Escape

Chapter 37:

Escape

The swamp was erupting with massive waves. The wind raged around with no sign of ending anytime soon. In the middle of the swamp appeared a gigantic whirlpool that absorbed all the surrounding waters inside it.

Every wizard inside the swamp was swaying, and they had to reinforce their footholds to not be swept into the terrifying whirlpool. A massive amount of matter got drawn into it. It didn´t matter if it were massive stones or dead trees. Even the corpses and the injured wizards, who couldn´t help themselves, got swept inside and vanished on the spot.

The whole environment changed in this instant. Everyone was trying to hold on for dear life. Rodolfo was no different. He was quite some distance away from reaching Nefarion and faced the full pressure of this spell.

Nefarion was laughing at his despairing face while Rodolfo was trying to get into a safe place to wait for the whirlpool to cease. Stone after stone was swept away under his feet and he could only try to jump to the next one and hope it would hold longer than the last one.

Raging wind was all around the swampy area and it was helping the whirlpool to draw in its prey. The black-robed wizards looked in despair at their brethren, which could not secure a safe position on time, and got drawn into the terrifying maw of the water.

They tumbled around and spell light could be seen flying out of their wands, but nothing they were doing was helping them any longer, other than to buy them a few more seconds. The ones in a safe position also had troubles of being not as safe as they thought they would be.

The suction force of the water grew faster and stronger. Terrified of the view of their comrades being swallowed, they could only look at their leader and pleaded with all their might for help. No words could make it towards Nefarion and he was seen laughing at the view in front of him.

It was the first time he had succeeded in this spell. He had found it in some abandoned ruins, and the conditions to cast this spell were immensely hard to achieve. He specially prepared it for his old enemy and looked on with glee in his eyes as he saw the struggle of his foe.

He thought nothing of the sacrifices that his men had to make for the spell to be successful, and they would have to thank him for being part of such a great spell.

Rodolfo was having quite a bad time. Everything he tried was unhelpful and unsuccessful. He was a vampire and his forte was close combat. Right now, he was cursing himself that he could not get to Nefarion earlier, but he could do nothing to change the past and continued to search for a way out of this conundrum.

The suction force only grew stronger, the waves were getting higher and bigger. The swamp was also shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the terrifying force of the whirlpool grew stronger as the moments went on.

High in the sky could be seen sudden changes. Clouds were forming overhead and gathering together while becoming darker and darker. Thunder was brewing inside them and rain tumbled down. It looked apocalyptic.

The last surviving wizard was swept away by a gigantic wave and could do nothing about it. He had tried to freeze it but to no avail. He could only freeze a good meter off the wave, but the rest swept him away with it.

Losing his senses of direction in the next instant. The wizard was tumbling amidst the water and went unconscious because of the forces after a few moments. The terrifying whirlpool swallowed him with the surrounding water.

Rodolfo was hanging on by a thread. He jumped from stone to stone, which got drawn into the waters and evaded the waves by jumping over them or powering his swords with his blood-red energy and cutting through them.

Stones were getting scarcer, and he knew he could not hold on for much longer, but could only try his best.

Nefarion looked at him the whole time with glee in his eyes. Seeing his old foe struggling like this was a heavy accomplishment for him.

On the other side, Kellam was quite lucky. At the moment, when the last attack of his brother hit him, he was forced to retreat quite the distance away to avoid being hit by more of these metallic weapons. Standing now outside the swamp, he could only thank himself for instantly retreating earlier.

The ground shook for a few more moments and then calmed down. The swamp water was almost completely dried up and destruction was found all around. Rodolfo was steadying himself at the moment after the wind abated. On the inside, he celebrated that he had lived through this spell, but when he got a glimpse of Nefarion, he grew cautious again.

"If you think that this was all the spells might, then you are completely mistaken. That was just the beginning of your end. Have fun at the next part." Nefarion shouted at Rodolfo when he saw his relieved face and looked at him with a funny expression on his face.

Overhead, rain was streaming onto the ground and the storm clouds were getting denser and denser.

"Groowwwwwllll"

Suddenly, a loud sound was heard where the middle of the whirlpool was a few moments ago, and the ground shook fiercely. Stones, mud, and earth were falling into the hole and it was getting wider. From the hole was something emerging.

A being was surfacing from it. Its skin looked akin to the texture of stones. In the middle of it could be seen 4 rows of razor-sharp teeth aligned in a round manner. In between these teeth appeared wriggling like things. These apertures looked like some kind of grey tentacle.

