The freighter rocked towards starboard as the huge wave sucked them in. Jason leaped and grabbed a pole, hanging by a single hand.

“Hang on Jason,” said Tapeesa through the speaker.

Arrluk manned the freighter as he throttled it up. The propeller spun hard, pushing the freighter forward. It fought hard against the strong pull of the waves, and it made it.

Parting apart the lake, the freighter sailed through the rough lake as it escaped the claws of the high waves. But the freighter didn’t escape untarnished. The tsunami went crashing as it roared like thunder and explosions. A small part of the wave struck the front mast as it shook the freighter hard. Freshwater drenched the topside as Jason took the full brunt of it.

Not how I’m expecting of a boat ride.

“Puih,” he spitted out the freshwater as he kept his grip tight.

The freighter glided through the lake as it slowly spun around, losing control. Jason stood up with his clothes drenched. But a couple of sounds alerted him. He heard thumping noises on the deck, prompting him to look around.

Jason smiled. A bunch of two-legged amphibians came down for a visit. They were like fish but bigger and walking on two legs that seemed like muscular-looking fins.

“Fish people. Ugly motherfuckers,” said Jason as a sword appeared in his hand.

But the fishmen kept coming, jumping on board as they surrounded Jason at every angle. Jason used Scan as their status came up.

Merrlok

A creature of the water, living in the depth of the seas and lakes. Known to attack sailors and wandering ships that trespass their territory.

Species: Depth Crawler

Level : 27

S.Ability : Aqua-Battle

“They stink like fish, and I hate fish.”

The merrloks came rushing at him while some jumped and leaped, baring their barnacle-like spears at the lone human. A one against many and the future looked bleak as Jason was vulnerable and without any energy points.

He slashed one down, chopping its fish head but another came tackling him down to the deck.

Shit.

Spears rushed at him as he smacked the one who tackled him and pushed it to use as a shield. Spears pierced through the innocent merrlok as these fishmen didn’t hold back. Jason got up on his feet and leaped away on top of a container.

More merrloks came leaping up alongside him as he stabbed one of them right in the head as it landed on the container. He kicked it away as the merrlok fell onto the deck as he confronted the others on the container. Another sword emerged as both hands gripped on the hilts of the swords.

He parried those spears and struck them as a counter. Some wounded while some turned out dead. But Jason didn’t come out unscathed. Flesh wounds riddled his body as pain erupted from every inch of his body.

It had been a while since he felt real pain and it happened to made him remembered the days he spent battling for his life in New York. He went through worst and this wasn’t close to reaching it.

“Die!” he stabbed another merrlok as his other sword chopped of the oversized fish head. A bloody battle ensued on top of the container as Jason at least minimized the number of contenders he fought.

He spun as his blades sliced a massive wound on the merrlok. Blood spurted out from the merrlok as it retreated in horror after seeing its own blood.

They’re too many.

Jason took down a couple of more merrloks as he jumped to a higher metal container, fleeing further away from the army of merrlok. He landed on top of the highest container on deck as he looked down as more and more merrloks came swooping out from the lake, infesting the deck of the freighter.

Yet something worst was about to happen. A loud rumbling crack echoed in his ears as he faced the direction of Oshawa. His eyes went wide as he saw pillars of earth spiking from underneath the ground.

What the hell is going on there?

The result of the missile launch was still unknown to Jason except for the huge tidal waves that had swept the lands of Oshawa. But as he stared in a daze, the corner of his eyes caught something a bit too late.

He took a step back as something flew right beside his face. He touched it with his hand and found his face bleeding, a cut from a flying spear.

Damn walking fish.

More barnacle-like spears were thrown at him as he dodged in every second, yet a shadow loomed over him as he turned and saw a figure of a merrlok aiming its spear right at him. His swords readied for the unexpected opponent, yet he saw the gleaming shine of something small.

A fishhook?

The fishhook snagged the merrlok right at the corner of its big wide mouth as a powerful tug pulled it away in mid-air. Jason turned and saw Arrluk reeling in his catch of the day.

“Cut it!” said Arrluk.

Nuniq jumped in the air as his whole body suffused with the silhouette of a bear. His energy like claws scratched at the incoming merrlok, blood was spilled as Nuniq, and the merrlok went falling down onto the deck. Nuniq stabbed the heck out of the merrlok with its claw until it finally died.

“Watch out!” Tapeesa shouted.

Jason turned and blocked the incoming spear. It was a close call as another merrlok stepped on this metal container. Jason stabbed it right in the head and cut down the arms that held the spear.

Jason held the spear up high as he aimed at a jumping merrlok. He spun his whole body and threw it like Achilles in Troy. The spear went right through the merrlok in the torso dragging it along until it spiked on the deck.

He turned his attention back to Arrluk and his grandchildren. Again, he saw the fighting capability of a fisherman. Arrluk cast his fish hook and caught one of the numerous merrlok on deck. He reeled it in and then flung it like a spike-end of a ball-and-chain flail. The merrlok was used as a weapon to its own kin. It struck other merrlok down by the force of its body.

A makeshift long-range weapon, that’s pretty neat.

Jason got to hand it to the old man. He was skeptical at first about the fisherman's job, but seeing in action opened his eyes to interesting things.

