Sorcerer… Cyborg???

Chapter 67: 'In Hot Water'

"Xerev, I hope you have something good to report?" The figure on the throne was furious, and was tapping a long rod, covered in inscriptions, against one hand.

"Unfortunately not, your Supremacy, we had closed in on the tracking device, but it appears that the target has crossed to another plane." Xerev tried to shrink himself smaller, but he couldn't appear any smaller as he was, kneeling before the throne with his head bowed as he was.

"What! In what universe does a weak individual like him decide to explore new planes, after experiencing Idwa as his first plane, it's simply ridiculous! Unless, you lied to me." The figure's eyes narrowed to a slit, glowing with an eerie red glow, he stalked down the dias towards Xerev, his steps shockingly light in comparison to his bulky frame.

"Please! I swear, Xurha!" Xerev gave up on kneeling and sprawled out fully before the dias, shivering and shaking, sweat visibility dripping from him.

"I told you, never, ever call me by name. You lost that right long ago, scum." Xurha snarled at Xerev, lashing out at him with the rod. Xerev screamed, his body twisting and contorting on the floor of the throne room, the whites of his eyes showing as they rolled into the back of his head, and his mouth foaming.

"You, dirty rat." Xurha continued to curse and yell at Xerev, and wails and inhuman screams continued to sound out through the throne room, until they soon fell completely silent.

Kothar plummeted through the air, all he could see below him was a featureless blue expanse, spreading as far as he could see in every direction. Unfortunately for Kothar, he was incapable of flight, and no spatial spell he cast would save him from crashing into the waves below.

Kothar felt a point digging into his palm, and felt the familiar ship of his artifact, the artifact that Krieg had pushed him out of the portal to take from him, was now in his possession again.

[Serves the ******* right, now he's lost another student, and he's got nothing to show for it.] SIlane said dryly.

[Thanks for the observation, but any ideas of how the **** am I going to stop from being crushed into a pulp by the water below, if that even is water?] Kothar responded in a frustrated tone.

[Well, unless you can suddenly sprout wings, no. I guess, hold your breath and try to keep the damage to a minimum?] Silane replied.

[It won't be too terrible, the gravity doesn't seem to be so strong here, I have been falling fro a while.] Kothar said, almost cheerful. The blue of the water below him gradually filled his view, and he braced for impact. Kothar took a deep breath and held it, then everything went blank.

Water sprayed into the sky as the now unconscious Kothar drifted down into the water, carried by his momentum. A murky cloud of red slowly spread from his crushed arm and broken leg, blooming amongst the pure blue of the water.

The vibration carried through the water, and thousands of tiny dark leaf shaped shadows stirred in the depths, and honed in on the cloud of blood.

Kothar woke, his entire body screaming in pain, with his right arm being the loudest, with his right leg a close second. He assessed the damage, his right arm hung limply, his radius was crushed, and his leg was crooked, a piece of his fibula poking out from the skin.

[Well, at least I'm not dead.] Kothar did his best to block out the pain, and joked to Silane.

[Yeah, just mostly crippled and stranded in a massive body of maybe water.] She shot back.

[What now?]

[Just keep swimming! If you could even call it that.] Silane observed, as Kothar lurched into a lopsided doggy paddle, using his right side as little as possible, wincing every time he had to, as pain shot through his body whenever the bones were moved.

As he paddled, Kothar fell into almost a trance, as the constant pain faded into the background of his mind and he mused on the absolute ridiculousness of his situation.

[Aaaaaaaaah!] A strangled half yell from Silane roused Kothar from his thoughts.

[What? I was getting into a rhythm.] Kothar complained.

[Your arm, look at it carefully.] Silane pointed out. Kothar looked closed and saw odd tiny leaf shaped creatures that darted through the water by undulating their bodies, and constantly bumped into his arm.

As he looked closer, he sighed as he noticed what they were doing. Thanks to the adrenaline, he hadn't noticed the miniscule bites they were taking from him with every tiny little nudge, but soon enough they would break through the skin elsewhere on his body, and that would only accelerate how quickly he was devoured by the tiny little nibbles they took.

[It gets better and better.] Kothar groaned, and swatted at the creatures with his non-injured arm, but they simply flowed away from his hand with the water.

[That won't do much, even if you hit them, there are far too many of them anyway.] SIlane pointed out.

[Very helpful, if this keeps up I'll be a floating skeleton before long.] Kothar sighed, unsurprised by the compounding misfortune. Idwa had set the scene for what he expected from interplanar trouble, and this was as bizarre and unfortunate as he expected.

[Maybe this will do something.] Kothar cast Lightning Aura, and immediately many of the creatures twitched and became still, the rest rapidly darting away from Kothar.

[Good thinking, Kothar, now you're like a massive electric eel.] Silane joked, as Kothar peered at one of the odd creatures.

It was roughly symmetrical, with a dark upper side, and a tiny circular mouth ringed with little teeth.

[Worse comes to worst, Kothar, you could snack on these as you swim.] Silane commented.

[Let's hope it doesn't come to that.] Kothar replied, and crookedly swam into the horizon.