Chương 129: Chapter 127: The Beach Guardian

"You have to remember that while this world isn't a game, it's set up like one," Amanda says. I notice her hands are right next to the hilts of her swords.

"And that means that there are certain things that are set up like a game would be set up."

"Like the leveling system," Ash says, nodding.

"Sure."

"More than that," Amanda says.

"Look. There are only a few ways to handle water in a video game. You can make it so that water instantly kills the main character, meaning that falling into water is the same as falling into a pit. You can make it so that water is just impassible, so that it's essentially like a mountain that you can't climb over. Or you set something in the way that makes people unable to get into the water.

Like a creature in the water that constantly attacks you, or like something that will attack anyone who gets too close to the water." Shit.

"Are you saying that this world went with the last option?" I ask, looking around. I keep expecting the ground to start shaking and something to burst out of it, like another land shark. Or a swarm of them. Amanda just nods.

"If you make it clear that you're trying to get into the water, the beach guardian appears. It's meant to dissuade you from going into the ocean. The dragons fly over it, so it doesn't bother them, but haven't you noticed that there are no ships in the ocean?"

"Not really," El says.

"I mean, we just got here."

"But there's no docks, no cities built on the coast. There isn't any shipping across the world. This continent is about as isolated as it gets, because no one can come across the ocean without flying. That's because of the beach guardian."

"Why hasn't this beach guardian attacked us, then?" Vincent asks. He seems a bit incredulous, but I'm getting more and more certain by the minute.

"Because we aren't close enough," Amanda says.

"We're still on the beach, but we're not making moves towards the water. I figured if I went and stood in the surf for a while, sooner or later the beach guardian would come attack me."

"How do you know that there even is a beach guardian?" I ask.

"Is that something Root told you?" Amanda nods.

"Root told me all about this world. He told me about the lack of coastal cities, and how that kept the lands of this world separate from one another. He told me about the beach guardians, and told me that I would be hard pressed to kill them, even if I could kill him." That doesn't sound good.

"If we run away from them, will they chase us?" I ask. She shrugs.

"I don't know that much. I wasn't planning on running. I was planning on just killing it. I figured I'd have time to cast a lot of defensive spells while I was waiting."

"How many spells do you have?" Vincent asks.

"Fifty three," she says. Vincent lets out a whistle.

"Is that still your plan?" Ash asks.

"Are you still going to challenge the beach guardian?"

"I don't see why not," Amanda says.

"You guys can help me fight it, if you want. Or were you lying before, and we're going to end up fighting each other?"

"We're not planning on fighting you," I say. Amanda gives me a look.

"Well, we don't want to fight you. How about that?"

"Are we done talking, then?" Amanda asks.

"I'd kind of like to get this over with."

"I still have questions," I say.

"Can they wait?" Amanda asks, rising smoothly to her feet, her swords in hand. It kind of makes the plan of sitting down on the sand look a bit ridiculous, how fast she manages to get back to her feet. It takes me a full second and a half to get back to mine. El stretches her neck, cracking it a little to the side.

"What do you know about the beach guardians?" she asks.

"They can't fly, they can't leave the beach, and they're really tough." Amanda says.

"Is that all?" I ask. My voice almost cracks. Amanda shrugs.

"Isn't that enough? You guys are badass. We'll be fine." She starts walking towards the lapping waves. I exchange a look with Ash. I don't think this is a good idea. She said that this creature would be a harder kill than Root was. That it would be more difficult to kill this guardian than to kill a god. We shouldn't be rushing into this, not without a plan. Ash seems to be of a mind with me, but confused as to what, exactly, we can do.

Amanda doesn't seem to be waiting for us to make a plan; she's already out in the waves, standing in an inch of water.

"Party up!" I yell out. I'm not always as eloquent as I'd like to be. Amanda gives me a strange look.

"Join our party," I say.

"Formally. You have to be a party member for the spell to exclude you."

"What spell?"

"Mab's Rage," I say. She nods.

"That's a great spell." She's thinking it over. Why is she thinking it over? This is a no brainer. Join our party so that you don't take damage from the spell. It doesn't mean anything. She can leave the party later if she really wants to. I don't care. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Okay," she says.

"I'll join your party." At least, I assume that's what she says. Her actual words are caught up in the explosion of the ground between us. The beach itself bursts in all directions, the sand obscuring my vision as a hulking form rises out of the shells and sand at the edge of the water. The resulting beast is enormous. Easily as tall as the giants we fought, easily as wide as a house. It bursts out of the ground and comes to rest as a sort of amorphous blob made of sand and seashells. Beach Guardian.

Mythic rare elite creature, level 55. HP: 550, 000/550, 000. I can't cast Mab's Rage until I know she's in the party. I don't know how to get her in the party. I know that we just kind of willed our party into existence, so I will her into it. But she has to accept before I can cast the spell. She has to accept before I can be sure she doesn't take the damage. In the meantime, I cast Fire Bolt and throw the bolt at the monster. It's almost impossible not to hit, but my throwing still goes up to 13.

Which makes sense; it's been a while since that skill improved. The Fire Bolt splashes against the creature and only does 313 damage. That means it has magic resistance. A full 100% resistance. I'm only doing about forty percent of the damage that I should be with my spells. That means that even Vincent's effectiveness is going to be only about fifty or sixty percent of what it normally is. I'm glad we have Amanda on our side.

