We are both the peace and the destruction. Builder and destroyer, but this is nothing new right? We have always been this. We shall live with the price of intelligence. Sentient thought comes with harrowing pain, struggling futility against the dying universe in all of its brilliance.
Sin is always veiled by beauty.
The amber eyes smolder.
-✵
As destruction raged, so did corruption.
Slow and painful breathing escaped Turul's beak. Icy fog mixed with golden love.
An unmoving frozen body laid mutely surrounded in the afterglow of treasures.
Eyes filled with contentment seemed to be the only thing laid bare within that enchanting gas. Its golden iris blended perfectly with the single black pupil. It really was beautiful.
The encroaching gas flowed towards Turul's weak figure. After all, it's best to rid yourself of any threat early right? But, that is where its first mistake was made.
It also never considered that body to be alive. It was so far gone that a sign of life from it would be to faint to find. Its entire body was covered in a large beast's crude fur, however the hands that lay bare before the wind were black and purple, at least they were.
Miracles always seem to fall before the fated. Does that make this human special? Or foolish for not realizing it could have saved its own life sooner?
It seemed that it had a special treasure on it that could heal wounds and ailments quite well.
✵
After Mike had awoken from his delirium, he figured it out pretty quickly that the tear shaped crystal healed his wounds when his backpack tore and it landed right into his hand, after all the pain, frostbite, and bitter cold quickly started to disappear starting with his left hand until it started rolling all over his body until he felt so much better.
After he had had awoken for the first time in maybe hours, he searched through the haze of white and golden fog slowly. A clear mind really did allow for one to understand a dangerous situation better.
Through the haze in the surroundings, he could just barely make out Turul's emancipated figure as he struggled to even move. As the perfect eyes of the Monster moved forward towards him, Mike quickly pulled up The Explorers log and scanned it since the sooner he did that, the sooner he'd be able to figure out what the thing was.
'What can I possibly do against a Monster able to stop Turul?' Glancing at the not so big figure of the Monster, Mike had no idea how he could go about this.
'It was powerful enough to stop even Turul which means anything I could do to it may not be all that effective. The best I could do is use this weird crystal and heal Turul, however how am I going to get over there without being squashed like a bug first?' Searching his memories, the only weapons he had were the Metallic Boomb Fruits, and his ability to create items, however he couldn't create guns, and would a knife even work?
The Broad Bear fur, Golden Carp Bones, Metallic Bomb Fruits, and a walking stick. After looking at it he surprisingly didn't have a whole lot. The only reason he even had a backpack was for the broad bear fur.
'The only thing that I have that may even give me a chance is the Metallic Bomb Fruit!' Within seconds Mike awoke and figured out a little bit of the situation, however how was he to save it? He was only a weak and fragile human.
Shivering in fear slightly, Mike looked for the Metallic Bomb Fruit. Luckily since Turul absorbed most of the energy from impact most of the items landed relatively near him.
The Fruits were within reaching distance, however even that distance might as well be halfway across the world. What if that Monster caught him moving? What could he do if he couldn't even help Turul now when he needed him most?
'This is all just to complicated!' Fear and despair mixed heavily within Mike's consciousness, however crying wouldn't solve his problems.
He had no less than a couple of seconds before Turul was killed.
Within the foggy and snowing desolate landscape a robbed man cried silently in despair and fear for his companion.
Within despair, Potential is created!
✵
Disregarding every thought telling him not to do it, the man reached for it and grabbed 3 bumpy, and silvery fruits from off the snowy ground. Tightening his hand around a tear shaped crystal, the man slowly crawled off the floor.
Once his upper body raised off the floor, the man looked down at the fruits in his hand. He was scared, unbelievably so. It was like staring down a large tiger as it walked towards your friend with killing intent. His shaky hands barely held the fruits within them, however this was his only hope of both him and his friend surviving.
Steadying his body, the man riled up all of his anger and courage to throw those fruits in the hopes of their explosion, after all he had this crystal and his only hope was that it could heal flesh wounds. A little flesh pain was nothing if both him and his friend could survive.
Focusing all of his weak strength into his right arm, the man threw them as hard as he could at those ugly eyes!
Immediately after the fruits were thrown, the man ran for his life towards Turul.
Fear was the most prominent emotion within his whole body, his running looked more like someone drowning, and tears streamed from his eyes. However he had managed to do something most people would never do, and that was risk his life against an enemy so strong he wouldn't survive for a second, and only for a friend.
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Flinging snow into the air, Mike rushed to Turul as the pop of those three fruits couldn't overwhelm the sound of the destruction of the Mantis Shrimp. Two seed pieces managed to hit Mike in the arm, however he both survived and made it to his destination as well. Luckily the broad bear fur was thick and managed to block a some of the damage, after all it wasn't an uncommon ranked beast in defense for nothing! Large black and purple bruises would have been left there without the crystal though.
However it didn't hurt all that much, at least not compared to when he turned younger.
Not looking back in fear of that Monster being right there, Mike laid the crystal on Turul's weak figure. As Turul's body rose back to prominence, The Monster didn't wait around.
✵
As Turul healed rapidly, Mike poured sweat all over his body. Glancing back, only the golden gas remained as it slowly settled to the ground and dispersed.
'Where is that Monster?' Searching fearfully, Mike could not see it anywhere.
'D-Did I actually kill it?' That didn't seem logical, after all if it managed to stop Turul, no matter how hard it was, it should have at least survived that weak attack right? If the broad bear fur managed to barely block it, how could that creature not?
Shuddering, Mike turned back to Turul in hopes of speeding up his recovery.
Turul had been awake the entire time, so once the recovery finished he shot up in his typical cold and regal fashion as magic power buzzed in the surroundings. He was prepared to fight to the death, but what appeared...was nothing?
