The lake drained to a third of its original size. Revealing most of the catalyst that was used to seal them in with the fog. The damage was apparent on the sizable rock.

“Did...Did it stop?” The Elder questioned trying to steady herself.

A pillar of pure magical energy began to spew from the earth, much like lava. The emptied lake began to fill with the glowing liquid magic. The group was attracted and leaned over in the direction of the pillar. Besides the catalyst having a clear entry and exit point, the bolt’s path was unimpeded and struck into the ground evident from the glassed earth that cracked open. In seconds the hole’s began to fluctuate a bright purple, first going slow then picking up until it had a constant three flashes.

Spindly tentacles began to rose gripping onto whatever material they could, trees, the rundown buildings, anything. They had no discriminatory factor.

“I think we should leave…” The elder was beginning to get cold feet. Anything that spent this much time trying to terraform the environment probably wasn’t in their best interest to see to the end. Amalia, however, drew her sword. She intended to correct her mistake whether or not she lived afterward would be a future she wasn't thinking ahead for.

“Mateo. Take the elder and Elizabeth and get them to safety.” even if she wasn't backing down, she could promise that it probably wasn’t going to be safe here very long.

Matei bowed his head, sheathing his blade. “Will do, Lady Amalia.” he grabbed the hand of the elder. “I will return shortly.” and he took off.

Now Amalia alone stood amidst the writhing tentacles and flashing lights. The stone had become raised as the ground beneath was filled with the appendages.

The stone cracked and crumbled revealing a fleshy transparent interior. What was inside pulsed with the steadiness of a heartbeat.

The creature inside the flesh sac was most definitely humanoid. Judging by how the creature stood from inside. One by one tiny black dots appeared from the inside of the cyst. They traveled downward leaving open gashes in their wake.

Ripping it open was a fairly familiar face to Amalia. Slight variations in her memory, however, were betrayed. Short red hair cutting off right before the neck, blood red eyes that seemingly never blinked, paired up with two pairs of wings folded beneath themselves. There also existed a whip-like tail, it dripped the black goo that was present on many victims.

Amalia wasted zero time, she sent magic into her sword and charged the creature. Swinging her blade high aiming for the neck. The creature saw her movements and ducked, grabbed her breastplate. The creature pulled her close, close enough to see her mouth which opened from a split in the bottom jaw, revealing every savage tooth in her maw.

Amalia sent her magic through her through her armor, it being conductive completed the circuit shocking both her and the creature. It roared in pain throwing her a few feet back, like a ragdoll.

Landing on her back, she rolled to the side and used her sword as a crutch to get to her feet. She looked at her chest piece, The grip strength of that monster was enough to physically crumple the armor like it was paper.

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Amalia switched her combative stratagem. She raised her arm in the arm forming the electrons into a javelin. She threw it, the resulting noise was several times louder as it broke the sound barrier at close proximity. The impact raised an immense amount of smoke but she didn’t stop at one, she sent javelin after javelin towards her target. She only stopped when the smell of oxidized nitrogen was too much for her to handle. Her breathing was also beginning to stagger, a clear sign that magic exhaustion was occurring.

The smoke cleared and the creature stood there, unharmed. Amalia was hateful gaze was paired with another flying spear. The spear was stopped in mid-air by the beast as it was caught.

A noise came from it, one could only guess that it was laughter, a nasty, haunting sound that actually struck fear into Amalia. The creature opened its mouth and put the bolt into its mouth, the flash could visibly be seen being disassembled as the mouth absorbed the available magic.

A wicked smile crossed its face looking back at the tired Amalia, It took the first few steps, readying its tail to pierce her and inject its converting liquid. The fight was decided the minute Amalia made eye contact.

The creature was well within killing distance. Amalia readied her sword with shaking hands, her stance was uneven, her leg her leg strength was abysmal a strong gust of wind would be able to knock her over. The creature gripped the blade and tore it from her hands, throwing it into the marsh. It grabbed her neck, tight enough to begin choking her. The tail pierced Amalia’s armor making direct contact with her flesh, she could feel the liquid being injected inside of her body, it felt disgusting, like tar.

Amalia closed her eyes and resigned to her fate. The world around her felt painful, everything hurt. But she opened her eyes once again to try as if she wanted to defy her fate. The creature’s smile was broken. She also noticed the tail was no longer in her. The beast lets go of Amalia, she coughed and sputtered out the black liquid. She looked up, She and the creature were surrounded by hundreds of winged insect creatures. An old friend was in front of the insectoids, white hair and iced eyes.

The creature looked horridly displeased, she sniffed the air, then seemed to snarl at Rinae. “Impurity.” She looked around at the surrounding. “All of you... impure.”

Rinae could not stand even the sight of this creature. Something about its existence pissed her off into a new level. In addition to Rinae’s anger, this sent her swarm off into a frenzy, they wished to rip the new creature in half.

Rinae flew at her, tackling her, her teeth sunk into the creature’s neck. Its blue blood ran into Rinae’s mouth and onto the ground. The beast stabbed its tail into Rinae’s back, She hissed in pain freeing up enough space for her to slash at Rinae’s face. She jumped off giving some room between the two.

Rinae’s blood ran down from her face covering her closed eye. The red-haired creature took off into the air. Rinae flew right after her. The two flew high into the sky, The red-haired one tried to escape, her dual set of wings allowed her for a more controlled flight but, her speed was nothing compared to Rinae’s though. She latched onto her back and ripped her arms in half. Rinae tried to pull away but couldn’t as she was being held onto. The two spiraled downward in a ball of blood, teeth, and chitin.

The two crashed into the crowd of insectoids. Crushing a portion of the army. The red-haired one crawled away from Rinae. The two were bloodied and exhausted. Being the one still standing Rinae began approaching the downed other. “Pure or not. You’re still inferior.” She hissed bearing her teeth.

The downed one opened it split jaw and roared. Her eyes turned a blood red. Unfazed Rinae started to finish what she started. Until she felt a slash across her back. Her horde was beginning to infight. Chaos was unraveling before her. Who was on whos side was not clear, but what was clear was that she needed to take care of the immediate threat. She jabbed upward spearing the drone underneath its jaw, the life left its eyes.

Behind her, the massive red-haired creature grabbed her by the back pinning her down. It’s tail piercing her back. Just as easy as it was for Rinae to absorb magic it was for it too. It crushed her body underneath her weight keeping her from getting up.

Rinae began to feel weak every second. Her form began to regress as the magic was drained. She could feel her consciousness slipping away.