It wasn’t often that anything rattled Rylie. One of the perks of being an experienced Trainer with an Evo2 was that most encounters, along with most other Trainers, were often trivial. Though there were exceptions. Battling her sister, for example, never turned out great for her. Ranking leaders were inordinately savage and she could never understand why some were so much stronger than her despite having the same evolution level and experience. It had been theorized–she wasn’t involved in any science nor did she care, but she had heard enough from Demiurge researchers to gather a general idea–that within each evolution there were micro changes that indicated higher or lower levels of strength. Some even suggested changing the official naming to Evo1a, Evo1b and so on until said Thaeon made the actual jump to the next stage of their development.
Eh, seemed like a waste of word space to have all the extra letters.
There were simply too many factors involved in one’s development and battle approach to distill it into exact classifications. Like how her Evo2 was so outmatched by her sister’s. Or, she wondered as she stood on the lake shore with a trembling coffee cup in her hand, what that would classify as. Even from this distance, the bulk rising out of the water was terrifyingly large. So large that it was comical. There had always been talk, sure, about old Thaeons that had lurked beneath the lake’s surface, or under the mountains, or even in the region’s volcano; those were legends. Myths, Stories to tell kids to keep them out of trouble–it never worked on her and her sister, but their parents had tried nonetheless. Talon had raised up on two legs beside her, completely taut with his claws and teeth glowing an intensified light green. If any kids died on her watch at the lake, she would never be able to live it down. Or worse. Still, she would probably need some backup.
“Sis?” she spoke into her watch.
“I don't know whether I should feel lucky or annoyed. You never call me this much.”
“We have a…problem and I might need some help.”
“What, another idiot Trainer set fire to the cottages again?” Kylie laughed.
“Hold on, I’ll show you what I mean.”
Nil and the others were standing just outside the farthest treeline possible away from what had just emerged from the water. All around it, trees lay flattened, sand had been pushed into heaps, pebbles spewed from its foul mouth. He scanned it with his watch to get a feel for what it was or how strong it was. It appeared on the screen in miniature with the only classification being Evo3, as if that wasn’t obvious. He sent the info to Raven as proof of some wild discovery in case they found his body floating in the lake the next day.
“What exactly are we looking at?” Rose shivered violently, her pale face paler than usual.
Nil had fought his fair share of [Water] Thaeons to get a feel for what developed in this lake. There weren’t many variations that he had noticed: some had shells similar to what he had fought in the cave, others were long like serpents with large, clawed limbs; the last was a basic fish body covered in iridescent scales. This thing was a mix of all three in an odd, hodge podge of parts. The curious Trainer in him wondered if this was why the other Thaeons looked the way they did, as if this thing was their progenitor. The other part of him took stock of their situation.
Its head, larger in height than two of them stacked up, looked like a turtle’s with a curved beak-like mouth except with absurdly long razor teeth jutted out. Its eyes, glassy and slitted in the sunlight, stared at them with an emotion hard to read. What caught Nil’s attention was another set of eyes set on top of a group of tentacles that floated around on top of its head that scanned the area around it. While the rest of the body was obscured by the water, it had brought with it two paws, tipped in curved claws and webbed fingers that were curled into fists and smashing a tree to bits.
There was a real possibility they might die here.
“What do we do now?” Max was standing behind a tree with Brute clinging to the trunk.
Well,” Nil began, “we could call for help and then keep it busy.”
“Keep it busy? Are you insane? It could scoop up half of us in one go.”
“But notice how it stopped. It obviously prefers having its body in the water. We can attack it from here and drive it back.” Nil watched the tiny eyes floating around on stalks. A weak point, perhaps. Phantom had hit one last night and made it retreat.
Then, its mouth opened to reveal rows upon rows of jagged teeth and a black hole for a mouth. A blue light form in the throat, growing in size, then beaming out towards the group with enough force to cut furrows into the sand. Screaming, everyone scattered right before the trees were sliced apart and blown over. The head retreated back into the water, leaving them with a complete silence save for the ragged and scared breathing of Rose and Max who were collapsed beside him.
“I-It left? Do you think–” Rose was cut short from an explosion behind them on the other side of the island followed by a wave–Nil groaned; he had seen far too many of these that it was becoming annoying. It rose up and surged forward, sending a raging river of lake water over all of them.
“I think,” Nil yelled through a mouthful of water, “it’s trying to drive us into the water to swallow us.”
“That’s comforting,” Max groaned as he clung to a tree.
“No, Nil, I think it’s toying with us.” It was Poc who was grabbing onto his Thaeon and skating over the receding water on a sheet of ice that formed under it.
