King Igor Mantovili had a dream to transform the weakened Socen state and give it a new face. Twenty five years later, his dream was realized. Socen was annexed into Mange territory and became the Outer Yahnan.

Excerpt from "On the collapse of Socen"

Eugene De Lavet

"Forbidden skill: Whimsical Melody." Melodi says.

"No, honey, no," Alleria swoops in to intervene, but it's too late. Melodi grunts a few times and clears her voice, and I understand she's really unleashing her most destructive skill. From a certain incident a few years back, we all know Melodi can't control the outcome of Whimsical Melodi. She can drain her reserves or damage herself. Or worse, damages me.

But she's Melodi. If anyone can pull it off, it's her. I have to trust her anyway, else I'm dead meat.

However, when Melodi is about to release her unstable skill, giant tree roots impale Aqua from behind. A menu pops up and invades my point of view.

Root Force LV 296 Root's HP: 12,960 Restrain Debuff: -22.960% Restrain immediately and -10% every second (300% effect versus Water-typed)

Azra! Our party pooper is here!

The roots all separate into four smaller roots with some sucky tips, pulling the water inside. Aqua shrieks as her body gets smaller and smaller until she's absorbed by the tree.

Then she vanishes.

Azra stops his bike and hops off, his fingers moves like a puppetmaster jerking invisible strings. The roots wiggle following his fingers, twist into one another before forming some giant peanut-looking tree thing. Like a flytrap.

Then, another menu pops up.

Curse of Aogikahara Charging: 88%

Of course. Root Force and Curse of Aogikaraha; his favorite combo. Not only that they are reserves efficient (the curse costs 50% less—49 point something something to be exact, but anything after the dot hurts my brain), but they are also extremely devastating. Curse of Aogikaraha does maximum damage to targets right at the center of the curse, and what's a better way to ensure the victim stays where they are than trapping them in the middle of thousands of vines?

The curse soon charges to a hundred percent, and the splashing sound of water imploding resounds from inside the roots. Azra walks past the roots and approaches us, eyeing me before drilling his steely eyes into Melodi.

"What do you think you're doing, causing a scene near a settlement? I didn't tell you to engage head on in a fight," he says.

Melodi stomps her feet on the ground. "Would you rather her injure my friend? Our friend?"

"The plan is to stall until I arrive. Having to resort to gambling moves show that you cannot take control of the situation."

"I have stalled. I have even tried to retreat! Why do you automatically deem it's my fault?"

"You know we've forbid you to use that skill. You broke the rules again."

"That's your rule. Screw your rules!"

Suddenly, the roots behind Azra expand like balloons. Soon, they turn from balloons into very big balloons, for a lack of better words.

"Uh, guys." I point at the roots, and both Azra and Melodi redirect their vision to them. With a bang, the roots explode, revealing the raging, bubbling humanoid watergirl inside of it.

"Who dare sneaks up on me from behind? Cheating bastard!" She screams.

Did she just break free after tanking Azra's signature combo? And Water-typed users are supposed to be weak to Nature-typed as well.

I look at the menu popping up above the girl.

Name Aqua Sasshuchu Health 15,813/36,491 Status Exhausted

Oh, she's exhausted and lost half her health bar! This should be easy—

Then, another menu pops up just below the other menu.

Survival Mode activated

Great.

Aqua turns into a tornado with a spearhead and dashes through the air. I can't believe it, but she's. . . fast. Her target: Azra.

I sit up and look at yet another menu Lek shows me.

Howling Tsunami Speed Burst: +109% for 20s LV 77 Attack Burst: +10.9% for 20s Penalty: Damage Taken +10.9% for 20s After-use Penalty: Mobility -89.01% for 20s

"And here I thought her weakness was speed!" I say.

"She's traded durability for speed. The penalties are super steep," Lek replies.

Azra unleashes his counter-offensive, using a host of vines. However, Aqua travels too fast for any vine to touch. Her torrent howls like a wolf then shrieks like a flock of crow. Then, it transforms into a large wave.

However, the Commander still seems rather unconcerned. He erects defensive wooden walls against the powerful waves. The waves leak through the cracks between the woods and damage Azra, but he just seems to take those damage. To be fair, he's still pretty much unscathed.

After twenty seconds, the attacks halt. Aqua takes a step back, heaving heavily. Azra uses Vinestrap Hawser, but on himself. Vines creep up his arms, binding together to form wooden fists. That's smart! Now his physical damage turns into Flair damage, bypassing part of Aqua's defense.

Azra lunges in, throwing punches after punches. The penalized Aqua has no way to block or dodge them, so she just absorbs all the damage. In his final critical punch, Azra sends Aqua back several steps, falling on the dirt. The girl lets out a heavy grunt and tries to get up, but ultimately collapses. Her water form dissolves and she returns to being a human.

The vines retreat from Azra's arms as he speaks up, "I don't want to fight you, little girl, and you know you're not going to best me. In fact, I want to have a word with you. Your family is looking for you."

An unfamiliar woman runs toward the scene. Her blue hair and blue eyes make her look just like the Aqua I envision when she becomes an adult. "There you are!" She yells at Aqua. "You going around causing mischief again? I told you those bandits are no good."

"You're not my boss, sister. That's no way to speak to a Goddess."

While I'm watching the whole commotion, I notice something sniffing me from behind. I turn back and see Aqua's dog.

"Hey! Since when did you sneak up on me?"

The dog sniffs my elbow then gnaws on it.

"Stop! That's my elbow plate!" I try to push it away, but it just hops to the other side. I yell, "Stop! That's my other elbow plate!"

Man, this dog really hates me.

"Why did she run away in the first place?" Melodi asks.

"Goddess? Bah. You're letting their lies getting into your head." The sister then turns to Azra. "Aqua told me that the bandits actually love and care for her, which is ridiculous! Bandits are barbarian. We are not. We provide her with food and shelter! She should be grateful enough. Instead, this stupid girl thinks those strangers worship her when in reality, they just want to use her as scam bait."

"I don't wanna go back! You're gonna whip me!" Aqua crawls back up on her feet.

"Don't listen to that girl! We don't ever whip her. Your man has just been tricked by this devious girl. She knows how to lie her way out of trouble, just like those vile bandits."

I interfere, "Is nobody gonna talk about the real issue here which is the blatantly terrific and insufficient pet training and discipline in this area?"

The sister puts on a gloomy face as she folds her hands around her chest. "Aqua has always caused mischief! The settlers don't want her around, and she doesn't want to come back. My ma has been distressed ever since, blaming the evil spirit for corrupting her daughter. It's great that you're here now, Commander. Please coerce her back to where she belongs."

"Don't listen to her! They're exploiting me because I'm more powerful than they will ever be," Aqua throws her hands in the air. "They want me to be part of their rituals."

"Rituals? Do you even hear yourself talking? We are your family, and we're adults. We know what's best for you, and robbing and scamming people surely isn't it." She turns to Azra. "You ought to know, right? You must've had a hard time training those kids. You'll understand."

Melodi stares at Azra as she mouths, "Being an adult doesn't make her right."

Alleria and Lek look at each other, then both of them look at me. Don't look at me! I want no part of whatever this is.

Azra stays silent for a moment. Nobody present here is even close to his power level, so whatever he decides is final should he chooses to do so by force. Finally, he walks up to Aqua, props a foot on the ground and asks, "What's this ritual you're talking about?"