Having been the first to spot the attack, Percy had an easier ti dodging. With two swift strides, he sidestepped the torrent of fiends, watching as it soundlessly phased through the smooth surface of the water. Probably even the ground beneath, judging from its montum.
Doh had a slightly tougher ti avoiding it. He rolled out of the way, barely managing to push himself back to his feet using his hands, just before the surface tension gave way under him.
The Yellow’s luck had finally run dry, however. He still evaded the attack, thanks to Percy’s tily warning, but his weakened knees collapsed, causing him to sink in the water. Standing on the wet soil, the surface only reached his chest. Sadly, it didn’t seem like he could pull himself up without help, leaving him exposed to the eels around him.
Fortunately, the creatures didn’t have any ti to spare on Latt.
The silver torrents had struck many of them, leaving them disoriented. Both the jackals and the eels were injured, as even the mirror-like surface failed to hide the lake-dwellers from the attack. Everything in the area was used to being assaulted by the fiends all day long, of course, but this was very different.
There were so many of the ethereal pests, and they had attacked from a single direction with unparalleled coordination. Percy still struggled to understand how this had happened, but the damage the attack had dealt was undeniable. It had peeled the outer layer off the beasts’ souls, leaving them vulnerable to whatever fiends had survived the impact.
It was strange, because the fiends weren’t supposed to be smart nor selfless enough to pull off such a stunt by themselves. But was there anything capable of controlling them on this planet?
Alas, there wasn’t much ti to think about it, as the swarm was flying upward again, joining the rest, preparing another attack.
Percy’s gaze scanned the battlefield. The remaining eels were swiftly recuperating. So of them snatched up the carcasses of both the jackals and their own fallen comrades, looking for an easy al. Based on how quickly the cores and the souls were dispersing, it wouldn’t be long until one of them turned its attention to Latt.
But Percy ignored all that for now, his attention focused on locating the attacker. Whatever ans they used to control the fiends, they had to be nearby.
‘There!’
His eyes landed on a faint silhouette, darting along the surface a few hundred tres away. The creature had foolishly betrayed its own position by lifting the fog of fiends obscuring it.
‘It’s so fast!’ Sol exclaid in shock, the assailant barely registering as a Green blur in their Mana Sense.
‘It doesn’t matter… Green or White, we need to stop it from attacking again, or Latt is dead.’
Percy didn’t care about the other beasts: none of them seed in the mood to attack him anyway. With his host’s help, he sent the spinning sickles towards the creature, trying to surround it. That was when sothing strange happened.
The blanket of fiends above their heads shifted again. This ti, a thick sheet descended, falling vertically like a curtain, blocking the attacks. The sharp crescents sank violently into the wall of creatures, so of them even piercing through. Still, the defence had robbed them of their montum, causing them to shatter into harmless motes just tres later.
‘How is it doing this?!’ Sol asked.
It was clear the beast was directing the fiends sohow. Percy hadn’t heard of anyone or anything on lodia capable of controlling the fiends. Judging from his companions’ shaken expressions, they hadn’t either. But there was no question that it was doing precisely that. Even if the past two moves could be considered coincidental, the fact that no fiends seed to approach it sealed the deal.
“Doh! Grab Latt and return to shore!” Percy shouted. “We’ll hold it off!”
At the sa ti, he manifested a new round of sickles, hurling them against the beast, forcing it to defend once more. The half-assed spell didn’t achieve much, other than delaying the creature’s next attack by a few more seconds.
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The Green-born tossed Percy an uncertain look. It only lasted a mont before he nodded, his expression grim. Making his way to his sunken teammate, he grabbed his hand amidst hops, helping him up. The poor guy was too tired to resu dancing, so Doh just flung him over his shoulder, about to bolt away.
“Just leave
here… Escape with Sol... My life is less valuable than either of yours…” Latt muttered, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Everyone knew there was so truth in his words. Not that Latt hadn’t pulled his own weight over the past month: quite the opposite, in fact. There had been plenty of tis when his contribution had been undeniable. For example, whenever Doh or Sol had to sleep while the other fought against the beasts, Latt was there to lift so of the pressure off them.
