Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 91: To Break the Water

Shadows writhed around me, and I realized that I'd slammed into the massive bulk of the serpent's body. Its maze-like twists and turns blocked my ascent to the surface.

I recognized the sound of it shifting through the water. It was a low, liquid rumbling that seemed to seep through the entire lake. I suppressed my fear, my eyes darting around for a way out. I could feel the slit eyes of the thing boring into my back.

Settling on a plan of action in my mind, I surged forward like a fish in a slipstream, rocketing up at a slight angle. When the creature tried to move its bulk in front of me once more, instead of striking my skull against the shadow of flesh, I pulled on the creature's body instead of the water.

I felt myself whoop with joy inside as this allowed me to pivot around the sea serpent, zipping past its confines. I ascended at a rapid pace, the light of the surface starting to reach me.

Water was one of the elements I was at a disadvantage against. It doused fire and dampened sound, two of my greatest strengths. Though spellfire could burn underwater if enough power suffused it to outpace its extinguishing, this required control I didn't always have. Something I'd picked up from the demon tree zone was that water created a barrier between flame and oxygen, both lowering its temperature and cutting off its source of fuel.

But if that fuel was mana instead of oxygen, such an imbalance wasn't as stark as it first seemed. Yet I was still horribly mismatched against water. So if I wanted to survive, I needed to get out.

And then I made the mistake of glancing downward.

The monstrous serpent was ascending with me, murder in its slitted violet eyes. Yet with the barest hint of light, I was able to truly see the serpent's size.

Its head was three stories long, a cruel mimicry of a snake. The body slithered behind it slowly, undulating in waves. Thin, catfish-like tendrils floated from its face, and a long frilled ridge trailed from its head all along its body.

It must be hundreds of feet from head to tail, I thought with numb horror. At its widest, it was as thick as a shipping container was long.

How do you even fight something like that? I asked myself, momentarily forgetting the ache in my lungs. I had used a blue whale for a comparison earlier out of instinct, yet I knew now that was an insult to this monster.

It could have swallowed half a dozen blue whales without a sweat. How did the djinn expect someone to fight this thing?

I briefly entertained the idea of activating my Phoenix Will. I didn't see any other way to beat this monster, and I wondered if I could even kill it with the backing of Lady Dawn's power.

An instantaneous inspection of my body dissuaded me from that idea. The basilisk in me was coiled just as the serpent I ran from, ready to strike at the barest inflection of my bond's Will. Very rarely had I ever felt such a burning surety about something, yet I knew the moment my Will and my Blood collided, it would be akin to an atom splitting within my core.

The snake lunged for me, flaring massive jaws wide. Its rows upon rows of serrated teeth lined a jaw that seemed to swallow the world. I was never truly religious in my past life, yet I believed with all my being that the unending maw I gazed into was a portal to hell. Beyond the teeth, dozens of waiting, fleshy hands grasped and writhed in its throat, the digits seeking flesh.

I darted upward in a frantic push, feeling the lack of air make my muscles stiff and my core ache. The basilisk within me seethed at the mockery of its kin. I didn't have the heart to try and force that sensation back down.

But I was too slow. With Darrin on my shoulder, I couldn't move with my normal speed and agility. The serpent's jaws snapped shut, just barely missing my legs. Yet the force of that massive gateway crashed shut in a resounding boom, the shockwave sent me spinning through the water once more.