The Greatest Fight [progression cultivation isekai]

X2.6.2 – Oceans of Blood

"Don't put your hands in your mouth," instructed Elevar, as Indigo was about to lick her fingers after a meal.

"My hands are clean," she said, showing her palms.

"You think that your hands are clean. Nothing is clean in this world. The less contact our bodies have with the outside, the better. Trust me," Elevar continued, showing his palms completely covered in the dried blood of the tick he slaughtered.

Rosso placed a morsel of food in Roa's mouth. He chewed it, causing the boy from Lalh-Ah Land to smile.

Night eventually came, and they stopped rowing, exhausted from the day's journey. The halls that resembled lungs ended, and they were finally in open ocean, revealing a setting sun, purple in color with a black silhouette.

Elevar woke up in the middle of the night, as the vessel slowly drifted. He heard a noise. The darkness of the night did not allow him to see what was happening.

"We need to go down," said Rosso in the darkness.

"What?"

"We—we need to go down."

"Down where?"

"Down—in the water. Inside of the blood."

Silence followed. Elevar tapped Indigo on the shoulder, waking her up.

"We need to go down," Rosso said again, with a strange tone.

"Are you alright?" asked Indigo, turning on the Torch Gift, manifesting a light from her index finger.

What they saw, caused them to jump back. Rosso was covered in white leeches, all crawling on him, gathering onto his skull.

"They're Mind Controlling Leeches!" Elevar said, standing up, causing the boat to rock.

"What do we do?" Indigo said, slowly getting on her feet.

"Rosso—come here, my friend," said Elevar, extending his hand.

"We need to go down," Rosso repeated with a blank stare.

"We don't. We need to get those things off of you. Come here, please."

The boy looked at them with an angry look.

"No!" he shouted, standing up quickly, causing the boat to shift back and forth dangerously. "We need to go down! NOW!"

The heretic turned to the side of the vessel and was about to jump off when the others grabbed his cloak. A scuffle began.

"What the hell are you doing?" shouted Indigo, dragging him back into the boat.

"Let me go! We need to go down! DOWN!" Rosso shouted, hitting them and squirming as hundreds of leeches wiggled, attached to his head.

"Get those things off! Don't let them bite you!" shouted Elevar, pulling as many as he could off of the boy.

"Stop!" Rosso shouted as he fought back.

The boat eventually rocked so much during the scuffle that it capsized. The four of them found themselves submerged in blood and leeches. Elevar's head popped out of the liquid, attempting to catch his breath. He grabbed Roa by the shirt and pushed him back onto the vessel.

"Get back on the boat, now!" he shouted.

"We must go down," said Indigo, looking at him with the same blank stare.

"Damn it!" the monk shouted, pulling a single leech off her forehead.

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"What? Where am I?" she said, snapping out of it.

"Don't let them bite you, I said!" Elevar shouted. It was too late, however. One lamprey attached to the back of his head, causing him to repeat, "we need to go down."

Indigo swam to him and detached the beast.

"You snap out of it, monk! What do we do?" she said as Rosso began to swim away.

"Grab him," the both of them swam after their hypnotized friend, attempting not to swallow any of the blood surrounding them, fighting off leeches crawling on their skins.

Blood splashed in all directions, as Elevar and Indigo wrestled the boy until the last parasite was detached.

"What the hell is going on here?" shouted the boy from the desert, his eyes opening wide, realizing where he was. "What the hell is going on?" he repeated, more exasperated this time.

"Back to the boat!" the monk shouted as he swam back, suddenly remembering the Sunflower.

He took a sigh of relief when he noticed him still asleep on the side of the inflated balloon. They dragged him back up and climbed back onto their strange vessel. Detaching the last few parasites off their bodies, and boat, they lay down and rested, catching their breaths and wiping the red off their skins.

"It hasn't even been a day in this place, and I'm already starting to feel its weight," Indigo said.

"Looks like Thero was out cold the whole time. He said he needed to save as much energy, since there is no electricity here, and the sun is barely warm," explained Rosso, staring at the immobile robot laying next to Roa.

