They continued without incident until the tunnel opened up into a wider one through which the underground river normally ran. With the river blocked, however, the party found that the way was flooded with muddy water. Venza frowned. She'd rather avoid wading through mud, if possible.
"I don't suppose you have a spell for walking on water?" Venza asked.
Aiela shook her head. "Currently beyond me. I haven't been a Water Mage for long, you know."
Fortunately, the river ran only in the center, leaving thin banks on either side that could be traversed. Despite the blockage, the water only made it halfway up the shin if one stayed at the sides.
“Interesting,” Aiela said, which caught Venza’s attention.
“What is?” Venza asked.
“The river isn’t completely stopped,” Aiela said. “I suspected as much or this whole tunnel would be completely flooded.”
“So it’s just mostly clogged?” Venza asked.
Aiela nodded.
"If we're lucky," Aiela said, "the damn lizards built a nest or something in here and that's all we have to deal with."
She closed her eyes for a moment, then added, "A bit over half an hour left on the scorpions. We should keep moving."
The four of them headed downriver, once again keeping one scorpion in front with the other taking up the rear. This time, they minded the walls and ceiling for signs of the lizards. Fortunately, it seemed the group at the entrance had been the only lookouts.
“This terrain is not ideal,” Venza pointed out.
“Obviously,” Aiela drawled. “But there’s nothing I can realistically do about it. I’m not wasting all my magic on making solid ground when we don’t know what else is waiting for us.”
Venza’s eyes scanned both walls, the ceiling, and even the river. “You don’t suppose they move better in water than-”
Suddenly, Aiela motioned for them to stop, prompting Venza to ask, "What's wrong?"
A frown creased Aiela’s lips. "There's something up ahead!"
Several somethings raced up the water towards them, at a speed Venza could hardly believe, but Aiela had already raised her hands up in a blocking movement. She must have cast a spell, as a great wind suddenly blew into existence, buffeting the river upwards into a sort of watery wall.
The speeding objects crashed into the curtains of wind and water, their velocity hampered by the collision, but not halted. Venza focused her mind and grabbed the closest one using Reach, altering its course to slam into the tunnel wall. It was only when it crashed down to the flooded bank that she realized it for what it was: Another one of the lizard creatures.
Roeder and Carver each caught one of the creatures with their shields, the impacts still causing the boys to reel despite Aiela's water wall having slowed them down. Vines detached and coiled, constricting the reptiles like swarms of snakes.
Venza had never seen a creature propel itself with water like that. As weak as these things seemed earlier, they seemed far more deadly in water.
Her thoughts were cut short by a massive object suddenly speeding towards their party.
"Fuck me, is that-" Venza began, but couldn't finish.
The speeding object sailed through the sky like a green comet. Its body landed on the lead scorpion, the armored arthropod instantly crushed with a loud crunch. Towering above them was a large, bulky behemoth. Venza could now see it was a larger version of the lizards, easily four times the size of the normal ones. Where the small ones had slender, long bodies, this one had a wide, bulky frame supported by stubby legs and wide, prominent fins on the sides of its head that stretched back like ears.
She didn't think Steelskin would have saved her from getting crushed by that.
"Aiela!" she shouted, but the mage was already on it.
"Scald!" Aiela invoked, sending a jet of boiling hot water to shoot from the river onto the creature's face, causing it to rear back.
Venza focused her own magic. Reach, she thought at the same time she punched her right fist forward, twisting her body to put more force in the blow. The impact reached across space to stab the monster in the left eye. As the monster roared in pain, a bloody trail leaked from its eye socket.
Seemingly spurred by its cry, several of the smaller lizards appeared from the shadows to aid the large one. The remaining scorpion charged forward to engage, but the lizards largely ignored it, going straight for Aiela.
"Cover her!" Venza commanded, and the boys followed without argument, using their shields to hold the reptiles in place.
"Venza!" Aiela called out as she stopped two of the lizards in place with Heat Sink. Venza nodded, bringing her fists down hard, bashing the two lizards in the head through Reach. Their heads slammed into the ground hard and their bodies went limp.
Suddenly, another one dropped down from the ceiling, giving her just enough time to bring an arm up to block it. Sharp fangs tried to sink into her arm, but due to the odd angle and her hardened skin, it slid off, only mildly scratching her brigandine.
She tossed it aside and brought her other fist down on its neck, which rewarded her with a loud crack. Finding no more lizards attacking, she took a second to survey the battle. Roeder and Carver were occupied with the smaller lizards, but the giant remained focused on Aiela, its scales burnt by boiling hot water and missing an eye.
"Scald!" Aiela invoked again, using the same attack spell from earlier. Venza wondered why she insisted on using such a roundabout spell when she had- Oh, of course.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Aiela was probably trying to see if she could get access to the Fire Sphere if she burned enemies in combat. She had, after all, gained her affinity for Water spells by using Nature Magic to purify water. Still, Venza wished Aiela had picked an easier opponent to make the attempt against.
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Aiela
As if annoyed by Aiela’s insolence for not taking it seriously, the beast suddenly stood on its hind legs, its forelegs up in the air like arms. With a heavy swing of its right foreleg, the creature made a punching motion, and a piece of the tunnel wall the size of a boulder ejected itself, straight at Aiela. She countered by bringing her fist up, conjuring a pillar of stone to block the flying rock.
“Foolish creature,” she said. “You can’t beat me in Earth or any other magic.”
Still. She supposed she should stop trying to cheat her way into Fire Magic against such a formidable opponent.
