Unspeakable Secrets The Alchemist Series (A Dark Medieval Progression Fantasy)

Chapter 69 Swimming

Connor felt like a toy being sloshed around by a god as he struggled to make progress in the storm.

Driving rain stung his exposed skin as the wind whipped at him with a piercing chill that stabbed into his bones. The frigid water drained the heat from his body faster than he could produce it despite his furious swimming through the rough seas.

He felt as though they were making no progress and merely being battered around by the enormous waves, but when he glanced back at the ship, it got smaller and smaller in the distance.

He shivered uncontrollably, gasping for air between strokes and massive waves that lifted him high above the ocean's surface before bringing him crashing back down in a salty spray that washed over him and sent him swirling beneath the water for a moment before bursting back out.

He tried his best to work with the waves rather than fight them as he followed Adelia's dark form. When flashes of lightning allowed him to see her.

Even with his potion, it was difficult to see much of anything in the oppressively dark ocean without it.

He consulted his compass every so often, blinking away the stinging saltwater in his eyes as he peered at it in the bright, searing flashes that flickered and arced overhead.

The cold leached feeling from his hands and feet and his shivering intensified as he fell further and further behind Adelia.

This was a terrible idea. Swimming through frigid water in the middle of a storm? What the hells was I thinking? Connor thought bitterly as he felt his joints stiffening and the cold creeping deeper into his body.

Better this than the Syndicate's slave. That's what, Connor thought back as he argued with himself.

Doubts grew in his mind. As did fears of what may happen. Of how his body would continue to grow colder... to slow... until he fell beneath the waves and Dominus claimed his soul.

But Victor had trained him well and Connor focused his mind as best he could on simply pushing forward. There was nothing else to do and allowing himself to be overcome with doubt and fear would do nothing to help. It would only ensure his death came sooner.

So, he concentrated on each stroke and on surging onward, trying to warm his body with sheer effort. But, if it helped, he didn't notice.

He considered calling to Adelia for help. She had magic after all and hellfire. But, he dismissed that thought.

It wouldn't help keep him warm. It would only serve as a light source to attract more denizens of the deep to rip them apart and burn his flesh and soul in equal measure while leaving the parts of him furthest from the flames ice cold.

He needed clothing suited to water or some kind of warmth enchantment. He didn't have the former and the latter didn't seem like something Adelia's dark magic would be capable of.

Lightning flashed across the clouds, and he saw no sign of Adelia. Though that had happened many times before as she'd been hidden by one of the massive waves.

Still, part of him wondered if she'd left him. Perhaps she'd grown tired of slowing her pace as the cold seeped into him and he struggled to keep up.

He had no doubt it didn't affect her half-demon body nearly as badly as his own and even injured, her raw strength would allow her to make incredible progress.

Especially with the way her tail seemed so effective at pushing her through the water.

Connor's spine prickled and he suddenly had the distinct feeling of something moving toward him beneath the waves. Though he could barely even see in the darkness.