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As he managed to turn his gaze to what held him while he was being dangled up above the abyssal sea, he saw a pitch-black tendril extending from the approaching mass of shadows, wrapped around his ankle.

"Let go…!"

Forcing those words from his lips as he strained himself, a bellowing "whisper" emitted from the shadows.

"---"

–There was no decipherable meaning to the emission that fell upon his ears, instead pushing against his body like a spoken storm. It rattled him to the marrow of his bones, embedding deep inside of him that primal fear of the unknown as he hung there.

\'...I need to escape–now!\' He thought.

Clenching his core, he breathed in as he summoned his strength as quickly as possible, armoring himself in draconic scales as a burst of azure embers propelled outward around him.

[Dragonheart System Activated]

[Current Stage: 3/10 | Dragon Warrior]

With the enhanced prowess of his transformation, he wrestled against his bindings with more vigor, managing to rip away from the nightmarish tendril before he began plummeting back down to the abyssal waters.

The option of escaping the Primordial through swimming was no longer there as it was far too close to actually work. As such, he instead manifested wild flames beneath his feet, propelling himself through the air as he flew away from the unseen monstrosity.

It seemed fleeing in such a fashion made the aggression of the shadow-bound Primordial increase as tendrils from the sea sprouted out from beneath as he flew over, attempting to ensnare him and drag him back down into their depths.

A terrifying amount of control was required, both over his own flight and his panic was he dodged the continuous tendrils, pushing through before suddenly–

"Ngh!"

He was caught on his wrist as one wrapped around tightly; in that split-second after getting caught by one, a half dozen more popped up from the water below, binding him before pulling him back down into the abyssal depths without any mercy.

Just as he was submerged beneath the pitch-black hold of water, the scale armor broke down as if the water itself was a natural nullification for it, ripping away the draconic strength that empowered him in that moment as it continued to pull him down despite his continued efforts.

\'...Enough!\' He thought.

It took every ounce of strength he had, all of the breath in his lungs, but his amethyst eyes flashed to a sapphire in that split-second as he used [Draconic Might], invoking his system again as he summoned the maximum he could output for that brief moment.

[Dragonheart System Activated]

[Current Stage: 5/10 | Dragon Sentinel]

–It only lasted a moment, not even enough for the darkened armor to stretch itself over his body, but he used it to initiate an explosion of azure flames from his body with an output mimicking nothing else but a nuclear explosion, holding nothing back.

The monstrous expulsion of heat blew back the abyssal water around him, parting it violently as steam blew upward, freeing himself from the drowning depths of unknown hold. He didn\'t waste a moment flying upward, reinstating the draconic armor around himself as he continued to flee the Primordial.

[Current Stage: 3/10 | Dragon Warrior]

\'I need to lose it!\' He thought.

The entirety of the abyssal sea was no rumbling, swaying violently as he looked back, seeing the mass of shadows gaining on him as the deeper he looked, the more he swore he saw horrific sights within it.

What were once just "whispers" were now something else as every emission of noise from the shadows left as violent natural disasters, conjuring hurricanes through the abyssal sea that chased the Dragonheart.

"--!"

Moving at full-power with the azure flames condensed and rocketing him forth, he finally found it: land on the other side.

\'There!\' He thought.

He could feel the Primordial\'s very existence bearing down on him, running over his body with a series of chills before he finally touched down on the newfound patch of land, rolling across it in an abrasive landing before he–

"Gah!"

In that moment, his eyes shot open as he sat up quickly. There was nothing quite as jarring as it; he found himself sitting up, surrounded by walls of mud and his own companions, who were looking at him weird.

"You alright, Emilio? You were muttering and sweating a lot in your sleep," Joel asked.

"It looked pretty concerning, honestly," Blimpo sighed.

Emilio sat there for a moment without responding, still feeling his heart beat in his chest as his fear was very much real, questioning reality at this point.

"Emilio?" Asher looked at him.

