FLOP FLOP FLOP

As the wretched creature of your deepest, darkest nightmares slowly made its way out of the portal, the pair of warriors stared at it in stunned silence. Neither one leapt into battle to face this fearsome creature, no lighting bolts arced across the air nor metallic needles soared to pierce flesh.

They simply stared at it, unable to process what they were witnessing before them. It strode forward, unwavering as it crushed the grass beneath it with every step, either it hadn't noticed the pair standing before it or, in the more likely case, didn't care about them.

In all their greatest expectations, in all their thorough preparations they hadn't expected this creature to come strolling out. It was uncanny. It was unbelievable. It was... a fish.

Indeed, they weren't stunned out of terror at some fearsome beast, but because they simply couldn't process the fact that a fish had strolled out of the portal in front of them. A salmon, to be precise. It was simply just a normal salmon that had arms and legs stuck onto it, as if it had just learned to crawl out of the water, and had a slight hunch to it's back as it's body tried to adapt to it's new existence.

It was only 3 feet tall, with skinny arms and legs covered in the same glistening silver scales as the rest of its body, with webbed hands and flippers for feet. Clutched in one of its hands was a spear made out of bleached white bone, presumably whale or fish bone, or something similar. It didn't exactly have a tag on it telling him what it was made out of, after all.

But beyond the spear in its hands, and the fact that it even had hands to hold a spear with, it was just a fish. Nothing more, nothing less. Truly the worst kind of mermaid.

The little mermaid shuffled forward, it's flipper feet flopping against the ground with every step, as it garbled and gurgled some incomprehensible words at the baffled pair, swinging it's spear around like an orchestra conductor with every word.

It wasn't long before this lone fish was joined by others, more flipper feet flopping their way into the boundless meadow, as a small procession stepped through the portal carrying a platform atop their shoulders, flanked by a multitude of more spear armed fish people.

Lounging comfortably on that platform, on a throne made of deep red coral, was another fish with rainbow coloured scales and a little crown of bone and oyster pearls and a cloak of seaweed. A wild guess was that this was their king.

This fish king, upon seeing the armed pair of human warriors, immediately started to gurgle his own words at them. With a few gestures with his grubby little fingers, he repeatedly pointed to the pair of them and down at the ground.

When neither of them complied with whatever in the world he was saying, this fish king didn't seem to take it too pleasantly. With a snap of his fingers, a feat that Seth was actually surprised that the fish was able to do, he garbled more orders towards his procession before addressing the pair again.

The salmon guards of this glorious fish king immediately pointed their bone spears at the pair, four guards slowly approaching with... well it was actually hard to tell what emotions were in their glassy eyes, but it was doubtful that it was anything friendly, that was for sure.

With the spears pointed in their face, and the fish king barking more orders at them in a language that sounded like he was drowning, Seth had quickly grown tired of this farce. He quickly grabbed the spear that was being thrust in his face, the surprisingly weak bone shattering under his grip, before Seth casually thrust his foot forward and into the chest of the fishy royal guard.

With one kick, the guard was sent flying back, a sickening crunch echoing out as his back slammed into the carried platform. As the body slumped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, coughing up a mouthful of blood, the fish carrying the kings platform - which happened to be goldfish - stumbled from the impact and ultimately ended up dropping the platform to the ground, with some of these unfortunate goldfish being crushed underneath.

The king toppled from his throne, sprawling across the ground as he floundered, pun intended, and was quickly surrounded by more guards, who did not seem to care one bit about the goldfish being crushed or even attempting to free the ones with limbs trapped.

The entire ordeal would have been amusing, if it wasn't for the shrill screams and gargled words of panic being constantly thrown in the once tranquil meadow. It was hard not to feel anything but guilt with that going on. Seth could feel Astra's disapproving glare boring into the side of his skull, and was utterly unable to bring himself to look at her.

Thankfully, he was spared from the torturous embarrassment by some of the armed guards lunging at them with their bone crafted spears, letting the pair finally jump into action. But as they fought, it quickly became obvious that this fight was utterly one sided.

So one sided, that Seth's black blood didn't even bother to make an appearance to the party. Even when spears were thrust into his shoulder from behind, the points barely cut into his transcendent flesh and often broke on impact, as if they were trying to stab at a brick wall with all their feeble strength.

Honestly the entire time, as he slashed apart these fish people, kicked them across the tranquil meadow and stained his fist with their blood, he felt bad. It almost felt like he was a black belt MMA fighter kicking the crap out of a preschool karate class. He couldn't help but wonder if this is how the Shelled Drake felt when he encountered it, simply irritated by flies buzzing around it.

They didn't even need to use more than basic strikes, never mind the metallic needles Astra had created for them.

However, while that feeling was gnawing at him, it didn't actually stop him, nor Astra, from doing what was needed.

These tragic mermaids might not have been anything close to a threat to them at their current stage of progress, but they still would have slaughtered plenty of mortals with these spears. It was just about the greater good, even if he felt like a bully doing it.

Pulling his sword out of the last fish guards guts, Seth swiped the sword in the air to shake it clean of blood, before strolling over to the fish king with an uncomfortable and solemn expression on his face.

The king was laying on his back, desperately trying to crawl away and clearly bargaining with Seth in his gargled language, occasionally stepping on his seaweed cape as he tried desperately to get away from the horrific beasts he had mistakenly challenged. His little crown had been lost, it had most likely fallen off of his head when he tumbled from the procession throne.

However, no matter how much he begged, even if Seth could understand his words, it was doubtful that he would listen. He had people to protect, which meant doing uncomfortable things like this. His hovering sword twirled in the air, setting itself horizontal before coming down on the kings neck like the blade of a guillotine, and beheading the royal salmon like many kings before him.

As the head rolled across the ground, Seth let out a soft sigh. Indeed, he did have to do uncomfortable things, but if only it was this easy with people. He still had to deal with the spectre that was haunting him.

Kill or imprisonment, those were his options. But imprisonment was tricky. How could you guard someone who could just sneak out with their abilities? How could you know if the empty cell was really empty, or if she was tricking you?

There was ultimately some way of doing it, he was sure of it. But it was an issue he had been putting off and ignoring, treating her as some kind of harmless nuisance. Someone that he could just ignore and maybe the problem would just go away, that she would lose interest.

He was trying to ghost a stalker. Honestly he should have realised it was a bad idea from the start, but it allowed him to put off the hard decision day by day, especially as it became more and more likely that he was going to have to kill her.

Part of him had been hoping she would attack him, to make it easier, but even after all these months killing someone was not something he could do lightly. The Heart-Eater was still the only person he had killed, and he was closer to a monster than a person. So having the second person be a woman who simply knew too much?

It was a hard decision indeed, one he could not make lightly. But, speaking of decisions, Seth turned his attention to the toppled procession platform, and the goldfish people who were still struggling to free their trapped friends from beneath.

"What do we do with these guys?"