106 Water Stride (1/2)

”Helena!” shouted Gilbert as he watched the woman run towards the shoreline in a straight forward manner.

The woman called Helene turned her head and saw Gilbert with a bunch of odd looking people. Despite that, she immediately changed directions quickly heading towards them.

The water surface behind her had numerous ripples of water chasing after her. A shrill scream came further behind followed by a splash of water that reached one meter up in the air.

”Ready your spears!” Jun shouted.

Helena ran as fast as she could, but the weight of the two children weighed her down.

Gilbert rushed forward and take a better angle when she was just ten meters away from them.

A figure lunged out of the water like a flying fish. It flew towards Helena at an angle and yet it was struck by a harpoon filled with howling wind. Gilbert reloaded his last harpoon onto the gun and kept his gaze below the water, looking for any threats that might follow. Weirdly enough, the trails and ripples of water disappeared until his wife reaches their side.

She slowly sunk down from the water surface after reaching them. Gilbert immediately hugged her

and took his children from her grasp to lighten her load.

”Thank the Lord you're okay. I'm so worried. I thought for sure that... that...”

”Say no more, we're back on your side now.” Helena hugged Gilbert for a few seconds before looking worried. ”We need to get out of here. That monster must be very angry.”

”What do you mean?” said Gilbert.

”Monster?” said Jun.

Helena turned her head towards her husband, then towards Jun. ”There's one unique monster among them. It can control the water and has intelligence. It can give orders and plan them. We need to get out of the water first!”

”Okay. Retreat towards the houses!” Jun ordered.

The group inched closer to each other as they retreated towards the houses. After several seconds, one death slave sunk down causing a commotion for everyone near him. The person next to him quickly dove down to his rescue while others heightened their senses for any more threats that may come. Seconds later, two people showed up; one looking annoyed while the other was embarrassed.

”Sorry, I stepped off the walkway...” said the man as he smiled wryly under his mask.

After that scene, everyone carefully watched where they were stepping on. It increased their awareness of the surrounding while increasing their focus under the water. They reached the housing area safely and gathered on Gilbert's house where most of the people were held.

With the addition of almost twenty new people, the house became cramped and most of them had to stand on the first floor to give further space for the others.

With finally having time to talk with each other, Gilbert and Helena brought their children on the attic as they catch up on in each other's stories.

Jun who was watching the scene couldn't help but ask, ”Can you teach us that water-walking skill you've got?”

Jun's action would be considered rude even before the apocalypse and right now. In the Philippines, it was considered rude to cut in someone's conversation, specially if they were older than you. You could get scolded or worse ignored for the whole conversation while marking yourself as someone immature.

Never the less, Helena smiled and said, ”I'm sure you already know this, but my name is Helena and this is my husband, Gilbert. I thank you for coming to our rescue. Thanks to your timely help, I didn't have to die. Not one of us needed to die any more. Regarding your request, I can teach you since it was quite simple. Just gather energy on the sole of your foot and that should do the trick.”

”Wait. Isn't that basically Sprint?” Jun blurted out.

Helena tilted her head in confusion, not understanding what the man in front of him was saying.

”I'm sorry, I didn't thought that it was simply like that. We already learned a skill with the same usage conditions, so it didn't cross my mind that they might be the same. I'm Jun by the way and this are my subordinates. You can call them by their numbers.” said Jun.

Gilbert and Helena stared at the numbers on the masked men's shoulders. Though they don't understand why they were called by numbers instead of their names, the two of them just ignored the matter.

Jun was the first to try the water-walking skill. He easily gathered energy on the sole of his foot, then tried stepping forward. He felt some resistance from the water and so he tried again. After two more tries, his feet brought him higher and so he stepped up using his other feet.

[Congratulations! You've learned Water Stride!]

-[Water Stride]