Robert stopped his hunt for herbs when he saw the shadow. He watched as the weird antlered octopus with lobster claws started to stir and splash massive amounts of water onto the cavern. it was right above Amanda's quadrant. Then the monster poked an eye out of the water and jumped.
He couldn't believe it. But he was shaken out of his stupor when he heard a female scream. Given the gender distribution of their expedition group, he felt his heart jump out of his mouth.
"Amanda!"
Robert was a thought away from entering the liminal void when a shout made him stop.
"Leave it!" It was Professor Actus.
He felt an assault on his budding mind palace. A mental attack? Coming from his own teacher? What the hell is going on.
"I'm sorry, Robert," Noah said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But we need to let Amanda sort this by herself."
Robert activated his talent. He and Noah went to the liminal void. He spun around but didn't break contact.
"What did you do to me?"
"I used a spell to stun you so you wouldn't come here alone. I'm sorry but I can't have you acting on impulse."
"Amanda is in danger. I'm her bodyguard."
"I know," Noah nodded, his voice serious. "And I am her teacher and acting legal guardian. Believe me, if she dies here, you might lose your job if Titania has gone senile, but I'm going to die."
"That monster is going to attack her."
"True. But now that we are here, we have time. Sit down. Let's talk. How long do we have until your talent sends us back?"
Noah took a rug from his storage and rolled it on the floor. They walked on it. Noah let go and sat two paces away from Robert. He took a few moments to grunt his frustrations, then took his clockwork timepiece.
"Two weeks."
"Your talent is ridiculous, has anyone told you that?"
"Just Titania Samson."
"Sit down. Let's talk. Good. Now, let me tell you one thing. I want you to let Amanda kill that monster. If Freddy wants to help, he's more than welcome. But you shouldn't interfere. Heck, you shouldn't even be nearby."
"You what? Are you crazy? Amanda is going to die!"
"She's not. Amanda is going to kill that monster alone. She'll cry and beg for you to come and save her all along the way, and you won't. Then, after she solo kills the creature, you go there and tell her she did a good job. Because she did. If you want to tell her I helped or not, that's on you."
Robert let his jaw drop. How could this guy be so certain of it? Was it his talent? What were his affinities anyway? He had dozens of things he wanted to ask but voiced only one.
"Your student who died ten years ago, how did it happen?"
Noah nodded. "I think you deserve to know." And he told Robert.
*
*
She cast earth sense on herself so she could tell where the ground was at all times. It was a trick to avoid tripping over irregular ground.
Amanda ran away as the monster crashed almost on top of her. The trees underneath it broke, and the slimes that formed out of the water that splashed along with it got crushed under its blubbery skin. The antlers dug huge furrows on the cave ground, tossing a shower of rocks and dirt in a spray as the creature tried to balance itself. It fell upside down.
"Robert!" She cried, desperate. "Robert, help!"
If only her bodyguard appeared and took her to the liminal void, everything would be solved. They could run away from here, away from the monster and certain death. But shouting and crying only drew the monster's attention.
She heard an unnatural screech coming from behind her and a shadow. A massive tentacle came down at her from the side. She screamed and ran. In a rare moment of clarity, she ran toward the tentacle, intending to go underneath it. She heard and felt the air displaced by the appendage as it slammed and flattened a huge section of land behind her like the cave floor was the creature's zen garden.
Stones pelted Amanda's raincoat. She raised an arm to protect her face as she scanned around for other threats. Then she looked at the monster. The octopus was lying on its side, one antler on the ground, another up in the air. The giant lobster claws flayed around, trying to put it upright once more. Once it did, the tentacles spread in all directions. Moving along the sides to propel the creature forward. Toward her. Its tentacles writhed around its sides, flailing and wrecking the land all around it. The creature occupied an area around a hundred feet in diameter. Its antlers almost scraped the surface of the lake.
She kept moving, going back to where she believed the center of the quadrants was. Where Noah should be. All the while, she kept shouting for Robert's help until her throat became hoarse. The monster kept following her wails as if drawn by a siren's song.
Panting, Amanda looked behind her. And around. She was completely lost. The octopus kept following her, leaving a trail of destruction behind it. She climbed on a rock hill and saw almost a mile of devastation left in the monster's wake. What? Had she moved this far already? Where was everyone?
