Chapter 244: An Aquatic Detour
Nerena Corvantis
The environment exploded into a panic as a horde of centipedes destroyed the nest we were standing in.
Stravos began to bark out orders, requesting we circle up once again, as he summoned his Titan.
We were in a less-than-ideal situation; we were stranded, surrounded by water, and with maybe a hundred human-sized centipedes poised to finish us.
“You should have accepted my offer.” The voice in my head said calmly.
“Not the time for your antics. Let me focus and help my team figure a way out.” I snapped back.
A couple of centipedes jumped out at me, and I swatted them away, sending them flying into the swamp, but they were just replaced by a couple more.
We defended our position for what felt like an eternity. By then, I had suffered several wounds from the altercation. The pain was enough to convince me that what I was experiencing was real, but not enough to make me give up.
But I couldn’t say the same for everyone.
Members from Jossie’s squad were starting to succumb to the pressure, causing our formation to break multiple times. Each time it happened, someone was left exposed, resulting in members getting blindsided by attacks.
My legs were shaking, and fatigue was setting in.
I locked eyes with Sora, who shot me with a small spark, boosting my mood and allowing me to push just a little further.
I hated when she did that kind of thing.
But I needed it.
We all needed it in that moment.
A centipede lunged at my ankles, nearly sinking its mandibles into my flesh. I jumped into the air and commanded two of my tentacles to pin it down, allowing me to crush its head with the ball of my heel.
When I landed, my eyes darted everywhere.
There are so many.
“I can help you; just give me my payment,” the voice said.
“I won’t pay it. Now leave my head!”
The voice went silent.
“Sora, we can’t hold on any longer; we have to escape,” I said to her, using our tether link.
“How fast can you make a bubble transport big enough for us all to escape in?”
“A few seconds, but if I go into the water, I'll break formation, leaving you guys open for attacks.”
“Nerena, escape is our top priority at this point. We can hold out long; the pantheons won’t let us die here today. Now go!” Sora said through our tether link.
I didn’t need any more convincing. I dove into the swamp as Voen unleashed a deathly screech from his flute, knocking away the centipedes trying to snag me out of the air.
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I broke through the surface and plunged into the dark waters. Immediately, I started coughing as my astral gills filtered the sour water. I barely had time to regain my composure before something bit down on my leg.
The swamp muffled my shrieks, silencing any attempt to call for help.
I manifested my tentacles, using them to get a glimpse of what was attacking me. To my surprise, horrendous centipedes lurked in the darkness.
I had really hoped this was the species that would get waterlogged and suffocate.
I used my four tentacles to pry the mandibles off my leg and break them in half, tearing its head apart. As I finished, I saw about three to four dozen centipedes undulating toward me.
There was no way I could make the bubble transport and keep them from getting popped. We had to take them out.
What would be the easiest and fastest way?
I looked back at the undulating centipedes and realized they were heading toward the surface. They were amphibious, not true water-breathers like me.
An idea formed in my head. I commanded my tentacles to propel me straight toward the mob of insects.
“Sora, there has been a detour in the plan.”
“Wait, what do you mean detour?”
“Long story short, the centipedes can swim, but not as well as me. I'm going to create a whirlpool in the swamp. Everyone should focus on throwing the centipedes in it, and once we get enough, I want you to hit it with as much lightning as you can.”
“Won’t that hurt you?”
“I'll be far away by the time I give you the command.”
“Alright, let's do it.”
With the plan in motion, I narrowed my body and focused solely on speed, dumping most of my cosmic energy into my tentacles to propel myself forward.
I got lost in the rush. It reminded me of racing sailfish back home, where speed was everything. Within moments, the current I created dragged every centipede in the water into the whirlpool.
I circled them again and again, frantically feeding the current, like a starving shark catching its first whiff of blood.
Large groups of them fell into the whirlpool and were trapped.
“Alright, Nerena, we are all clear up here,” Sora said through our tether link.
I exited the whirlpool, rocketing to the surface and out of the water. As I glided through the air, there was already a large, crackling bolt of lightning headed towards the whirlpool.
The swamp lit up for a brief moment, as the electricity quickly branched out before quickly fading away.
When I landed on the surface, I saw everyone bent over, sucking in large breaths of air.
“So smooth sailing going forward, right?” Voen said out loud.
There was a faint chuckle that whispered in the air. It eased the tension a bit, but we all knew we were still trapped in the deep end of danger.
While I waited for the water to be safe to enter, I looked at my throbbing leg. I didn’t realize how big the wound was until now, and it looked like it was going to be a big problem going forward.
“Here, let me take a look at that,” a soft voice said.
I looked up and saw Voen kneeling, holding several large leaves.
“Thank you.” He said as he started to bandage my leg.
“If it weren’t for you, we all would have been dead.”
“It's what needed to be done. I'm sure if you were in the situation, you would do the same.”
Voen winced.
His gaze drifted away from me, looking over his shoulder as he stared out into the dark jungle.
At first I thought his silence meant that we wouldn’t do the same, but I soon realized, by how fast he began to speed up the mending of my wound, that it wasn’t the case.
“Hurry and make the bubbles. Something is coming,” he said, meeting my gaze once again.
I nodded, ran to the water, and began forming them with my tentacles as he alerted everyone else.
As I finished forming the first one, I heard the rustling in the jungle, and then a familiar piercing scream.
The ground trembled.
I hurried and worked on the second bubble.
“Nerena, hurry!” Sora yelled.
I peeked over my shoulder and saw death barreling straight for us.
The rift guardian had found us.