Yellow light flashed around Siora as she cut down another fish. Nikoletta screamed to the side as she bashed in skull after skull. They had already created quite the pile of dead cetanthro, and the pile was only going to grow as they brought more and more of the swarm toward them.
They hadn’t made it far before something triggered aggression, but Siora didn’t mind. In fact, she was thriving in the battle.
Nikoletta flashed as she too leveled up. The mender cackled and swung her mace hard enough to nearly tear the head straight off a fish. “This is what we needed!”
Telekinetic magic caused the water to stir as Codhyses killed his own share of the swarm. Siora had been hesitant to take on a new recruit, but the magus was proving himself useful. He was smart, and his telekinesis was stronger than she had expected.
Water boiled as Siora swung her glowing sword, easily slicing through the head of another cetanthro. In the brief lull, she looked over her shoulder, back toward the stairs. Where was the goblin? He should be ahead, but they were moving quickly and she had yet to see any signs that he was close by. If they were within a half hour, she should notice something.
Her sword easily pierced another cetanthro’s heart as one of the brutes charged her. She tore it out and nearly blinded herself with all the blood. It didn’t truly matter where the goblin was.
Veph wanted to see what he was capable of before any harm befell him. She had her own complicated plan, and Siora had no choice but to be part of it.
Another pawn in another game.
***
Myrsvai was fast, Suta was faster, and Owin made them both look like they had just learned to run. He ran so fast, even through the water, that he crashed straight into the wall behind the ladder, unable to slow himself down.
It was undoubtedly the fastest he had ever moved. If he had tried to do the same thing on the surface, it felt like he would have actually started flying.
“Too fast,” Suta said as he actually slowed himself down and hopped onto the ladder.
Myrsvai burst through the tunnel a short moment later and kicked up sand as he stopped himself. “I’m impressed.”
Owin pulled himself out of the broken stone wall. “If I get my dexterity even higher, I’ll get faster.”
“That’s how that works, Owin.” Myrsvai followed Suta up the ladder, back onto the second floor.
Owin waited until Myrsvai was gone through the black doorway and jumped, easily making it up into the house. “I meant my dexterity makes me even faster because of Goblin Cunning.”
“Right,” Myrsvai said. He poked the dead cetanthro body inside with his staff. The fish was missing a whole section of its chest from the earlier Abyssal Barrage. They had spent so little time in Ligala Lepis that the mobs hadn’t yet respawned. “Do I know what that is?”
“I don’t know. We can talk about it later. We should go fight Etosai.”
“Etosai,” Suta said as he jumped through a window, shattering the glass.
Myrsvai opened the door and waited for Owin to exit. “Is Etosai a boss?”
“The wandering boss. He’s a big crab that might drop a fourth piece of my armor. He’s a crab, but he’s not this color of crab.” Owin poked the red chitin on his chest. “But I think it’s still the same as my armor? I don’t know.”
Suta waited for them at the edge of the village. “Crab?”
Owin nodded, then stopped. “Wait, you know about Etosai?”
“Crab?” Suta pointed to the side where a normal crab stood menacingly.
Myrsvai gestured with his staff, causing tendrils to erupt and crush the crab, swiftly killing it. “If you don’t mind, I would like to kill the boss too.”
“I don’t mind. I just need to stop at the trader to buy a buff.” Owin checked the crab for loot and found a piece of gold, which he gave to Suta. They continued through the kelp forest while Owin used his map as guidance to follow roughly the same path he had traveled last time.
Before long, he reached Arimeda and bought a buff. Myrsvai looked through her inventory, but decided he didn’t need anything at the moment.
+20 Dexterity
Dexterity: 255*
“Do you feel faster?” Myrsvai asked, somewhat sarcastically.
“Probably, but I won’t be able to tell by racing either of you.”
Myrsvai smiled. “Other than Etosai, is there anything else on this floor? What about the chest?”
“Protected by Baby Head. Remember the horror I told you that almost killed me?”
“From drinking its blood?”
“Well, no. Hey, wait. No. I didn’t drink it. Some just went in my mouth while I was fighting. Or something. I don’t know. I am smart enough to know not to eat everything.”
“Owin, didn’t you just eat a girhuma finger because Suta asked you to?”
Owin started walking through the seaweed forest. “Where’s Etosai? Last time I fought him right here.”
Suta stayed closer to Myrsvai now that Owin was walking ahead. It felt a bit odd leading, but he did like it. Especially when he actually knew where he was going. Within a few minutes, the seaweed nearby flattened as the ground rumbled.
“Ready?” Owin asked.
Magenta flames swirled around the end of Myrsvi’s staff, then vanished, appearing instead around Suta’s hands. “We’re ready.”
