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Sam had a feeling the blue avians would locate him and his familiars eventually. They were supposed to be the strongest beings on Oterra, the ones who maintained the balance of the plane; it wouldn’t make sense for them to fail at finding a hidden whale, and Sam was right. The blue avians found him, but the situation seemed more complicated than it should’ve been. Logically, he’d be besieged by all the blue avians upon being found, but there was only one of them targeting him? From the blue avians’ conversation that he was eavesdropping on, it seemed like one of the blue avians had sacrificed themselves for power.
The whale underneath Sam floated upwards while letting out a high-pitched cry. “That blue avian is just like you,” Big Fish said as it avoided the cubes of magma flying down from above. “They’re using higher-dimensional beings to boost themselves.”
“Well, you’re stronger, right?” Sam asked his familiars inside his mind. Although it wasn’t as convenient as using his throat chakra to speak, he didn’t want the blue avians to catch a whiff of what he was saying. “After all, that’s a….” Sam paused, realizing he couldn’t identify the metallic sculpture wrapped the blue avians arm. “I mean, there’s only one calamity, so it shouldn’t be a problem to deal with, right?”
“It’s similar to Raindu,” Vercedei said. The twin-headed snake’s purple head eyed the blue head, and Vercedei elaborated. “Werchbite says you’ll have to be very careful because it can slash apart your essence.”
“So, it can cut my soul,” Sam said and stared at the gleaming metal edges sticking out of the blue avian’s arm accessory. “Got it.” He extended his hand and narrowed his eyes as he focused on the cubes of lava descending from above. They paused, suspended in place, allowing the whale to maneuver past them safely before the molten rock continued their descent.
“Is it worth it?” Vercedei asked, the blue snake disguising itself as Sam while transmitting its thoughts to the blue avians in the vicinity. “What are you giving in exchange for its power?”
Samuel released their hold on the molten cubes, allowing them to fall back into the red pool below. The lava was like sludge, slowly sinking back into position with only a slight dimple left on the surface as evidence of the events having occurred. “Drop the illusions. I can sense all seven of you.”
The blue avians in the vicinity’s expressions changed as Sam appeared in the air. Instead of releasing the illusion completely, Werchbite shifted everyone’s portrayed positions from their real positions ever so slightly to throw off the blue avians’ senses. “I noticed you didn’t answer my question,” Vercedei said, the snake’s tongue flickering. “You’ve been cast out of blue avian society, but you don’t seem to be upset about it. Perhaps you’ve given up the only part of yourself that could realize you were missing something.”
“And what if I have?” Samuel asked, waving his calamity-covered arm about. “It’s a choice I made when I was sober, and I don’t have the habit of regretting my actions. I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time actually.”
The blue avian appeared in front of Sam in an instant and swung its feathery arm horizontally, slashing Sam with the metallic sculpture’s wings. However, just as quickly as the blue avian had appeared, Sam had vanished and retreated just outside of the blue avian’s swinging range. At the same time, he expanded his focus, his All-Seeing Gaze encompassing every one of his familiars and blue avians in the region. What was the best choice here? He could run, but the blue avians would chase him. He could fight, defeat the blue avian with the calamity weapon before the blue avian reinforcements arrived. Playing dead wasn’t an option, and it was clear hiding was no longer viable either.
“What’s the plan?” Sam asked. One of the perks of giving up so many of his freedoms was he didn’t have to make the hard choices. There were seven other individuals who were willing to think for him.
“Defeat the blue avian as soon as possible,” Vercedei said.
“And steal the hematite sculpture,” Raindu said. Now that Sam had finished unlocking his chakras, there was no danger of his talent ruining a meaningful crystal; at least, that’s what the black ferret assumed.
“It’s not stealing if it’s the spoils of victory,” Birdbrained said and squawked.
“Yeah,” Joe said. “Then it’s mugging.” It was a shame no one waited to hear the sloth’s full sentence, and that made it a little angry. A red haze drifted out of the sloth’s body, permeating the air and affecting the auras of everyone around it, starting with Sam and his familiars.
“If we all rush the blue avian at once,” Manga said, letting out its four-syllable-long cry, “it won’t stand a chance, but at least one of us will get hurt very badly. Are we willing to gamble?”
“Of course,” Big Fish said. “Joe can help any of us recover with enough time. The risk isn’t as exaggerated as you make it out to be.”
“Then let’s do it,” Manga said. “Everyone, charge with me in three, two, one!”
Sam established a connection with Samuel, and in the next moment, Sam rushed forward along with Manga, Big Fish, and Raindu. As for Birdbrained, Joe, and the twin-headed snake, they remained atop Big Fish, not intending on making a move.
