The boat rocked violently as something massive brushed against its underside. Liora's crippled arm hung useless at her side while her good hand white-knuckled the gunwale. The river had seemed their best escape—until the water turned against them.
Kale's goblin ears twitched. "Don't move."
The water went still. Too still.
Then—
A **spined tentacle** thicker than Liora's thigh lashed out, wrapping around the prow. Wood groaned as it began to splinter.
**Liora reacted first.**
- Her sword talisman flashed, severing the tentacle in a spray of black ichor
- The severed limb thrashed, spraying acidic blood that ate holes through the boat's hull
Kale snarled and **dove in headfirst**, goblin body twisting like an eel beneath the surface. The water churned violently.
Liora's bats circled overhead, shrieking warnings as:
1. The boat's remaining planks cracked apart
2. A second tentacle erupted upward—this one lined with **glowing suckers**
3. Kale surfaced just long enough to roar: "ABYSSAL LEECH!"
The creature's true form breached—a nightmare of:
- A lamprey mouth large enough to swallow the boat whole
- Dozens of whip-like appendages
- A translucent belly revealing **half-digested goblin corpses**
**Kale's Gambit:**
He swam straight into the maw, sword in teeth. As the jaws snapped shut around him:
- Liora's bats dive-bombed the creature's eyes
- She threw her last fire talisman down its gullet
- From inside, Kale's blade **pierced its pulsating heart-core**
The explosion of gore painted the riverbank black.
**Aftermath:**
- Kale emerged missing two goblin fingers, already regenerating
- The leech's core—a pulsing black pearl—rolled onto shore
- Liora's crippled arm **itched strangely** where leech acid had splashed it
Kale studied the new corruption spreading up her veins. "We need to find—"
"Don't say it," Liora interrupted, watching the water.
Somewhere downstream, another shape moved beneath the surface. Larger. Hungrier.
The leech's black blood still smoked on Liora's skin when the water began to *sing*.
Not a melody—but the sound of **thousands of teeth** vibrating underwater. The kind of hum that makes bones ache.
Kale froze mid-step, goblin nostrils flaring. "Don't. Breathe."
The river exploded.
**What emerged made the leech look like a tadpole:**
- A **three-headed serpent**, each skull larger than their shattered boat
- Ribs protruding through translucent flesh, revealing **swirling demon cores** where organs should be
- A tail that wasn't a tail—but a **chained humanoid figure** dragged behind it, its screaming face embedded in the creature's flesh
**Liora's crippled arm** spasmed violently, the corruption recognizing its maker.
Kale did the unthinkable—he **ripped the goblin's own arm off** and tossed it into the shallows. As the serpent's left head snapped it up:
- Kale's bats swarmed its eyes
- Kale plunged his sword into its nostril, **hooking the nasal bone** to ride its thrashes
They abandoned the goblin and fly towards the land. The abandoned goblin corpse collapsed as Kale withdrew the last threads of his soul, his form now flickering like candle smoke around Liora's shoulders.Only 11 bats survive this battle.
Liora wiped her poisoned arm across her brow, leaving a smudge of blackened blood. "We follow the river," she said, already walking.She store the bat into her space.
Kale's sigh stirred the leaves. *"Your body is rotting from the inside. We need rest."*
"Rest is death here." She kicked a bone fragment - something large, something old. "The forest eats the still."
---
**The Hunt for Shelter**
By afternoon, they'd found:
- **A hollow log** (already occupied by finger-sized scorpions)
- **A cliff crevice** (that exhaled warm, meat-scented air)
- **The ruins of a stone altar** (carved with the same runes they see in the forest) **
Kale ran translucent fingers over the markings. *"This isn't a forest. It's a—"*
The ground trembled. Not the random shakes of passing beasts - this was the deep, rhythmic pulse of something *awakening*.
The forest groans with unseen wildlife. Liora limps forward, her broken hand wrapped in cloth. Her voice cracks—not just from pain, but from the presence within her.
Liora (voice strained, gently pressing her injured hand against her side):
"We haven't found shelter… this darkness… it's suffocating us."
Kale (his voice echoing softly inside her mind, tinged with worry):
"Liora… your hand—it's bleeding again. You shouldn't keep going."
Liora (steadies her breath through gritted teeth):
"And hide where? We're surrounded by threats. I can't stop."
Kale (a tremor of fear in his tone):
"The wolves' howls are too close… I feel them watching us."
(A sudden snap of a branch—Liora winces.)
Liora (strained whisper):
"We can't wait another minute."
Kale (urgent, resonant in her thoughts):
"Then there's only one choice… Magnar."
Liora (swallows back a gasp of pain but nods inwardly):
"Yes. We risk it all—or we die here."
Kale (hesitant):
"You really think he'll come?"
Liora (steady voice):
"He is the only chance. His size, his power—it's everything we need."
The earth trembled as **Magnar** turned his gaze upon them—a hundred-meter-tall colossus of alabaster flesh and blade-like protrusions, his black insectoid eyes reflecting their tiny forms like specks of dust. Cosmic energy crackled along his forearms, sending sparks dancing across his red-and-black armored gloves.
Liora swallowed hard, her corrupted arm pulsing with dull pain. **"We need shelter,"** she called up, her voice barely carrying over the hum of Magnar's power.
The titan studied them for a long moment—then, with surprising gentleness, **lowered his massive hand**, palm open like a living platform.
- The climb onto his palm took **three full steps**—his skin cool and smooth as polished marble.
- As they rose, the ground fell away beneath them, the forest shrinking into a patchwork of greens and browns.
- Kale's shadowy form flickered uneasily. *"Don't touch the red markings. Those are energy channels."*
His **house** was a gargantuan structure built into the side of a mountain—or perhaps **the mountain was built around him**. Two hundred meters tall, its arched entrance yawned like the mouth of a cavern, lined with obsidian pillars that hummed with contained power.
Inside:
- **The walls** pulsed with a faint bioluminescence, veins of red and black energy threading through the stone.
- **A pool of liquid starlight** bubbled in the center, casting shifting reflections on the ceiling.
- **Artifacts** from forgotten ages lined the shelves—weapons, bones, and strange machines half-fused with crystal.
The chill came suddenly—a drop in temperature that made Liora's breath fog. Then *she* appeared:
- Another magnar- Her face was beautiful—- She tilted her head, and Kale **froze** under her gaze.
The wife's lips cucur- The walls pulsed p- The wife watched from the shadows, her mercury form shifting rerestler- Kale, already weaving his essence into the cracks of the sstructurs