Chương 121: Arc 2 - Chapter 63

It was almost offensive how defenceless and clumsy the ugly beasts were. They couldn't leap or dodge, they were slow and graceless. When cut, their slick skin parted as easily as a hessian sack, spilling out thin, stinking and sour orange blood. The leech things burbled and thrashed disgustingly while they died. Fritz almost felt foolish for approaching the beasts so cautiously, they had posed no danger at all.

Even when Bert let one entangle him with its tendril-like growths he could easily snap their repulsive appendages. He grimaced while he ripped one apart with his bare hands as if it were made of toffee.

"They don't even have any Abilities," Bert said, his voice soaked in as much disappointment as his clothes were in the monster's blood.

"So weak. Awful. Boring."

"Hey, the fruits in their uh... bellies... haven't been uh.. chewed," Cal noticed.

"If they're still in good condition, collect them," Fritz said.

"That's foul! I'm not eating something that's been inside one of these... things," Lauren protested.

"Gods, neither am I," George said.

"We're not eating them, we're selling them," Fritz said.

"Put them in separate sacks, and make sure you mark them with ink or something so we don't confuse them with the untainted ones."

"Oh, yes, of course," Lauren said.

"They're stuffed full of them," Rosie said, cutting one of the creatures open with her pick's point. Its blood poured into the water below.

"Yuck."

"Don't spill the blood like that, we don't want to attract the eels," Toby groused.

"Too late, to arms team!" Fritz commanded, drawing Quicksilver and watching two waves weaving towards the team.

"Damn it!" Toby cursed, his voice joined by Jane's.

"Whoops," Rosie said.

"Sorry."

"Throw the tree leeches in the water, hopefully, the eels attack them, not us," Fritz ordered. His command was followed, and soon the dark silt was mingled with slicks of orange. For once Fritz's plan worked, the eels seemed to love feasting upon the awful, bobbing, black bodies. They tore into the leeches with abandon, completely ignoring the team standing on the root banks around them.

"Like sitting ducks," Toby said, grimly grinning and pulling throwing daggers from his belt. Cal hefted his spear and Lauren watched the carnage, while Fritz and the others waited for the first barrage. Red-wreathed daggers leapt from Toby's darting hands, striking and stabbing into the two eels. The creatures shrouded themselves in lightning. Fritz threw his pole at one of the beasts, thumping it in the head.

Bright blue-white arcs jumped into the metal, causing it to glow a dull red as it fell into the shallow sea and began to boil the water around it. Next Cal threw George's unused bracer, it caught the lightning like they had thought it would, and it also sank, red hot, into the shallow depths. That was George's cue to attack, with the lightning shrouds dissipated, Sever shrieked, as did Rosie. The raw sound of her scream almost stunned Fritz even though it wasn't directed at him.

The Piercing Shriek did stun the eels, allowing George to leap down, steady himself in the silt and swing his greatsword in an overhead chop. Both huge eels were cleaved in two, their halves splashed and flailed ineffectually before they eventually went still.

"Damn, George!" Bert shouted.

"What a strike!" George bowed awkwardly at the sudden praise, muttering something about it being luck. Fritz couldn't help but be impressed himself, the man had truly grown into a potent striker.

"Quickly now, skin the eels, and take their stones before more seek us out," Fritz said, sheathing his blade and going to search among the murk for his pole. He quickly found it, and luckily it had cooled enough that the metal was merely warm to the touch. He also retrieved the bracer and lobbed it to Cal for use again should they encounter more eels.

"That was surprisingly easy compared to the last battle," Cal observed.

"The benefits of being prepared, and knowing what our foes can do. It's why Scout Captains like me are so prized," Fritz said a little smugly.

"I thought teams wanted Enhancer, Defender or Sage Captains," George asked.

"They do," Lauren said.

"Scouts are rarely made captains, as losing one of the two Roles is bad, and losing both is a disaster. That, and scouting is a dangerous task, a solitary one, fraught with peril, not suitable for a regular captain."