Silence again.
The next time it emerged was on the far side of the island, rising up from the water on an elongated neck covered in scales that made tiny rainbows as the sheets of water poured off. It rose then dropped back down to just over the trees, its massive paws stomping back onto land. It parted the trees like kindling, taking heavy steps until it was in the clearing.
“Oh, I guess it can come on land.” Nil choked the words.
The rest of the body was a shell that had spikes at steady intervals. Its paws were dragging its body over the sand, then extended out in a stretch to lift the hulking body up on tree-trunk legs. Its neck elongated again and was moving around like a snake would, following its prey. It was slower on land, a small blessing.
This gave Nil an idea.
“Poc, send some more of those icicle spikes under its feet. All this water should freeze pretty easily.”
“That’s a lot of water, Nil.”
“Just do it. When it stomps down again it’ll hit the spike. Pic, can you send more flaming webs across the clearing?”
“Y-Yeah, I think so.”
“We’ll keep it distracted while you do that.”
Rose crossed her arms. “What’s the idea here, Nil? Get us killed?”
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“No, Rose, trying to save our skinds. I want to slow it down, maybe distract it long enough to get everyone off the island.”
The ground shook, the standing water around them rippled.
Max said, “I’ll tell everyone to head to the shore and prepare to leave.”
Poc sent his Thaeon skating across the water. The head turned downwards with all the tentacle eyes pointing at the rolling Thaeon headed its way. As it raised another leg, Toc sent out a fan of ice spikes that bloomed over the field under it. When the leg came down the beast let out an ear-splitting roar. Tic, simultaneously, had wrapped flaming web around trees and the other legs that smoked against the wet scales. All behind them, the other Trainers were sprinting through the woods for an escape.
“Now for my part. Phantom, you’re up. Poc, freeze the surface.”
Phantom nodded and dashed towards the raging monster, jumping onto a line of ice and gliding with ease. The head turned down towards the tiny creature flying his way, recognizing instantly who it was. Another roar and the head shot downward with its mouth opened as wide it could go.
“Nil!” Rose was frantic now watching it all unfold. The fangs closed around Phantom and the head rose slowly. On top of the head, clinging onto two of the tentacles, Phantom stood.
“This ought to get everyone out. Now, do it!”
Though a speck of black atop that towering neck, Phantom’s movements were a blur. He sent a flurry of punches and kicks to the eyes which resulted in a pained roar that shook the leaves around it. The neck and legs retracted back into the shell as quickly as they could. Phantom leapt off then reappeared beside Nil.
More silence followed. The gargantuan shell the size of a building sat motionless. Nil looked back to see all the retreating Trainers riding waves back to shore–he was glad that caught on. Then, a chime from his watch made his heart jump.
“Raven, did you get my picture?” he said frantically.
“I did, Nil. I spoke with the ranking leader Kylie and she and some others are coming to help. This…this is an unprecedented occurrence.”
“Professor!” Rose shrieked. “Do you know what this is?”
“I’m..not sure yet. Right now you need to find a way to get off that island without getting eaten.”
“The others are already headed back. Nil came up with a distraction and now the thing is hiding in its shell,” Max commented with a glimmer of admiration in his voice that Nil had never heard before.
“In its shell? Show me.” A few moments passed. “Oh no, you kids need to get out of there right now.”
“We can’t. It will chase us through the water, Raven!” Tears were forming in Rose’s eyes.
Raven rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. In the background, Dagger floated closer to see what was going on.
“There are certain techniques that require time to charge up. It’s typically impractical for obvious reasons. Imagine stopping mid-battle to prepare a technique–it wouldn’t work. In some scenarios, however, it does. Certain Thaeons develop defensive measures to allow for this type of combat. I believe your friend there is about to do the same.”
Raven, though fearful for his students’ lives, couldn’t stop the scientist in him from wanting to see what this thing could do. Of course he had heard about certain legendary Thaeons in the world. For some, it was a complete area of study; others, like the various Hunter groups around Specter swore by them. In this case, he was certain this was no legendary Thaeon. Big as all hell, sure, but not some ancient beast with aspects beyond their current understanding. At times, in certain specific conditions, wild Thaeons could develop beyond what was expected. What this was, he had no idea. Evolution was a reactionary process where biology changed to match the need. There was no need for this kind of size in any natural environment.
A load creaking filled the air coming from the closed shell.
“You need to get as far away as possible,” Raven urged them.
“This island is tiny, professor, I’m not sure–” Nil was cut off as the creaking stopped, the sides of the shell opened with a light brown light, and a column of sand launched the shell into the air.