Regardless, there was no denying that he was less important to the expedition’s success. If either of them died, it would all be over. anwhile, if Latt perished, there would still be hope. They all understood it, but nobody was willing to compromise any more than they already had. To sacrifice another teammate. Even if it ant putting their mission at risk.
“Sol… Percy… You have to make it back at all costs. You know that, right?” Doh asked.
Sol replied by clenching her weapons tightly, her eyes glinting with resolve. Percy was on the sa page: more or less: though he did have one last card to play if things went south.
If it looked like his host was about to get killed, he’d open a portal to the Vault, saving her life against her wishes. It would suck for her and her people to essentially sell their entire planet to tatron. And Percy might also lose access to the Mirror Lake forever. But the lodians would be screwed anyway without her, and this was better than letting her die, so he wouldn’t rule it out pre-emptively.
‘Let’s hope it doesn’t co to that.’
Doh ran away, gathering so mana in his free hand, presumably to defend himself in case another eel tried to attack him. anwhile, Percy kept his eyes open for the inevitable retaliation of the mysterious beast, while trying to make out its features.
It was hard because it was quite far and moved extrely fast. Its attacks didn’t help either. Now that most of the other creatures had died or otherwise evacuated the battlefield, it was free to focus exclusively on Percy and Sol. The torrents of fiends were thicker and more frequent, shooting at them from all sorts of insidious angles, forcing them to evade them by the skin of their teeth.
‘It seems to have a symbiotic relationship with the fiends.’
Coordinating with the swarm, it was able to take down pretty much anyone and anything it stumbled upon. The fiends ate the souls, while the monster consud the cores. Or at least, this was Percy’s guess. He had no idea how the creature had evolved such a treacherous ability, but it made it extrely powerful in this place. Anywhere else, it would probably be weaker than the average Green. It didn’t appear to be that strong physically.
It resembled a praying mantis, but without the claws. Percy caught glimpses of it montarily squatting on all four of its long legs, but it had to keep hopping to remain afloat. It was only slightly taller than a lodian, making it the smallest Green beast Percy had ever seen. Its lighter fra coupled with its exceptionally powerful limbs was what allowed it to stay above water.
Whenever it jumped, it sent a single ripple through the water, accompanied by a crisp ting. Ever since Percy arrived at the Mirror Lake, this was the first ti he saw anything capable of disturbing its still surface even slightly, demonstrating how much force the creature’s muscles unleashed on the liquid.
Its carapace was a milky white, making it that much harder to spot against the pale backdrop of the Elental Source. Finally, two large antlers extended above its head. They were jagged and chitinous, and they seed to click together whenever it gave the spectral fiends a new command.
‘Let’s do this then…’
Pushing the Dance to their current limit, he felt the silver wisps collide against their soul, a fraction of the mana seeping through their pores. At the sa ti, they expelled so of the mana they had already refined, manifesting several more sickles by their side.
The blanket of fiends above their heads rolled and tumbled, as if brewing a violent storm. The mantis leapt towards them a few tis, cutting the distance separating them by half. It was probably easier for it to command its minions from up close.
Was facing the monster alone truly the right move?
Percy didn’t know. He could have tried escaping with Doh, but the beast would have caught up. It was clearly faster than them. The only other option would have been to leave Latt at its rcy, joining forces with the Green-born to fight it together. He and Sol had surpassed their leader, but not by much. With Doh’s help, they would have certainly won, at the cost of their teammate’s life.
But he didn’t regret choosing to stand his ground: or well… his water.
Unlike the ti with Rei, there was a way for all three of them to survive this ti. And Percy would be damned if he didn’t at least try to grasp it.
He dashed toward the creature, as it hopped back, trying to maintain a fixed distance. At the sa ti, it ordered the fiends to attack. They descended in all sorts of intricate formations: from dense orbs to thin streams: not unlike a mage’s spells, actually. The sickles, too, spun in every direction, forming nurous silver cyclones.
A beast and a woman were about to clash: to determine the fate of their world, whether they knew it or not. The forr wielded a million spectral fiends… As for the latter?
Just one.
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