She panicked. Had they all died? Was she alone and lost in a hostile world? With such a humongous monster following her? Was this how she died? She wiped the tears off of her eyes, the sweat on her brow. With all the humidity of this realm, she was feeling hot and sticky. She removed and stored the raincoat. Her uniform was already soaked in sweat. Amanda vowed to hit the gym like a maniac if she got out of this alive.
The octopus moved, throwing its tentacles ahead and then pulling its humongous body, the eyes above were like a hill, topped by the antlers. Its gigantic head trailed behind it. The monster hadn't stopped. It was closer now, close enough that it tried to lash out with a tentacle. The appendages seemed to be able to stretch and reach further than she believed possible. That was how it managed to whip that attack before.
Stolen story; please report.
Amanda jumped and slid down the far side of the hill, feeling the impact of the tentacle against the hill on her bones. She slid down the hill, scraping her uniform and landing on her butt at the end.
Her vision blurred, and her sense of balance was shot. Her heart beat so fiercely she could feel the backside of her ears throb. Her whole body felt electrical and her senses were overexcited. She felt an urge to just lay down and sleep. It was her body sending a shutdown signal. Telling her she should just lie down and die. She thought she had no hope of leaving. What was the point of struggling? Robert was dead, otherwise he'd have appeared out of nowhere to rescue her.
"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
A howl shook her out of her stupor. She recognized Freddy's voice. Looking around, She saw the Taulusian on another hill a hundred yards to the side. It was bigger, at least twenty feet tall now. The octopus's tentacles shot from out of her field of view and crashed against Freddy. She shrieked. No. They went through him. An illusion! Amanda's heart fluttered with hope, only to be crushed by despair. Was Freddy alright?
"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
Another howl, more distant. She only heard the tentacles crash in the distance. Amanda stood up. She couldn't let Freddy sacrifice himself for her. She didn't deserve it. Yet, the pacifist alien was out there, distracting the monster. For what? So she could escape? No. The thought of leaving Freddy behind only to go deeper into the realm and get even more lost put a sour taste in her mouth.
She was Amanda Samson. What good were all the resources her family poured into her, hundreds of millions of dollars if she did nothing but cry and whimper and run away? If she betrayed the only ally that came to help her? How would she face Robert in the afterlife and tell him, "I'm sorry, I was a coward and left Freddy behind to die. Look what good it did to me."
"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
If death was certain, her choices didn't matter. She could do anything she wanted. She could run away and live her last moments in shame, or she could die fighting. Would it be painful? Yes. She hated pain. But the pain was temporary. Shame was eternal. If she was doomed to die, at least she would die like a warrior.
Amanda stood up and circled around the hill to get a better look at the situation. The antlered octopus was still wrecking everything around it, a cloud of dust obscuring the monster. She thought it ironic, that she would die to a Mollusk of all things. Maybe she was living on borrowed time. Maybe she should've died to that Archmollusk they called a deviant.
"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
Yet, Freddy, the creature who was so frightened and scared a few weeks ago, was out there, challenging the enemy and laughing in its face. A pacifist had more courage than her.
Amanda started to run. Freddy was their child! No. That was not what she meant. Maybe what a little tiny part of her wanted. No. Stop it, brain! Robert was dead. And they hadn't even kissed!
"Stop!" She shouted to herself. It was time to focus on fighting and dying, not fantasizing about what she really wanted Robert to do to her.
"Gyaaaaaaaa!" Amanda screeched.
At least she never treated him bad. She wasn't a tsundere. It was okay to keep her feelings close to her chest. Flustered, she decided it was all this octopus's fault. Hell, if Robert appeared in front of her now, she couldn't promise to keep her hands to herself. She would jump at the opportunity because she wouldn't survive the feeling of losing him again.
Could she hope? Hope that he was alive and he was...
IT WAS ALL A PRANK BY THAT STUPID MASKED PROFESSOR WHO THREW STUDENTS AT FLAMING MONKEYS! Or was it the other way around? Did he throw flaming monkeys at his students? Gah!
Amanda's mood shifted from panic to despair to hope to hatred at the flip of a hat. She went through the stages of grief, broke her limiter, and then decided that she wasn't a tsundere but she could very well play the yandere.
