章節 485: Gushing Flow
After his words of warning to the abominations, Renat's demeanor suddenly shifted. He was no longer the sloth that he had been pretending to be. Now he was full of energy and bounding away at full speed.
Yet it was not the blinding speed the others were expecting. He was lean enough and fast, but it was nowhere close to what would have helped him traverse the land in time to get to them.
"Liar! How did you really get here?" The lizard screamed. "Come back and explain yourself!"
However, Renat didn't stop.
It took only a moment for the monsters to realize they had been tricked, but longer to mobilize. In those precious seconds, the brown wolf was heading to the riverbed, which had miraculously gone dry.
Running on two legs, Renat felt the ground squelch beneath him as he entered the muddy ground. It was a surreal feeling, and even in the dire situation, he couldn't help but look to either side.
To one side the wide river was quickly emptying its contents, becoming just as muddy as where he walked. To the other, an ever growing wall of water was forming.
Instead of overflowing it's banks, the liquid grew ever upward as Wai inhaled it into herself. In this manner the nymph grew taller than ever before, soon rivaling the forest itself.
Within her watery skirts, Renat saw a fish looking longingly at the wolf crossing his path.
'Sorry,' Renat shook his head, 'but things are about to get worse for you.'
A sharp hissing sound beside his ear pulled him from his thoughts. Renat trusted his wife was an excellent shot, but the arrow had nearly split the fur on his head in two.
'Too close!' he wanted to scream.
Behind him, a scream let Renat know the projectile had hit its mark. More arrows came from in front of him, each missing him by narrow margins.
From the bank, both Alaron and Mairwen were shooting, picking off as many of the pursuers as they could while the brown wolf finished his trek.
The wall of water trembled; Wai had finally reached her limit. Water began to flow from beneath her skirts, slowly at first, but more with each moment.
Renat pressed into his speed, hoping it would be enough not to meet an unfortunate end.
————
Stunned by the brown wolf's strange escapade toward the draining river, the abominations only rallied when Renat was around a third of the way across the riverbed.
"Stop the imposter!" Their leader stumbled to begin the hunt quickly followed by the rest.
Anger roiled within their bodies. They had been tricked!
Was the fleeing creature a traitor to their cause? Impossible! It was probably some magical creature that had caught wind of their plans and tried to stop them.
How else would the wolf be holding back water for his own connivence? So infuriating!
Anger turned to hatred, and one by one each of the abominations felt their senses leave as their eyes turned black as pitch.
They hurled themselves one over the other, each trying to get to the brown wolf first. The mass of claws and teeth surged forward, quickly gaining on the brown wolf as he studied the water being held back because of his will.
The scrawniest lizard quickly made her way to the front, her viciousness as sharp as her nails. Leaping off the back of another creature, she lunged forward to close the gap and capture their newest enemy.
Opening her mouth to clamp onto the wolf's head, the lizard got a meal of a very different kind. An arrow flew into her open maw and continued it's journey, slicing through multiple vital organs before coming to rest in her abdomen. She managed a stifled scream before the world went black.
Under normal circumstances, the rest of the group would have been wary of the attack, but sense and reason were gone from the minds of those running along the riverbed.
Neither the arrows nor the watery skirts of a semi-transparent nymph gave them any pause. Fear was not an option, only destruction.
More arrows flew into their ranks, causing some to stumble and others to lose their life. The collapsed abominations were trampled without a second thought. Perhaps later they might be mourned, but for now, they were simply in the way.
The first lizard's defeat allowed the brown wolf to gain back a small lead, and each arrow following it made the distance between him and his enemy more profound. As the wall of water quivered, the leader of the monsters found his voice enough to warn the others.
"Get moving, the water is about to release!"
Renat heard the warning too, though he had already seen the evidence for himself. Taking a few deep breaths to steady himself, he made one final sprint to reach the bank. There was a great sense of urgency not to tempt fate with another near drowning.
The phrase 'third time is the charm' rang a little too close to home. Like a bursting waterskin, the river pushed out of Wai back into its appropriate channel with great force.
"NO!" Renat leapt before the water wrapped around his knees and flew through the air much farther and faster than a human ever could. A rope flew into his hands from overhead, and he swung to safety beside the woman he loved.
"You made it!" Mairwen hugged her husband.
Renat welcomed the embrace. "Thank you for the help. I assume that first arrow was because I was about to become monster food. We weren't supposed to tip our hand so soon!"
"One of the critters nearly took off your head," Alaron answered. "Mair wasn't about to let you come back here in more than one piece."
The Guardian tugged on the other end of the rope, which he had been holding after he threw it over a branch to help his brother.
The brown wolf nodded toward the braided cord. "Thanks for the assist. Now I know how one of those monkey animals feels when he is escaping an alligator now." Renat was glad his brother-in-law was such a quick thinker. The swinging rope had saved his life.
"It's not over yet." Gripping her sword, Eira brought back the attention of the others to the mayhem behind them.
Wai had directed the massive wave to sweep the remaining abominations into the water's flow. The ones not knocked unconscious by the sudden pressure were thrashing against the current in a fight to save themselves.
With a fury of one who was cleansing her home of pests, Wai pulled as many of the vile creatures below the surface as she could.
Taking hold of yet another of the insidious lizards, Wai was surprised when this creature had the presence of mind to fight back. It raked its claws against her translucent skin, breaking through the membrane of her watery cheek.
Wai roared in pain, causing a torrent of bubbles to foam to the surface.
"What was that?!" Mairwen searched the waves frantically for any sign of Wai.
"I'm not sure," Alaron answered. He moved toward the edge of the water. "Oh!"
Unclasping his cloak, the Guardian dove into the water without another word.
"Alaron!" Mairwen reached out to grab hold of him, but Eira held her back before she could follow her brother into the current.
"The Guardian knows what he is doing," the soldier said. "Just give him a moment to…"
Downriver, the silver-eyed man surfaced with a gasp. Pulling himself upon the shore, he laid the lady in his arms next to him on the ground.
Wai was smaller than any of the humans had ever seen. What's worse: the nymph was shrinking by the moment. From her cheek, shimmery water was trickling steadily even through her hand which covered it.
"What's wrong?" Mairwen rushed to Wai's side and took her free hand.
"One of the creatures got her, I guess." Alaron could come to no other conclusion.
"How is that even possible?! Isn't she made of water." The princess could feel the lady had substance, but at a moment's notice the nymph could let things pass through her like she had no solid form.
"I don't know, and it doesn't matter. Get my cloak!" Alaron rolled up the sleeves of his wet tunic.
Renat retrieved the garment and brought it back to Alaron. From it, he pulled out a glowing vial. "Don't tell Justum I keep it in there. He'll have a fit."
"Will it work?" Renat's scientific mind had asked the question more to himself than anyone else.
While it has cured Mairwen —a human made of flesh and bone—of the poison from the lizards, there was no guarantee that it would do the same for a magical water nymph.
"One way to find out!" Alaron did not hesitate to pull out the cork and aim it at the wound. "Move your hand," he instructed Wai.
As soon as the nymph removed her palm, the subtle flow became a gush. The life seemed too quickly be draining from the lady as she gurgled a plea.
"It will be alright, but this may sting a bit," the Guardian cooed gently.
Before the Nymph could argue, a single drop fell from the vial onto the lady's cheek.
A familiar blinding light engulfed the forest.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票