Chapter 21. Because I can.

Andrew began making his way toward the center of the swamp. Sherlock had created a handy guide using the HUD on his armor, so things had progressed nicely since leaving the safe room. Andrew was now sprinting through the underbrush and mud while following a handy green line that was conveniently overlayed over the terrain.

“I gotta say, Sherlock, this makes things a lot easier,” I said jerkily as he ran.

“Although I am more than happy to help, I must say that we would have been here for weeks if I had left you to bumble your way through the swamp. I felt it necessary to expedite the process for both our sakes,” Sherlock replied, humble as always.

“Fair enough,” I replied.

I was finding that it was easier to let Sherlock be himself than it was to try and fight it. He was an ass, for sure, but he was genuine and did bring a lot to the table, so it was a fair trade-off. Since our discussion in the safe room, he had also toned it down quite a bit, so I wasn’t going to push my luck.

“Stop!” Sherlock said quickly.

I slid to a halt in the thick mud and lowered myself to a crouch, “What’s up?”

“I am picking up several biological life signs just past that next cluster of trees. I can’t make out what it is but there are several of them. You need to proceed with caution,” Sherlock said.

“Are we close to the center?” I asked.

“Yes, by my calculations, the area past that cluster will also be the center of the swamp,” Sherlock replied.

“Well, the Coeus are nothing if not predictable,” I said.

“What are you on about?” Sherlock asked.

“That will be the boss fight, Sherlock. I imagine there will be a boss on every level, and we are about to get our first taste of what this tower really has to offer.

I slowly made my way to the cluster of what looked to be cypress trees. The bases and roots were submerged in shallow water, and moss hung in clumps from the branches. I pressed my back up against the base of one of the larger trees and slowly poked my head around to get a glimpse of what was on the other side.

“Holy shit,” I said nervously.

The center of the swamp was a clearing. In the middle of that clearing was a giant crawfish standing on a patch of dry ground. The crawfish was the size of a small horse from it’s head to the end of it’s tail, with hard armor plating covering it completely. The pinchers were the size of bathtubs looking overgrown for the size of the crawfish. The red brown crawfish stared out at hundreds of smaller crawfish all meandering around the shallow water that encircled the large one. I watched as it snapped it’s giant pinchers one after the other, the sound like a shotgun going off.

“Jesus, there must be hundreds of them,” I said.

“By my count, 167 of the smaller ones. They seem to be reacting to the claw snaps of the larger one. Almost like it is giving direction. What is the plan?” Sherlock asked, “The carapace on the large one looks like it will be hard to penetrate.”

“I think I have a plan for the big one, it’s the smaller ones that I am more concerned about,” I replied.

The smaller crawfish ranged in size from a large lobster to the size of a golden retriever. They were all dipping in and out of the shallow swamp water and moving in circles around the large crawfish in the center. I poked my head around one more time to try and gleen a little more info as my interface identified the large crawfish in the center of the clearing.

Swamp King Crawfish- level 40

While most species of crawfish will molt 6-8 time to reach full size this crawfish has undergone hundreds of molts to reach the size it is now. Standing at the pinnacle of power in this swamp the Swamp King Crawfish surrounds itself with lesser minions that serve only to feed and protect the king.

I took another second to identify one of the smaller crawfish. This was one of the dog sized specimens and I wanted to see what the variance in power was.

Swamp minion Crawfish – level 10

This Crawfish has benefitted from the ambient power of the Swamp King Crawfish and has grown to a size not seen on terrestrial Earth.

Warning: This Crawfish will become aggressive toward anyone or anything that encroaches on the sanctum of the Swamp King Crawfish.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Do you notice how they are all in the water? I have a plan for the smaller ones, Sherlock,” I said as I laid down on my belly and slowly crawled to the edge of the water.

“You have a plan? How do you intend to fight 167 of those things at once?” Sherlock asked.

“I don’t intend to fight them at all. Have you ever been to a crawfish boil, Sherlock?” I asked.

“What an absurd question; I don’t eat, and I was just activated a few days ago. Are you going mad?” Sherlock asked.

I smiled as I reached the edge of the shallow moat of swamp water and placed both of my hands into the water.

“This is gonna hurt…a lot,” I said.

I activated my Shield of Solaris ability, and my hands started to glow. I focused on the ability and pushed every ounce of energy I could muster into it. The glow moved from my hands up to my elbows, and the pain grew with it. I gritted my teeth as the searing heat began to invade my arms. It felt like I had dipped my arms into boiling water and just left them there to cook.

“Captain, your heart rate is spiking; I strongly advise that you deactivate the ability,” Sherlock warned.

I looked into the water and saw several of the small crawfish about 20 feet away from me begin to turn red. They began thrashing as the water began to bubble, and the heat spread more into the moat surrounding the king. Then, one by one, I saw tails curl into their bottom sides as they died and floated to the top of the water.

