The Forgotten (Arifureta x original character)

Chapter 10: Urdea Lake

It takes some time for Zane to get used to controlling the boat, as he has very little experience paddling a boat. However, he eventually gets the hang of it and manages to cross the lake without capsizing the boat.

When he reaches the far side of the lake, Zane gets out of the boat and then pulls it to shore, so that it will not float off while he is searching the shore for any sign of a gold necklace.

Now that he is on the east side of the lake, Zane starts to wander around the shore. As he is doing this, Zane finds no signs of a gold necklace. He walks the entire shoreline without spotting the necklace. This prompts him to look further away from the lake to see if the necklace was dropped in that area.

Zane has no luck locating the necklace as he searches the eastern side of the lake shore. This is starting to make Zane be discouraged as he cannot find the necklace anywhere. At this point, the only idea he has left is that the necklace was dropped in the lake somewhere. Given that Zane knows nothing about the lake, he would rather not go swimming in it to find the necklace.

Zane stands in place to think of where else the necklace could be besides in the lake. As he is doing this, he hears a commotion going on a short distance away. This draws his attention, so he heads in the direction of the noise.

When he nears the source of the noise that he heard, Zane finds that there are five short turtle-like men in a circle. They appear to be playing a game of some kind. As he sees this Zane hears what sounds like a cat crying from the center of the circle the creatures have formed. This causes him to advance towards the group to see what is going on.

Zane eventually realizes that these turtle men have a kitten and are passing it back and forth like a ball. They are doing this by one throwing the kitten and then another hitting it with their fists to another member of the circle. They keep doing this until one of them misses and the kitten hits the ground. Then they quickly pounce on the kitten before it can get away and start the game again.

Seeing this animal abuse, Zane gets upset. He rushes at the group of turtles and shouts, "Knock that off."

This gets the attention of the turtle men. One of them turns towards Zane and then rushes at him, as if it plans to attack him. Zane quickly draws the sword that he was given, and stabs it into the turtle man's head before it reaches him. This kills the creature.

At this point, the other turtle men have thrown the kitten to the side and are now advancing towards Zane. Seeing this, Zane prepares to engage them. As the first one reaches Zane it tries to punch him. Zane dodges this punch and then kicks the legs out from under this turtle man.

Before Zane gets the chance to finish off the creature, a second turtle man reaches him. It swings its fist at Zane, which he dodges. He then thrusts the sword that he has at the midsection of the turtle man. The sword bounces harmlessly off of the shell of the creature.

A third turtle man reaches Zane at this point and bites his left arm. This prompts Zane to shake his arm to get the turtle man off. It refuses to let go, but this does cause the other turtle men to stop the attack for a second. This gives Zane the room he needs to thrust his sword into the neck of the turtle man that has bitten him, killing it.

With this comrade dead, the other turtle men grow more wary of Zane. Zane can tell that they are thinking of fleeing from him. Before they are able to do this though, Zane rushes at the nearest one and decapitates it with a swift motion of his sword. He then turns his attention to the remaining two turtle men.

At this point, these two turtle men make a break for it. They however do not move very quickly. Zane is able to easily run both of them down and kill them with blows to the head before they get anywhere near the lake that they were making a break for.