Standard Mission: Tainted Oasis of Rostol

Oasis - At The Island

The tight pressure on Zeyphr's head slowly lessened with the spirit seemingly deeply contemplating for a few moments before it began to lighten the grip on the elemental core.  The snakes beginning to slither away towards the spirit's main body.

Zeyphr could finally make out the image of the creature in the corner of his eyes, as it peered its head out of the hole now more calm.  It was completely the color of ash garnered in various offerings from the villagers that appeared to have a slight scent of maga in them that channeled into the spirit.  However, the oddest thing about it was the massive amount of maga being pulled out of the spirit and distributed into the air.

Spoiler:

"My barrier should keep out hostile demons, can you show me them?"  The lake spirit calmly stated, as he locked eyes with Zeyphr with a variety of snakes coiling around his shoulders and melded in with the grass on his head suddenly tensed.  They looked like they could lunge at any moment, but it was the kind of hostility of a pet protecting its master.

The Vodyanik all went quiet, none of them answered Vayu or Scarlet's questions as the two still conscious Vodyanik shifted into different kidnapped villagers.  One was a young girl with a frightened look on her face, while the other was an older and well built male that seemed to be one of the merchants that sold goods at the town square.

"Patrimpas!  You should know that you're not a real spirit just a normal demon, your barrier has already let in numerous demons and it's only a matter of time until it crumbles!  These vanguards are outsiders who don't understand what really needs to be done for our sake!"  The now human male Vodyanik that Vayu was talking to called out as he shot a look of utter hatred towards Scarlet and her demon, "Bring that core to the depths, then a true spirit can be born!"

"I thought you said you didn't know what happened to the kidnapped villagers?  You just turned into one!"  Hector quickly commented, as he quickly tried to shove the male to the ground and silence him.

Patrimpas with a very conflicted look suddenly yanked the core out of Zeyphr's hands, as he turned around and walked away from the vanguards.  However, the snakes lowered their aggression, as they moved out of the way for the rest to follow.

Zephyr Arc - Island

Zephyr pulled away as the spirit rose, pointing to the transforming Vodyaniks when it asked him to point it to the demons. He walked over to them when they started to transform, and quietly listened to the exchange, core in hand. When Hector attempted to shove the transformed Vodyanik, he got in-between the two, lightly jabbing the Vodyanik with the butt of his spear.

Spell Eater activated, forcing the Vodyanik back to it's original form. A puzzled look appeared on Zephyr's face as he allowed the spirit to take the core, knowing it wasn't something they could realistically fight. "Looks like the villagers are alive... but there's one thing I don't understand. It looks like you can only transform into friendlies with this spell... didn't you hate humans?" He asked the Vodyanik that he'd just forced back into its true form.

Oasis – At the island
- Vayu -

“I think they’re most definitely lying to us,” he said to Scarlet.

Vayu was suddenly distracted from the Vodyanik when Zephyr and another figure emerged from the hole.

The lake spirit. Surrounded by a massive amount of maga.

Jack Frost, looking a little startled, jumped behind Vayu and peeked around his legs. “He is hee-hoo-scary,” he whispered. Vayu put his hand on Jack Frost’s head to calm him down.

The remaining Vodyanik suddenly turned into two humans, that according to Hector were part of the kidnapped villagers. The Vodyanik tried to convince the lake spirit that Vayu’s expression darkened. There was still something they were missing.

The lake spirit, Patrimpas, suddenly took the core from Zephyr and walked away. Zephyr seemed have some sort of trust into the lake spirit.

He grabbed the Vodyanik that turned into a little girl, not exactly friendly, and motioned for Zephyr to grab the other one.

“Let’s go,” he said and began to follow the lake spirit. It was time they found out what was happening.

Scarlet - Island

Scarlet recoiled as the Voldyanik transformed into more human forms. From Hector's reaction, it seemed the two forms were those of the kidnapped villagers. To think the demons would kidnap children too...

