Nenandil sat next to the cage where the fish-mermaids held Eathelin; It's been a month since Arista was struck down. The mermaid mother was depressed and inconsolable the entire time.
"She's alive and well," she half-lied; "In no time you'll see. Arista will soon come here to take us home."
That Arista was alive was a given, the fairy hadn't been unsummoned yet. But regarding her health, she was probably in the negative HP for the last month. {Cyst Hibernation} protected her life but was ridiculously slow to repair the damage; Even for someone almost immortal like the [Moon-Bound Matriarch].
"I wish I knew where do you take this unwavering faith, Lady Nenandil. She's just a child," Eathelin replied with a trembling voice.
During the month they've been captives of the fish-mermaid tribe, Nenandil was forced to feed the tribe in exchange for keeping Eathelin alive. The meeting with Kraken's herald was terrible. The squid was even more cantankerous than the sea serpent.
----------------------------------------
"Ah, the fairy {Princess} deigns to visit us," the squid demigoddess' herald whistled. "Welcome, Lady Nenandil. We are grievously offended by your injust favor of my brother's army."
Nenandil was wary of the contralto-voiced squid. "My reasons are my own, Kraken," the fairy shot back with a polite but firm tone. "Differently from you, nobody on the other side attempted to push me."
"Ah, but in war and love, all is fair. Now, you brought us a fine gift," the herald extended a tentacle toward Arista's mother.
Eathelin was viciously beaten by the fish-mermaids after they captured her. Medaya was clearly jealous of the huntress' prowess and the fear Eathelin instilled in the fish-mermaids. She wanted to show the young and impressionable girls that the champion of the other side could bleed. And bleed Eathelin did.
"State your terms, Kraken," Nenandil said, the water temperature dropping sharply around her just from her mood.
"We want the same thing you gave them. Food. Fill my mermaid's bellies and we will keep this wench alive."
"It's a deal. But for every drop of blood Eathelin sheds in your care, I'll withhold a week's meal."
"She won't be harmed. In fact, it is the opposite. Eathelin is such a fine breeding stock, it will do no good to wound her. Medaya! Send her to the cages."
----------------------------------------
I woke up in a deep trench of the ocean. The water pressure was terrible and everywhere around me was pitch-black darkness. I healed from the grievous wound the harpoon caused. I think the fish-mermaids tossed my cyst down from the reef shelf edge when they found out they couldn't damage me.
I closed my eyes and sensed. Nenandil was alive and to the south. I could feel my old habits kicking in. Pushing Arista's wavering heart aside and replacing it with Apricot's drive and Lakerta's determination. But my impulse was to reject them. I felt that wasn't me. Maybe someone I was before, but not Arista.
While I struggled, my movements drew something's attention. My {Detect Monster} Perk was giving off a strong signal. Some pelagic monstrosity was coming.
I saw the glow of the creature's lures and also the faint heat generated by its body. A gigantic anglerfish with three mouths was coming to see what'd stirred the calm of the depths.
> Kerberos-Anglerfish
>
> Level 59 male monstrosity
>
> Strength ~40
>
> Dexterity - 20
>
> Endurance ~80
>
> HP ~17,200,000
>
> WARNING: This creature is a rank above yours. It deals increased damage and takes less damage from your attacks.
>
> WARNING: This creature is huge. It has greatly increased HP and damage.
I froze in terror. It had three heads but they were welded to each other like some Siamese twin fish from hell. Each had the same dangling organ in front of it, and they pulsed with soothing hypnotic patterns. The longest teeth could impale through my palm, go all the way through my arm, and pierce my heart even if it came from the right side. The light of its bioluminescent esca put me in a trance. It was as if my body wanted to look at the lights to ignore the horrendous toothy maws.
The freaking bastard was fucking with my mind. Its milky eyes were trained on me. It clearly knew where I was and dinner was served. It just paused to decide with which mouth to bite my tail off and then chomp on the rest.