“It’s working,” I said painfully through clenched teeth, “I have to keep going.”

I closed my eyes and focused on separating myself from the pain. I knew I couldn’t fight the smaller group and also worry about defending myself from the monstrosity at the center of the clearing. I opened my eyes to see that Sherlock had helpfully provided a counter on my display.

Minion crawfish slain – 62/167

I nodded my head and grunted as a fresh wave of burning pain pulsed through my arms. I closed my eyes again to focus.

Just breathe, you can do this…. I said to myself as I redoubled my focus. Then the pulses of pain became waves of agony working up from my elbows to my shoulders, then closing in around my chest.

“Aaaarggh!!” I screamed as the molten heat enveloped my torso, but I didn’t stop; I couldn’t stop.

I opened my eyes again to see waves of plasma emanating from my body, boiling, then evaporating the water closest to me. Soon, the barrier of plasma reached nearly 20 feet around me in all directions. The water boiled, and the trees and foliage behind me burned like dry tinder, yet I pushed on.

“AAAAAGGGHHH,” I screamed again as I looked for the counter.

Minion Crawfish slain -165/167

I made one final push as my ability began to blacken soil and turn some of the sandy dirt to glass.

Minion Crawfish slain – 167/167

I deactivated the ability and slowly pushed myself up to my knees. I didn’t have time to dismiss the armor and check my wounds, and I knew it would be ten minutes before I could take a health stim. My only hope is that the Swamp King had not decided to rush me. I looked up slowly to see the large moat boiling aggressively. The Swamp King stood on his patch of dry ground, staring in my direction. The giant crawfish had reared up and was snapping his pinchers at me, but the boiling moat kept him at bay.

“Stay there, your time is coming,” I said breathlessly, “Sherlock, how long until I can take a stim?”

“Nine minutes, fifteen seconds, Captain,” Sherlock replied, “I…I honestly didn’t think you were capable of pushing yourself to that extent, Captain. I must say I am impressed.”

“Glad you enjoyed the show, Sherlock,” I replied, “I’m gonna lean against this tree and close my eyes. Let me know when the timer runs out or when that thing decides to test the water.”

“Why do you do it, Captain?” Sherlock asked.

“Do what?” I replied as I leaned back against the large cypress tree.

“Why push yourself to such extremes? You already have power, and you don’t owe anybody, at least not so much that you put yourself through this kind of torture. So why do you continue to do it? You entered this tower without a second thought. You entered the Alcaran Moon Dungeon; You fought the Spider Queen on the grind station asteroid. I have accessed all of Elvis’s files, and I cannot make sense of all these things, including the feud with Anthagor.” Sherlock said.

“Sherlock, I am human. I have friends, a family, a home. Someone tried to take those things away. What kind of person would I be if I just stopped and gave up? Sure, at the very beginning, I made some rash decisions. Touching that orb at the beginning of all this was probably a very stupid thing to do, but in hindsight, I would do it again,” I said.

“If I don’t stand for Earth, for my friends and family, who will? I not only had the power to keep Earth from getting totally annihilated, but I might have the power to level the playing field for everyone in the universe by finding this seed,” I said.

“I’m sorry, Captain, but that still doesn’t answer the question of why. Why you specifically?” Sherlock pressed.

“Because I can, Sherlock. Because it is the right thing to do,” I replied.

“I am afraid that you humans are rather hard to understand,” Sherlock said.

“That is okay, Sherlock. Half the time, we don’t even understand why we do things.” I said.

I leaned against the tree, trying to focus on anything but the pain. I felt nausea rising in my stomach, and my head began to swim.

“Something is wrong, Sherlock,” I said.

“You need to try to calm yourself, Captain. You are going into shock. The aftereffects from your ability won't let you use a stim for another 60 seconds. I need you to focus on your breathing and try to stay conscious,” Sherlock said.

My body began to shake uncontrollably as my helmet suddenly retracted. I only had enough energy to weakly turn my head to the side as I vomited violently.

“Sherlock, help,” I said as I began falling to the side, consciousness slipping away slowly.

I could hear Sherlock in my ear as I lay on my side, my head on the charred earth. It smelled like fall; that is the thought that popped into my head. It was a crisp fall day; someone was burning leaves outside, and I was home. Dad must have boiled crawfish, and I could see them floating in the water. I smiled, thinking about it. It had been so long since the family had gotten together for a crawfish boil. I smiled as everything began to go dark.

The last thing I saw was a crawfish the size of a horse dipping a claw into the water and pulling it back out to inspect it. The thing was massive, the size of a horse. It snapped the claw a couple of times and then turned in my direction, slowly entering the water; it was coming.

Then I passed out.