Asher gaped at the unexpected sight as the woman held on for dear life atop the sea serpent's head. One moment he'd been walking through a quiet city street, and the next, the city simply came to an end, revealing the ongoing battle only a few hundred feet away. Upon closer look, there were a good few dozen warriors surrounding the two combatants, all of them either standing on the water with weapons at the ready, or treading water with their heads above the surface. None of them seemed particularly worried, which meant the woman had to be a reasonably strong warrior.

As if proving his assumption, the woman ripped her harpoon out of the serpent's head before slamming it down once more even deeper into its thick skull. The serpent let out a loud screech as it bucked and tried to dislodge her, but the woman merely roared as she held on, riding the serpent like a cowboy at a rodeo.

Asher had just enough time to wonder why the beast wasn't trying to submerge and lose her in the water before it attempted to do just that. Rather than escaping, however, its head bounced off the surface of the water as if it had slammed its jaw down on solid ground.

Some sort of skill that forces her opponents to breach the surface, he realized, almost feeling bad for the large serpent as it desperately and unnaturally thrashed about above the water. Despite the serpent's massive bulk and clearly powerful body, it was quite literally a fish out of water, and the woman finally managed to take it down with a few more well-placed stabs from her harpoon as she rode its bucking frame. The battle was far enough away that he could barely make out the glowing sphere of shards that formed over the serpent, indicating the serpent had in fact been a monster rather than some regular deep-sea animal of this world.

A sudden chill swept through him as he realized Samantha and Brian were about to practice swimming in the same body of water that had produced that, and he had to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down. While she was a character, Mags wasn't an idiot, and he found it hard to believe she would do anything to risk endangering anyone visiting the city. Her job was literally to keep tourists safe and entertained, after all, so he'd just have to trust in the woman to make sure nothing came for the two of them while they were in the water.

Even so, he was glad he'd purchased a Potion of Water Breathing back in Dormaul. If he picked up on even the slightest bit of harm through either of their Eternal Marks, he was downing that potion and Recalling to their position without hesitation.

Curious, he watched as the dozens of other warriors finally got to work, securing ropes to the serpent's body as they began dragging it all the way back to the city. From what he'd learned in his time on this world, people couldn't really eat monsters, but they would certainly use whatever parts of them they could salvage. In fact, now that he got a closer look, the very skin of the serpent looked awfully similar to the same tight, wetsuit-like clothing most of the people wandering the city wore.

Honestly, that might not be a bad pick up, he thought, eyeing up the serpent's body as it approached the edge of the city. Besides the material's unique properties that made water all but fall off it, it looked both flexible and durable. Seeing as he valued mobility over anything truly resembling armor, he'd have to check in and see if that sea serpent skin was more durable than the leather armor he was currently wearing.

There was also just the fact of the matter that wearing clothing that came from a giant sea serpent monster sounded awesome.

As he watched, the woman who had slain the serpent finally hopped off its head, vanishing into the water without so much as a ripple.

Damn, I'm pretty sure that was one of the nobles I wanted to chat with. I wonder-

Asher jerked back as the woman leapt out of the water directly in front of him, somehow having travelled the distance between them in a split second. By reflex, he slashed out with his dagger, staring at his own hand in horror as his blade went to gut the poor noble. To both his surprise and relief, the woman seemed to flow around his attack, avoiding the blade entirely as she moved like the world's most graceful dancer and ending up on the other side of him.

"Wow, those are some good instincts!" she snorted, placing her harpoon behind her head and resting her hands over it like a bored baseball player would with a bat. "Though you might need to turn it down a notch before you end up killing someone."

"Sorry… You caught me by surprise," Asher admitted, clearing his throat as he put his dagger away. Now that she was right in front of him, his theory was confirmed as he spotted the crest of what ironically looked like a giant sea serpent curled up around itself to form a circle. The noblewoman before him looked to be a few years older than he was, and she definitely moved like a trained warrior. "Are you with the Malrron family?"

"Yep," she nodded, continuing to give him a curious look. "Sefta Malrron. But I'm nobody important. My Uncle is the family head. I'm like, seventeenth in line to take over should something happen? Assuming the man's wife doesn't pop out any more children in the near future."

Sefta spoke as though she didn't really care all that much about the line of succession, and Asher finally had to ask about the strange look she was giving him.

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"Why are you staring at me like that?" he asked, resisting the urge to take a step back, and not just because doing so would result in him falling into the water. He had to admit, that tiny, battle-loving part of him hoped she was here to start something, as after seeing how well she moved, he wanted to try pitting his own hand against hers. He had to remind himself that she was hopefully the key to finding the Guild hidden away within this floating city.

"Predator of the Depths," she said bluntly, nodding toward him. "I can sense how dangerous a person or monster is just by looking at them. Imagine my surprise when, while I'm busy taking down another one of these pesky serpents, I spot a man standing by the edge of the city that looks like a raging current of death waiting to suck down and destroy anything that gets near him."