As I thought about fleeing, the lights pulsed in a fast-paced rhythm that made me forget everything. They were coming and I wanted to touch them. So pretty. So warm. Like my mother's embrace.
That did it. The pain of the harpoon and knowing that mom was being held prisoner by the fish-mermaids broke the trance. I withdrew and looked away from the lights but it was too late.
> Kerberos-Anglerfish bit you for 53,888 HP of damage. Mana shield burned 17,962 MP. (Base 352 x4 size x1.5 rank x1.8 Strength x2.1 Skill x2 Charge x3 critical x2 Bite Specialization x1.5 vulnerability)
>
> You are staggered. All reactions lowered by 50%.
>
> You are bleeding (...)
Fuck! {Second Wind}! The poor [Warrior]'s healing. At least it would staunch the bleed.
> You healed 21,215 HP.
I shifted into {Water Elemental} form and used {Jet} to move around the fish. My heart wanted to swim out of my throat and a water elemental didn't even have one. It was a big and ugly monster.
Big, ugly, and my ticket to level-up-land. I thought several times of coming out to hunt, but mom wouldn't take her eyes off of me. I knew she was suspicious of me ever since the ambush and she deserved to know the truth. After this.
The raging adrenalin allowed me to ignore the trance. Or it didn't work once one's mind was shielded. That wouldn't happen if I had my Attributes. Damn, I didn't want power at the endgame if I would suck balls and suffer all the way there. What did Loki want? To have me wallow in pain for two dozen lives?
I vowed to tell mom all my secrets and became flesh again. I shifted my hands to a jaguar's paws and also my tail into a real dolphin's. I was capitalizing on what happened when I assumed Duchess Nagini's form. If half my body was from animal forms, I gained twelve points in all physical Attributes from {Strengthened Animal Shapes III}. Why the fuck didn't I think of that before?
I could keep this indefinitely. My tail was exactly the same as a dolphin's lower body. I wish I'd thought about that earlier. I entered stealth mode and waited.
The anglerfish was bobbing around, using its three lanterns as searchlights as it looked for me. Good luck finding me now that you couldn't hypnotize me. If there was one thing I was good at was skulking around. It turned its back on me, casting a long shadow. Just what I needed.
Mermaids fought in 3-D. You had to watch out for attacks from above and below as well as the sides, but those vectors were open for attack too. {Flash Step} placed me behind the fish. I lashed with both claws at the same time.
> You clawed Kerberos-Anglerfish for 25,475 HP of damage. (Base 32 x1.86 Strength x4 Skill x3,76 Backstab x1,24 giant-fighting x3 Mana Strike x2 Blood Sacrifice x2 Flash Step x4 Death Blow x1.5 Favored Slayer x0,75 steel scales x0.85 Tough Scales (quartered) x0.5 Rank)
>
> Kerberos-Anglerfish is bleeding (...)
>
> Kerberos-Anglerfish is afflicted with {Stunning Bleed} for 3 seconds.
>
> {Vorpal Claws} severed a fin.
>
> Kerberos-Anglerfish's tail is mangled.
>
> You clawed Kerberos-Anglerfish for(...)
>
> (...)
I activated {Frenzied Barrage} and carved the flesh off of the fish's back. {Stunning Bleed} couldn't put him in stun-lock. The fish staggered between one stun and the next as the active interval widened. By the time diminishing returns made him resistant to stuns, he was already bleeding to death and without any functional fins. It was just a floating chunk of meat with too many teeth. Too. Many. Teeth.
I broke a claw. It just came loose as I raked the fish's fins off. It hurt. A lot. But I kept going.
My arms burned. My claws broke several times. My body wasn't adequate for melee combat. I had several bubbles and welts in my skin from over-exerting. The fish was immobile and I let my self-inflicted wounds regenerate.
