Seeing as they were all reunited, something that, up till now, they hadn't really thought was going to be that hard to do, the group of friends celebrated; first, in the more conventional way of partying from dusk till dawn, then when they got bored, planned another adventure.  

They noticed that they really hadn't taken that much of a chance to explore water-type dungeons compared to the rest of the other types of dungeons, a decision that was heavily influenced by just how many ‘cats’ and clashing opposing natures to water was present within the group: you know, with the thunderbeasts and a tiger princess involved.  

"But they have human forms and that shouldn't be that much of a problem," Someone might think, but, really, you should know that some cats almost instinctively avoid water, and the four 'cats' agree! Up until now, they've explored just one or two water-type dungeons, for good reason. But really, what was reason except something to throw to the brisk winds and just live life as it came by? 

So, Marcel and his group of friends decided to explore a random water-type dungeon as well as conquer a little nuisance of a ‘dread fear’ some of them seem to have regarding dungeon rifts after the Tharrelan incident. They were, after all, excited, so why not add the rush of conquering their fears to the excitement glowing through their abnormal veins......  

And, well, that's how they ended up in a water-type dungeon for the first time in years, through a dungeon rift! Unfortunately, no one checked beforehand to notice that it was... a complete oceanic dungeon… hehe, because they couldn’t. 

 

Yes, by walking through the dungeon rift, they found themselves surrounded by a literal ocean of water; the most extreme kind of water-type dungeon. Normally, the water would be part of some other landscape, sort of like in the case of a lake or a river, but no~! This time, it was just water. 

Okay, now allow me to explain how this type of rogue, oceanic dungeon works!  

It’s pretty easy to navigate compared to the others, because, um... they’ve already entered the domain of the beasts, which means that a very hungry dungeon beast should be heading towards them right about...... now! 

 

A giant, eel-like creature sprung up from under the water, thinking that it was going to be lucky, only for Kenny the brute to grab it and snap it out of the realm of the living with his bare hands. Poor thing! 

Following the arrival and death of the eel creature, they reacted quickly, leaving the water with their various abilities. Marcel, Silva, and Shalia flew; Allan, with his Minya, Valeria and Evan controlled the wind currents to stand atop the air while Kenny summoned a broadsword imbued with a Curse of Flight. Nigel rode with Allan aboard Minya while Daniel used the water beneath him to create a pillar upon which to stand. Gwendal, meanwhile, turned incorporeal and floated up, like some kind of ghost. 

It was just in time for right where they’d been earlier, gathered a school of bloodthirsty aquatic life wanting to claim them as food. As they observed these creatures snap at them from below, they suddenly found themselves surprised when the maws of a giant creature snapped at the gathered creatures below them, consuming them whole and reaching upward, aiming for them. 

Daniel, in the direct line of the creature’s trajectory, froze, a look of horror on his face as the quick creature opened its ginormous jaws wide to swallow him whole. He couldn’t react in time! He was don—! 

 

Just when they thought that it was all over, a spear came flying from out of nowhere, piercing the creature its abdomen above the water. It radiated an intense aura of blood and death, sucking the very life force of the creature. In pain from the sudden clear hit, the creature lunged back into the water, escaping from the site and staining the water with its gushing blood. 

The group was left in shock for a while before someone finally got the nerve to ask the obvious question,  

“Whoa, what was that just now?!” By that, he, Evan, was referring to both the giant creature and the attack on it. 

“That was the Great White Abyss Shark! It’s a rare S-ranked beast.” A voice answered their question. 

Of course, that thing’s an S-ranked beast. Just Marcel’s luck that something like that would just suddenly show up after he decided to enter a dungeon rift. It’s almost like dungeon beasts in here are attracted to him and whoever he has as company while he’s visiting. 

Speaking of people visiting, this figure was a familiar one! A spear, blood, and death... you should already have an idea of who it could be. 

 

A man approached them, walking atop the water as if it were solid ground, the beasts seemingly scared to even approach him for fear of their fate at his hands.  

“Oh...!” Marcel exclaimed to himself. He didn’t expect to see him so quickly after they’d said goodbye like, um, days ago. It was... 

“Yo!” The approaching man said, smiling at the lad who recognized him and felt so much appreciation for what he’d done to save his friend just now. 

“Enya~! I didn’t expect to see you so soon!” Marcel exclaimed, his sudden delight at Enya’s unexpected appearance visible on his face. 

“Hehe~, me neither! I didn’t expect that you’d also enter this place too. A coincidence, but a very good one, I’d say that this is!” He chuckled as he talked to the lad, ignoring all his other company for a while. He already knew who they all were, so he felt no need to act familiar with them. They, however, didn’t know who he was and quickly made that known. 

“Who’s he, Marcel!?” They asked him, their feelings written all over their faces. A stranger is the label they’d given him in their minds; and what do they do with strangers? Well, they screen them for their intentions towards their pure angel. 

Marcel thought it proper to formally introduce him to them. He also remembered that he’d told Enya about his friends while they were still on the Xapheras Islands, so he thought it proper to let them get to know each other personally.  

“Guys, this is Enya, my friend!" He introduced him, “Enya, the friends I told you about!” He said to Enya with a smile, hoping that they’d get along. 

“Mm-hm! Nice to finally meet them, I guess. I hope we’ll get along nicely.” Enya responded courteously. His friends, however, were a very different story. 

Looking at this man and the feeling he gave off, an unspoken hostility sprung forth from Marcel’s friend’s side toward him.  

“How do you know him?” Silva asked, trying to gain any extra information for further, more in-depth divine inquiry later. Allan, Shalia, and the rest were also wondering how Marcel knew this man who was suddenly acting friendly towards their friend, despite the ‘thing’ he carried with him. 

