The first deep thump was shortly followed by another, then another, each louder than the one before, until the very sand they stood on began to shake.

  It was hard to determine their origin, so Rylan remained frozen to the spot as he glanced around, looking for the source. Unfortunately, his eyes were equally useless this deep in the kelp forest.

  At least, they were until a breath-taking wave of pressure washed over him and told him which way to look.

  A massive, hoofed foot stamped down behind them, the thump as it hit the sand rattling his bones and momentarily lifting him off his feet.

  For a moment, he thought he was looking at a truly giant kelpie, but as his eyes travelled up along a blue-scaled leg, he realised it was disproportionally thin.

  A faint outline against the light shining down from above seemed to suggest the creature had a neck that was at least as long as its legs, which could only mean one thing.

  “It’s an okelpi!” Soren gasped, taking the words right out of Rylan’s mouth.

  “Great Spirits...” Tamina mumbled, taking a step back. “I heard they were big, but...”

  “It’s a Malequint,” Rylan said, carefully moving back as well, as another hoof thumped down, thankfully not too close to them. “Pretty strong one, too... but they’re herbivores, right?”

  Soren nodded enthusiastically, not having moved a single step back. “They live off the fresh shoots at the tops of kelp forests. Did you know that they never grow bigger than the forest they live in? Well, there’s a competing theory that they migrate to a bigger one if they outgrow their habitat, but I’m not sure I buy that. Oh, they’re also the only known deep-sea creatures to sometimes stick their heads above the driftline to look around. There are even stories about shipwrecks that resulted from collisions with an okelpi’s horns!”

  “Fascinating,” Tamina replied curtly, a tense undertone in her voice. “Would you perhaps consider continuing your lecture at a safe distance, Professor Kelp?”

  “You know I consider that nickname a compliment, right?”

  Rylan’s breath caught then, his chest growing tight as a familiar feeling of dread washed over him. “Oh, fog... I think we better run!”

  “What? Why?” Soren asked, glancing back with a frown.

  A shadow passed overhead. A gaping maw big enough to drive a carriage through, with glowing, aquamarine shark teeth that seemed to pull at Rylan, briefly lifting him off his heels, but not entirely off the ground.

  “Run!” Tamina agreed, already turning around.

  Rylan sprinted alongside her, with Soren hot on their heels. Thin blue stalks of kelp growing alongside the game trail brushed past him. Their glowing bulbs occasionally smacked into him, but he just ignored them and ran on as behind them the okelpi let out a deep, rumbling sound.

  Should I try to Jump? No, I’d probably just launch myself off the path and get tangled up...

  He glanced aside at Tamina’s feet, but they weren’t glowing either.

  “No Skills,” she hissed, never taking her eyes off the trail, her voice almost drowned by the stamping of the okelpi’s hooves. “Don’t attract its attention!”

  “How is it here in the first place?” Soren whisper-shouted behind them. “Is it following us?!”

  “You think it’s the same one?” Rylan asked in surprise.

  Tamina grunted. “Ruby-Grade Malequints don’t grow on clouds!”

  “Well,” Soren started. “Technically—”

  There was a bone-rattling thud behind them, followed by the sound of rushing air. Then, all of a sudden, a massive pale shark crashed down to their right, actually bounced on the sand, then got stuck in a massive tangle of blue kelp.

  With its maw facing them.

  They all skidded to a halt, the dreadful sense of pressure once more crashing down over Rylan as he held his breath.

  For a moment, the menacing creature remained perfectly still. Then its beady dark eyes opened, seeming to stare straight at them.

  Not a moment later, it swept its tail, pushing itself towards them. The kelp binding it stretched and strained as the massive gapejaw opened its maw further, the glow from its teeth brightening as the fog started to churn.

  “Grab onto something!” Tamina yelled, her feet glowing up as well.

  Rylan dove onto a nearby rock, but found its surface slippery with blue moss. Soren was smarter, and grabbed handfuls of nearby kelp, twisting it around his forearms. Rylan scrambled to do the same, but managed to get only a single hand around a nearby stalk before the suction erupted in earnest.

  As his feet were lifted off the sand, fog streaming past his face, the slippery blue stalk started sliding down his palm, the kelp easily bending over to accommodate his backward motion.

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  He got a second hand around the stalk, but continued slipping, until he hit a glowing bulb. The full force of his momentum yanked on his arms, the straps of his backpack digging into his shoulders, but he held on, coming to an abrupt halt right next to Tamina.

  She was hunkered down, seeming fully focused on her Skill. It was holding, for now. In front of him, Soren was a little farther away still, and seemed to be holding on all right as he worriedly glanced back at Rylan.

  The deep thumps from the okelpi were receding into the distance. They were on their own.

  Fog, now what?!

  A school of fogfish came swarming by. They quickly changed direction at the sight of the shark, but not before a good number of them entered its pull. Several of them smacked into Rylan’s face before they careened onward, disappearing into the hungry gullet.

  For some reason, however, the sand didn’t appear to be affected by the suction coming from behind them. Before Rylan could consider the implications—let alone do anything with them—a twang ran down the stalk of kelp Rylan was holding onto. For a split second, it went completely slack, then the tension returned, but not before he’d moved several inches closer to the all-consuming maw behind him.

  The roots are snapping!

  Other strands of kelp were flowing past as well by now, and Rylan desperately glanced around for one to latch onto.

  A second twang shook his fingers, and the kelp came loose.

  A pair of arms, one soft and one hard, immediately encircled his waist.

  Tamina let out a kind of primal roar, the glow beneath her feet shuddering and sputtering, but becoming brighter at the same time.

  “Just hold on, Tammi!” Soren yelled. “The fogging thing can’t do this forever!”

