The Calamity was laying in front of us. Three of his heads were burned into stumps, two others were missing the jaw and left side respectively, as for the last four, saying they survive their torture was pushing a little bit, but they looked more complete than the other ones. It may not be a coincidence that the leftover heads were the ones nearing the middle.
His rib cage is open, or what I assumed is the rib cage, with all the black matter in there, I can’t say what is what. His wings were a thing of the past now, I was impressed that most of these bones were still holding together somehow. What were once sharp claws and teeth have now been replaced with a sticky mush that he probably wishes to never swallow. It goes without saying that the smell was not appreciated.
For a second, I thought about hiding Hybry's eyes from this sight, but he didn’t even seem to register that thing as the same species as he is. On top of Tara's back, he only seemed to want to get off and jump in my arms, but even a young mighty hydra was no match for the queen web.
When Lavanda and I were still registering what had happened, Caryly was observing the monster left and right, taking note of everything that she could see. She even took a moment to inspect the monster … most sensitive part with a more interested look in her eyes than I wanted to believe. For now, at least, I turned a blind eye to her hidden side and focus more on the beast itself.
Our wyvern and the likes were still on edge from the fight and had a hard time taking their eyes off the monster.
“We did it,” Lavanda still couldn't believe that she brought down a Calamity monster. She must have spent most of her life feeling like these creatures were far too powerful to be fought. After all, she told me, you need to be either mad or suicidal to fight them. But, she did it and won on top of it. So I guess if you are mad enough, it is possible to win.
The Calamity had all his eyes looking at the little woman who brought him down, or at least the few eyes it had left. This was most likely the first time something ever pull up a real fight, if we can call it that, and not only survive but won. God, that must have hurt his dying ego. The enormous smile on Lavanda did not hide what she was thinking.
Stuck in her tight hug, I looked at what was left of our home, a house, a giant tent and not much else.
“... We did it, … it over… you’re safe…” Her constrict was growing with more force than I could give her back. I basically did nothing, she supposed to be the one who was exhausted.
The island was a mess, we had a few injury to tend to, but we were all alive. Debris were scattered around, the tower was destroyed. The lake not too far away from us was contaminated with poison for good, but we were safe.
“Yes,” Was the only thing I could reply. Her hug was the warmest I ever received in my life up to that point. I lacked the words and the will to think about anything else. I just enjoyed it while it lasted.
It is the reason why it took me a moment to detect the accumulation of plague mana coming from one of the monster heads. As soon as I sense it, I knew what it was, and I pushed Lavanda away from where we were as hard as possible. I also pull her away with vines tentacles, since my arms were not that strong, to begin with.
Just as she made it out by a few inches, I was engulfed by a point-blank plague blast. This was the last time I ever underestimated a Calamity monster.
“EMERY!!!”
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Lavanda
“EMERY!!!” Can she still be alive, what just happened? We were hugging, but then I was pushed or pulled away. Then she disappeared. That bastard still had something left in him! Did he fake a defeat to make us lower our guard, or is it his last stand?
When the blast vanished, so did Emery. The only thing I could hear was a small splash from the poisoned lake, where the blast ended. I couldn’t understand what Caryly was screaming, but the monster was trying to get up on his feet as his bones were cracking under the pressure.
“... Em… Ry…”
On my knees, I was still looking at the empty missing grass, when Randal grabbed my coat and pull me into the air with him, far away from the bastard's second blast at me.
His other heads were also firing plague shots, but these were smaller than before. Mendry, Lendwrek and Caryly had to keep their distance to avoid being poisoned. At first, I did not finish it off immediately to let Caryly learn what she could, after all, it is not every day that you can see a Calamity monster up close without getting your head ripped off.
But it didn’t matter anymore, Emery was gone because I was careless, and even if it was my fault, that big bitchy bastard is gonna pay with more than just his life. The fact that he was hard to kill meant that I could torture him to my heart's content. He took one of the few things I had left in my life, and now there is no running away, no indecision, and no mercy!
“YOU BASTARD!!!”
Unsheathing my sword, I slid out of Randal's grasp and used what was left of my mana to cushion my fall with wind magic. I rushed at the Calamity, sword in hand, I intended to do it up close and personal. With how heavily injured the monster already was, this was my chance. He is already lucky to be alive, but to stay that way, he will need a miracle rather than just luck.
Sidestepping a pathetic attempt to chomp me, I trust my sword at his side. With how big he was, if I didn’t aim for organs or important parts, I will deal no damage, but I first needed to know something.
