One of the stronger ones at the ninth star of the Expert rank came close and raised its six arms. Six tendrils of burning lava snaked from its palms toward her, sending out clouds of white smoke and boiling water while countless more of the tentacled monsters swarmed toward Jie's position, about to overrun her completely.
Jie used lightning step to form a crackling platform in the water and kicked off it, pushing herself away as the lightning platform exploded in a massive plasma discharge.
It sent her rocketing away with such extreme force it not only pushed her out of the way of the attack but killed several of the monsters that had been nearby. The shockwave from her lightning step rippled through the water and the magma tube she'd been right above cracked. The creature's lava attack fizzled through the space where she'd been and turned into rock before dropping slowly to the floor.
Jie sent a finger of light at the ninth star Expert that had attacked her and blasted it to pieces, along with a cloud of its friends. The shockwave slammed into the already cracked magma tube and a chunk of it broke. Bright orange liquid rock burst outward, boiling the water in a cloud of white smoke as the entire temple shook violently. Fifty of the creatures were swallowed by the bright orange magma that quickly turned to rock on the outside.
Jie looked at the magma tubes again.
Maybe I should focus my attacks on the tubes... how many more could I kill with the lava? Jie wondered.
Then, cracks spread through the rapidly cooling rock like spider webs, and the creatures burst out, still covered in bright orange lava that smoked in the water, turning to rock and coming apart in a shower of debris as they moved. They looked a little singed, but otherwise unhurt, so Jie abandoned that plan.
Several hundred of the creatures raised their six tentacles and shot tendrils of lava qi at Jie, filling the room with hundreds of smoking, winding beams of burning orange qi.
Jie evaded the strikes, weaving through them even as she continued retreating toward the doorway, the winding attacks boiling the water all around her.
Jie unleashed another twin chain finger of light attack and decimated the swarm, but it was like hitting smoke as more simply swirled in to replace those Jie killed. More tendrils of burning lava qi snaked unpredictably toward Jie, filling the room with white smoke and stone, making it even harder to see in the already dark room.
Jie made it to the doorway and swam into the egg room, quickly rounding the corner to limit their line of sight on her so fewer of them could attack her with lava tendrils. She half expected to be surrounded the second she swam into the room, but none of them were there. Still, she made a mental note of the other doorways, just in case.
She fired several more finger of light attacks through the doorway as the teeming horde of monsters swam toward it in a swarm so dense it was impossible to miss. Each strike blasted huge chunks of the swarm apart.
They shot lava tendrils at her, but now they were all tightly packed in the doorway, so she hit one of the tendrils of lava with a finger of light and the blast disrupted all of them at once, sending droplets of smoking magma through the water.
The horrid creatures kept trying to force their way through the choke point as the temple rumbled from her strikes. She didn't have infinite qi, but she had vastly more than when she first came to this world, so as long as she could keep them contained, she was confident that she could outlast them.
Then, she heard the whispering grind of stone on stone all around her and spared a glance from the doorway.
Stone blocks retracted into the ceiling, floor, and walls and then slid out of the way into some hidden culvert. More of the creatures boiled out of the secret tunnels as even more streamed through the other doorways. Jie attacked them with chain fingers of light, but there were too many of them coming from every angle now. Jie fought with everything she had to try and keep the swarm from pouring into the room, but there were simply too many coming from more directions than she could handle.
She rapidly lost control of the doorway she'd been using as a choke point as an endless tide of the monsters poured in through every entrance.
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The creatures drowned the room in their endless numbers as Jie found herself pushed toward the center of the room, desperately fending off the relentless creatures.
Each of her attacks annihilated countless numbers of the monsters, but they seemed not to care in the slightest, and for every one she killed, ten more took its place.
The space around her shrank like darkness drawing ever closer to a dying flame until they overwhelmed her. Hundreds of the tentacled monsters swarmed her, their martial skills scraping against her qi armor. Every attack drained more of her qi as she cycled her qi armor with everything she had.