It was roaring loudly and with its roar appeared a pressure all around the area which was never felt before. Rodolfo and Nefarion were both having trouble remain standing under this pressure and the wizard was the first to fall flat onto his face. After that, he was shouting.

"I summoned you. How dare you force me down? I am your master and you will stop this face right at this instant." That was all he could shout while the pressure got stronger than before. He could not even say anything anymore.

Rodolfo was having the same trouble as his enemy, but since he was physically stronger than Nefarion, he could remain in an upright position. He looked with a despairing and fearful look at the creature and didn´t know what to do. Something like this was way out of his fighting class. He could not even walk while facing this pressure. He could only hope that this monster would not care about himself.

"Booooooommmm"

Lightning struck onto the ground and accurately hit the monster in its face. It was like heaven was helping them to survive this calamity.

"Groooooowwwlll"

Another loud howl was heard from the creature and almost shattered Rodolfo's eardrums. The lightning strike was not that loud in comparison.

The monster was agitated at this and could only howl out its frustrations. It had regained some of its awareness and felt its surroundings after it had awoken from its slumber. It proceeded to scan the surroundings. Finding 2 beings that could not ease its hunger, but would at least bring it some enjoyment. It sent out two of its appendages and wanted to grab onto them.

Nefarion could not defend himself as he was lying with no strength on the ground. Even his artifact could only shield him for one more second before it shattered, because of the might of the tentacle-like thing that grabbed him.

The vampire was having also a hard time but could get his swords out in time and attacked the tentacle with all of his power. Blood-red energy was absorbed into them like crazy and he swung his swords at his incoming enemy.

"Clang"

A dull sound was heard as the swords got into contact with the tentacle-like thing and they could do nothing to it. They just got deflected away, and he used this force to back up some distance. Rodolfo knew that this was not a battle he could win. A successful escape was all that he needed. It was difficult to move in this area, because of the pressure all around, but he tried his best.

Agitated by its unsuccessful attack, the creature attacked again, but this time with more force.

At the same time, Nefarion's body was brought back to the creature and was swallowed by it with no fanfare.

"Ahhhhhhhhh"

"Crunshhhhh"

A screaming sound was heard for a moment and after that, a crunching and munching sound echoed out. Nefarion was eaten by his summoned monster. It was never a good idea to summon something and not know too much about it or be not strong enough to control it.

Rodolfo, however, was not delighted by the demise of his enemy and could only try his very best to deflect the appendage that was heading for him. He let go of his twin swords, as they had proven themselves to be of no use against his enemy, and he took out his last two metallic knives.

Hoping to do anything to this monster with them in hand, he got ready and charged all of his energy into them. The tentacle was on him in mere moments, and he slashed out with his weapons.

This time he actually did some damage to them and sliced into the hard skin, but the weapons got stuck into it before they could do any actual damage.

"Rooooooooooooooooaaaaar"

The creature was now angry that it had been injured of such a lowly being and let out an agitated roar.

Rodolfo let go of his weapons since they got stuck in the monster's skin anyway and backed up. At the same moment, though, the tentacle sped up suddenly and was at him in an instant. Not able to do anything against it, Rodolfo could only grit his teeth in despair.

The appendage closed in on him and wrapped him up like a Christmas present and hurled him back.

／(^ x ^)＼

Richard, Sniffy, and Kyle looked at this spectacle for the whole time and were dumbfounded at what was going on.

At first, it looked not too bad. Rodolfo was having a hard time fighting against the wizards but was gradually gaining some momentum back on the ground as he killed wizards left and right. He almost turned the situation around when he took out these weird weapons and killed a bunch of wizards in the next moments.

But that was also the time when things went south. Nefarion completed his spell and the trio could only look on with fear and despair in their eyes. Trees were ripped out of the forest and they needed to back up again. The weather changed. This lasted for some time after everything went calm again and only rain was falling down on them. They thought it was over.

With hope on their faces, they looked back onto the battlefield, but that didn't last long and a supreme pressure enveloped them. They were far away from the epicenter of the problem but could only feel tiny when they faced this pressure.

What happened next destroyed all of their common sense and they were shaking all over their bodies. Fear enveloped them and they felt like tiny ants in front of a lion.

Never in their whole life had they felt as insignificant as they were feeling right now. They could only look with despairing faces as Nefarion was eaten by this monster and Kyle's dad was giving it his all to fight it.