I condensed a gigantic overcharged Force Javelin and thrust it at its exposed spine at the cost of my entire MP pool. The kill notification came along with a rush of water to fill the space left by the body that went into the item box, which bruised me even further.
> You killed Level 59 Kerberos-Anglerfish. You gained 1 billion Exp. (Base 52.215 x 64 Fast-Learner, x3.05 Exp Boost x 7,59 Favored Enemy x 3,05 Monster Exp Boost x2.25 Size x2 Class Rarity)
That was more than enough for a rank-up. I noticed the Base Exp had increased by fifty percent. Was it an effect of the monster's rank?
I was inside a cloud of blood and the thunderclap of the water rushing in wasn't quiet. In these depths, someone hungry would surely come to check. I had to get away from here. I shifted into my water elemental form and used {Jet} to propel me back to the reef above. Several monsters appeared at the edge of my perception, proving that I was right in fleeing the combat scene.
The reef was... ravaged. Broken pieces of coral littered the sandbed, the kelp farms were ruined. The fish-mermaids captured Nenandil and mom, probably to use my mother as leverage to force the fairy to cough up food. The same tragedy would've happened on the other side if I allowed unrestricted access to the food.
It was a huge and catastrophic confirmation bias but one that I needed to cling to. I found the skeleton of some mermaids, the bones in the process of being picked clean by a feeding frenzy of scavengers. A swarm of octopi and crabs crawled over the bones of my former tribe sisters. The caudal fin bone structure showed they were dolphin-mermaids.
A carpet of zombie worms was burrowing into the bones, feeding off of the marrow and leaving the flesh for the sea scavengers. Back on Earth, "zombie" was just a nickname, but here they were true undead. Thousand of small zombie worms that can burrow through bone. Living or dead, they don't care. They can't swim, only crawl on the ocean floor and hide themselves under the sand. And they only appear when there are lots of dead bodies unattended. Like now. Worse, they ate the souls of the dead too. There wasn't a single mermaid ghost, a sign that the fight happened at least several days ago.
I felt the bile rising. I was disgusted, nauseated. I waved a hand and fired a barrage of normal {Force Dart} at the octopi and crabs. They died, giving minuscule amounts of Exp. Then I turned on my Manastorm and the zombie worms burst into small clouds of necrotic flesh. I moved the mermaid bodies to the item box remotely and kept searching.
As I approached the sunken ship, I sensed sentients. A few hundred. I entered stealth and skulked toward the ship where the Herald should be. I sensed no [Demigod] nearby. After I reached the ship, I was certain. Leviathan had abandoned us. Or he was probably captured.
The dolphin-mermaids were crying and weeping their losses. By the numbers here, we were missing more than a thousand mermaids. These were either killed, captured, or had fled the reef. Upon close inspection, they were all wounded. Without the farms and the support of a larger group, their days were numbered.
I felt ashamed of my cowardice. Rosewise would've jumped in the middle of the group and healed the mermaids and dealt with the consequences later. I was afraid of what would happen. Would they blame me for what happened?
I put on Alloralla's living silk armored bodysuit. I couldn't go around naked and the disguise kit only gave nominal protection. But first, I needed to rank up.
> You reached dolphin-mermaid level 20.
>
> You gained 4 Perks.
>
> You have 7 unassigned Perk choices.
>
> You gained 50 Skill Points
>
> You reached Wanderer level 20.
>
> Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
>
> You gained +3 to All Attributes.
>
> You gained 138 Skill Points.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 24/100 Points withheld.
The Skill points went to maximize the regeneration and to raise {T'ai chi ch'üan} to Grandmaster.
> You gained the Perk: Grandmaster T'ai chi ch'üan (unique): You are sensitive to energy flows and can sense an attack a fraction of a second before it happens. If you win a contested Willpower test, you become aware of the attack and negate surprise strike bonuses. Increase all Attributes by +2. This supersedes the Master bonus.
It went from nine on physical to twenty everywhere. But now it was time for a rank-up. But all I got was a red message.
