Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 91: To Break the Water

Toren Daen

I felt a deep flash of terror as I looked down at the beast. In my previous world, the largest creature to ever exist had been the blue whale. In the hundreds of millions of years of evolution Earth gave the depths of the oceans, the blue whale outclassed everything to come before it. At one hundred feet in length, it dwarfed even the mightiest of dinosaurs. The water afforded creatures sizes impossible on land.

And yet as I stared into the primal violet eyes of the serpent in front of me, I thought the blue whale must have been quite small. My sight was limited by the deep darkness around me, yet I could tell the serpent's head must have been at least thirty feet long.

My heart thundered in my chest as I locked eyes with the thing. It paused, inspecting me with a predator's intelligence.

And for the first time in an age, I felt like prey. My confrontation with Mardeth was the closest thing I could compare this to, but even he treated me like an opponent to beat. This creature... It simply saw another morsel of food.

Darrin struggled mutely against the creature's face, but his movements were slowing. The serpent's jaws had closed around his leg, and the scent of blood wafted around my nose. It was holding onto him like a cat playing with its catch, watching their prey struggle futilely against their captivity.

Darrin would drown before long.

I broke myself out of my frozen terror, thawing my fear with an application of magic. I needed to get him out of there. I was Darrin's only chance.

I shoved on the water behind me, conscious of the limited air I had in my lungs. I surged forward like a bullet, squinting my eyes against the pressure. My telekinetic shroud flared at the sudden increase in pressure, but I ignored it.

I landed feet-first on the serpent's upper lip. My feet sank into the monster's flesh with a strange squelch, rot and refuse bursting around my shoes as necrotic flesh gave way under my boots. Yet I focused on the leader of the Unblooded Party in front of me. He made the barest of movements acknowledging my presence. His eyes were glassy, his struggling growing weak.

I clenched my fist, focusing on one of my tried and true template spells. The water buzzed around my hand strangely as sound mana built around my clenched fingers. After a few moments, I brought my strike down like a hammer on the nose of the monster.

Noxious skin and muscle caved under my blow, the shockwaves vibrating out like a quake. The snake stirred slightly, but nothing more. It continued to drag us both downward, utterly uncaring of me. Undeterred, I brought my fist down again on its face. Again, again, again.

Finally, I achieved the barest of movements. I hadn't truly hurt this titan. I'd irritated it. Just like I'd been able to sense from the uncountable corpses, this thing had an air of intent about it, too. The mouth began to open as my pesky attacks finally drew enough of its attention away from Darrin. The striker drifted out of its mouth limply, his mana signature simmering away into the depths.

I latched onto his body desperately, throwing him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Without sparing the eldritch serpent another glance, I shoved on the water behind me with telekinesis.

I surged upward, my lungs fighting for air. I couldn't put it off much longer. Darrin sat limply on my shoulders, unresponsive.

And because of the deep darkness around me, I wasn't able to see the obstacle in front of me. I crashed into a wall of solid bone and flesh, the collision sending cracks through my telekinetic shroud and making me spiral through the water. I almost let go of Darrin's body, but the barest of instinct kept me clutching him tightly.