Chapter 559 Finding Freppie

Denni screamed as her hands lobbed more balls of dense energy at Keng (or at least it seemed that way.) Keng ducked, listening to the energy fly over him as the sounds of the Ywi grew loud behind him.

'Oh crap!' Keng thought.

"GRAAA!" The Ywi shrieked, recoiling backwards.

"I thought you died!" Denni shouted. She lobbed more dense energy balls at the Ywi, easily killing it. Another colorful energy ball appeared in her hand as she turned to look at Keng (who was still kneeling with his hands over his head). "And you! Yo-you're… Tails."

Denni's hands moved down as she held the balls of energy. Her eyes grew wide, understanding who was in front of her. The mermaid released the energy balls and covered her mouth.

"Oh! The other Fox Spirit! Keng! Oh my Hydran!" Denni shouted loud.

"Y-yeaaah, that's what we were saying." Keng nodded, standing up.

"Oh, Rya!" Denni turned to look at the squadron leader. Rya pulled her trident from the dead body of a Feral and turned her attention over to Denni and Keng. "You came for me! I knew you would come for me!"

"Keng can you teleport out of there with Denni?" Rya asked.

"Uhhh… Can I mark you, Leader?" Keng asked.

"Go for it." Rya nodded. She raised her hand as Keng marked it.

"Ready, Miss Denni?" Keng asked. The colorful mermaid looked up at Keng and then at Rya, who nodded at her. She nodded, throwing her arms out. Keng slipped his arm around her and then looked at Rya. "Displacement." Keng plopped next to Rya as her hand touched his back. He looked around, noticing Denni wasn't with him.

"I'm still here!" Denni shouted.

"I guess that answers that." Keng sighed. "How do we get rid of the magical barrier net thingy?"

"There should be runes somewhere around here." Rya replied. "Denni, look for barrier runes!"

"Alright, Rya!" Denni gave her a thumbs up and turned to start looking.

,m "You look on that side. I'll look on this side." Rya told Keng. Keng nodded and started looking around the right side. It didn't take Keng long to find the first one. It was underneath a drum and was masking itself to sound like a drum.

"Do I just wipe it away?" Keng asked.

"You found one?!?" Denni asked, loudly.

"Just wipe it. It'll break the barrier spell." Rya replied. Keng wiped the rune away, learning in the process its quite hard to make it disappear. Eventually, he got it to disappear and turned to watch as the prismatic film disappeared. Denni swam upwards, meeting Rya as Keng trotted back over to them.

"Why could he go back and forth like that?" Denni asked Rya. "It seems unfair that he can do that. The barrier net is supposed to keep people in."

"You couldn't see it from down there." Rya replied. "There were holes all over. Plus, I wanted to know the extent of his power."

"It can go through barriers." Keng smiled. Denni turned her attention fully onto Keng. She studied him and even moved up to him, sniffing him.

"Mmm, a second scent lingers on you." Denni commented, pulling back next to Rya. "Is it someone you know?"

'Someone I know…?' Keng thought for second.

"Oh." Keng nodded. "It's Lee Seng. My Vessel. Well, that's what others would understand him by but I prefer to call him my other half, literally." Keng giggled and Denni chuckled along. Rya let a smirk out and accessed the situation around them.

"Denni you know where your teammates went?" Rya asked.

"Oh! Yes!" Denni spun around and pointed on the other side of the arena pit. "They went that way. I stayed to trap the Ferals, but got trapped instead. They took lil' Lily away!"

"Then let's go that way." Rya motioned.

Keng took the flank, trailing after Rya and Denni. The Grove grew harder traverse. Overgrown vines and coral snaked all around them as Rya slashed them away like nothing. Keng noticed markings of fighting. Chunks of coral and trees were gone, large gaps on the floor followed by another large chunk of coral and/or tree gone. A spear left embedded in the ground next to a large hole.

Keng imagined the situation. Lily being taken away by a Feral while the others followed after her.

'The other Ferals probably chased after them, trying to stop them.' Keng thought. 'They continue that way.'

"Oh ho, It's a pirates life for me!"

"Freppie?" Keng spoke aloud.

"Huh?" Denni looked at Keng. "How do you know Freppie?"

