Na-Ri placed a hand just above the plunge pool, steadying her breath as cold, white mist began coiling from her palm and drifting across the surface like a faint breeze.
As she had supposed, the Migrel Sea Titan lingered somewhere far below in the depths, and so too did Kyle, dragged in by a strange and merciless force.
Yet the surface still seethed, the water crashing and bucking as if a hidden struggle for dominance was taking place.
In truth, the young man was locked in that battle. Something unseen had bound itself to his left leg, dragging him steadily down while his chest burned with each desperate gasp.
His Vitality was ebbing away with every passing second, counting down the moments to his death.
Worst of all, he could not even glimpse what had ensnared him. Below was nothing but a vast, unbroken darkness, and his eyes blazed with a mix of determination and mounting frustration.
"Get off me!" Kyle's scream carried through the depth of the pool, though the sound was muffled by the water and made worthless.
The strange pull that bound him showed no awareness of his struggle. It acted with a blind persistence, doing its work as surely as he tried to do his.
For him, danger had become constant. He had already slain two Cursed rank creatures, at times more by chance than skill. Soon after, he had been hunted through the wastes by an unnatural sandstorm.
In fleeing that, he had thrown himself into another peril. This one.
What he did not realise was that Na-Ri had also been pulled close to his place of arrival. She was working to reach him, trying to save him while keeping herself from disturbing the slumbering creature below.
The only way forward was the one she created herself.
Cold spread from her hand. Ice rose above the pool, a rigid framework suspended on ribs anchored to the stone edges.
From those points she shaped arches and spans, each section locking cleanly into the next until the bridge held its weight.
It grew outward in a widening lattice, transparent beams weaving together like glass struts, with every angle precisely calculated for strength.
The ice construction drained her Spirit Energy heavily, leaving her body wavering at intervals, yet it remained a far wiser choice than facing death head-on.
Filaments of frozen light coursed through the framework, scattering pale glimmers across the surface of the pool.
The water beneath remained undisturbed, leaving Kyle's body floating in silence below the glow.
She might have used the same technique to cross the river earlier, but the waterfall posed a far greater problem. That, along with the presence of the slumbering creature, had bound her to this path.
Above the pool, as she climbed her own creation, the sky had already begun to brighten. The air shifted in response, pressing a sense of urgency upon her.
She frowned as she reached the spot where Kyle had gone under. A faint current of hope steadied her as she eased down onto her knees, leaned forward over the edge, and pressed her hand into the cold water of the pool.
Kyle noticed something breaking through the surface of the river. It resembled a human hand, though its dark tone and the pale white patches across it convinced him otherwise.
His mind pressed on the thought that it might not be a hand at all, but a shape intended to lure him, only to kill him once he reached for it.
He had lived in constant pursuit of survival, and the same suspicion rose now, but the desperation to survive overruled it.
The reasoning seemed useless. It was better to be pulled to the surface than to die beneath the water.
On land he might still resist, but here he could not swim and could not fight.
With no pause for further thought, Kyle lifted his arm and reached for it. The hand above extended further until the two connected.
At once, Na-Ri closed her grip on him, locking the hold with her glacial skill before pulling him upward in one decisive motion.
***
As they reached the shore, Kyle collapsed onto the ground and drew in a long breath, while Na-Ri remained standing over him, the ice that had bound them already melted away by her will.
It struck him as nothing short of marvellous that the stranger could conjure the frost and dissolve it with equal ease, their command over the skill as effortless as it was precise.
Even then, he could not be sure who his saviour really was.
"…Ugh. Who are you?" His voice rasped as he blinked against the haze clouding his sight, the figure above him no clearer than if water had been poured over his eyes.
He frowned and forced his eyelids open and shut, trying to sharpen the blurred outline.
Whoever it was had not harmed him during those first few moments, and that small fact kept him from bracing for a fight.
When at last his vision steadied, the features before him fell into place.
He recognised Na-Ri, her gaze fixed on him with a silence that weighed heavily than death itself.
The shock drove him several steps back, a jolt of superstition running through him as he half-believed he was staring at her spirit, wandering back to him from the short time they had spent together.
To kill him? Or what?
'...Why would her soul be after me... Oh no, wait, what am I saying? Can a soul also save me? That's new... Oh shit, get your head together, Kyle. This is not a ghost in front of you.'
He shook his head sharply to drive the thought away, and only then did his vision clear enough to recognise that it truly was her.
"...Lee? It's really you... I guess." Kyle said with surprise in his voice, coloured by a faint trace of happiness.
She met him with a deeper frown and replied in a flat tone:
"Of course, it's me. And since I have now saved your life, we are even."
The sight of her, armoured and striking with that same indifferent voice, stirred a quiet relief in him, as if fortune had finally relented.
She was alive, and they had found one another again. He let her words about being even drift past him.
But the fragile moment broke as the sky brightened fully and a vast pull stirred within the pool.
'...What is that again... For the dead gods' sakes, leave my life alone. I never even sold you my copyright, so what the fuck...' Kyle cursed inwardly, frustration tearing at the edges of his thoughts.
A scowl instantly settled on his face, but Na-Ri remained composed as she turned sharply, her voice calm and devoid of emotion as she warned:
"Come on. You do not want to meet the grandmaster of the pool I just dragged you out of."
His gaze snapped back to her with a startled look, and without a moment's pause he pushed himself upright and broke into a run at her side.
Together, they vanished into the vast openness beyond the plunge pool's shore.