  Seconds passed like minutes. Rylan didn’t dare move, not even to reach out for another strand of kelp, lest he throw Tamina off balance.

  Then, all of a sudden, the suction disappeared. Tamina let go of Rylan, who dropped to his knees then immediately scrambled to his feet.

  They wasted no time in starting to run, as behind them the gapejaw started to hack and cough. Glancing back, Rylan saw it close its maw for the first time, its teeth gnashing on the many strands of thick kelp that had been drawn into its greedy gullet.

  “Suck on that, Sucko!” Soren called back tauntingly as they disappeared in the fog, leaving it behind.

  However, their exuberance was short-lived, as ominous snapping and tearing noises started to ring out behind them.

  Tamina glanced back, gritting her teeth. “That stuff won’t hold it for long; we need to either lose it, or find some kind of shelter it can’t enter!”

  “Just keep following the trail; it has to lead somewhere!” Soren replied.

  What the trail led to, however, turned out to be a small clearing full of young shoots of kelp, and kelpies. A rather familiar herd of kelpies.

  The stallion’s nostrils flared as it stamped its hoof, but the foal they had saved the day before actually let out a happy-sounding neigh as it spotted them sprinting across the open space.

  A chill went up Rylan’s back, causing his eyes to widen. “It’s coming!”

  The massive gapejaw burst out of the kelp behind them, maw wide open. A split second later, the kelpies took off as one, thundering down another path into the kelp.

  Except for two of them. The younger mare that had come up to them the day before turned to leave, but then tossed her manes and glanced back at them, her hoof scraping the sand. In response, the stallion slowed down, seeming unwilling to leave her behind.

  Soren evidently saw her hesitance as an invitation—which perhaps it was—for he veered towards her and leapt, sailing several feet through the floaty fog before landing on her back. Whether this had been her intention or not, she finally took off sprinting forward.

  “Get on the stallion!” Soren shouted back at them, clinging onto her neck for dear life.

  The stallion in question was trotting impatiently, waiting for the last of its herd to catch up. It didn’t seem particularly willing to be ridden, but when Rylan felt the straps of his backpack starting to dig into his shoulders again, he decided not to give it a choice.

  “Tamina,” he cried while he activated Jumping, manually directing as much additional mana to his feet as he dared. “Jump on three!”

  As the soles of his shoes glowed up, he slung his right arm around her waist and used his left hand to grab onto her upper arm.

  “One-two-three!”

  Thankfully, Tamina followed his instructions and pushed off right as his Skill launched him up and forward. He managed to keep a grip on her, and together they arced through the floaty fog.

  Unfortunately, Rylan had underestimated the force their combined efforts would result in. While they were headed straight for the impatient stallion, it appeared they were about to overshoot.

  However, right when they were about to reach it, the powerful kelpie reared up, whinnying loudly. Tamina let out a grunt as she smacked full onto its muscular neck, and Rylan stifled a pained whimper as he landed on its back behind her, with his legs spread.

  The second the stallion’s front hooves touched the sand again, it was off, running right behind the mare carrying Soren. Tamina clung to its manes and Rylan to her as their steed barrelled down a narrow path through the dense kelp.

  The cadence of its hooves drowned out the beating of Rylan’s heart in his ears as he held on for dear life at every twist and turn. Rylan almost felt greedy, asking for another miracle after the kelpie hadn’t bucked them off, but he still prayed.

  “Blessed Zeph,” he muttered under his breath. “Please aid us in our escape!”

  With the fog rushing past his ears, it was hard to tell if there was any kind of response. But there was one thing Rylan couldn’t help but notice.

  He was getting tingles up his spine almost every three seconds now, and the pace seemed to be accelerating, tinged almost with a kind of franticness.

  Frankly, there was little Rylan could do to adjust their course, but... he found there was no need, regardless. The kelpies were heading straight for where his tingles were pointing.

  What’s going on? This can’t just be a coincidence, can it?

  In between the tingles, Rylan felt another wave of pressure crash down over him. Glancing back, he promptly decided he didn’t care where they were headed in the slightest, only that they got there fast. Quick as the kelpies were, ‘Sucko’ had gained momentum, and was right behind them.

  The stallion seemed to sense it as well, as it actually sped up, the kelp forest around them turning into a blur of blue as it caught up to the mare in front of it. Then, all of a sudden, the kelp disappeared, and they were galloping through the fog across bare sand.

  Not good! Without the kelp to slow it down, the gapejaw will catch up in no time!

  In front of them, however, there was a patch of brightness in the fog, which quickly intensified and spread. Rylan was hit by a strange sense of familiarity, and all of a sudden he knew it was the same bright area the cloudphins had travelled towards in his vision. The area they absolutely couldn’t enter.

  His heart jumped into his throat, but there was nothing he could do. The kelpies weren’t stopping, and leaping off was not an option.

  “Brace yourself!” he shouted at Tamina and Soren, “I don’t know what we’re heading for, but it’s—”

  It was at that moment, that the kelpies ran out of the fog.

  Rylan’s breath caught, his mouth falling open at the sight before them.

  Somehow, they had entered what appeared to be a bubble of clear air, deep down in the cloudsea. And in front of them, stretched out below an enormous dome of fog, lay a city in ruins.

  can still make puns, as long as my characters don't realise they are puns. ^^

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  Want to read ahead? Check out my !

  Want more of my writing? I've published a completed six-book LitRPG series!

  The Whispering Crystals is available on KU, Audible, and in print:

  : Unnatural Laws

  : Unusual Enemies

  : Unimagined Adventures

  : Unchained Potential

  : Untamed Spirit

  : Undivided Worlds

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