"You will tell us what you have done to the villagers!" Scarlet shouted at the Voldyaniks, raising her bow momentarily, before lowering it again as Zephyr gave the core to the apparent lake spirit.

At Vayu's prompting, Scarlet moved behind the other Voldyanik, bow at the ready. "Move," she ordered, motioning for it to follow Vayu. Neko simply raised her claws as a threat.

Oasis - Underground Caverns


When the cautious vanguards entered the caverns it seemed to be stark contrast from what the expected, almost like they had entered the lair of a hoarding dragon.  They were accosted by the sight of countless treasures littering the room, as wisps of light floated around the ceiling that appeared to react the Zeyphr and Cherry, glowing brighter as they grew closer.

"Please let my little girl come home safe!" A whisper resounded out from one of the treasures, as other comments of people praying for their missing children became a warped chorus of agony.  The lake spirit seemingly trembling and disturbed from the voices.

"What a fascinating discovery!  With all this maga you could do almost anything.... Imagine if!" Ludo commented in surprise with his mouth agape, as Hector, simply covered the man's mouth ushering him to be quiet.  Though, Hector seemed almost entranced in the lights and treasure, gazing a bit longer than he should for a few moments.

"He has a point though.... We could use this maga against..." Hector commented before spirit shot him a cold stare that quickly silenced the fishermen, but still fishermen seemed to return the gaze with equal intensity.

"We can only turn into a single person we form a bond with yes... I may not be fond of humans but these ones were... smarter." The creature responded to Zeyphr, as he turned to Scarlet with a condescending look on his face, "You'll find out soon enough.  Your threats are pointless."

The spirit now turned around and faced the group stopping before a small opening that went deeper into the caverns.  It was no longer illuminated by the sparkling wisps on the ceiling, as darkness seemed to take over yet again.

"Let me know when you're ready.... and I'd rather not fight, so none of you start anything." The spirit flatly said with an attempt to look commanding like an adder snake trying to scare away a predator that might of usually worked if not for his worn facial features and worried expression.

Spoiler:

Scarlet - Underground Caverns

Scarlet followed the spirit into the caverns, urging the captive Voldyanik along in front of her. Her eyes widened as she took in the treasures scattered around the chamber. She listened to the voices emanating from them.

"Are these the villagers' offerings...?" she wondered out loud. She glared at the Voldyanik as it rebuffed her threats.

The spirit had turned around and addressed the group. "Ready... for what?" Scarlet asked. The spirit wasn't being very forthcoming about what lay ahead, but Scarlet felt that they would find out soon enough.

Oasis – At the island cave
- Vayu -

Vayu looked around curiously when they entered the cave. It was littered with what he presumed were the offerings from the villagers. Interestingly enough their wishes still seemed to resound from them in the form of maga. Briefly he wondered what happened to the people who made the offerings.

He shot both Hector and Ludo a dark look when they were too distracted by the treasures and the maga.

“If you two can’t control yourselves, you should wait by the boat,” he commented off-handedly. It was enough they had to deal with the lake spirit and the Vodyanik.

When the lake spirit gestured towards the small opening, he stopped.

“Scarlet is right,” he said. “Ready for what?” he repeated her question. “I have no reason to trust you, so until you tell us where you’re leading us and why, I’m not going anywhere.”

Island Caverns

"Yes, the offerings sustain the barrier" The spirit slowly responded to Scarlet while tilting his head seemingly confused by the question.  It was like someone was asking for the answer to an obvious question.  

Though when Vayu's chimed in with agreement, the spirit suddenly recoiled from the mistrust, as he took a step back away from the group.  The snakes around his body seemingly getting into a more defensive and tense posture, while the various lights in the cavern beginning to slightly flicker from the tension.

"Ready for demons?  I mean I'd like to avoid fighting but...." The lake spirit meekly responded to Vayu, as he nervously picked at some of ashen skin on his face.

