They passed through the bubble and on the other side Joshens sat there, waiting.
“Finally you guys are here, took you all long enough I nearly died of boredom. Huh, what if I died what would you do without me?”
“Shut up Joshens, you're obviously fine.” Lewis had said annoyed but also slightly amused. The mood instantly brightened up once Joshens reunited with them. He cracked jokes even in tense situations. Aton looked at him with a warm smile, they were close friends, they had been through many life-threatening encounters together. Joshens was a Fuku, a water-only race, that were cursed by the water god Septem for attacking him in his slumber, at least according to legends. Ever since their race has declined so Joshens could be considered quite rare actually. Fuku were slender like Simions, they had a large fin across their back, fins across their arms, and the back of their tailfin. They had sharp, tough scales all over their body. They had sharp claws, and teeth. Often they could rely on their body for fighting rather than Ash, or any other skill. Joshens specifically had a more lean build than average and lost a fin on his right arm in a battle years ago. After they reunited with Joshens they intended to go to Molloy drop, there was a forward operating base there for all the Abyss members to go to, and since they had all their preparations ready so they decided it was time to go. The tube they were in should take them most of the way, so the group started swimming down the tube.
Unfortunately, the tube had quite a bit more people than the previous one Aton used to get here. And it wasn’t only unfortunate because Aton didn't like crowds, but it also meant a higher likelihood of getting surprised attacked. It's also much darker in this tube, light barely traveled down here, luckily Lewis was an Aryan, a fish that had blue lights attached to their bodies, to make it easier to see, and of course, everyone in the group had some ability to see in the dark. Though it wasn't perfect.
They rapidly but cautiously made pace down the tube, everyone on high alert. The darkness enveloped the group, Lewis’s blue lights trying to fight it off, but only barely succeeding as the light it produced around them was dim and weak. Aton almost considered it a liability more than anything, it would make them a more visible target.
A bit harsh, he thought but he had to think about everything from a realistic perspective to ensure he kept his group alive.
“Aton… ahead I sense Ash users ahead 30 feet, maybe five of them stopped.” Jasper whispered, he’s the scout of the group, he uses an Ash skill to throw out probes into the water to sense large quantities of Ash, it can be used to detect Ash users. “Should we turn around? They could be waiting to attack us… wait, no someone is coming from behind, just one but I can sense a lot of Ash he's experienced what's the call.”
“We crush them of course!” Joshens spouted, “They are cruising for a fight, so let's give it to them and make them regret it, right boss?” Joshens looked at Aton eagerly.
“We don’t have much of a choice, I will take the strong one on with Jasper, the rest of you deal with the rest. If you struggle, fight defensively and back up into me and Jasper.” Clide took point.
“You heard the boss let's go and show them what it means to mess with us.”
“Now you're talking, don't die old man.” Joshens said with delight. The groups split up, Aton and Jasper turned around and made their way to intercept the strong Ash user, they moved up a bit to give some space between them and group two but then stopped to wait for him.
“He’s close 15 feet, what do we do?”
“Wait, let him come to us.” Jasper nodded.
“Ten feet... nine… eight... Wait, he's gone!” Aton looked around.
“Focus he has to be close, he must have destroyed your probes.” The two looked around. The enemy knew they were there, and they could no longer sense how far he was. It shouldn't be this hard to see him, Aton thought. Can he prohibit vision? Jasper was the greenhorn of the group, he lacked combat experience that's why Aton had him come with him, he didn't want Jasper in a group battle but this was going to be tricky he had to beat a tough opponent, and keep Jasper alive.
“Stay close Jasper throw out your sensors on my command, got it?’
“Yes sir.” Jasper got closer to Aton; they were basically back-to-back observing their surroundings for the enemy. Movement Aton noticed a disturbance in the water.
“Now!” He commanded, Jasper listened and shot out his sensors from his fingertips black lines still connected to all ten of his fingers looking like long spider legs went out into the darkness searching for Ash. Moments later,
“There!” Jasper pointed to a location a few feet away from the earlier disturbance in the water. Aton immediately put out his palm, the water warmed in front of it. Aton’s ability was to heat up what was in front of him and keep the water in front of his hand or push it slowly. It started slow but then rapidly got to a point of boil. Atons second ability took effect; he could speed up the natural process of unliving things.
“Update Jasper.” Jasper pointed at a new location.
“He’s already destroyed three, what do I do?” Aton didn’t respond and instead he pushed the boiling water with Ash in the direction that Jasper pointed towards, but it went way too slow to actually hit anything.
Until Aton activated his ability; he sped up the natural process of travel of the boiling water being pushed, causing it to speed up drastically. This move was a staple in Atons arsenal.
