Fear, like cold water, quickly spread throughout Ebert's body. His heart was beating violently, as if it was about to burst through his chest, and he felt suffocated, as if an invisible hand was tightly strangling his throat, making it impossible for him to breathe.
He struggled desperately to get rid of the shackles of the terrible tentacle. He waved his arms and kicked his legs, trying to find a support point in the water, but the more he struggled, the tighter the tentacle wrapped around him, as if it was going to strangle him alive.
He felt his bones making teeth-grinding groans, as if they would break at any time. He could even hear the sound of blood flowing in his veins, which was the drumbeat of death, approaching step by step.
He tried to swing the dagger in his hand to cut off the tentacle, but found that the tentacle was extremely slippery and the dagger had no power at all. The sharp blade could only leave shallow white marks on the tentacles, which were fleeting and could not hurt them at all.
"Damn it!" Ebot cursed in his heart. He knew that if he continued like this, he would be dragged into the bottom of the turbid pool sooner or later and become the food of the unknown monster.
He tried to calm himself down, carefully recalling the scenes he had seen in the statue before, and the few words he heard from the two magicians, trying to find a glimmer of hope for survival.
"Magic... Yes! Magic!" Ebot suddenly remembered that there was magic in this world!
Although he did not understand magic, he was carrying the magical jade pendant!
He quickly reached into his pocket and wanted to take out the jade pendant.
However, at this moment, he suddenly felt a cold gaze from the depths of the pool, penetrating the turbid water and falling on him. He slowly raised his head and looked in the direction of the gaze.
That gaze was icy cold, as if it came from the abyss of hell, making him feel like he was falling into an ice cave, his whole body stiff and unable to move. His blood seemed to solidify in an instant, and his breathing became rapid, as if a huge rock was pressing on his chest, making him breathless.
The gaze from the abyss, like a thorn in the flesh, tightly grasped Ebot's mind and made him tremble.
He wanted to resist, wanted to wave the dagger in his hand to fight against the unknown terror.
But his body seemed to be frozen and did not obey at all.
He knew that he was no match for the monster.
His only chance was to escape!
Escape from this quagmire, escape from this forest, escape from this terrible place!
Ebot clenched his teeth, suppressed the fear in his heart, and concentrated all his strength on his bound ankles.
He exerted force suddenly, trying to break free from the bondage of the tentacle.
"Hiss--"
With a slight sound, the tentacle was torn off by him!
A foul-smelling liquid gushed out from the fracture, splashing all over Ebert. The liquid exuded a disgusting stench, as if it was a corpse that had been rotting for many years, or as if it was poison from hell, which made Ebert feel nauseous.
Ebert didn't care about the nausea or the pain. He used the recoil force to swim desperately towards the surface of the water.
He didn't know how long he had swum, or how far he had swum. He only knew that he had to leave this hell as soon as possible!
His lungs seemed to explode, and his throat seemed to be burned by fire, but he didn't dare to stop. He was afraid that as long as he stopped, he would be dragged into the endless abyss by the terrible monster.
"Gurgle! Gurgle!"
Ebert finally surfaced. He breathed in the fresh air in big gulps, greedily enjoying the long-lost freedom.
He looked back and saw that the muddy quagmire had returned to calm, as if nothing had happened.
But Ebert knew that was just an appearance.
Under the calm water, there was still a terrifying unknown existence.
Ebert didn't dare to stay for long, he quickly climbed ashore and ran towards the depths of the forest.
As he ran, he looked back, fearing that the monster would suddenly rush out of the pool and drag him into the endless abyss.
He ran and ran until he was exhausted and couldn't run anymore, then he dared to stop, leaned against a big tree, and gasped heavily.
He looked down and saw that his ankles still had the traces of the tentacles wrapped around them, which was shocking. The traces, like a brand, were deeply engraved on his skin, as if reminding him that everything he had just experienced was not an illusion, but a real nightmare.
He remembered that the female magician was also dragged into the pool by a similar tentacle.
"Is she... is she still alive?" A strong sense of uneasiness suddenly surged in Ebert's heart.
He knew that the answer was probably no.
He seemed to see that the female magician was being torn into pieces and swallowed up by the terrible monster at the bottom of the pool.
"No! I can't think about it anymore!" Ebert shook his head violently, driving those terrible images out of his mind.
---