Volume 3 Chapter 7 Flood

Chapter 7 Flood

I

Stasha and Yanni were peeking inside Hoemuo’s office through a window.

In his office, Hoemuo was talking to a man in black robe.

That man looked eldritch and whacky. His hand looked slippery and his skin had a weird purplish colour. The skin on the hand was like a mollusc’s instead of a human’s. When his was talking, weird phonemes came out of his mouth.

The feet of that man looked grotesque too. When Stasha and Yanni observed him more carefully, they found out that those feet-like limbs of that odd man were not feet at all.

They were tentacles with disgusting suction cups. They were wriggling in a freaky way. Those suction cups were hellishly nauseating. If Stasha and Yanni had trypophobia, they would faint because of fear on the spot.

Those tentacles reminded Yanni and Stasha of those mutant fishes they saw in the depth of the sea when they were swimming across the strait between Reauneia and Normania.

Obviously, the mutations of that aberrational man and those whacky fishes in the sea were caused by the same thing: the radiation.

For sure Stasha and Yanni couldn’t understand what Hoemuo and that bizarre man with loathsome tentacles were talking about at all, since they were talking in Reauneish. However, they were sure that Hoemuo and that man were chatting about Cuore Celeste, because their eyes never left that gemstone.

After about three minutes of talking, Hoemuo handed the gemstone to that eldritch man he was talking too.

That weird man nodded in satisfaction and headed for the door of the room in an attempt to leave it.

Stasha and Yanni were standing outside of the room. They must hide or they would be discovered by that man.

“There’s a closet there!” whispered Stasha.

Quietly and stealthily, the two hid into the closet. This closet was small, but Yanni and Stasha were quite slim so they squeezed in the closet successfully.

There were some gaps on the closet so that they could see what was happening outside. Obviously, that tentacled man was leaving here with Cuore Celeste in his hand.

Cuore Celeste was different than before. It was blacker and greyer than it used to be as if it had been burnt and charred by elemental fire.

Yanni wanted to storm out of the closet to retrieve the gemstone from that tentacled weirdo, but Stasha stopped him.

“Calm down, Yanni,” murmured Stasha soothingly.

Without doubt, that tentacled man was highly mutant, and judging by the way Hoemuo and that man talked, they two were equal in social status, or even that the status of that tentacled man was higher.

Maybe he was as powerful as Hoemuo. Fighting only Hoemuo was rather difficult for them, let alone Hoemuo and that tentacled weirdo put together.

Going out and fighting with them right now had no difference than suiciding.

Yanni was struggling gently while Stasha was hugging his whole body, stopping him from coming out. Yanni really wanted to say something but Stasha beckoned him to shut up.

After two minutes, that tentacled man left this building and headed for somewhere unknown. They had lost track of Cuore Celeste, once again.

“Why do you stop me from saving Aisling!” questioned Yanni quietly.

“We’re absolutely no match for Hoemuo and that tentacled guy put together,” explained Stasha.

“We’ve finally found where Cuore Celeste is, but you let us miss this perfect opportunity to retake the gemstone and save Aisling. Now the gemstone is gone. We have no idea who that tentacled man is and where to find him!” blamed Yanni.

“Sorry, Yanni,” apologized Stasha frustratedly.

While they were talking, someone opened the closet suddenly. It was a soldier.

“ꡜꡡ ꡂꡧꡞ ꡶꡶” [What the hell?] screamed the soldier in surprise.

“Oh no,” Stasha covered her face with her hand.

They were discovered.

Stasha kicked her feet on the belly of that soldier and knocked him down to the ground. Hearing the sounds outside his office, Hoemuo opened the door and spotted Stasha and Yanni who were trying to run away.

“It’s you two again! You two are so bothering!” complaint Hoemuo in Normanish.

Hoemuo drew his sword, dashed towards Yanni and slashed his sword on him.

Yanni parried the sword with his shield. Hoemuo kept attacking but all his strikes were blocked by Yanni’s stellarite shield. Irritated by the shield, Hoemuo clutched it and took it off Yanni’s hand. Yanni lost his balance and fell over.

Smirking scornfully, Hoemuo picked up his right foot in an attempt to trample Yanni, but Yanni kicked up on Hoemuo’s right sole. Hoemuo lurched backwards, almost losing his balance.

Stasha stepped forwards, brandishing her daggers while Hoemuo tried to parry her attack with his sword. Stasha was considerably dexterous this time and Hoemuo could not hit her at all while she left several bleeding cut wounds on his belly and other parts.

“Enough!” roared Hoemuo.

