Chương 523: New Plan

We dashed towards the southern side of the island as the horde of fog banks chased after us. Sallia was easily in front of the group, due to her exceptional physical abilities backed by this world's System - which was a good thing, because she had started leading us southwest. I noticed a few people almost veer back towards the East before they decided to follow Sallia instead. If we had actually run east, I suspected that would have been a death sentence for our settlement.

We could have made use of our enchanted flames to help fend off the fog banks, but the fog banks would have probably overwhelmed the entire settlement shortly afterwards. We had enough problems dealing with a few fog banks here and there. A horde of several hundred would have destroyed our village, even if every single member of our settlement fought to their dying breath. <Sallia, quicksand pit thirty meters and to your left! Avoid it! > I yelled, as she nearly charged straight into a death trap.

Even if she could free herself, at the speeds we were going, it wouldn't have mattered. I mentally scrambled for a solution. The fog banks weren't giving up. I wasn't seeing a good way to escape them - or a good way to win this. Our hopes for some kind of guerilla war, where I could leverage my extinguishes and our coordination to take out the enemy, weren't going to happen. Neither could we just rush the cyclone and try to rip it to pieces. It was too heavily guarded.

I glanced at the fog banks that were still doggedly pursuing us, and I realized that things weren't quite as bad as I had assumed. The fog banks chasing us still couldn't actually directly attack us. They did constantly try to summon monsters to hit us - but the monsters they summoned were not as fast as the fog banks themselves. The fog banks weren't getting far enough ahead of us to cut off our retreat, either.

I wasn't sure whether that was because they lacked the ability to do so, or just didn't have enough brainpower to think through the issue. However, that didn't mean we could relax, either. Anytime we slowed down, even for a moment, monsters started to appear and try to rip into us. Worse, some of us were starting to get tired. The least athletic members of our team - such as me and Anise - were starting to run short of breath as he continued to run for our lives. How were we supposed to win here?

No, forget winning - how were we supposed survive here? I had accomplished a good amount this life, and dying wouldn't be catastrophic - but I wanted more if I could get it. More than that, I wanted to leave a real hope for the future of this settlement. I didn't want every single fragment of the clans from our old, frozen world to dissipate into nothing. For that to happen, our group could not die.

We were carrying all of the weapons that were useful against the fog monsters, and we also had all of the highest level combatants here. If we died, the settlement was finished. My thoughts flashed towards the ocean, and I felt a flicker of inspiration. I could probably keep us alive underwater. I had a lot of abilities related to the ocean, and a long, long time ago, I had used my healing magic to constantly heal myself against dying due to oxygen deprivation.

With how much sturdier people in this world were, I seriously doubted anyone would drown if we only spent a few minutes underwater, and if the problem did come up, I could heal them. The fog banks also might not be able to summon monsters there - after all, the fog minions they summoned weren't actually very strong individually. The biggest problem was their penchant for swarming things, and their lack of fear, since they weren't real lives in the first place.

Water pressure might disrupt these creatures quite significantly - or outright prevent the fog banks from creating them.

"Keep running west! Then, get in the water!" I yelled, in between ragged gasps for air.

"The water might interfere with them!" Then, I realized that at the very least, I had a solution to my exhaustion. I hit myself with a very mild healing spell - just enough to fix all of my muscle fatigue. Then, I hit everyone else in the group with the same healing spell. Instantly, the speed of our group improved, as people no longer seemed dead on their feet. The essence cost for this kind of healing spell wasn't even that significant, which made it an excellent way to keep everyone going.

I kept pointing out quicksand pits to Sallia, and our group kept dashing through the forest. After several minutes of running, combined with several minutes of me healing everyone, we finally reached the edge of the water. Without a moment of hesitation, we dove into the water. i started healing us, and we sank deeper. The first thing I noticed was that our understanding of the ocean was far more shallow than I had assumed. Through my soul-sight, I could tell that the water wasn't dead at all.

Every single inch of water had a very faint glow in my eyes - which indicated that it wasn't dead. It didn't seem to be microscopic life, either - my soul sight wasn't precise enough to see life below a certain size. Instead, it seemed that the water itself was alive, albeit only in some faint, alien way that I couldn't understand. I tensed up at the thought - but the water didn't react to us at all. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I relaxed.

