Shadow Author

Kayla was on the edge of a mental breakdown as what should have been an easygoing ordinary mission turned out to be hell.

All of her fellow shadows were killed some way or other and she was the only remaining guardian that was tasked with looking over the young student.

However, being that the boy was still pushing forward after being swallowed by a giant worm Kayla wanted to appear before him and beg him to stop.

But doing such a thing would go against everything she had been taught so she could only clench her teeth shut and drag her body after him.

Thankfully once they were out of the desert things seemed to slow down as her target began pulling out equipment.

Thinking the boy would set up camp Kayla let out a sigh of relief but once she saw the swimming suit she couldn't help but curse.

"What are they feeding these kids nowadays!"

Watching the boy dive into the swampy water Kayla found herself questioning what to do as she didn't have any way of following after him.

Of course, she could swim but doing so would reveal her location and that's the last thing she wanted to happen as the dangers under water were even more dreadful than the ones above.

That's why she was both impressed and shocked by the boy carelessly swimming towards an island as if he didn't care that the water itself was practically alive.

But as Kayla was watching from afar and thinking of a way for her to keep up the boy suddenly disappeared from her sight.

Confused for a second she took a double take and when she realized that he really had vanished she began to panic.

Then she caught sight of bubbles rising to the surface of the water and went into action.

She knew it was hopeless by that point as once he was taken underwater there would be almost no chance of him making it back up.

Nonetheless, Kayla would not abandon her mission, jumping into the water herself she began swimming towards the chaotic movements in the water.

Praying that the boy could somehow hold on until she made it to him she pushed her exhausted muscles to maximum in an attempt to close in on where she last saw him.

Feeling her arms spasm and her legs cramp Kayla used every last bit of energy she had stored to swim as fast as she possibly could.

Yet her efforts were not paying off as it became harder and harder for her to keep her head above the water.

Utterly exhausted from the never ending day Kayla was nearing the location as she felt like her arms were on fire.

Struggling to move forward Kayla was at her wit's end when suddenly a head appeared out of the water.

Instantly a sense of relief spread through her body knowing that the boy had somehow managed to survive.

However, that feeling of comfort quickly disappeared as she realized she no longer had any energy left in her body.

Kayla had given it one hundred percent of her effort just trying to make it to the boy and now she was left with nothing out in the middle of the swap.

Anger flashed in her eyes as she couldn't accept the fact that she would die in the middle of a dungeon.

She had a plan, she had dreams of standing next to her master, she had to make it back.

Giving up on the mission of silently watching over the boy Kayla pushed her dead tired body toward the boy in hopes that he would notice her and take pity.

However, although she was slowly treading closer to him fate did not smile on her, and before she even knew what was happening a sharp pain radiated in her leg and she disappeared under the water.

***

When I woke up in the morning I felt well rested and although there was still an aching sensation all over my body there wasn't much pain.

Switching my vision to that of the monster which attacked me I did a quick sweep of the area to make sure there were no nearby monsters.

Although I could sense that there were creatures out in the water they were all a fair distance away from the island so there was no reason to engage with them.

Ending the ability I pulled out some food and water from the spatial ring before having a quick meal.

Once I was done I cleaned up camp and put everything back into the ring before starting the next task.

Giving a quick scan of the area I looked around to see if I could locate the shadows however I was still unable to do so.

'I really need a skill to hide my presence.'

Debating whether I should expend some SP to unlock a similar skill or gift, I ultimately gave up on the idea as I might need something better in the future.

Having everything ready I sent a mental command to the monster under my control to guard and protect me.

After that with my diving suit on I jumped back into the murky water and began moving toward another island.

The next couple of hours were uneventful. Although a few monsters were daring enough to come at me with the help of the one under my control we made quick work of them.

After each defeat, I made sure to turn them into puppets and now had a total of five. Three were like the original which turned out to be similar to an alligator although more dinosaur-like.

The fourth was a relatively weak but incredibly sturdy turtle-like monster that was extremely annoying to defeat.

The final one was an extremely deformed fish with razor-sharp teeth that nearly managed to kill the second puppet.

As my army built up the nearby monsters were much less likely to engage. It would have been nice to get a few more kills but overall I was fine with not engaging as it meant I could spend all my time looking for the specific monster I needed to kill.

However, just as I was about to call off the adventure for the day and rest at a nearby island ahead of me, the terrain of the swamp appeared to be different.

Wanting to investigate, I began swimming in that direction.