The Sunken City [Darksea] [COMPLETE]

When Sirius struck Nihil with the now-empty lightning rod, hoping the blob wouldn't be able to tell the difference, it lashed out at him with an electric shock. Sirius put the rod between it and himself and stepped back, letting Silas do his thing so he could wait for an opening. He had a plan... if they were fast enough... but Sirius had a busted leg, there was no way he was going to be fast enough! He'd have to find something, but for now, he kept an eye on Silas and Nihil. Finally, the general and the monster controlling him turned to the elder Sheikah. This was his chance!

He leapt forward, closing the distance between him and Nihil, and jabbed into the general's neck. He came to an abrupt halt once more, so Sirius stepped back. "Silas, NOW!"

He just got out of range when Silas's Wall of Hazards popped up from right under Nihil, keeping a steady flow of electricity going for a few seconds. The Wall could be used to charge the rod, but the leaps forwards and back had already taken their toll on his leg, so Sirius took a risk. If this went wrong, they'd have to start all over, but... "Brother! Target the area where the monster meets his head and really drive the point home!" With that, he swung his arm forwards and threw the lightning rod towards Silas, the Wall of Hazards within its trajectory.

This had better work...

It worked. To Sirius's immense relief, Silas understood what he wanted, caught the rod, and didn't just deal damage to Nihil but fully detached the monster from his head. Nihil's body fell over, and while Silas looked at it and recoiled in horror, Sirius's attention remained on the blob. It was not dead yet. Of course not- that had never been part of this phase of the plan, after all. Frying what had been left of Nihil's brain had robbed it of its weapon, but it was still alive.

Still, Sirius figured that now that it was on its own, it would be no different than the ones they had fought before. As such, he drew his swords and enchanted it with Shadow. THe literature had been right, he idly noted- the enchantment became progressively easier to cast and control as he used it more often. To his horror, however, the monster crawled towards him fearlessly, apparently determined to reclaim its weapon. "Hey!" Sirius called, raising his free hand to cast a Shadow Ball, "I don't think so!"

Sirius had hurried over to Nihil's body along with Silas, so he had seen it too. He nodded. "It is!" he called, admittedly more startled than he would like to admit. "We have to hurry after it! Rover!" The dog came running, having come out of the cover he had assumed when the battle with the controlled general had gotten too shocking for his tastes. "Let's go," he said to Silas, "Town centre should be this wa--"

He interrupted himself when his voice was drowned out by a crashing noise, followed by an uneasy rumbling. It was as in slowmotion that he turned around, only to see his death approaching at a rapid pace. An enormous, unreal volume of water had broken through the bubble created by the Hylian and Zora mages, and was coming right at them. Fortunately, when he looked to his front again, he saw the shield reforming as it repaired itself where it could, even if that meant it would become smaller as a result. But if they were caught outside it... "SILAS!" he shouted, "Part of the shield has given way!" He pointed forward. "Start running, or we -will- drown!"

Once inside the shield, Sirius stumbled. His leg was starting to protest loudly against how much it had been used throughout the day, and he had to grit his teeth and force himself to keep running between Silas and Rover. Had he known he would have to fight eldritch horrors and run for his life all day, he would have left this matter to Professor Clearwater. Still, he was here now, and he prided himself on seeing things through to the end. "You have people skills," he said, his mind running a million miles per hour, "You try and calm down the people and convince them they have to leave. I will speak with General Onox and help devise an actual evacuation plan." He stumbled again, regaining his balance just in time to avoid falling flat on his face. He would be so happy when this was over and he could sit down or take a carriage home.

Once they arrived at the town centre, though, he stopped in his tracks, his pain forgotten, and put a hand on Rover's head so he wouldn't run ahead. What had happened here? The people were no longer standing off to the side, clustered together in groups. They were falling over each other in their rush to get -well, where were they going? Some were engaged in a struggle with soldiers, who appeared hard-pressed to subdue them without using enough force to injure them. Others were trying to run away from the centre, only to be stopped by others who tried to keep them in. A few people seemed to be trying to keep the peace, but they were sorely outnumbered.