The creature growled, bringing its left foreleg down, causing rocks to fall from the ceiling. She shifted the water to push her away from the impact area. With a grin, she brought both arms forward, sending two pillars of earth down from the ceiling to hit the monster square in the face. The monster raised one claw up to block a pillar, rotating its massive body with surprising agility to dodge the other. It then smoothly brought its other claw up as if grabbing something Aiela couldn’t see.
Aiela felt the vibration before she saw it. A claw made of mud rose out of the ground, mirroring the creature’s and poised to grab her. With a muttered curse, she conjured a gust of wind that propelled her upwards and out of its reach. She then landed on the muddy ground intact thanks to its softness.
The creature advanced towards her, but she was ready. With a powerful punch, she conjured a prodigiously large spear of rock, aimed straight at her enemy’s throat. There was no way it could dodge or block that with its magic.
The creature brought its claws inward and clasped them together. To Aiela’s shock and horror, the massive creature slammed its joined claws against the spear, breaking it and sending shards of stone flying towards her. She reacted too late, stunned by the display of raw physical power. Scrambling, she tried to get a wall of earth in front of her to intercept but knew she wouldn’t make in time.
It wasn’t fair. She was a better mage in every aspect! But her human body couldn’t match the sheer muscle and bulk of the monster in front of her.
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Venza
After helping the boys dispatch more of the smaller lizards, Venza turned to Aiela just in time to see the big lizard send a rock straight towards her friend. Exhausted but unrelenting, she channeled Reach once more, jerking Aiela towards her.
Aiela managed to land on her feet, nodding thanks to Venza. The mage brought her right hand up as if reaching for something then spoke the words ‘Necrotic Lance.’ A long, beam of crackling green-black energy appeared in her outstretched hand for barely a second before Aiela hurled it at the monster like a bolt of death.
Venza watched in real time as Aiela got serious. Despite her strong affinity for multiple types of magic, Aiela relied on Death and Nature most when things actually got difficult.
However, the creature was prepared. It swiped its right claw upwards, and a thick wave of mud erupted from the ground, blocking Aiela's attack.
It launched forward once more, riding the wave of mud towards Aiela. Venza readied herself to cast Reach again, but at the last moment, the creature somehow hopped its bulky body off the wave of mud, its four legs finding purchase on the tunnel wall despite its immense weight. As Venza pulled Aiela out of the mud wave's path, the giant lizard scampered along the wall at an improbable speed, straight for Venza.
Time seemed to slow as her mind processed her options. The creature was simply too large and too fast for her to dodge safely. Knocking it off-course wasn't an option, either. She might have been strong for her age but she was nowhere near strong enough to budge an enemy of that size, let alone stop its momentum. It was moving too fast to punch out its other eye, too.
As the split seconds passed, it became clear her only option was to brace herself and try to dodge to the side.
Her body moved to follow her plan, throwing her weight to the right in a desperate maneuver to evade. Then suddenly, she felt an impact on her left shoulder. She turned to face its owner, and found Roeder there, using the full force of his body to push her to safety.
In an instant, he'd managed to push her out of harm's way as the lizard came crashing down, angling itself midair to crush whoever was beneath with its belly. It missed her, but a sharp cry from Roeder told her it hadn't completely missed him.
Venza's fists curled tighter as she kicked herself up from the floor. A far-reaching punch with all her fury behind it struck at the lizard's throat, causing it to stagger. Then came another punch, and another, each focused on the sensitive throat. Nearly half her Reach punches whiffed, distracted as she was with fury, but enough landed to keep it unbalanced.
“Venza!” Aiela yelled. “Your pouch!”
Suddenly remembering the pouch Aiela had handed her, Venza reached into it and grabbed every single Tanglefruit inside, chucking them at the monster will all the might she could muster. The green tomato-like fruits exploded as they made contact with the giant lizard, covering it in a thick, green goo that hardened before their very eyes.
Aiela had said it would be very difficult for humans to escape, but apparently if you tossed half a dozen, even a giant lizard would have trouble. Even as they watched, however, Venza could see the monster gaining ground as it struggled out of its bonds.
As the slime barely bound the creature to the ground, she spotted Aiela's lithe form seemingly step on thin air, jumping up and landing on the creature's back. Aiela's mouth moved but Venza couldn't make out what she said. The mage's hands glowed a sickly green as she reached for the back of its head.
Suddenly, a sound like a whistle echoed through the tunnel. The monster stiffened in response just before Aiela's fingers made contact. As her green-glowing digits touched it, the lizard’s scales suddenly turned pale, and it froze in place, as if its muscles had turned as hard and immovable as stone.
The creature let out a sound as if choking, its body suddenly ceasing almost all movement. Venza wasn’t sure what Aiela was doing, but it was clearly working.
"Stop! Stop!" a male voice cried out from upstream, bearing a small lantern. "Please stop! Don't kill her!"
Aiela and Venza shared a look. "Serpent's Slumber," Aiela spoke, touching her hand to the monster once more. Its eyes fluttered once, twice, then the creature fell down, eyes no longer open. It was the same spell she'd used to cure Milly of poisoning.
As the monster slowly lost consciousness, Aiela turned to face the new voice. Venza did the same, taking up a fighting stance. Her body felt like it was on fire. She wasn’t sure how many more Reaches she had in her.
The dim light revealed a boy roughly Aiela's height, with pale skin and a mess of black hair. He was wearing only a pair of brown undergarments, which earned him scathing looks from both girls.
"Who are you?" Venza asked.
"Tom. Tom Lowrey," he answered as he stopped a few meters away from them. He was panting for breath as if he'd run quite the distance. "I- I'm so sorry, but could you please spare Sally?"
"Sally?" Venza asked.
"The lizard?" Aiela questioned.
"Yeah, Sally," Tom said. "She's our circus' Mu'drakker."
The two of them shared a look. "This had better be good," Venza muttered.