Last night I secretly blew some dirt into Dad’s nose while he was fast asleep to speed to bring an early end to my watch. I looked extra pitiful and going back to sleep for less than an hour would’ve been a waste so I got what I wanted. A dirty move I know, but it got me the sleep I needed earlier so it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.
I think he realized it was my doing because I woke up to a bug crawling on my face in the morning. Some screaming and flailing followed which woke mom up who became quite grumpy first thing in the morning. A disgusting experience.
“Where the crabs?” I mumble in a barely coherent way while rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
Valka throws an unimpressed look and points towards the water. A few cat-sized crablings are already crawling around in the sand just out of the midnight-blue water. Their dark-blueish armor and small clicking pincers are almost cute combined with the clumsy sideways walk. I expected a lot more of them and maybe a bit bigg-
That’s not the color of the seawater… The waves of the Azure Shore are light blue, which means those are all…
“There’s maybe even more of them than three years ago.” Mom pulls out a loaf of bread from her bag and some jerky. “Let’s eat. We’ve got a long day ahead of ourselves.”
I barely register her words as I desperately search for even a tiny patch of the seafloor not covered by the flood of blue critters. I didn’t sign up for this. There are not hundreds or thousands but millions and I don’t care how weak or insignificant a single small crab might be when with just their combined mass they could crush us into paste.
To be fair our situation really isn’t all that dire. These creatures are not here to eat us or decimate the lands past our camps. They march to… uhm, so yeah, they are driven by other instincts.
I wolf down anything edible handed to me for two reasons. One, I really, really don’t want to have my stomach demanding to be fed in the middle of combat, and two, I have to see those Runes in action. To judge their efficiency and power and maybe some other shenanigans the dwarf is about to pull.
“So no lunch or mana recharge breaks?” I ask looking at the increasing amount of legs crawling out of the water.
Dad just chuckles. “If you do find a place to rest then be sure to tell.”
Which translates to a maybe. Eh, I’ll live, the danger is on the lower end and this is more of an arduous job than a dangerous one. Also, we don’t get paid to stop as many as we can but to be here, participate, and get as much crab meat back as we can. Basically… ditching the battle is absolutely on the table.
Almost double the people I saw last night are now lining the beach with plenty of distance between them each and a complete lack of tension in the air.
“I think you girls should stick together and just mow down as many as you can.” Mom brandishes her spear and walks off to the left. “We’ll be nearby just in case but try not to die or you won't hear the end of it, I’ll make sure.”
I love the vague explanations. When does this even start and how do we know in the end who killed what? Adventurers…
Damn, that must’ve been the mercenary speaking in me.
Dad takes up position further back so I guess the stage is all ours. I don’t plan to hide behind Valka for this one so I march towards the beach to check what we’re dealing with and to see the boom rocks at work.
“Bag!” Valka shouts and flings my luggage over.
Oh right, we have to carry everything around else the chances of ever seeing our stuff are laughably slim. Brilliant.
Just a few steps away from the crab I send a small bolt of lightning into it and…
[You have triumphed over the enemy [Thorny Blue Crab].]
You can’t be serious, this is a waste of mana. I know I told Mom I’d only use water and lightning but… actually those are the best suited for this place. There’s no dirt here, only sand, and fire does terribly against armor if the output is kept low for mana efficiency. Metal might do quite well now that I think about it…
I hear a wet crunch and see Valka just step onto one of the unlucky creatures, crushing it with next to no effort.
“Step back from the water if you’re done playing with the younglings.” I recognize the gruff voice of the dwarf who educated me last night.
Wait, younglings?
I backtrack hurriedly not because I’m scared of the small stuff or the even bigger ones, but because I learned to take warnings from the oldtimers seriously. Despite his words, the only change I see is the size of the waves growing and shrinking and some of the sand shifting.
The number of legs on the beach doesn't require much patience to increase. Drastically. Crabs after crabs, on crabs, under crabs, between crabs… Like a wave, they move onto the sand in numbers that soon rival the stars.
I throw another few snaking streaks of lightning into the fray for little effect. All that happens is I feel the System in the back of my mind prickling, telling me I have a notification and the reason behind it is easy to guess. Since they’re as tough as paper yet mind-bogglingly numerous I pull some water from the sea and mold them onto my arms like long tentacles before pushing lighting magic through them.
It works like a charm. The crabs drop like flies everywhere my elongated arms pass though and I can keep this up just barely above their replenishment rate. There’s only one problem.
“What’s up with the bombs? Are they duds?” I shout at the dwarf with a hint of irritation.
He turns towards me with his fist raised and outrage clear on his face. “I don’t create duds you ignorant little twat. They only active above a certain weight!” His face turns slightly red as he yells.
Still only as useful as a piece of rock right now, so duds until I see some explosions.
