Chương 62: A Breakthrough

Everyone expectantly looked at Catriona. The archer sighed and nocked an arrow. Bolstered by her [Thorn Volley], the arrow multiplied mid-flight and sprouted sharp thorns that dug deep into the soft flesh of the tentacles. The hits shaved off a pretty significant portion of the squid monster's health points. It also made it angry. Very angry.

The tentacles that had been tentatively feeling around the hallway until now started to lash out in a whirlwind of attacks, and their little island by the door was no longer a safe haven. One of the tentacles slammed down right in the middle between them, forcing them to jump and dodge in different directions. Evan tried to jump to another island, but his foot slipped on the muddy ground and he splashed backward into the water.

After gulping down a mouthful, he pushed himself upward and emerged, soaking wet and coughing. He was still up to his waist in the stinky water, which was a problem because another tentacle was about to come down on him. Unable to dodge, he activated [Starlight Shield] and tried to block. The shield prevented him from taking damage when the tentacle lashed against it, but the impact pushed him back into the water, earning him another mouthful.

He gagged and choked and lost his orientation, unable to tell the bottom from the surface, until someone grabbed him by the back of his armor and pulled him out. Oliver dragged him onto an island. He was wet, but otherwise unharmed.

"I changed my mind," Oliver said.

"Maybe instead of ranged attacks, we just try to hit it until it's dead?" Evan wiped water out of his eyes.

"You're a tactical genius, you know." It wasn't much of a plan, but any kind of tactic or formation was made impossible by the tricky terrain and the tentacles causing havoc, so they quickly resorted to dodging without drowning and celebrated every hit they got in. It weren't many, but the real setback came when Oliver managed to cut one clean off. The team cheered for him… until two tentacles regrew right from the wound Oliver's sword had left behind.

"Oh, great," Evan mumbled.

"A squid-hydra." He threw a [Comet Shot] toward the monster's head, but the squid just swatted it away with one of its many arms.

"This isn't working!" Catriona said. She and her fox were the only team members who'd avoided the water until now.

"We need to deal with those tentacles, or we'll never get close enough to hurt its body. Or head. Or whatever that is."

"You don't say," Oliver grunted through gritted teeth, kicking the tentacle he'd cut off into the water.

"How are we going to do that if cutting them off makes it worse?" Catriona rolled her eyes.

"Do you guys ever think with something other than your swords?"

"We need to immobilize them," Evan said quickly, trying to defend his gender's honor.

"Luca uses his Current Pull, Olly uses Iron Root, Catriona, you... well, I guess you and Lys just distract the other tentacles."

"And you?" Luca yelled, arms outstretched, balancing on a thin strip of solid ground.

"I'll run straight at it and activate my Super Nova blast as soon as I'm close enough."

"That's insane," Oliver said, pointing at the wriggling mess of arms whipping around.

"You'll never make it."

"Yes, I will!" Evan said, trying to convince himself as much as his team.

"Watch!" He set off running before he could change his mind, because sprinting straight toward this baby Cthulhu creature was absolutely terrifying. His friends delivered. Oliver struck one of the tentacles with [Petrifying Strike], then used [Iron Root] three times in short succession to clear a path. Evan jumped from one island to the other, ran across a narrow bridge, and came to a skidding halt when a tentacle slammed down right in front of him.

Catriona fired an arrow at it, which made it recoil, allowing Evan to continue his mad dash. He jumped again, lost his balance, and stumbled forward, falling into the water. Luca reached into the water with his [Current Pull] ability and dragged Evan back to his feet before using [Current Pull] again to catch a tentacle blocking the way and yank it aside. The path was clear. Evan splashed through the water in big strides, closing in on the monster's head… or body. Whatever it was, it was huge.

Now that he was close, he could tell it had an elongated shape, and most of it was still underwater. The eight orange eyes all focused on Evan. Its tentacles writhed wildly, reaching for him, but Oliver and Luca worked together to keep them off him. Evan spotted another small island very close to the squid. It was tiny, barely the size of a bath towel, but he climbed up and used it as a jumping-off point. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

He put all his strength into the leap and landed right on top of the monster's head. It felt like landing on the most disgusting bouncy castle in the world, and the squid's skin was so slimy he started to slide off. Digging his fingernails into the monster's flesh to slow his slide downward, Evan focused his mana. He wound it all up into a tight ball right in the middle of his chest, and then he pushed it into [Super Nova]. The squid's body exploded like an overripe tomato dropped from a second-floor window.

Gray goo splashed everywhere, drenching Evan in the monster's foul-smelling ichor. [You have killed 1 Swamp Squid] [You have earned 47 experience points] [You have looted 162 mana stones] [You have looted 1 water affinity crystal] Evan was busy wiping the squid gunk off his face when a chime made his heart skip a beat. Ignoring the slime dripping off him and his friends whooping and hollering in the background as they splashed toward him, he checked his menus. [Congratulations! You reached rank 5] [You have unlocked a new skill slot. Use skill gems to learn new skills] [You have unlocked a new party slot. New maximum party size: 4] [You can allocate 7 attribute points]"I reached rank 5!" Evan exclaimed as his friend came running toward him. Oliver grinned.

"Awesome. I would hug you, but you're covered in squid slime…"

"We're all a bit smelly after our accidental bath in this swamp, but I'm refraining from hugging you as well," Luca said.

