Gustav managed to reach Arila, regardless of the odds. To find her alive felt like a blessing, and he considered it as his greatest achievement yet!
The lady didn't die in that particular situation, but they were running out of luck. Although they were still alive, the pool they were in was simply too hazardous now!
Speeds picked up beyond what one could handle, as this whole cavern transformed into a spiral that demanded every soul in the vicinity!
Gustav didn't know how all of this was possible, and he was right to be confused. The water had been very still when he dropped down here, so he simply couldn't comprehend how a couple of Terrugas could steer up such trouble!
They were the culprits, he was sure of it, but there was little he could do about it now. "Shouldn't have missed that shot…"
He was regretful, and such regret felt more overwhelming than the pounds of water he was choking on.
While they were getting dragged across the waters at deadly speeds, he tried to keep Arila alive. Her head was above the surface at least slightly, but it was noticeable that she too was close to blacking out!
They couldn't call for help either, as no one could hear them here. The demonic moles were close by, but Gustav was sure that they'd die easily if they fell in this spiraling mayhem!
There was no escape, so he just accepted that fact, even though it was embarrassing to die this way. He suffered a lot more before, but this time around, it felt nice to have the half-dead embrace of a woman who actually cared for him!
…
"Uh… what? Wasn't I supposed to go somewhere after death? This place looks pretty dark." Gustav complained.
He didn't really know what to think about right now, other than the conclusion that he was dead. The headache he had, however, felt very real. It was the same thing that kept disorienting him badly!
Once he started moving around more, the spikes of pain he felt were ironically refreshing. He was spooked to a more alert, conscience!
"There's something in my leg…" Gustav noticed.
Yet it was still pitch dark around here, so he didn't know what to expect. It took a little bit of feeling around, to figure out that a rock-like item was bashed in his leg, a couple inches deep!
"Oh so that's where it went?" He joked, and man-handled the item out of his furry leg.
The 'rock' radiated a special light that he was slightly used to now; Red! It was obviously a demon crystal, and in this case it came in handy.
It shone just enough, to help Gustav figure out what was about two-feet in front of him. Almost immediately, he noticed a familiar body closeby!
"Arila!" He grunted.
Regardless of how he felt like a beaten bag of bones, he jolted towards the lady, and ignored each bruise or cut that held him down!
"Come on, we made it! You can't die now, please!" He frantically cried out, and shook the other in the meantime.
She was cold, which gestured towards the worst. Yet Gustav didn't want to give up, and continued to violently shake the other!
While in a seated position, she suddenly started vomiting out water and blood. The little coughs she let out afterwards, helped assure that she was alive!
That was the most important part, she was alive. It wouldn't be as pretty if a corpse was forced to puke blood!
"Haha! There you go, we made it!" Gustav celebrated, and hugged the other.
"We didn't make it, Gussy. I'm dying…" She added, and could barely talk.
There was a lot of blood in her mouth, and it sizzled her taste buds to the point where her whole mouth, felt excruciatingly dry!
"Oh hell no! I'm not letting you die, not after you tried so hard to help me!" Gustav insisted.
A single demon crystal didn't provide significant light, in fact, everything looked red. They could barely see each other's faces, but he still managed to locate the other's wounds!
Blood sparkled a lot when it met with the demon crystal, which was a bit weird but helpful. Gustav located three major wounds right away, and guessed that they were killing the lady quickly, by depleting her blood supply!
"I don't know if those stab wounds are making you puke blood, but don't worry, I'll fix this!" He insisted.
Arila was noticeably close to falling unconscious again, so time was against them. It was a blur regarding how long they've been here, or how they got here to begin with, but he figured that a little rhinoceros lady wouldn't have much blood to spare!
There wasn't any extra cloth around to cover her wounds, or at least, her own clothes wouldn't be enough to coat three separate stab wounds. She didn't wear much below that iron armor, and he guessed that she needed every bit of cloth in there.
With the options limited, Gustav decided to rely on the next best thing; His own fur!
"Heh, you didn't let go of your sword, very nice. I have no idea where mine is." He joked, and tried to keep the lady from dozing off.
This shortsword looked like a dagger compared to his size, but it still worked. Gustav ran the knife very close to his skin, and cut himself a little bit while he took a chunk of fur off.
"It'll grow back," He grunted, and was simply happy that he didn't suffer any major wounds.
Mammoths had an intense durability, so the bruises he already had could've been broken bones, if they were inflicted against anyone weaker. His durability was an advantage now, or else they could've both bled out here!
"Not long enough…" Gustav grunted shortly after.
The fur he cut out was nearly two feet long, at least when man-handled well enough. This wasn't enough to strap a rope-like sling around the lady, which would tightly hold on to a wound!
He needed one more string of fur at least, or else he'd be wasting a lot of precious time here. Mammothian hair was typically long, for the sake of surviving extremely low temperatures!
Although the fur looked slick sometimes, it has adapted as so, just to accommodate the fact that mammoths walked on two feet. Gravity pushed and slicked the fur down, but it was still pretty long.
This time around, he decided to cut some fur from a special spot; His chest! It grew out longer there, he was sure of it.
"Looks good enough," Gustav said, as he smoothed out a string of fur that was nearly three feet long!
He tied it up with the first string, and now felt confident that this would help cover up a single wound. The only thing he had to do now, was to remove the damaged armor which Arila was wearing!