With his full strength, he stuck his sword into the ground. The shockwave produced by the impact between the sword and the ground sent Yanni and Stasha hurtling for several metres.

“You’re so bothering …” cursed Hoemuo, “ꡂꡞ་ꡜꡡ ꡶꡶” [Assemble!]

The instant his voice broke off, his soldiers gathered beside him.

“ꡆꡠ’ꡛꡠ ꡋꡡꡲ’ꡏ’ꡇꡞ’ꡗ ꡔꡞꡋ ꡛꡠꡃ ꡄꡝꡞ’ꡮ ꡃꡡ! ꡮ ꡊꡠꡧ ꡉ’ꡏꡟꡋ!” [Those Normanians were trying to assassinate me! Kill them!” commanded Hoemuo.

Surrounded by Hoemuo’s soldiers, Stasha and Yanni had nowhere to run.

II

Standing beside the dam, Floria was looking at those fishes swimming inside the water.

Suddenly, she discovered that there were something wrong with those fishes. One of the fishes had several tentacles with disgusting suction cups. Those tentacles were wriggling like some sort of worms.

Floria covered her mouth with her hand. She thought she was going to vomit.

She had never seen such loathsome things ever in her life. Images of those mutant aberrational fishes swimming in the depth of the strait kept flooding into her mind. She would have nightmares because of those obscene mutant creatures.

Anyway, she had to keep concentrated, because now it was the time to break the dam. It had been forty minutes since her brother and Stasha set out to sneak into the stronghold of Hoemuo.

She loaded her bow, charged it and unbent her finger. The arrow flew in the air, and the fraction between the air and the arrow gave off a surge of noises.

Surpassing the sonic speed, the arrow broke the sound barrier and generated a formidable sonic boom. The instant the head of the arrow touched the dam, it cracked and those ruptures were like the pattern on the turtle shell, through which, river water from the other side of the dam was squeezing.

Those pillars of leaking water became thicker and thicker, and suddenly, with a gust of deafening sound, the whole dam collapsed, and a grandiose waterfall was produced.

With the destruction of the dam, the water that was once blocked by it poured down madly.

Running downriver, the flooding water was heading for the downstream.

There were some bridges across the river at the downstream, but all those bridges were devoured and destroyed by the galloping river water.

The flood wouldn’t last long because the dam was only a small one. Since there were no residences along the river except the stronghold of Hoemuo, no innocent people would be hurt or killed by the flood.

Anyway, this flood was powerful enough to buy Stasha and Yanni some time to escape if they had been caught by Hoemuo and his army.

III

Stasha and Yanni were surrounded by the Hoemuo and his army.

They had nowhere to escape. They were done. Hoemuo and his army were going to kill them.

“Where is that red-hair girl?” demanded Hoemuo.

The instant his voice broke off, the walls of the corridor they were standing inside collapsed. The whole room was then devoured by rushing water.

All those mutant soldiers were screaming madly. The skin of those soldiers had mutated into something like magma rock brimming with the elemental power of fire. When wrapped in the water, their hot skin would be cooled down and there would be no enough oxygen for their twisted fire to ignite.

Within second, the whole army of Hoemuo had been incapacitated.

Struggling in the water, Stasha and Yanni were trying to get up to their feet, but they failed. The water ran too fast and the flood kept flushing them downstairs.

Hoemuo was with them too. He was struggling and screaming in the galloping water. All those flames of fire that were once burning on his skin had been put out by the water. Now, he was not a fearsome warrior anymore. He was screaming in fear, and all those inhumane and mutant parts of him looked ugly and pathetic.

Some windows were forced open by the flood, and around those windows some whirlpools appeared. Screaming in fear, Stasha and Yanni were sucked into one of the whirlpools and fell out of the window.

Finally, taken by the water, Stasha, Yann, Hoemuo and several decapacitated soldiers were flushed out of the window and fell into the river outside of the building.

Inside the river, they could really feel the power of the flood. The water inside the river was running at a crazy speed. Stasha and Yanni tried to swim inside the river but they failed.

Fishes were struggling around them too. Some fishes were normal fishes, while some were mutant. Stasha and Yanni were screaming and vomiting upon seeing those disgusting mutant fishes with tentacles or loathsome gills with wriggling tongues and sharp nightmarish teeth.

After about five minutes of struggling in the running water, the two and Hoemuo along with several decapacitated soldiers were flushed into a underground cavern. Destroyed by the power of the flood, the entrance of the cavern collapsed and was blocked by the falling stone.

In the cavern, the water was not running anymore. Everything became peace.

