Sora Brontarion
The creature coiled through the swamp towards Nerena and me while Voen took out a tool to carve the bottom of the world tree.
The water was up to my waist. I knew my speed would be affected in this situation, but I had to hold out while Nerena maintained a bubble shaped like the tube she created for Voen to breathe underwater as he excavated.
My last attack didn't have much of an effect on this creature, and I couldn't use the water to my advantage now that Voen and Nerena were here in the swamp with me.
I looked down at my hands. They were swollen, the skin stretched tight as though they had been inflated from within. Then a deep, guttural bellow rumbled, causing bubbles to burst on the water's surface.
"Sora, be careful; that creature is using infrasounds in the water; it might be calling more of its kin," Voen said, popping his head above the waterline.
Just my luck.
"How much more time do you need?"
"Two to three minutes left; it's hard, my hands are also in bad shape," Voen said before diving back into the swamp with the bubble air tube Nerena had created.
The creature's bellows grew louder as it closed in within thirty feet. I wasn't about to wait for it to make the first move.
I imbued my legs with cosmic energy and crouched deeper in the water, my legs coiling, ready to spring at the right moment.
The creature's glowing eyes vanished under the water, and I torpedoed myself in that direction.
I crashed into the beast. Its hide was hard and uneven, like a cobblestone road, while its head was long and narrow. I tried to wrap my swollen, blistered hands around its head, but its slick skin slipped through my grip as it began barreling through the water, rolling violently.
Water flooded my nostrils as my world spun, dismantling my sense of space. I knew I couldn't let go; I had to give Voen enough time.
Then I heard that same low bellow beneath the water. But it wasn't coming from the creature I was fighting.
It came from somewhere behind me.
Then another answered.
And another.
Voen needs to hurry!
I dug my feet into the muddy floor of the swamp, planting myself to stop the violent rotation. Then I channeled as much cosmic energy as I could muster through my upper body and hoisted the behemoth out of the water.
With its head partially out of the water, I saw its razor teeth and its glowing white eyes.
I stared at it for a long moment, its eyes seeming to weep, as it tried to budge from my grip.
Lies.
I slid my grip slowly down its snout and placed pudgy fingers on its eyes.
"I sentence you to die."
I sent a strong pulse of electricity through its eyeball.
The long reptile behemoth roared in pain, until its cries were a faint whimper.
The behemoth slid out of my hands and sank to the bottom of the swamp, lifeless.
A deep sigh left my lips.
Then I heard another deep bellow. This one was louder, deeper, and powerful enough to make me realize it came from something colossal.
"Nerena, is everything ok over there?" I asked, gliding through the water back to them.
I didn't hear a word, but I saw the glow of Nerena's astral tentacles lashing out at something at a blinding speed.
When I got to her side, my stomach dropped.
It was the same type of creature, but ten times the size, so big it couldn't submerge itself in the swamp.
The beast roared, and the emotions I felt from it weren't rage or hunger, but sadness.
Is this the mom?
I looked at the air tube bubble Nerena was maintaining with two of her tentacles. They were flickering.
"Nerena, go down there and help him," I said, pushing her out of the way.
There was no argument.
I looked down at my hands. Most of the feeling had disappeared, and the burns were creeping up my forearms.
The creature opened its large snout and snapped it shut, creating a putrid-smelling gust of air that blew towards me.
Following it with a mad dash towards me.
A large breath left my chest, and I jumped out of the water to land on top of its snout. I dashed towards its eyes.
I prepared to jam my hands into one of its eyes, but something wrapped around my waist and violently yanked me upward into the branches of the world tree.
When I turned to see what it was, I had never felt so relieved in my life.
It was Nerena.
We landed on the branches and gathered ourselves.
"Took you long enough," I said to Voen, as I grimaced from the pain the burns caused.
"I didn't realize how thick these trees are, but I'm glad I got to the sap when I did, because I heard other rumblings in the water." He said, holding a large pouch of the dragon's blood sap from the world tree.
Then Voen pulled out his alchemy gauntlet, a leather glove with a small circle etched into the palm. Once cosmic energy was poured into the gauntlet, the circle projected a shallow crucible made out of cosmic energy. Voen placed his ingredients in the gauntlet and began swirling the crucible by imbuing more cosmic energy into the piece of astral tech.
He proceeded to make some type of potion with the sap. The process took the better part of another thirty minutes. But Nerena and I were thankful because the ointment he created took effect quickly.
The pain subsided, and the swelling diminished within a few minutes.
"I made enough to last us a few days, but you are gonna need to apply it all over. We don't know when we will be out of this radiation zone." Voen said, placing a few vials in the pockets of his combat suit.
Nerena and I nodded and finished applying the ointment.
After a few minutes passed, we continued our trek to the central pyramid.
In fifteen minutes, we made it to the edge of the swamp and back on dry land.
Now that we were closer, I finally got a proper perspective of the true size of the central pyramid.
By my estimate, it was no smaller than one thousand feet.
"How many groups do you think survived given our experience?" Voen asked, as we started walking towards what looked like the makings of an old city.
I wanted to believe that everyone did. Because if they did, maybe it would ease some of the dread building inside me. But that was an unrealistic hope.
"We can't think about that; we just have to pray to our pantheons that we have enough to conquer this rift," I said, leading the cluster into the city.
I stopped in my tracks.
There were dozens, if not hundreds, of glowing specters taking human form.