Chapter 088: A Visitor from the Deep

“Hey! Can you hear me?”

There was no reply.

“Who are you?”

Still silence.

Jess began to feel that something was wrong. Did everyone connected to this fishing village hate answering questions?

He understood the general meaning of the song. Could this woman be the old soldier's wife?

He instinctively stepped back.

If this were Earth, he would have rushed forward without hesitation to pull her away from the water. A woman sitting beside the waves and staring out at sea might be planning to kill herself.

But this was Azeroth. Things weren't so simple here.

What if she was a ghost? There really were ghosts in Azeroth.

If she turned around with a face like Kayako's, Jess would be the one getting hit by Fear.

The singing slowly died away.

Jess was sure something was wrong now. He took two steps back, then another two, deciding it was better not to get involved.

If things were already this strange, even if a murloc dragged the woman away after he left, Jess felt he'd done all he reasonably could. She was the one who refused to answer.

His instinct for survival had beaten his urge to do a good deed.

Then he saw the woman's long golden hair lift slightly, as if a sea breeze had stirred it.

But he felt no wind at all.

And the hair stayed raised. It didn't fall back down.

Goose bumps spread over Jess's entire body.

That wasn't golden hair.

Those were fins. Golden fins!

The woman slowly turned her head. Her face was stiff as a dead fish. Slick, wet skin gleamed in the moonlight. Her swollen eyes glowed with magic. A bright red tongue shot out between narrow lips and flicked in the air.

A naga!

The song wasn't a woman longing for her husband. It was magical singing meant to lure sailors to their deaths!

Jess shuddered, spun around, and ran. He scrambled up the beach toward the houses. Then he heard the naga say something behind him. The night was so quiet that her words sounded like a whisper right beside his ear.

Something like, “Anunagi...”

Jess's legs suddenly went weak. He staggered several steps, unable to hold himself up, and fell face-first into the sand.

He tried to push himself up, but his arms were so weak he couldn't even lift his chest.

Looking back, he watched the naga slowly leave the surf. Her lower body came into view, scales glittering with an eerie light beneath the moon.

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Above the waist, her bare body looked no different from a human woman's. Few human women could match the graceful curve of her waist, belly, and chest.

But Jess was in no mood to admire her now. He knew he'd been struck by a weakening spell. He could clearly feel foreign magic forcing its way into his muscles and blood vessels, interfering with his senses.

He opened his bag, grabbed the Shadow Protection Potion, pulled the cork, and swallowed a mouthful.

“Saeno! Saeno!”

The potion sent a sharp, burning sensation down his throat and through his chest. But by the time he'd swallowed again, strength was returning to his arms and legs.

The imp appeared in a flash of arcane light. Facing the approaching naga, he showed no fear at all. He wore his usual smug, arrogant expression.

“Can't handle things by yourself again, Master? Ha!” he cried, waving his hands to throw a ball of fire.

The naga hesitated at the sudden sight of the demon. She stopped sharply, her thick serpent tail whipping around and scattering sand across the wet beach.

Flames burst over her body. She hissed and muttered a spell. Water erupted from beneath her, splashing over her scales, but failed to put the fire out completely.

“Demon...” the naga growled in Common. “Get out of Azeroth.”

Instead of trying to dispel the imp's burning magic again, she began casting something else. She muttered under her breath and released a wave of void energy from her hands.

The imp, so confident moments before, suddenly panicked.

“Master! She's trying to banish me! Quick! Let me shift out of phase!”

“Can't you just leave on your own?” Jess shouted.

“I can't abandon Master and run away without permission!”

“Phase shift!”

At Jess's command, the imp vanished again in a flash of arcane light.

“Hiss!” The naga broke off her spell and immediately turned her eyes toward Jess. In that brief moment, he'd only just managed to pull the staff off his back.

Seeing that she was about to attack him, Jess turned and ran toward the houses. Her lower body was a thick snake's tail. Surely she couldn't move quickly on land. If he could get beyond her casting range and keep running, he'd survive!

The naga began another incantation. This time Jess heard it clearly.

“Anunigi, Durzala, Kana!”

It didn't sound like demonic, but Jess had no time to think about languages now.

His legs wobbled.

Damn it. Is that weakening spell working again?

But after several seconds his legs merely felt a little soft. He could still run at full speed. The Shadow Protection Potion was working.

As long as he didn't feel the warning signs of the potion wearing off, that meant her shadow magic hadn't broken through its protection. He didn't need to panic just yet.

Then, only a few seconds later, he heard an incredibly sharp chiming sound. Arcane power could make sounds like that, but he'd never heard anything so urgent or piercing.

The space behind him lit up like someone had aimed a searchlight at his back. Curious despite himself, Jess glanced over his shoulder.

A bolt of arcane energy was tearing through the air straight toward him!

Shit!

Jess leaped sideways and rolled across the ground. The arcane missile struck exactly where he'd been, exploding in a fierce flash.

Sand sprayed over his back. He scrambled up and tried to run, only for another missile to hit the ground in front of him. The blast nearly knocked him flat.

If he fell now, he was dead.

This was a mage—a powerful mage, perhaps far stronger than all the show-offs he'd seen in the Mage Quarter. Jess's heart was pounding so hard he could almost feel it against his eardrums. He pumped his arms and sprinted, no longer daring to look behind him.

Only when he reached the space between several houses did he turn around again.

The naga was gone.

Where had she gone?

Jess's gaze darted between the houses. He didn't dare keep running farther inland. What if she was already waiting ahead?

What if she knew some kind of teleportation magic? If she did, was there any way to survive?

Damn it. Nobody said there were naga here!

Why would a naga be in this place?

Had she driven the murlocs here? Was their real goal to harass Stormwind?

None of this made sense.

Jess tried to push the questions aside. Right now, killing the naga came first. Everything else could wait. He had to kill her...

He repeated the words of Fear over and over in his mind, preparing to hit her with everything he had as soon as she appeared. He recalled Marin's lessons about saving effort while casting: stay calm, concentrate...

In the dark, the surrounding houses looked like huge shadowy figures crouched around the clearing, watching the pitiful human standing alone in the middle. He was like a solitary beast in an arena, facing an enemy he couldn't see, unable to relax for even a moment.

Suddenly, a flash of arcane light appeared nearby. Jess saw the light and shadows in that direction begin to blur.

Saeno would never appear without an order. That meant the one taking shape had to be...