Chapter 9 — Trialing the Valgorian Swamp (Part I)
Chitin-tipped tentacles whipped out of the water to catch only air as the third-year pressure and sound mage deftly rushed along the boards, ripples forming on the stagnant water from the wake of her passage.
When Katria reached the first small island of peat and marsh-grass, the twin-tailed rambunctious redhead pulsed out her magic with an audible whump, causing the attacking tentacles to recoil as if burned and the nearby swarming insects to fall out of the sky like black rain. A grimace twisted its way onto the girl’s face for some reason but was soon replaced by lip-biting concentration as six instances of a complex matrix were simultaneously completed.
The stagnant water leapt upward in six waterspouts pulling along large monstrous mud-fish with gaping maws and long tentacle-like whiskers that flailed for purchase. Valgorian Lurkers! Some less-monstrous black-whiskered mud-fish had also been caught up in the magic, resulting in another grimace from the girl.
Katria clenched the hand she had raised along with the water and lurkers, and a jarring whine screeched out. The horrid sound rapidly increased in strength, and to Ria’s great surprise, all six of the Lurkers were ripped into an explosion of bloody chunks left to drop back to the water’s surface like discarded leavings of unfit viscera and torn skin.
“Oh, that’s a fun way to use that,” Orlisi commented with an expression like she’d seen a colorfully painted new toy. “Wonder how difficult that’d be with air and wind?”
Ria let her incredulous glance linger on Orlisi for a moment, before returning to Katria’s ongoing attempt at the challenge. That spell looked terrifyingly dangerous. Could anyone survive such magic? The air and water itself seemed to cry out in pain!
The process repeated itself for the next island-like clump of land which brought Katria near enough one of the towering tree-nests for a few of the more aggressive fliers to swoop down and join the chunks and blood bobbing atop the murky water. Occasional changes in the bobbing and ripples suggested more-normal swamp denizens had begun to nibble and feed from below.
After several moments of fish-feeding passed where no other fliers took an interest, Katria’s brows furrowed. The contemplation didn’t last long, quickly replaced by a smirk, and a new spell matrix resulted in a shrill bang near the canopy nests, causing a cacophonous frenzy of hiding and outraged swarming as the branches trembled from the nearby explosion. More bangs followed until the swarms unified enough…
And then the bangs stopped being just loud.
Terrifying and jarring sky-screams made Ria’s teeth and horns ache, screeching out in rapid succession as individual fliers and clumped flocks of viscous leather-winged nightdivers disintegrated into chunks and worse, plopping, dripping, and misting upon the water. Macabre rain fell until the floating remains gathered thick enough to form floating islands of gore and paint entire swaths of marsh-grass a glistening crimson.
When the crying of the air ended, Katria’s thrilled laughter could be heard. The girl looked to be having buckets of fun and bounced her way deeper into the Challenge, dispatching two ambushing giant gilled-newts with a simultaneous wave of her hands. Ria blinked in surprise. Would even the swamp guardian provide any challenge against such magic? Wasn’t this an event intended for elite fourth-years and fifth-years?
Welkin took the moment to clear his throat and address the rest of them. “I’m glad to see Katria off to a promising start. Each of you have different strengths, so it’s good to experiment with ideas that take advantage of that. Ulren and Endriese both have experience with the Hunter’s Challenge in past Summer Games and can help with devising or evaluating strategies. After your runs, they’ll provide advice on improving your scores.”
“Indeed. Endriese and I have been ‘top ten’ rankers for this event in past years,” Ulren affirmed, looking down on Ria and the other junior members with a smug superiority, his crystal sea snake somehow also striking a pride-filled pose.
Endriese nodded with a stern expression. “Without us in this event this year, the responsibility to perform at that level will now fall to less experienced members. Getting exceptional scores in the Hunter’s Challenge will give us some leeway in the other events where the outcomes are less predictable.”
Ria glanced Hulle’s direction. Usually, he was the one that gave advice on their strategies. The elfin boy’s focus was on Katria’s progress, and he didn’t seem to be interested in the discussion.
