The bright light of the shard kept expanding bigger and bigger, illuminating the dark water brightly. It was so shiny in fact, that Arthur had to squint his eyes not to be blinded by it. At the same time, he felt the tentacles wrapped around his body slowly loosening and retreating as if they were scared of that divine light.
‘Woah!’ Arthur’s face lit up with shock. He could’ve never imagined the shard was going to activate on its own again, and then immediately attack the giant and its tentacles. It seemed the light wasn’t something this creature liked.
Staring directly at the light, the monster tried to stay as far away as possible from it.
‘What if…’ It didn’t take a second for Arthur to understand what he should do. If the shard was truly protecting him from the monster, then that means this is a huge opportunity to escape.
Without hesitation, Arthur turned around and started swimming up as fast as he could. The air in his lungs had already reached a critical stage several seconds ago so he was not in a good position. Meanwhile, the giant finally woke up of its trance and noticed that Arthur was escaping.
So, instinctively, it tried to reach out for him, only for the tentacles to stop when they felt the light of the shard on them, burning their skin to a horrible level.
‘It’s working! I can make it out!’ Arthur thought to himself. He was seeing a glimpse of hope in his survival and it was not that far! He had to just reach the surface. But, the distance to the surface wasn’t small either.
With that, Arthur continued swimming with the tentacles chasing him at a good distance, not to touch the light of the shard. Arthur knew that as long as he kept it near him, the monster could not touch him.
‘I’m close, I know I’m close! Come on!’ He thought to himself as he clenched his teeth. The pain of suffocation was rising and even though it was nowhere near the real pain of actually suffocating, it was still an uncomfortable feeling in the game.
Fifteen seconds passed in that state before Arthur noticed something. The clicking sound the shard was making had started subsiding. Looking to the side quickly, he saw the light imitating from it weakening in real-time.
‘What?! Already?!’ He almost screamed. ‘No, please not now! Just a little bit more! Hold on a little bit more, shard!’
As he swam like a maniac, the light went down slowly, like an ember of fire dying down with time. At the same time, the tentacles seemed to realize that something was happening and the burning light was growing weaker and weaker. So, they started closing the distance again, trying to figure out if it was safe to try and take down Arthur again.
‘Just a little bit more!’
Up ahead, Arthur was starting to see glimpses of light reflecting on the surface, indicating that he was close again. But, right behind him, the tentacles were now a few feet away at most, wiggling their way toward him.
At this point, the shard was almost completely dead. The few rays of light left were barely enough to cover Arthur. Then, as he expected, the shard completely died down.
‘Fuck!’ The boy cursed and then quickly threw the shard in his inventory and started using his arms to swim faster.
Upon seeing the light vanish, the tentacles launched forward like arrows, intending to grab Arthur again.
In a single instance, it became a race. If Arthur can reach the surface or if he would end up being caught again. It was the same exact situation as a few minutes ago. Arthur is against a monster that is simply positioned above him in power. However, this time was a little different. The hope in Arthur’s eyes was burning as strong as ever.
‘If you think I will fall twice, you’re dreaming!’ His eyes flickered with a strong light as his arms moved faster and faster as if he was manifesting energy out of nothing and that was not too far from reality.
Arthur’s stamina bar was already on the edge and his body was riddled with injuries. He should’ve not been able to swim that fast usually. But, there was a hidden power in the game that had no quantifiable measures.
The power of adrenaline and thrill. That rush was very much present inside the game and Arthur had used it countless times before. That strong rush of energy that comes to the person when they’re in immediate danger. The human body unlocks the limits it set up for normal cases and the person ends up doing things they should’ve not been able to do in normal circumstances.
All the excitement, fear, and hope merged together and the result was… Arthur broke through his limit again.
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*Swish*
Like a flash, Arthur swam through the dense water, crossing the distance in less than a second. This time, he didn’t bother to even look for a safe spot to escape, he simply went for the nearest spot.
‘I’m there!’
Closing his eyes for a moment, Arthur broke through the surface, emerging on top. His mouth immediately took a very deep breath, something that shocked his body back into life. Then, his eyes quickly looked around and spotted a big ice chunk. Quickly, Arthur grabbed into it and climbed up.
At the same time, the tentacles reached him and tried to grab into his leg. However, once they got close, they saw an ember of blue flames fly toward them. The Frost Flames caught into the tentacles, freezing them up. The limbs could only shake before they retreated back into the water.
Arthur shook the water from his face and looked around him as he opened the map. ‘Where am I?! Quickly, I need to escape before they try again!’
Fortunately for him, his cursor indicated that he was very close to the shore. In fact, from that position, he could see the beautiful end of the lake he had been searching for. It seemed his battle with the monster underwater had dragged him closer than he expected to the shore.
So, he quickly stood up on his feet and started running toward it. Jumping from one glacier to another without looking back. He didn’t want to even know what the monster was trying to do. All he wanted was to reach the shore and leave that hell.
‘I’m there!’
A few jumps later, Arthur found himself on the thick snow, outside the lake. But, he didn’t stop at all till he was several dozen meters away from the lake. Looking back, Arthur didn’t see any tentacles chasing him and the place was as quiet as ever.
“Hah… Hah… Hah…” Even as he was breathing heavily, he kept examining the lake and waiting. After a cruel 30 seconds, he finally realized that the monster might’ve lost any intention of chasing him.
“Is it… Is it really over?” He asked himself before he dropped to his knees. He coughed loudly, spitting out all the water he swallowed. All the exhaustion he accumulated came back to him like a train.
Slowly, he fell on his back and looked up to the sky, still in a daze. Everything that just happened felt like some kind of out-of-body experience. It did not feel real. The fear, the tension, the monster’s appearance, and Arthur’s survival. Everything happened in a mere 10 minutes at most yet the impact it left on Arthur was deep.
“What… What was that… What was even that…” Putting his arm on his eyes, he groaned. “This is a sick joke… A really sick joke, game.”
Clenching his fists, Arthur slammed his hand on the snow as he glared up. After all that fear finally settled down a little, Arthur was outraged. “What kind of sick fuck thinks of such a monster and implements it?! Do you want to give people heart attacks?! I’ve never been more scared for my life before!”
Even though the boy was very much aware his death in the game was not that big of a problem, he was still running for his life as if he was really going to die in real life. The sensation was morbidly real and he could not deny that.
‘A giant strapped to a stone throne underwater… Why is it strapped to that throne? And why the hell is it there in the first place? Besides, those scars on its body… Did someone fight that abomination and seal it there?’
A thousand questions popped into Arthur’s head with no answers. The mystery of this giant was by far the most confusing. However, unlike the other mysteries Arthur came across, this one… This one precisely he did not want to discover or unravel at all.
Staring at the now calm lake, Arthur simply sat there, trying to recover from the mental and physical shock he sustained.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3