She entered the dust cloud, following the monster that was chasing after Freddy. Amanda focused on her ring for a moment and took out a box with a biohazard symbol. She opened it and took out a bag of seeds and a special rune-engraved glove. She also took some aviator goggles with a dark vision enchantment and donned both articles. The goggles were there to protect her eyes from the dust cloud the octopus created.
That octopus was about to learn how a farmer fought.
*
*
Holding the seeds in her gloved hand, she ran toward the monster. When she saw the writhing mass of tentacles scouring and flattening the ground behind and around it, she went around as she decided it was best to approach from the side. She watched as half the tentacles would shoot forward, grab the terrain with its suckers, and drag the creature ahead of it. The other half trailed behind like a snake's tail. They lay flat against the ground to not hinder the creature's movement. Its sides were comparatively more exposed. Especially if she could reach the joint behind those claws. The creature had something inside of it to give its body structure, unlike ordinary octopi.
She had to be fast because she knew those illusions weren't cheap and Freddy could only cast so many of them before he ran out of essence. The box went back into the ring, the bag of seeds now missing a few specimens. Amanda's legs burned but she kept running. Her only hope was that the monster would be too busy chasing after Freddy to notice her.
"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
The octopus wasn't designed to move on land. That much was obvious. But no matter how slow it moved, its sheer size meant it was only slightly slower than a running person in the current terrain.
Now or never. Amanda cast a sense earth spell on herself. With all this churning dirt and dust cloud, it gave her one big advantage. All around "vision". She could tell where the airborne "earth" was and also where it wasn't. She would sense anything coming through the cloud far earlier than she could see it.
She approached the octopus and poured essence into her seeds. She went over the creature's skin, pushing seeds into the creases of its rugged skin. One, two, ten seeds she planted. The octopus didn't feel her touch or just disregarded her.
Pouring a huge amount of her Essence into the spell, she cast Plant Growth. The same spell she used to create tomatoes for Robert one day long past. The seeds immediately sprouted and grew but these were bloodcrest vines. A plant from a realm deep down that diagram Noah presented to them. Their parasitic roots fed on blood or whatever equivalent the host creature had. Like most grass, their root systems were extensive and went extremely deep. Even with Earth grass, the blades of grass you saw above ground didn't amount to five percent of the plant.
Once she felt the feedback of the plant's growth with her druidic attunement tempering, she started to run away. Things were about to become very interesting around the octopus and she wanted to be nowhere near it. Less than ten seconds later, she was out of the squid's tentacle reach even if it could stretch those to double their length. Which it probably could.
The ground shook as the monster screamed in pain. Amanda stopped and watched. She couldn't see shit behind that curtain of dust. Only the tremors from the monster thumping the ground. But she had to stay nearby. She had to harvest the seeds of the bloodcrest vines she planted, otherwise, the invasive species would stay around and become a hazard for the other delvers.
The octopus' antlers started to shine bright, the glow piercing the veil of dust and making them look like frozen lightning. Amanda felt the energy in the air and smelled the ozone.
"FREDDY!" She shouted as she realized what was about to happen.
"Woof," the Taulusian appeared next to her.
Amanda's jaw dropped. "Here, boy! Jump on my lap! Now!"
She grabbed Freddy and crouched, putting the massive hound on her lap. She kept her heels together and made sure that all four legs and tail were tucked in. Amanda cast a conjure earth spell to surround herself with a dome of conductive ore.
Moments later, a massive thunderstorm joined the ground and lake in one single rain of lightning. Amanda finished her enclosure, casting Freddy and herself in darkness. Every hair in her body and all of Freddy's fur were standing on their ends, electrified. She felt the current but without a path across her body, she only suffered a minor inconvenience.
Her vines, however, were fried. She could no longer sense their life force.
The electricity vanished and the world outside calmed down. Amanda punched her shell as she let Freddy back on the ground.
"If you feel electricity like that, you need to keep all your paws together in the same spot. Like this, can you do it?" She asked.
Freddy barked, then showed her he could.
"And tuck your tail between your legs and close to your belly!" Amanda tried to smile. Then she remembered Robert was either dead or watching her, and flipped the bird at him.
Maybe she was a tsundere, after all.