> WARNING: You have one open Path choice and two Professions. If you rank up now, all unused Experience will be divided by 1,000. Please select Path and Professions before moving onward.
Holy nerfing, Batman! I would lose A Whole Freaking Lot ™ of Exp. One way or the other. Why was that? No more cheesing the ranks? Like staying in a lower rank to farm exp and then level up explosively? Damn. Another way they walled me off. Well, let's get us some Professions then. And a spellcasting Class. I'm not fit for physical combat. No, sir.
> You became a [Diplomat]. Diplomats gain 1 HP and 1 MP per level.
>
> You became a [Musician]. Musicians gain 1 MP and 1 SP per level.
>
> You reached Diplomat level 20. You gained 10 points of proficiency. Your proficiency cap was raised by 20. [85/105].
>
> You reached Musician level 20. You gained 10 points of proficiency. Your proficiency cap was raised by 20. [85/105].
I won't bother with these extra paths. They don't give anything permanent now, and I doubt they have anything that will change the game. Another reason was that I was gaining an x2 Exp multiplier because my Class was rated as common for having no perks. That bonus alone meant I would be a level above than without. It was a big difference especially because it made ranking up easier.
So I decided to not give in and select another path.
> WARNING: You have one open Path choice. If you rank up now, all unused Experience will be divided by 1,000. Please select your second Path before moving onward.
Maybe, just maybe, the penalty won't apply if I pick a second path. In the long run, a billion Exp is nothing. There's always a bigger fish.
> You ranked up. Your leftover Exp was divided by 1,000. You have 1.44 million Exp.
I opened the window to allocate my Exp and would've fallen backward if I wasn't floating in the water. They LOWERED the Exp table. And now that I checked, it happened across the board.
----------------------------------------
The Exp between the levels 1 and 20 of each rank still doubles every level. This is the Exp table for both Class and Species levels. The person's actual level will be the sum of both. This "total" level was usually an odd number because common wisdom said to always keep the species level one behind the Class.
Rank Level Before After 0 1 100 100 0 20 52.4 million 52.4 million 1 21 100,000 25,000 1 40 52.4 billion 13 billion 2 41 100 million 4 million 2 60 52.4 trillion 2 trillion 3 61 100 billion 550 million 3 80 52.4 quadrillion 288 trillion 4 81 100 trillion 70 billion 4 100 52.4 quintillion 36.7 quadrillion
----------------------------------------
Combining the lowered Exp table and the increased base Exp from the kills, it was the equivalent of giving people a 5,000 Exp multiplier at the upper ranks. it meant more chances at ranking up and higher-leveled people everywhere. Now it made sense to remove the Exp before ranking up. With the lowered Exp requirements, people would blaze through the levels if it wasn't divided. And I think it divides even further at higher ranks.
That was fantastic.
Now that I ranked up, my Attribute caps increased from three to twenty-four. I finally had some room to grow. But I needed my new Species and Class to do so.
> Congratulations! You took the next step in your Path.
>
> Your Class ranked-up into a Vagabond...
>
> WARNING: This is a legacy Class. Alerting Administrators... blocked.
>
> UPDATING ENTRIES (...)
>
> Applying weights... Done. Final rating: {Common}.
>
> This Class grants:
>
> +1 to All Attributes at level 0.
>
> +1 to All Attributes every third level.
>
> +1 to All Attributes at levels 10 and 20.
>
> 6 (+3) HP per level
>
> 6 (+3) MP per level
>
> 6 (+2) SP per level
>
> 22 (+3) Skill Points per level.
For my species, I had three options only. The rare-grade gray dolphin-mermaid, that had great speed and physical Attributes. I had {Jet} for speed and physical stats were useless. The very-rare dusky dolphin-mermaid, that were acrobats with a ton of Dexterity. Also black tails. Finally, an ultra-rare pale dolphin-mermaid. She had a pale gray body, almost white, with dark fins. And used magic.