Despite my efforts, the little blue crabs are already at my feet and pinching at my boots. I dance around as if the floor was lava slapping and zapping before trying to drag the hordes back.
I make the sea reach out, envelop a substantial mound of bodies, and drag them all back below the surface before sending a crafty bolt of lightning after them just to make sure some die.
As if a response to my bolt the water explodes with crab parts flying all around and a pincer about my size breaking the waves. It is soon followed by its pair and two long googly eyes staring into my soul with little intelligence.
[Crab lvl 167]
Okay, damn, that was a big jump.
The crab smacks my water tentacle with its pincer, freezing it in a second and shattering the ice with no effort whatsoever. Just to check for toughness I throw a thicker bolt of lighting at its face for little effect but that doesn’t discourage me. The big crab is slow, clumsy, and an easy target that eats the attack with minimal reaction but the danger it poses is still minimal.
A brilliant idea strikes my brain. The crab is big and heavy and judging by its eyes clearly locked in on me. Time to test those bombs.
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I run towards the field of explosive rocks with the beast breathing down my neck. A hop and skip and with the help of Mana Preception I avoid every magically glowing rock. Surprisingly a wave of smaller crabs is acting as escorts to the huge one meaning it must be some sort of big mama or female or something… I think. Kayla is the expert.
Doesn’t matter, the more there are the easier it is to…
BOOM
The first bomb explodes cracking the big fellow’s leg and taking a bunch of small crabs with it. Soon the second goes off and then a third follows, creating a deadly firework on the beach.
I give the dwarf an impressed nod, only to see the ‘I told you’ smugness on his face.
A difficult old man, just like the rest...
Things die en masse and I quickly flee the area so as not to get caught up in the ensuing destruction. Running back to my spot I see Valka having the time of her life, crushing shells, and smashing the many-legged creatures the same way toddlers play with leaves.
And it’s only been about a minute…
***
I’m exhausted.
We’ve been at it for six hours now mowing down crabs ranging from level 30 to 160 not counting the really tiny ones. I’ve even resorted to just stomping them when mana became scarce but they just keep on coming. The adults did most of the heavy lifting when it came to the chunky ones, although right now that task is down to us.
[Crab lvl 147]
A bit smaller than the first heavyweight that crawled onto shore yet resilient all the same. Its thick armor firmly protects it from whatever magic I throw its way, especially because I’m trying to conserve mana. The reserves are running dangerously low. Valka is doing equally poorly because the crab hits like a war hammer swung by a giant and can probably crush even her bones between those pincers.
The solution? Well, I’m still working on it. I even tried explosions, breaking the small promise I made Mom, yet even that failed to do its work. A concentrated, shaped charge might do the job but I’m not comfortable closing the distance. Not with this many other critters around.
Okay, I specifically asked Dad not to shoot this one down with a single arrow like all the previous ones. I was curious how we’d fare against it and the answer is… not all that well.
“Any ideas?” I ask Val while trying to deal with the smaller crabs growing in number around us.
“Can you restrain it for just one second?” She asks back still relentlessly punching and kicking the hard shell in hopes of cracking it. With enough time I think she might even succeed.
This is usually the other way around. She asks for a plan and I’m the one asking for a window of opportunity to do my thing. It feels a little off but I’m willing to give her a moment to shine.
The water I used to slap and zap now envelops the crab’s legs, the only unarmored joints besides the eyes it can retract in less than a second. At the same time, some sneaky earth magic begins to extract the sand from under its feet to mess with its footing.
It works, sort of. The water gets frozen again which does lock the legs, sunken into the sand, and unable to exert strength with the ground fleeing from under its feet. It’s enough to win Val more than the one second she requested. To climb onto its back?
She rides the crab, using it like a walking platform. The pincers snap and flail in an attempt to get the free rider off, but Val manages to keep her balance before slamming her fist crackling with electricity right on its head. To my surprise, the eyes pop out of the shell at the impact, and Val grapes the opportunity, quite literally.
She’s too fast for the long squidgy eye extensions to retract and gets a good grip on the organs. After wrapping her hands around them like a rope she makes sure her footing is solid and heaves.
The crab screeches and throws itself sideways to save its vision, albeit a bit too late. One loud grunt from my partner and the eyes are torn out with a wet and snapping squelch. I don’t hesitate and throw lightning after lightning into the now empty socket as the creature is too preoccupied with suffering to defend itself.
The hits still leave me without the tingling of a notification so I use the uglier method. The water still around me freezes into a long spiked and bladed snake of ice. The murderous ice twirls and dances and quickly dives through where the eyes used to be.
In just seconds the body goes limp, dead by a thousand excruciating cuts. We’re still not done though. This one might be down but that certainly does not mean the beach is clear.
“How are you doing on mana?” Val asks while catching her breath.
