Chapter 81: Battle with the Silver-Haired Creature

Chapter 81: Battle with the Silver-Haired Creature Nari’s blood pounded in her ears as she leapt from her horse, rolling across the damp forest floor and coming up in a defensive stance. The silver-haired creature tilted its head, water still dancing between elongated fingers. "Seril, wide formation!" she commanded, not taking her eyes off their opponent. The younger warrior dismounted with fluid grace, circling to the creature’s flank. "What is this thing?" she whispered, her remaining short sword gleaming in the moonlight. "Whatever it is," Nari replied, pulling her backup blade from its sheath, "it bleeds like anything else." The creature’s lips pulled back in what might have been a smile or a snarl, revealing teeth too numerous and sharp to be elven. Without warning, it thrust both hands forward. The water around its fingers hardened into jagged spikes that shot toward Nari with a sound like tearing silk. WHSSSHHH! Nari dropped to one knee, the water spikes passing over her head and embedding themselves in a tree trunk behind her. The impact sent bark flying in all directions. CRACK! THUNK! "Now, Seril!" Nari shouted, slamming her palm against the ground. The forest floor erupted beneath her touch—roots and vines bursting from the soil in a wave that raced toward the creature. The plants wrapped around its legs, attempting to bind it in place. Seril didn’t waste the opportunity. Her right hand shot forward, open-palmed, and an invisible wave of concentrated sound blasted from her fingers. VWOOOOM! The air between them visibly distorted as the sound wave struck the creature square in the chest. It staggered backward, silver hair whipping around its face as the concussive force sent it reeling. Any normal opponent would have been incapacitated, its internal organs liquefied by the sonic assault. This was no normal opponent. The creature’s body bent at an impossible angle, absorbing the impact. It straightened slowly, its movements fluid yet somehow wrong, like a puppet with too many joints. The roots binding its legs snapped as it flexed its muscles. SNAP! CRACK! "Take its legs!" Nari commanded, already charging forward. The captain feinted left, then slashed right, her blade singing through the air. The creature blocked with a forearm, and Nari’s eyes widened as her steel bit into its flesh—only to slide through as if cutting through water. SHLICK! The wound closed instantly, water rushing to fill the gap before solidifying back into flesh. No blood flowed. The creature’s eyes—too large, too bright—locked onto Nari’s shocked face. Seril attacked from behind, her blade aimed at the creature’s spine. This time, the steel struck true, penetrating clean through its torso and emerging from its chest. THUNK! For a moment, victory seemed certain. The creature went rigid, its body impaled on Seril’s sword. Then it did something neither warrior had seen in decades of combat. It simply... flowed. The creature’s body liquefied around the blade, reforming on either side of the steel. What should have been a killing blow passed harmlessly through its water-converted form. As Seril stood frozen in shock, the creature solidified again—now facing her, its face inches from hers. "Forest spirits protect us," she gasped. "Seril, back!" Nari shouted, panic edging her voice. Too late. The creature’s hand shot forward, elongated fingers wrapping around Seril’s throat. It lifted her off the ground as easily as a child might lift a doll, her feet kicking helplessly in the air. GAHHK! Nari didn’t hesitate. She closed her eyes briefly, connecting with the ancient trees surrounding them. Drawing deeply on her nature element, she sent her consciousness into the largest silver-bark near the creature. The tree responded instantly, a massive branch whipping down with devastating force. WHOOSH! CRACK! The branch smashed into the creature’s back, the impact splintering the wood and sending fragments flying in all directions. The force was enough to shatter stone, yet the creature merely stumbled forward, dropping Seril as it caught itself against a nearby trunk. Seril rolled away, gasping for breath, angry red marks blooming on her throat. "Captain—it’s not... working!" Nari had already realized their predicament. Normal weapons were useless against something that could convert its body to water at will. And even her nature element, powerful as it was, seemed only to inconvenience the creature momentarily. The silver-haired being turned to face them again, head tilted at that unnatural angle. Water began gathering around its hands once more, but this time, the liquid flowed up its arms, covering its entire body in a rippling, protective layer. "Together," Nari commanded, helping Seril to her feet. "Combined elements. On my signal." Seril nodded, understanding immediately. It was a technique they had practiced but rarely needed to deploy—the simultaneous unleashing of their respective elements, amplifying each other’s power. The creature charged, moving so quickly it seemed to blur. Its water-encased form twisted between the trees, rebounding off trunks to change direction unpredictably. WHOOSH! SPLASH! WHOOSH! "Ready..." Nari said, tracking the creature’s movements with practiced eyes. It leapt high into the air, water streaming behind it like a comet’s tail as it descended toward them, arms extended into wicked claws. "NOW!" Nari shouted. Both warriors slammed their palms into the ground simultaneously. Nari’s nature element caused every plant within thirty paces to respond, roots erupting from the soil to form a dome around them. At the exact same moment, Seril’s sound element sent a shockwave through those roots, vibrating them at a frequency that hardened the plant matter to near-steel rigidity. VRRRRMMMM! The creature crashed into their defensive dome with the force of a battering ram. The structure held—for a moment. Then hairline fractures appeared across its surface, spreading like lightning through the reinforced plant matter. "It’s breaking through!" Seril warned. Nari didn’t waste breath responding. Instead, she used their momentary protection to formulate a new strategy. "We need to separate its water from its body," she said quickly. "If it’s using water to heal itself, we need to drain it." Above them, the dome cracked further, small pieces beginning to rain down on their heads. "How?" Seril demanded. "It generates water faster than we can—" She never finished her sentence. The dome exploded inward, fragments of hardened roots flying in all directions. The creature dropped through the opening, landing in a crouch between them. CRASH! THUD! Before either warrior could react, it lashed out