"Super happy for you, though." Catriona produced a large waterskin from her inventory and handed it to Evan.

"Here, use this to wash yourself off. I have enough water to last for a week in my inventory. I have a towel, too, if you want to dry yourself off." Luca looked at her, eyes narrowing.

"You brought a towel?"

"Yes."

"What for?" Catriona gave him a look like she was talking to an imbecile.

"To dry myself after bathing." Luca scoffed.

"Girls. All they care about is—" Oliver elbowed him in the side.

"If I were you, I wouldn't finish this sentence." Evan dumped the water over his head and let it wash away the gunk, bits and pieces from the exploded squid. It wasn't as good as a real shower, but it was a lot better than nothing. Catriona wordlessly handed him the towel, glaring at Luca while she did so.

"Don't listen to Luca," Evan said with a half-smile, "I, for one, am glad you came prepared."

"Now that you're rank 5, you can add Catriona to our party officially, right?" Evan looked at her. He knew once he added her to the party, they would all have access to her stats. He still wasn't entirely sure about the etiquette around revealing one's stats, but he knew it was a bit of a sensitive topic.

"Do you still want that?"

"I do," she said, firmly meeting his gaze. Evan accessed his menu. [Do you want to add Catriona Whisperstar to your party? Y/N] He selected yes, and a moment later, Catriona showed up in the party member list. To his surprise, she wasn't the only one. Her fox familiar Lys appeared in the list as well, although her entry was marked with "familiar".

"Welcome to the team," he said with a grin. Catriona returned his smile, cheeks flushed.

"Thank you."

"Don't forget to spend your points again," Oliver reminded Evan, "We need every edge we can get."

"Right, I'll do it right now," Evan said and opened his menus. He scanned his own attributes for a moment before he made his decision. Maybe it was shortsighted, but Oliver was right, they needed every possible advantage to survive the upcoming fight, so Evan distributed his five points with immediate survival in mind. He put three into Endurance, which would increase his health pool, and then added one to Strength, Dexterity, and two to Spirit. After he was done, he checked his stat sheet.

[Name: Evan Randall Affinity: Celestial Rank: 5 Progress: 3% Health: 70/83 Mana: 79/84] [Strenght: 21] [Endurance: 15] [Speed: 11] [Dexterity: 12] [Perception: 8] [Spirit: 19] They left the dead squid and the smelly swamp hallway behind and moved on to the next door. After the previous pattern, Evan expected another storage room when he opened it. There was a room behind the doorway, but it wasn't a storage room and an armory. It was a prison.

There was a small guardroom connected to the hallway they'd just fought the squid in. It had more lockers, a table, and even a bunk bed shoved into the corner, complete with damp, moldy bedsheets. Evan moved forward tentatively, but found no sign of any guards. The table in the middle of the room looked like it had been abandoned in a great hurry many years ago. Playing cards were strewn across the tabletop, also moldy, and in the middle was a round crystal ball on an iron stand.

A glow ball that had gone dark after it hadn't been charged in a long time. Three corridors branched off from that guardroom. One led straight ahead for a few feet, then down a set of stairs. Evan couldn't tell what lay at the bottom of the stairs. Two more hallways branched off to the left and to the right, and Evan had an inkling where those led, judging by the thick iron-bar gates in front of both hallway entrances. The team's banter stopped immediately. In tense silence, they carefully explored the guardroom.

They all jolted when they heard a whimper. Evan swallowed. That whimper had sounded like it had come from a child. He rushed toward the corridor to his right, where he'd heard the noise come from. Now that he was close, he heard more sounds. Shuffling, wheezing, coughing. People! There were people behind this iron gate. Oliver must've come to the same conclusion, because he started rattling the bars and threw all caution to the wind.

"Hello?" he yelled.

"Is anybody there?" Both Catriona and Luca hissed at him to be quiet, but Oliver ignored them.

"Felix? Felix! Felix, can you hear me? Say something!" Evan heard more sounds coming from the hallway. Voices talking in hushed tones. Too low to make out any words. Then someone finally spoke clearly.

"Oliver? Olly, is that really you?"

"Felix!" Oliver rattled the gate again. His arms were shaking from strain, as if he was trying to bend the bars with his bare hands.

"Felix, it's me! I'm coming to get you! I just need to get past this damn gate!" Luca nervously glanced over his shoulder.

"Oliver, I don't think you can brute force this. And you're making a lot of noise." Evan raised his voice.

"Felix, this is Evan. Are there any guards around?"

"Uh, no… not really. Just the men who took us. The Beasts. And occasionally there's this dark-haired guy who checks on us, but I don't think he's a guard or anything like that." Miles' voice sounded young and scared. Unsurprisingly, considering he was only a boy of sixteen and imprisoned in the torture dungeon by a crazy scientist and the last survivor of a plague affinity family.

"How many people are in there with you?" Evan asked, trying to sound calm and confident. There was a lengthy pause.

"Eleven of us are left." Evan swallowed. He could see Oliver's face darken. The Beasts had taken over twenty villagers from Silver Creek alone, and he knew how many more people they had abducted from other villages. Oliver took a step back and raised his sword. Luca backed away, pulling Catriona with him.

"Oliver, I really don't think this is a good idea." Oliver just gave him an icy look and swung his sword.