She is already pushing through the cloud of sand and charging right up to the creature, her swords swinging and swirling. She moves so fast, she looks almost like a blur. I can make out the movements if I really try, but it's more like someone has removed a bunch of the frames of her movement, and so she seems to be inhumanly fast. She darts in and starts attacking the blob of sand and earth, chipping away at it.

El is right there with her, cutting into the sandy creature and breaking some of the shells that line its side. The shells give it an almost scaly appearance, giving texture and probably armor to the huge creature. Ash and Gigi are moving closer a bit more carefully, a bit more gingerly. It doesn't look like the ground around the creature is all that firm, making it harder to move. They seem to be taking their time a little bit, trying to get there without loosing their footing. I pull out my bow.

It's likely to be more damaging than my sword at this point. Especially if the arrows cause bleed. The problem is, I don't see any kind of blood pouring through the sand and shells, so I'm not sure it even can bleed. Still, I steady my shot and immediately let off a Rapid Shot The Rapid Shot does 1, 296 damage. That means the base damage my arrows are doing, which I confirm with my next shot, is only 216. That means this thing has close to 350 armor.

So not only is it a sack of hit points more than half a million thick, it also has thick armor and magic resistance. This is going to take a while. And, as I suspected, it does not bleed. Even when I use Power Shot, it doesn't bleed. There's no blood in there, so no way for it to bleed. That's great. Just fucking great.

"Join the party!" I yell, once again willing a party invitation to her. I keep firing arrows into the massive monster as I wait for some sign that she's heard me, some sign that she's a part of the party and I can cast my big gun spell. It's probably not going to be as powerful as it normally is, given the creature's magic resistance, but it will still be a boat load of damage, over time. As I keep firing, I watch the four women fight up close.

It doesn't have a set number of arms; it just lashes out with tentacles that can appear from anywhere, just bursts of sand and stone that it swings at them. Makes it hard to dodge, because they can't watch where the attack is coming from. They can't anticipate anything. Even still, Amanda manages to dodge one tentacle after another, weaving her way around them, dodging sometimes with just inches to spare. When she can, she chops the tentacles off, lopping through them with her swords.

But eventually, she will be hit. I'm sure of it. Gigi doesn't fare so well. She is blocking attacks with her shield as often as she is making attacks herself. Actually, it looks like she's almost entirely on the defensive, barely having time to strike back. But her health bar isn't decreasing yet, and she's keeping her footing, so she's holding her own. Whatever she can contribute will be more damage the rest of us don't have to do.

Ash is grimacing at the blows, but her shield seems to be holding out against the impacts, and she's hitting back as often as she hits. She's also on the defensive, but a little bit more aggressively than Gigi is managing. El, on the other hand, isn't even trying to dodge the blows. She just keeps attacking the tentacles as they lash out at her. She gets swatted from behind and is pushed a few steps forward, then swatted again and pushed a few steps back.

But she never stops swinging, roaring at the creature and chopping into it with her two handed sword. I bet she wishes she had her axes. No one's health bars are going down yet. That means that Shell is holding for all of them. But Amanda doesn't have Shell, I don't think. She wouldn't have access to it. But she did cast a few defensive spells, she said, before the battle began. I wonder if she can approximate Shell with enough other spells. Vincent said something about that, didn't he?

As for Vincent, he is cycling through elements, as if testing to see which one will do the most damage. First he throws an ice spear at the creature, then he casts a storm that has lightning strike it over and over again. Then he pulls out the magma spear spell. Next is a slash of invisible force, followed by a blast of acid. That last one seems to be the ideal spell, as he just keeps blasting.

He holds his hands out in front of him and summons a blast like a fire hose that just shoots a steady stream of acid at the monster. We've been fighting for almost a minute, and the creature's health bar is just barely starting to move. I doubt we've done ten thousand damage between us. But maybe we have. I wish I could see how much damage everyone else is dealing. All I can see is my paltry 216 every time an arrow hits it. I use Killing Blow, saying a prayer to whatever might be listening.

My prayer goes unanswered. Worth a try. Then I see one of the tentacles actually make contact with Amanda. Her health goes down a little bit, but I can't see how far. I give her a good look, hoping that maybe I'll get some idea of where she is. Suddenly, I can see her health pool. 44, 118/44, 400. She's only taken one hit, and it didn't do all that much damage to her. That's good. That's amazing, actually. I don't know how much damage this thing deals when it hits, but she's reduced it to less than 300.

That's pretty impressive. But it also means that she's in the party. That's the only way I'd be able to see her hit point total. I bet El is jealous. Focus! I keep getting distracted. I focus on my spell, and I unleash Mab's Rage. As soon as I do, I notice that Vincent does the same. And then, just a heartbeat later, so does Amanda. I don't know if the slow effect will stack, but at least I know we're doing damage. As I suspected, it's not that much. 58 points per second from my casting of the spell.

That's still good for more than ten thousand points of damage over the course of the spell. That's as much as we seem to be dealing as a group in a minute, so I've basically raised the amount of damage we're doing by a full third for the next three minutes. That's good, right? I keep using Rapid Shot and Power Shot when I can, but I don't bother with Killing Blow. The likelihood that it will work is pretty low.

I mean, even with the 2% chance, the ability specifically says that there are some creatures that it just won't work on. And if ever there was a creature that couldn't be insta-killed, it would be something like the beach guardian. And it's a huge cost of stamina. My stamina is still regenerating nice and fast, but I know that eventually that won't be the case. So I need to conserve, at least a little bit.