Crimson Servant

A broken wooden hand was crawling on the ground. Of the two remaining fingers, one of them was half-broken. Only the index finger was still bending and crawling slowly and bit by bit like a bug. The cut wound on the wrist oozed blue-green juice, leaving a long mark on the dead branches and leaves.

The broken hand struggled strongly towards the water source in the low-lying area. It was the source of life that the scarred hand longed for. In an instant, it seemed to sense its end point, and it opened its incomplete palm with all its strength, extending its ripple-like dream toward the lake surface shimmering with golden scales.

Snapped! The falling stone hit the tree man's severed hand hard, and the last finger was broken. Bella, the picky spirit, lay on the stone to replenish her exhausted energy. Bella saw the finger that fell next to the stone, and she held it in relief and flew further away.

She turned around and said to the Daystar team: "We did a great job!"

Vivian was amused by Bella, but quickly regained her coolness when John looked at her.

They came to the lake. The shallow lake water was quite clear, and at a glance they could see the sand and mud at the bottom and the tangled aquatic plants. But the center of the lake is always glowing with that strange golden scale, shining brightly from any angle.

"It seems we need to dive down and find out." Barnes said, looking back and finding that other people were looking at him neatly.

Barnes asked, "What do you mean?"

John said, "Nothing else, 'Captain.'"

Raven said: "You have the best water quality."

Vivian did not explain, but her eyes gradually became oppressive.

"Okay! Okay! Leave all the dirty work to me!" Barnes shouted towards the calm lake, venting his injustice. "Wait! The bottom of the lake may be very deep, and we don't have it now. Magic! I'm just a human and we should let the beautiful vampire lady down, she doesn't need oxygen."

"I will prepare an oxygen mask for you, Barnes. You have the most underwater experience. We all have to rely on you." John said, stretching out his hand, a pool of blood slowly flowed out from the palm, rising from the red blood. Red mist rises, forming a vague spherical shape.

Barnes looked at the red mist balloon improvised by the magician in horror.

"I've seen this thing chew off human heads, and now you actually want to use it to cover my head."

John looked at the red mist in his hand. He controlled the red mist to cover his head. A man began to talk to himself. After finishing, he said to Barnes: "It won't eat your brain."

Barnes was unsure.

"It just swore to me."

Barnes felt even more unsure.

John didn't give Barnes any more time to complain. The red mist covered his head directly. While complaining, Barnes took off his boots, leather coat and rapier, threw them on the shore, and jumped with a splash. Get into the water.

Ten minutes later.

Barnes was out of the water faster than he was in it.

"There are fish-men in the water!" The captain raised a trident with blue-green blood on the tip. There were no wounds on the captain's body. He was a cautious man. But at the moment when he met the sahuagin, Baan Si seized a little advantage and rushed up to bring in reinforcements.

John looked at Barnes' extremely reluctant expression and understood that he would not stop until he dragged a few people into the water.

"Raven?"

The warrior nodded, took off his weapon and chainmail, and got ready.

John thought to himself, anyway, the two of them would go down, and he would keep watch from above, and add one more person to be prepared. He turned to Vivian aside and conveyed his meaning to the vampire.

"Vivian, Barnes and Raven go to attract the sahuagin's attention, and you go get the Sword in the Lake back."

"What about you?" The vampire didn't want to wet his clothes.

“I stayed ashore to respond to emergencies, and the Barnes and Raven Red Mist Hoods required me to stay focused.”

The vampire said goodbye to the Pickle and followed Barnes into the water. Bella hovered next to John, looking worriedly at the little ripples that Vivian made when she entered the water.

"John, are they okay? Sahuagin are very vicious in the water."

"Believe in their abilities, Bella. Vivian and Raven may not be familiar with the underwater environment, but their martial arts skills are sufficient, and Barnes is a good player in the water. The fishmen cannot stop them."

The cold touch slid across the skin along the cheekbones and reached the ears. Vivian felt the subtle feeling of being squeezed by the water, as if her body was enveloped in a transparent film. She regretted not asking John for a red mist hood. The feeling of the lake water touching her face, the discomfort of the lake water seeping into her ears, the signals from her body were telling her that she did not belong here. Vivian felt that the gravity of her hair had almost disappeared, replaced by a sticky feeling of stagnation.