"Duly denying that deadly peril is merely what makes me exceptional rather than regular," Fritz proclaimed.

"Oh. Have you stopped getting caught now?" Toby asked drily.

"Yes," Fritz lied.

"Mostly," Bert answered more truthfully, earning him an exaggerated scowl.

"Never mind that, get a sack for this eel meat," Toby said, proffering a strip of the grey flesh. The stuff didn't exactly look appetising, to Fritz's eye it looked none too fresh, on the edge of too rotten to eat. But having starved before he would never turn up his nose at free food, even if it looked a little suspicious.

"I wonder what the eel will taste like," Bert mused.

"Like biting into a stormcloud, I'd wager," Fritz said.

"Though that's neither here nor there, we should get moving." The eels were skinned and sectioned in minutes, their parts stored in sacks and packs respectively. Fritz led them forward, he didn't bother using another dowser as he hadn't felt the sudden vertigo that came with the spite's alterations. He suspected that this Floor had different challenges entirely, and he could only hope that they were prepared, powerful, enough to meet them.

They had done well so far, excepting their first encounter with the eel in which they had to use two healing potions. Though that was to be expected when dealing with an enemy of unknown strength. He only wished he'd noticed it earlier, but knew that its quiet approach was aided by the oppressive spite. They resumed their trek, walking on the roots where they could, avoiding the water and the eels that might be lurking within.

It was slow going, not all of the team had Fritz's Grace, Agility or innate sense of balance honed by many nights sneaking on rainy roofs. George and Lauren especially had trouble, lagging behind while trying not to slip. Fritz set Rosie to stay by Lauren's side, it was her job to protect the mage, while he had Bert be Jane's protector. Toby bristled at the presumption that he wasn't enough to take care of her.

But he was soon set right when Fritz reminded him that Bert could survive a blast from the monster's lightning, while Toby would be knocked out and needed to be revived by a potion if he was struck. He grumbled, but let it be. An hour of walking, leaping and sloshing, they made their way closer to the Stairway. They had taken to ignoring the sightings of fruit and the tree leeches. Wherever they were eel nests were close by too, and the beasts they saw were getting larger.

Fritz wanted no more quarrel with the eels, sure the team could handle them, but one mistake and it could all go as sour as those red lime's syrup, which could leave them seriously injured and waste their precious potions. They only had two healing potions left, carried by Jane and Rosie respectively, and they had to save them for a mortal wound. It was quiet, the breeze had fled and only the scraping and splashing sounds of their passage broke the silence. Darting shadows appeared more frequently.

At first, Fritz had thought perhaps it was flitting birds, flying from tree to tree, but he eventually recognised them as what they were, a trick of the spite. He wasn't the only one affected, the distracting apparitions had caused many a slip, fall or sudden stumble. It was making the trek tedious and tortuous, even if Fritz had explained his theory that the shadows and whispers were imposed by the spite.

"Hate this spite," Rosie grumbled.

"Better be worth it."

"Worth it?" Lauren asked.

"Don't we get more Treasure 'cause it's more dangerous?" Rosie asked.

"What? Gods no," Fritz stated.

"The spite is a punishment, it won't reward us for breaking the rules."

"Oh. I hate that even more," Rosie said, turning an annoyed glance over Jane and Toby. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Jane scowled and Toby grimaced, "Sorry, our lives aren't 'worth it'," he muttered angrily.

"They're worth it to me," Fritz stated, attempting to head off any argument, while also trying to believe his words. Fritz had his back to the two but he could feel their stares. Plotting stares. He looked over his shoulder to catch them in the act, only to see them both wearing faces of guilt and genuine gratitude. His suspicion fled, the two were tired, terrified and teetering on the edge of despair, but they weren't scheming some subtle treachery, nor did they look like they were going to flee.

The sight filled Fritz with complicated, warring, emotion. A loud whisper crept from the canopy ahead, instinctively he scanned the leaves and branches above. Nothing. Fritz let out a long sigh, relaxing his tense shoulders. The constant disturbances were wearing him down, which, he supposed, was the intention. To keep him on alert, but also ready to dismiss what he had seen or heard as a figment of the spite. It was insidious and deeply tiring.