“That isn’t good.” Raven leaned into the screen with his eyes wide and mouth open. “Run!”
The shell spun and smashed into the ground with a series of events that, in retrospect, did not seem real. First, there was a loud crack, followed by a wave in the sand as if the ground had become water and was rippling from the body. It approached them so fast there was no time to react, only brace themselves as they were all suddenly airborne and plummeting towards the water. From this vantage point, though upside down, Nil watched as massive fissures formed in the ground and radiated out from the shell. The island burst apart into chunks of rock and sand that flowed like water into the air then into the lake where it displaced enough water to send a tidal wave in all directions.
Nil was tired of waves; he would probably never go back to the ocean, or any body of water, ever again.
They all rained down into the water with screams and splashing, Thaeons and all. As if by some miracle, logs were floating nearby just in reach for almost all of them to cling to. Pic and Poc, on the other hand, were wrapped on their Thaeons and skating across sheets of ice with Tic’s web wrapped around Toc.
“Is everyone all right?” Poc asked.
“Not for long, look,” Nil said breathlessly.
Another wall of water had piled up and pushed their way with alarming speed. Rose and Max both gripped the same log, their Thaeons all attached to others. The wave approached and lifted them up along the inclined surface. With some luck, Nil thought, they could go over the top and avoid crashing into shore.
Nope. Too fast.
“Brace yourselves. This…might hurt a bit.” Nil yelled.
The top of the water started to fall with them on it. It was a blur of cottages, scurrying Trainers trying to get away and more water. The wave slammed them into a foamy tumble under the water where all control was lost. Their limbs flailed, their heads rolled; for a second, Nil didn’t think he would ever resurface until the current washed him up at the battlefield where had found Rylie last night along with Max and Rose groaning next to him. They all rose coughing, taking deep breaths, hacking up with water in their mouths.
“That was insane!” Pic was screaming but in joy. “Good job, Poc, riding that wave. Holy crap that was–oh, guys are you okay?”
“We’re…fine, I think. Rose? Max?”
They didn’t answer, but gave a thumbs up still lying flat on the ground. Phantom stood next to Nil who was relieved to see he had survived. The lake continued to slosh with waves and turbid currents of swirling madness for the next ten minutes. In that time, Rylie had appeared along with the other Trainers who had escaped.
“No, sis, actually everyone is safe now. Thanks,” she told her watch and clicked to end the call. “What the actual hell happened? Luckily these cottages are waterproof and anchored to the ground. We almost lost everything.”
Bzzt. Bzzt. “Nil? Nil! Are you okay?” Raven’s voice was frantic and obscured from water in the speaker.
“Yeah we’re fine. I think. You were right, professor; it was charging up an attack. It wasn’t trying to eat us, but to destroy the island.”
“Intriguing. Maybe it was some sort of protector?”
Nil felt a wad of guilt in his gut. He had attacked its eye the night before and most likely pushed it to drive them away. Boy, if only his parents could see him now.
“Maybe, maybe.”
“Nil, you saved everyone,” Rylie said with a relieved smile. “They told me you kept it distracted while they returned here. All of you are. I hate to lose the island but hey, no deaths. There is a silver lining.”
The Fan Town Trainers all looked at one another, then back to her. For the rest of the evening, they all relaxed around fires to dry off and cheer up. It was the first time in years that Rose and Max hadn’t been complete assholes to him at every chance. He welcomed the change for the moment, but knew that right after it was back to business as usual–good. Keep that anger and competitiveness. He just wished Lyn were here to share in this moment. Not Dave so much. As a matter of fact, he had ideas for Dave the next time he saw him.
Investigators came soon after to ask questions and get a handle on what had happened, questioning everyone involved to clean some truth of the matter. One in particular, a young woman with an owl Thaeon whose huge eyes glowed purple, used techniques he had never seen before to dig around and draw out information he had no intention of telling anyone.
“You attacked it and it destroyed the island in response,” she finally said.
“I wouldn’t say that exactly…” Nil’s face was burning.
“No, it’s not your fault. We monitor this lake closely and within the past week there has been an increase in seismic activity in this area. Minor, to be sure, but an increase. It’s my belief that this thing just woke up.”
“Why?”
She shrugged then shook his hand. “Thank you for your cooperation.”
The rest of the night they relaxed, ate and recalled their version of events to try and understand what had happened. Nil sat back, staring at how the stars reflected on the lake’s surface, wondering what that woman meant by “just woke up.” That would imply something had woken it up. Or someone. He turned back to the chattering group to say good night then retreated into his cottage.
Tomorrow he would head towards Pol City and couldn’t wait to see what kind of Trainer this ranking leader was.