"We were briefed." Rya replied. "You hear him?"

"His energy." Keng corrected. He lifted his arm and pointed downwards. "It's coming from below. I can barely hear it but he's below us somewhere." Rya nodded and they continued forward. They eventually came to a strange path leading downwards.

"A pirates' lifee for me yo ho!"

"Haha." Denni chuckled. "Freppie's scared. He's singing the song." Denni started down, yelling, "Freppie! Where are you!"

"Oh ho, it's a— DENNI!!!!! HELLP MEEEE! It's a pirates life for me! Im gonna be a pirate, yessireee! DENNI! HELP!" Freppie sang loudly. Keng and Rya followed Denni as she quickly swam down into the large cave. Large pieces of the path were gone as Denni looked at Freppie in the middle of a large sea of an abyss.

"Denni! HELP ME!" Freppie shouted. Freppie was a small Merman with split tails. Freppie's blue and orange scales glinted even in the dark as he wore gold armor. The small split-tailed Freppie glanced at the dark space around him. "The Leader! The Leader and the others went below! They followed after the little Fox!"

"They went all the way down there?" Rya asked. Freppie nodded, not daring to leave the small piece of ground.

"Freppie, you can swim! There's no need to be afraid of—"

"No! The Void will eat me!" Freppie shouted.

"Aiiya…" Denni shook her head.

"He's scared of the dark?" Keng asked.

"Well… He's scared of the Void." Denni shook her head, embarrassed she's even mentioning this.

"Well, I guess this is a job for Keng." Keng moved past the two women, lighting his hand up.

"LIGHT! OH SWEET LIGHT!" Freppie shouted. "SAVE ME BEHOLDER OF LIGHT! SAVE MEEE!"

Keng stepped into the darkness, lighting the space around him as he turned and pointed behind the two mermaids, leaving a Displacement Mark behind. Keng tossed balls of light into the darkness, passively gathering more information around him. Sand spilled further into the darkness where his light couldn't hit.

The walls were rigid and as Keng came closer to Freppie, who was screaming praises, Keng noticed something was wrong with this.

"Wait." Keng stopped.

"W-what? Why wait?!? Save me!" Freppie shouted, reaching out for Keng. Keng tossed a light down. Something was definitely wrong with this thing Freppie was on. "Come on, Fox Spirit! I don't want to be here anymore."

"What's wrong, Keng?" Rya asked. Keng descended lower, tossing lights as he went. The pillar was thin and a strange energy was attached to it.

"The pillar's rigged." Keng whispered. "Is that why Freppie was putting so much weight on it? The Merfolk usually hover off the ground as they swim where ever…"

"H-hey, don't do anything dumb!" Freppie shouted. Freppie's personality switched, turning more cold and "tsundere." "Just save me before anything bad happens!"

"Something bad's going to happen when I save you." Keng replied. He started to follow the energy markings. It suddenly stopped, disappearing into thin strands of energy. "What happened to this…? It just—"

It came faster than he could react to it. A barrage of bolts pierced him, releasing the rune as he slammed into the pillar.

"Idiot! I told you not to do anything too drastic!" Freppie shouted. The energy markings lit up, firing up towards Freppie as Freppie gritted his teeth. Freppie raised his hand as a magical armored claw appeared on his hand. The energy blasted at Freppie as the energy flew straight into his hand. Freppie flew upwards, spinning around as he started to sing.

Keng groaned, spinning in the middle of his lights. Bells chimed all around him, forcing the Fox Spirit to grit his teeth. Large spears flew straight for him in every direction as Keng shook off the daze.

"Displacement." Keng dropped onto the ground, lifting his hand to his stomach as Rya darted straight for Freppie.

"Freppie!" Denni shouted, tossing a energy ball. The ball grew large, arcing straight for the spears as Rya swam past it towards Freppie.

"Ahhh! I can't hold it! It's too much!" Freppie told them. "Stupid Fox! I was trying to stop that from happening! I already knew what was going to happen and you did exactly what I didn't want to happen! Now I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with the Void coming for me!"

Rya pulled her trident out and stabbed it straight into the glove. The energy pulled into her trident, lighting it up like fireworks. Rya swung the energy at the spears, watching the energy devour everything in its path.