The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage: Wandmaker Vol.2

WM [100] Traveler

Bjorn took a deep breath and plunged into the monolith. It wasn't water, not really. It didn't feel like liquid, yet it moved around him as if it were. His body passed through the stone as though it were no more solid than a dense current, yet it clung to him, pressing in on his scales like wet clay trying to swallow him whole.

Immediately, he felt blind. His limbs and tails moved smoothly, his many heads twisting and undulating as he adjusted to the strange sensation. Inside of the liquid rock he was blind aside from the head he kept outside the monolith. Opening his eyes inside would be a good way to have stone scrape against them and he preferred to not lose an eye so foolishly.

He kicked harder, propelling himself upward. His lone exposed head blinked against the wind and watched the towering monolith stretch high above toward the next skyland. The distance wasn't impossible, but it wasn't going to be easy, either.

"I really hope this isn't a one-way trip." Failsafe muttered.

Bjorn was about to say something when he felt something press against his body. It then moved within the liquid rock along with him. Bjorn remembered the monster that lived inside of the mercury river, so of course something would live in the weird rock formation thing too.

"Failsafe, we have company. What kind of monster would be in something like this liquid rock?"

"Oh, uh give me a second." Failsafe said.

It was subtle at first, a shift in pressure, a flicker of something brushing against his side before vanishing. Bjorn twisted his heads instinctively, but there was nothing there.

He pushed himself faster, his hydra body slicing through the dense not-stone, each kick carrying him higher. But the presence remained. Trailing him. Matching his speed.

Then something latched onto his side. It cut through his Chaos Scales Armor as if it weren't there. A sharp, twisting pain bloomed beneath his scales. Bjorn attempted Intimidation Roar but the magic infused sound didn't travel through the strange medium. He figured that any of his other breath attacks would face the same difficulty.

He jerked to slash at the affected area but there was nothing to attack, just a wound. Then another force pulled at him, dragging him sideways. Trying to pull him deeper into the rock but Bjorn fought against the pull. If he was dragged in fully he would be at the complete mercy of the monster.

Bjorn thrashed, his tail whipped, his claws raked through the dense stone-fluid. He felt something slimy and thin wrap around his leg, more limbs, more unseen things, wrapping and tightening, trying to drag him deeper. His exposed head whipped upward he had to push himself.

Bjorn kicked off with all his strength, his powerful hydra form launching through the thickened rock.The monsters holding onto him didn't let go. They pulled, their grips tightening like bone-thin vines constricting around his limbs and necks.

Another flash of pain, another bite this time, sinking into his underbelly. He couldn't tell how big it was, or how many there were. All he knew was that he was bleeding, his own dark blood dissolving into the suffocating rock.

"Failsafe what are these things?" Bjorn asked.

"I think it is one monster called an abyssal stalker. It hunts in what was called liquid rock which matches what we are currently swimming in. Apparently it pulls things inside and drowns-uh... suffocates...it keeps them from breathing."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"They aren't very strong outside of the liquid rock."

"That doesn't help me now," Bjorn yelled. "Does it say anything about biting through magical defenses?"