Stepping back, Sydra narrowly misses having his head no longer connected to his shoulders, 'This isn't going to be easy, the much around me is making it difficult to move,'
Finding its mouth come up empty, the crocodile squints its eyes towards Sydra and swiftly lunges out again. Preparing to dodge to the side this time, Sydra finds himself sinking quickly into the ground instead. Sighing, Sydra focuses his attention on the crocodile and raises his hands. When the crocodile is only a foot away from him, Sydra braces himself and plants his hands on the crocodile's snout, using it to propel himself out of the ground.
As Sydra flies through the air, he activates his bone armor, which quickly covers him while he lands on the solid ground several meters away from the crocodile. Confused, the crocodile looks at the place Sydra had been, and then over to the spot Sydra landed.
"That's right, you just helped me escape your own attack," Sydra taunts as he manipulates the water in the ground around him. After defeating Corbel back on the island, Sydra's ability to manipulate water had increased, but it still wasn't strong enough to do much with the swamp water.
Enraged by Sydra's taunts, the crocodile swings its tail back and forth as it rushes toward him, knocking down everything in its way as it went. Seeing this, Sydra increases his speed and collects enough water to make a small arced blade.
Flinging the water blade towards the charging crocodile, Sydra's eyes dart around for a way to escape. Watching the water blade approach, the crocodile slammed its two front feet into the ground and spun around, using the momentum of its weight to whip its tail through the air. The tail crashed into the water blade, sending droplets of water in all directions, and then continued to swing through the air in Sydra's direction.
Just before the tail would have slammed into Sydra, he jumped into the air with all his strength and grabbed onto a tree branch that was hanging above him. Swinging himself up, Sydra plants his feet steadily on the branch and turns to the crocodile, which is glaring back up at him.
Making its way over to the tree, the crocodile turns its body around and pulls back its tail, "Crap, I forgot that it had enough power to knock the trees down like they were twigs!" Sydra exclaims, flipping out of the tree right before it came crashing down.
Rolling across the ground, Sydra jumps up and rushes towards the crocodile before it can regain its footing. Leaping off the ground, Sydra lands on the crocodile's back and plunges his two daggers into two of the crocodile's eyes.
Screeching, the crocodile shakes Sydra off its back before activating its aura. Using its aura, the crocodile sends five of the silver spikes on its back whistling through the air. Controlling the spikes with the magnetic staff on its tail, the crocodile aims them towards Sydra, who is currently pulling himself out of the muck he landed in.
"Damn it, you're not giving me a chance to move, are you?" Sydra asks as he bends over backward, the silver spikes soaring over him. Standing back up, Sydra rips his feet free of the ground, before having to lay flat on his stomach as the silver spikes come flying back.
Rolling over onto his back, Sydra flips off the ground, his eyes focused on the five spikes circling in the air above him. Suddenly, the spikes fire into the ground right beside Sydra, forcing him to dodge in the direction of the crocodile. With its plan working, the crocodile opens its jaw as wide as it can, its silver teeth glittering with a deadly appeal.
Glancing back and forth between the open mouth, and the spikes spiraling in the air behind him, Sydra makes a split decision and stops moving. Because of this, several of the spikes pierce through Sydra's bone armor, forcing Sydra to his knees with their momentum.
"Argh! That hurts!" Sydra yells as he rips the spikes out of his body, "But at least I didn't get crushed inside there,"
With its mouth ending up empty once more, the crocodile roars, several more spikes on its back flying out. Now with eight spikes flying through the air above him, Sydra knows he has to finish this quickly, or else he won't make it out of the swamp alive. Activating his regeneration aura, Sydra rushes toward the crocodile once more, ducking beneath spikes along the way.
"I just need to grab my daggers, and finish this beast off," Sydra says, his eyes focusing on his two daggers still sticking out of the crocodile's bleeding eyes. Launching off the ground, Sydra spins through the silver blades and lands on top of the crocodile's snout.
Not giving the crocodile the time to shake him off again, Sydra dives forward and grabs onto the handles of his daggers, dragging them through the crocodile's skin as he goes. Screeching, the crocodile stumbles across the ground, the abilities of the daggers causing it to lose its rationality.
Jumping off the crocodile, Sydra watches as it slams its body into several of the trees around them, causing them to come crashing down. With the crocodile rolling around, Sydra focuses his attention back on gathering the water molecules from the area around him.
As the molecules float in the air around him, Sydra condenses them into the shape of a drill, aiming it towards the crocodiles snapping jaw. Timing it right, Sydra releases the water drill right as the crocodile starts opening its mouth. Spinning swiftly through the air, the drill catches the crocodile off guard and plunges its way deep into the crocodile's body.
"That should do it," Sydra says, watching the drill rip the insides of the crocodile apart, killing it instantly. Falling to the ground, the crocodile's weight sends tremors through the swamp as its body lays still.
Exhausted, Sydra walks over to one of the fallen trees and sits down, the aura of the crocodile entering his body as he does so, "I'm guessing the power is either the silver spikes or the ability to control magnetic fields," Sydra murmurs as he feels the aura merging with one of his roots.
Once the aura has fully merged, Sydra activates his power and senses a magnetic field cover his body. Standing up, Sydra makes his way over to the crocodile and manipulates the silver spikes on its back to emerge. Controlling the spikes, Sydra uses them to cut some of the trees around him into firewood.
"Now if only I still had my fire ability," Sydra sighs as he looks down at the pile of firewood in front of him. Using this time to shine, the Red Wisp, which had been hiding earlier, floated over to the pile of firewood. Watching the Wisp hover above it, Sydra became curious about what it was doing.
'Does it have some ability that can light the firewood on fire?' Sydra wondered, his eyes fully focused on the Wisp. Condensing its body, the Wisp released a small blue flame that flickered in the air beside it. Grabbing the blue flame, the Wisp flew down to the firewood below and dropped it in.
As the blue flame touched the firewood, an inferno blazed to life, and the entire swamp became a much brighter place. After a few seconds, the fire dimmed back down, and Sydra was able to uncover his eyes. Seeing the flickering flames, Sydra smiles as he cuts the body of the crocodile into smaller chunks.
Roasting above the fire, the crocodile meat released a pleasant smell that wafted throughout the entire swamp, "Woah, that smells delicious," Sydra says, breaking several of his jerky pieces apart to use as seasoning.
After devouring the meat, Sydra placed the remaining bits into a small pouch Solomon had given him, before glancing towards the crocodile's skeleton. Making his way over to it, Sydra walks down to its tail and breaks the staff off, feeling the magnetic aura within resonating with his own.
"That wasn't too hard," Sydra says, putting the staff away and pulling out his map. Following the map, Sydra spends the next few hours making his way out of the swamp and back to Solomon's garden.
Entering the garden, Sydra ducks as the body of a Blood Mutt is torn to shreds by a green tornado, pieces of it going all over the garden. The garden is then swept over by a large gust of wind that collects all the pieces and dumps them into a large bonfire.
Making his way over to the bonfire, Sydra notices Solomon using his wind aura to increase the heat of the flames, "Hey, I'm back," Sydra says.
Turning around, Solomon looks Sydra up and down before nodding, "I see that, did you manage to find the Staff of Wisdom?"
"Of course, it's right here," Sydra says, confusion covering his face as he swings the staff in his hand in Solomon's face, 'Is this old man blind?'
Looking at the staff in Sydra's hand, Solomon breaks out into laughter, "That? That's not the Staff of Wisdom, that is just the control rod of a Silverback Crocodile,"