I can hardly believe what’s happening right now. I’m practically water skiing with a giant fish of all things. Not just any fish either, judging from those golden scales, I’d bet this is the big beast that Charles brought up before. Who would’ve guessed that story wasn’t just some silly old legend?

Well, judging that I’m at least ten feet up in the air. This is far from what anyone would call silly. Unless you want to say the sight of it was, because it probably was to anyone watching this. Now I’m here, hanging on for dear life with this giant fish leading the way.

Realistically, I’ve got no idea on what I should really be doing in this situation. However, I do have end goal. We’re going to win this whole tournament.

“Alan, what are you doing?” Saffron’s manages to catch up to me, by using her magic to surf up. It’s pretty impressive to see someone glide across the water without a surfboard. “Let go, and I’ll catch you.” She held out her hand for me, but I reject it.

I assume that her plan is to either get me and escape this beast. Or worse, she might decide to nuke the whole thing for attempting to harm the two of us. Both of those ideas go against what I want to do.

“Look, I got a plan.” I told her, but she just looks at me like I’ve hit my head. Well, I will admit that riding this thing certainly isn’t great for my health. That said, I think it might work. “I thought you wanted to have some fun?” I take what she’s been saying all day against her.

“Th-that was different!” She yells back at me. “I don’t want you to get hurt.” True, what I’m aiming for is pretty risky, but I think it’ll be worth the effort. Or perhaps I’m getting a bit full of myself.

“Just trust me, and we’ll be fine.” I assure her. My plan is simple, we just need to redirect this fish towards the shore. We’ll have the advantage where there’s less water for it to maneuver in.

First thing that has to happen, I can’t just be pulled along with this flimsy rod, being whipped aside. Saffron pushes up water to force the beast to change directions. Taking advantage of the moments where it has to slow down a bit, I’m able to pull myself closer to it. Eventually, I’m able to get atop it, now hanging on its top fin.

It’s a bit surprising how smooth it really is. I would’ve thought that I’d have to be careful around its scales, but it would take a lot of effort to cut myself on those things.

Now it’s time to really put the real plan into motion. Grabbing onto its fin, I’m able to have some level of control on where it’ll swim. That said, I still need her to shoot up waves to persuade the fish all the while.

We’re getting close now, I can see land. Along with it, a lot of people who have already made their catches for the day. Man, I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when we arrive. In fact, I think they already see us.

“Okay Saffron, now!” I yell out my final command. She shoots up a wave of water directly in front and under me and the fish. This sends the two of us sky high, heading straight for the beach.

It’s a good thing I aimed it away from the crowd. But… I’m here flying dozens of feet above in the air. This fish weighs a ton, I lose my grip and we’re getting separated… Uh oh.

Shoot, I need to do something quick, or else I’m not getting up from this landing. My magic better be good here, but what spell do I use to protect myself? I hardly have any time to think, but I should feel for what I need. My body better be ready for this.

In desperation, I reach my hand out at the ground. In a shocking turn of events, my arm shoots out a beam of light. I see, an energy blast to slow my descent, but it’s not enough.

While it certainly saved me from certain doom, I’m still traveling at a high speed. My body collides on the ground, hard. The force is so bad, that I careen across the dirt and grass for quite a few yards. The world is spinning, vision blurry, and my head is hurting. Soon, my momentum stops, and my body rests on the cold hard ground.

“Alan!” I hear Saffron’s desperate plea. My head, in pain, slowly turns to look at her, as she sprints up to my near lifeless body. “Oh no.” The damage must be pretty bad, if she’s not even going to ask the obvious question.

“I can’t believe it.” One of the judges to the contest walks up. A crowd is gathering just to look at what we’ve reeled in. No one would’ve thought that it’s the fish of legend. The golden trout.

I’d say it’s pretty clear who won this competition, even if my body paid the price. That look on Saffron’s face, it shows just how much I’m worrying her. However, I was willing to take some damage, especially given what I can do.

“Young man, are you all right?” I’m sure glad that I’ve made some friends that care about my well being here. Most people are too in awe about the beast on the beach, to worry about the man in pain. Charles and his wife come up to us as fast as an elderly couple possibly could.

“That was incredibly reckless young man.” I also get quite an earful from Agatha. Something I can’t escape from, seeing how stupid I was about this. “...Honestly, I don’t want you to be buried by us.”

“I know, I know.” Even with her harsh tone, I can’t help but smile. “But, I did good, right? With this, I can feed the village for a whole month.”

“We never asked you to take care of the village.” Charles was about to put his hand on my shoulder, then decided against it seeing my state. “Everyone can take care of themselves.” Even then, it wasn’t like they weren’t appreciative of the offer. Everyone else was already getting to work on the giant fish I caught.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if eating it is the best idea.

“Hey, what type of fish is that?” I ask, seeing as nothing like that existed back on Earth. They told me that it was actually a fish that should only appear in the ocean, known as the aureus dorado. The golden shimmer that it cast was simply its color, kind of like a fool’s gold. Darn, I was hoping that we could’ve struck it rich, even though Saffron and me already kind of were.

“Alan, can you move?” Saffron was still stuck on the topic of my physical body. I… Could not get up to save my life. Plus, when I actually looked at myself, it turned out that I broke my arm during that fall. The adrenaline still coursing through my veins must be keeping me from feeling it. Not to worry though, I got healing magic.

As much as it pained my to do it, I concentrated the rest of my strength onto the arm that was still fine. With that normal glow, I put it over my injuries, and what do you know? It mended the bones as if nothing bad happened.

It’s honestly absurd just how overpowered this healing magic of mine is. It’s almost as if it had no weakne…