[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/KoA7JQr.png[/img]
[color=9ea6ba][h3][b][sub]x[/sub]x[sub]x[/sub] Cyll [sub]x[/sub]x[sub]x[/sub][/b][/h3][/color][/center][hr]

Cyll darted through the woods, keeping up relatively easily with Apep. The beast was not slowed down by the foliage like Cyll was, but its lackluster base movement speed worked to the boy's favor. Trailing the snake deity wasn't an issue, but coming up with a plan to stop it proved a little more difficult. Cyll couldn't just fight the damn thing, he'd die! Still, doing nothing but chasing after it would lead to the beast swallowing Corday and Arno, not to mention anyone else who might've been on that ship... and Cyll didn't hate any of them particularly bad enough to wish them that fate.

His breathing got heavier as exhaustion slowly creeped up on Cyll, the boy frantically looking around for any kind of clue as to what to do. He soon spotted a bug, a two-headed dragonfly-like creature, rapidly buzzing him by. It was only for a moment, but seeing that lit Cyll's eyes up with clarity.

[color=9ea6ba][i](The hydra!)[/i][/color]

Putting on a cocky grin, Cyll threw his attention back towards Apep. He jumped over a bush and rolled to grab a rock at his feet, wincing at the dirt which got into the wound on his cheek. Cyll slid a short distance and tried to freeze the ether around the rock, before stopping as he realised it wouldn't do him much good here.

[color=9ea6ba][i](No, I've gotta stop relying on that...)[/i][/color]

Cyll took aim and threw the rock straight against one of the small snake-heads on Apep, causing the creature to flinch and turn around. It was only a short distance removed from the erune boy, and a chill ran up his spine while he started to regret all the choices that got him to this point. His confident expression got traded in for a grimace. The two seconds these two took to stare each other down felt like eons. Then Cyll opened his big dumb mouth.

[color=9ea6ba]"...D-Damn, you're even uglier when I've got time to loo-HOOK!"[/color]

Cyll jumped out of the way mid-sentence as the snake deity lunged at him, the boy tumbling to recover from the sudden movement. Cyll started to bolt straight out of there while Apep chased him hot on the heels.

[color=9ea6ba][i](Ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck-!)[/i][/color]

Cyll was beginning to question if sticking his neck out for those two at the airship was worth all this, but that contemplation came a little too late considering the giant monstrosity was ready for another pounce. Cyll barely managed to avoid getting scraped by jumping through a bush, giving the beast a moment to try and coil around him. It was starting to sink in just how stupid of an idea this was, and Cyll realised he wasn't getting away without another juice-up. This wasn't the time to joke around anymore.

[color=9ea6ba][i](I-I can do this, it's only a short way from here...)[/i][/color]

Cyll took a brief moment to let his pupils shrink and every hair on his body to stand upright, feeling his blood pumping harder and harder through his veins. He rushed forward and grabbed onto the rear end of Apep's tail, the beast swinging it powerfully to throw the boy off. It succeeded, with Cyll being flung upwards. Before it could catch him with its venomous bite, Cyll grabbed onto a tree branch and pulled himself back to narrowly escape for a third time, quickly releasing the branch again to drop him in front of the creature once more. He could make out the faint shape of the hydra's cave through the foliage, so all he had to do at this point was dash.

So he dashed like a mad erune.

Apep followed the boy as soon as it could, nearly losing track of him as its poor vision turned Cyll into a faint blur. It bought him enough time to bolt into the dark cave, making the local deity recoil just in front of it. A few seconds later, Cyll rolled out as a shot of venom hit the giant snake straight in the face.

While it hissed in both pain and anger, Cyll jumped into a bush. An angered twenty-headed, green-scaled monstrosity with wings the size of a small airship came stomping out of the cave he was in merely seconds ago. Apep lunged at the hydra in rage, for getting hit with the dragon-like creature's venomous spit angered it greatly. The fun thing about a poisonous hydra to Cyll was that it had the ability to shoot a projectile like that. It made it pretty easy to bait the thing into fighting Apep. The other boon was that even in a dim cave, you could easily spot a green-scale, toxic hydra by the green aura around it. And the smell of a lot of dead bugs around it.

The two giants seemed to have almost entirely forgotten Cyll as they lashed out against each other, smacking and biting away in a desperate bid for either to show dominance. Luring the snake to the nest seemed to have been the right call after all, but Cyll didn't want to give either of these two a reason to come look for him as an after-fight snack. Still high on adrenaline, the boy hauled ass and got out of there as quick as he could.

After a good minute of sprinting, Cyll came to a stop as he collapsed in the middle of a dirt road. Cramps shot through the erune's legs as the boy was left wincing in pain from all the energy he'd just exerted. His senses returned to normal and Cyll tried scrambling to his feet, only to keel over again while the contents of his stomach spilled out in front of him. The stress hit him hard, and he was not only left without any energy, but also reeling in fear. It only just started to dawn on him what he just did.

Cyll vowed to [i]never[/i] do that again, and those two owed him [i]big-time[/i] for this.