Ch. 88 - Eel

Eel

Alice stood perfectly still in her position near the center of the room as the creature slid the rest of its long and swollen body through the gate, blocking her only way out with its bulk before extending two elongated sensory organs that were incredibly similar to a squid’s tentacles, their pads covered in strange, darker membranes that constantly shivered and twitched in the air as the being tried to orient itself in the new space it had entered.

The rest of its head was hidden by a mane of similar, if shorter, pigmented tendrils that floated and squirmed in the air like the many arms of a sea anemone; when combined together, these pseudopods, which ranged from maroon to rancid green and from slate grey to pale pink, formed many strange and nonsensical patterns by constantly slowing down, speeding up and coiling around themselves in concert, their mesmerizing movements surely very useful to lure in prey while underwater.

To Alice, however, they appeared like the rotting remnants of a long-dead creature swaying in the currents, causing her to avert her eyes and instead focus on the rest of the creature, trying to glean anything useful from its appearance before it inevitably zeroed in on her, her hands moving ever so slowly towards the weapons she had strapped to her waist and chest, the left one still holding the small fragment of monolith given to her by the Whispering Mother.

The body of the monster was more than six meters in length and vaguely resembled that of an eel, at least one that had emerged from the nightmarish depths of the sea.

It was covered in a mottled, velvety skin that seemed to be only partially connected to the body underneath, constantly sagging and bulging as the monster used its snakelike body to slither on the ground, aided by a pair of deformed pectoral fins that had evolved to become closer to limbs, their ends hardened and recurve like talons, allowing it to grab onto the irregularities of the ground and drag itself forward.

To make things worse, the creature was covered in a thick layer of foul-smelling slime that was constantly being produced by the numerous pores on its body; reeking of rotting fish and algae, the substance acted like a slug’s mucus and kept it moist and lubricated even in that incredibly dry environment.

Up until that moment, that particular ability had been hindered by the large amounts of dust and sand that covered the floor of the underground system, forming a cement-like mud that seemed to be restricting the creature’s movements; at the same time, however, Alice was well aware that the room they were in now was completely devoid of any detritus and that it surely wouldn’t take long for the monster to rid itself of the worst of the mud.

The longer she waited, the more dangerous it would become.

She had just reached that conclusion when, suddenly, the two larger feelers stopped swaying in the air and pointed directly in her direction, the rest of the tendrils flattening against the body of the monster and revealing two, grey and pupil-less eyes that seemed to stare straight through her for a few long moments.

Her heart hammering in her chest, she slowly drew the dagger from the bandolier strapped to her torso before quickly hiding the small piece of monolith she had received into another pocket nearby, the constant flow of information coming from the shard ceasing the second she let go of it, allowing her to further concentrate on the battle ahead.

The moment the precious item was safely stowed away, her right hand went for the metal pick she had placed back at her side, fumbling to untie the loose knot that kept it connected to her dress.

Before she could liberate the main weapon, however, the creature finally decided to make the first move and started quickly thrashing in her direction, using its flat, padded tail to propel itself forward at a surprising speed, the lower part of its head raising while the tendrils covering it parted, revealing a set of horizontal, interlocking teeth that gnashed the air as it advanced, multiplying the horrendous smell in the air in the meanwhile.

Alice screamed as she launched herself to the right, managing to avoid the horrifying mandibles of the monster while also slashing at its exposed side, her knife effortlessly cutting into a few tendrils before continuing into the skin proper, a grunt of surprise escaping her lips when, after barely cutting through the creature’s hide, her blade encountered something solid less than a centimeter underneath, her blow unable to complete its path through the material and instead sliding along its surface, only managing to shave away a fold of the velvety dermis and revealing a strange mesh of crisscrossing cartilaginous fibers that had acted like a biological chain mail, deflecting the strike and preventing it from going deeper in.

