A Light in the Dark Forest

Alistair took the bow as Nakata had asked him and slung it over his shoulder, keeping his swords in his hands. As Nakata began running up one of the tentacles, the other appendages of the monster began assaulting Alistair on the bridge. Waves of water exploded over the platform as Alistair's incredible reflexes allowed him to dodge the monstrous tentacles. One of them slammed onto the platform and he performed a backflip to avoid it. Carrying a weapon in each hand made it difficult for him to move in the way that this creature demanded of him, and so he threw his left handed weapon at the tentacle which embedded itself in its flesh.

But it seemed not to notice.

A tentacle from behind slammed into him before he could react appropriately and the one he had just stabbed managed to wrap around him. He dropped his weapon in the assault, perhaps never to see it again. It started to squeeze him, and he felt his insides becoming crushed. However, the one fatal flaw with the creature's assault was that his sword was still stuck in its flesh. He grabbed ahold of the weapon and channeled Divine energy from within, causing his eyes and the weapon to glow gold. Invoking his Mantra, he managed to violently slice through the flesh of the creature despite the hold it had on him. This created a huge gash in the creature's "arm" and it dropped him back onto the bridge. He gasped for breath and barely had time to recover before the relentless assault continued.

He found no opportunity to assist Nakata, and prayed for his safety.

He had been swallowed by the very being that he had summoned to protect him. He had no idea what had gone wrong, he was confident he had completed the binding ritual correctly! On his way down the creature's insides he slashed at the creature's body. His Flesheater did exactly as its name implied and the flesh around the wound he had created began to dissolve. But he knew one wound like that would not be enough. It was then he noticed that someone else, too, had been devoured by this creature.

One of those damn kids..

He knew he was going to die, now. But he wanted to at least kill one of those kids himself. For all the trouble they put him through.

His body landed in the acidic stomach of the creature, burning him alive and killing him practically instantly. But not before he threw his sword upwards at Nakata with the hopes of killing him with it.

—

Alistair managed to sever the entire length of one of the tentacles clean in half. Shining Blade made his sword unbreakable, and thus the metal was effectively harder than that of even diamond for the duration of the Mantra. But he was growing tired now, invoking too much in a short period of time. He felt the stress within his body growing.

His body would die from stress before the creature would kill him, at this rate. If he could just take a moment to rest, to pray for serenity to wash over him, he would be fine. But he had to move around too much to avoid the creature's attacks. Not to mention the stone bridge was somewhat slippery with all the water. His advanced mind was able to keep balance, but it took more effort than normal.

He noted that the creature's movements were becoming slower. Considerably slower, in fact. He was concerned about Nakata, but once the creature seemed to have some sort of illness that affected it negatively, he knew that something about Nakata probably didn't agree with the creature. He was too tired, now, however to continue fighting at such an energetic pace. His body was growing stressed and hungry. He took several beatings from the tentacles and at one point lost his weapon. For whatever reason, they were not attempting to constrict him anymore. It seemed as if Nakata had weakened it somehow.

He would not be strong enough to jump in and rescue Nakata, and so he prayed that he would be able to find a way out on his own. Without a weapon, he focused himself entirely on avoiding the attacks of the tentacles. The creature's speed was relatively predictable, and he always managed to evade the attack in the most efficient way possible so as to recover in time for its next assault.

Truly, he just needed to be a distraction so that it didn't submerge.

It was very obvious now that the creature was suffering from some sort of inside-assault. Its movements were far less accurate and Alistair did not have to work as hard to keep up with the tentacles. His body was quickly becoming further exhausted, and it was becoming more and more difficult to keep up with all of the attacks. It was when he was starting to wonder if he would faint that the creature pretty much stopped moving completely as Nakata sliced his way out of the creature's head. Or whatever that part of its body would be called.

A mid-swing tentacle suddenly stopped mid-air before it would hit Alistair. He felt too tired to be able to dodge it, and was glad when he realized it halted the assault. However, before he could move away from it, it simply fell to the floor and knocked him on his backside anyway. Oh well, it could've been far worse.

The creature lay perfectly still, apparently dead. Its body began to sink lower and lower into the dark depths. The ocean-like water began to calm down and no longer possessed the same raging tide it had before.

One might also notice that the water level itself was beginning to recede.

"Indeed. Assuming the one from earlier was the direct cause -" He laid flat out on his back to catch his breath for a moment, "we should not have to worry about any more enemies." The water in the large room was draining fast, now. Surely it would be completely gone in a matter of a few minutes. "The quake from earlier, however, seems to have caused a cave-in at our way of exit. Perhaps we can find something useful in the summoner's old dwelling?" He sat up now, the stress within his body finally returning to normal. He lost both of his weapons, unfortunately, but decided that it was unlikely he would have need for them again. At least not for a little while, anyways.

"You asked me earlier, Master Nakata, if I could show you the entrance to this cave so that you could return to take samples of the illithids." He then explained exactly how much time it took, down to the millisecond, to reach the cave from the frozen lake they had stumbled upon. He even gave the exact direction to face when moving. "I am unsure of how to do such a thing, but you have the ability to ascend your mind for a temporary period of time. If you do so, you should be able to remember my words exactly and be able to comprehend them well enough to find your way back."