Chương 44: Chapter 37 – Blood in the Water

The sun was falling fast behind the canopy, casting long ribbons of gold and crimson through the dense trees. Cade trudged after Pearl, the walker-lily village already far behind them. In its place was the true untamed swamp. Gnarled trunks rose from the muck, their roots tangled together and drinking deep from the wet earth. Somewhere above, faint shapes stirred in the high branches. The last frogsong faded behind them.

"So," Cade said, stepping over a puddle that smelled like rot and sulfur, "what's the deal with the leeches?" Pearl glanced over her shoulder, her orange skin dappled with the last rays of daylight.

"What deal?"

"You guys are seemingly all pacifists but when it comes to leeches they're kill on sight." She blinked.

"What does 'pacifist' mean?"

"Pacifist means you don't fight. Or at least, you don't kill unless you have to."

"Ah." Pearl nodded, looking forward again.

"Then yes. That is our way. We do not kill unless it is necessary for food or for the Cycle." Cade frowned.

"But the leeches? They're the one exception?" Pearl's tone grew more serious.

"The leeches are not of the Cycle. Not truly. None of the songs passed down from before this realm was knotted mention them. They did not exist before our realm was cut from the rest." Cade stepped around a knotted vine.

"So what, you think they're unnatural?"

"I think they're an aberration," Pearl said.

"They consume life and give nothing back. They take and take and take—then vanish underground with what they've stolen, their bodies too bloated to move on the surface so they burrow. Essence is hoarded and never returned." Cade mulled that over.

"So they're basically parasites." Pearl tilted her head.

"They are a perversion. Blind in all but their gluttony to consume. Nothing more." He let the silence stretch for a few paces, then said, "Sounds a lot like the Ashen Emperor to me. Something that exists to destroy the life you're trying to cultivate." Pearl glanced at him, her expression unreadable.

"Ash Tortoises are different. Complicated. Their destruction is not outside the Cycle. It is part of it." That surprised Cade.

"How can destroying life be part of a life cycle?" She spoke slowly, like quoting something learned long ago but didn't quite believe.

"Life without death spreads endlessly. It chokes itself. Twists into unnatural shapes. Without balance, it becomes monstrous." Cade nodded slowly.

"Back where I'm from we have something called cancer. It's a disease where parts of the body grow uncontrollably, consuming more and more of the body's resources. Eventually, they outcompete everything else. The body dies because of too much life in the wrong places." Pearl looked at him now, fully.

"A sickness of growth."

"Exactly. Growth is good. But growth without balance?" He shook his head.

"That's bad news." He paused for a moment before continuing.

"So your 'Cycle' works by the frogs bringing life while the tortoises bring death? You balance each other." Pearl gave a thoughtful croak.

"Perhaps you are not as dense as I feared." Cade snorted.

"High praise." Pearl gave Cade a sideways glance, the corners of her mouth twitching upward.

"Not as dense," she clarified.

"You're still mostly dense."

"Gee, thanks," Cade muttered. But she was already turning back to the path, her eyes scanning the growing shadows ahead. The sun had nearly vanished now, and the canopy above was soaking up the last of the light. Pearl's voice grew quieter.

"Even if the Ash Tortoises are necessary, I don't like them. They destroy without care. Anything that crosses their path—be it frog, tree, beast, or insect—becomes fuel for their perverse path." Cade frowned.

"The Second Elder mentioned using that mucus of his to communicate with things that don't speak your language. Has he met the tortoises before?" Pearl gave a sharp nod.

"He has but only during rare gatherings between our two tribes. The Grand Elders of both frog and tortoise oversee them to ensure there is no essence exchanged, just words. Under their gaze, neither side dares to break the truce."

"But without them? Without the Grand Elder's protection…" Pearl's expression darkened.

"To the tortoises, we'd be easier to harvest than glowmidge larvae." Cade blinked.

"Wait. You're saying a tortoise would just eat you?"

"Why not?" she said simply.

"We are life incarnate. Pure, fertile essence and, to them, we must look like divine fruit from the Great Tree herself." He grimaced.

"What about the reverse? Wouldn't that also mean the tortoises are valuable to you too? I mean, if they're so saturated with death essence or whatever, couldn't you use that somehow?" Pearl shook her head.

"You still do not understand. Our paths are not mirrors. They do not directly feed one another. Life cannot grow from death but death feeds well on life. If I killed a tortoise, at best I would gain nothing and at worst I might break my path entirely."

"I'm starting to see why you hate those things," Cade muttered. Pearl grunted.

"Hate is a waste of essence. But I do not trust them and neither should you." They walked on in silence for a time, their steps muffled by moss and mulch. The swamp forest around them deepened in color, the foliage shifting subtly as the moon began to rise. Its light filtered down in shafts of muted violet, painting the undergrowth in strange hues. Eventually, Pearl slowed.