“Suta smash.” The familiar bashed his fists together.
Etosai barreled through the last of the seaweed and was met with the little, flaming fist of a three foot tall familiar. The single strike caused cracks to spiderweb through the entirety of Etosai’s chitin. Suta threw his right fist, still cloaked in abyssal flame, and hit the exact same spot, shattering Etosai’s chitin. What was left could only be described as a fleshy, naked creature.
A single Abyssal Blast from Myrsvai put a hole straight through the boss, killing it before Etosai could even get off a single attack.
“It wasn’t that easy when I fought him,” Owin said quietly.
“You were weaker than you are now. I am certain you would have handled the boss just as easily as I have. Suta?”
The familiar lifted part of the corpse, causing a piece of red armor to fall out.
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“Impossible,” Myrsvai said.
“Is luck an attribute?” Owin asked.
Suta reached for the chitin armor, but stopped as Owin shouted.
“Don’t touch it!”
Suta dropped the corpse and lifted his hands into the air. “No touch.”
Owin grabbed the piece of chitin from the sand, which binded to him upon picking it up. It was a right gauntlet that left his palm and fingers exposed while covering the back of his hand and most of his forearm. He wiggled his hand back and forth and held the lich bone knife, making sure the armor wouldn’t impede his use of the weapon.
“You’re halfway there,” Myrsvai said.
“I have two things I’m collecting now.” Owin placed the knife back in his belt, satisfied that he would be able to wield it without difficulty.
“Two? Armor and buffs? I don’t know if I would call that collecting the same way I wouldn’t say I’m collecting experience.”
“That reminds me!” Owin immediately opened his index, flipped to his spells, and found his newest spell. Without waiting or explaining, he selected Summon the Withered Shade. A pulse of energy burst from Owin, disturbing the water in all directions.
Gray, dust-like particles swirled through the water, gathering at a point just in front of Owin. Myrsvai summoned abyssal flames that coated his staff, while Suta readied his fists to punch whatever arrived.
“It’s my spell,” Owin said, holding his hand out.
Myrsvai relaxed, but didn’t release the abyssal flames he had gathered.
Suta sidled up with his arms down. “What?”
“I don’t know what it is. Remember the gray foot you found?”
Suta nodded enthusiastically.
“This is what it gave me.”
All the gray particles collided and released another pulse of energy through the water. A flash blinded Owin. He felt Suta grab his shoulder and pull him back as the familiar moved in front to protect Owin from whatever he had just summoned.
Owin blinked away the blindness quickly and calmed Suta as a simple gray skeleton stood before them.
A Cursed has been summoned
The Withered Shade
Summon of Owin
“A Cursed?”
“Does it not have a level?” Myrsvai asked.
“I don’t know.” Owin took a step closer to it. “Hello?”
“Hello?” it repeated.
Owin tilted his head. The Withered Shade did the same, mirroring Owin. It looked as though it was made from the same dust-like material as the pieces had been, which made sense when Owin actually thought about it.
“Who are you?” Owin asked.
“The Withered Shade.” The skeleton held up one finger. “Incorrect. Part of the Withered Shade.”
Myrsvai slowly approached, but was stopped by Suta. “Shade, what can you tell us about yourself?”
It turned its eyeless face to Myrsvai. “I am a specter undead hybrid creature formed from the hidden bones through the seven dungeons of Verdantallis.”
“Specter undead hybrid? That’s an incredibly powerful combination.”
“Artivan and I fought something like that right before I found the first bone. It was a wight.”
“Yes,” Myrsvai said. “Wights are quite the powerful enemies. But this Withered Shade is not anyone I have seen mentioned in the books I’ve read. You’re found in all seven dungeons?”
“Pieces.” The skeleton moved in sudden, jerky spasms like it didn’t quite know how to move with its own body. “I have been stuck in the same box for fifty years.” It held its hands in front of its face and screamed. “Where’s my skin?”
Owin’s eyes were open about as wide as they could be as he looked to Myrsvai, who had taken an involuntary step back. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Myrsvai practically whispered.
“Naked,” Suta said, pointing at the skeleton.
The Withered Shade looked down and screamed again. “I don’t even have a penis!”
“Did you before?” Owin asked.
“Would I be panicking over something like this if it wasn’t new?” The Withered Shade placed its face in its hands then pulled back after remembering they were bone. “This is horrible. And we’re in water? Put me back in my box. This is atrocious.”
“This isn’t what I was expecting.” Owin took a step closer to the skeleton. “Do you know who I am?”
The skeleton squatted until it was eye level with Owin. Its eyes were pits that showed the inside of the skull. “Uh, are you, possibly, a really ugly child?”
