In the river, Keli saw the prompt flash across his vision once again, and the sudden appearance of chunks of flesh beside him, but he had no time to pay attention.
As he swung his axe, an undercurrent surged in the water, but it could not cause any substantial harm to his enemies.
Indeed, this stream was not so turbulent that swimming was faster than running on land. Keli simply believed it was necessary to confirm as much as possible that there were no stragglers hidden in the water, and also, if they were in the water, the opponents might not flee.
And that was indeed the case. With the faint light filtering through the water's surface, Keli could see the faintly reflective, eerie green fish eyes at the bottom of the stream.
Those things were like vicious jackals in the wilderness, constantly waiting with their eerie green eyes for him to show a moment of fatigue.
And Keli made a show of exerting all his strength, constantly swinging his axe, parrying the spears that came no slower, and even faster, than on land.
Even though he could live without breathing, holding his breath for a long time still made Keli feel like his lungs were burning.
The chaotic, dark environment was even more likely to induce fear, and Keli also seemed to be affected by this feeling. After parrying those spears once more, he struggled to swim towards the upstream part of the stream.
"Whoosh!"
A huge movement created a gush of water and bubbles. The moment Keli's head neared the surface, he felt as if thousands of hands appeared behind him, as if they wanted to keep him submerged in the murky water forever.
Just as Keli had expected, the moment he revealed that he, too, seemed to need an oxygen resupply, the Deep Ones erupted with speed comparable to tuna, like several torpedoes darting through the water, simultaneously reaching out and grabbing Keli's ankles.
This stream, clearly less than two and a half meters deep, now felt like the profound ocean.
Seeing Keli seemingly truly lose strength, even closing his eyes, and with the axe that had terrified them sinking to the bottom, the fish-men swarmed him.
They began to stab Keli with the weapons in their hands.
Feeling the enormous potential energy dragging him down, Keli smiled instead.
He hadn't been idle during his run; his pistol was already fully loaded.
A pistol couldn't be used the same way as on land. Under water, with a density nearly 800 times that of air, the pistol's power would drop to a very humorous level.
Therefore, losing sight on land and being too far apart underwater were both unacceptable.
Carefully feeling the spears or claws tearing his body, Keli sank towards the bottom.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Underwater, several bubbles emerged one after another.
Keli finally pinpointed the approximate location of his opponents through the pain, as their swimming speed was bizarrely fast, so he had to act quickly.
Even Deep Ones couldn't achieve muscle speed like cockroaches; they weren't structured like fish that could swim by just wiggling. No matter how swift, they needed an initial burst of power, and that instant was what Keli had to seize.
The gun barrel bounced back and forth, bubbling. This complete submersion meant the gun probably wouldn't last long after this.
But for now, it was enough.
He continuously emptied the nine bullets in the magazine at the approximate location.
Freed from restraint, Keli, dragging his body, which was now like a pincushion, floated to the surface.
"Hoo!"
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, enduring the stinging sensation of the cold stream water on his wounds, and pulled a spear from his body, throwing it forward.
"Aaa!"
A Deep One, shot but not dead, let out a painful shriek.
"Hoo hoo!"
Keli gasped for air, swimming vigorously towards the shore.
Three left, there should be three left.
Keli glanced at the number of floating bodies on the surface and the results of his quick glance underwater.
Suddenly spitting water from his nose and mouth, Keli, dragging his body, which felt heavy from being soaked, tucked a spear under his armpit, and while reloading the pistol, which he didn't know how long it would last, he started to sprint.
Soon after, Kazuma, riding a vehicle, caught up with the running Keli.
"Quick! Get on!"
Keli's eyes lit up when he saw Kazuma on a motorcycle. The moment the other person stopped, he straddled it.
Immediately after, Kazuma twisted the throttle.
With a hum, the two sped straight along the stream, heading for the outlet.
"Hoo hoo!"
Left in their exhaust was a bewildered Kirigaya Kazuto, splashing in the water.
He looked at the floating monster corpses around him with some horror. He had just watched, wide-eyed, as some light-particle-like things drifted a little onto his body when they passed by, and his hunger immediately eased considerably.
But now wasn't the time to worry about hunger; he struggled to climb ashore, panting.
That man… no… that monster was still over there.
Looking at the scene, he could imagine how fierce the battle here had been, but he had no intention of backing down. Asuna was still in this resort, and he absolutely had to stop that monster. Using the visible buildings, he roughly determined the direction and ran towards where he had seen that man before.
On the other side, with Kazuma ignoring the bumps and twisting the throttle to the max, the two quickly reached the end of the resort.
And at this moment, a scene that made both of them furious was unfolding: several men in security uniforms were trying to drag a disassembled iron gate away from the stream.
Those men were also somewhat alarmed when they saw Keli and Kazuma arrive.
"Quick! The two monsters the priest mentioned are here! Shoot!"
"Hold on tight!"
Kazuma shouted, not slowing down, continuing at that speed, while ducking to avoid any potential shots.
Kazuma charged straight through without hesitation, and Keli, understanding implicitly, immediately raised his spear.
Like an ancient general on horseback cutting down enemies, Keli, with one hand around Kazuma's waist, thrust his spear forward with the speeding vehicle.
Seeing this stance, the security guards, who were still fumbling with their safeties, were scared out of their wits. They didn't care about the priest's mission anymore and threw down the gate, wanting to run.
But they had no choice in the matter; with a slightly wild turn, Kazuma pursued them directly.
Under the night, the flashlight's beam illuminated the spearhead in Keli's hand, piercing through the bodies.
However, there was no time to deal with those people. Keli discarded the spear directly, and Kazuma turned back to the stream exit. The two scanned the area; this exit, in terms of structure, was actually somewhat like a sewer drain. Dense iron bars extended from the bottom, connecting to the resort's fence, dividing the stream into inner and outer sections. There were a few disassembled openings there, and they wondered why such a facility would have such openings.
Keli jumped into the water, blocking the opening with his body, while Kazuma shined his flashlight into the water and took out his pistol.
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