Heavy breaths wracked Kallen's chest. Scorching burns littered his battered body, and as he searched through the depths of his mind for an escape, he simply couldn't find one.
Though there wasn't an obvious tell, Kallen knew he was running out of [Revenge], despite the heavy turmoil he'd put himself through. It wasn't an attribute that he could use over and over… each use put extreme strain on his body for the momentary boost in strength it provided.
He only had maybe one use left before he would lose his strength completely.
Thankfully, the Fire Wyrm was beginning to slow down. Its slender form was sluggish compared to what it had been capable of at the start of their fight. Steam billowed from its gills, and bits of searing flesh poked through where its scales had been dispensed. The thing was exhausted and wounded from its earlier maneuver.
But the situation was still hopeless. A wounded Awakened Tyrant was still a whole rank and four classes above him. Not only that, but Kallen was far more wounded and far more exhausted.
He briefly considered taking the easy way out and summoning his tideform to end the fight quickly. Either he would kill it and survive, or it would fail and he would die. Either outcome ended things in seconds.
He was tiring… but he wasn't ready to put things up to chance just yet.
There was still one option left.
Kallen implemented a complex application of his aspect to subtly influence the currents in front of the Wyrm just as it shot a blast of flame at him. The result was a change in the Tyrant's balance.
The flame missed him by just a hair. He shot up toward the cave wall and the Fire Wyrm followed him immediately. A barrage of scales covered the Tyrant's approach, and Kallen countered with a quick and precise manipulation of the water around him.
Right when the cluster was about to detonate, Kallen pulled the water around him, compressing it in a sense. Instead of holding the impromptu shield in place—which would have put too much strain on his dormant ability—he pushed outward at the moment of impact, dissipating the shockwave of the seeker mine-like scales.
But he wasn't out of the woods yet.
The Fire Wyrm's monstrous face tore through the smokescreen of flame, jaw wide and serrated teeth mere inches from Kallen's face.
With his body failing, he could not simply veer out of the way like normal. He was too exhausted.
The Fire Wyrm's jaws snapped shut.
At the last instant, Kallen moved without thought, twisting in a way that left his right arm screaming in protest. The Wyrm's teeth grazed his ribs and caught the inner part of his bicep. Blood leaked into the surrounding ink, but he barely felt the pain, his vision was tunneled on the Wyrm, and he knew what he had to do.
One final gambit before I take this thing down with me.
The Tyrant snapped around at Kallen's retreating form, just barely missing his foot. He felt his mind flickering like a guttering candle. He couldn't outrun it anymore. He couldn't outlast it. He'd need to outthink it in these last moments.
As the Wyrm made another lunge, Kallen let himself fall, dragging the currents down with him. The monster overshot, its sluggish body scrambling to chase after him again.
Kallen closed his eyes, feeling for his connection with the black sea around him.
He wasn't even sure if this ability he was about to use would work, but his plan relied on the split second it would give him.
The Fire Wyrm banked hard against the ceiling of the cavern, shooting down at Kallen as he floated in silence.
In a near instant, the description of Kallen's most underutilized attribute came to mind.
"Your voice ebbs and flows with the resonance of the tides, a melody born of deep currents. The denizens of the depths feel its pull, drawn to your call. Beware, however, for the sea listens as intently as it speaks."
It was an attribute he didn't use often. He didn't test often. He wasn't sure what it was capable of, besides calling nightmare creatures to him, as well as dispelling underwater illusions.
But he had a hunch. One he was about to stake his life on.
Kallen's eyes shot open, and he uttered a single word.
"Stop!"
The Fire Wrym didn't stop. Of course it didn't, it was an Awakened Tyrant—and a powerful one at that. However… it did hesitate.
The Fire Wyrm hesitated for a brief, nearly imperceptible moment, breaking its momentum and giving Kallen all the opportunity he needed to do something incredibly stupid.
He dove for the Nightmare Creature. Not to dodge, not to escape, but to force himself between its jaws.
He pulled on the water against the Fire Wyrm's lower jaw, straining his aspect with everything he had, pulling on revenge as well.
The thing was weakened. Overheated, tired… just enough for Kallen to twist into its open maw, forcing his arms between its rows of serrated teeth. Water surged around him, his muscles screaming as he held its mouth open. The beast bucked, struggling to snap its maw shut, but Kallen roared against it, summoning everything he had until—
He felt it.