Even more worrying were the Zora mages that they had seen before- a few of them were unconscious on the ground, with no one tending to them because the remaining mages needed all their focus to maintain the shield. That explained why part of it had fallen away- but had they passed out due to exhaustion, or had someone knocked them out on purpose? Sirius shook his head in disbelief. "No," he muttered. "This is the worst that could have happened! Silas, help me find Onox- we need to know what's going on, and we need a plan to get everyone on one page before that -thing- gets here!"

Onox had summoned his men, and they had arrived, within minutes, with a few terrified, but otherwise calm (although 'calm' was a relative term at the moment) civilians. They were gathered in this one corner of the square, and Sirius grimaced at their small number. Still, it was better than nothing- if they could get this rabble organised, they might at least be able to get -some- people to safety. Still, Onox was a pitiable sight at the moment, and his authority had already failed once. When the general motioned to step forward, Sirius interfered. "Sir, if I may. Perhaps it would be better if I spoke to the men."

Onox looked him up and down for a moment, then asking, "Are you certain you are up to the task? They are restless."

"I can keep order in a class full of nineteen- to twenty-one-year olds," Sirius assured him. "I am up to the task." Onox nodded and stepped back, letting the Sheikah take center non-existant stage. Normally, he would wait naturally until the clamour in his class died down, but they had no time for that at the moment, so he used his alternative method of drawing attention and gave Rover a signal. Immediately, the hound got up, standing at his side, and gave a series of loud, clear barks. The men and women gathered turned their heads towards the noise, seeing Sirius giving them pointed stares. It worked; they settled down. In the end, people were all students in one way or another. Now, he just had to explain their assignment to them.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Hyrulean army, sirs and madams of Impa," he began, as Rover sat down next to him, "I would introduce myself, but we do not have time. As you have all undoubtedly noticed, the situation has escalated to the point where it is no longer manageable. We must evacuate Impa immediately, or suffer casualties on a scale the likes of which we've not seen since Ganon's invasion." He put his hands together. "Sirs, madams, please see if you can calm down any of your relatives and friends and convince them to line up at the northwestern edge of town, which is closest to the shore. We will come up with something." Now, he gave the crowd a pointed stare. This is where he enforced his deadline and informed class of the consequences of not handing in on time. "I want everyone gathered there within ten minutes. This is a hard deadline; my partner and I have encountered a monster that takes control of human brains, as well as a wraith that we cannot-"

"Bullshit!"

One man had shouted, but the murmur among the crowd swelled quickly until they all started to talk back. This was a mistake; Sirius did not tolerate back-talk from the class. Just as he stepped forward to pick out the instigator and make him into an example, however, the ground between the crowd and the fighting horde began to rumble and shake. Was the city sinking so far that the pressure of the deep was already tearing it up? No... no, this was something far worse. "GET BEHIND THE GENERAL!" Sirius shouted, his voice stern and unforgiving. "NO IFS, WHATS, OR BUTS!" The people must have understood from his tone that he would backhand everyone who protested, and he watched as the people ran by him and gathered around Onox. And just in time, too, as the ground burst open.

One massive webbed foot came out, landing on the ground with a bang. Another followed. A second later, as the monster braced itself, and then a head came above the ground. Sirius gasped and took a step back, his stern facade gone as he looked upon a massive lizard's head decorated with a crown of writhing tentacles, which extended along what he could see of its neck and back. Most horrifying of all, from these tentacles grew small, electrified blobs that Sirius recognised all too well. The beast was translucent, showing its skeleton and its various purple organs, pulsating as it looked around itself. It did not bother to get more than its upper body out of the sewers, but finally its hollow, black gaze settled upon Sirius and one of the tentacles started to reach towards him.

Medusal Basilisk
Agrozoa​

Sirius unsheathed his sword and swung it in the blink of an eye, striking the tentacle that came towards him as he recovered from the shock just in time to save himself. It writhed back, but the lizard itself didn't really give him any feedback. It must not have hurt much. How could it, Sirius wondered as he stared up at the thing. It was so huge. How would his toothpick of a sword hurt that? On the other hand, it was translucent. Maybe its skin was very fragile...