with both arms, now transformed into liquid whips that cracked against their bodies with bone-breaking force. SNAP! CRACK! Nari felt ribs shatter as the water whip struck her chest, sending her flying backward into a tree trunk. The impact knocked the breath from her lungs, stars exploding across her vision. Through the haze of pain, she saw Seril take a similar hit, the younger warrior’s body bouncing across the forest floor before coming to rest in a crumpled heap. "Get up," Nari gasped, forcing herself to her knees despite the grinding agony in her side. "Seril, get up!" Seril stirred, blood trickling from a gash on her temple. The shaved skin of her scalp gleamed with sweat and dirt in the moonlight. "Captain... it’s too strong..." The creature stalked toward them, its movements becoming more fluid, less humanoid with each step. Water continued to flow around it, gathering into what looked like additional limbs sprouting from its torso—tentacles of liquid that solidified into deadly weapons. Nari reached for her nature element again, but her connection felt thin, weakened by pain and exertion. The nearby plants responded sluggishly to her call, small vines wrapping around the creature’s ankles. It barely seemed to notice, tearing through them without breaking stride. Fear, cold and unfamiliar, crept up Nari’s spine. In twenty years as a Vylonian captain, she had faced countless enemies—rival elves, forest beasts, even rogue elementals. Never had she encountered something so utterly impervious to their attacks. The creature paused a few paces away, seeming to study them with those too-bright eyes. It raised a hand, water coalescing into a blade sharp enough to sever limbs. "Captain," Seril whispered, crawling toward her superior despite her injuries. "What do we do?" Nari’s mind raced, searching desperately for a weakness they could exploit. The creature seemed invulnerable—physical attacks passed through it, sound waves were absorbed, and even her nature element barely slowed its advance. Every injury they inflicted healed instantly, the water in its body rushing to repair any damage. Wait. The water in its body. "It’s not generating water," Nari realized suddenly. "It’s manipulating existing water—from the air, the ground, its own form." "How does that help us?" Seril demanded, dragging herself upright using a tree trunk for support. "Because water can be trapped," Nari replied, a desperate plan forming in her mind. "And air can be dried." The creature took another step forward, water blade raised for a killing strike. Its silver hair floated around its head as if underwater, framing a face that was becoming less and less defined, features melting into a smooth mask of liquid. "Follow my lead," Nari commanded, forcing herself to her feet despite the screaming pain in her ribs. "When I give the signal, hit it with everything you have—straight down." Confusion flashed across Seril’s face, but she nodded trust overriding uncertainty. "Ready, Captain." Nari reached deep within herself, calling upon reserves of elemental energy she rarely tapped. The connection to the forest around her strengthened, every plant within a hundred paces responding to her summons. Not just the mature trees and undergrowth, but the microscopic root systems running beneath the soil, the spores floating in the air, the dormant seeds waiting for spring. The creature sensed the gathering power. It abandoned its slow approach, lunging forward with blinding speed, water blade aimed directly at Nari’s heart. "NOW!" the captain shouted. Seril dropped to her knees, driving both palms into the ground. A sound wave of unprecedented power exploded from her hands, the concussive force so intense that the very air seemed to bend around it. The shockwave slammed into the creature from below, halting its charge and launching its liquid form upward. BOOOOOOM! At the same instant, Nari unleashed her nature element. Every plant within sight responded to her command, growing at impossible speed. Not toward the creature, but around it—creating not a cage, but a funnel. As the creature’s water-form was propelled upward by Seril’s sound wave, Nari’s plant funnel guided and contained it, preventing the water from dispersing. The water that composed the creature’s body spiraled upward through the living funnel, its momentum carrying it higher and higher. At the top of the funnel, Nari had created something else: a web of the thirstiest plants known to Vylonia—dessication moss and thirst-ferns, species capable of absorbing incredible amounts of moisture. As the creature’s liquid form made contact with these plants, they immediately began to drain it, absorbing the water into their tissues. The creature’s form became visibly diminished, its substance literally being drunk away by Nari’s creation. A high-pitched scream unlike anything either warrior had heard before echoed through the forest—part elven, part something far older and stranger. The silver hair, the last solid part of the creature, thrashed wildly as its watery body was steadily absorbed into the plants. SCREEEEEEEEE! "It’s working!" Seril gasped, blood still flowing from her temple wound. "Captain, it’s—" The sound of tearing plant matter cut her off. The creature—or what remained of it—was fighting back with desperate strength. The funnel of plants began to bulge and twist as something inside fought to break free. Cracks appeared in the living structure, water seeping through in thin, pressurized streams. "Hold it!" Nari commanded, pouring every remaining ounce of her elemental energy into maintaining the trap. Sweat poured down her face, the strain causing her hands to shake violently. Seril crawled to her side, adding her own elemental energy to the effort. Together, they fought to contain the creature that was now thrashing wildly within its organic prison. For a moment, it seemed they might succeed. The plant funnel constricted further, squeezing inward as the thirst-plants continued to drain the creature’s watery substance. The screaming grew fainter, more desperate. Then, without warning, the entire structure exploded. KRAK-BOOOM! Fragments of plant matter rained down across the clearing as a column of water burst free, twisting in the air before crashing back to earth. Where it landed, the water began to reform, coalescing once more into a humanoid shape—smaller than before, but still very much intact. The silver hair materialized last, flowing down its back like liquid moonlight. The creature rose slowly to its feet, its bright eyes fixed on the two exhausted warriors. In those inhuman eyes, Nari saw something new: rage. "Forest preserve us," she whispered, as fear finally overwhelmed her training.