“Bad.” I grunt.
Even now, when she’s gathering her strength, it’s down to me to prevent things from crawling onto us. Mana should be around twelve percent, stomach ten percent, and stamina twenty. I think it’s time we bail.
We quickly come to an agreement and proceed with a fighting retreat towards the treeline. For as far as the eye can see the ground is covered with crabs, not sparing ever the trees. This leads to quite a long retreat and plenty of cursing before a solution finally presents itself.
“Had enough kids?” Dad jumps down from a tree and I nearly lash out at him because of the constant tension and exhaustion. He just chuckles and with a swing of his dagger bisects most of the crabs around us. “You did pretty, well. Better than about half the adults that’s for sure… No worries, we can come back tomorrow.”
While I’m occupied getting pissed at his comments he takes his bow and fires off an arrow that lands just by Mom’s feet although I can barely see from this distance. She turns with a glare that quickly softens when she sees the sorry sight that we are. Unlike us, she’s in no hurry to retreat, leisurely walking our way while the signature shards of ice impale dozens of crabs every second. The show-off…
“Are we done already?” She asks with faked surprise.
“Why didn’t you tell me we could come back tomorrow? Or even later today?” I point a finger at her accusingly, then turn to Dad as he’s just as guilty just more quiet.
“You really thought we’d travel almost a week all the way here and then back just for an afternoon's worth of fun?” She grins like the devil while still keeping our area clear with ice. That part is kinda cool.
I don’t really look forward to coming back here to be fair…
***
It did mean that. We came back the same afternoon, then retreated a lot further away for a good night’s sleep before jumping into the meat grinder once again first thing in the morning. During this little over a day’s stay here I learned a little about Inscriptions, armored enemies, and how evil my parents can be when the level of danger is low and the opportunity to train is ripe. The fight-to-every-other activity ratio had been insane. We were pushed to almost complete exhaustion more than once a day… a completely new type of battling I find utterly ridiculous. It’s like working out, except a little more intense and you can’t exactly tap out any moment you feel like.
Oh and lastly, I despise crabs.
Finally, on the second day’s evening, the color of the water returned to the same clear sky blue I know and grew up to love. Not because we killed all of them or pushed the horde back… what a joke that’d be. Of the millions assaulting the beach and pushing towards the forest only about a tenth of them found their demise at our hands, the rest got through.
I don’t really understand why we even stayed, because the amount of crabmeat we can transport is severely limited and I saw multiple parties just pack what they could and leave both days. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was all to condition me and Val. Yeah, I can totally see Mom, hell, even Dad coming up with an idea like that and justifying their actions with ‘It’s just real-world experience’ or some other crap.
I drop my backpack and just plop down where I stand, my legs turning into noodles the moment I no longer force them to keep me going. Even now some crab parts are stuck under my bum as they are basically everywhere the eye can see and… I just can’t be bothered with it.
“C’mon Eli, get up. The best part is just about to start.” Mom slaps me on the back.
“Bath? Food?” I ask pleadingly, hoping some of the puppy eye the little me wielded is still with me.
“No, and yes. Also, you can use all of your elements now, we’ll need them.” She gives a thumbs up and shouts. “Who has the bowl?” The question is for everybody in range of her voice and some actually respond.
People start moving again, even more organized than before as if everyone knows their role.
“Time to taste the fruits of our labor.” Mom winks and hoists me up on my feet. “Let’s prepare for the festival.”
[Your group has triumphed over the enemy [Thorny Blue Crab].]
…
[You have triumphed over the enemy [Thorny Blue Crab].]
[Your group has triumphed over the enemy [Deepsea Glacier Crusher - Water lvl 147] - [Coral Bulwark - Nature lvl 32].]
…
[Your Class [Nature's Partner in the Dance] has reached lvl 117-> 118, +4 Free Points, +8 Speed, +4 Endurance, +15 Intelligence, +16 Focus, +2 Dexterity, +14 Mana, +16 Willpower, +2 Fortitude.]
[Your class Skill [Arcane Mastery] has reached lvl 102-> 104.]
[Your class Skill [Action for Reaction] has reached lvl 96-> 97.]
[Your class Skill [Mana Perception ] has reached lvl 97-> 100.]
[Your class Skill [Focal Mana Trance] has reached lvl 92-> 93.]
[Your class Skill [Ethereal Stage ] has reached lvl 69-> 70.]
[Your class Skill [Rythmic Strides] has reached lvl 64-> 66.]
[The general Skill [Savant] has reached lvl 87.]
[The general Skill [Dodging] has reached lvl 96-> 97.]
[The general Skill [Premonition] has reached lvl 99.]
[The general Skill [Maintained Magic] has reached lvl 83-> 85.]
[The general Skill [Martial Instinct] has reached lvl 70-> 73.]