Without his protective scales, he had no effective defence, but if his meat was also too hard to slice, this would have been a hard fight. With how little information there was about the Calamity monster, it was possible that such facts were undiscovered. Unfortunately for him, his meat suit was just that, meat. Relatively easy to slice with a sharp enough blade, my blade came in and out without any problem.
No reaction at all to my slash, most of the sensors in his body must have been fried long ago. Meaning that if he wouldn’t see me or his wound, he would have had no way to know if he did take damage or not.
Dividing his attention between me and the others, he only assigned one head to keep me in check. The other three were busy trying to keep away the unhappy giant lizards and the elf that was with them. As a single hit of poison could be lethal, they had to take it slow to minimize the risk. Normally, this would have been considered an endurance fight easily won, but I was not patient enough to wait, he will suffer now!
As I dodge a blast, I jumped on his side and used my sword to climb up as I leave many holes in his blackened meat. Climbing was harder than expected. His melted scales created a gooey liquid that made it mandatory to slip if stepped on. A few of his shots got closer than I would have liked, but I remained untouched.
On his back, staying stable was a challenge, but I happily stabbed him as much as needed to avoid falling. Each time my grasp and feet were steady, I slid out my blade just to make a new hole nearby. Now, his projectiles were small enough that I didn’t really need to move to avoid them, but I wasn’t one who would waste a chance to find a new place to stab. I already puncture his middle back enough anyway. If there were any valuable organs in there, it was not in a healthy status anymore.
Sliding closer to his necks, I try to cut one of his heads off from the very root, but my blade stopped around a quarter way in, it was too thick. After trying a little more, I couldn’t cut any of his throats entirely. The closest I got was with the furthest one from the centre, going almost all the way, but there was no use in decapitating an already dead meat stump.
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Since I was close to his heads, he sometimes tried to bite me with the other ones but never succeeded. Rather, I made him taste the edge of my blade as much as he wanted. Each wound he got made me a little more satisfied, but the anger on my face wouldn’t vanish as long as he wasn’t dead and decomposed.
For a while, the Calamity had been moving toward the edge of the island, away from his three biggest threats. His movement was extremely slow as most of his bones were broken, and more keep snapping with a distinct ‘snap’ the more he limped away.
He was already nearing the edge with me on his back. With how fried his wings were, jumping or rather throwing himself off the edge would be more suicidal than an actual escape, however, this is a Calamity monster, and with how thought he is, he might survive the fall.
Not that I planned on letting him escape at all. Our island was far above the sea of clouds, and any island or ground that he would crash on would mean he could get away. Knowing Caryly, there was no chance, even with all our rested firepower, that she would accept to keep chasing that thing when it was not a direct threat to us.
At this point, each plague blast fired was smaller than my head, and they keep getting smaller each time. His claws and teeth were still useless. If he had a regeneration ability, like most hydra, it was long gone. He must have already abused it to stay alive this long, only healing his most important body part to stay alive and conscious. Since it was powered by mana, he couldn’t use it as much as he wanted. After all, healing is useless if you take more damage than you can heal.
As Randal, Lendwrek, Mendry and Caryly were getting closer, the monster finally reached the edge. After our gigantic and very mana-hungry mana spell, Caryly refrained from using any spell, keeping the little mana she had left for a truly dire situation. The dragons and wyvern were also showing restraint but for a different reason. With me directly on the monster, they couldn’t fire fireballs without risking injuring me. Instead, they opted for a more simplistic approach by saving their energy for when the monster would be 100% vulnerable and me out of the way. Contrary to me, they all showed restraint, but their faces showed just as much hatred as mine.
When the blast stopped, the monster took his eyes off to observe his options, which weren’t many. Looking at the fate that awaited him if he stayed on the island and me still poking holes in him. He threw himself off the island with as much force as his broken legs could manage.
I hold on to him, decided to end his life no matter what. As long as I was stuck with him, the others would follow us, and he would die. His fate was sealed!
But then something enrolled my waist and kept me from falling off. As the monster descended below the cloud, out of sight forever, I was suspended by grass tentacles.
“Em…ry?” These were exactly like the ones she always used! She’s alive! She is the only one with plant affinity, this must be her!
As I rejoiced internally. The tentacles pull me up and dropped me on my feet on our ravaged island. Then they retracted into the ground.
“Where is she?!” Looking around, I couldn’t find her. Caryly and the others were there, having been worried about losing me too, but I didn’t see my little girl anywhere.
“I don’t know… the vines simply came out of the ground without Emery around…” Caryly said.
“What, it must be her, or how…”
After a moment of bewilderment, I notice that Tara and Hybry were missing. Seeing something near the lake, I recognized the small spider queen, but there was no Hybry on her back.