He realised this was not the time to be theorising when he became aware once more of the sounds around him. The lizard extended more tentacles towards the people around it, and grabbed a few. Sirius snapped his head to a side when he heard a woman scream, and rushed over to cut through the tentacle. At least they had that much going for them, he supposed; it was possible to cut through them, they weren't armoured or protected by magic. "The town hall," he said to her, pointing her in the right direction. "Don't come out until we say it's safe."

When she took off, Sirius found Silas. "I think it's safe to say we've found the source of the problem," he said. "The question now is, how do we get rid of it?!"

Sirius didn't have the strength left to jump, so he dove to the ground instead, sliding under the tentacle and to safety. Rover came up towards him, barking loudly in concern for his master, and he made sure to touch the hound for a moment before righting himself. It looked like the vast majority, if not all, of the civilians were now inside the town hall. He hurried over to the nearest soldiers, clapped them both on a shoulder to get their attention, and instructed, "get a few men inside the town hall, then close and barricade it, and put a few guards outside its doors. I'm counting on you two to get it done." Both men nodded and saluted, apparently glad to get away from the direct fighting for a moment.

Sirius, for his part, turned to the enormous lizard, the world around him seeming to move more slowly as he zoned in on it. It was still half-stuck in the sewers, and didn't seem to care that it was. Or had it consciously made the decision to stay in there? ...why would it do that? Of course, Sirius thought. Time resumed at its normal pace and he saw Rover lunging at a civilian who had fallen prey to one of the slugs, pouncing him to the ground and mauling him with both front paws. Sirius interfered, letting the angry blob charge his lighting rod and then plunging it into the sap's skull. He immediately followed up by cutting the monster in two with his sword, but hesitated there. Separating the head from the body would be the most efficient way of removing potential weapons for the monsters from the field. But that was something Silas would have to do- he was no longer accustomed to turning off his humanity.

Sirius looked around until he saw General Onox, holding off two possessed soldiers at once, and hurried over to him, using a Shadow Ball as a distraction. Onox was less subtle and patient than the Sheikah brothers had been, simply bringing his weapon down from above and splitting monster and skull in one go. "Sir," Sirius said, "I think I may have a plan. I have a theory on the beast's anatomy, strategy, and weak spot." With the general giving him his attention, Sirius began to explain his theory.

It was obvious what the monster wanted- it was after food. Those of the possessed that weren't interrupted or startled by other people made little effort other than to walk towards the lizard and let themselves be devoured, and aside from tossing Silas away just earlier, that was all the tentacles did, too. What was worse, was that Sirius felt the beast was a little bigger now than it had been when it had first shown up, as the fissure in the ground had been made slightly larger. However, Sirius had an idea on where its weak point was. "See how it keeps most of its abdomen in the sewer," he pointed out, "Or at least underground. I think it's a defensive measure. Its weakness must be on its abdomen somewhere, and this is how it keeps us from getting to it."

"Your theory seems solid," Onox admitted. "I will gather a few of my best men and go into the sewers. We will find this 'weak spot,' on my knight's honour." Sirius nodded. "The rest of the soldiers will stay here, under command of you and your brother." Less than a second passed before Onox turned around. "Speaking of your brother, where has he gotten off to?"

They soon spotted him on the roof, jumping towards some half-broken lightning rod on it. "Crud," Sirius muttered, and then added, more loudly, "Silas, you dolt! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"

Seeing Silas safe for the moment, Sirius nodded at Onox as a sign the general could leave. When he did so, the Sheikah turned around to the battle and shook his head. Many, many more of the civilians had fallen prey to the mind-controlling monsters than he had thought at first. He saw Rover pound on one and bounce back to dodge the electric retaliation even s he thought it. To make matters worse, his leg -which he had been able to ignore for a little while but no longer- shook and pulled. He'd have to fight at range, but he hadn't brought his shortbow and Shadow Ball and Needle Storm alone wouldn't be enough...

