Chapter 78: Water Fall

Chapter 78: Water Fall

Water crashed against earth with devastating force, spraying debris in a wide swath of destruction, forcing Jadis to dodge out of the way or be peppered with shrapnel. As her two selves, Dys and Syd, rushed to the left, Jay sprinted to the right, carrying Aila in her arms, angling her body so none of the flying fragments struck her.

“What the fuck is that?” Jay shouted as a third giant ball of water was lobbed through the air, landing in the wake of Dys and Syd as they continued to run out of the way of the deadly projectiles.

“It’s a Sea Bull,” Aila said while somehow managing to keep her voice relatively calm. “A magic beast, water bound, dangerous when provoked but usually placid if you keep your distance. But look at it, it’s been corrupted by a demon.”

Squinting at the distant creature, Jadis curled her lips in revulsion at what she saw.

The sea bull looked like some variation on an elephant seal, except rather than a tumorous nose, it had a huge thick dome of a skull, round and hard as rock. The creature’s mouth was unnaturally large, its wide maw gaping open, showing rows and rows of thick pointed teeth. Its front flippers were also far larger and more substantial-looking than what could be found on any seal Jadis had seen back on Earth. The beast was using those meaty appendages to pull its massive, blubbery body up onto the shore, its immense bulk jiggling with each movement. And the creature was indeed immense. Even hundreds of yards away, Jadis could tell the beast had to weigh tens of thousands of pounds and probably stood as tall as her while resting on its stomach.

Jadis would have thought the creature to be nothing more than an intriguing curiosity if it weren’t for the obvious signs of demonic possession displayed on its bloody body. There were large holes in its flesh where writhing dark tentacles could be spotted, some of them popping out of the open wounds like roots from a potato’s eyes. One particularly large tentacle was coming out of the sea bull’s right eye socket and was wrapped around the base of its head.

“Gross,” Jay said with disgust. “Okay, it’s demon possessed. How do we kill it?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never fought one before! I’ve never seen one before, not alive,” Aila said, letting a little panic creep into her voice.

Jadis was prevented from responding to Aila’s admission by another water bomb forcing her to run and dodge, more debris showering the area where it landed. With the speed at which the corrupted sea bull was able to lob the water spells, Jadis was fairly certain she’d have been struck dead on by the blasts if it weren’t for her high agility keeping her ahead of the liquid explosions.

“You’re smart, you know this kind of shit better than me,” Jay said to Aila as she continued to carry her companion across the battlefield. “I’m going to run over there and beat the shit out of it with my mallet unless you can think of a better idea! Or a better way to beat the shit out of it!”

“Alright! Hold on!” Aila shouted back, clutching at Jay’s neck as she changed direction suddenly to dodge another incoming water ball.

As Jay and Aila spoke, Dys and Syd ran in zigzags closer to the colossal seal monster, trying to grab its attention and instantly regretting her success when the monster started spewing torrents of high-powered water streams at them like some kind of satanic pressure-washer. One shot managed to clip Syd’s leg, tearing through her leather pants, and practically skinning her calf in just a second’s time.

Every time either of her two selves tried to get closer to the monster, it would spray the water jets at her, forcing her to back away or be blasted. She couldn’t get close enough to engage in melee, not without losing her skin.

“Sea bulls have strong water magic and can cast them quickly, like a sorcerer. Their magic is good at long range and close range,” Aila said, rattling off what she knew about the combat capabilities of the monster. “they’re slow on land but have extremely high vitality and fortitude. Even without their magic they can crush rocks with their skulls and bite through bone with their powerful jaws.”

“Okay, but what are their weaknesses?” Jay interrupted, dashing far enough back from the still lumbering along creature to feel safe in putting Aila down for a moment. “What’s the best way to kill them?”

“Ranged magic attacks would work best,” Aila said with clear frustration. “But we don’t have that, not yet!”

“Never mind what we don’t have, just focus on what we do.”

Despite the attack doing no obvious damage, it did have the positive effect of leading the sea bull to move directly under the cliff edge where Syd had managed to balance the teetering boulder, muscles straining to keep it in place.

“Fuck off,” Syd cursed through gritted teeth as she pushed the boulder over the side of the cliff.

Jadis really did need to work on coming up with some better one liners when delivering the fatal blow to her enemies. She was envious of how all the action stars made it look easy.

The massive rock, weighing more than a ton if it weighed a pound, fell through the air with near perfect accuracy. Both Jay and Dys rapidly backed off from the demon-possessed beast at the same time, not wanting to be too close when the boulder hit.

A split second before the deadly projectile hit, Jadis saw through Jay and Syd’s eyes as the sea bull abruptly shifted and then jerked its head upwards. The monster made no attempt to dodge out of the way. Instead, its huge bulbous skull met the falling rock with the force of a wrecking ball.

The sound of rock exploding echoed in the cove. Jadis stilled for a moment, shocked by what she’d just witnessed. The sea bull hadn’t been killed by the falling rock. In fact, it barely looked injured. It had slammed its head up into the multi-ton boulder and shattered it like the rock was nothing.

“Bullshit!” Jadis snarled in multiple voices.

“Look, it’s not uninjured!” Aila cried out from Syd’s side, pointing at the beast’s thick skull. Aila had joined Syd where she stood on the edge of the cliff, staring down at the monster.

More arcane runes began to appear in the air around the sea bull, indicating the monster was resuming its onslaught of water spells. Glancing at where Aila was pointing as both Jay and Dys started moving again, getting ready to dodge more attacks, Jadis saw that her companion was right. While the possessed beast had tanked the falling boulder, it hadn’t gotten out of it completely unscathed.

Large cracks were running across the sea bull’s skull, spreading out like spider webs from the impact point. Blood was also welling up from some of the larger cracks, showing that they weren’t entirely superficial. She couldn’t be sure, but the monster’s head and neck movements also looked more strained. Jadis could only hope there had been more internal damage to the bull’s skull and spine than was readily visible on the outside.

Encouraged to see that the attack hadn’t been a complete waste, Syd moved to leverage another boulder up out of the ground when the possessed beast’s spell flashed and another huge water bomb was sent hurtling through the air.

Only, the target wasn’t Jay or Dys.

“Aila!” Syd screamed as the powerful spell slammed into the edge of the cliff, water and debris blasting everywhere and near blinding her.

“Jadis!” Aila cried out, a wash of relief flooding through Jadis for a mere instant to hear that Aila was still alive.

The spell had struck more cliff than not from the angle it had come from, thus Aila was protected from the worst of the damaging effects. However, the cliff was still subjected to that devastating force.

Jadis’ blood ran ice cold as the ground beneath Aila crumbled, the cliff edge sliding away as the redhead screamed in terror. Syd lunged forward, long fingers reaching to grasp Aila’s hand, but she was too late.

Aila fell.