He almost shook his head, but suppressed it, it wouldn't do to have his crew see him attempting to clear his mind. It would only increase the collective paranoia they were all suffering from. Instead, he moved on, stepping from one root to the next. After another fifteen minutes of traversing the mangroves, the trees ended, revealing the open sea. It was still, save for the soft rippling on its surface. In the distance there were more mangroves, like islands of pale roots.

The sky above was clear purple and a dull orange globe lit the world, its light dancing on the water's near non-existent waves. There were three distinct mangroves ahead of him, one of them he knew was the Stairway, and it was obvious which one. It had a great tree, far taller than all the rest, its branches reaching high, grasping at the sky as if it were attempting to seize the dim sun. It was surrounded by a ring of trees and twisting roots.

Just in case the huge tree was a misdirection, Fritz used his second-to-last Door dowser. It responded slowly, but it did confirm his guess that the Stairway was hidden by the enormous tree. Or perhaps it was the tree, it wouldn't surprise Fritz in the slightest to find that was the case. The thing that really concerned him was the large likelihood that the aberrant beast was skulking around the stairway, as the others he had encountered had.

That's if there was one on this Floor and it wasn't merely a coincidence that they'd found lightning eels. He hoped that maybe it was, though he knew it to be a vain hope.

"Big tree?" Bert inquired.

"Big tree," Fritz confirmed as the dowser snapped in two.

"Anything in the water?" Jane asked.

"Yes," Toby said.

"More eels, lots of them and big ones. I can see their veins."

"What do we do?" Cal asked.

"Should I use my ring to call them?" Rosie asked as she reached the treeline.

"I need to think," Fritz said.

"I'm not sure baiting or riling them up is the best course of action. I'd prefer to sneak past them if we can."

"It would only take half an hour to walk to the outlying mangroves," Lauren observed thoughtfully.

"My boots last for an hour, I haven't used them yet. But if I walked slowly perhaps we could make a frozen bridge."

"Interesting proposal," Fritz allowed.

"I don't know how stealthy that would be," George said.

"We don't know how they will react to ice."

"We can test it," Lauren proposed.

"They're full of mana."

"It'll be dangerous," Fritz said.

"Bert can protect me, can't you?" Lauren asked mildly.

"Of course I can," Bert proclaimed proudly, pounding his fist on his chest.

"Well, there's no time like the present," Lauren said, handing her pack for Cal to carry.

"Let's go." Lauren's white hide boots glowed a subtle white and the air around her cooled.

"Oh, that's quite nice," she remarked with some surprise.

"Wish I had these on that hot floor." She tentatively stepped onto the water, as her boots met the sea's surface it immediately began to freeze creating a floating, icy foothold. She tested her weight and found it held her easily, so she set her next foot down upon the water. The sea froze below her feet and she stood there as the ring of ice grew around her. The icy encroachment stopped at around a foot and a half around her in all directions.

"Well, that's much larger than I'd thought it would be," Lauren stated, smiling.

"Not the first time I've heard that," Bert said, which garnered some laughs, but went mostly ignored.

"Look's like it would be well suited for a bridge," Fritz continued.

"Again... not the first time I've been told that," Bert said widening his grin. Lauren gave the man a withering glance, while Cal and George stifled laughs and Jane hid a smile behind her hand. Toby and Fritz hid their own mirth while Rosie just looked confused. Lauren tried to keep her composure, but eventually, she smiled, chuckling herself. Like a dam breaking, laughter burst forth from the entire team.

The fit only lasted a minute or two and soon they were quiet again, not that tense quiet of before, but a lighter, more free-feeling air entirely.

"The next thing to test is to see how the eels react to the ice," Fritz said, breaking the smiling silence.

"Does your seaskin ring still have enough mana?"

"Yes," she confirmed.

"Bert, go with her," he ordered.