“Jason,” he turned and saw Tapeesa climbing up the metal container that he stood on.

“Why you’re here?” Jason asked.

“Back up. Grandpa said you looked like you need help,” said Tapeesa.

He glanced at the old man who was swinging that oversized rod like a madman. The crazed look in his eyes showed that the gentleness of the old man was put aside during battle.

“Your grandfather is pretty good,” said Jason.

“He can’t help it when it involves fish and his fishing rod. He’s too much into fishing over the last couple of years,” said Tapeesa as she sighed a bit.

Jason looked at her and noticed her nonchalant attitude, even when during the invasion of merrlok. To be fair, these fishmens were stronger than the orcs, except their defenses were pretty weak compared to the thick fat ability of those pigs.

“You do know that these merrloks are stronger than the orcs,” said Jason.

“I know,” she said. “ But we have grandpa. As long as they are fishes, it won’t be a problem for grandpa.”

The confidence of a grandchild, looking up to a strong figure in the family.

He’s lower level than me, but according to Tapeesa, this old dude must have some unique trait that involved fighting fishes. I wonder what it is?

Another merrlok came, and Jason dispatched easily with a one-two pierced of his swords.

“Wow, you’re really strong,” said Tapeesa as she noticed how cleanly Jason handled the merrlok. Even she and Nuniq needed a couple more hits to take down a single merrlok.

“You’re going to help or not?” Jason asked.

“Ah, yes. You’re right,” a boomerang-shaped energy manifested in Tapeesa’s hand. She winded it up and threw it. The boomerang hit and dragged these merrloks until it disappeared after a few more seconds.

“Hmm, my boomerang is still too weak,” said Tapeesa. She was frustrated over her lack of power. She dodged a few spears flying at her and threw more and more energy boomerangs at the merrloks.

It was an all-out battle on top of a freighter as four people were going up against an unknown amount of merrfolk.

Arrluk fought from on top of a metal container, flinging the corpse of a dead merrlok on the hook. It smacked the merrlok with the strong momentum of his swing to the point of disintegrating the corpse merrlok into nothing but a fish head.

“Wah!” a battle cry of an old man as he leaped into the fray of merrloks as he didn’t fear any of these depth dwellers.

His rod was swung hard as it bent by the powerful force, and smacked a whole lot of merrloks at the same time. It was his other skill as a fisherman, the Rod Bash. He plowed through enemy lines. His swings sent back some of them into the waters while some into the netherworld.

Nuniq joined the grandfather, protecting Arrluk’s back as he swung those bear claws at the merrloks. On top of the highest metal container, Jason killed more and more merrlok while he kept his eyes on the scene of an old man wreaking havoc at these stinky fish people.

A smile lurched on his face as he couldn’t help but saw the old man as a great vanguard.

Fisherman, huh? That’s a scary job. I think I should have picked a rather normal one if I knew it would be like this.

“Jason, behind you!” Tapeesa warned.

Jason turned and swung. A merrlok cut apart in three parts as if serving into a raw plate of sashimi. Tapeesa was love-struck, seeing how badass this man in action. A girl’s crush, one would say.

Jason looked around. He saw the numbers weren’t going down as if the numbers remained static with more and more popping out of the water of the lake. Yet as he peered to the side. He saw the twinkling eyes of a teenage girl staring at him.

What’s wrong with her? We’re in a battle for crying out loud, can’t she get her head into the game or something. Wait, doesn’t she have some kind of other ability?

“You’re not going to use that other ability you have?” Jason asked.

The twinkling eyes vanished as she turned over to the view of numerous merrlok. There was hesitation in her eyes, and Jason wondered why?

“I can, but I need you to get as far as possible from me,” said Tapeesa.

Shit, does she have some kind of amazing ability or something? Damn it, why can’t I be this lucky? Can’t whatever random number generator side with me for once?

He kept his cool on the outside, but the inside was cursing his lackluster luck.

“And tell grandpa I’m using it,” said Tapeesa.

“You sure about this?” Jason asked.

Tapeesa nodded as she said.

“Ice Figure.”

A cool breeze surrounded her as her whole figure turned into ice.

“Damn,” Jason said.

“Go,” Tapeesa said, and Jason went off.

He jumped over to one of the merrlok and killed it swiftly. He met eyes with Arrluk.

“Where’s Tapeesa?” Arrluk asked.

“She’s using it,” Jason replied.

Arrluk’s eyes narrowed down.

“We retreat back to the bridge,” said Arrluk.

“But grandpa, I’m still fighting here,” Nuniq fended off more merrlok as his claws went raging mad.

“We can’t, or else we’ll be hit by Tapeesa’s ability,” said Arrluk.

The three retreated while killing any merrlok that stood on their path. They reached the safety of the bridge after a couple of tussled with merrloks. Nuniq guarded the only door as he killed any merrlok that dared to try to get into the bridge. Meanwhile, Jason stared at the ice figure of Tapeesa. She stood there on top of the metal container as spears were deflected by her Ice Barrier.

He waited with Arrluk as both of them looked at the teenage girl clad in ice.

Tapeesa raised up her hand in the air as a bundle of frozen energy coalesced on her two open palms. Then she said.

“Blooming Ice Dust.”