> Your species ranked up into a Pale Dolphin-Mermaid. Due to the diminished population of your species, you are classified as {ultra-rare}. Adjusting bonuses. You gain:
>
> 1 Attribute point every level.
>
> 1 Magic every odd level.
>
> 1 Willpower, then Mind. Alternating every even level.
>
> 1 Charisma, then Endurance, Luck, Dexterity, alternating every level.
>
> 6 (+3) HP per level
>
> 8 (+3) MP per level
>
> 3 (+2) SP per level
>
> 7 (+3) Skill Points per level
>
> 1 Human Perk every 2 levels (modified by {Human Royalty}).
And apply the 1.44 M Experience. Due to the reduced Exp table, I got four levels more than I would if we were using the old progression.
> You reached Vagabond level 6 <---- would've been a 4 before!
>
> You gained +3 to all Attributes.
>
> You gained 150 Skill Points <---- This was to kill for.
>
> You reached Pale Dolphin-Mermaid level 5
>
> You gained 5 Attribute Points, 3 Magic, 1 Mind, 1 Willpower, 2 Charisma, 1 Endurance, 1 Luck, 1 Dexterity.
>
> You gained 6 Attribute Points from {Ultimate Surpasser}. <---- My Cap has increased now that the rank went up.
The free Attribute Points went to Ego, the most important Attribute to increase my resources. As for the Skill Points, I leveled {Royal Order} to Grandmaster 85.
> You gained the Perk: Master Royal Order (ultra-rare): If the target is aware of your Royal status and resists, they will attempt to negotiate as to avoid drawing your wrath.
>
> You gained the Perk: Grandmaster Royal Order (ultra-rare): You can sacrifice an amount of Exp equal to 100 times the base Exp value of the target's level. Your {Royal Order} becomes a Quest that awards the base Exp value. The target's resistance to decline the Quest is halved.
Yellow exclamation mark not included. But that meant I could just give out Exp for menial tasks. The potential for abuse... Anyway, not now. I couldn't decide on my Perks too. The nine Perk choices remained unused.
By the time I finished leveling up, the bodysuit was damp and heavy. The silk cloth soaked and was restraining me and would chafe if I entered combat. That wouldn't do. I needed a living silk gambeson that was adapted to the aquatic environment, and this bodysuit was already too high-level.
I wove a brand new silk gambeson, to start at level zero and adapt to what I needed.
As my last act before I went to talk to the mermaids, I took the Black Dragon core and consumed its power. Now that I knew how to drain without actually chewing the core, I wasn't at a risk of hurting myself.
> You devoured a level 151 magic core.
>
> Source: Dragon [black].
>
> Half the Attribute bonus were given to your familiar.
>
> You gained +15 Strength.
>
> You gained +15 Endurance.
>
> You gained +10 Mind.
>
> You gained +10 Willpower.
>
> You gained +10 Magic.
>
> You gained +15 Soul.
Weird. It didn't give any Exp points. I was hoping for some. Well, there's nothing I can do about it. The System's customer support was terrible. I transformed my tail into the equivalent dolphin, an Australian Hector's dolphin to gain the twelve points in physical Attributes. It mattered to get the HP regeneration up.
> Level 51
>
> Strength: 18+29 / 27 - Dexterity: 4+31 / 27 - Endurance: 19+31 / 27
>
> Mind: 14+31 / 27 - Willpower: 14+29 / 27 - Charisma: 5+29 / 27
>
> Magic: 16+29 / 27
>
> Ego: 14+29 / 27 - Luck: 4+34 / 27 - Soul: 18+29 / 27
>
> HP 2,046,262 (769 HP/s)
>
> MP 1,234,596 (136,463 MP/h)
>
> SP 685,542 (43,334 SP/h)
And this whole base value plus bonus was confusing as heck. My "Path" was giving me eleven to all Attributes but these didn't count for the big bonus at one hundred points. The other points were from the Perks and shapeshifting.