After the comments from the two fourth-years, Welkin looked directly at Ria, Iselyn, Tallien, Zell, and Aldri. “Each of you has a chance to be selected for this event. At Hulle’s suggestion, we’re treating these practice sessions as a friendly competition where the position will be assigned based on who achieves the highest score before we leave for regional qualifier.”
A competition… this was a chance to earn her participation in an event without having to worry about seniority! Or hurt feelings.
Ria couldn’t discern what Iselyn thought of the opportunity, but oddly Tallien met Ria’s eyeing with challenging eyes and a face etched with fiery determination. Was his alchemy even suited for this event?
“Attacking the lurkers through the water seems troublesome,” Rialle mused to herself, having also noticed the mudfish caught up in Katria’s improvised suction approach.
“The usual methods are ice or stone spears. The water blunts fire and air attacks. Arrows can work if enchanted to cause elemental damage. Explosions risk killing larger numbers of fish and other things in the water,” Endriese advised.
Ulren nodded agreement. “Yeah, small salt crystal spears was my approach last time we faced this particular stage. Poisoned the targets with minimal fish deaths.”
Ria wanted to try her new arena bow, but exploding arrows were somewhat expensive, and without them it would be difficult to defeat the swarms. Plus, she would need a way to adjust each arrow’s direction mid-flight, or she risked a lot of misses.
With her wild-talent, she could at least change the course of her magic, and during the Siege, she had done that using fire magic and lightning magic to send death into the barbarians from atop the walls. But the cost and difficulty increased with distance. Would her accuracy be enough for flying targets at that range? Would she have enough energy to complete the full challenge and still take down the guardian?
Katria soon cleared the increasingly dense nests and ambushes by increasingly stronger lurkers and amphibians to reach the temple where the towering guardian waited. The sounds of the climactic battle that followed shook the air of the stadium even where Ria and the others were watching from at the opposite end. The girl’s twin-tailed hair fluttered behind like ribbons with each agile quick-step through the air that hopped from broken pillar to broken pillar until the guardian fell.
The result was an absurd feat just from the size difference between Katria and the guardian, but Katria hadn’t just been joking about obtaining a mystic seed. Ria had suspected it from the change in the third-year girl’s presence but couldn’t be entirely sure until tasting the magic in action.
How understanding the relationship between pressure and sound had led to such a profound change in the strength of Katria’s magic? Ria couldn’t understand it. But having experienced the change with finding her own seed, Ria could only be happy for her teammate and what the increased power would mean for their chances. Once again, Hulle’s foresight had proven prescient.
Wait. Taste?
She tasted Katria’s magic? How did that work? Was she becoming like a snake now? Flicking out her metaphysical tongue and tasting the magic floating in the foul air or something?
Ria groaned. Since when had her sense of magic expanded from touch, sight, and smell to taste. Ugh.
With the death of the primary target, the challenge reset, and Katria was deposited back to the start, her eyes focused on a holo-display filled with numbers.
“Killing the stupid bugs really did count against my total score! Anasari’s golden swimwear! The hells’ with that?!” a suddenly reappearing Katria colorfully complained, her red twin-tails bouncing as she stomped her foot.
“Not all the insects,” Endriese corrected, the hint of a smirk teasing the corner of the fourth-year girl’s mouth. “There are monsterized ones hiding in the swarms.”
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Katria threw up her hands. “Arrgggh! Getting a perfect score is going to be impossible! And I was so close!”
Perfect score? Ria grimaced at that thought. Thankfully, the completion time was also scored. The competition would be stupid if it came down to who could avoid killing the ‘wrong’ bugs. Still, depending on the impact to the score, that did sound annoying.
Endriese made a dismissive gesture. “Use magic that selectively targets. If that’s not workable within the time constraints, just limit the area affected by your attacks to minimize the number of normal insects killed.”
Ulren nodded agreement, adding, “With adequate energy sense and control, a domain spell can efficiently accomplish the task.”
“Rialle, you’re up,” Welkin prodded.
With an acknowledgment and already forming a spell matrix, the team’s fire mage sauntered out onto the wood-plank walkway. Eyeing the water, Ix flew in a tight circle around his bound mage.