"Get some rest. I will wake one of you up in a few hours. In the meantime, I will keep an eye on our surroundings," said Elevar as the other two went to sleep.

The night was long and Elevar's stomach was upset. He had ingested some blood during the scuffle with Rosso, and he began throwing up.

"Damn it," he said, staring off the side of the boat as he caught his breath.

A smile appeared on his face, regardless. He didn't like being in Carnassia. Afterall, who would? But, as he felt the boat rocking back and forth, and the others snoring, he thought of the years, decades and centuries that had passed on the growing mountains of Vertica. He felt happy, even if his skin was sticky with dried blood, and nausea kept coming back every so often.

"At least I am free again," he thought to himself, as he nodded and smiled. "At least--I'm free." Then, he looked at the boy from Earth and whispered a 'thank you.' "I will make sure that you do not die in this place. This will not be your grave—Sunflower," he said out loud.

The boy moved in his sleep, mumbling something. The monk approached him slowly, and lowered his ear toward his mouth, listening to his breath.

"Mom—dad—where are you?" Roa said. "Where did you go?"

Elevar's head raised and his eyes opened wide, his eyebrows furrowed, and then he lowered his ear again toward the boy's mouth.

"I'm lost. I can't—find—home."

The monk placed his palm on the boy's chest and transferred his aura to him, healing him.

"Take this, my boy," he whispered, as he closed his eyes. "For the disease—but, most of all, for your tired heart. May it find some peace one day."

Several days passed and the group continued on in the endless, crimson expanse.

"You're not looking so good, monk," said Indigo the next day as the Pardasian shivered.

"I'm alright. I caught something after we had a run-in with the leeches. I'll be alright," he said, covering himself with his robe as his brow filled with sweat.

The water suddenly began to bubble until it became a boil. The Jumpers glanced at each other with worried looks and the sea exploded. Out rose a massive beast. It looked like a mix between a moray eel and a dragon. Its skin was wrinkled and dark with purple dots. Its teeth were strangely Human, giving it an uncanny valley-type of presence. Disturbing, yet familiar. Its scariest aspect was its eye, which stared at them with precise focus.

"Bah-dah-urr-she—fah," it spoke.

The travelers looked at Elevar.

"Well?" Rosso said, with fear in his eyes. "What the hell did it say?"

"It says—hunger," Elevar said, his eyes piercing Rosso's.

The beast rose up, out of the water, like a skyscraper, as waterfalls of blood fell until they revealed its massive neck. The beast shook its head and moaned.

"Bah-dah-urr-she-fah—tah," it spoke again.

"Deep—hunger."

"Should we attack it?" asked Indigo, charging up her aura already.

"I would advise against it," said Thero, finally awake. "My readings indicate a massive aura of at least 50,000."

"Then—what do we do?" said Rosso with his eyes wide open.

"Give it one of our backpacks," said Elevar, lifting one bag up.

"That's our food," Indigo said.

"It's either the bag or we might become its next meal," the monk explained.

The others nodded and the holy man used Powerhouse to channel much of his energy into his arm. He then shot the bag into the air, passed the beast's nose. For a moment, the crew followed the tiny object catapulted in the sky, hoping that it would catch the monster's attention.

"Come on," whispered Elevar.

The massive neck moved. Its eyes focused away from them and toward the flying bag. Its massive nostrils sniffed the putrid air, until it finally launched itself toward the bag.

"It took the bait!" shouted Indigo.

Unfortunately, the beast was not alone, and as they were about to celebrate, another one emerged from the water, right underneath their strange craft, lifting them into the air.

"Grab the boy!" shouted Elevar as he grabbed the supplies and flew into the air.

Massive jaws opened, swallowing the boat like a potato-chip. A thunderous snap shook the air, and the Jumpers flew away from the chaos using Pan's Gift.

Hours soon passed, and the travelers flew across the rest of the Oceans of Blood until morning. Exhausted, they finally saw land, or meat, again.

"How many weeks of food do we have?" shouted Indigo.

"Three weeks," said Elevar. "Two, now that we lost one bag."

"And how far is Nanoo?" asked Rosso.

"It's four weeks from here."

"Great news," said Rosso, sarcastically.