More than once did Orpheus get a jump scare episode, especially with big tides. His heart had already left his chest to his mouth and sat there, ready to take off in panic at any moment of danger.
But another thing he was very much afraid off, was anything happening to the raft. To him, that would be the greatest loss he would have ever incurred in his sixteen years of living, and probably the last before he lost his life and was fed to the fish.
It was already surprising that the old man had leased the raft to him in the first place. Coupled with the fact that he did repeatedly warn him about damage to the raft, perhaps his own way of, saying not to go.
Any other day, Orpheus would have turned back and waited for morning, but not today. He needed the mission rewards for one, but more importantly, at Kee to him, she needed him.
The only girl and person Orpheus was perhaps real to. Just like him, her talent was weak, her background was nonexistent, and she too was ostracized.
However, oddly enough, she was poisoned. He did not know who did it, and in a way, he believed he was actually the target, and she just happened to be an unfortunate victim.
As for why he thought that way, he could only sum it up as a hunch. But there was a certain credibility to it.
Unlike him who had bad blood with a lot of the more talented apprentice witchers in the academy, always getting into fights... always putting himself in a position to be beat up, she steered clear of them when she could, and was only ostracized because she was weak.
If any of them should have an enemy that would come after their lives, then it should be him.
While he felt it was his fault, he also felt guilty for not noticing it either. The poison used, was a popular poison from a rare serpent, meant to cause as much suffering as one could imagine, before finally finishing the person off.
The last three days, would be especially gruesome for the victim, as the pain would be on another level. Unfortunately, by tomorrow, Ava would have only four more days to live.
He should have noticed the whole thing earlier, if he really paid her half as much attention as she did him, he would have noticed it.
Infact, he had indeed noticed that she was not fine, his sharp mind was enough to pick that up from the very first day, but there was a huge difference between noticing, and paying attention.
When he noticed she was not fine, her expression contorting slightly in unease and discomfort, he had easily passed it as perhaps her just being in that time of the month.
Even after it continued for more than three days, of it getting increasingly worse. He finally paid attention to her, and discovered something was terribly wrong. After testing her, he knew she was poisoned, and the poison had already eaten deep into her immune system.
As a rare venom, is antidote was likewise rare, and easily expensive. There were some in the academy, which if he burnt his entire money, he could afford, but they were useless.
What those antidotes could do, was denature the poison, and power the immune system and antibodies to fight and expunge the venom itself. Such a thing would have only worked, if her immune system, was not already almost destroyed completely.
Ava was not only untalented, her physique was also weak. For someone who used malefic energy, she was really weak, even when judged by the spectrum of normal human beings. For a venom strong enough to take out first circle witchers, it was like a toxin bomb, going off in her system.
Not only was she not a first circle witcher, she also didn't have the strong body that was a guarantee of having malefic energy course through you. Since the venom met no strong resistance, it had basically eaten through her, all the while causing as much pain and discomfort as it could.
She wouldn't even have survived the seven days it usually took for the venom to kill, if he had not discovered it and gotten her the available antidote.
Since it was already late, it couldn't save her, but that didn't mean it was useless either. What it could do, was act as a suppressant, and do the work of her immune system, by fighting a losing battle against it.
It would keep her alive, while he gathered materials, to concoct the cure. He already had some materials, which he was only able to afford, after blowing through their savings combined.
As a person with a deep knowledge of alchemy, it was really pathetic that he was this poor, but what was the essence of the knowledge if you were too weak to brew needed potions, and concoct needed pills.
Knowledge did indeed have its own perks, like finding where the last two, needed materials were, of which one ironically, was the venom sac of the same serpent.
Orpheus sighed as he paddled, looking up to the stormy sky with his sweaty face. The rain had already began to drop slowly from the sky, and it was still unknown if he'd be able to make it, before the heavens unleashed their fury.
Infact, for her sake, he had to. Plus he had the old man's raft to worry about.
Should anything happen to the raft, then his life was fucked. It was as good as getting on the old man's bad side, a result that was guaranteed to happen, only that in this case, there was nothing good about it.
Just as he had that thought, the surrounding considerably darkened, causing him to snap out of it.
His face immediately paled.
Heading towards him, was a massive tide, and there was frankly, no way to avoid it.
He wasn't a water Witcher to say he could pull of a hail Mary by using his pitiful talent and equally pitiful amount of malefic energy to rapidly control the boat to minimize the impact.
Something that was odd, for a person who carried a water gourd with him all day. The only difference was that his water gourd was filled with sand instead, as that was his affinity.
There was no surviving the tide.
BOOM!
The raft exploded from beneath, the force throwing Orpheus thousands of meters into the air, and the tide wasn't even close yet.
In his former place, a massive, black tentacle fell back into the water, and a roar that caused the sea to explode, resounded through the surrounding region.
ROOAAARRRR!!!
Orpheus felt his ear rupture, as he slammed unceremoniously against the raging water, completely knocked out.