Taking over the Abyss

80- Sunken Beneath The Waves

"Osial, go!" You shouted at him. Osial leapt into action at your command, taking water from the river to transform. You jumped in after him, grabbing onto the back of a young girl's shirt and flinging her upwards, away from the deadly touch of the glittery water that lapped innocently at your ankles. Osial yoinked people away to safety with his serpents, flinging them backwards to save time.

Through the deafening sound of water and screams, you heard a bloodcurdling cry for help behind you. A lone man standing on top of a rock whipped his head to cast a desperate stare at you, stretching his arm out and pleading to be saved. He clung to the rock, just out of reach of Osial's serpents, and by the time you ran there, the water would touch him.

Thinking fast, you commanded pure Hydro and thrust your arm out. A surge of Hydro pushed him backwards, and you opened a portal behind him to set him safely on a higher level away from the water. Panting from excess of noise, you checked around for any other stragglers, the shadows cast from dozens of people running across the wooden bridge above you proving quite the distraction.

Unfortunately, the amount of people crossing the bridge and pending threat to life caused some people's survival instincts to fire into overdrive. A young lady was pushed by another from off the bridge, and you dove to catch her before she could touch the water. She screamed and clung onto you, trying to use you to climb as high she could.

"It's okay!" You tried to assure her as her foot pushed down on your shoulder. "Osial, over here-"

Durin came to your rescue and lifted the woman off of you, his wings beating harder with the effort of carrying another person. He flew her up to the ledge, trying to reassure her before being pushed backwards. You held out your hands to catch him if he couldn't catch himself in the air. Durin shook his head, trying not to take it personally. He descended to grab your hands and lifted you up onto the ledge.

"I got a few people out!" He had to shout to be heard over the rest of the noise, and pointed up to where Fatui soldiers and other people wearing suits were trying to escort people. "Osial got most of them away from the water, but we need to make sure- ow!"

A man had run straight into Durin, nearly knocking him over in a panic. Your hand clenched with the urge to put up some sort of net to keep him from falling. Eyes widening, you reached out to do exactly that for the rest of Poisson. Conjuring as much Hydro as you could manage, you felt the strain of suddenly using so much power tug at the tips of your fingers, rendering them numb.

"Durin, can you still fly?" Your question earned a rapid nod from your son. The water levels continued to rise. "Pull any children to safety first. They're the most in danger for a stampede. And please be careful."

"Okay!" Durin flew upwards with a powerful flap of the wings to do as you asked, while you grit your teeth and focused. You formed a net with Hydro to catch anybody who fell. A few seconds after your net fully formed, one of the wooden boards on a bridge collapsed under the weight of several more people than it could handle, sending a few civilians to what would otherwise have been their death.

Instead they were cradled by your net, held in place by your power to prevent them from slipping through. Osial's serpents pulled them safety, and another serpent filled in the space left by the broken board. More people continued to fall off as the evacuation became bottlenecked, and others lost their footing in the stampede and were trampled on.

The cracks leaking primordial seawater came to a stop, cutting off a lot of the noise, and leaving only confused and terrified clamoring. Osial pulled up the people who had fallen into your net, and you watched as the water slowly began to drain, washing away wooden boxes, freshly caught fish, and children's toys into the depths.