Chapter 179: Half Full
My sea serpent, lovely, wonderful, untamed, unstoppable, held the beast in place as Seros ripped its head off.
Blood choked out the water as it thrashed once, twice—then went still, caged in a drowning grasp. Its many spines flicked and twisted, pure white eyes going hollow. Dead.
Panic shot through me, roared through my first Otherworld connection. I slammed all my awareness into the sea serpent's mind.
Squeeze, I pleaded, shoving thoughts of gullets and stomachs and burning through to him. Squeeze, compress, force, break, push–
He hissed, bubbles snaking through his fangs, but rewrapped himself around the beast's corpse—still it smoked and burned, but Seros sprang in with hydrokinesis spiraling, carrying away the boiling water as fast as he could. My sea serpent coiled, chitin cracking and snapping like underwater volcano, its headless neck flopping–
And something purple-white, through the flesh.
Seros lunged, wrapping his fangs so gently around the exposed limb. Currents looped around like cradling wings as he pulled a limp body from the ragged hole where a head had been,
Rihsu.
She was a twisting, macabre mess of scales bleached white with heat and trembling muscles. Her heart still beat, mana sluggishly trickling through her channels—alive, but barely. Seros shifted his grip to wrap his claws around her torso, barely putting pressure on patches of pale skin where the scales had melted away. Her eyes stayed shut, no movement. Unconscious.