried to attack his opponent at that time, but he fired something, a light magic from the palm of her hand and the girl was thrown back and nearly impaled by a stalactite from the ceiling. The man in the gray cape continued to punch Milos' face that looked like a helpless puppet in front of his opponent, Miguel tried to fire his Aqua g*n, and hit the man's head, which did nothing but stagger, but at least stopped him from beating Milos , this in turn fell to the ground on his knees.

"Stay out of this and live, try to oppose me and die!" Said the man in the gray cloak to Miguel, then he gestured and his sword magically returned to his hands, he tried to lunge at Milos, who dodged jumping back, but the man swung his sword in the air and that magical blast that hit the sea monster came out again, a little weaker this time, but enough to mortally wound Milos, sending his blood spurting across the temple floor. Milos fell to the ground, barely alive. The opponent advanced against him and seemed to have the intention of delivering the coup de grace. Miguel tried to think of something fast, maybe that his new magic, the Aqua Shell, he still couldn't control it very well and was using a lot of magic power, but there was no other way. As if realizing his intentions, Yumi screamed.

"Miguel, no!" She said as if she were still in pain from the blow she had taken, Miguel looked at her and saw her still on the ground, her eyes watering and her expression was of... fear, "this man... this is not an enemy we can defeat now." Milos was pierced by the enemy's sword and died instantly. The man shook his sword clean and headed for the altar, as if nothing had happened. Miguel was also scared, rationally thinking Yumi was right... if he advanced against that enemy now he would die easily.

Miguel, gritting his teeth, looked down and was angry at his own inability. He rose, boldly, for the first time ignoring His rationality.

"I can't let this happen!" He growled at the man who was in possession of the tablet now.

Miguel began to focus the energy to cast his magic, Yumi shouted:

"Miguel, no!" But the young man ignored it.

The man in the gray cape just seemed to look at him (you couldn't see his eyes) and then said:

"Sleep." The last thing Miguel saw was the man's open hand pointing at him and then a very bright white glow.

...

He woke up in bed, while the whole room seemed to sway slightly. Seagull sounds were heard. He was in a cabin on Calico Jacques' ship Erhais. "What happened?" he asked himself.

When he left the cabin, he saw his fellow travelers, Victoria and Stanis, laughing with some of the pirates, including Bradford and some of his men and Officer Edmond Turrier as well, as in the midst of that storm the ships were almost completely destroyed and Calico helped them. Victoria and Calico saw him.

"Hey you, you're finally awake." Said Calico with a smile in his face.

"What happened?" Miguel asked.

"We got a good treasure my friend, a good treasure!"

"We found you after a while in one of the submerged caves" Victoria said to Miguel, "there was a dead merman there and Yumi looked very scared. She hasn't talked much since then."

Miguel looked down, frowning.

"I failed. That man took the scroll."

"That man? The Man who Stopped the Storm? Miguel, few could stand up to a man like that, the guy destroyed that sea monster in seconds, do you understand how powerful that is?" said Parrot.

"He's right, Miguel, don't cover yourself so much." Victoria said, "We still got some valuable information."

"Miguel my friend, I have some contacts that can provide more information about this man, understood? Don't get so down." Said Calico with a mug in his hand, "the important thing is that you managed to survive all this, isn't it crazy? We survived and looted Trident Island!"

The men yelled back in ecstasy.

"Now Miguel, go talk to the little girl with the blue hair, we've all tried, but she's saying little. Maybe you, what you've been through together, can help."

Yumi was at the stern of the ship, looking melancholy at the sea. Miguel approached her without saying anything and together they watched the sea for a while.

"I was scared like a little girl." She finally said after a while, "It didn't even feel like I was a Guardian...I...I feel bad, maybe it would have been better to have fought and died." Yumi looked at Miguel and gave a sad smile, "you were very brave."

"Thank you," Miguel smiled back, "but no, I don't think it would have been better for you to have died, you acted more rationally than me, that man was actually unreachable to us now. For some reason we're still alive and that's it's good. Someone told me... Someone told me, those that before me controlled the water, they told me that death is just a bigger mystery and that if we die now we won't fully understand it, so be alive so far it's a good thing, every day we spend and learn something, it's a new preparation for the death that is inevitable, every day we're alive is a new possibility." Miguel touched the girl's shoulder amiably, "let's not despair yet, we're alive and willing to learn from our mistakes and that makes us more prepared not to fail in the next possibilities, right?"

Yumi smiled, this time not a sad smile, but relief that someone who had gone through something similar understood the feelings she had gone through in that defeat.

"Yes, right! You're right!"

...

Miguel and the others did not return to Lazuli, they went to another port city called Ocris, the remaining pirates in the crew were even saddened by that farewell.

"Don't you really want to become one of us?" Calico asked, "Adventures, treasures, toast the treasure quickly and then get back to the adventure!" He laughed.

"It's a tempting proposition, but I have things to do and responsibilities" Miguel replied "and some friends to rediscover."

"I understand" Calico offered his hand to Miguel, "I hope we meet again, my good saddle buddy and good sailing buddy Miguel."

"Yes." Miguel replied smiling, squeezing Jacques' hand. Parrot even seemed to cry and played a sad song on his harmonica, leaving that sunset in the port city melancholy.

"Here, for a reminder." Jacques handed Miguel a roll of paper, when the boy opened it he saw a drawing of it and a writing underneath 'Mysterious Traveler, wanted dead or alive, rewards 25 pieces of gold'. Miguel laughed at the gift and put it away.

"To Lightland then, right?" Victoria asked and everyone nodded. Miguel felt more mature now, a little, just a little wiser, and he knew he had a long way to go and a lot of information to retrieve about that mysterious man who had taken the scroll.