Samuel couldn’t defend himself from all the attackers at once, so he targeted the most obvious choice: the summoner. The blue avian swung its bladed arm at Sam, and Sam gritted his teeth while dodging and activating Toughen while crystalizing his aura at the same time. As the metallic wings chopped into Sam’s right shoulder and severed his arm, Raindu’s paw, Manga’s snout, and Big Fish’s head collided with Samuel.
Before he had even charged, Sam had a feeling the unlucky individual who’d be struck by the blue avian was going to be himself. He had prepared himself, but he didn’t expect his soul being chopped would be so damn painful—then again, maybe it was his arm being severed that was causing the pain. Why did his soul have pain receptors? How did that even work? He wasn’t sure, but he was not happy with how things turned out; however, it wasn’t like there was any other option other than to suck it up. Sam ignored the pain as best he could and focused on the blue avian in front of him.
It didn’t seem like Samuel was going to perform another attack, but Sam distanced himself anyway while holding his severed arm with his left hand. Not a lot of blood flowed from Sam’s injured arm stump, a benefit of having his heart and lungs replaced by a crystalline organ. He’d be fine physically albeit maimed in the meantime. At least, that’s what he assumed.
“It’ll take a long time for your arm to recover,” Joe said, the sloth’s voice taking nearly ten seconds to transmit a word in Sam’s head. “Injuries to the essence are very difficult to heal.”
Sam’s aura dimmed. “But you can fix it, right?”
“Yes,” Joe said. “Reattaching your arm isn’t a problem, but if you use it too roughly, it has a high chance of falling off.”
Great. Of all the things Sam wanted to hear, that wasn’t one of them. “And it’ll stay that way for how long?” Sam asked. If his injury were a temporary malady, then it’d be fine. If it took years to fix, well…, he wasn’t going to be a happy camper.
“That’s just how it’ll be after its reattached,” Joe said. “You can always choose not to reattach it.”
Although he’d prefer a healthy arm over one that had a penchant for falling off, he’d take a defective arm over no arm any day. “Reattach it,” Sam said.
“Not right now,” Joe said. “I’m still upset.”
Sam turned his All-Seeing Gaze onto the blue avians. They might’ve wished for Sam and Samuel to fight each other to take advantage of weakened opponents, but that didn’t mean they wanted Samuel to lose so solidly. All the blue avian managed to do was cut off one of the summoner’s arms before the fight was over. Raindu had robbed the blue avian of its vital organs and calamity detector. Defeating the blue avian was much easier than he thought it’d be—minus him being maimed, of course.
“Let’s get out of here,” Big Fish said and shrank before settling on Manga’s wooly back. The large pig ran in the air, picking up all its passengers before running away. As it left, three blue avians materialized out of nowhere, having been spat out of the whale’s mouth. Since the calamity detector was snatched away by Raindu’s sticky paws, it’d be much more difficult for the blue avians to locate them. That being the case, there was no need for three blue avian hostages lest they encourage the blue avians to continue searching for Sam by giving them a reason.
The blue avians appeared in the wooly pig’s path, their auras seemingly blending into one as they hovered in a staggered formation. The aura crystalized, and the wooly pig bashed into it with its snout before bouncing off, nearly throwing the passengers off its back. In fact, Sam was thrown off thanks to him having to hold onto his severed arm, but Big Fish caught him with its tail.
“Don’t let them escape!”
“But don’t touch them either! You saw how quickly that furball can kill; one touch and that’s instant death for us.”
Sam focused his attention onto the wooly pig. Nothing had ever stopped its charge so bluntly before, and its aura reflected that. It was pissed—though, that was mostly Joe’s fault. The wooly pig let out a four-syllable-long cry and charged again, but the result was the same. Its curly fur flattened against its face as it collided against the crystallized auras the blue avians had set up. Without a sound, the wooly pig came to a halt with its neck buried deeper into its shoulders than before.
If they couldn’t run, in that case, couldn’t they hide? “Let’s retreat into the magma,” Sam said, not feeling too great about Manga’s chances of breaking through the encirclement. “We got the calamity detector, right? They won’t be able to find us once we retreat below the surface and travel with the magma flow.”
The wooly pig let out a cry, voicing its protest against Sam’s idea. It wanted to bash the blue avians’ concentrated auras apart, but the wooly pig was overruled by Big Fish, who grew in size and swallowed the pig and its riders whole. Then, the green whale fell towards the lava, shrinking as it went. The blue avians in the air tried to stop it with powers akin to telekinesis, but the whale grew in size to shatter their control over it before splashing down into the pool of molten rock and shrinking in size once more. The blue avians hoisted cubes of magma into the air using their powers in their attempts to grab the whale, but Big Fish was too slippery, avoiding their grasp every time, leaving the blue avians with nothing but some hot rocks for their effort.