It was extremely quiet. In the water, Vivian could only hear her own heartbeat. In the cold water, Vivian felt the warmth of the blood, the blood drawn from the warlock. A force surged out of Vivian's blood vessels, and the discomfort of diving was offset by this glowing force. Vivian felt that her body was gradually adapting, and her eyes must have become red again.

The vampire opened his eyes underwater, and the red mist hoods of Barnes and Raven were like two pilot lights guiding Vivian in the water. Vivian swung her legs and headed towards the deep water.

The golden light reflected on the lake came from the bottom of the lake. From under the water, several people saw a light that went straight upward from the bottom of the lake.

They dived for about another minute, until the light in the water dimmed, and the diffuse light on the lake shrank into a single beam in the water.

Vivian saw their enemies, some blue humanoid creatures with fish heads, webbed hands and feet, with scales and fins. They had shark-like sharp teeth under their slightly opened fish lips, and coral tridents entwined with water plants. All pointed at a few people.

The sahuagin recognized Barnes, and the trident in the captain's hand immediately attracted most of the murlocs' attention. Barnes immediately turned around and stepped on the water to escape. He ran away very fast, as if he was riding a dolphin. Most of the murlocs followed closely behind, and having their weapons taken away was a serious humiliation for the sahuagin who were good at plundering.

Raven was wrestling with the murloc on the other side. He grabbed the trident that was stabbing him, and kept exerting force with his hands to close the distance between the sahuagin's head and his own. Thinking that he got a chance, the fishman took the opportunity to open his bloody mouth and bite him. Unfortunately, Raven's head was still covered with a layer of red mist. The vicious red mist stretched out several tentacles like a jellyfish and wrapped the sahuagin's fish head. The two red mist gradually merged, wrapping the fish head and Raven's head in the same bubble. A few seconds later, the fishman's headless body fell into the seabed, and the blood mist that poured out was absorbed by the red mist on Raven's head.

Her companions each grabbed the sahuagin's attention. Vivian hid in the water plants, secretly dived, and sank into the source of the golden light, the coral nest dug by the sahuagin.

Vivian has already seen what the sword looks like.

A long sword stuck in the dark gap at the bottom of the lake, glowing with golden light, was as dazzling as gold.

Vivian continued to approach, but several pairs of eyes emerged from the dark gap. There were several sahuagins who stayed here to guard the cave and their lair, and they were eyeing Vivian.

Vivian drew her dagger and prepared for battle. The surrounding murlocs rolled their bulging eyes. They suddenly stopped, dispersed from both sides, and swam back into the dark gap, no longer blocking the path between Vivian and the golden sword.

Without thinking about the unusual behavior of the fish-man, Vivian continued to move forward and stretched out her hand towards the hilt of the glowing sword.

Her hand passed through the hilt of the sword, and the golden light shattered slightly under Vivian's touch, and the bright brilliance disappeared into thin air.

The sword in the lake is missing.

That seemed to be an illusion.

Vivian's pupils opened slightly, and she stepped on the water and swam toward the lake. When she raised her head out of the water and wanted to call John's name and tell him the result, Vivian stopped.

The moisture in your hair is quickly evaporated, and you can feel the heat hitting your face even when you are underwater.

The place where John was standing was a different person.

Short blond hair, cold eyes.

Under the black cloak, the knight's gauntlet held a long sword with a red edge. The surrounding air was distorted by the high temperature.

He had the same face as Raven, but the way he looked at Vivian seemed like a different person.

"Gawain..." Vivian couldn't help but shout out the name of the Lord Knight. The pressure of the Holy Word he released made the vampire so frightened that he couldn't move.

"...That's it." Gawain said, holding the sword high with one hand. The air around him seemed to be sucked away by the sword, and the heat wave was building up.

Desperate to survive, Vivian hurriedly dived into the water. She rolled in the water and had difficulty controlling her direction. Vivian saw an unforgettable scene underwater.

The red lotus flame split the lake water.