Stasha and Yanni checked their body. Some parts of their skin had been slit open by gravels during the flood. Their wounds were bleeding.

“I wish Aisling were here. She could heal those kind of wounds within seconds,” sighed Stasha.

“Let’s ask Hoemuo where Aisling is,” proposed Yanni.

Hoemuo had been flushed into this cavern as well, along with some of his soldiers who had passed out.

He staggered to his feet and looked at the two fearfully. He was totally wet and now he looked like a big lump of disgusting charred meat.

Yanni walked up to Hoemuo and kicked him down. Groaning in pain, Hoemuo fell to the ground.

“Tell me whom you have given Cuore Celeste to, or I will keep you alive to torture!” demanded Yanni.

“Fine, fine! I will tell you! That man is Cheius, the greatest elementalist in this world. He is the deputy of Fungruus, the King of Reauneia,” answered Hoemuo.

“Why does he look so disgusting?” pursued Yanni.

“Disgusting? Why? He is cool …” argued Hoemuo.

“I mean those tentacles and mollusc-like skin,” yelled Yanni.

“It’s because of the radiation given off by water elementium! Water elementium is the basis of the other three kinds of elementium. Therefore, all elementalists need to research water elementium and therefore they would be inevitably radiated by it and mutate though they have taken the serum, ” explained Hoemuo.

“Since that, Where can I find him?” questioned Yanni.

“You can find him in Reauneian Academy of Elementalics,” answered Hoemuo.

“How can I go to the academy?” inquired Yanni.

“Well, you …”

When he was about to tell them how to get to the academy, he found that his hand began to burn again. The water on his skin had evaporated and now he was dry. He could manipulate his elementalical power and fight again.

“Die! Normanians!” roared Hoemuo.

He stabbed his sword towards Yanni, but Yanni blocked his attack with his shield while Stasha threw one of her daggers at Hoemuo.

The dagger pierced through Hoemuo’s throat. After vomiting a mouthful of red blood, Hoemuo fell to the ground, dead.

IV

Floria had finished her task.

The dam had been destroyed and she had created a great flood.

Now she was going to reunite with her brother and Stasha.

When she was about to leave the place.

She saw a grotesque figure approaching her.

That was a man wearing black robe. He had no feet but wriggled with his eight octopus-like tentacles.

He moved towards her slowly.

Alerted, Floria loaded her bow.

“Who are you?” questioned Floria in Normanish.

“You’re a Normanian. Interesting. What are you doing here? Is this dam destroyed by you … All Normanians shall be killed. Your race is a pest to this world. My name is Cheius and now I will terminate you,” muttered Cheius, this weird man in black robe.

After those words were spoken, Cheius reached out his mutant hand. Floria discovered that Cuore Celeste was held in one of his hands.

“Cuore Celeste …” muttered Floria. She decided to retake the gemstone from him, but soon she found out that she was no much for him.

The air around became damp, bleak and moisture. Floria could feel a gust of cold chill crawling upwards through her spine. She unbent her finger and shot out her arrow.

A droplet of black water appeared above the hand of Cheius. He threw this droplet of water towards the arrow. Upon touching the black water summoned by Cheius, the arrow eroded to a pile of dust. After corroding the arrow, that drop of water split and fell to the ground.

Within second, the whole patch of purplish grassland had dyed black by this droplet of obscene dark water and the soil became muddy and sticky.

There was something wrong …

Floria’s heart was thumping like a running horse. Her courage had been eaten by the dark aura given off by this Cheius.

Suddenly, a great tentacle with suction caps crawled out from under the ground and wound itself round Floria’s body.

Those abominable suction caps had really awakened the Floria’s trypophobia. She began to faint and vomit. The sticky loathsome tentacle had entangled her. She could not escape.

She had vomited all her lunch and her muscles were becoming feeble. She was thinking about Yanni and Stasha … She wished if they were here with her, but they were not here. She couldn’t die here. Without her, Aisling wouldn’t be saved …

With this thought, she drew one of her arrows and pierced it deep into the tentacle that entwined her. The tentacle withdrew and she broke free.

“You will not run away from me!” roared Cheius.

Quickly, Floria shot a stream of arrows towards Cheius. Floria had been practicing archery since her childhood as a huntress, so she could shoot both fast and accurately.

All arrows pierced into Cheius’ body.

Cheius was bleeding and his blood was dark purple. Shot by Floria, he cursed in Reauneish wrathfully.

After shooting those arrows, Floria ran away. Cheius moved slowly because he had no legs. He wouldn’t catch up with her.