"Sound travels far in the dark," she whispered.

"And things in this part of the swamp hear better than they see. We should not speak from here." Cade nodded, following her lead. They pressed forward, quietly now, slipping between twisted trees and over thick roots slick with moisture. Cade's breathing steadied, his thoughts drifting inward. It was the first real silence he'd had in days. And in that silence, he found questions. His stats had risen—he knew that.

The System had logged his attributes but despite the numbers going up, he didn't feel stronger or faster or smarter. He felt frayed. Like something had torn loose inside of him and no amount of power would patch it. Essence. The frogs kept talking about it. Moving it, weaving it, calling it to perform their form of magic. But what was it? Mana? Life force? Some combination of the two? No one had given him a straight answer.

He still had his quest to eliminate the Lords of the Swamp and the dungeon quest to Cleanse Cynthia's Legacy but he hadn't progressed them at all since being here. Lords of the Swamp was put on the backburner until he found a way to leave this insane corrupted dungeon. But cleansing Cynthia's Legacy was something he could work on here, if only he had any clues as to what the corruption was.

Everything was just so foreign to him, how was he supposed to know what was corruption versus what was supposed to be normal to this dungeon? Pearl moved ahead, silent and alert. Every few minutes she'd point out something—a vine pulsing with faint bioluminescence, a flower shaped like a spiked wheel, a beetle the size of Cade's fist with translucent wings. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. The deeper they went, the more alive the forest became.

Leaves quivered at their passing. Spores drifted lazily from the undersides of mushrooms. It was beautiful but at the same time it felt like it was too much as he watched everything competing for resources. Plants were bursting with growth and motion, overlaying and overlapping each other to get an edge as they grew and expanded for territory. It was impossible not to notice how everything here fought to exist. Every inch of space was claimed by something growing, slithering, or crawling.

Vines coiled over branches, moss devoured stone, and strange fungi bloomed like wounds on the trunks of half-drowned trees. The swamp wasn't peaceful; it was a battleground, a riot of unchecked growth and constant struggle where life clawed tooth and nail for every scrap of space and sunlight. It felt ancient, indifferent, and brutal, as if the land itself had decided that survival was all that mattered and everything else was just noise.

Cade was pulled from his thoughts by the butt of a spear tapping sharply against his ribs. He blinked and looked over. Pearl gave him a pointed look and gestured ahead. They stood at the edge of a wide, stagnant stretch of swamp water. It glistened in the moonlight, slick with film and pocked with floating debris. From where they stood to the opposite bank was a hundred meters, maybe more.

Halfway across, nestled like a stepping stone, was a single island—no more than five meters wide, overgrown with weeping ferns and thorned brush. Beyond that was a wall of fog that swallowed the far shore. Pearl pointed to the far bank. Then at the island. Then she made a series of quick hand signals. Cade didn't know the formal meaning, but he got the gist. Stay alert. Move quietly. Be ready. She pointed next with the tip of her spear to something hanging from a low branch, just above the water.

Cade squinted through the dark. It looked like a swollen, tapered leathery pouch half a meter long, hanging vertically like a fleshy fruit. In the dark, it was hard to make out the details. Its surface glistened faintly like it was moist with dew. Cade stared at it for a moment longer, then nodded silently even though he was unsure of what she wanted from him. Together, they stepped into the water almost immediately sinking down past their knees.

It was warmer than he expected, and thick with the scent of algae and decay. Each movement created ripples that lapped at his thighs and stirred up sediment from below. They moved slowly, carefully, each step deliberate. They had made it perhaps a quarter of the way when Cade heard a faint splash behind them. Then another and another. As if something was slipping into the water. He glanced back and his eyes flicked to where the dangling object had been but the mist and darkness obscured his vision.

Pearl shot him a glance and subtly increased her pace. Cade followed suit, trying to move quickly without splashing too much. Then he heard another splash, this one much closer than before. He whipped his head around, searching the water for any signs of movement but he saw none. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the blur of Pearl's spear. In one fluid motion she spun and thrust straight between Cade's legs. He yelped and jumped backwards, not expecting the sudden sneak attack from the frog.

But instead of impaling him, there was a wet crunch, and a burst of red-black fluid sprayed upward. Pearl drew her spear back. Impaled on the tip was a swollen, tapered creature. The same size and shape Cade had seen hanging from the branch. Up close, it was far more disgusting—a deep crimson leech, bloated and pulsing, its slick body writhing as it slowly died on her weapon. Corrupted Juvenile Swamp Leech — Level 8 An immature but highly adaptable predator twisted by unknown corruption.

While not yet fully developed, it displays relentless pursuit behavior and an early taste for warm-blooded prey. She didn't say a word. Cade gave her a silent nod, his pulse still hammering. She pulled the leech free and dropped its corpse into the water. It floated for a moment before slowly sinking. She swirled the tip of her spear in the water, cleaning the ichor off. They moved again, faster now. Another splash to their right. Then to the left.

