War and Survival

The intruder shook her fingers, creating and then sending an earthen spike flying towards the fleeing priest; impaling him through his heart.

He died in pain momentarily, his face contorted into an ugly grimace.

The intruder closed her eyes in an unrealistic apprehension. "All is fair in Love and War they say". She chanted to herself, her face as still as ice still as she spoke.

To get the opportunity to steal an Ur-relic, all members belonging to the Tribe, Sect or Faith Nation attacked would have to be dead.

And now, the priest of Gowur; the last surviving member of the barbaric tribe was dead.

Next was the ceremony known otherwise as the god Rite.

It was known to all [or some] of the Faith Nations that the gods or Deities presiding over a pantheon usually left one Deity to guide the people in the Physical realm, or two if the population was greater.

The Gowur tribe were known to have a single god guide presiding over them from the river that they settled beside. And to retrieve the Ur-relic, she alone would have to slay the god[godbeast].

The deity was called Zha'thik.

It was a serpentine water deity, that dwelt at the bottom of the river Abula[ formerly known as the Amazonian river].

The intruder walked slowly towards the river, stopping at its Bank. She stared at the river for a prolonged period of time. She sighed, insidiously smiling as she closed her eyes.

"How pitiful, a god of a brave and yet foolish Tribe is a coward". She mocked, her masculine voice appeared to reverberate across the river and unto it's depth.

She saw the river deity, Her earthen eyes seeming to bore through the river. And it saw her too. Laying still underneath the river, Zha'thik understood her and appeared to narrow it's eyes as she spoke.

It had silently watched this Marauder murder it's people in cold blood. It felt prejudice against the intruder on killing the natives and creating a pathway to it's impending doom.

When a pantheon loses its people there is no one to carry their belief and to represent them in the Stands of life, so the gods are weakened in both the Supernatural and Physical realm, waiting slowly to be forgotten and erased from the sands or strings of time[depending on the belief].

This same thing happens to the people when the gods of their pantheon die from a lost war with other gods; who absorbs them then convert them to energy both they and their people use to become stronger, they too erode and fade away. Erased from the sands of time.

The river deity, known as Zha'thik, waited calculatively ; at this moment it understood only one thing, it was about to die so it would take down it's killer[or the one with a hand in his death] with it.

It was a colossal serpentine being with scales as black as the deepest river depths and eyes that glow like lanterns in the dark. Its body stretched for miles, winding through the river's course like a living, breathing embodiment of the water itself. Zha'thik's presence was accompanied by a mesmerizing hypnotic hum, said and believed to lure unsuspecting victims into its watery embrace. As it stirs, the river's currents seem to obey its every whim, responding to its ancient, primordial power.

And unfortunately that power now seemed lesser, infinitely lesser, than half.

The intruder tilted her head towards her left, and once again the balance of the world seemed unstable and dynamic like a kaleidoscope.

Her actions telekinetically ruptured the earth beneath the river greatly, causing an massive underwater earthquake on the area surrounding the River Deity.

She had made the first attack for the impending confrontation — an attack that Zha'thik didn't take lightly.

The river had turned restless, waves and huge tides appeared all over the rivers surface, and a greater imbalance occured on the River floor.

Still, the Serpent choose to remain underwater. Biding it's time sinisterly. Yet, the glow of his eyes had dimmed; this stood for two things: Firstly It showed evidently that the intruder's attacks had at least succeeded in aggravating it's anger. And secondly it could mean that the godbeast was running out of time.

The female; still with her eyes closed, sharply tilted her head to the right.

Her current actions had dealt a similar amount of damage as her former attack had caused.

She then proceeded to wait in silence, waiting for any signs of aggro[or distress], from the waters; which she would probably interpret as Zha'thik's.

She found none.

"I see you act tough, but you are much of a coward, a weakling, choosing to hide rather than to fight." she tried mocking. "gods!!, I thought only mortals were spineless, I had never thought I would meet a deity that acted like a little snake".