Against an average opponent that alone might’ve been enough, but they were dealing with an experienced Ash user. In this situation the attack had a major flaw, Aton had no real way of knowing if it hit, he couldn't see his opponent and it didn't make any sound on impact.
“Jasper did it hit, update.”
“I don’t know, his Ash has vanished, and your attack—” from behind a figure dashed at him, Jasper saw him coming, impressive for how inexperienced he was, but his reaction wasn’t quite fast enough.
The figure aimed for his fingers, Jasper did dodge to the side a bit, but the figure still slashed two of his fingers clean off, they started to float to the top of the tube. Jasper instinctively grabbed his hand, cutting off his probes.
The figure vanished back into the darkness of the sea towards the side of their tube on the opposite side he originally came from. While maybe not the smartest thing, Aton couldn’t help but get concerned for his comrade.
“Jasper are you alright?”
“I’ll ma-make it but it will be hard to activate my ability again.” Aton predicted this but hearing it did make his face sour a bit, it was going to get harder without Jasper's ability, maybe impossible. The enemy had some way to prohibit his sight, and his ability required aim.
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“Look greenhorn I know it's probably hurting ya, but pains better than death, I can’t see them without your probes. You have to activate your power again.” Jasper looked at his hands in frustration and pain he knew his life probably depended on it, but he was freezing up. Aton saw him looking at his hands.
“Damn it Jasper it's now or never, he will probably go for you again, he’s just waiting for a good time to strike.” Jasper glanced at his hands once more, and with great effort opened them up. He activates his ability once again.
Blood seeps from his nose, eyes, mouth, and where his fingers used to be. He’s used to much Ash and now has to pay the price. Ash comes at a cost when used. While basic side effects end up affecting everyone, everyone has a unique side effect or two. Aton was able to calm Jasper down and they hadn’t gotten attacked a small miracle, the enemy should’ve attacked them then.
Jasper’s side effect; internal bleeding. The Ash probes shot from his eight fingers into the darkness once again. They were less mobile this time, controlling them became hard for Jasper. His control weakened from the blow he took.
“Boss two destroyed… he-he’s over there.” Jasper weakly pointed in a direction. Aton once again heated the water in front of him.
“Keep on him, it doesn't matter if he destroys all your probes by the end.” Aton prepared his attack while Jasper kept pointing where the enemy was. Jasper only had three probes left, by the time Aton had prepared his attack.
Aton knew his opponent dodged his last attack but he didn’t know how so he had to come up with something else to surprise his opponent, he didn’t launch his attack instead he waited. Jasper notified Aton he only had one probe left. Aton nodded.
“Keep your guard up, he’s going to strike once it's gone.” He said in a whisper. Moments later the last probe was destroyed. The two looked into the darkness waiting for any sign of movement.
A disturbance in the water on the left, noticed Aton, but nothing, then a disturbance to the right. Again nothing. He’s messing with them. Aton didn’t sit still, he prepared another attack with his left hand. The water heated, he didn't use his second ability on it, it would be a waste of Ash. It's already getting harder to see.
Aton’s side-effect loss of vision. A bad combination with the already impaired sight. He had to fight conservative if he wanted to win. The water heated in front of his left hand… movement right in front of him.
Could the enemy really be going for a frontal attack? It didn’t really matter for Aton’s plan; he immediately shot out the water from his right hand, then using his second ability he accelerated its speed. It sped down the tube. A move with little regard to potential civilians further down the tube.
As soon as he launched the attack movement from in front of him, charging at him fast. As predicted. Aton thought. The enemy waited for me to launch my attack, to attack, but he didn’t expect me to have two attacks already prepared. Aton waited a moment longer, then as the figure rapidly made his way to attack the group launched his attack.
He then accelerated it, with no time to dodge even if he noticed it, it went right through the enemy. Burning him severely, the enemy stopped and groaned in pain. Aton charged with Jasper following him. The figure turned around and ran, but Aton didn’t give him any chance, and charged as fast as he could.
Aton, already heating the water in front of his right hand, caught up to the enemy and stuck his hand out to the back of the enemy's head, burning it. The enemy desperately turned around to try to ward off Aton.
Jasper had caught up to the two of them and infused Ash into his left arm, the limb without the missing fingers. And blocked the enemies attempt at an attack, giving Aton time to continue to burn the enemy. His head burned to the point of death, only then did Aton stop his ability.
“How are you Jasper?” Aton said with genuine concern, he didn’t want to push Jasper that much but didn’t have much of a choice. He used him to put the enemy in a state of confidence, otherwise his plan might not have worked.
