Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 161: The Veteran Fishermens

One passenger boat and several small fishing boats arrived near Jun. Gilbert stood at the bow of the boat and smiled at Jun.

"Need some help?"

Jun smiled wryly and shook his head. "I need to go down. We're still underattack."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"You saw the bright lights earlier? They summon carriers. We're dealing with aquatic ones right now, the same ones that invaded your place, and its a bit troublesome." Jun explained then dove down.

When Gilbert understood what Jun meant, his passion for vengeance erupted. He looked around and noticed everyones fervented gaze. That's right! Everyone from the Lakeside Marina suffered under those creatures rules. Their friends, acquaintances and loved ones were massacred. He saw one of his old friends' eye burn with fury while waiting for Gilbert's decision. 

At this time, Gilbert smiled. He felt like he became younger by a few years as he became hot-blooded. He said, "We live on these waters, we survive thanks to this lake. Now that others are trying to claim what's ours, we should protect what's rightfully ours! I will lay my life down for these waters!"

"That's right!"

"Yes!"

Edward was having a hard time defending from the unique carriers attack. He can't give everyone a barrier, so he swam to the groups front and made everyone line up behind him. With this, he just needed to make a larger barrier to effeciently defend everyone.

Their group slowly swam up even when under attack. Everyone felt like they were fighting sharks as they evaded the carriers that swam past them. 

Huwan managed to grab one and it almost slipped out from his grasp. Its body was cold and slippery to the touch. As he was having trouble holding the carriers neck, a bonedagger stabbed its head. Huwan stared at Jun and they nodded at the same time.

Jun whispered something to Edward, then opened his dimensional storage. He started throwing hollow blocks towards the unique carrier. Its a rectangular concrete block with hollow insides used for building internal and external walls.

The hollow blocks served as a distraction to block the unique carriers vision and to absorbed some of the unique carriers long ranged attacks. Jun also used the hollow blocks as dead weight, so he could close the gap faster.

People started diving underwater causing large splashes of water to erupt. The first thing the fishermen saw was Nik's group being held captive underwater.

Ever since the invasion of the Lakeside Marina, they learned to adapt and create strategies. The younger fishermans can swim faster than the older fishermans, so they were tasked with trapping the 'fishmen' by nets then kill them, while the old fishermen would hunt their own targets using their harpoons.

After Gilbert signaled for everyone's task, he led the charge and swam towards Nik's group. When he felt that his swimming speed was slow compared to the aquatic carriers, he used Water Stride and started propelling himself faster. He was swimming horizontally but with his feet stepping on solid water. It appeared like he was running down a flight of stairs. It was extremely quick and he arrived almost instantly beside the group.

The other fishermen saw his actions and copied him but not everyone followed him. Some followed after the two people sinking deeper into the lake. With the Water Stride boost, everyone swam and ran underwater at the same time.

Nik and the group became flustered. We could do that? Ofcourse we can! With that realization, they easily moved around underwater, but were still outswam by the carriers.

Using Water Stride underwater was never a concept to Jun or Nik's group, since the main purpose of the skill was to step on the surface of the water.

The fishermen were such innovative people indeed. Or were they just logical people? Whatever the case, the skill was greatly utilized by them.

Jun also allowed Lakeside Marina to take one energy fruit per harvest. He told them that it was a gift but he, himself, knew that it was partly compensation; a bribe.

The Lakeside Marina accepted since there was nothing for them to lose and eating the fruit could increase their max energy.

With nothing to do, and with the huge lake as the playground. The people learned the ability to run underwater. The skill clearly says that it allows the user to walk on the surface of the water. But what is the surface of the water? Does water even have sides? What is up and down? With this knowledge, they managed to rise to the occassion and help Black Haven.

The water-element carrier kept throwing 'rubber bullets' towards Jun, only to hit the sinking hollow blocks. When Jun was only 10m away from the unique carrier, it turned around and bailed, wanting to retain its distance with them.

As it turned and swam, a bright light appeared infront, causing its face hit something. A circular barrier trapped it inside.