Pressure began to build up inside the Fire Wyrm. When it recognized it wouldn't be able to crush him with its jaws, it relied on its tried and true method of incineration.
Kallen could feel the chemical reaction begin to form. He bared his teeth as the flame in the creature ignited in slow motion—an uncontrolled inferno racing down its throat straight toward him.
At the last moment, he tugged with everything he had on [Amplifier], compounding that reaction severalfold. In the same breath, Kallen shot himself out of its mouth, and the Tyrant's jaws snapped shut, trapping the amplified burst of fire within itself.
The Fire Wyrm detonated.
Puddle dissipated into his soul sea.
A shockwave ripped through the cavern.
Kallen barely had time to summon his tideform, water rushing around him and being shredded by the blast at the same time. Heat licked at his skin, burning away the last scraps of his strength.
Hapless in the face of the blast, he shot back toward the wall of the cave, slamming into it, but with more protection this time.
It didn't matter.
[You have slain an Awakened Tyrant: Lesser Wyrm of the Depths]
[You have received a Memory]
~~~
Kallen's head was pounding when he found himself conscious. Had he lost consciousness, or did he simply have a concussion and didn't know what was happening? He was severely confused at the very least.
He was floating no longer, now laying face first on the sandy floor of the cavern he'd battled the lesser drake in.
Kallen tried to force himself to his knees, but his body wouldn't respond to him. He wondered if he'd be safe falling asleep right where he was, but he knew it wasn't. He'd die if that happened.
Was dying really so bad though?
It would ease the pain he was in. He wasn't too certain about what exactly was causing the pain. Had it been from the explosion or activating the tideform that didn't seem to like being activated?
Probably both…
The edges of his vision were dimming when the first creature appeared. It was another one of those strange crabs, just like the one he'd sacrificed to the lesser wyrm when he'd led it to the cave.
The crab didn't survive long, however. Another creature shot from the murky depths, cleaving it in two just as it appeared in the cavern entrance. That second creature was immediately forced to fight a third that had shown up, and soon, the entrance to the cavern was the central hub for an all-out brawl.
Their thrashing stirred the black water around, the whole fight visible to Kallen, not through his sight, but through his connection to the water. It was hard to ignore with just how ferocious the bloody melee was.
Scaly paws landed on his back. A burst of blinding pain shot through him as the creature's foot grazed a burn he didn't even remember getting. He could feel the beast on top of him manipulating the light in front of them.
The little guy probably had a determined look in his eyes as he worked his hardest to hide the both of them from the disaster.
Kallen would have helped if he could, but his illusionist attribute netted him nothing right now. It was all he could do to keep his eyes open.
At some point, even that failed… and he'd unwittingly fallen asleep on the sea floor.
~~~
Kallen inhaled a mouthful of sand, coughing as he struggled to his hands and knees. His eyes flitted open, shutting a few times before he finally shoved himself to his feet. Feeling lightheaded, he gently lowered himself back to the seafloor, Puddle nipping at him in excitement.
He took a tentative glance around the cave… he wasn't dead. He remembered an intense feeling of dread at the thought of falling asleep, and he'd done just that.
But now he was awake and somehow alive. And judging by the water around him, it was still nighttime.
Or maybe he'd slept for a full day. Maybe more. He wasn't sure, but he grabbed Puddle in his arms, holding the creature tight to his chest.
Thanks, little guy, he thought, staring at the empty entrance of the cave. It had been no small feat for the Veilray to keep him concealed for any length of time with all those Nightmare Creatures clamoring over each other to get whatever had made the explosion.
It seemed they picked the chunks of the Tyrant clean off the floor, however.
Kallen blinked a few times, unsteadily rising to his feet, slower this time. He tried to summon his armor and weapon, only now noticing that the shirt he'd woven from the iron silk had been decimated by the blast. Part of his pants had been saved, so he wasn't indecent, but he was bordering on it.
Strangely, though, his armor wouldn't materialize. In fact, as he brought up his runes, he didn't possess an armor-type Memory anymore.
That's right. Hydra and Hadronite Carapace were destroyed.
He summoned a new weapon that shimmered among his runes, and read the description through his sleep-filled eyes.
Memory: [Wyrm's Tongue].