“I’ll be okay, thank you.” Jasper said weakly, the fight must’ve shook him pretty badly. Aton examined the corpse, a Fuku like Joshens, interesting. Aton thought.
…A while earlier slightly further down the tube Clide, Lewis, and Joshens were moving to fight their enemies. Joshens had moved to the front, Clide in the middle and Lewis in the back. The common formation they fought in without Aton. In front of them five figures stood there, two Fuku’s, two Simions, and one Flaxen, a colorful hybrid species that can change its color at will. They have a tail like a mermaid, but can morph it into webbed feet when on land.
The two groups cautiously stared each other down. Lewis and Joshen were waiting for Clides order, he was their leader right now. Clide held up his hand to signal to hold back. It happened to be a signal for something else too. Lewis got to work.
Lewis had the ability to create a filter for Ash, which would make it easier for anyone inside to channel their Ash. It took some time to form though, so Clide decided to use the few precious seconds of stalling to begin its activation. The enemy must’ve noticed the activation though, as they all charged forward.
“Stay in formation, it's three vs five we should wait for Aton to finish his fight.” Joshens channeled Ash to defend himself, Joshens doesn't know any Ash skills and instead has trained his basics over and over, focusing on defense. He was the tank of the group. He enhanced his defense all over his body, an impressive feat by itself.
Clide on the other hand prepared his skill, a powerful divine light surrounded him, and when it disappeared he was in a set of golden armor and had a golden bow in his hands and a short sword on his waist in a sheath. His ability was to summon divine Ash weapons and armor and it made a shining light around him while it happened, that pulled the gaze of those around, this was an unintentional side-effect of his skill.
The five enemies were getting near now. Joshens stepped forward to buy time for Clide to shoot his bow . The enemy hadn’t activated any Ash skills which was odd. The first one reached Joshens, a Fuku, he used his sharp claws to slash at Joshens. Which he masterfully blocked with the combination of his tough scales, and Ash defense taking resulting in little damage.
Instinctively Joshens went for a counterattack, but three of the remaining enemies had got here too and punished Joshens for his attempt, one of them striking at his exposed hand from Joshens right side. The enemy slashed Joshens arm, it left a small scratch, but nothing major. Joshens pulled back his extended arm, and backed up a step. Putting up his arms for defense.
Four enemies were in front of him. Concerning of course, but the bigger issue the Flaxen disappeared, probably using its color changing ability to blend in with the water, or used some Ash skill. Clide launched a golden Ash arrow from behind Joshens, it traveled with speed and power, buffed by Lewis’s skill. It pierced the Fukus shoulder that first attacked Joshens. By the time the first arrow hit its target, Clide had almost manifested the second arrow.
Normally by now the enemies would push forward with desperation and haste realizing what's happening, but instead they stayed at distance, swiping at Joshens here and there. The second arrow flew, this time it hit the leg of the Fuku who attacked Joshens. Joshens looked back at Clide.
“Hey old man, there's a sneaky snake missing, the color changer, stay alert.” Clide nodded but didn’t really acknowledge what Joshens had said, he didn’t think much of it. Nothing one fodder could do. They continued the back and forth for a minute or so, the enemy got better at blocking the arrows, and even used Ash for defense a few times, but they were breaking it would be an easy win, they must’ve thought they could outlast Clide’s Ash arrows, which might’ve worked if they didn’t have Lewis’s skill up, Clide could quickly and efficiently shoot arrows, probably doubling his potential output. This also allowed him to keep pressure up instead of taking time in each shot.
Until Joshens noticed some movement moving past him, he only barely saw it.
“Old man somebody got through!” Yelled Joshens. While Clide didn’t take it seriously the first time he couldn’t ignore this, he dropped his bow which sunk to the bottom of the tube and pulled out his short sword. Clide had a lot of experience so once he knew what he was looking for it wasn’t too hard he identified the Flaxen and charged.
The Flaxen pulled out a spear, the most common sea weapon, and slowly swung it and Clide.
“What was that, have you ever even held a weapon before!” Clide yelled as he slashed his short sword down onto the young Flaxen instantly killing her. Her head was split in half and blood spilling into the water. Her body slowly sank to the bottom of the tube, with her blood train following her down looking like a small trail of red smoke in the water.
The enemies took this opportunity to increase pressure on Joshens, even with his defense four people attacking him without any support took its toll fast. Lewis couldn’t help either; he was busy keeping up his skill, it took his consistent attention.
It would’ve been bearable if not for what happened next. A long sword appeared in front of Lewis, from out of his unsuspecting chest. He had been stabbed from behind.