Studio with all currently available chapters ➡ https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/51334412/ [Track used; "Molduga Battle"] --- Hope you enjoyed this chapter! More to come soon.
[CONT. 3/3] "Sure wish your master picked a more... Convenient spot for his people to get to," she panted, her voice sounding dry and incredibly strained. "Can't have just anyone wander into the hideout, eh?" he retaliated. "I guess. But isn't this a bit much?" Ariphea said exasperatedly, practically wrestling her own body to keep up. No answer came from Rokih. He went eerily silent instantaneously. The sands shifted. His immediate silence did not go unnoticed. Ariphea visibly tensed, fists balling leaving her bare knuckles pale like the moon. Rumbling. At first it felt and sounded distant, but quickly grew close. Up snapped the large maw of a molduga, sending its gargantuan body hurling into the air. Ariphea couldn't even muster a scream her throat was so dry. Instead, a visceral gasp as she looked at the creature with its mouth gaped–as hers was. Still, Rokih looked almost complacent watching its brown body whirl throughout. Its beady orange eyes glint with an unsated hunger. Though, something appeared to be in its eye. Hands of a clock trapped beneath the arched eyeball, connected to its pupil. Ariphea couldn't get a good look at it, nor did she care about something as trivial as what its eyes looked like. Rokih had noticed too, but similar to Ariphea, paid it no mind. In the grand scheme of things, his job at the moment was making sure Ariphea survived. The Molduga slammed back into the sand and wormed its way through, writhing around in the ground before launching up a second time and attempting to slam its trap around both Rokih and Ariphea. Ariphea became a moving target for it now. She was shocked something so large could move so horrifically fast as she sprinted across the sands, steps sinking as the unforgivable density seemed to try and pull her to drown. She was far from fast enough to avoid it crashing down atop her. Rokih's eyes narrowed in focus, the most serious he's appeared throughout their course, and in a puff of smoke, had teleported over, shoving her out of the way before seemingly ending up getting swallowed. No—he teleported himself out, later appearing with grace off to the side for someone who had almost just been eaten. Rokih cupped his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. "Ariphea!" he called out to her, waiting until she met his gaze. She did so looking absolutely shaken. "Get off of the sand!" Rokih moved his hands away from his face and made a controlled gesture towards the flat stone closer to the canyon. Ariphea made the break for it, lunging back into a quick dash for solid ground, and made it before the behemoth could become airborne again. Rokih teleported over, joining her–though startling her. Ariphea jumped in place before latching onto his arm with both hands. "You're—you're in one piece," she whispered, voice wavering. The poor girl's chest was heaving like she had just run a marathon. In all fairness, she had. All while being chased by a disgusting huge sand worm-fish-thing. Rokih gave her hands a reassuring pat with his free limb. "It's alright. We're both fine," he hummed. Ariphea hated how nonchalant he was being. They were almost killed, and he was still smiling. It wasn't as wide as before, but it remained there through most of their hardships, and it absolutely irked her. She tried to quell her shaky breathing, attempting to better control it now that they were both seemingly safe. "I don't care what that thing was, it's terrible..." she voiced with a grimace, her grip never easing from his arm. Rokih told her anyway, "A Molduga. Not as scary as they seem." "I just told you I didn't care," Ariphea scoffed, but immediately got hung up on the other thing he said. "Not as scary as they..." she trailed off, squinting in a displeased manner at him. There was no way he unironically just told her that after both of them nearly got swallowed. Rokih stood surprisingly silent for the moment. At least before he readjusted his arm to properly hold her hand. She accepted it this time around, letting her other hand relax and fall back at her side. "The good news is, smooth sailing from here," Rokih hummed. Ariphea was not so easily convinced by his words. Especially not now.