“That’s somehow not the first time someone said that.” Owin scowled. “I’m your master. I think.” He looked at Myrsvai. “Is that right?”
“Well, it’s complicated. Technically, yes. What do you think, Suta?”
“No.”
“See?”
“Master? Ha.” The Withered Shade poked Owin in the chest with enough force to make him take a step back. “My masters are long dead.”
“I summoned you.”
“You're not the first.” The skeleton stood, stretched, and yawned, then seemed to remember it had no muscles that needed stretching. “Why did you summon me? Where are we? In a pond?”
“The Ocean Dungeon.”
“So a big pond? Got it. Understood, Master.” The skeleton saluted. “What are my orders?”
Owin scratched his head. The Withered Shade certainly wasn’t what he had been expecting. It was annoying. “I think I’m just going to unsummon you. Maybe I’ll stop collecting the bones.” Owin opened his index.
“Wait, no.” The skeleton squatted again. “Tell me about yourself. What kind of coffee do you like?”
“What?”
“Iced? Hot?”
“What?”
An Abyssal Blast smacked the skeleton in the side of the head, causing no visible damage.
The Withered Shade slowly turned toward Myrsvai. “Was that necessary?”
“I had to test a theory.”
“Was that theory that you’re rude?”
“Something similar. If you’re a Cursed, do you know of the Sovereign One?”
“The Doomed Harbinger? That old bastard? I’ve heard of him. Never met him. Not all Cursed are related, you know. In fact, none of us are related. Or, perhaps, we are and they’re all distant cousins. You know I once had this cousin that really like to stab things.” The skeleton mimicked stabbing really aggressively. “We had stopped inviting him to family functions. The whole murder thing left everyone bummed, you know?”
Owin poked the skeleton between the eye sockets. “We didn’t know that.”
“About my stabby cousin?” the skeleton asked.
“No. About the Cursed. You’re only the second one I’ve seen. Tell me more about the Cursed.”
The Withered Shade looked at the ground. He stuck his finger in the sand and swirled it about. “Not here. Not when a god can hear.”
“If I summon you outside the dungeon?”
The skeleton nodded.
“Can you fight?”
“In this form?” The Withered Shade waved his hands through the water. “Maybe. Does anyone have a lute?”
“Are you an entertainer?” Myrsvai asked.
The Withered Shade shrugged. “I could find out if I had a lute. Look, it’s been a good few decades since I’ve been out and about, or however they say that now. Took you long enough to find three pieces.”
Suta slowly approached and poked the skeleton in the side of the skull. The Withered Shade didn’t react.
“Who summoned you last?” Myrsvai asked.
“I forgot her name. A 3 Shard Hero. A hunter, I believe. Died against Crusader, of all the bosses.” The Withered Shade stood back up, startling Suta. “I would love to be anywhere but in Sloswen’s domain, but I suppose I can’t convince you to slip out the exit and find a better dungeon?”
“No, I’m going to conquer this one.” Owin started walking toward Baby Head and the next set of stairs. Suta and Myrsvai didn’t wait to follow, but the Withered Shade remained standing in place.
“I would offer to pay you, but you would see if I had any money. They don’t put pockets on these things,” the Shade said as he grabbed his hips.
“We’re only going down,” Owin called over his shoulder.
“The stairs only work one way.” The skeleton ran, pushing past Myrsvai and Suta, until he caught up and walked beside Owin.
“The Ocean Dungeon goes down.”
“Oh, that’s what you meant. I did not think you meant it that way. Got it. Yes, sir. Wait, yes, Master. Got to make sure I get that title right. Wouldn’t want to piss off my great lord.” The Shade gave an exaggerated bow. “His almighty lord sir.”
“Did somebody kill you out of hatred?” Myrsvai asked.
“If only life had been so simple.” The Withered Shade pushed aside a stalk of seaweed and pointed. “Look, the exit. We could slip right out and forget Sloswen’s wet domain ever existed.”
Baby Head hissed at their arrival.
“That’s Baby Head?” Myrsvai asked. “Intriguing. I do love Horrors.”
“But not Cursed? I won’t take it personally.”
“Owin, I might need you to unsummon this creature if he doesn’t stop talking.”
“Yes, Master.” The Shade bowed to Myrsvai. “Do I have two masters?”
“No,” Owin said. “Shut up or I’ll make you go away.”
The Shade stepped back and gestured for Owin to move forward.
“Can you fight Baby Head this time? I can get the snakes if you want.”
Myrsvai’s staff glowed magenta as abyssal flames appeared. “I can handle them all. The chest is yours though. Don’t bother arguing. I insist. You have already given me enough with the secret chest and your time. Ready, Suta?”
Suta lifted his hands. “Fight.”