"Isn't it obvious?" One of the Vodyanik's interrupted the conversation with a deadpan and serious tone.  He looked up at the lake spirit with a stern and piercing gaze.  He stood more firm, tall, almost like one of a commander who was telling a private about their duty to their country.

"It's because we told him to go there to make the new and better lake spirit.  He's willing to do a lot more for this village then vanguards like you who understand nothing of our situation." The Vodyanik uttered followed by a demeaning laugh.

However, the lake spirit seemed to grow more distraught from the comment, as he slowly approached the Vodyanik with a snake lunging out and beginning to threateningly coil around the demon's neck.

"Quiet... I'm trying to figure things out." The spirit muttered to the demon threateningly, as he turned his gaze specifically towards Zeyphr who he now had a softer and more trusting expression towards the vanguard.

"The fish are telling me to go there, so... wouldn't that be the best place to find the missing villagers...? and if what they're saying is true..." The spirit stated, as he pondered quietly to himself for a few moments when a pang of guilt and fear crossed his face.

"You don't have to come.... but I'm going." The spirit suddenly stated now more nervous, as he briskly turned his back towards the group and began walking into the opening.

Oasis – At the island
- Vayu -

The spirit turned a little more tense and Vayu watched the snakes closely.

“Well, you’re not doing a good job of explaining it,” Vayu replied to the Vodyanik and gave it a push to move it forward. He was clearly unimpressed by its stern demeanor.

Finally, he sighed. It seemed it couldn’t be helped if they wanted to get to the bottom of this.

The lake spirit insisted on going down the dark opening. He looked at Zephyr and Scarlet, trying to see where they stood.

“Seems we have to go on,” he said and rolled his eyes.

Zephyr Arc - Cave

The lake spirit was adamant on charging in, and he could see the others weren't exactly happy. He himself didn't like the idea of going in blind either, though he agreed they needed to enter to complete their mission.

"Wait. If we're walking in there anyway, could we talk to Colm- or at least the elemental that replaced him- first? The villagers aren't in any immediate danger since these fish can use their transformation trick. I'd like to have some information if we're walking into a potential trap anywa." He said to the lake spirit.

If it wasn't going to listen, he'd follow it either way, as letting it go alone was far more risky. "I'm sure Ludo here could tell use how we could speak to him."

Scarlet - Island Caverns

"It would help if everyone we spoke to gave us the right information," Scarlet snapped back at the Voldyanik.

She was reluctant to continue. From the way that the spirit was talking, it seemed to expect conflict further ahead, and the three Vanguards would be going in blind. "I don't like this... but I don't think we have any other options," she said, returning Vayu's look. "If nothing else, there may be answers to some of the questions we have..."

"I don't trust the Voldyanik... Neko, keep an eye out for anything," Scarlet addressed her demon, who nodded an affirmative.

Oasis - Island Caverns

"Unfortunately, he's still recovering from the damage dealt to him during the fight with these fish.... but!" Ludo responded with glee, taking the chance to quickly and childishly shoot a childish smirk at Vayu.  He slowly approached the spirit, as he picked up a large sliver grail from the pile of offerings along the way holding it up for display for the rest to see as the shimmered beautifully in the fae like like.  It almost like a beautiful swan in a moonlight lake with the maga exhibiting off it acting like shining droplets of moisture.

The spirit' suddenly turned around the moment he touched the offerings, his eyes narrowing at the researcher, the snakes on his back beginning to hiss with a deep fury with various snakes beginning to poke their head out of the offerings hissing at the researcher.

"Wait wait wait, like I was just saying you could do so much with this maga!  I may not be able to revive Colm yet, but if this elemental is sentient I should be able to extract his memories for us to see.... and with how much maga we in these offerings..." The researcher suddenly stated, as Hector seemed to grow more disturbed by that comment, but those emotions were quickly calmed as he walked next to Ludo and looked down at the grail.

Ludo began pouring water that came out of his gauntlet into a grail like offering, as he gestured the spirit to place Ludo's core into the offering.  The spirit reluctantly did so, as water began to glow like some kind of seance was occuring.  Ludo seemed to be doing something to the maga with the gauntlet with various images beginning to flash across the screen.