Wearing the new silk gambeson, I pulled some copper rings and enchanted them quickly to gain some Exp. The item only gained ninety Exp for each ring but I just needed to get the first Perk for the gambeson, one that would make it into a wetsuit. five rings of +1 Dexterity later, it got the Perk.
> Wetsuit Gambeson gained the Perk: Wetsuit (rare): This item does not hinder or weigh the wearer underwater. If used exposed to dry air, it takes damage.
It was a trade-off I was willing to commit to. I saw no problem with having more than one set. Now, I just needed hands. Shapeshifting them into claws didn't work very well. Shape... shifting.
I felt so stupid.
I swapped Arista's malformed hands with Lily's. Why the fuck didn't I think of that before? They were just a bit smaller. I carefully flexed the hands. The skin wasn't healthy but I could manipulate objects. I wove a set of living silk gloves that I hoped would level up and become a protection for my hands. And if I was going the distance, I could very well make a cowl and a tail sleeve to level up and grant some protection. I made another fourteen rings with a single Attribute point in them to give the same {Wetsuit} Perk to the two articles.
Then I put the rings in a leather pouch and swam to meet the mermaid survivors. I set my {Status Forgery} to display only my level.
----------------------------------------
The survivors only refrained from slaughtering me because my tail fins were in the "right" orientation.
"Who are you? What are you wearing?" The lead mermaid came to "greet" me.
I recognized her. It was Nerin, one of the most belligerent and militant mermaids in our tribe.
"Greetings, Nerin. I'm Arista, daughter of Eathelin."
She was surprised. "You were dead! The fishes threw your body off of the reef."
How did she know that? I couldn't help but be suspicious.
"Well, they did a piss poor job of killing this child. I got an emergency activation while I was down there and had to spend all my waking hours swimming back."
"You..." Her eyes went wide as she {Appraised} me. "Fifty-one!"
The other mermaids surrounded me. I extended the bag. "I also found this. Some trinkets, enchanted rings that give a single point of Attribute. You girls can have it."
"Do you have food?" One of the mermaids eagerly asked.
I slipped one jeweled ring in my finger over the gloves. Nerin saw it.
"Hands? Since when did you...?"
"I used a Perk to make them work," I lied. Well, it wasn't entirely a lie. I did use a Perk. "This is not important. With this ring, I can do this!"
I brought the carcass of the Kerberos-Anglerfish from the item box. The mermaids scattered with frightened squeals at the sight of the massive fish monster. Nerin swam around it, examining the wounds.
I noticed that the three bioluminescent organs were still glowing. I swam next to one and examined it with {Appraise}
> Kerberos-Anglerfish Illicium
>
> Estimated value: 2 kingmetal coins
>
> This luminescent organ will glow if supplied with magic energy.
The high value was probably because of the scarcity. I harvested the three illicium whole, glowing orb and stem, and stored it in my item box. I also drew a dagger and carved out the magic core. It was an average quality one but it would do for what I wanted.
"Can we eat it?" One of the girls asked.
"We can make daggers with the teeth!"
Nerin stopped before me, "This fish was killed with beast claws. Unless you can--"
"I can shift my hands into several creatures' appendages. That's how I can have fingers now but my hands are a bit smaller. I transformed my hands into those of a human. This is not the time for infighting, Nerin. I took what I needed from the monster. You girls can take the teeth, scales, bones, and meat. But eat slowly or you'll get sick."
The belligerent mermaid looked at me and I returned the gaze. I couldn't waver now, I had to be strong. I had to organize these few survivors if they were to keep being survivors.
"That's your kill, I see that you've grown. We'll talk about the fairy's betrayal after the meal. Carve it up, girls! Take care to not burst its bladder or any organs! We don't know if it's poisonous."