With a thought, she allowed her qi armor to react to the attacks, and just like with her other skills, something about the water boosted it. Rather than the normal repulsion effect, the reactions were explosive, turning the world around her into a nightmarish fusion of bright flashes and hissing mouths.
Jie unleashed a flurry of dragonfist attacks as she bounced chaotically in every direction. Every dragonfist exploded, decimating everything in an area around her fist. But it was never enough. And as she pushed back those in front of her, so others swarmed her back and sides.
Acidic blood hissed endlessly against her crackling qi armor as meat and gore swirled around her.
The monsters were everywhere and her qi was rapidly draining now.
Driven by an insane idea and inspired by the strange way her qi behaved in this lake, Jie pushed more of her qi into her qi armor than she had before while preventing it from reacting explosively to anything.
Her blue hair spread out around her, crackling with lightning that arced and snapped over her as her entire body glowed bright blue.
The creatures clawed her and sent tendrils of burning lava into her that struck her as often as their own kind. Though they seemed strangely immune to the lava qi attacks. Their grasping claws scrabbled against her armor and Jie's heart hammered in her chest as the nightmare threatened to swallow her entirely.
Jie squeezed her eyes shut even as she did her best to keep her fear in check, determined to make it through this no matter what it took.
She pushed even more power into her qi armor until it hummed and crackled dangerously.
Then, with a thought, Jie made it react to everything. Including the water that surrounded her.
Even with her eyes squeezed shut and the darkness of this strange place that seemed to dim all light, her vision went white as a deafening roar pierced her ears before cutting off abruptly into nothing but ringing.
It was a heavy drain on her qi, but she was determined to end this fight now if she could. Or at least buy herself a moment to find a better position. She kept her eyes squeezed shut as she fed dragon lightning qi into her qi armor like never before. She felt it radiating from her through her spirit sense, but she had no idea what it was doing to everything around her. Although, the creatures had stopped hitting her, so it had to be doing something.
Finally, after keeping it like that for long enough to drain her qi reserves to less than half, Jie reduced her qi armor to more normal levels and kept it from reacting to anything. The light she saw through her eyelids dimmed and when it was black, she opened her eyes.
The creatures were gone. All of them. With not a single one in sight. So were the pools filled with eggs, leaving only stone that had melted and reformed. It was smoking. The whole room was. In place of lava tubes, there were fresh mountains of rock as though she'd shattered them all and the magma had come spilling out.
Even the doorways were warped and what little she could see of the rooms beyond looked only marginally better than the one she was in, which had gone from a rectangular shape to a more spherical design with her at the center of what looked like a crater on all sides. The only light left to see by was the blue glow that emanated from her qi armor.
The blood-red statue of the woman and the plaque were utterly unharmed.
Jie let out a sigh. It came out of her gills, which felt more than a little weird.
Now what? She wondered.
"You surpass expectations," whispered the statue, "the trial was only to survive for a time before I brought you back to your realm. But you destroyed all who would oppose you. You've earned your reward... but before I let you go... I have a favor to ask of you, one they call Jie. Will you hear my request?"
Jie blinked as the statues weren't normally so chatty and this seemed... odd. But she nodded. "I'll listen and help if I can," Jie said, though her voice sounded strange to her own ears underwater.
"I want you to kill me, one they call Jie," said the statue.
Jie looked over the statue and frowned as an icy fear that someone was trapped inside crawled up her spine.
"You are far too weak now... but one day... if you are ever strong enough. Find me. The real me. And kill me... please," she said.
"The real you? What? Why? How do I even find the real you?" Jie asked.
"I can offer no reward save the gratitude of a lost soul and whatever treasures I carry when I die. Please... kill me..." whispered the statue, "kill the monster he turned me into... kill... me..."
"Who made you a monster? Where would I find you? Isn't there another way to help you?" Jie asked.
But the statue said nothing more.
A portal opened up and the rushing water sucked Jie into the darkness...