He ushered all the vanguards to the grail, and despite the quick succession of images various memories flowed into their heads.

Love for Reina

Love for the village, the spirit

There were almost memories of a proud elemental defending his domain, a time before he was Colm

But as the memories got more recent the more terrifying the images got.  An elf like woman resembling the one that attacked them laid unconscious in front of an altar with an identical elf standing next to the elf praying on her knees.  A variety of elemental cores were placed in the center of the altar with various humans being chained out around the altar with their maga beginning pulled out into the core.  The kidnapped humans grimacing in pain from their maga being pulled out, as the small girl began to cry calling out for her family.

The claw that attacked them before formed from the remains, as the variety of fish seemed to grow aggravated from what appeared to be a failure.

But what struck to the vanguards the most is that there was a similar image among the kidnapped, Hector was one of the humans that were chained up.  The fisherman suddenly yanked the grail out of Ludo's hands and bolted towards the opening, as it felt like all the vanguards had just been suddenly ripped out of a dream.

"BASTARDS!" The two Vodyanik yelled, as they suddenly threw themselves with reckless abandonment onto the vanguards trying to buy Hector some time to get away.

Zephyr Arc - Cave

Not knowing when the fish might start acting up, Zephyr had been keeping his buffs going by recasting them, though the stolen speed buff had expired. He was glad the spirit finally relented when Ludo stepped up and began his seance, as walking into a trap was really not his idea of a good time. A fight, sure, but a trap was just no fun.

As they watched "Colm"s memories, he became more and more glad for his vigilance. If the enemy really was inside, they could have been attacked at any moment. As the seance finally came to a close... "Hector" suddenly grabbed the grail from Ludo and attempted to flee. While not fully free of the trance, Zephyr, who had been right next to the spirit, and by extension "Hector" and Ludo leapt after him instantly. He was used to not being lucid, and he'd be damned if he let another of these damned fish give him the slip.

Having managed to react fasted than the other Vodyanik, He leapt up, stabbing his spear into the ceiling for a clear, steady shot and he unleashed a volley of growing, Ice Arrow empowered Ice Bullets. The Vodyanik had already thrown themselves at the others, so it was unlikely they'd be able to pick themselves up quick enough to intercept.

Oasis – At the island
- Vayu -

Vayu nodded in agreement to Zephyr. His idea was good. Ludo immediately jumped in with his expertise and started to perform some sort of séance.

Curiously, he watched the memories flash across the screen. As they got to the more recent memories, his brows narrowed. While the images were horrible, he tried to keep his focus on Colm. Puzzle pieces began to click into place, and he tensed when he saw that Hector wasn’t who they thought he was.

Just then Hector stole the core from Ludo and the other two Vodyanik attacked them. There were a few seconds of disorientation that gave Hector valuable moments to gain a head start.

Vayu reacted quickly when he saw that Zephyr immediately went after Hector. He drew his sword and grabbed the attacking Vodyanik, using its own momentum to throw it to the ground. Without hesitation he ran his sword through the demon.

He trusted that Scarlet and Nekomata would be able to take care of the other Vodyanik.

“It seems not everything was as it appeared,” he said and cast his Confusion Wave towards the fleeing Hector in an attempt to slow him down.

Scarlet - Island Caverns

As Scarlet cautiously approached the grail, her mind was filled with flashes of images... no, memories. As the memories continued to pour into her head, the nature of them changed. She gasped at the image of the chained villagers in pain, and a tear rolled down her cheek at the sight of a small girl in distress.

Movement in the corner of her eye snapped her out of her reverie. "Hector" had snatched the grail from Ludo and was sprinting for the cave. Still reeling from the memories, she was caught off guard as the Voldyaniks leapt for the Vanguards. However, Neko was not similarly affected, and leapt in front of Scarlet, pushing her aside as the Voldyanik neared, attacking with Stun Claw.