 

In their eyes, this man was a highly oppressive and dangerous existence. He carried with him an aura of immense bloodlust, death, and destruction, like his goal in life was to extinguish all life on earth.  

It was a very disgusting aura; one of the most potent aura clouds shrouding a person that they’d ever felt, even for the extremely long-lived Shrine Maiden Princess. 

They looked towards Enya with hostility, some fear, and a major disgust for what he was carrying with him, while Marcel, meanwhile, just smiled and interacted with him normally. I guess only he is capable of such a thing, seeing as he can’t feel the aura, but they sure as hell do! 

“Enya is a friend; a very special friend I met a while back, by myself... on the Xapheras floating islands. He’s a very nice person!” Marcel answered. 

“You call that thing nice?!” They all thought after Marcel finished his sentence while observing the man, who seemed to tense up a bit. After all, he knew exactly what and how they felt as they were looking at him.  

They really didn’t like him. Silva desperately tried to hold in her feelings, but ultimately failed, as usual, “His aura is disgusting, like, really reeks of immense bloodlust! He’s dangerous!” She commented rudely.  

Unfortunately, Valeria, Shalia, and Allan thought so too, even though they said nothing. Evan, Daniel, and Kensuke, however, thought that his menacing aura cloud was quite cool.  

Um... I should probably mention that Kensuke never thinks anything is cool! 

Nigel also thought that he was dangerous and that Marcel needed to be cautious around him. After all, who knew what intentions such a man had for their Marcel? It could be really bad! Gwendal, well... just hated him, for the simple reason that he was acting so close to Marcel. 

“Well, I’m sorry you think that, but it’s not my problem! Hmph!” Enya commented back, not even trying to slightly tolerate the situation. Since they were so rude as to not hide what they thought of him, he didn’t feel like them any nice favors. He even ‘hmphed’, which should tell you that he was mad that his favorite person’s friends would act so unsightly. 

“Why you—!” Marcel’s friends all exclaimed almost in unison.  

“Guys! Guys!! Could you please stop it?!! Enya really is a nice person! He just looks like he might rip you in half! You should know better than to judge people from just their fierce appearance.” Marcel also commented, with ridicule plastered across his face as he berated his friends. 

To that, Marcel’s friends thought, “But... he really is dangerous! Like, look at him!”  They watched Enya, who could clearly hear their thoughts as he recalled his spear covered with the blood of the large dungeon beast from earlier. He dipped it in the water below his feet to wash off the remaining fresh blood strewn across its tip. 

Marcel, upon seeing this, just had to ask like he always did, “Woah! How did you do that? Also, how are you standing atop the water?!” His curiosity was practically painted on his face. He looked at Enya walking atop the water like some kind of God. He wanted to learn how to do it. 

Enya answered like he usually did when Marcel asked him something, 

“The spear can be summoned to me no matter the distance and, well, as for how I’m standing and walking, it’s all about density and manipulation of the water itself. Anyone can do it with a little practice!” He uttered proudly, having finished cleaning his spear. He did nothing but smile at the little lad in front of him, which was starting to annoy the other guys. 

“How?!” Marcel asked. 

“Simple! You control your density to make it lighter than the water, then you simply manipulate the water molecules to bind together beneath your feet as they would on solid ice, creating the feeling of walking atop solid ground. Try it if you like!” Enya, right afterward, stabbed another of the eel-like creature from earlier after it jumped toward him. It was so much easier to fight them when the water itself acted like solid ground for him. The creatures forcefully breaching his created territory allowed him to instantly notice and dispose of them. 

Marcel, after Enya had answered, without any hesitation, deactivated his floating spell and tried what he’d just explained to him.  

To his surprise sometime later... it really worked! Starting slowly from swimming in the water to slowly building a solid layer underneath him, eventually, he could stand atop the water as if it were solid. 

When Enya said that virtually anyone could do it with practice, he meant it! With a fine control of magic power, one could easily do the water manipulation part to make it work, even if you didn’t adjust your density. After a minute or two of fine-tuning his control, Marcel was walking on water like Enya. 

“You guys can try it too!” He beckoned his friends to also try it, for walking atop water was really special, almost like when you first learn to fly in the sky. It’s a feeling that sparks a lot of joy inside those capable of doing so. 

Marcel’s friends, with his insistence, tried it... with varying results!  

Some like Allan, Silva, and Shalia could do it almost instantaneously because they’re geniuses. Shalia, for example, instead of manipulating the water molecules herself so she could do this ‘stupid walking on water thing that Marcel likes’, politely asked the water spirits to do it for her, making her the first one to do it after Marcel. 

Valeria, Evan, and the rest, who lacked as much precision in magic control as the others, tried it, ranging from ‘succeeding somewhat’, as in Valeria and Evan, and ‘will succeed maybe tomorrow’, which were Daniel, Nigel, and especially Kenny. He was having a harder time manipulating the water without his curse magic. Maybe tomorrow, he’ll try infusing a curse directly into his boots and stay ‘aground’ that way, though, knowing what will work will take some experimentation. 

 

As some of them were still in the middle of trying to figure out this new ‘walking on water’ business, as if having forgotten that they were in a dangerous dungeon, something really big came to surprise them. 

The creature from before, the Great White Abyss Shark, returned with some reinforcements; two other behemoths: the Great White Whale, and the Great Water Serpent, two other S-ranked dungeon beasts who had banded together with the first beast in fear of their chances of surviving the threat alone. They came with company: much smaller dungeon beasts of the same species as them respectively, and boy, did they mean business!