“Lucy,” Natsu murmurs slowly, uncharacteristically quiet as he shifts over to her, movements tightly controlled. “Don’t move.”
Lucy only nods, a slight turn of heard barely noticeable by (hopefully) nobody but her partner. The swamp water is thick around her thighs, oozing a putrid smell that has her eyes watering – she doesn’t know how Natsu is faring with his sensitive nose, but it’s likely not good.
Lucy can tell he’s somewhere on her left but she’d be a fool to turn her head to see the reassuring form of her partner. Horologium’s time limit had run out and she’d been left splashing into filthy swamp water, unbeknownst to the two mages that the guardian of said swamp water did not appreciate the disturbance.
It was a monster they’d never encountered before. It was fairly large, oozing thick, black sludge with air pockets bubbling up to its skin’s surface and releasing toxic air when popped. Lucy could discern two, yellow pinpricks of what she believed to be eyes shifting on the base of its stomach.
Lucy withheld a wince as a particular large air pocket burst, sending tendrils of green fumes tinged with dark purple into the air a little too close for comfort. She’s barely breathing, partly from the poison the monster’s releasing, partly due to the attention that’s pined on her.
It’s slimy limbs are twitching atop the water’s surface, edging closer to her every time she so much as moved a single muscle. It seems to be ignoring Natsu, who’s managed to sneak up behind her, pressing his chest against her back as he places his warm hands on her hips protectively. “I think it’s blind.” Natsu rasps low in her ear, fingers tightening as the monster jerked slightly in their direction.
“I’m gonna burn it.”
Lucy’s eyes widened as she flinched at his words but she’s unable to express why he shouldn’t do that. The gas it excretes could likely be flammable and that would not end well. Lucy muffles a frantic “no” behind her closed lips, shaking her head as discreetly as she can but –
Natsu, of course, does it anyway.
