118 – The Fisherman And Her Soul
= Reina =
Reina swung her staff sending a burst off fire towards an elderly looking male Bount facing her. Before the fire could reach him though his doll looking like a large stone fish dove out of the ground as if it were water and swallowed the fire whole.
"That was rather rude of you, young lady," the old male Bount said.
Reina frowned. 'Where did that fish doll come from? And what happened to my attack? It didn't seem to do anything to it...' she wondered.
The doll dove back into the ground as if it was water and started circling the elderly male Bount with its fin sticking out above the surface of the ground.
The elderly man licked his lips. “Your soul must be quite delectable,” he said.
Reina frowned. “That’s disgusting you old fart,” she said.
He frowned. "It seems I must teach you some manners first," he said.
She shook her head. "We'll just have to see about that," she said.
He knocked the tip of his cane onto the ground. "Baura, let's go!" He said.
The large fish fin appeared from the ground again circling his location before suddenly disappearing into the ground again.
Reina looked around cautiously. 'What's he up to?' She wondered.
The old Bount simply stood there wearing a self-satisfied smirk.
She noticed something out of the corner of her eye. 'Did the ground just turn darker?' She asked herself.
Upon closer inspection she noticed there was a round area around here where the ground around her was darker and it seemed to be growing.
Suddenly the fish doll, Baura's, mouth emerged from the ground surrounding her as it propelled itself from the ground like a whale from the ocean.
Due to noticing something was off she barely managed to escape from the bite using her imitation of the Quincy high-speed movement technique Hirenkyaku. She disappeared from her current position appearing a few feet outside of Baura's range.
The fish submerged itself into the ground once again upon landing.
"Ho? You're better than I expected young lady. Let me introduce ourselves. You've earned at least that much. I'm Sawatari and this is my doll. Baura," the old Bount said.
The fish-like doll reappeared next to Sawatari. "You called me out on a nice night. It feels good," a deep rumbling voice resounded from the stone fish-like doll Baura.
Reina looked surprised. "It talks?!" She exclaimed.
Sawatari frowned. "Of course he talks, you stupid girl," he chided.
She shook her head and smirked. "It won't much longer," she said while pointing her staff towards it.
'Fire didn't work. What about the other elements though?' she wondered.
Moisture from the air collected above the head of her staff and quickly froze into a giant lance of ice. She swung her staff sending it hurtling towards the side of Baura's head.
To her dismay it simply turned its head and swallowed it just like it had her flames.
Sawatari smirked. "You're just wasting your time young lady. Baura, why not have some more fun?" He said.
The fight continued with Reina dodging Baura's attacks and using the openings to fire off attacks from all the different elements she could summon.
She was sweating a little from all the running she was doing dodging the attacks. 'One wrong move and things are over. Fire, ice, lightning, earth, wind. Everything I try either just passes through it or gets swallowed though,' she thought nervously.
She tried to recall of all the details of the fight so far when her eyes suddenly widened. 'Whenever one of my attacks gets close enough to possibly hit that disgusting old man the fish never phases through my attacks, but always swallows them. That can't be a coincidence. If it phased then the attack would pass through and might hit the old man. The fact that it is swallowing all of those must mean they are a threat to the old man. He is the weak point in the equation,' she realised.
She looked at Sawatari. Her gaze hardened as she made up her mind.
They continued to go back and forward, but Reina seemed to be running out of steam. Baura's attacks were getting closer and closer as she grew more exhausted. Her attacks grew fewer and fewer with her feeble attempts at resisting.
Sawatari licked his lips. "How tasty she must be," he said to himself excitedly.
She dashed away from the two, but in her exhaustion she stumbled after dodging. A look of panic spread across her face.
Sawatari's smile widened. "We've got her. Finish her, Baura!" He said.
Baura quickly pursued after her.
She tried to crawl back from it, but it was futile.
Its gaping maw looming over her when suddenly Sawatari noticed a smirk on her lips that didn't belong there. "No!" He yelled.
It was too late though.
'Gotcha!' Reina thought.
The exhaustion seemed to have been an illusion as Reina disappeared from in front of Baura's mouth, reppearing closer to Sawatari.
Before Baura had even managed to submerge into the ground again she summoned her fastest element, lightning. Multiple bolts of lightning snaked their way towards the now completely unguarded Sawatari.
It was so fast it hit him directly in the the chest before either of them could even react to the sudden shift. The electricity coursed through his body searing his flesh. The place it had landed burnt away his clothes and charred the skin black.
"AAAHHHHHH!!!!" Sawatari let out a shrill scream.
He fell to his knees. He remained motionless, but didn't go down all the way.
"Sawatari!" Baura yelled.
It quickly swam towards Sawatari and to Reina's surprise it didn't stop, but jumped out of the ground towards Sawatari. It opened its mouth and swallowed Sawatari whole before submerging into the ground again.
'Did it eat him?' She thought in confusion.
She looked around warily, but to her surprise neither of them reappeared.