The Bored Immortal

The two sirens were still in the water tanks, trapped and unable to even get out. Apparently, whoever made those water tanks made them for the purpose of trapping sirens like fish even though they looked like ordinary water tanks.

However, they were staying unnaturally silent while warily shooting glances at this ripped rabbitman before looking at the rabbitwoman with a pleading expression.

Seraphina felt bad for these two and turned to look at Viktor as she tugged at his sleeves, "Azu…can you free them…please?"

Viktor didn't forget about these half fish, half human beauties, but he didn't do anything yet since he had no idea if it was okay to free them. Even if he didn't trust everything, Brono said, whatever he said about the sirens didn't seem like lies, especially about how deadly they could be.

So he had to ask as he narrowed his eyes, "You sure it's okay to free them?"

Seraphina nodded slowly, "We don't know what is really going on, but I feel that it's okay to free them."

Viktor trusted Seraphina's intuition since she inherently could feel the darkness and light in others. If these sirens had any malicious intentions, she would have warned him, at least.

"Well, alright…" Viktor walked towards the two water tanks while the two sirens unconsciously moved back, wondering what he was going to do.

Since they were inside the special water tanks, they were unable to hear any sounds from outside. Even if someone were speaking out loud on the outside, it would, at best, sound muffled.

Viktor placed his hands on the water tanks, one on each, before raising them high to smash down on them with his powerful fists.

"Nghh!" Viktor grunted as he flexed his muscles and smashed at the glass.

*Crack!*

Despite smashing down on them with all his strength, it only created a few slight cracks, and even that seemed surprising to the two sirens inside, who looked at those cracks with widened eyes.

They knew how tough the glass was since they had already desperately tried to break through them.

"Shit…how tough can this glass be…Nngh!" Viktor clicked his tongue in frustration as he brought down his fists at it again and again to break them, but even then, the cracks were too light to break any time soon.

"Try to focus the odic force inside you towards your palms. Guide it like a child, and it will listen to you. Simply ordering more strength from yourself will only make it act willfully and scatter itself throughout your body," Seraphina said in a feathery voice as she walked up to him and placed her hand on his back.ᴘᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ

Viktor raised one of his brows, processing what she just said, and closed his eyes.

He could sense that the profound, mysterious energy inside him was scattered all over his body. So just like Seraphina advised, he guided most of this energy towards his fists as he opened his eyes to try smashing the water tanks again.

*Crlsshhh!*

This time to his surprise, the two water tanks immediately were smashed into pieces as all the water inside gushed out while the two sirens fell to the ground, their fins twitching around on the ground just like a fish out of water.

However, their fins magically began to transform into a slender pair of pretty legs. And before Viktor could even say anything, they suddenly grabbed each other's hands and began to run away in the opposite direction…right towards the Lulling River.

"Hey!? Not even a word of thanks to the knight who saved you two? Wow…they really are a thankful bunch," Viktor chuckled with a shake of his head. But he was now even more curious about them, wondering what their deal with the adventurers was. He already saw how they seemed very caring and affectionate towards each other, which meant that they valued some kind of love at least. 

"They were just scared of you. They seem to have gone through a lot based on what recently happened," Seraphina said in a sympathetic voice.

Viktor still was confused about something as he asked, "What kind of creatures are they exactly? Are they the same as mermaids because I have heard of them as well…based on the books in my world."

Seraphina corrected the hood of her cloak as she said, "Mermaids and Sirens are sister races. One of the races feeds on flesh and blood, while the other needs only fruits or plants. But in the long past, the sirens had gone out of control and fed on some important people causing them to be banished to this realm. If they visit any majority of the other realms, they would be seen as an illegal race and might suffer a worse fate. That is why none of them can ever leave this realm."

"Oh…seems like they indeed have it rough. But I still feel something fishy about these dumb adventurers purposefully going near the Lulling River to die despite knowing that the river is infested with such dangerous beauties. I mean, if the adventurers were immortal like me, it would still make sense, but…I am concerned about what Brono said…that some higher-ups personally groomed him and his party for this mission. They even gave them that magical flute, the earplugs, and these water tanks. It was like these 'higher-ups' knew how exactly to deal with the sirens."

Seraphina also narrowed their eyes, feeling that something indeed was going on behind the scenes.

"Anyway, leave it. We do not have to be bothered by it as long as we get what we came for," Viktor said as he grabbed the bag containing the head of the Goblin King and began to walk along with Seraphina in the direction they came.

Since Viktor was good at following tracks, especially his own, he had no problems avoiding getting lost, and using his sharp senses, he was also able to avoid any creatures wandering in the forest.

But right before they were about to come out of the Blackmere Forest…

"Hold it! Don't take another step!" A stern, gruff voice sounded from the voice, along with the sound of several footsteps surrounding Viktor and Seraphina.