"And your first instinct was to try surprising him?" Asher drawled, realizing this woman might be even more battle-addicted than he was. He might have done something like that back before he knew how dangerous this world was, but he'd been through the crucible at this point. There was a big difference between cautiously playing with fire and purposefully throwing oneself into a raging inferno.

"Yep!" she grinned, sending a shiver down his spine as he realized her teeth were serrated, like a shark's.

She either has a passive skill, or she's in the Stage of Bleed, he realized with a start. Leighann and Gran had had noticeably physical alterations from their elements, but he'd yet to meet anyone close to his own age with them.

"Anyway, I answered your question, now you answer mine," she said, swinging her harpoon around and pointing it at him. "Why were you watching me work, and why is my skill telling me if I mess with you it will be the last thing I ever do?"

"Actually, I think I can answer both of those at the same time," he admitted, glancing around. Their little conversation had attracted quite a lot of attention in the brief time Sefta and he had been talking, and while he could always throw up a noise-cancelling Spatial Lock, he preferred not revealing his skills if he didn't have to. "Do you have somewhere safe where we can talk?"

"You think I'm really just going to invite a dangerous stranger right into my home?" Sefta asked, raising an eyebrow. Asher stared at her for a moment, focusing on her aura. Sefta was surrounded by a dark blue whirlpool of thrumming energy, and he could literally feel the love and excitement she got from battle. If it weren't for what looked like anchor chains that he was pretty certain represented the rules and expectations of her noble family holding her back, he had a bad feeling she'd be even worse than Moxy.

"…Yeah, I have a pretty good feeling you are," he admitted.

"Right you are!" she grinned, licking her serrated teeth as though hoping he'd try attacking her again so she could take a bite out of him without getting in trouble. "Follow me."

He quickly learned Sefta was not the type to care about things such as social norms or what others thought as she took off all but sprinting across the city-fragment they were currently on. Cursing, Asher ran after her, quickly coming to the unpleasant realization that she was definitely faster than he was.

Need to start incorporating basic stuff like running and working out into my daily routine, he thought with a grunt, already hating himself for coming to the conclusion. With Asher not willing to risk using Distortion in full view of everyone in broad daylight, Sefta was forced to continue stopping every so often to wait for him to catch up. Every time she did, she slung her harpoon over the back of her head again, watching him with amused eyes as if she took no end of pleasure watching him suffer from cardio.

Finally, after what had to be nearly twenty minutes of agony, they made it to their destination. It took everything Asher had not to double over and start wheezing, and he followed Sefta into a modest building that was far from what he'd been expecting to find. Despite having heard how the Malrron family was about as different from the other nobles as could be, he was still shocked to discover how quaint and downright reasonable her home was. Even all but exiled from the fourth ring, Draken had turned his new home within Whikoga's second ring into a luxurious manor.

"This is your home?" he asked as he caught his breath, wondering if she was messing with him. "It's a lot different than the other noble estates I've been in."

"Oh? You make a habit of visiting nobles, huh?" she asked, placing her harpoon on a hook by the door before starting to make tea. "How many have you been in exactly?"

"Only one or two," he said noncommittedly, looking around at the unique architecture. It seemed Poltar preferred round shapes rather than stark corners for whatever reason, as the room they were in was actually a large oval. Other than some comfortable furniture and a loaded pantry, Sefta's living room was rather bare. She had a dartboard on one wall with a few darts that looked like miniaturized tridents having fallen in front of it, and a trio of knives lying on a small end table, but other than that, the room was spotless. As if nobody actually lived there. "I guess it's just strange seeing nobles without staff working under them."

"What, cleaners and crap?" Sefta snorted, grabbing what looked like a string of fish sticks hanging up over her stove and tossing them on a plate. "Not really our style. Also, don't get the wrong idea. While any member of my family would be the first one to leap into the water and tackle a sea serpent in order to help the city, I'm probably the only one stupid enough to antagonize a mysterious and powerful stranger. You could say I'm the dull-scaled fish of our family."

No kidding, he thought, watching her prepare herself a snack with her back completely turned toward him. He had no doubt she was fully capable of reacting to an attack from behind without even looking, but the sheer lack of concern she was showing was astonishing.

"Anyway, you wanted somewhere we could chat without eavesdroppers," she said, pouring them both some tea and bringing it all over to him. Kicking the three knives off the end table, she put the food down and took her own seat, immediately digging into one of the fish sticks. "Here we are. So, what's up? Please tell me you're a bounty hunter or something and you need help tracking down a dangerous criminal."

"Something like that," he admitted, deciding Sefta was crazy enough to just come straight out with it. "I'm planning on eradicating the Assassin's Guild hidden in Poltar, and I want your help to do it."

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