10 Descending into the Fourth Dimension (2/2)
Ivan felt nervous looking at the water now, as what Mazur basically said was that if he drank too much, his body would combust and turn into liquid, or even worse, evaporate.
Just as they were unprepared, a quantum fluctuation of a roar reverberated as a beast swam though subspace to attack. It was a carnivorous eel-like beast on the smaller side, but it was still almost three times large than them.
Ivan and Mazur were full of energy, and they rapidly split up to the sides as a set of razor sharp teeth bit down on the space they were just standing in. They then struck back at the eel with the fish bone spears before it could retaliate.
Mazur was at a loss fighting in a four-dimensional space and was unable to stab it accurately, while Ivan fluidly bound through subspace and pierced his spear into the torso of the eel, eliciting a roar of pain and anger from the beast.
The eel twisted and flicked its body, blowing Ivan away into the landmass and causing a small cloud of dust. Ivan's not only felt several bones in his body had cracked, but the skin of the eel had small barbs which tore at apart his chest in the confrontation.
What would have normally been a life-threatening injury was no longer enough to bring him down though as blue blood rapidly blocked over the injury. Of course, this also held true for the eel as the hole Ivan left in its body had clotted with a viscous blue tinge. Ivan was surprised how blue his blood was, the replacement of oxygen with the purer energy causing it to take a faintly luminous blue color.
Having learned his lesson with the Symbions, Ivan had firmly held onto his weapon this time and still had the spear in his hand. The eel had shifted it's attention to Mazur who was desperately trying to keep avoiding it's attacks and was helpless to retaliate, when Ivan took the opportunity to launch a sneak attack from behind.
Ivan ran though subspace in a long curve and came down on top of the eel with it unaware. Most beasts voice their anger or make sounds, so the eel hadn't expected a sudden silent attack. Ivan landed on top of its head and leaning forward with his spear, stabbed it deep into what appeared to be one of its eyes.
The bone spear pierced through the fleshy black eyeball with ease and jammed into its head with very little resistance. This attack was fatal, as the eel violently spasmed, cutting into the flesh of Ivan with its thrashing tail before completely dying.
Ivan and Mazur were in a sorry state after this battle and covered in congealed blue blood, particularly Ivan who had been hit the hardest.
”I thought dead fish float,” Ivan said sarcastically with a sideways glance at Mazur.
Mazur merely shrugged in response and decided not to respond, instead began to use his bone spear to stab into the fish and tear it open. He skilfully removed what appeared to be several strange organs, which he kept to the side as he then picked up a sharp rock and slowly removed the skin.
”Is there a way to cook the meat?” Ivan asked curiously, looking toward the meat which had an offsetting amount of vibrant blue blood on it.
”Eating it raw contains more energy…” Mazur drifted off from what he was saying as he eyes the viscous blood covering the meat, ”We should be able to use the water from the energy river to stimulate a combustion effect with some dry plant life. Go look for some dead stick or anything else normally combustible.”
Ivan followed Mazur's idea and moved through the forest searching for old plant matter. It was very easy to find dead branches and twigs within the forest, but most were too large for him to move and he could only break off some smaller twigs and pile up the massive dead leaves.
It only took him three trips before he collected a small pile of firewood, during which time Mazur had ripped out the eel's teeth and tied them to long sticks to create sharper, deadlier spears.
”You're lucky, you know?” Mazur said suddenly, a look of regret on his feline face.
Ivan was stunned by this comment and replied, ”How so?”
”The way you move through subspace, it is instinctual to you, just like breathing.”
”It's not instinctual, it took me quite a while to get used to it.”
Mazur shook his head softly at that and despondently responded, ”That's not what I mean.”
”Then what do you mean?”
”Do you remember how I told you that when humans realised our fragility in the universe, how we altered our genetic makeup with alien strands of superior DNA in order to strengthen ourselves?”
”I do. While you became stronger, many things were lost, such as the subconscious degrading.”
”Yes, that. I noticed the greatest disadvantage of it just now. Whenever I'm looking or moving through subspace, I need to consciously decipher the massive amount of information of the fourth dimensional vector. I then need to adjust my focus and decide how to move. It's a massive process which is like controlling a puppet with strings. You on the other hand, have all these calculations automatically processed via the subconscious, freeing up your conscious to allow you function within subspace like you were born here.”
”To think even you would have difficulties. I never imagined you to be the type to feel melancholic though.”
Mazur ignored Ivan's words, lost in his own thoughts as he continued to stare helplessly into the flowing luminescent energy river.
”My bloodline is classed by Andromeda Federation as S-Grade based purely on intellect and analytical capabilities. Anyone without a brain strengthened to the point of mine… would be completely unable to operate within subspace, their brains may even entirely shut down from the overload of information and result in death.”
”If our ancestors, who led us into modifying our bodies to become stronger, faster, and more intelligent, knew that by doing so it would cut off our future to ascent to a higher existence of life… I wonder if they would regret their decision.”
Ivan stood beside Mazur who was lost in thought. A cosmic breeze of energy swept by as they were watching the river in silence, causing the trees to rustle and leaves to dance through the air.