Reverse Hero

Underwater Battle

We all quickly took off after where the Moss Hue was, and like I had expected it had laid traps along the way. I had tried to tell everyone that it was likely too late to chase after it now but we decided to run after it anyway.

Then out of nowhere, a swarm of monsters broke through the wall and we had to slow down to fight them off.

"We'll never catch up in time!" Ouka yelled as his new axe cleaved through a crab monster

"Just keep going!" Welf yelled back as he used the long sword on his back to slice through lizard men.

After a while, we finally cleared the area and everyone else realized that running after it was pointless.

"I think that is enough now," I said as everyone turned around to look at me. "We could try to keep running after it but it would be pointless, so we are changing routes. I'm going to trap it,"

"w...wait," The elf who seemed to have just woken up muttered "my comrades...They...Were still alive!" 

He tried to speak loudly but his energy was drained.

"Leave it to me, when it comes to hunter vs prey very few are skilled enough to even pose a challenge,"

Let's go over what we know, we are against an intelligent monster meaning using more complicated traps will have to work, we also learned that it hunts after magic stones and prioritizes them above all else. According to what the elf said his comrades were left alive, meaning he left fighting them to chase after the magic stones.

We also know that it is a moss hue, meaning fire will work well against it. Along with the fact that right now it believes he is the hunter...I can make something work with this.

"Everyone, listen up..." I said as I started to explain the plan

(Moss Hue POV)

'Where are they?'

I was waiting nearby having the people with the pointy ears lying by a decoy of me. They should have been following but they aren't...Something was not right, the people with seeds hadn't moved.

Ever since I saw those boy's eyes I felt off. I haven't felt like that for a long long time...I hated that feeling, and so I will chase them down if I have to.

If they aren't chasing me then they are running away to get people to treat the seed. They had likely left them there since they would be too heavy to carry around so they also probably left a guard or two.

I ran in the direction I came in and backpedaled to where I had previously met them.

It took a while but I had made it there. No one was to be seen except for the two bodies that had the seeds in them, the only thing other than that, that I found was a trail of Monster Crystals. 

'Trick,'

I knew it, he was likely trying to do what I did. Trapping the prey to kill them.

I looked around and no one was in sight, the boy was likely at the end of the crystals that led into darkness.

I started to fire my seeds into the darkness, hoping to hear the sound of someone getting impaled but I never heard it, only the sound of projectiles hitting stones.

I then quickly decided to run back, I didn't know what the trap was so it was better to run away than to get caught in it.

I ran back to where the pointy ear people should have been but they were gone.

I looked around and I thought I saw someone jump into the river that was right next to it.

I ran over and dipped my head under the water to see what it was. Only then was I met with an indescribable pain in my back.

"AUGHHHHHHHHHHH!" 

(Bell POV)

I quickly slashed down a magic sword Welf had made that turned the moss hue's whole back into flames.

The plan was simple, since I had made sure to re-memorize the whole water levels before I came here I knew where he was likely to go and it was a huge interconnecting tunnel. Using that information I had Chigusa and the Elf stay in the room where we were to lure the Moss Hue there. I had left Mikoto, Ouka, and Haruhime back there but I told them to stay well hidden behind cover. This was just a backup measure in case the Moss Hue decided to attack the injured there.

I knew he would go back since the seeds were a part of his body so it would make sense he could track them down.

In the cave I laid down crystals that acted as an obvious trap, knowing this he ran back to where the elves should have been, but everyone else had already taken them, to safety and left, leaving me alone with the Moss Hue.

I threw one of the Elvs legs into the water that could no longer be healed. I had asked Lily who led the group that took care of the elves to leave any body parts behind if there were any to use as bait if they could not be healed.

He saw the leg and assumed someone had jumped into the water.

That had led to the fire that was now consuming him.

I quickly swapped magic swords and coated the whole entire river in thick ice right as he tried to jump in it, making him crash onto the ice.

I quickly then swapped to my Hestia knife and stabbed right in the middle of the chest crushing the magic crystal...Except that his eyes had not burned out.

'His crystals not there?!'

I quickly jumped back but he grabbed my ankle and threw me across to another river that had not been covered in ice, he jumped in after me extinguishing the flames.

I was surprised, but it wouldn't change anything. Gramps had made me go through water lessons as a kid and told me that the average person could hold their breath for only around 3-5 minutes, however, I had trained to hold it for 9 minutes at most. That was also before I got my flana so now I could hold it for even longer.

And while it hadn't been the exact situation I imagined I had thought of something similar, what if by chance he jumped into the water before I could get the ice covering off. Then I would jump in after him since I would have one overwhelming advantage.

How dark it was underwater. 

The river current swept us away and the entrance we took to get in the river was quickly covered by rocks, but the Moss Hue who was without a doubt a better swimmer than I was had charged at me, gliding almost effortlessly, then a root wrapped around my leg.

He looked at my face to see my reaction only to see a cocky smile with bloodshot eyes from having them opened in the water.

Shadow spikes then pierced him from all around. Every single corner of his body was poked with a hole that went right through him. 

He didn't even have time to scream before he started turning to ash. I had managed to crush his stone

my body was still caught in the current but I had plenty of time before I was going out of breath, I would either wait for an opening in the water or I would use shadow spikes again to catch my fall at the end of the river.

I waited for around 30 seconds when I saw the end of the river, it went down as I had anticipated.

I was thrown out and started breathing again. I then threw my knife against the cliff the waterfall was coming from and quickly made a shadow come from the knife that extended straight down like an icicle.

I grabbed onto the shadow and reached for my other knife and started descending the cliff. I grabbed my Hestia knife again using both knives as arm holds as I went down.

When I reached the bottom I looked around but didn't immediately know where I was. I did know the floor layouts but they had a lot of similar areas so without knowing what floor I was on it was pointless to assume where I was.

I quickly cracked my neck as I was about to start walking when I heard a song from behind me, I turned around to see a mermaid.

I put my hand on my knife when I realized she looked a little too human.

"Hello! Are you lost?"

'Ah, a new Xenos,'