Meanwhile, no longer inhibited by the memories, Scarlet recovered from her tumble, nocking an arrow. With a cry of "Sapping Shot!", she released her arrow at the fleeing Hector, trusting Neko to keep the Voldyanik off her.

Oasis - Island Caverns

Hector feverishly shifted his head back towards the vanguards, as Zeyphr unleased the deadly ice bullets at a startling speed.  Hector quickly rose his arm and began channeling spell before the quick maga sent from the disorienting confusion wave blasted him square in the face, interrupting the unknown spell.

Hector began tumbling backwards when the sapping shot from Scarlet slammed into his chest, as his eyes widening in terror and realization to what was about to happen to him.  Without any strength in his body, the ice bullets pierced through hector's vitals points as he rapidly began to shift back into a Vodyanik and collapsed onto the ground into a dark red pool of blood.

The other two weak and wounded Vodyaniks weren't any match for the vanguards either, as Neko and Vayu easily disposed of the fish, the two collapsing to the ground and dying or on the verge of death... it was hard to tell with the anatomy of a demonic fish.

"Why... why would they throw away their lives like that?  They could of surrendered but...." the lake spirit stated, as he slowly walked over to the orb and picked it up pondering the situation for a few moments, as he continued to say more frustrated by the second "What do we do now?  How can I negotiate with them dead?"

"Hector....  How long were you?" Ludo muttered, as he seemed to somber down his eyes locked onto the dead fish's body as there seemed to be an intense pain in Ludo's eyes.....

"We give them a taste of their own medicine that's what!  Even the fish don't know these caverns perfectly..." Ludo muttered turning his gaze towards the vanguards for a moment to see if they had any ideas, as he walked over to Scarlet placing his hand on her shoulder with a painful nod, "Sorry, if I knew Colm's memories would be so graphic...."

The sound of some dripping and flowing water began to lightly work its ways into everyone's ears, as it appeared to be coming from the opening they would of taken.

Oasis – At the island
- Vayu -

“They’re dead,” Vayu said point blank to the spirit, not giving the dead Vodyanik another look. “You have to start making your own decisions.”

He thought back to the memories they were shown, and he pointed towards the core that Patrimpas was holding.

“And your decision better starts with stopping whatever they started with the kidnapped villagers,” he added and pointed at the dead Vodyanik. “I mean you care about the villagers, right?”

Vayu tilted his head when he heard the sound of water coming towards them.

“This can’t be good,” he said. “Please tell me that’s not where they kept the kidnapped villagers?”

Scarlet - Island Caverns

Heart racing at the sudden fight, Scarlet glanced around the cavern, seeing all three Voldyaniks dead. The spirit seemed dumbfounded at their actions, whereas Ludo was in shock.

With a scowl, Scarlet removed the spirit's hand from her shoulder, ignoring the tears on her cheeks. "I don't think they were going to negotiate with us in the first place." She began walking towards the tunnel, pausing at the entrance.

"I'm going down there," she said without turning back to the others, her voice filled with emotion. "If there are any villagers alive, we'll save them. If not..." She shook, her grip on her bow tightening. Neko sidled up to Scarlet and hugged her, attempting to comfort the Vanguard.

Zephyr Arc - Island Cavern

Zephyr freed his spear from the cavern roof, landing lightly on the ground. He took a breath, releasing his spells for a moment of respite. "I doubt they'll try to kill them yet, they shouldn't know these fish are dead, or that we found out about Hector. They don't have any means of contact and that damn transformation spell doesn't feed back to the source when it's cut off."

He sat down to catch a proper breather. "I get where you're coming from, Scarlet, but I need you to calm down for now. That sound is concerning but assuming it's flooding a room, we'd still have more than enough time to save anyone caught inside. For now we need a plan. If we walk right into another one of their traps, I'm sure this whole village is gonna go. That said, what do you think, Spirit? I'd rather not kill anyone either but they're clearly hurting the villagers and I'm sure their end goal is to either kill them or eject all the humans from the village. Either way, they'll all die. I know for a fact neither you nor we can protect them or escort them all to a safe haven should the latter come to pass."

