The Earth After Rebirth

"Master..."

"Yes yes, I'm sorry, I'll be careful next time. I just haven't used Ryu in a long time."

"Then use it as a lightening rod of some kind."

"Ryu doesn't like your suggestion at all, but it's a good one."

There were like, 6 of these things now. Kiro strapped Ryu on his back, deciding to use his hands and feet. He ran straight for it, but this time he was anticipated, long tendrils made up of entirely black water shot forward to pierce and stop the enemy in front.

Kiro was tap dancing, trying to avoid its watery elongated arms. They seemed to be acidic, as they punched through rocks they left it with a big hole and dripping. He had a bad feeling that, that would be him if he let himself get hit.

It wasn't even a second after the thought had formed, the thing's tendril sowed right through his shoulder. It had used that one split second distraction to land its attack.

It left a big hole on his shoulder, but the difference was, his meat wasn't dripping like the rock did. His healing skill kicked in immediately. He refused to use a potion this time, while the skill was faster than before, it was still detrimental on the battlefield.

But he vowed to use a potion only when the injury was great and his situation dire. A shoulder was nothing he had another, he thought.

Hubris cut in, using his hell fire like a flamethrower, hoping he could burn them into a gaseous state. While his flames were extremely dangerous, they couldn't burn anything that was at molecular level. He was only able to reduce them into such a small level, which they could easily grow out of.

"Are you really an ancient beast if you can't even burn them into nonexistence?"

"That's not very nice master, I'm still very new at this. Most of my skills are still locked. Despite being home."

Kiro shook his head and turned away from his mount, his fists were suddenly bubbled by dark hellish lightning. His lips quivered into a smirk, as his shoulder wound closed up.

The wind carried him to the enemy base. He threw a punch, which was too fast to be dodged on time and he buried it on one of the siren's face.

It hadn't even darted, before Kiro already rooted his foot on another. The third one tried to sneak a frontal attack, he used lightning to propel himself up, somersaulting a few more times before planting his heel on the back of its head.

Each had 3 to deal with, they were very careful not to cut them, they didn't want to trigger the curse, they also wanted to finish this much earlier. The 3 Kiro had suppressed, looked like they had swallowed a very bitter medicine.

"Rehtegot nem! llik mih!" It angrily proclaimed.

They all ran to him, they abandoned their lazy demeanor out of anger. Kiro grabbed Ryu, and stood his ground. Both him and his staff were crackling with lightning.

With vibrational sense, blink and lightning, his reaction was something others would call goldly. He was surrounded by 3 of these things, he had drawn a circle around himself so that he could keep them at bay. They looked like they were dancing.

Kiro dodged and blocked each and every one of their elongated spindly arms attempting to gauge his very being. Keeping them just outside of his circle, he was actually having fun.

Hubris on the other hand was in a dilemma, he couldn't use his claws or fangs. He was growing bored and tired at just using fire, a fire that didn't even destroy them completely.

He used speed to elude them, he'd never done it but his tail was also useful. Hitting them like there was a prize to be won.

One came from behind to sneak an attack on him, then it was frozen in fear. At his frustration Hubris used his claws, with affliction. Fortunately, it gave the siren a slight wound.

"Master I did it! I can now fight better!"

But Kiro did not answer back, Hubris used his peripheral vision to focus in, on where his master was. What he saw was unbelievable.

He had been caught in something, there was a big bubble over his head. His eyes were opened widely, his mouth shut and his body showed no indication that he was breathing.

It took only a stride for Hubris to reach him, he swiped with left claw to bust the bubble. His claw however moved threw the bubble at a snail's pace. It was as if time itself protected that particular space.

Then he noticed that he was still alive, he didn't breathe because he didn't want to inhale whatever was made of that water bubble.

Kiro was suffocating, he wasn't sure how long he could hold onto his breath. He got a little conceited thinking he knew everything there was to know about their abilities, only to be struck by something that was fighting to steal his breath.

Though the bubble of water was clear, transparent almost, Kiro couldn't see anything happening around hum, just nauseating darkness. That's why he was standing still, afraid if he moved he'd be tipped into the abyss of darkness.

He tried every skill in his arsenal, but nothing seemed to be able to bust the bubble.

Hubris wasn't standing still, he found his own way to fight these things, which was affliction. It worked better than he thought.

He pounced from one siren to another, hoping to kill one and hoping it would break the curse as he did. While affliction worked, it was extremely slow, it only slowed them down. This made him somehow angrier, as he repeated the attacks, wishing they'd just drop dead.

Just then, the sand shook. Everybody there, including Kiro stumbled. It felt like a big sized earthquake taking place, or a volcano nearby erupted.

But, countless ocean creatures zoomed out of the ocean, landing with sunken teeth on the duo. Which made Kiro the more uneasy.