Pearl's spear flicked out, lightning-quick, and another leech was skewered. Then another. She moved with terrifying precision. Not one ounce of hesitation in her lithe frame. Her eyes were wide and alert, scanning the water for the next threat. Cade tried to help, but the things were hard to spot until they were right on top of them. He held his tortoise shell tight, using it to swat at ripples and knock away whatever came too close.

Something heavy slammed into the shell with a wet thud, the impact jolting up his arms. The leech slapped against the curved surface, its slick body smearing mucus across the ash-scorched scutes before it slid off and vanished back into the water. Pearl didn't slow. Her spear flashed again and again, the shaft barely visible as it darted through the air. Each strike was precise as she cleanly punctured leeches mid-lunge or skewered them just below the surface.

She pivoted around Cade instinctively, positioning herself so her weapon covered him as well. They were a little more than halfway across when the water around them began to churn. The ripples multiplied. Splashes erupted from every direction. Shapes too numerous to count moved beneath the surface. Pearl clicked her tongue sharply.

"Run," she hissed.

"Get to the island. Now." She didn't wait for confirmation. She surged forward, water exploding around her legs. Cade followed, heart hammering as his bare feet churned through the muck. The silence was gone now—replaced by frantic splashing and the sickening slap of bodies hitting water. Leeches hurled themselves toward them. Cade brought the shell up again and again, batting creatures out of the air as they launched from the water like homing missiles. Some bounced off the shield and fell back with wet smacks.

Others hit the edge and tumbled past him, writhing and furious. Pearl's spear was everywhere. She thrust, pulled, and spun, the blade punching through flesh with ease. She used the butt of the weapon too, cracking it against lunging bodies and shoving them back into the water before they could latch on. They reached the island in a spray of water and mud. Pearl vaulted up first, whirling the moment her feet hit solid ground. Cade scrambled after her, slipping once before hauling himself up with a grunt.

The leeches came with them. They poured onto the island in a writhing mass—skinny ones like ropes, fat squat ones that bounced when they landed, and others so bloated they looked ready to burst. Their colors ranged from dull red to deep crimson, almost violet in the moonlight. Pearl moved like a storm given form. Her spear punched through one, then another. She yanked it free and spun, impaling two more in a single thrust. Despite the carnage, her face was tight with disgust.

"I hate this," she snapped as she tore her weapon free.

"Killing this filth." Another leech lunged and Cade reacted without thinking. He grabbed it with his bare hand. The thing was warm and slick, its body flexing violently in his grip. He gagged as it tried to twist around his wrist, its mouth puckering wide. He slammed it down against the ground and brought the rim of his shell down on top of it. It burst under the pressure. Ichor splattered across his arms and chest—thick, coppery-smelling sludge that steamed faintly.

You have defeated [Corrupted Swamp Leech – Level 4]. Experience granted. Cleanse Cynthia's Legacy Quest Progress: Corruption Cleansed: 1/?? Cade stared, breath hitching. The System still worked. It felt like it had been so long since he's received an experience notification and relief washed through him. He hadn't even realized how badly he'd needed that confirmation until it appeared.

"Cade!" Pearl snapped. He looked up just in time to raise the shell as two more leeches launched at him. He swatted one aside and crushed the other underfoot, toes squishing the leech into gore. They fought like that for what felt like hours, though in reality it couldn't have been more than a few brutal minutes. Pearl carving paths through flesh, Cade blocking, bashing, and crushing anything that got too close. The leeches came in waves, hurling themselves onto the island without hesitation only to die in heaps.

Finally, the rush slowed to a stop and the water stilled. Cade leaned heavily on his shell, chest heaving. His arms trembled, slick with leech gore. Pearl stood nearby, spear planted in the ground, shoulders rising and falling as she drew in slow breaths. Even she looked strained from fighting off so many. For a heartbeat, there was only the sound of water dripping and their breathing. He chose to ignore the notifications from the System and instead focus on catching his breath.

Then a massive splash erupted from the bank they'd come from. Cade's head snapped up. Something enormous was moving through the swamp. The water parted around a thick, writhing shape. Easily ten meters long and a meter and a half wide. A colossal leech surged forward, its body pulsing as it dragged itself through the water with terrifying ease. Pearl's eyes went wide.

"No," her breath hitched.

"That one is too big." Cade remembered her words from earlier. We stand no chance against the larger ones. You can only run and hope it doesn't decide to follow. He turned toward her and found she was already moving. Pearl was off of the island in a blur, charging straight toward the misted bank. Water exploded around her as she ran. Cade didn't hesitate any further. He leapt after her, bare feet splashing hard as he sprinted through the swamp, shell clutched tight against his side.

Behind them, the water roared as the massive leech surged forward, closing the distance with horrifying speed.