Just as she was stepping away from the monster, Alice suddenly felt a sharp, stinging pain coming from her exposed forearm, a confused expression appearing on her face when she spotted the handful of long, barbed stingers that had easily torn through her skin and sank into her muscles, a few even laying embedded in one of the chitin plates that protected her upper arm, the entirety of her limb covered in a thick and oily substance that resembled ink, the same one that now oozed from the few tendrils she had cut open, mixing with the deep, red blood that had welled up on the creature’s exposed flesh.

Before she could do anything more than goggle at the unexpected wounds, the being turned around and charged again, attempting another lunge which she expertly evaded once more, this time unable to make use of the opening in the creature’s defenses as she was too busy dodging a set of attacks from the tendrils themselves, barely avoiding the snake-like strikes of the appendages before the monster slid away from her and almost crashed against the wall on the other side.

Making most of the time given to her by the creature’s lack of control of its movements, Alice grasped the barbs and ripped them away from her flesh with a gasp of pain, the adrenaline and her mild numbing of the receptors unable to completely inhibit the pain caused by the harpoon-like stingers tearing through her skin, the copious blood flowing from the bores immediately starting to congeal thanks to the quick Hemostasis she sent afterwards.

Those things are dangerous, they seem to behave separately from the eel and I need to keep them as far away as possible from my face and arteries; even one can kill me, she thought as she attempted to catch her breath, barely noticing the tiny snake that had thankfully decided to relocate itself from its spot under her right sleeve to the safer one around her neck, its purple eyes glued to the body of the creature just like hers, a grimace appearing on her face when she noticed that the portion of raw flesh on its side had already stopped bleeding and was covered by a thin layer of reddish mucus.

“Quick healing too, why not,” she muttered to herself.

By the time the beast turned around, Alice had finally managed to unhook her main weapon and was holding it with her healthy arm while the other slowly healed from its wounds, the knife ready to parry or cut away any attack from the tendrils while she took care of the main body.

The gate was now wide open for her but she would need to evade at least another attack before she could make her escape in safety, she wanted to create at least a bit of distance from the creature to avoid getting caught in the corridor with only a single way out.

“Come on, just one more time,” she muttered under her beath, adrenaline coursing through her body and brain, making her muscles shiver and twitch under her skin, ready to react at the slightest prod.

For the third time, after an instant that felt like hours, the beast rushed at her, its movements even quicker now that it could make use of the slick ooze that had started coating the floor of the room, her own reactions much more dangerous now that she had to walk on the frictionless material; even a slip could prove to be fatal.

Once again, Alice waited until the last second to evade, pivoting on her leg and brushing past the massive head of the monster, her eyes staring into its blank orbs for a single instant before they moved in opposite directions, her knife raising just in time to parry a strike from one of the tendrils, the metal blade clanging loudly when the hidden barb impacted its flat side and ricocheted off.

As an instinctive response, she grunted and released the coiled muscles of her right arm to deliver a quick but powerful attack with her pick, slamming the sharp tip of the weapon against the exposed side of the being and feeling the point sink past the swollen skin, breaking the mesh of hardened tissue before plunging into its actual flesh, eliciting a pained bellow that reverberated through the room, warping against the metal walls before fading in the underground system.

The monster shivered and, to Alice’s absolute surprise, its muscles clamped up on the embedded weapon, preventing it from sliding out of the wound and causing her to get dragged alongside it, a startled scream escaping her lips when the two crashed against the metal wall many meters away.

For a few seconds, the creature lay stunned on the ground and she took that time to get back up on her feet and forcefully rip off the weapon from the flesh it was stuck in, her biceps rippling and bulging under her skin before she managed to tear it off, a spray of warm and fishy blood filling her mouth and making her gag at its awful taste.

The sudden pain, however, seemed to awaken the creature once again and Alice found herself caught between the slimy coils of the eel’s body, frantically trying to get away while also fending off the constant attacks of the smaller tendrils, more and more managing to move past her defenses and sinking their detachable spikes into her body as the creature recovered from the impact and focused back on her.