This was Jun's plan from the start. He knew that with his swimming speed, he would never be able to catch it. But if it was trapped, then its the end.

Jun swam as quickly as he could towards the trapped unique carrier. The water-element carrier was busy clawing at the barrier, but unless it had the pure strength of a Destroyer, there was no chance that it could break the barrier.

As he got closer, the carrier gathered something on the tips of his fingers. Then he finally saw what the 'rubber bullets' actually were. On the carriers fingertips were small water bubbles the size of a marble. As if enraged seeing Jun's smug face, it waved its hands throwing the bubbles away, only to hit the barrier. 

Jun wondered why the water-element carrier he fought last time didn't use this skill. Was it weaker and could use it or is the skill exclusive underwater? In some sense, it was probably the latter.

At the same time that he arrived next to it, the barrier disappeared. Jun quickly hugged its body, still having the smug look on his face. He thought, "You're weak in melee, right? Hehe, I specialize in that."

He tangled his legs on the carriers waist and used his right hand to grabbed its neck. He felt the slippery texture of its skin, so he dugged his fingers deep inside its neck causing dark blood to flow out. A dagger from his off-hand stabbed the side of its head repeatedly, killing it.

When he confirmed that it was dead, he grabbed its neck and turned around to swim up, only to see an unconscious Edward being dragged towards the surface by several fishermen. They stood diagonally on water as they ran like going up the stairs.

Unlike Jun who didn't use any other skill besides Water Stride. Edward spent all of his on casting barriers to protect everyone. The full 360 circular barrier to trap the water-element carrier took most of his final energy and he held it for as long as he could. When he saw that Jun arrived next to it, he tried to stop the energy drain but it was too late.

Everyone safely got up on their boats and bathed under the warm sunlight. Jun climbed up the biggest boat and found Edward lied down on the aisle. On Jun's hand was a blue orb that he received after looting the dead body. It was the thing that he wanted the most but he didn't feel glad getting it.

As he watched Gilbert perform CPR on Edward, he couldn't help but feel down. He doubted himself whether he was qualified to lead people or whether his decisions even correct? Besides being strong, there was nothing else significant of him.

"What are you thinking, Mr. Reyes? Are you worried for this guy? Don't worry, I'm quite good at resuscitation. Our young ones always tend to drown when little. Hahaha!"

Gilbert saw Jun's troubled expression and tried to explain that he doesn't have to worry because he had enough expertise. He noticed that it wasn't because of that, and pondered.

"Is there something else that troubles you Mr. Reyes?" Gilbert said as he pumped Edward's chest. Afterwards he resuscitated him causing Edward to spat out water.

"Hmm, something's strange... he's still unconscious."

"That's normal, its energy backslash since he ran out of energy."

Gilbert shrugged and accepted his explanation.

A book appeared on Jun's hand and gave it to Gilbert. It was the Water Bending Manual. "Take this. I think you can use this better." When he saw Gilbert hesitating, he added, "Just take it as my gratitude for saving him. Thank you." Jun bowed to Gilbert.

The boats docked 20m away from the shoreline and dropped Jun's group off. The shore successfully defended the tides of carriers but not without casualties.

There were two main problems they encountered.

Their feet sink down on the mud and slows their reaction time and the other was that these types of carriers were slippery to the touch. Since they had to fight at close range, there were moments that the enemies get too close. If it were the regular land carriers, everything would have gone smoothly but they weren't. When they grabbed the shoulders or neck, their hands would slip causing fatal injuries since they would be hugging each other.

No deaths occurred thanks to medical personnel of different factions on standby but injuries were on the rise. Things only calmed down when Black Haven's archers came and helped ease the situation.

As everyone became relieved after seeing Black Haven's leader arrive, they were pulled back to the pits of despair.

"We've got one final wave to go through."

Jun already asked Gilbert to stay around in case the wave repeated in the south. Everyone rested near the plaza and waited for the time to come.

The five minutes were up and everyone looked up in the sky. A column of light appeared on the west. Before the people could rush there, another column of light, followed by two others appeared in the sky. The west, north, east, and south have a column of light.