The surrounding forest was broken apart and damaged all over. The raging winds had done their part and had decimated it thoroughly. It was only thanks to Sniffy that they had come out relatively unharmed, but they were now sitting on the ground while shivering all over.

Never in their wildest dreams would they have been able to imagine such a terrifying being. Even the heavens seemed agitated by this monster and struck it with a lightning strike but it was having not much of an effect.

Rodolfo was captured without being able to do much and was dragged back to the being.

"Roooooaaaaar"

Another roar was heard and another 4 tentacle-like things went out of the maw of the creature and went in their direction.

Richard looked at Sniffy and asked in a shuddering voice. "C….Ca….Can you g….get us….o…out…of..he..here?

Sniffy only looked at her front and could hear none of Richard's words. He could only muster his remaining strength and struggle to get his hand up. He shook her for a few seconds and she seemed to come back to her senses. Richard asked her again, and she tried and felt the surrounding magic.

Feeling that the space surrounding them was even more chaotic than before. She could only shake her head and the despair on their faces grew a lot heavier.

All that the trio could do was to look toward the approaching appendages, who were not in a hurry and came closer slowly but surely.

／(^ x ^)＼

Rodolfo was now wrapped up completely by the tentacle and was transported back to where it came from. He could do nothing in its grasp because his strength was completely restricted. He could only look on and shiver at the thought of getting swallowed by this creature.

As he had some time, he was getting into his thoughts. After thinking for a few moments, a smile appeared on his face. "At least Kyle and his friends should have been able to get out of here. I never thought of getting away today. It's not too bad to die like this. Another good thing is that Nefarion died as well."

Murmuring this out loud, he remembered his life and was quite content with this outcome. That was until he saw another few appendages head out into the surroundings and go towards the forest.

His face changed from smiling to show despair. He knew that his kid should be somewhere out there, and all the wizards should be dead by now. There was no way that any living soul should stay in the woods at such a time, therefore he knew that it definitely was Kyle and his friends.

Rodolfo was thinking of some solution while he was almost at his last destination. At the moment where he was thrown into the gigantic maw that wanted to swallow him, he thought of an old thing his grandfather had told him.

He was calming himself down and concentrated on his blood core. The core was the foundation of all of his strength and he was born with it. It grew over the years, but he never could do anything besides draw energy from it.

It was forever pulsing, and it was sustaining his body with energy. Without it, he would be dead since long ago. No mortal could live as long as he had. Rodolfo sighed at what he was about to do, but he had steeled his resolve when he saw the tentacles head for his only kid.

"Crack"

With a cracking sound, his core broke apart, and Rodolfo wished his son a good life. He had remembered that his grandfather once told him that only the noblest of the vampires could do such a thing and hoped that it would help and distract this being.

With an earth-shattering explosion, Rodolfo self-destructed his core. In the middle of the mouth of the creature appeared a bright light that grew brighter by the second. It changed from orange into a deep red color. After that, an earth-shattering explosion was heard.

"Boooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmm"

It swept apart everything in its path. The ground got turned upside down; the rain got vaporized in an instant and a shock wave destroyed everything around.

At the same time, the shock wave raged out, the pressure that the creature was emanating vanished and Richard grabbed Kyle and Sniffys arm right after that. He looked at the bright light and had figured out what that should mean.

He screamed a Sniffy. "Apparate us out of here." Sniffy, who was looking at the bright second sun, heard his words and instantly felt that she could now get them all out of here.

Not even a second passed and the three of them vanished with no sound at all. Almost an instant after that, the shock wave of the explosion reached the ground where they were staying earlier and destroyed everything in its path.

Kellam, on the other hand, had it much worse. He had lost quite the amount of his blood energy and was not able to get out in time. The shock wave hit him directly. He was flung far away, crashing through trees and whatnot.

Brian was also quite lucky to evade the appendages, but also unlucky as he was the sole surviving wizard on the premises. He was completely dumbfounded by what happened after he searched for the kids and could only look at all of this in a stupor.

The pressure alone was enough for him to not be able to retreat. He could only look on at what was happening. The sudden explosion helped him to compose himself, but he was too slow to get out of here and was flung away by the shock wave.

He hit things continuously and lost a foot along the way. Brian landed heavily on his back and heard a loud howl before he blackened out.

"Hooooooowwwwwlllll"

The creature was letting out a howling sound at the injuries it had received just now and went back into the ground to nurse its injuries and seek food at another place.