What greeted Moon’s vision was a vast, latticed chamber that stretched beyond his ability to perceive its full dinsions.
Thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of thin mbrane walls extended in parallel rows, creating a pattern that resembled massive filter sheets. Between each delicate mbrane, narrow gaps allowed blood to flow through in controlled channels, passing between the tissue layers.
’This is it. Beyond those mbranes is water... the outside,’ Selene thought with rising excitent despite their desperate circumstances.
She made urgent hand signals to Moon, her movents quick and precise. ’We can cut through the mbranes. That’s our exit to the outside.’
Moon nodded understanding, imdiately channeling mana to form a wind blade. He released the compressed air attack toward the nearest mbrane barrier in an attempt to test its durability.
The cutting edge struck the tissue and sliced through partially but the mbrane healed almost instantaneously, the mbrane knitting back together as if the damage had never occurred.
Worse, the attack had been slightly weakened before even reaching its target. A few dozens of koi still pursuing them had been in the wind blade’s path.
Moon and Selene both realized the grim truth simultaneously: to escape, they needed to form a much more powerful combined attack. And they needed to eliminate or distract the koi swarm for at least a few critical seconds to prevent interference.
They exchanged determined nods, reaching the sa conclusion without words.
Both awakeners began withdrawing nearly all their remaining beast corpses from spatial storage, everything except two final bodies held in reserve in case their plan failed catastrophically.
They released the corpses in succession, spacing them out at short intervals to maximize attraction. If the first body failed to draw enough koi away, then the second would.
Then the third. Then the fifth. The creatures’ feeding frenzy instinct would eventually make them pursuit those bodies.
The strategy worked beautifully.
As beast corpses materialized and tumbled through the blood, the vast majority of the koi swarm imdiately diverted to devour the fresh foreign objects. Their glowing forms created a trail of light as they fell upon each carcass.
With almost all the koi distracted and only a few dozen remaining near Moon’s group, both awakeners began channeling their most powerful attacks. The remaining few would pose no issue to their plan, they were too weak to disrupt it.
Moon didn’t limit himself to pure wind manipulation. He ford a long, sharp spear with a razor edge from the earth elent. Then he wrapped the earth construct in spiraling wind currents, the dual elents combining to create sothing far sharper and more penetrating than either elent alone could achieve.
Selene ford her own massive wind blade, pouring mana into compressing the wind blade. She continued until her hands began to shake from simply holding the attack.
Moon raised his hand, preparing to give the signal. Mirage positioned himself for maximum acceleration. Selene gripped Moon’s waist tightly, ready for the explosive movent.
Moon’s hand dropped.
’Now!’
Both attacks were launched simultaneously, traveling thorough the thick blood towards the mbrane.
BOOM!
SLICE!
Both attacks struck the gill mbrane. Moon’s earth-wind spear punched through first, creating a large breach in the delicate tissue. Selene’s wind blade followed a fraction of a second later, widening the opening and preventing imdiate healing.
The mbrane tore open, creating a gap large enough for their escape.
"Go! GO!" Moon shouted ntally, urging Mirage forward with every ounce of will.
The white horse didn’t need encouragent. His evolved fin-tail pumped with explosive power, propelling all three of them directly toward the breach at maximum speed.
The remaining koi realized what was happening and surged forward to intercept, but they were too late.
Mirage charged through the gap in the mbrane just as it began contracting to heal itself. They squeezed through the narrowing opening with centiters to spare, Moon’s shoulder scraping against regenerating tissue as they burst through to the other side.
’We made it! We’re outside!’
But the celebration was too premature.
The crushing pressure hit them imdiately. An overwhelming force attacking their bodies from all directions simultaneously. The deep ocean environnt was catastrophically different from the controlled interior of the creature’s circulatory system.
Darkness engulfed them completely. No light penetrated to these depths except the fading glow of the koi swarm still trapped inside the gill chamber behind them.
’Shit! We must be incredibly deep in the ocean,’ Moon thought as he felt the pressure attempting to compress his entire body. A splitting headache began forming as his skull protested the environntal stress. His lungs burned, desperate for air they couldn’t quite access.
Selene was having an even worse ti. Her body, slightly weaker in Constitution than Moon’s, couldn’t withstand the pressure as effectively. Her grip on Moon’s waist loosened dangerously.
Then she went completely limp, consciousness abandoning her as the extre depth and extended oxygen deprivation beca too much for her body to handle.
"Selene!" Moon tried to shout, but barely any sound erged underwater except bubbles. He grabbed her with one arm, holding her against himself to prevent her from sinking away into the darkness.
’If our bodies hadn’t been strengthened by that creature’s blood, we’d already be dead. The attribute increases we gained might be the only reason we’re still alive right now.’
Even with his high Constitution and the brief adaptation their bodies had undergone, Moon knew they had minutes at most before permanent damage occurred. Selene might have even less ti.
He had to get them to the surface. Fast.
He imdiately placed his own mouth above hers, as Selene began to suffocate. He began to give her from his own breath, sharing the very little oxygen he had left to make sure that she survived.
But in the oppressive darkness of the deep ocean, Moon couldn’t determine which direction was up. Disorientation was setting in, his oxygen-starved brain struggling to maintain spatial awareness.
Then he saw it.
Suddenly, a glow ford in the darkness. Not the white luminescence of the koi, but a brilliant golden color.
Moon’s eyes widened in shock and terror as his vision adjusted and the source of the light beca clear.
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