✵
As The Monster walked towards the dying creature, it planned to kill it in one fell swoop, because a cornered beast really is a terrifying one. It couldn't even run anymore. It put so much energy into making that barrier that the second the rebound of having it broken by that speedy creature damaged it to much to even walk properly. It was using the gas as both a disguise and to heal its wounds, for if that creature knew how weak it was it may very well retaliate.
It wasn't expecting that creature to be so strong, even a pathetic human could kill it right now. Luckily once it got its hands on all of those tantalizing treasures that creature had, it would be able to recover back to full power and then some.
However before it had a chance to get too close, it witnessed out of the corner of its eye as that 'dead' human slowly rise up.
Looking at it holding that crystal and those fruits, The Monsters instincts told it to run, however it couldn't! Looking at the anger, courage, and fear in that pathetic humans eyes wrought fear within The Monster!
'This can't be where I end! No! I have to much planned!' It watched in slow motion as that pathetically weak human threw those fruits at it. Yellow veins filled its once beautiful eyes as the ugliness of it all exposed itself in all of its glory!
It could not run.
It could not hide.
It could not defend, nor could it attack.
It could only watch in anger and fear as that pitiful human killed it with fruit!
As soon as those silver fruits landed they exploded right on top of The Monster, tearing bullet like holes all over its body. It died no sooner than it lived.
✵
Looking at the unrecognizable body of The Monster, Turul had that look on his face.
'Give me my determination back!'
Sighing very deeply, Mike fell flat on his back as he shivered all over his body.
"Man that was scary." Mouth dry, Mike's voice came out slightly raspy and shaky.
Sweat still poured off his face as he felt like crying slightly.
'I nearly died multiple times. This trip was way to risky, and I was really stupid to follow that Beast up here without taking more precautions.' Desolate mountain breezes softly blew by as soft snow gently fell down.
White fog still covered the area as The Beast's frantic attacking didn't seem to lessen at all.
After calming, Mike was ready to leave this place for good and never return. Walking over to Turul who was still prodding the dead Monster's body, Mike crouched down to get a better look himself.
it didn't even seem like it could be alive. Goopy yellow liquids were the only thing that was inside it. Besides a little golden crystal, which Mike pocketed after wiping it off, there were no organs.
Its body seemed to be decomposing to fast as well, by the time Mike had started sifting through it, it had already turned black and brittle. The only remaining thing were its two ugly eyes and a pile of disgusting goop.
After storing the ugly eyes within his pocket as well, Mike walked towards the slope, never to return to this frozen abyss again.
If it wasn't for the tear streaks and puffy eyes from when he cried earlier, he would have looked quite cool.
✵
After grabbing all of his treasures and recreating his backpack and shoes, he descended down the slope with Turul.
As the darkness of the cloudy slope descended upon both of them once more, Mike felt a lot more calm about it this time, after all he know knew the grand powers of the crystal that would protect him from both the cold and injuries.
Along with Turul's amazing vision so they didn't get lost, they had a relatively easy time leaving the mountain's slope as compared to when they first advanced up it.
They never bothered with the mantis shrimp anymore, it would leave once it tired itself out. Mike had also basically figured out that it didn't come here for treasure when he asked Turul about it.
Looking back on it, he had already scanned it so he should be able to read up on it by know right?
--Crustacean Champion: Born in large transparent eggs, these creatures are born in the thousands, however only one shall live to become the protector of its area. Standing at an average of 62 feet tall, these creatures have a multicolored carapace of almost impenetrable defense, as well as eyes that can see with a whooping 12 photoreceptors in its midband, allowing them to see in spectrums far beyond most races. This creatures special ability is manipulating pressure within its own body, allowing for it to increase its destructive power by a thousand fold, as well as being able to walk on dry land with ease. With a slow reaction time these creatures generally do not bother with most other creatures unless under direct threat, however this does mean they are stupid or an easy target. They are generally regarded as very gentle beings with fierce territory manners, going out of there way to protect both the land and their territory from massive threats. They love walking on the bottom of the ocean floor for miles on end.
Environment: Large Bodies of Saltwater
Effects: N/A
Danger Level: MAXIMUM
Rarity: Epic
Reading up on the large Beast as he walked down the slope, Mike was pretty surprised at how broad the range of the ability it had, after all being able to manipulate pressure basically allows one to have unparalleled strength, as long as one is able to stand the pressure going through that body part without it blowing up of course.
With pressure manipulation one would be able to do basically anything with their physical body alone.
'Good thing we didn't get into a tussle with that thing huh?' Sighing out of relief that they made the right decision to just leave it there, Mike continued his downward trot behind Turul.
'It'll still be a while before it done scanning that weird Monster though' Looking at the still loading scanning bar, Mike also checked on their levels.
'This is starting to feel more and more like an RPG.' He was currently still level 9 while for some reason Turul updated to level 8.
'Did Turul even kill anything?' Both creatures that would have the chance to level him up were either still alive, or killed by him.
'Maybe Turul takes the experience for me killing things, or maybe it's based of actual combat experience? That needs to be looked into more.' Keeping a mental note of that, Mike sighed at what they should do next.
After almost 4 hours of intermixed rests and walking, they made it to the foot of the mountain with no problems to speak of. Although it had taken maybe double that time to get up the mountain, that was partially due to Mike slowing them down as well as them walking uphill instead of downhill.
Looking at the beautiful moss floored forest with the quiet whispers of bugs and critters alike, Mike really did feel at home here know. The trillions of stars shined bright, the forest whispered sweetness to all creatures alike as its tall trees housed many and its floor provided nutrients for most. Now this was home.