Cherry hovered around Zephyr, checking to see if he had any injuries. The man had a habit of ignoring them, so she made a habit of looking him over any time they got time for a rest.

Island Caverns

The spirit deeply pondered at Vayu's words, quickly eyeing the vanguard. A look of guilt washed over him like the waves that clashed against the cave below them. The vanguard was right, how could he say he cared about the villagers when these things ran amok.

A look of fury consumed his expression soon after as the snakes scattered in all directions burrowing through small opens in the area leaving him exposed without a single snake on his body.

"You're right, I let these creatures slip under my nose.... at the very least I need to get rid of them. After they've kidnapped and hurt so many." The spirit muttered with a spat of fury, as he began walking around the room like it was searching for something.

"Don't worry it's probably not near the villagers, they were pulling maga from them so killing them would cut their supply." Ludo stated with a nod at Scarlet, as he turned to Zeyphr with a more serious nod, "I agree, we need to stop what they're doing now! I'm not sure what they plan on doing with all the maga from those villagers"

A large snake of light suddenly poked its head out of the ground, as a somewhat large hole opened up beneath it. The vanguards if they looked down the hole would see nothing but darkness. Though, suddenly the same chill that hit Cherry from when the demonic elf first showed up hit her again, but this time it felt much more real.

"You said they're beneath us right Ludo? I'll have my snakes lead us safely down here a path the demons won't expect..." The spirit stated, as he slipped through the hole into the darkness below, the vanguards following close behind.

----

As the group traveled through the darkened tunnels only illuminated by the faint glow of snakes slithering on the walls they began to hear whimpers below, the villagers were nearby. A speck of light opened up and Ludo quickly rushed over to peer through it, as he saw the image that all the vanguards saw during their vision from above. However, there appeared to be a light layer of thin water slipping in, no more then an inch deep.

"We're right above the villagers, though it looks like there's some water seeping...." Ludo commented with a bit of concern, as the villagers all appeared to be passed out now, lying in the water. The images of the girl and the real hector were there as well, unharmed for now.

"Give the word and I'll make my barrier begin to reject the demons in the area." The spirit commented, as he held up his hand at the ready.

Oasis – Island Caves
- Vayu -

Still feeling apprehensive, Vayu followed the others down the dark tunnel as the Spirit lead them towards the villagers.

“I’ll have my demon freeze the water at the entry point,” Vayu said quietly to the others when they arrived “That’ll give us more time to get the villagers out.”

He nodded towards the spirit and drew his Ninjato.

They entered the room with the villagers as the barrier of the Spirit began to push the demons back. Quickly he summoned Jack Frost, who appeared with a slight jingle.

“Find the entry point of the water and freeze it,” Vayu ordered. “And then help us with the villagers.”

Jack Frost bounced off and began casting his Frost Bite at the areas where the water was seeping in.

Meanwhile, he went to work and began unchaining the villagers and the propped them up into a sitting position to keep their heads out of the water.

Zephyr Arc - Island Caverns

The spirit finally agreed that something had to be done and made what he assumed was an alternate route to the villagers. "...Feel's oddly like that damn elf's trick, but that's sure convenient." He commented out loud enough for everyone to hear before picking himself up. Assuring Cherry he was fine, he grabbed his spear and hopped into the new tunnel after the others.

-----------

After meandering through the tunnels for a while following the spirit's lead, they finally began hearing whimpers. The opened up a window for them to peer inside, which showed them all the same villagers from the vision, except they all seemed to have passed out, probably as a consequence of having their maga forcibly ripped out of them.

With Vayu freezing the water and the spirit throwing out his fancy enemy-repelling barrier, they quickly broke through to start rescuing the captives. "...I get this feeling you shouldn't enter this room, I don't trust it." He told the spirit as he walked through the opening and began slashing apart the villagers chains. Instead of propping them up, Zephyr opted to toss them through the opening back into the tunnel they'd used to travel. "I don't think we should linger here longer than we need to. We can figure out how to get them out of here once they're all out of this room."