The entirety of the ocean here seemed to be alive. I suspected it wasn't some kind of unique property to this island, either - if I checked the water around the city of plant people, or any other island in this underground sea, I suspected I would find that the water was alive there, too. This ocean itself was alive - and probably had better things to do than pay attention to a small group of people that had entered the water in a random, nameless island.

I looked back upwards, and at the same time, I started to throw healing magic at my companions. No point in letting them suffer from oxygen deprivation, in case this didn't work. The fog banks had not given up. They dove into the ocean right after us, and then started swarming towards us. I tensed up, as the fog banks themselves were still somehow retaining their shape in the water. They instead looked like faint, silver-white clouds of angry light drifting through the water.

They reached us, and started to summon new monsters… only for those monsters to instantly get shredded by the ocean currents. I relaxed. My gamble had paid off. The water might not rip the fog banks to pieces, but even though we were only thirty or forty meters deep in the ocean, that water pressure was still more than enough to tear apart any minions the fog banks could summon. Meanwhile, our group was strengthened so much by the System that the water pressure was barely even noticeable for us.

This was the difference between summoned minions and proper users of the local System. I gave the fog banks a radiant smile, even though I didn't think they saw the world through the same vision humans had. The other members of the group also relaxed as they felt my healing magic course through them, and saw the fog minions collapse under the pressure of the ocean.

"Glu-ack!" I gurgled, as I tried to talk to Veritum. Unfortunately, I had no way to talk underwater. Veritum looked at me, before he shrugged and pointed at the fog banks. I had no idea what he was saying, so I shrugged back at him. He kneaded his temples with his hands, before he tried to take a swing at the nearest fog bank with one of the fog-dispelling swords. The fog bank dodged out of the way. It didn't even try to respond, it just sat there, in the water, staring at us. I frowned.

The fog banks hadn't given up, even though they had no way to harm us right now. Instead, they seemed content to just… sit here and wait for us. I remembered that the fog bank had some kind of mental effect on people who were near them for too long. I kneaded my own temples. We had successfully escaped imminent death, but we were still in a bad situation. This was a stalemate, but it was a stalemate that favored them. <Any ideas for how to sort this mess out? > I asked my friends.

Even if I couldn't talk with Veritum, I could at least communicate with them. <Any method of attacking the fog banks will also drain us of essence, or drain our enchantments. There is no way that we can ever win a battle of attrition here. My best idea is to get Felix to create some kind of distraction, then send it over here. Meanwhile, we can keep walking in circles around the island, to try to stay out of range of the strange mental effect the fog banks can exert on people? > said Sallia.

<Or we can try to lead them into the domain of the mist pillar and see if it wipes them out for us. It seems much stronger than we are - it just isn't mobile. But I bet if we lead the fog bank horde into its territory, we can finally deal with this mess. > I paused. That was an idea… but I suddenly had a new thought. I looked above us. There were still hundreds of fog banks buzzing around the surface of the water like an angry nest of hornets.

Some of them had descended into the water, and were watching us like sharks that smelled blood. A few of the warriors on our side were trying to stab them, but with water resistance impeding their movements, they weren't having much luck. Trying to lead the fog banks to the fog pillar was risky - it would lead right by our settlement, and if the fog banks saw our settlement they might attack it instead. But that didn't mean we had no way to call for help.

Felix was still in the settlement, and so we could use our friendship bracelets to send a message. But then, a new idea hit me. Had we… lured away all of the fog banks? While they were capable of communicating, they weren't very intelligent, as far as I could tell. <Felix! Can you leave the village and see whether we pulled all of the fog banks away with us during the chase? > I asked, as I began to lead the people of the settlement further south.

There was no harm in making sure the fog banks didn't have time to think about anything else. Keeping them focused on us was ideal - and keeping us moving might also help counter their mental effects. <I can do that, if you give me directions. What do you need from me? > I quickly transmitted everything we had seen so far, and then sent Felix the outline of my plan. <That's a bit risky, but it's not a terrible idea, > said Sallia.. <I'll try it, > Felix said.

Our group continued to swim through the water, as Felix began moving. My idea was a bit ambitious, but if it worked, we might be able to finally solve the fog bank problem once and for all. And get Felix a really powerful ability evolution along the way.