Inside the fleeing whale’s mouth, Sam lay on the whale’s tongue and stared up at the roof of the whale’s mouth. After years of waiting for the blue avians to either leave or find them, it was finally over. Sam was about to ask the trio of blue avians what they thought of the events that had occurred, but Big Fish disappointed him by letting him know they were gone. Sam glanced at his severed arm and placed it against his side, lining up the sliced portions. Luckily, the calamity was sharp, and his flesh wasn’t mangled at all.
“Can you reattach them, Joe?” Sam asked.
“Sure thing,” the sloth said and crawled towards Sam at a pace slow enough to frustrate a turtle. The sloth arrived at Sam’s injury site and raised its claws. It was holding a suturing needle with black thread attached to it.
Sam’s aura darkened. That wasn’t what he meant when he asked the sloth to reattach his arm. Besides, with how slow the sloth moved, physically suturing his arm back on would practically be torture. “Your sense of humor is great,” Sam said, “but this joke just isn’t that great.”
“It’s not a joke,” Joe said and stabbed the needle into Sam’s arm. The needle wasn’t an illusion either because it stung, and the thread moving under his skin and through his flesh creeped him out as much as the sensation burned. Sam wondered why it had to be the sloth suturing his arm back on considering how slow its actions were, and he voiced that thought in his familiar’s minds. Apparently, the sloth was the most adept at sewing amongst his animal companions.
After the harrowing ordeal was finally over, Sam relaxed as the sloth, which had also vented its frustrations for being ignored, also relaxed. Sam’s shoulder stump itched, and the nerves in his severed arm were set aflame as they reconnected with his body. A moment later, the flame went out as the sloth’s relaxing and regenerating aura continued to permeate into Sam’s. Sam closed his eyes, and before he knew it, he and the sloth had fallen asleep. Manga fell asleep next, followed by Big Fish, Birdbrained, the twin-headed snake—whose heads had fallen asleep at the same time but believed the other fell asleep first—and finally, Raindu.
Time passed, and Raindu was the first to awaken. The black ferret looked around, making sure everyone was still asleep before taking out its spoils: the hematite sculpture. It was still positioned as if it were wrapped around someone’s arm. Raindu reached forward and poked the sculpture’s head, which was scaled and horned with whisker-like appendages. The sculpture’s eyes rolled down, meeting Raindu’s, and the black ferret let out a squeal, waking everyone from their peaceful dreams.
Sam shot up, and a piercing pain in his arm made him lie back down again. As the sloth had said, there was a high chance of his arm falling off if he used it too roughly, and right now, it seemed even the smallest of movements could remove his limb. He lay back down and used his All-Seeing Gaze to inspect the metallic sculpture. Upon touching upon it with his psychic vision, the sculpture whirled around and scuttled towards Sam.
Raindu reached forward to grab the sculpture, but it retracted its paws as the extremely sharp wings approached. The ferret had already seen what’d happen to someone, Sam, who was cut by the shiny edges, and Raindu didn’t want to suffer the same fate. For similar reasons, Sam’s other familiars kept their distances as well, much to his dismay. The sculpture wound itself around Sam’s right arm. It raised its claws and was about to dig itself into his flesh, but it paused upon seeing the sutures keeping his arm attached to his body.
The metallic sculpture, which really should’ve been referred to as a metallic creature, walked across Sam’s chest and latched onto his left arm. Sam felt the creature’s tail graze his palm, and then, before either of them could react, the metallic creature was sucked into Sam’s flesh, tail first. Sam observed through his All-Seeing Gaze as a black streak traveled up his arm, down his spine, out his tailbone, and into the ground, which happened to be the whale’s lower jaw.
Although it wasn’t physically connected to him, Sam had a feeling he could manipulate the point below him where the black streak had gathered as if it were one of the chakras in his body. Sam concluded it was an external chakra, one he had heard about from his blue avian buddies.
Raindu stared at the Sam’s palm, the one that had sucked in the ferret’s spoils. Wasn’t Sam supposed to be done with ruining priceless artifacts? Why did one more get ruined in his hands? How many more could he destroy? Since his talent had unlocked another chakra, did that mean he summoned another familiar. The ferret stood on its hindlegs and stared at the ground. The rest of Sam’s familiars caught on and stared at the ground as well.
As if seemingly emerging from a burrow within the whale’s mouth, a koala appeared. The koala froze upon seeing everyone staring at it, and everyone else froze as well. Why had a koala appeared when the moving sculpture was of a draconic lineage? If a lizard or a reptile showed up, it’d be more reasonable, but higher-dimensional beings were unreasonable in the first place. Sam exhaled as he wondered what part of himself he would lose next. Perhaps the koala would hug his leg, making it inconvenient to sit. Even though his familiars brought plenty of boons, that didn’t mean they didn’t bring their own set of inconveniences as well. “Hey,” Sam said, speaking to the koala with his throat chakra. “I’m Sam. Nice to meet you.”