Chapter 164: Engaged Into The Morgan Marsh
Strike from below!
There was something coming from under the water. The Morgan Marsh was alive and threatening to end their crusader and to endanger their lives. The first and truly one to be attacked was Junk. September was still hovering in the air, riding her broomstick, so she was safe. She didn't have much to worry about.
However, the demon did. And not only that, April was still on top of the Minotaur, arms around him, tagging along for the ride, which endangered her life as well. Junk felt something grabbing on to him from below.
Two things.
He was being pulled under the murky and dark water of the marsh by what appeared to be two different entities. One for each of his legs. Even though he originally was able to feel the bottom of the swamp with his hooves as he marched through it earlier, he now felt like he was being dragged much deeper than this pool of water even was in the first place. Which didn't make any sense to him.
The demon felt like he was being dragged in a secret hole underwater. April was still hugging him from behind. Holding on to him. She didn't want to fall. She didn't want to let go of him, but at the same time, she was being dragged down below. The water level was rising. Her life was on the line. Both of their lives were on the line. Elves weren't exactly the best swimmers around, even though she could swim just fine, she'd probably be having a world of troubles to get away from the grasp of an underwater assailant, hidden in the swamp. There was no time to think about it too much. They had to get out of the water and now. Otherwise, they'd both be dragged into the murky water of the marsh, and they would certainly drown.
"Get the hell out of the water!" shouted The Autumn Witch.
"Junk! What's happening?" April asked him, confused as she had only recently woken up after a long nap during the ride.
"Don't know! Something is pulling me into the water!" he shouted in response as he was desperately attempting to fight back against whatever was pulling me downward. Then, ultimately, as the wrestle continued, the demon lost that battle and was fully dragged into the murky pool of water.
April fell backward.
She was no longer sitting on Junk's back. She ended up swimming in the water while the entity was focusing strictly on him and dragging him deeper and deeper. Soon, the two girls could no longer see him. He was gone.
"Junk!" April was incredibly worried about him. She could not believe what had just happened. One second, he was there, and she was riding him while taking a nap, the other second, her favorite beast was completely gone. Pulled away from her. And the dirty water of the swamp was so dark that the two ladies couldn't see him at all. Not any of his movements, either. If he was still moving, that was. But nothing was pointing in that direction.
Even though April didn't like swimming in dirty water too much and was pretty frightened herself at the idea of being dragged underwater and being drowned, she never stopped searching for him. "Junk! Junk, where are you?" she kept shouting his name. She was about to dive into the water when September hovered closer to her and quickly stopped her.
"Careful, April! You don't want to be pulled into the water like he did. Perhaps there are more creatures around," she told her.
"What are you talking about? We've got to do something for him. He is drowning," she replied, not interested in listening to her. Junk's life was way more important than hers in her opinion.
"Stay back! Stay back, April!" September repeated to her. "I believe I have a plan. I am going to…" she was about to say before more water splashed into her direction and… Even though the girls at the surface couldn't see him, Junk was still fighting underwater. He wasn't done just yet. He was battling an unseen force, hidden in the darkness of the dark water. The entity was something solid. Something he could fight. Which meant that he wasn't done just yet. Soon, he'd be running out of oxygen, this was a fact, but for the time being, he was still fighting. There were claws: Scratching at him. He was wrestling with a brutal and intelligent creature. The unseen creature kept attempting to drag him deeper and deeper into the marsh to make sure he would never be able to go back up to the surface ever again. Looking up: Junk could see the light at the surface of the water. Was this the last time he was ever going to see it, as he was being swallowed by the infinite darkness all around him. He was becoming more and more tired. He was about to stop battling when…
The water of the marsh slowly began heating up. Junk definitely noticed the evolving change. It was heating up. So much so that the water was becoming burning hot. The unseen creature soon let go of him and moved away from him as the water was becoming too hot for him. But it was never getting too hot for Junk. The horned demon could tolerate much more heat than this creature.
Oh, no, you don't… Junk thought to himself as he felt the creature swimming away from him. After everything that had just happened, he wasn't interested in having his assailant escape. Right on time, before it was too late, Junk caught one of the creature's limbs without even seeing him and brought him back to the surface. Back to the light.
The first one to come out of the water was Junk. He popped his head out of there.
"Junk!" April smiled when saw him.
"..." September simply smirked. She was still casting one of her fire spells to heat up the water of the marsh. She eventually stopped as she saw that he was coming back to them.
Back on land, Junk pulled the previously unseen creature out of the water. It was a large, amphibian monster.
"You come with me…" Junk said.
"Gil?" September uttered his name.