Milo looked at the serpent with worry. Hurriedly summoning the Pearl of the Deep as well in hopes that it might be able to aid him in this battle. As the sapphire pearl necklace formed around his neck, he quickly jumped at the serpent in hopes to at least get on it's body. To his disappointment, his prosthetic sword barely managed to cut into its body, but fortunately his prosthetic was very fluid thanks to it being an attribute. The metal entered the shallow cut on the serpents wound, working to weave into it an create an anchor within the flesh of the monster.
Milo looked around, hoping for any sign of Eva, thankfully, her dagger seemed to be much more lethal then his prosthetic, and she had managed to also climb atop the serpent, she was only a couple of meters below him. The serpent seemed it ignore the two, as it's mouth clamped down on the platform they were once on, it's head shaking as it destroyed the campfire they were sitting on mere moments ago. With a satisfied hiss, the serpent then raised it's body up.
"It's going underwater!" Milo hoped that Eva was able to hear his warning over the terrible storm that was raging on. As they entered the murky waters of the Dark Sea, Milo found himself being able to see a moderate distance around him. What was perhaps the most damning thing was that looking down, the serpent's body stretched on beyond his vision. That was a rather terrifying thought.
Milo was also able to breathe under the water, though he couldn't exactly tell how. It felt like the air he was breathing was coming from the pearl. The how's weren't important, the point was that he would be able to last under water, but could the same be said for Eva? Looking at her, Milo could tell she was already struggling. He had to force the serpent out of the water somehow. His mind focused on his prosthetic, he envisioned thousands of pointed needles extruding throughout the serpents body, wreaking havoc on every piece of innards it could. He felt as his prosthetic splintered and tore itself apart, shooting outwards and piercing rows and columns of flesh. The serpent let out a low hiss that resounded throughout the water. Its body began to tilt upward
Milo was relieved when the serpent broke out of the water, however he now had it's full attention. Its body shook violently, attempting to shake the pesky little vermin on its side. However Milo didn't let up, or more like he couldn't because his prosthetic was still wreaking havoc on its insides.
The serpent turned its head towards Milo, and now Milo was very worried. He let his prosthetic arm quickly return to its original form, prying it out of the serpent's gash. The wind blew against his back as he free fell. Looking up, he saw the serpent bite down on the spot where he was once standing, the serpent was either too stupid or too pissed off to care about injuring itself His prosthetic turned into a large spike, and he once again stabbed into the beast. With a shaky sigh, he began to run through the two's options. First off, escaping this thing seemed impossible. That much was certain, the second thing was that the serpent wasn't originally focused on Eva and Milo, but rather the fire they had created. That was the answer, whatever this thing was, it was obsessed with fire. Milo quickly got to work with this information. His prosthetic shifted, intentionally tearing itself apart, oil began to spill from broken parts, spreading all across the sea green scales. Then, a few electric sparks caused a sudden and huge explosion, followed by trails of fire. Milo grinned as the serpent seemingly began to panic. Moving to dive underwater once again. Milo's smirk quickly disappeared as he found out why, a loud screech from above caught his attention. Looking up, he could only make out a large figure with wings outstretched, talons aimed for the head of the serpent. 'You get what you deserve, weird ass snake' Milo looked at Eva, who had been busy carving into the damn thing, leaving sizable cuts along the area she was hanging on to. She simply gave him a nod, as they thought the same thing at the same time. 'Time to jump'
With that, both Milo and Eva let go, diving into the water below. The waves were relentless as the serpent clashed with whatever was attacking it from above. Milo had no intention of finding out. Looking around, he saw Eva and began swimming to her.
To Milo's surprise he was swimming surprisingly fast underwater, it went beyond that of the level of a Sleeper for certain. With renewed confidence, he stride over to Eva, grabbing onto her.
Milo didn't stop swimming until he felt his hand hit something sticking above the water. With effort, he heaved Eva onto the platform. Than grasped her hand as she helped him climb up it. He collapsed onto the platform, chest heaving as he breathed with effort.
"Do you think... we got away?"
Eva didn't reply for a moment, then she muttered out
"I sure damn hope so. I don't think I'll ever see a snake the same way again"
Milo could only muster a half baked chuckle between his breathes. However, the voice of the Spell suddenly popped into his mind
[You have slain a Fallen Beast, Abyssal Serpent]
[You have received a Echo]
Milo sat up, eyes wide with excitement. Had he really just received a Echo of a Fallen Beast? As a Sleeper, not to mention even killing the thing. Actually, how did he kill it? That fire he started was surely not enough to deal any actual damage to the beast. Maybe the bird damaged it enough, and since Milo had left the thing on fire, when it died it counted his fire as the last hit? Ah, who cares, the truth was that he killed a Fallen Beast and received its Echo. Such a shame he could not get it's soul shard though. That would've boosted his core by a significant amount.
"Eva, you won't believe it, I just got the Echo of that snake"
"What!? How!?"
"Does the how even matter? It's going to be smooth sailing from here on out. I'm not even going to have to fight those damn crabs anymore. The Serpent can deal with them"
"We'll summon it first thing in the morning. For now, let's just go to sleep. I'm exhausted"
"Sounds good"
Milo felt around, finding a small bump, he comfortably laid his head against it and began to fall into a deep sleep. Though before he did, he pondered something.
"Hey Eva, do you mind holding my prosthetic while you sleep"
"Didn't I fix it already earlier?"
"Well, yes, but I kind of had to tear it apart to light the snake on fire"
With a sigh, Eva plopped down next to Milo, hugging the arm while she laid down next to him.
Milo gave her a confused look "What are you doing?"
"I'm doing what you asked idiot"
"You know I can just..." Milo brought his left hand up to the prosthetic, the prosthetic whirred at the base of where it was attached to, multiple metallic clicks sounded before it smoothly popped off "... do that right"
Eva slightly froze, as she turned his back to Milo while hugging the prosthetic. "Yeah, I totally knew"
Milo just shook his head, this was something he would hold over her head for years to come. It was just too...
"Cute"
Unknowingly having said it out loud. Milo turned his back to Eva, his eyes closing. He could not see how Eva's shoulders slightly trembled against the small patch the two were laying against.