Chapter Text
A crystal-like, electro-colored projectile shot right towards the Forestwatcher, missing him by about a meter. With his eyes still following the easily missed shot he couldn't help but chuckle. Was that all? The enemies commonly found in the forest were due for some training.
Yet feeling a bit too at ease by his own thoughts the next projectile flying his way took him by surprise, hitting him right in the chest. Under a grunt the fox-like fell to the ground.
"Tighnari!"
A young girl, clearly exhausted from the fight she has been fighting alongside Tighnari this far, shouted in agony as she saw her friend and teacher lose his footing.
Talk about over exaggeration.
"I'm fine, Collei...", he responded quickly. Yet his voice couldn’t conceal slight annoyance. “Electro Mushrooms won't take me out", he added.
The electricity running through his body stung and made his extremities feel like they were infected by ants. But other than that, he really was fine. After all, nothing tops being hit by lightning, really.
Tighnari pushed his body up again, not even paying the dampened and dirty parts of his clothing any mind. This was nothing new to him. Working in the forest came with its merits. And dirty clothing was one of them.
Their opponents, a few electro and hydro Slimes, about three dendro Fungi and one big, flying Electroshroom stopped their previously rapid and unorganized movements to circle the forest watchers. Not paying it much mind Tighnari set out to aim his bow at one of the fungi again, continuing their assault.
Yet after only a short amount of time the mixture of slimes and mushrooms had taken on a suspicious formation around them. They were now standing in an oddly proportionally correct, almost perfect, circle. Something Tighnari would have not expected them to be able to navigate into. Something he had never seen before.
And something that made his attention spike.
"Collei, this is weird."
"Yes...", she agreed, similarly weary of the sudden strangeness of the situation.
"Come here", the fox-like called over, Collei following his command quickly. They pushed their backs together, starting to slowly turn themselves in a circular motion, hoping to not leave a blind spot open for the enemy's attack. Especially since both Tighnari and Collei were almost only equipped with a bow. They would have a hard time keeping their enemies at a distance if they chose to close in.
And as the ground below them suddenly started to glow in a dark red, odd vine-like, black markings appearing on the enemies, Tighnari couldn't help but fall into a panic.
"Fuck- Collei, we need to-", he almost screamed before the moist earth beneath them started to crack, red light emerging from the cracks beneath them, causing them both to lose their footing. Holding onto the younger girl like his life depended on it, his mind scurried for a solution.
The first thought that shot through his head was to jump. Jump out of the circle and hopefully out of the firing zone of whatever that glowing thing beneath them was. But that thought was quickly abandoned as he did not see neither him nor Collei able to jump over any of the enemies.
So the next best thing-
"Shoot an opening!"
Tighnari shouted, immediately aiming at one of the slimes closest to him. If he could get a headshot, killing the slime in an instance, the power holding the circle stable might be broken.
So aiming his bow, feeling Collei's elbow in his side, indicating that she was doing the same, he shot and-
-immediately lost his footing, collapsing, as the ground beneath them fully broke apart, revealing the moist lower layers of the earth.
Collei couldn't hold back a scream as more and more of the ground was turning itself over. The smell of wet earth and fresh rain filled the air, accompanied by even more red light shining its way through anywhere the earth had been turned over.
The fox-like was having a hard time seeing anything under the intense shaking and disrupting light. Yet he could swear the ground inside of the circle was sinking lower, below the forest’s ground level.
"Collei, hold onto me."
The two grabbed each other's arms, holding on tightly as the earth, still shaking, almost bubbling at this point, seemed to take on quicksand-like properties. Their bodies were slowly emerging into the dirt, everything in the circle still sinking lower and lower.
"It's swallowing us...", Collei noted, having sunken all the way to her chest already.
Thghnari didn't know what to say. What to do.
Could they hold onto the outside of the slowly forming dirt wall?
No, too far away. And there was little room for moving away from the middle of the circle anymore.
Could they shoot an arrow to break the circle like they had planned before?
Trying his best to get up and reach for his bow, Tighnari pushed himself upwards, only to realize the ground was too soft to provide his body with any support.
"Fuck!"
He cursed another time, desperately trying again and again to get up, only to fall over and down to the ground again and again.
There must be a way to get out of this situation. Some way to reach his bow. Or to dig themselves up. To pull themselves out of the dirt. Anything.
"Tighnari!"
His friend called out to him, effectively stopping him from frantically struggling in the dirt. Pulled out of his haze their eyes met. And in an instance the fox-like felt his mind calm down a bit. Collei was a pretty jumpy person, almost always having intense, emotional outbursts to anything. However, she had a talent for calming down surprisingly well in overly stressful situations. And Tighnari was overly delighted to have her with him right in this situation.
After all, he had never seen something like this before. His time living in the forest had never once shown him weak enemies form a circle and sumon an earthquake.
By the looks of it, they were about to be swallowed up completely by wet, pulsating forest ground. And as soon as their head had emerged into the earth, there was no way to keep on breathing.
His heart beat faster, as panic re-entered his system.
Something. There has to be something.
Anything other than continuing to sink....
"Hey...", the girl still clinging onto him spoke up. "I remember... while some mercenaries were around some time ago...." She was clearly having a hard time keeping her voice steady, either complicated by panic or the increasing pressure on her chest not allowing her to breath properly. "Quicksand can have a pocket of air beneath it..." It was necessary for her to push her head out of the dirt by now, trying her best to not accidentally swallow some of it. "Let's just hope", she spoke with an almost desperate smile.
And with Tighnari having been swallowed equally far at this point, there was little option for them anyway. The girl's sentiment gave him some hope, helping him to focus.
So smiling back at her, he held his breath.