"Yeah," he finally responded, "...I\'m fine. Just a weird dream."

Though he told his companions such, he couldn\'t help but feel it was more than a dream; it felt far too real and went beyond the simple whims of a nightmare. The close encounter with a Primordial, even if unseen, left its own imprint on his mind as he looked down at his hands, finding his fingertips trembling.

It seemed he had good timing for when he woke up though, as Vandread had already scouted up ahead while he was asleep, returning a couple minutes after he woke up and resuming their journey after a good meal and rest.

"See anything interesting up ahead?" Asher asked the silver-eyed man.

Vandread led the way, "Beyond this crab-filled forest is a large tunnel. I didn\'t go very far into it, but it seems to go on for a long while."

"A tunnel?" Joel repeated.

"You\'ll see," Vandread said.

It seemed the crabs had learned their lessons from the previous encounter as the crustaceans steered clear of the group as they marched along the dirt road. The entire time, Emilio lingered towards the back of the group, caught in thoughts about the questionable "dream" he had experienced.

"Got something on your mind?" Blimpo asked, walking alongside him.

"Mm," Emilio looked up, "Yeah, but I\'m not the only one, am I? What\'re you working on?"

The goggle-wearing elf was fiddling with some sort of tubular device, cranking it and twisting it into place while he walked.

Blimpo smiled at his question, "It\'s a \'Stun Rod\'--pretty nifty, right?"

"Just be careful with it," he responded.

"When am I not?" Blimpo asked almost sarcastically.

It wasn\'t much further up ahead until the tunnel in question was found, and its size was certainly not exaggerated, even underrated in fact by Vandread\'s simple usage of "large"; the entrance was twice as large as the width needed for a train tunnel, completely pitch-black from the entry.

"Dark," Joel remarked.

Asher squinted, looking in, "We should be careful. If what Vandread said earlier was right, there\'ll be more obstacles awaiting us."

This time, Emilio decided to lead the way beside Vandread as he kept Salamander manifest, allowing the small, fiery spirit to provide light for the group as they moved through the vast tunnel.

"Anybody else starting to feel chilly here?" Joel asked, rubbing his own arms as he looked around.

"A bit, yeah," Blimpo responded, curious about the change of weather.

It was mostly a linear path forward until the tunnel finally led them into a unique area; a large, open cavern with large sproutings of colorful coral growing on the rock like a garden of oceanic growth.

"Coral?" Asher remarked, looking at a stringy, blue growth near a rocky pillar, "Why\'s this here?"

"That\'s weird. There\'s not even any water around here," Joel remarked.

A peculiar place, no doubt; the air was brisk and chilly, much more so in comparison to the early length of the tunnel. The flourishing coralife was something unquestionably odd, however, leaving the group perplexed but moving forward nonetheless.

"On your left," Vandread suddenly warned.

The other four were quick to be placed on their guard as the rapid footsteps of an unknown assault approached rapidly.

It was Asher that acted first as Emilio was still holding the lesser spirit of fire in his hand, drawing his claymore and intercepting the large figure that attempted to ram straight through both Blimpo and Joel.

"--!"

Like a bull being halted by its horns, a goliath of humanoid proportion stood there with black-and-white, smooth skin that displayed gills and sharp fins. Its head was large with a mouth big enough to swallow humans whole with beady, black eyes: a shark.

"A shark!?" Joel reacted.

It had a muscular humanoid body but a head of onyx skin with the unmistakable resemblance to a great white as it snapped its jaws, trying to catch Asher off-guard whilst it was held back by his claymore.

Asher rolled out of the way of the hulking shark\'s jaws as they snapped down, swallowing only air.

STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.

–Emilio was forced to spin around as the bipedal shark that Asher faced wasn\'t the only enemy around; as he turned to face what approached from behind, he found himself facing a tall, lanky humanoid marine life with a long, sharp head and arms with bladed fins.

\'A swordfish-man?!\' He realized.