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Tara
What just happened?! Everything was great till it was not! There is no way she is impossible to kill, yet so easy to kill at the same time. She was in top shape, and a single blast of that dirty thing made her vanish.
Lavanda has gone mad since that happened and is now stabbing the monster with that pointy thing of hers. The others seem more interested in butchering the poor bastard rather than checking where Emery's body is.
Hybry was impossible to calm down, and I had to free him from my web to avoid him biting his skin off to get out. As he looked around, searching for her, I could sense his distress with our bond. That simple fact proved that she must be alive.
I have only been introduced to that familiar thing since she spared me, and I don’t know if we lose our bond with the other familiar if the master died, but that may prove she is alive. I can still sense the vague remains of her consciousness in the back of my mind, although it is very faint and almost dying, close to what I feel when she sleeps but way worse.
That must mean she is unconscious, but where? If I could at least find her, this would calm the boy, and the others … I hope.
I need to recall what happened. She was hugging that mother of hers, then she pushed the lady off and vanish in the dark green cloud. When the blast ended, she wasn’t there anymore. With how injured the monster was, its blast was nowhere strong enough to disintegrate or completely melt her, especially not when she was supposed to resist plague magic.
Where did the blast aim? Yes, at Emery and Lavanda, but what was behind them? If it is the emptiness of the sky, she might have been pushed out of the island. But if I remember correctly, the blast trajectory ended at the lake. So she might have been knocked unconscious into the lake!
Looking at the deep green contaminated water, I couldn’t see through it. Poking my leg into the water, the poison didn’t hurt me instantly, but I could tell that I wasn’t immune to it. I might survive a little, but searching the whole lake would take too long. Both for me and her!
“Screeeeeeech!!! (Hybry!!! Come here!!!)” I screech at the small hydra. Through our bond, even if we couldn’t directly understand what the others were saying, we always have a vague understanding of what they wanted. It was a shame that Emery still haven’t made Lendwrek and Mendry her familiars. I knew she had plans to, and I’m sure they would accept, but she still hasn’t done it.
Stopping his aimless search, he came to me near the lake. Still panicked and scared for Emery.
“Screech!!! (Search the lake! She might be in there. I hook you on a web, it shouldn’t melt, and I will pull you out if you find anything!)” Understanding his job, I wrapped a web around his body and he dived heads first into the green water.
Even if he was still young, Emery did use the lake to wash him and taught him how to swim at the same time. She didn’t even know how to swim, but learned with him, seeing that he was learning faster than her, which made her more proud than dejected.
As ten’s seconds passed by, Hybry came out to the surface to breathe and dived back as soon as possible. A minute passed, then one more. Hybry already came to the surface multiple times to breathe, and he was getting tired.
“Screech!!! (Keep going! She must be in there!)” And he dived once more. Determined to find her no matter what.
After one more minute, the fight between the others and the monster seems to have ended with the beast throwing itself off the island. I didn’t really pay much attention, being more occupied by Hybry and the search for Emery. What I notice was that Lavanda was saved by nature vines tentacles or whatever I’m supposed to call it. I recognize it due to the movement pattern difference between it and Emery. She got a more opportunist and wait-and-see style, while nature is more active, precise and fast than the girl.
It was then that I notice something, the web was pulled by a weak movement, and Hybry's mood changed suddenly when he was underwater! It was subtle, but it was there!
Rapidly, I pull the web and Hybry out as fast as my legs could. The weight was heavier than just Hybry, something was with him!
When the web was reaching its end, I could see Hybry stuck to the unconscious girl, holding her with all his force. His grip and teeth biting in her wet clothes to make sure he wouldn’t let go of her.
When I pull them out, the others seem to finally notice us and came running as fast as they could.
But something was not right, and I could sense it as Hybry's tears were rolling down, his head stuck to her chest.
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Caryly
“EMERY!” Lavanda screamed as she ran to the girl.
Emery seems unconscious and pale, with no breathing whatsoever. She had been underwater for far too long.
“DAMMIT!” I yell. If only we haven’t been so preoccupied with that Calamity monster, we might have been able to reach her sooner.
It seems Tara pulled her out of the lake, I should have paid more attention! I was too occupied with learning more about the monster since this was once in a lifetime occasion.
Seeing that Emery was not breathing, Lavanda put her ears near the girl chest trying to hear something, anything. With Hybry still hooked on his beloved master, she had to share her tears with him.
I knew the moment I laid my eyes on her. Elven instincts were infallible, especially when dealing with other pure elves. It had saved me so many times and was one of the few things that a pure elf could put his trust in.
For the first time ever in my extremely long life, I wished my elven instinct were wrong.