Even with the relaxed approach, lurker tentacles shot out from the start. A barrier of fire around the pair punished the transgression, and the limbs that didn’t pull back fast enough were further set on fire by the imp.
With the time purchased, Rialle formed small lances of fire, condensed until each lance gained a blue tint and the surrounding air shimmered with the intense heat, launching them into the water in quick succession. Bubbling followed the quenching hisses of the strange fire piercing the water, and the remaining tentacles went slack.
For dealing with the nests, Rialle used a similar approach to Katria, exploding a fireball near the canopies to draw out the monsters separate from the ‘animals’ then incinerating the attacking swarms with large and small explosions of fire. The fire-girl and imp were on their way to an impressive score, but deeper into the swamp, pockets of strange air began to erupt in huge wooshes of flame, dramatically racking up penalties.
As a rot-element sprite, Malleron proclaimed his expertise and explained the phenomenon as a flammable ‘swamp gas’ produced by the decomposition of the dead wood and other plants.
Endriese’s advice was more practical, recommending memorizing the locations of the swamp gasses and using air magic to disperse the gas or moving it away from risky areas before igniting it. The trick would be working the magic quickly enough and with a timing to not delay progress through the gauntlet.
The next challenger was called forth by Welkin. Tallien chose a lightning serum for his initial attempt and got a respectable result. He suffered some collateral penalties from the normal mudfish in the water with the lurkers, but his layered barriers made efficient work of sorting out the bug monsters.
The alchemist boy gave Ria a smug look upon slotting into second-best, not terribly worse than Katria’s impressive first run. He even got guarded optimism from Ulren and Endriese in their comments on his performance.
Ugh. She had underestimated him! And she was running out of time to decide on how to approach the challenge!
Maybe Tallien was onto a good idea here? Lightning did look like a useful approach… should she make a new lightning tool? The monsters did seem weak enough that if she could get the bolts to fork and arc from flier to flier, it could be faster, more accurate, and more efficient than large explosions of fire like Rialle had used.
And, even if she copied his method, she did have an advantage over Tallien: Ranger. Ranger could help at range with Rockshots and by protecting her from the ground and water ambushes, which would let her focus more on taking out the large swarms quickly. Even so, she wasn’t yet convinced such a plan would be enough, and she needed a method that she could use for today’s practice!
When Aldri was called for his turn, he didn’t bother with the gauntlet aspect of the challenge, instead teleporting atop one of the temple pillars and summoning a void swarm to immediately dispatch the guardian.
Orlisi was rolling on the grass, laughing at her fellow second-year’s brazen attempt at cheating the event.
“Are you even taking this seriously?” Ulren growled at Aldri when the second-year reappeared at the starting area.
Aldri gave some embarrassed chuckles of his own, sheepishly shrugging and making an apologetic gesture. “I needed to know how much energy to save for defeating the guardian. Besides, doesn’t it help to know what the maximum achievable score for a quick completion is?”
“He’s not wrong, Ulren,” Endriese spoke up, placing a hand on Ulren’s arm to stay the other fourth-year’s ire. “A quick run to test an idea at least has the benefit of not taking practice time away from teammates. Though, the points deducted for time are listed in the event rules, Aldri. The math isn’t difficult.”
“Ah, right,” Aldri looked to the side. “Don’t worry, I got what I needed. I’ll give it a serious go next attempt.”
“It was a masterful attempt,” Orlisi evaluated with a completely straight face and patted him on the back, offering a thumbs-up in solidarity.
Ria rolled her eyes at the wink the elf snuck her way.
Zell went after Aldri, leaving Ria and Iselyn as the last two. The second-year boy used a beast transformation that gave him traits of a black-furred jungle feline to increase his strength and agility and used a ‘Boneshot’ variation of the ‘Rockshot’ spell to target the lurkers and fliers. An animalistic roar and well placed attacks were able to draw in the swarms from the nests.
Watching Zell’s effort reaffirmed for Ria that individual shots would be too slow when dealing with the swarms. Which brought her back to using fire or lightning magic or exploding arrows and lightning arrows.
If she could control the lightning from the lightning arrows, that could work. The bow might also be strong against the guardian while keeping her at a distance… hmm. Maybe she should use it after all?