The mermaids swarmed the fish. I turned on the wellspring at full power and set the area around the fish as the eye, to grant them some protection and prevent the zombie worms from coming to get a bite. While they feasted and used one curved tooth to sharpen another and attach them to makeshift handles, I sat and rested. I had too many questions. But now I was home, or what was left of it.
----------------------------------------
I never hid the fact I had {Water Breathing} so I slept on a woven seaweed hammock next to the fish. I was so tired and stressed that the raucous noise of mermaids feeding and the cloud of fish fluids and debris hovering around the dead monster didn't bother me. When I woke up after an incredibly long and refreshing sleep, they weren't done. My incredible long and refreshing sleep took half an hour. Twenty minutes of sleep to me were the equivalent of a normal person's eight hours and {Rest and Relaxation} doubled its effects. The half-hour felt as if I had slept for a whole day.
Several shoals of reef fish had joined the feast. They regarded us, mermaids, as predators and rightfully so. We weren't shy about eating our fish friends, except if they were half-people like the other tribe. I suspected that the rumors of cannibalism were slander both sides plastered on the other. But there were a lot of loose bits of meat floating around and the fishes were doing an excellent job of cleaning it up.
While I slept, the Sun made its brief daily appearance. With the life-giving rays of light piercing down from the surface, the reef seemed truly alive. It would be blissful if not for the hundreds of mermaid corpses strewn around the reef and now clearly visible. I had to get answers so I stored my hammock and swam to find Nerin.
She was working with several mermaids to craft anglerfish tooth spears and... shortswords? Truly, the longest teeth of the huge three-mouthed abomination were long enough to make wicked stabbing weapons.
Tridents are good only for Hollywood and maybe gladiatorial combat, which was the Ancient Rome version of Hollywood. Here in the depths, a three-pronged spear only meant your thrust would split its force three-ways, doing three scratches instead of a deep wound. Spears and harpoons were the name of the game. But having a sidearm never made anyone die faster.
"Nerin, can we talk?" I called her.
"Shoot, girl. Let's go get our heads some air, follow me." We surfaced. The blue sky and the white clouds were almost alien. Nerin studied me for a while. "Strange things you are wearing on your body," she pointed out my living silk items.
"Necessary if I'm going to fight. My skin is too frail."
"That it is. What Path did you pick?"
"I can use magic. Look, we can talk about this later. Nerin, what happened here? Would you please tell me?"
"Your fairy defected to the fishes, that's what happened. And she's been feeding them a mountain of food. One week ago, they came in force and struck us by surprise. Our sisters died because of that!"
She was going to get an aneurysm.
"Nerin, I know Nenandil didn't do that on purpose. They are holding my mother hostage."
She scoffed and snorted. "Big change. Because of one mermaid's life, she condemned hundreds. If I see that blue critter in front of me, I'm going to pop her head off."
A wave of outrage flared in me. Did she dare threaten Nenandil? I could show her how to pop heads off. I started to meditate to stop these feelings from blowing out of proportion.
"What happened to the Herald?" I asked and immediately regretted it. Nerin started to cry.
"The fishes executed the Herald! He fought bravely but they were too many! They stabbed his scales and dragged his body to feed the wicked Kraken!"
I felt shame for thinking it had fled. Leviathan's Herald fought to the death. If a demigod can die. The jury was still out on that one.
"Nerin, I'm going to rescue both my mother and Nenandil. And probably kill the Kraken's Herald to even out the score. You should take the girls and hide. The fishes will most likely come seeking vengeance."
"I'm going with you, girl," Nerin grinned manically. "There's no way I'm going to miss on that fight."
"No, you don't. The mermaids need someone to lead them, and by a stroke of bad luck, they got you. You are the strongest warrior we have. You need to keep them safe. I'm going to get my mom and we meet by the reef's west edge. Where the rocks start to climb."
I suspected there was land that way.
"You can't stop me from following you!" She protested.
"You can try," I grinned and transformed into a water elemental at the same time I became invisible and stealthed away.