NOVEL FROG 9: Violent Sands
Kai caught his breath as he faced the worn archway, two hulking slabs of stone blocking his only way out. Hope blossomed in his thumping chest as he channelled aura from his soul into his hands, coating them in a thin layer of starlit water, marvelling at the refreshing sensation.
He wiggled his fingers. Despite looking like water, he knew from the knowledge that had entered his mind from the heritage crystal, that his aura was more like spiritual essence or mana than actual water. Kai couldn’t rationally explain it, yet he knew he could soak his body or the stone doors with his aura. He double checked his notifications quickly, not wanting to miss anything.
-Soul aura-
Soul: F-Awakened (Early)
Affinity: Cosmic, Gravity, Hydrokinesis, Martial.
Sphere of influence: 9 feet
Details: Amount of aura, density, recovery and circulation speed.
-Aura traits-
Weight Surge (Flawed): Decrease or increase the weight of any part of your body or nonliving object through a combination of gravity and mass alteration.
Kai cracked his knuckles before digging his hands in-between the crack of the two coarse slabs. His aura rippled as it spread across the stone surface like a pebble thrown into a pond. Kai frowned when his aura sputtered out after penetrating one or two feet, but after several attempts, he got the hang of maintaining a stable aura further from his body. Even when he could not see his aura, he felt a connection to it since it was within his sphere of influence.
He noticed the aura around his soul-planet depleting slowly at first, then faster the farther away from him his aura reached. It took four heartbeats until his aura saturated the stone doors.
Decrease, Kai thought, then pulled apart with all his might until he turned red in the face. The dense slabs rumbled, shook then shot sideways with an earth-shattering thud. Kai blinked furiously as the cavern shook and dust fell. A wall of desert sand previously held at bay gushed into the room like a flood, at the same time he heard thrashing water echoing from the tunnels behind him.
Kai’s eyes burst wide. “Oh s-sod it all!”
While his mind was still processing, his body reflexively darted left of the archway. The movement was a little clumsy, but his instincts were still there, some of them anyway. Why is this world determined to literally bury me!
The sand pushed past him in waves as it crashed down the tunnels and began to fill the cavern like an hourglass. Retreating to the grotto was not an option, as there was no exit that way — plus the creature. His heart fluttered as he tried to figure out a way to get through the archway.
Decrease. His body lightened and Kai kicked off the ground, propelling himself out of waist-deep sand. His leg muscles strained as he repeatedly leaped forward to prevent himself from being washed away. However, the ceiling was now getting too close for comfort. His heart pounded as sand covered the luminescent moss, reducing the soft light filtering through the tunnels.
Kai leapt for the wall above his only exit as the room plunged into darkness. Increase, his fingers slammed deep into the earth like drill bits. He felt stupid with his face smushed sideways as he hung there, but at least it provided relief to his leg muscles.
The sand fizzed like wasps in his ears, echoing in the diminishing cavern space. Worried about oxygen, he tried to keep his breathing steady. The torrent of sand stopped once it rose above the archway and Kai sighed with relief.
The pressure must have equalised on both sides, which is what he suspected might happen as water behaved the same way. He was now hunched with his back against the cavern roof which felt like solid stone, so digging through that was out of the question.
Letting go of his perch, he splashed into the sand. He stood there in the dark, calming his heart rate for a moment. He mentally examined the aura around his soul-planet, wanting to see how much aura he had used, not much. It trickled down slowly as he watched. Moving the stone slabs had drained far more than simply changing his own weight.
Kai picked up sand and let it fall through his fingers. The granules are extremely fine. He hesitated before releasing his intent from the thin sheen of aura coating his body, and began to sink into the sand. He experimented with his aura a few more times, before feeling confident enough to attempt something stupid.
His plan was straightforward, and took advantage of his strong body and aura. Kai took a deep breath and closed his eyes before diving through the submerged archway, then swimming up. Please be up. He alternated between increase and decrease while controlling his instinct to cough and breathe; it was a constant battle of willpower. The sand vibrating didn’t help, but he had no time to worry about that as he desperately pushed on like a blind mole.
Sand streamed off him as he finally broke through the surface, spluttering for air while sneezing sand. Kai extricated himself from the sand, into a pitch-black room, oh come on!
He tussled sand from his hair, relieved to have survived. His lip curled as he shook his pants to dislodge sand from places sand had no right to be. Kai trudged over the sand with outstretched hands, blindly questing for an exit. Something. Anything. If he had more stat points, he would have allocated them to senses — it mentioned something about sight.
Deep beneath him came the rumbling sound of stone grinding on stone. The hair on his skin went static and his eye colour shifted to a predatory and primal gold. Kai’s stomach sank as the grinding grew louder and louder until the sand below him quivered. Kai dived forward just as sand erupted like a volcano where he previously stood. The dark room bathed in red light as a fire-worm serpent three times his size coiled onto the sand. He recoiled at the appearance, the creature reminding him of an earthworm, except cobbled in charcoal scales, magma simmering between them like lines of fire.
Kai stumbled back, startled as an eyeless beak faced his direction. The creature’s face blossomed open to reveal a tunnel of fire and flesh, circled by endless rows of concentric teeth. Kai’s blood turned cold despite the heat and spittle billowing from its gullet. What the hell is that?!
Kai was motionless, but his heart raced. His aura sputtered as he almost forgot to keep his body light enough to not sink. Steeling his nerves, he prepared to dodge as his gold-rimmed eyes darted around the room in search of salvation now that he could see.
From what he could make out in the crimson light, stone walls trapped him on every side that went up as far as he could see, more infernal darkness. There was nowhere to run and Kai just hoped whatever remained of his instincts would be enough to survive. He adopted a fighting stance and examined the creature for weakness as if he were facing a human opponent. You can do this. He was pleasantly surprised when knowledge entered his mind from his Primal Eyes vital trait.
Young Primal; Magma Wyrm, Level ??
The fiery power of a Black-scale Salamander fused with the pure muscular structure of an Earthworm. Saliva contains oils that cause fire to burn hotter. The young tunnel through sand attacking anything cooler than itself.
That’s one messed-up fusion. Kai quickly considered his options; he could somehow trick it into tunnelling through rock so he could escape out of here, however that would require staying in front of it while it burrowed, and one look at that gullet of teeth made him discard that idea. Increasing his temperature to the point it would ignore him wasn’t something he was capable of either, so that was out too.
Kai grit his teeth. At least the primal creature was young, perhaps he stood a chance, even though it was already big enough to swallow him whole. He shivered at the idea of its colossal parent lurking somewhere beneath him. He suspected a primal was some kind of elite creature that offered special rewards; he’d see how he measured up, as he’d been forced to flee too many times since the integration started, and he hated to back down from a fight.
Kai cracked his knuckles.