He started to limp towards Silas so they would meet up sooner. Normally he'd be embarrassed and ashame, but his public image was the least of his concerns now. "I need a bow," he said to his brother. "I can't go into close combat like this." He didn't explain further when two civilians approached them, limbs flailing and one tried to grab hold of him. The fine movement was too complicated for the monster on his head to steer so quickly, though, so instead the arm fell harmlessly over Sirius's shoulder. Sirius wasted no time drawing the lightning rod and smashing it into the blob. By now, he knew that while dangerous, they could be incredibly slow, and he flawlessy stole the beast's charge.

He then stepped back, seeing a fist approach him, but foolishly did so with his bad leg. It buckled, sending him to the floor, and he had to settled for attacking at this range with the electricity stored. Unsurprisingly, he missed his mark and instead got the civilian in the chest. Gritting his teeth, he conjured up a handful of needles and threw those, instead. They sunk into the monster, sending it reeling. "I'm sorry," he muttered as he raised his sword and pushed himself to stand on his good leg, "But I've exhausted my other options." He leapt forward, delivering a blow he would much rather not have had to deliver, and as the body fell over limp, he crashed to the ground himself, catching his fall with both hands.

"I'll be okay," he said to Silas before the other would worry. "Just- help me see if I can loot a bow so I can make myself useful at a range where this limb doesn't put me in mortal danger."

Silas took off to look for a bow, leaving Sirius with a pair of guards. "We can't stay in one place," Sirius told them. "I want to take out as many of the slugs as we can." It was a hopeless endeavour, he knew that. Rover was of little use against the things themselves, being afraid of their electricity, and while Sirius had some range at his disposal with Shadow Ball and the lightning rod, he knew how limited his use of either was. Fortunately, Silas had left him with two able-bodied men, who moved in front of him and cut down blobs left and right as they came towards them.

One of them was caught off-guard and reeled as a slug jumped towards him from a side, but Sirius was faster, casting a Shadow Ball at it and forcing it to retreat so the soldier could kill it. They fell simply enough, Sirius supposed, their threat level was to be derived from their ability to control the mind of whoever they got hold of. The main problem with the slugs, however... was the infinite supply. As he watched the lizard, he saw several of the slugs detaching from its head and raining down upon the ground before it, slowly crawling away in search of new victims. "If we don't do anything, the city will be overrun with those things. Keep hacking!"

The men did as ordered, mowing down every slug that came their way and then some. Sirius helped out where he could, but in doing so they attracted the attention of the horde, and more and more of the slugs came towards them. The Sheikah ended up drawing his own sword and helping with the endeavour, but exhaustion was taking its toll on all three of them. He needed that bow, and he needed it quickly...

Sirius frowned when he saw Silas's arm, but he decided not to address it. The lizard and the havoc it was wreaking were more urgent and besides, they had no healers present anyway. "I've sent Onox and an elite squad into the sewers," he hurried to explain. "We suspect that's where that thing is hiding its weak spot. For now, we just need to keep the numbers of blobs manageable, wait for Onox's group to expose its weakness, destroy it, and then clean up." That was easier said than done, though. Silas had only brought him a limited number of arrows, and Sirius had to rest almost all his weight on his good leg.

"The sooner this is over, the better it will be," he muttered to himself as he took the bow in one hand and one arrow in the other, having stuck the others between his vambraces and his arms. It was hardly ideal, but it'd have to do. Sirius's archery was nowhere near as good as his swordplay or his magic, but it would have to do. Deciding he'd have to give the bow a test fire, he zoned in on a possessed soldier beginning to come his way and drew the string back.

Seconds later, the arrow zoomed through the air, only to plant itself square in the blob's form. It had a lot more impact to it than a needle did, ripping it open and letting the black ooze gush out from it, spilling over the soldier's face and body as he fell to his knees. Sirius nodded, satisfied. "I'll have to minimise my movement, but I think I can finally make myself useful. Cover me; I think I may have an idea." With that, he started to slowly limp towards the enormous lizard, trying to gauge just how close he would have to be in order to hit his intended target.