Undying Will

The sea king"s looked on, a mixture of fear and challenge in their eyes. Tiamat was the only one with a clear expression of terror on his face, for he knew what he had just seen.

With swift strokes he moved to the back, backing into the face of the mountain with his small clout of sea kings, still holding onto the tiny raft that Lorean had arrived in.

To the left was another clout, this one of Yuda, each with a small group of people on their back that glanced in absolute terror at the storm that had blown through their island.

The world eater that they had heard the priests revere, was now alive, in the flesh.

Bruma glanced over with a choked expression on his face, his home the only safe haven that he had known all his life was collapsing around his ears. And he couldn"t even run into the thick of things to stop it. He had to care for his soldiers, when the fragrant temple fell, he had become the man in charge of the whole of the islands civil base.

With a tap of his leg on the top of the monstrous serpent"s head he urged it to the back, a motion followed by all those that rode at the head of their respective beasts. The only snakes that now listened to them were the ones that had been trained with them.

As the two groups retreated, Bruma could not help but shoot a grateful look at the pudgy doctor. If it wasn"t for the man waking them, they would have been comatose when the island went under.

"Roar!!!!" A loud bellow sounded, sonic waves shearing through the fog. The Yuda that carried the civilians cringed, unconsciously their heads bent. The sea around frothed mightily as the riders lost their footing.

Many fell into the water, a few fell victim to the frantic waves, and others still were forced into the water by the sheer bulk of the panicked reptiles.

The creatures that they had respected as divine fragments begun to screech like headless chickens. The sea king"s looked on, no longer a challenging look in their feral eyes. A single roar had grimly brought them down from their bloodl.u.s.t induced high.

Tiamat, on any other situations would have mocked at the Yuda or rallied the sea king"s unfortunately however, he could neither dispute the terrified parties, nor muster enough attention to do so, seeing as he was currently fighting every single cell in his body that begged for him to swim away.

Another loud screech rang out, the walls moving faster. And then it happened. The sea bubbled and from under the colossal snake, the enthralled Yuda made their attack….

*********

A group of Amazon lily tribeswomen had begun to feel that the day had had it in for them. First, the island had "dispatched" them to the perfume island to honor the agreement for the yearly Yuda.

Then, their head Roma had taken to a particularly impressive head ache! Now, Their Yuda snake had gotten its tail in a twist and refused to tow the d.a.m.n galley! It was almost like the entire universe knew that the journey was meant to serve as punishment and thought it right to double down on their poor unit.

"d.a.m.n snake! Swim properly! Sister, I never could understand why our empress still keeps this agreement! It"s not like we need any more of these reptiles. We already have enough of a stock back in Lily for us to make our own snakes!

As if being confined to the worst unit was not enough, we have to go deal with those repulsive "men"! Why do we have to go through this?! Why couldn"t it be Rumi"s squad?" A green headed women called out, a hand on her chin as she glared mutinously at the sea.

"Calm down, Iwa. It was the empress" will that the agreement be maintained, so it shall be. It is merely our job to do as the empress says. Don"t throw a fuss, you aren"t a child anymore. " A middle aged women called out. She had purple hair and green eyes and seemed to be the second in-charge of the galley.

Slowly the air around them grew heavy. A pink fog began to waft around them. They were close to their destination it seemed.

"Might as well get this over with.." The women identified as Iwa muttered to herself as she went to the captain"s quarters.

With a single knock the door pushed outward, a pale and anemic looking women walked out, her black hair scraggly as a yawn was called out.

At the periphery of their hearing a dull sound echoed out. Though the ship"s crew could not identify what it was, they still felt a shiver run through their spine.

The misbehaving Yuda suddenly grew stock still as its eyes widened. With a shriek it dove forward, maddeningly dashing through the sea as a mighty wave began to roar towards them. A tsunami, on the calm belt!? They thought in disbelief, the crew jumping to their respective posts as they struggled to right the wheel.

The dull looking captain snapped to attention a sharp look appearing in her eyes as she ran to support her crew, with a quick step forward she grabbed onto a crew mate that was in danger of falling overboard.

"Women, get yourself in gear, we have a freak incident to deal with!" She roared out, her voice drowning in another loud shriek that came from afar.

The water only grew fiercer as they drew close to their destination, "What is going on!?" Roma yelled, her mind incapable of saying something that would not be drowned out by the bellowing waves of the sea..

********

I gasped quickly as I dashed forward. The giant Yuda had more of its body freed from the housing as it raged forward, its bulk crushing all in its path, on its underbelly a few pieces of jagged debris sat helplessly stuck in the c.h.i.n.ks between its scales.

If when the chase began its eyes had a look of cathartic hunger, now it had gotten completely clouded, a red haze as its fangs dripped, venom appearing as abundantly in its mouth as saliva appeared in mine.

As its mighty body swiveled around, the fog around could not help but rise. Clouds of red obscured its full figure as the island became home to the first collection of calm belt clouds.

"What is this a horror movie?" I grimaced out as I narrowly dodged a piece of huge debris. Though we were quite far out of the serpent"s range, I could still not help but feel a sense of shattering heaviness on my shoulders.

It felt as if, if I did not continue to move then I would be swallowed.

"Fawkes! Get your a.s.s with the group off the island! The exit is right there! I"ll stay back and have a chat with this b.a.s.t.a.r.d about a close friend of mine called Murphy!" I snapped out.

IF there was a chance of danger on any of these adventures, I had long accepted that I would have to take responsibility. If the leader couldn"t protect his own, then was he still a leader?

"Hate to say it but, I"ll listen now, later I"ll smack the s.h.i.t out of your a.s.s!" He roared back before hobbling out. He was not in his best form. He had been unconscious barely an hour ago, and wasn"t in the best states before that. He hated to say this, but Lorean had more of a chance to stall for time than he did, especially because of his fighting style.

With a heavy heart he ran to the crumbling gate, the stress from the chase making him shiver. He had had no grasp of his surroundings!

With a sinking stomach he realized, he had taken this situation way worse than he had previously thought he had!..

I looked at the colossal beast, a kernel of doubt and fear in my eyes as I shot a fear soaked glance at Fawkes" back. The man had made it to the end of the island.

"Ok, you motherf.u.c.ker, let"s see how bad those teeth are!" I snarled out as I raced at him.

The creature looked at me with a hint of surprise before it roared, zooming downward to bite at him.

I looked at the building like face, before jumping to the side, shunpo"ing to avoid the heavy projectile. With a swift turn I jumped again, my fruit in heavy drive as I fed it more and more information.

With a flick of my wrist I pulled out my dagger, firing it at the edge of one of the few buildings, a hint of string at the end of the dagger"s hilt.

A heavy object bore down on me, a foul scent almost bafflingly noxious. .h.i.tting my nose. I yanked hard flying at the building, before turning around mid flight to spiral the metallic string that connected us. With a flick I yanked again, using the base of the weapon to swiftly shear out of the way, for though the head had managed to kill its momentum I was sure that the tail that now zoomed towards me would not be as merciful.

I barely shot out of the way, and almost as soon as I did a loud crackle roared out. Debris flew out, one even flying all the way to the rocky wall of the mountain before powderizing on its surface.

I gulped softly, for at this moment the walls had finally began to move around, a look of satisfaction spread across the snake"s visage as the island finally fell away. The long limb that had remained still for centuries finally began to move, and with the cacophony of scales rubbing together that sounded more like a hundred thousand swords sharpening at once the island"s fell away and the Yuda all father awoke in all its strength and glory....