BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

The air itself was hot and moist, suffused with the odor of vegetation and earth. A faint wind blew through all this wilderness, carrying the sound of rushing water far away down unknown streams. But Emily knew nothing concerning these things save what she could see or feel herself.

Emily didn't know where she was. All she knew at first was that, as usual, her body wasn't solid anymore and that she couldn't interact with her surroundings. Only one thing was certain: she was inside one of her visions.

This, though, was much more detailed than usual since, most of the times, she couldn't feel the wind on her skin nor feel the heat of the sun's rays. Now, she was having a hard time distinguishing between reality and illusion; everything was perfectly clear.

The jungle grew denser ahead, so she proceeded slowly along its fringes until she came to a clearing near some lake before her. On the shore stood two figures clothed in hoods, one male and two females. The male was tall and broad-shouldered, while the woman was short but slender.

Emily couldn't see the two people's faces, but the woman's body frame was strangely familiar. So was the man, whose back was turned toward her as they looked at the lake.

The man and the woman were wearing red robes, and he was holding a long metal sword in both his hands. The weapon had an approximately 80 centimeters long blade, as thick as an ax.

Still, instead of being straight, it curved slightly upward. He held the weapon on his right flank, then unsheathed it and brought it in front of his chest as if he was ready to fight.

The woman, instead, and without any prior sign, started running away from the lake as if she knew something was going to happen. As she walked away, the water inside the lake started to stir. As more waves were created onto the lake's surface, slowly, a head emerged from within it.

Emily observed the creature carefully, its back was azure blue, while its belly was yellowish. Its body was covered in hard scales, and its structure was somewhat weird.

The beast, or better, the thaid, had an elongated face with fangs jutting out of the mouth like a crocodile, its head resembled an alligator, and it had a thick and long neck, at least ten meters long.

Its body was stout, with sharp pointy scales protruding backward and four massive crocodilians' clawed paws. Its body ended with a fifteen-meter-long, thick tail that the beast used to propel itself underwater.

The thaid slowly got out of the water and walked onto the lake's shores. Then, the man charged at the creature, slashing at the beast with all his strength on its left side.

The beast growled in pain but didn't do anything particular besides starting to roll on the ground like an alligator. At the same time, a shot reverberated through the forest, Emily heard it clearly, and a short moment later, a bullet hit the creature near its eye but did no damage.

The man jumped back to avoid a beast's attack, and once the creature had enough rolling, it stood on all four and started chasing the man.

The unknown individual avoided each beast's charges; simultaneously, the creature swung its massive paws at him, trying to hit him.

Another gunshot rang inside the forest; the woman was still shooting. This time, the bullet hit the thaid on hits well-protected back, leaving just a mark over his scales.

The young man took the opportunity and dashed again at the creature, swinging his blade at its neck. Though its hard scales protected the beast's tender flesh from any attack. The monster and the man exchanged attacks for several minutes before the beast shot a highly pressurized water jet from his mouth.

The man rolled on the ground and avoided the beast's attack. However, as the water traveled through the air, it ended up in contact with a huge tree, immediately cutting it neatly in two.

The man charged again and unleashed several attacks on the beast's body, slowly injuring it. The thaid quickly became enraged, and it brought its game a step up.

It unleashed more and more water attacks at the sword-wielding man, who kept dashing, rolling, and dodging them.

The beast's movement became faster and faster as time went on, and the man started having trouble avoiding its attack. Then, the beast jumped onto the lake, creating a huge wave that threatened the man's life. Though, something unbelievable happened, as the man started flying through the air, avoiding the attack easily.

"Is that his brain crystal power?" Emily said.

Immediately, the man started channeling mana, but the young girl couldn't understand what he was doing. At that moment, when the beast was inside the lake, a massive amount of mana shot from the sword-wielding man and ended up inside the water.

A couple of seconds later, a giant stone pillar shot out from below the creature throwing the thaid several meters in the air and giving it a huge blow at its belly.

"WHAT IS THAT?" Emily asked in surprise.

The beast was enraged more than ever, and it started channeling mana surrounding itself into a sphere made of water.

"Two powers?" That was what Emily could say once she saw the creature create the dome. She initially believed the thaid could only make that powerful water jet, but she was wrong.

At the same time, the sword-wielding man started channeling more mana, and slowly a flame appeared from the man's hands.

"Are you kidding me?" Emily couldn't believe what she was seeing, it wasn't only that there was a thaid with two powers, but also the man was using multiple ones. If initially, she had doubts about the pillar, now she was sure that the massive weapon was the man's doing.

"This guy also has multiple powers!"

The fight continued, with the beast and the man exchanging several blows and using absurd quantities of mana. It looked like they had endless amounts of the ethereal substance, and she couldn't understand how the man could do what he was doing.

As the battle progressed, the beast became stronger; Emily thought it was due to another brain crystal power. Both the man and the beast became so fast that Emily could no longer see what they were doing.

Another shot rang through the forest. This time, the bullet didn't aim at the water spitting thaid, but at another one slowly coming out of the water. The bullet hit the beast right between his eyes, killing it on the spot.