Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons 148 CXLVIII. The Puddle

Dag said nothing to his companions and lowered himself to the ground, picking up a stone.

Reidar and Karl followed him with their eyes, trusting what he was doing.

Dag threw the stone into the pool of water, which splashed out of it.

After a few seconds, the rock ended up on the bottom, touching the metal ring and the surface of the pool returned flat like a board, continuing to boil.

"Did you see? It's just a puddle. Rather, let's figure out how to open that door" Karl said, stepping forward.

Just then, four of the runes engraved on the large rocky door glowed with intense blue light, activating a spell.

The water began to swirl, rising upwards as if it was a small liquid hurricane.

"Back!" said Dag to his friend, who before he even heard him had already turned back to his comrades, fearful of having activated some sort of defensive spell.

The metal ring that was previously on the bottom was lifted from the jet of water, stopping at its summit, as if it was a ring on a finger.

"Captain... I don't like it. I just don't like it at all!" said Reidar, not believing his eyes.

The ring, rising around the vortex of water, gave it a conical shape, with the tip pointing downwards.

On the base of the cone, instead, a small ball of water appeared, attached to the rest of the figure through the ring.

Almost simultaneously, two big arms with large human-like hands leaked out of the creature's torso.

About a minute after Dag pulled the rock into the puddle, the three friends found themselves in front of a water elemental, so tall that it reached the vault of the cave and completely occluded the passage.

Dag was scared, that being seemed very powerful and had no intention of letting them through.

"Nobody told you the most important detail, Dag! The entrance has a warden! And I don't think this asshole lets us pass easily" Reidar said, pulling out Kjetil's bow.

The elemental stood still. No one could guess where he was looking since he didn't have eyes.

He was with his arms folded, waiting for Dag and the others to come forward to confront him.

"He's telling us to leave by hook... 'go away human fools, otherwise I'll give you a nice bath'... fuck!" said Karl, who, as he trembled with fear, pulled out his shield and tomahawk.

Dag stepped toward the elemental, which lowered his head to him.

"Captain! Get out of there!" yelled Reidar.

But Dag didn't listen to his advice and looking at the aquatic being straight in the face, he said: "I'm here to see Vegard. I have a weapon he forged some years ago. The warrior it belonged to is in Valhalla now. I would like to ask the great blacksmith to make some changes to this axe."

Karl and Reidar gaped: Dag was trying to talk to that magical being!

The elemental tilted his head slightly as if he wanted to understand Dag's words, which for a few seconds hoped to receive an answer.

But soon after, the water monster opened his huge arms and tried to hit him.

Dag dodged the blow, lowering himself and immediately afterward he pulled out the hammer.

"All right. At least I tried" he said, as the black fluid began to come out of his arms.

Before his teammates could intervene, Dag leaped to the elemental, loading a powerful blow, aiming at his head.

The blow was so fast and precise that the blue monster failed to dodge it, and Dag hit the metal ring: his spherical head disintegrated, splashing on the cave wall.

Then he rose to his feet, after lowering himself to his knees to cushion the fall.

He turned to the elemental, which remained exactly the same position he was before losing his head.

The metal ring began to levitate, rising from the ground.

Karl was the closest and ran towards it, leaving the shield on the ground and grabbing it, trying to prevent it from flying away, but he did not succeed: he too got up from the ground, despite pulling down the ring with all his strength.

"Aaaagh! Fuck, I can't!" he said, ditching his grip and turning back towards the shield.

Before the ring could return to its position, Dag repeatedly struck the elemental's body, but the hammer passed through it, being the body entirely made of water.

Reidar also tried to hit him with an arrow, the iron tip of which hit a wall of the cave, after passing through the water elemental, which remained unharmed.

The ring returned to the neck of the being and his head reformed immediately.

Dag regained his breath after launching several missed attacks.

"Trying to hit him normally doesn't make sense, it's just an unnecessary loss of energy. He's must have a weakness, I'm sure!" said Dag, trying to study his opponent before his next attack.

"How can he have a weakness? It's a fucking monster made of water!" exclaimed Karl, who trying to grab the ring, touched the elemental's body, getting completely wet.

The elemental waved his arms, trying to strike all three adventurers, pushing them to the edge of the precipice.

Fortunately, his shots were slow and predictable.

Opening the door evading his defense was impossible, considering they didn't even know how to do it exactly.

Dag looked down: the monster had no feet, the lower end of his body leaked directly from one of the fractures of the rock below, which had widened further during the summoning.

"We must try to lock him in there" Dag said, as the monster squirmed.

"Where? In that little rock crack? It's impossible! Look how big he is!" said Reidar, dodging another shot.

"I think it's time to see if Kjetil's bow is as magical as the bandits said. While I'm distracting him, you have to load its magic arrows... I think they will hit his body!" said Dag, as he prepared to dodge again.

Chapter end