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Tier: V
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Description: "Forged in the crucible of war and tempered by the breath of a dying wyrm, this sword carries the inferno of a fallen age. It does not merely cut, it devours, leaving only ash in its wake."
Kallen studied the words for a few thoughtful moments, then summoned it. Its blade was a gleaming polished silver, and the hilt was made of fine wyrm scales, as deep of a red as the lesser wyrm had been.
Its hilt felt nice in his hands and he placed the weapon as a Roman gladius at a glance. That was good, he preferred short swords as they let him keep a free offhand to better maneuver underwater with his aspect.
Kallen read the enchantments:
Memory: [Wyrm's Tongue].
Memory Enhancements: [Fireproof], [Greek Fire], [Flamethrower].
Smiling, Kallen dismissed the rooms and tested the weight of the gladius, slashing through the water a few times. It was hard because of his injuries.
Then, he focused and quickly accessed the Greek Fire enchantment. Predictably, the length of its silver blade lit ablaze, the fire burning easily underwater.
He quickly dismissed the sword, fearful of attracting too much attention to himself. He was still a bottom feeder all things considered.
Soon, Kallen slowly began to force himself out of the cave, needing dry land to mend his many wounds with his gauze memory. He stuck to the bottom of the seafloor, moving at a sluggish pace so as to not startle anything.
His actions were focused, deliberate, and calculated, but there was one thing on his mind, past the pain of movement, past the scorch marks littering him, and past the haze of his exhausted mind.
He had spiders to kill.
~~~
Cassie
Cassie felt another vision coming. There was a slight fog in her brain as if her movements weren't real. Her thoughts weren't. She dug her fingers into the rough stone below her, everyone else was asleep, and they couldn't hear her suffering in silence.
Then, she passed out. She was drowning in the dream before she realized it had begun.
Seren's brother, Kallen of the House of Night stood over a fallen king, but the scene was all wrong. The king's golden armor didn't shatter or crumple, it melted. Liquid metal flowed up the Nightwalker's arms like a second skin, encasing him in a gilded splendor.
That vision fractured, and she saw him wielding a golden trident. He and a flying archer battled a mighty dragon over the scorched ruins of a castle.
Cassie's dream suddenly shifted, and she saw what she thought were two paths. In the first, Sunny stood at the base of a colossal crimson spire, shadows curling around him. He held back the Black Sea's monstrous waves. The water recoiled, banished by his defiance.
In the second path, she saw Sunny hesitate. When he did, that same sea lapped at Kallen's boots, rising steadily as he fought against it. The harder he struggled, the higher the tide climbed, until it swallowed him to the neck. Seren's hand reached for him, and the moment he grasped it—
Doom. The sea imploded, swallowing Sunny and Nephis whole. Not in water—in void, a darkness so absolute it choked her scream before it could leave her throat.
~~~
Cassie awoke with a start, gasping, hands scrabbling at the empty air. The phantom pressure of the vision still clung to her lungs, and her pulse hammered against her.
She forced herself to calm down, steadying her breathing. Then, methodically, she began to pick apart what she had seen, resisting the fear much better than she had the last time.
The death of the golden king. Kallen slaying him was clear enough. That was the king of the castle they were headed toward. But the armor reforming around him? It was metaphorical, right?
And the dragon… would he really fight a dragon? Cassie struggled against this. There wasn't a sleeper in the world that could kill something like that. There probably wasn't an Awakened that could. That was a problem for a team of ascended or a saint.
She moved on to the black sea. Sunny's victory over the waves appeared straightforward. But the other sea, the one that doomed Sunny and Nephis wasn't water at all. It probably wasn't real water, but something metaphorical as well.
Was it the weight of choice? It took an entirely different form when Kallen made the choice to accept Seren's hand.
Cassie felt her stomach twist. She'd never seen her visions split quite like that. Two different branches of the same event was strange.
And Sunny banishing it? How could he banish a choice that Kallen would make?
Unless… her breath caught. What if the sea isn't a choice, but the consequence?
Kallen would fight the tide, the inevitable, until Seren's hand pulled him free. And when he saved Seren, he saved himself as well and doomed the others?
But Sunny could stop those consequences before they even began. Was that what the first part had meant? He could stop it if he didn't hesitate.
As she thought about it, she began to think that this must be the reason.