Scarlet - Island Caverns

The spirit seemed to finally decide on a course of action, leading the party down an alternate route deeper inside. Eventually, the group arrived at another cavern, this time greeted by the sight of the unconscious villagers chained up. Scarlet let out a small gasp at the sight, glad that they appeared alive.

Following the others in as the spirit cast its barrier, Scarlet recalled Neko, pushing Maga into her Gauntlet as Warg sprang into existence. "Warg! Free the villagers," she ordered, the demon springing into action by crushing chains in his jaws. Meanwhile, Scarlet went to the freed villagers and began checking them for injuries.

"Are we going to be able to get them all out of here if they remain unconscious?" she directed at the others. It would be problematic if they had to carry all the villagers out and came under attack.

Oasis - Island Caverns

The vanguards nimbly dropped into the ominous room from the vision water splashing into the air with each movement, the spirit watched from above, heading Zeyphr's warning with his eyes darting around the room scanning the vanguards surroundings like something horrible was about to happen.

The now fully visible room was even more gruesome seeing it directly, like the vision wasn't able to handle the pain here.  Various strands of blood littered the water near the main altar that looked like some ancient elven artifact that was filled with a corrupt black liquid.  The elf that had attacked the group clutched the cup in her arms, though she was unconscious and didn't have any of the wounds they dealt to her...  Her limbs looked extremely weak like she hadn't moved in a long time, and there were various treasures stacked upon her body.

Various frightening Vodyanik and 'humans' began to clutch their heads in the distance beginning to cry out in pain, as Vayu quickly unleashed a torrent of ice on the entry into the altar barring those Vodyanik from reacting.  Various screams of rage, and anger suddenly filled the caverns, and Vayu can feel that they were futility chipping away at the ice.

However, something was off about the water, like a crazed being was staring into their souls the moment they touched it.  Two claws slowly emerged from the water, as an elemental creature unlike any the vanguards had seen before rose out of the depths with a light breeze flowing around him, pulling the water around in a powerful gust of wind.

Spoiler:

The creature didn't seem concerned with the vanguards though, as it suddenly rose its head staring up at the lake spirit its bizarre eyes focusing on the core in particular.

"That.  You give me that, and I'll give you that." The creature simply muttered, as it pointed towards the villagers.  Suddenly though a small flame erupted in the creature, as it let out a yelp, and began to shrink in size growing more aggravated as it held out its hand towards the vanguards and villagers with water beginning to emit from his hand.

"Now!" The creature yelled in a furious rage.

Zephyr Arc - Island Caverns

Seeing the elf body sent off alarm bells in Zephyr's head, remembering the water that sent him into a rage. "Don't touch the water!" He called out, expecting it to cause the same effects as last time. He stabbed his spear into the ground and hopped up to get out of the water. As if answering his expectation, a strange creature formed out of the water, though to his surprise, it wasn't an elf.

It immediately pointed at and demanded the core in the lake spirit's hands, apparently holding the villagers hostage in exchange. It sounded extremely belligerent, and proceeded to immediately cast some spell right after. "We've already discussed what they're likely to do. Do not hand that over!" He called to the ones that remained above, glad he'd made the right call in not bringing the lake spirit with them. "Vayu, Scarlet! give me every buff you've got! I'll try to keep it busy, get as many people through that hole as you can!"

Zephyr fired a volley from his crossbow, empowered with Ice Arrow, to impede the shrunken creature. He was low on Maga, but he'd recovered enough between taking down the Voldyaniks in the cavern and a trip here to cast enough spells to stall. He cast Overdrive and hopped up to the ceiling, burying his kerambit in the stone to hold him steady while swinging Devourer, which lengthened rapidly, at the enemy. Cherry looked concerned, but flew off to help with rescue in case any villagers needed healing.