"Yes, Captain," Bert replied, giving a fist over heart salute. With that Lauren began to walk over the water, freezing where she stepped and leaving a trail of floating ice. It took a moment for Lauren to get used to the sensation, but soon she was striding confidently across the sea. Bert attempted to scramble onto the bridge, but it broke apart as soon as he put some weight on it.

The already melting chunks scattered around him, undeterred he decided to keep following the woman, sinking into the sea up to his chest as the open waters seemed to be deeper than the mangroves. Lauren kept striding onwards, the ice behind her breaking away and melting as she moved on ahead. She didn't get too far, only after a minute of walking did Fritz see the ominous glow of lightning. Luckily, Lauren noticed it too, and before the flash and crack of the oncoming bolt, she activated her Seaskin Ring.

Belatedly, he worried that the water-based protection might not be effective against the eel's Ability. And maybe it wasn't, he wouldn't know, because something strange happened. The slippery second skin of water slipped across Lauren's body, but quickly froze over, locking the woman in place. An eel lunged from out of the sea and the lightning came with it. The coating of ice was blasted apart like it was struck with a mighty hammer, spraying shards in all directions and conjuring a cloud of steam.

Fritz worried for the woman, but needn't have, a torrent of flame spilled out from the cloud and over the still-exposed head of the beast. It shrieked and ducked back into the water, and the clinging flame was extinguished in a moment. Lauren might have been in trouble had Bert not been there, his rippling fist struck the beast in its skull, stunning it. While it floated flaccidly, he grabbed its jaws with both hands and pulled them apart, ignoring the long fangs that sunk into his hands.

With a yell and an incredible display of strength, he tore the creature's lower jaw off, then held the eel up and out of the sea for another scorching. Lauren complied quickly, and soon the beast was covered in flame, struggling in the air as Bert held it aloft. After twelve brutal, burning, seconds it eventually died and Bert and Lauren made their way back to the team, with some swiftness to their strides. When they arrived Bert threw the charred eel in front of Toby.

He then strode up to Jane and presented his punctured hands, which she healed without a word.

"The ice bridge didn't work and the eels don't like the cold," Lauren summarised.

"Unfortunate, but not unexpected," Fritz said.

"That interaction with your ring was though."

"Yes, I can't believe I didn't think of it beforehand," Lauren said.

"If I wasn't broken out by the lightning I would have been stuck for as long as the shield persisted."

"Maybe you should hand the boots or the ring to someone else, that interaction could be a danger," Fritz observed, again making a feeble play for the ring. Lauren tilted her head this way and that while thinking.

"It's a trade-off, a more solid defence for being unable to move," she posited, then she smiled.

"I'll keep them both for now."

"Fair enough," Fritz sighed.

"Back to the plan. Any ideas?"

"We could build a raft if we really wanted to stay out of the water," Cal suggested.

"There are trees all around us."

"After seeing the eel blast the ice I'm not sure I'd want to risk our lives on a wooden raft," Fritz said, thoughtfully.

"We will just have to cross as we are," George stated.

"I'm afraid you're right," Fritz agreed.

"We could throw some of those tree leeches to distract the eels," Toby said.

"Sneak past them while they eat."

"Good idea," Fritz said, as he had been thinking along the same lines as well.

"Won't that just attract the eels," Rosie asked.

"Same as my ring."

"Yes, but Cal can handle hiding them away until needed. Can't you?" Fritz said, smiling at him.

"I can," Cal said.

"Well, that's the plan then," Fritz declared.

"Let's go get some leeches."

It took them an hour of searching and scrounging but they were able to discover more of the rubbery black things, kill them and store them in Cal's Personal Pack.

"Hope this doesn't get their blood over everything in there. Inside of you," Bert teased.

"It's not inside of me. It's next to me, but also exactly where I am. It's hard to explain," Cal said.

"Weird. But what about the blood? Is everything going to be stained orange?" Bert asked.

"It won't be. Everything is sealed off like it's in its own bubble," Cal explained.

"Or that's how it looks in my mind."

"Could you store liquids the same way?" Fritz asked.

