Chapter 87: Chapter 75: Terror on Navy Avenue

At that moment, Flora Bloom was completely submerged in the river within her space. Around her, ten sauries swam in circles.

Her chest, pierced through just a second ago, and the two bloody holes in her face were now slowly mending.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes passed.

Flora’s body showed no external signs of injury, and she slowly opened her eyes.

’Whew, that was close. If I’d been a second later, I’d be a goner for sure.’

In the moments between being pierced by the sauries and flashing into her spatial river, she had distinctly felt her Life Force rapidly drain away, only to slowly return.

’The creatures of the apocalypse really can’t be underestimated. Even though I have a river made of spiritual water in my space, if my Life Force drains too quickly or I’m already dead, the spiritual water is useless, no matter how magical it is.’

She casually grabbed one of the sauries circling her to observe it.

The silvery saury, longer than her arm, had been forcibly imprinted by the space and was now incredibly docile in her hands.

The number of marine organisms was immense, so one would think evolution would be more difficult for them. Although the evolved saury didn’t possess the same super-intelligence as Vert and Bai, she could still communicate with it simply through their mental link.

’Their attack power is truly terrifying.’

Sauries were originally saltwater creatures, but for some reason—perhaps due to their post-apocalyptic evolution—they could swim about happily in her river, showing no signs of discomfort.

"Ah, crap! Mom and Dad are still outside!"

Flora Bloom slapped her forehead and immediately left her space, only to see a dozen or so sauries aimlessly ramming themselves into the earthen wall she and Ethan Monroe had just erected.

The earthen wall, built with both Water and Earth Elements, was exceptionally resilient. Even after being pierced with several holes, it was actually able to slowly recover.

Flora’s appearance didn’t attract the attention of the saury swarm; they remained focused on the wall as their target. It seemed that without the ten enormous sauries, the attack power of these smaller ones wasn’t as explosive as before.

At this point, only Ethan Monroe was left, continuously pouring his superpower into the earthen wall to maintain it.

When the group saw Flora suddenly appear out of thin air, they stared blankly for a moment before their expressions turned to joyous surprise.

"Flora! Flora, are you okay?!" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Jade pried herself from Caleb Bloom’s grasp, threw open the car door, and rushed over to hug Flora.

"Oh, my dear Flora, let Mom get a good look at you. Where are you hurt?"

Jade inspected Flora from head to toe. Finding her standing there completely unharmed, save for a few holes in her clothes, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. Yet, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably, as if releasing all the pressure and terror the apocalypse had inflicted upon her.

"Mom, I’m here now. Please don’t cry."

Flora gently patted her mother’s back, comforting the woman who had been terrified by her sudden disappearance.

"Mom, drink some water. We’ll take care of these fish and then get back on the road."

Flora took out some spiritual water from her space and gave it to her mother to drink. Having been nourished by the spiritual water for several days, her mother looked even younger than before the apocalypse; even the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes had faded significantly. Her hands, once rough from farm and housework, had also become smooth.

"Hey, boss lady, these damn fish ramming the wall isn’t gonna hold forever! My superpower is about to run out. You’ve gotta think of something!"

Ethan Monroe’s shout made Flora realize he was covered in a cold sweat, his face pale; he wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. Then, inspiration struck. A massive saury, longer than her arm, appeared in her hand.

"Time to make up for what you did. Get your lackeys to stop. Go on."

The appearance of the huge, silvery saury made Jade jump back several steps in fright.

Flora tossed the fish toward the swirling ball of sauries behind them. As she watched it burrow into the sphere, a hint of expectation appeared on her face.

The giant, silvery saury returned to the sphere formed by the swarm, vibrating its scales as if issuing a command.

Instantly, the dozen or so fish that had been fiercely ramming the earthen wall heard the sound, leaped into the air, and returned to the ball of fish.

No longer under attack, the wall reverted to a translucent barrier of intermingled deep blue and earthy yellow, looking much like an antique piece of colored glaze.

Ethan Monroe breathed a sigh of relief and withdrew all of his Earth Element superpower, collapsing into the back seat of the car and gasping for air.

After recalling her Water Ability, Flora Bloom looked toward the massive sphere behind them.

The massive sphere began to flow and break apart. The sauries inside, of all different sizes, were simply innumerable. Only the largest saury floated above the swarm, as if directing the school on its way.

The vast school of fish, like a silvery halo strolling through the air, actually started drifting toward Flora Bloom.

Seeing this, Jade grabbed Flora and tried to pull her back to the car. The people inside the car also watched Flora with nervous faces. Neal Wallace had already gotten out and was standing by Flora’s side, flames burning in his hands, ready to attack at a moment’s notice, terrified she was in danger.

Flora had originally planned to take back the giant saury, but looking at the massive school of various-sized sauries swimming right up to her, her scalp tingled with fear.

If the giant saury in her mental link wasn’t communicating with her in such a fawning manner, she would have been tempted to hide in her space again.

After all, she only had a mental link with this one giant saury; the smaller ones were not under her control. If they went crazy and swarmed to attack her again, she might not even leave behind a speck of flesh.

’Master, Master, these are my little brothers. Why don’t you take them all in?’

Understanding the meaning from the mental link, Flora wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and slowly extended her hand into the school of sauries.

The cold, slimy feeling on her hand made Flora shudder and break out in goosebumps.

"Store."

Flora didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until the entire school of sauries vanished into thin air. Then she chugged a bottle of spiritual water to calm her nerves.

The large school of sauries began swimming happily in the river of her space. Flora discovered with surprise that these smaller sauries had no intelligence at all; they were just much larger than their pre-evolution counterparts.

Looking at the plump bodies of the small sauries swimming in schools in her river, Flora could also tell, with the help of her space, that after evolving, these sauries weren’t as bony as they used to be.

’I wonder how they’d taste cooked?’

But the moment she remembered that these fish attacked living things mainly by slicing off their flesh, Flora shook her head in disgust and abandoned the nauseating idea.

’Maybe in the future, I’ll find some other delicious types of fish to raise in my space. It would add some color and also satisfy my cravings.’

Flora had her mother, Jade, get back in the car, while she herself walked to the guardrail. She had gotten some information from her communication with the ten giant sauries.

The shallows around this Navy Avenue were basically a saury nest. Besides their own school, which was led by ten giant sauries, there was another saury school, also led by ten of them, closer to the entrance of the Azuregard City military base.

Although that school of sauries was more numerous than theirs, its ten leaders weren’t as powerful.

After just a short time in her space, the scales of the ten giant sauries were now purer and more lustrous than before, and the spikes on their heads seemed to have grown by several centimeters.

Flora tossed the ten sauries back into the shallow sea, a profound glint in her eyes. She watched as the ten giant sauries took the lead of their school in the surrounding shallows and set off toward the other saury school’s gathering place near Azuregard City.