As she frantically cut away tendril after tendril, now only focusing on keeping them away from her face and neck as she was gradually overwhelmed by the attacks, Alice did the only thing she could think of, accessing her well of power and sending an empowered Terminusrampaging through the many points of contact with the beast, targeting anything it could find in the hopes of somehow incapacitating the creature for enough time to be able to escape.

The second the magical energy left her system and entered the monster’s, she felt a shiver shake the entirety of its organism from head to tail and watched as the creature suddenly stopped its thrashing as if caught in a rictus, its muscles tensing and bulging against the skin, starting to constrict her body through the coils, her bones creaking so much that she was forced to magically strengthen her skeletal system with the remainder of her well of power to prevent her ribs from being crushed by the immense pressure of the out-of-control eel.

Mere instants later, her eyes widened when she saw the smaller appendages on the monster’s head start to swell up, only just managing to raise her bleeding arms to protect her face before they simultaneously burst open, showering her and a huge area of the room in a spray of hot, ink-like gore that flowed down her face, partially blinding her while every exposed area of her body was torn by a hail of barbs that easily plunged into her muscles.

When she lowered them back again, she discovered that it was the monster who had caught the worst of the blast, its body riddled with hundreds of its own stingers and its mane of tendrils completely shredded and oozing vast amounts of dark blood on the ground.

The creature was still alive but clearly reeling from the aftermath; while most of the barbs had failed to pierce past the layer of armored tissue below the skin, some had instead impacted the long sensory appendages of the being, completely mangling them in the process.

Gritting her teeth, she ignored the copious blood that was flowing down the many dozen wounds on her arms and instead extricated herself from the body of the creature, slipping on the blood, gore and slime as she stumbled away as quickly as possible while it was still partially incapacitated, cringing when she saw the ichor that was already congealing over its many wounds.

It wouldn’t remain still for long.

Barely able to hold her weapons, she stumbled out of the room and briefly stopped to stare at the two exits, fear filling her mind when she thought of having to swim through the passage once again.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able,” she whispered in a panic as she directed the few slivers of power left in her well to her bleeding arms, making the flesh close around the still-embedded spikes and ignoring the way their sharp edges were cutting her flesh every time she moved them.

Feeling her arms growing weak, she tiredly sheathed her knife, casually bumping into the pocket that was holding the piece of The Whispering Mother, her mind moving back to the tugging feeling she had experienced upon touching it, as if it wanted to lead her somewhere.

Hearing the slithering sounds already coming from the room at her back, she anxiously took it out and held it between her fingers, putting her last sliver of hope in the fragment and the stream of ciphered information that washed over her mind, the tugging feeling instantly coming back, pushing her to the route she hadn’t walked through before.

I really hope you know where you are taking me, she thought as she forced herself to move, ignoring the dizzying feeling of blood loss as she jogged out of the room and into the long and uninterrupted tunnel, her feet creaking as she stepped on the dusty stone floor.

She had walked for less than two minutes when she heard the enraged bellow that came from behind her, soon followed by a crash of broken stone and glass as the creature clearly bowled over the many counters of the antechamber, trashing the room as it searched for her.

She quickened her pace to a jog, forcing herself to ignore the sharp pain caused by the stingers gradually burrowing deeper in her arms, rivulets of blood streaming down her limbs and pattering on the ground.

Tears rolled down her face as she gripped the first spike, her well of power barely enough to direct a thin stream of Lumen to consume the recurve barbs of the thorn before she pulled it out from her flesh, the reservoir far too empty to be able to numb the pain receptors that screamed as the foreign material brushed past them.

Dropping the splinter on the ground, she moved to the next one, her ears strained to catch the first sounds of the pursuer.

It didn’t take long.

Her pace quickened when she finally caught the sound of the creature’s hardened fins gritting on the ground as it pulled itself inexorably forward, slower than her but only just.

She had to keep moving.