Her taunts did not, yet again, seem to have any effects. At this juncture the waters had turned still and peaceful.

She opened her eyes, her deeply coated unearthly brown eyes glazed over the river.

"You choose not to take action, godbeast of the Gowurs, I see, I am done testing waters, I will start attacking at the required P.L, "

She outstretched her hands towards the direction of the river, tele sensing through the earth, the location of the serpent god

And with a slow nod, she acknowledged her own handiwork. "Time for fun with the coward," she said aloud.

She conjured a ring of jagged spikes around and within the earth, encircling the lying deity beneath the river's surface. The mundane earthen spikes were no match for the serpent's formidable, godly scales - but that wasn't the point. This was mere provocation, a clever goad to rouse the creature from its ancient slumber. And judging by the turmoil brewing beneath the waves, her plan had succeeded.

As Zha'thik unleashed a thunderous roar, its colossal form exploded from the depths, shattering the water's surface with cataclysmic force. The river, now a frenzied behemoth, thrashed about in torment, its waves crashing against the shore with unprecedented ferocity. The air trembled, shattered by the sheer magnitude of Zha'thik's ascent, as if the very fabric of reality was being rewritten.

With an almost effortless grace, Zha'thik soared into the sky, its gargantuan frame casting a shadow that stretched across the landscape like a dark, living entity. The river, still churning with unbridled fury, seemed to writhe in agony, as if the being's departure had unleashed a primal, elemental power upon the world.

"The plumage of a dying godbeast. How odious". She taunted; this, rather than Geo-manipulation, seemed to be her specialty.

And, as there was no language barrier for gods or godbeasts, Zha'thik understood every word.

It shrieked from uphigh, then as a tremendous display of godhood; it created a massive field of water in the sky, big, wide, and dangerous, over the riverbed; where the intruder stood.

He sent it down towards her. The water?, The Wave fell towards the riverbed crashing down with what seemed like twice the normal acceleration.

The serpent was controlling the speed of the water to achieve maximum impact!!.

By Jove, the godbeast knew physics?.

The intruder stared irksomly overhead at the wave coming barreling down at her.

With a quick movement of her hands, [inwhat seemed to resemble a hand sign/symbol from Naruto] she commanded the earth and plant life around her to form a dome encompassing the riverbed and bank; protecting her.

The creation of the dome happened swiftly. So swiftly that due to the little time taken in the creation, it was thought to fail. The surrounding rocks, sands, boulders, trees all came to form the massive protective structure In a bid to shield their creator.

The wave crashed down heavily.

And then, something extraordinary happened.

The dome, thought to be manifested as a shield, began absorbing the huge torrents of water as they fell, turning into mud, and entering the earth.

This process continued gradually untill the wave[water field] summoned by the deity was depleted.

"I must say, this is surely weaker than I expected". She shook her head in disappointment; her arms crossed over her chest as she dispelled the dome.

Zha'thik stared down at the impudency of the murderer of it's people. It was pushed into a tight corner, not because of the intruder's defence, but because of it's lack of time and already fading body.

It summoned yet another large reservoir of water in the air and sent it barreling down to the earth beneath, a second and desperate attempt to drown and crush the body of the intruder.

Yet, just like before, another large dome was erected, protecting the young female that stood inside.

The intruder, while protected, had time to think. There was an abnormality in the formation of the soil beneath her, and the godbeast; although having enough chance to crash down with it's gigantic body, didn't. 'Could the Ur-relic be hidden beneath the river bed?' she asked internally. If so then all of Zha'thik's attack and performance were just an act.

It wanted to by time for both it and the relic to disappear, for the intruder to be left empty handed.

'Smart'. She assesed.

Zha'thik suddenly let out a large roar in trepidation, half of it's once gigantic torso had faded,

And as a god it chose one of the best survival methods it had in it's arsenal.

Gaining a humanoid form.

It fell from the sky, transforming rapidly as it fell.

And when it did, it caused a huge shockwave. Sending dust, earth and debris flying all around.