CHAPTER 57: MAKARA

In the sea water, three such logs surrounded Regina, one of them even quite larger than the other two.

In the middle, Regina used her sword and qi to deflect and redirect the bullets, but due to their much faster speed in the water compounded by slower movements, she was getting injured all over her body.

Observing for a while, Noctis was left perplexed by her movements. She couldn’t cut the ropes, say nothing of doing anything to the logs itself, yet she wasn’t trying to get out either.

From time to time she looked towards his position, making sure Cora was safe with him before continuing on playing with near hundreds of ropes meandering around her, barely managing to keep them at bay.

He could see the logs slowly closing in the distance, he didn’t know what they intended by dragging someone towards them, but he was sure it was anything but benign.

He couldn’t afford to focus on her any longer however, dozens of bullets exited the water, moving quickly towards them.

Noctis had anticipated continuous assaults, but could only stay put. He won’t be entering this forest unless under the most dire scenario.

Noctis took a low stance watching every one of them closely with his eyes as well as his qi perception.

The log inside the water was still hard to pin-point but the bullets at least were visible.

With much wider perception, Noctis started deflecting and cutting open the grey ropes with quick movements.

Initially, few were easy to handle with his reflexes and his movements homed through close combats, but as more and more came towards them, with the ropes that weren’t cut meandering around him and approaching Cora behind him, things got messy quickly.

Despite his agile movements, due to not being able to move away from his position much, the ropes started circumventing him, some almost reaching Cora before he swatted them away with a large arc.

Such large arcs made his guard open, resulting in slashed skin on his arms.

The good thing was his cloak blocked much of the bullets that could harm his body, but as more and more bullets approached them, he knew he couldn’t make do with this.

The long sword was a bit heavy for such precise movements, not to mention he had only the most basic knowledge of swordplay with very little practice.

He lamented his lack of good daggers in this situation.

Thinking of daggers, Noctis picked the white bone dagger strapped on his waist that he had found in the temple, thinking of something.

With a long sword in one hand in a defensive position, and the dagger in the other, Noctis started hacking towards the ropes.

Yet no matter how hard he hacked, the knife couldn’t cut through the rope as if made of brick.

’Tsk.’

Sending the knife directly into his storage artifact, Noctis turned around at the scream at his back.

***

Regina saw with a quick side glance as the situation above ground became worse.

She knew she couldn’t spend any more time on this.

Surrounding her were four logs now, one quite closer to her even. Numerous wounds marred her barely covered body, only increasing as her body started lagging because of the cold and the wounds.

The predator waiting in the shadows sensed her movements as it finally went to grab the opportunity presented to it.

Just as the log had almost reached her body, its body expanding little by little, Regina finally got what she had been looking for, as a massive trunk approached her from behind.

Regina suddenly exploded the qi she had been suppressing as the bait she had laid worked.

Taking hold of the trunk along with some other ropes, Regina moved a little upwards, reaching above the closest log in a crouched position before slamming her foot hard onto its body, shooting herself up.

***

In the end Noctis had to make a decision.

As numerous vines and roots from the nearby trees surrounded Cora in a defensive position, Noctis once again engaged in cutting the ropes, now with the help of his just as numerous vines.

’Two can play this game.’

After using the vines he had a much better control of the surroundings and could protect Cora effectively along with hacking at the accursed thing to his heart’s content.

He couldn’t afford to have Cora taken away, and he absolutely wasn’t going back into the forest, it was the only way available to him, even if he wasn’t intending to show this ability to the women.

’Whatever. I’ll see it as it comes.’

As Noctis played around with the ropes, extending his perception in and around their blue liquid that he thought of as their blood.

He found out he could better sense the logs after mapping the flow of energy in the blood.

As Noctis extended his perception into the water, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine as he found a massive energy just below the surface.

’Shit. If that thing comes up, we’re fu-’

Splash

The surface of the sea water was disturbed with a massive ripple as he saw a woman covered more with blood than clothes, exiting the sea, holding in her hands a thick tube like thing and numerous grey ropes.

Like a battle goddess charging in a battle on her heavenly battle cart, she jerked the reins in her hands, disturbing the surface again, even more massive and violently than before.

A massive black log with hundreds of red and blue swirling circles on its body, resembling ominous predatory eyes, its one end writhing into a powerful trunk, the other opened into a jagged mouth, cleaved lengthwise as though hacked apart, each half bristling with sharp teeth like protrusions.

This was the massive thing he had felt, Noctis realised.

Regina moved her hands once again, flailing the massive thing around as if it were a toy.

Going as far as dunking it in the water and tossing the whole thing up, the massive monster, and the numerous logs, even the ones harassing him just now.

As the logs and the crocodile elephant hybrid monsters came down quickly, Regina took a high guard in mid air, slashing down as her sword started shining in a bright golden glow.

Noctis saw the impervious logs bodies, as well as the massive monster sliced right in the middle with the ease of cutting into jelly from the resulting slash.