"I don't know. Maybe?" Cal hedged.

"Try it!" Bert demanded. Cal did, sticking his hand in the water. A small slurping, sucking sound gurgled from the sea and he grimaced.

"It does, but it's draining, each pint seems to cost as much as any other thing," Cal said.

"How do you know it's a pint?" Rosie asked. Cal shrugged, "Just feels that way."

"Can you spray out the water like a gutter?" Bert asked eagerly. Cal held out his hand and a globe of murky water appeared, lost its integrity in a moment and fell into the sea, splashing like an overlarge raindrop.

"No," he said disappointment heavy in his tone.

"Boo," Bert said.

"Thought you might be able to knock someone down with it or something."

"Guess you'll just have to stick to throwing spears and sending stones our foes' way," Fritz said, cheering the man considerably when he was reminded of the other benefits of his incredibly useful power. Soon they were back to the tree line, ready to make their wading way across the chest-high sea. Only the shortest of them, Jane and Rosie, had to swim, while the others walked over the silt seabed or above it, like Lauren did with Icewalker.

Around them, there would be the occasional flash of white-blue, as the eels seemingly warned each other away with their lightning. After three minutes Toby warned them of an approaching eel and Cal threw the first of their four leeches to intercept it. It soared far further and straighter than it had any right to, a consequence of Momentum and Guided Toss. The black carcass caused first a splash then a swarm as eels sparked and swam towards it.

They passed straight by the team, though they had to dodge those bright, barrelling bodies before they could accidentally slam into them. Flashes sparked in the water, and snaps filled the air. It smelt like a storm as the eels coiled and congregated. The team picked up the pace, leaving the beasts to tear into their little treat and each other as they fought over the leech meat. It was only another three minutes of fast wading before Fritz and his team had to employ the tactic again.

It was just as successful as the last time and soon they were halfway to the ring of trees. It wasn't until the third time they had to repeat the leech bait distraction that things went wrong. George was clipped by the shroud of a passing eel, the lightning leapt at least a foot from its scales and struck him. Steam streamed off the man, and he stopped in his steps. Lauren ran to his side, kneeled on her platform of ice and lay her hands on his twitching chest.

Pale green light suffused him but he still wasn't able to move or breathe.

"Rosie, your potion, give it to George!" Fritz ordered. She nodded and sped to his side with Interpose, then she pulled out a vial and poured the red liquid into his mouth. George gasped and another eel slipped close. Bert moved between it and the team and was rewarded with a bolt. He caught it on his bracers, which seemed to lessen the severity of the shock, but the blast still rocked him backwards and he fell below the water.

"Cal stay, everyone else go!" Fritz commanded, drawing Quicksilver and stowing his pole.

"But-" Jane protested.

"Go!" Fritz said.

"Get to the trees, we're so close." She and Toby nodded and followed after Lauren and Rosie who didn't need to be told twice.

"Cal, can you carry George?" Fritz asked.

"I'm a Hauler, of course I can," he replied.

"I don't... need... to..." George began to wheeze out, but Cal simply got under one of the man's arms and began to haul him forward in an unsteady run. Fritz didn't spend any time watching their escape, he ran to Bert who had suddenly burst up from the water.

"Need help?" Fritz asked, though he ignored his brother's protests and began to haul him as Cal did with George. Fritz had to start and stop as he made room for the beasts swimming past, relying on his Danger Sense to warn him of incoming eels. For some minutes he had to thread between the sinuous stragglers, though eventually, the beasts stopped slipping by. When the tail of the last of the eels he could see rushed away, relief flooded Fritz and he let out a long sigh.

"This feels wrong," Bert complained.

"What?" Fritz asked exasperatedly. He kept an eye out for monsters, though it seemed that the danger had passed in truth. He could see his crew gathered in the ring of trees, slaughtering an errant eel with ease. Bert grumbled something that he was too distracted to hear.

"What?" Fritz asked again.

"I'm meant to carry you," Bert stated glumly.

"We carry each other, idiot."