Coppelia turned around, her voice rising unconsciously. "What?!"
"That pulling force... it only just appeared." Columbina's voice dropped, sounding somewhat apologetic. "Perhaps it was just my imagination, I..."
Coppelia immediately detected the hint of self-reproach in the other's tone, realizing her earlier retort had been too loud. She walked quickly back to Columbina's side and took her hand. "It's alright. It's just that these guys were hiding too well. Since there are more, we'll just search again." She softened her tone. "Which direction is the attraction coming from?"
Columbina's brows knit slightly. "The attraction... is getting stronger." She paused. "It's getting closer!"
It moves? Coppelia was just about to ask for more details when she saw Columbina already turning her head, raising her arm to point toward a specific direction deep within the cave.
Coppelia looked in the direction she was pointing.
It was the widest and deepest of the many pools in this underground space. At this moment, the dark surface of the water was no longer calm; massive bubbles were churning up from the bottom, gurgling loudly as the disturbance continued to expand.
Splash—!!!
A massive, icy-blue shadow broke through the water's surface, soaring into the sky and bringing with it a sky-filling spray of white waves.
A Bathysmal Vishap, with a body length at least five times that of a standard Vishap, landed lightly on all fours at the edge of the pool. It shook its head, shedding the flowing water, then opened its mouth to fling a regular Vishap—which it had been clamping in its jaws—onto the nearby clearing like trash. The moment that ordinary Vishap hit the ground, it twisted its body without looking back and fled at top speed.
The Vishaps that had been chaotically searching near the shallows or just emerging from other parts of the deep pool saw this behemoth appear. They let out fearful whimpers, scrambling over one another to jump into other nearby pools, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Columbina gazed at the giant Vishap towering by the pool's edge, sensing for a moment. "Those stones... seem to have been swallowed by it."
Coppelia stared at the creature's body, covered in heavy, icy-blue scales, and felt a momentary tingling numbness on her scalp.
She asked, "Can you estimate? Is it a large amount?"
"A lot... at least more than what we just obtained."
This... if it were only a few pieces, I'd let it go. But since it swallowed them... Now, it seemed they had no choice but to face it. The problem was, how to extract the stones? Kill it and cut open its stomach? Could they even beat it? Coppelia looked at the opponent's size and imposing manner, clearly far superior to its common kin, and felt momentarily at a loss for how to proceed.
But waiting was not a solution. She began searching her memory for ways to deal with Bathysmal Vishaps, but useful information was scarce.
Just then, a surge of power flooded into her body without warning. She turned to look at Columbina beside her.
Columbina was holding her right hand in front of her. Wisps of silver radiance flowed around her body. That moonlight was no longer illusory but condensed until it almost possessed texture, like water.
It was, quite literally, "moonlight like water."
"My power has recovered significantly again." Columbina spoke, a newfound calmness in her voice. "I think we can knock it unconscious, then slice open its abdomen to retrieve the stones, and then sew it back up..."
She had heard of similar techniques from Changsheng.
"We still have to subdue it first." Coppelia withdrew her gaze and continued to stare at the Vishap below. "Perhaps... we could try feeding it something difficult to swallow, making it vomit up the 'inventory' in its stomach on its own."
"Vomit it out..." Columbina fell into thought.
Coppelia did not stop observing. She saw the Bathysmal Vishap pace in circles a few times. Its massive head turned left and right, nostrils flaring, seemingly agitated by its failure to find the exact trace of the intruders. Then, it changed direction and began striding toward the dark deep pool. One thick foreclaw covered in icy-blue scales had already dipped into the water, and a low, dissatisfied guttural sound rumbled from its throat.
It wants to go back! Once it entered the water, that would be its absolute home turf. Underwater, not only would their movement be restricted, but even elemental reactions would be impossible to deploy effectively. Retrieving the stones then would likely be several times more difficult.
"We have to stall it! Don't let it get into the water!" Coppelia spoke rapidly.
The moment her voice fell, purple light flashed in her hand, and the slender Amos's Bow was already in her grip.
Columbina also immediately gathered her thoughts. An invisible force field wrapped around them once more, lifting them away from the tunnel entrance and up to the top of the underground space.
"Keep moving, fly around it!" Coppelia shouted in a low voice.
Columbina understood. She controlled their flight path, taking Coppelia in a smooth arc to circle diagonally above the Bathysmal Vishap.
At this point, the behemoth's front half was almost submerged in the pool water. Coppelia hesitated no longer. The bowstring was instantly drawn to full, and a structurally unstable explosive arrow loosed from the string, dragging a trail of interwoven Electro and Pyro as it shot straight for the Vishap's spine exposed above the water.
We have to face it head-on. Coppelia's thoughts raced. Fortunately, after it appeared, the other ordinary Vishaps scattered. This area is now left with only this one opponent. Dealing with a single target was always clearer than facing a chaotic swarm of lizards. Perhaps she could observe while fighting, testing its abilities and weaknesses while looking for a safe way to extract the Moonlight Stones.
Boom!
The explosive arrow accurately hit the Vishap's thick, armor-like skin on its back, exploding into a cloud of dust mixed with electric sparks. The massive body visibly trembled.
The Bathysmal Vishap immediately stopped entering the water, jerking its upper body violently out of the pool. It turned its hideous head covered in bone armor, its cold gaze sweeping across the empty ground and rock walls, finding no trace of the enemy.
It wasn't until a tremor came from overhead that it seemed to realize something. It slowly craned its head up, finally locking onto the two tiny figures circling in the air.
Seeing it look up, Columbina immediately lowered their flight altitude, skimming close to the ground. She tried to lure it away from the pool's edge just as they had lured the ordinary Vishaps before, tempting it to pursue them in melee combat.
However, the Bathysmal Vishap merely watched them coldly. Its massive body stood steadily by the pool—not advancing, not retreating, and not attacking.
Come on, move! You're making me anxious... Coppelia drew her bow again. This time, she fired three consecutive explosive arrows, aiming respectively at the Vishap's head, neck, and rear.
The arrows hit, but the anticipated violent chain explosions did not ring out. There were only a few muffled, dull thuds.
Huh? Coppelia frowned. She steadied her breathing and fired another arrow, simultaneously activating Elemental Sight, which allowed her to directly observe the flow of elemental energy.
In her "eyes," the moment the structurally fragile Electro-Pyro elemental sphere at the tip of the arrow touched the Vishap's skin, it did not trigger a violent elemental reaction. Instead, the leaping red Pyro and purple Electro elements were like water drops falling into a dry sponge—rapidly pulled in by an invisible suction on the surface of the Vishap's skin, merging completely into it and vanishing without a trace.
The elemental energy... was sucked away!
Fuck. Coppelia's heart sank. Like this, elemental reactions are useless!
Almost at the same instant she realized this, the Bathysmal Vishap, which had been standing motionless, finally made a new move. Its giant maw, kept tight until now, slowly opened, revealing rows of sharp, ghastly white teeth. Deep blue light gathered and compressed rapidly deep within its throat, the glow growing more intense until it illuminated the icy-blue patterns inside its mouth.
The next second, the light surged forth.
This was not the spherical attack spat by ordinary Vishaps, but an icy-blue beam of light nearly half a meter in diameter!
Wherever the beam passed, the air emitted a piercing shriek. A visible frost-white trail was left in its path as it shot straight toward the two figures flying close to the ground.
____
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