It would be an easier choice if she could conjure arrows instead, but her crystal conjuration was still too slow, and it wasn’t like she could conjure exploding arrows-
Wait.
Or could she? What was the difference between crystal-tipped and all crystal?
Could she form them with enchantments pre-engraved? Filled with the needed energy?
Would she need more than one material to make the enchantment work? Or could she get enough variance within a single material?
Ria was again feeling herself limited by her lack of proficiency with creation magic. She could conjure the elements just fine. How was shaping them into useful physical manifestations all that different? Ugh.
It wasn’t a problem she would solve in the next few minutes. For now, she would just have to limit expenses by using rockshot spells and fire magic where efficient and lightning arrows where not.
Course decided and expecting to go next, Ria confirmed her plans with Ranger and summoned the metal bow gifted by Leriah, stringing it with a brief assist of body-strengthening. She empowered the enchantment enough to match her magic-enhanced draw-strength.
The bow drew curious looks from her teammates—probably because everyone who had gone before her used spells.
“Nice,” Aldri complimented with a thumbs-up.
“Of course, she has an expensive bow to match her ridiculous armor,” Rialle fake-grumbled, shaking her head.
Ria had enough grace to cringe and offer an apologetic gesture to Rialle that got waved off with an impish tongue stuck out—not from the imp though. Ix was still holding a grudge.
Orlisi and Katria also each gave a thumbs-up.
Iselyn was deep in conversation with Malleron, working out their own strategy no doubt.
When Zell’s turn concluded, the boy had achieved a steady progression with few penalties, but his completion time was significantly worse than Tallien’s. Ulren’s recommendation for Zell was to prepare enchanted bone bombs to throw with his enhanced strength. It was a good idea, but Ria felt confident that wouldn’t be enough for him to be a threat to her chances.
Hmm… bone arrows though could be a good enchantable material with naturally formed energy pathways… should she get a spell for conjuring bone? Maybe-
“Ria-”
Welkin started to call out, but was interrupted by Orlisi bouncing in place and waving her arm high to get his attention. “Hey, hey! Everyone is having so much fun. Can I play too? Since Aldri’s turn was so quick?”
Welkin rolled his eyes, and Ulren and Endriese both groaned.
But Hulle had a more contemplative expression. “Having an extra baseline to compare against could be helpful.”
“At least demonstrate some methods the others can use to improve their times,” Welkin grumbled out, and motioned for the excited elf to go ahead.
“Yay! Thanks, Leader!”
Once in position, Orlisi cast her fly spell, and with a wink and a “Weeeeee!” the laughing elf-girl flew into the challenge, spell matrices forming around her in rapid succession. The stagnant water was pulled behind in her wake, yanking the initial six lurkers along into the air to be rapidly fileted as the water turned into whips. A whirling wind around the elf-girl separated out the monster insects and spinning wood throwing-weapons shaped like four petals stuck together joined the swirling whips of weaponized water in scything through targets. Small droplets of water flung outward with the speed of a hunter’s arrows to add to the mix and tear through distant enemies.
Ria was left dumbfounded by the casual carnage as her elf friend breezed through the challenge in a tour of overwhelming force, but she also couldn’t help feeling a renewed stab of anger at how things could have gone differently if Orlisi had been there to help when Revanti attacked—an anger she pushed down into her soul reservoir. The past was the past.
When Orlisi finished, she easily beat Katria’s score to take first place to Katria’s visible frustration.
“Number one! Read it and weep! Mwahahaha!” Orlisi celebrated, jeering, dancing, and obscenely taunting in Katria’s direction.
“What was the point of that?” Katria growled back. “Just want to rub it in our faces when you’re not even competing in this event?”
“Ugh. If the elf teams are also that strong…” Aldri groaned upon seeing the result.
“Aldri’s right. Fortunately, we won’t be facing any elf teams in Roksairen,” Welkin informed and, after receiving a shrug from Hulle and rubbing the bridge of his nose, added with a grimace, “Even so… if Katria or Rialle can’t improve enough to beat Orlisi’s score, we will have to consider having Ria or Iselyn take Orlisi’s place in the Beast Battle event instead. It won’t do us any good to not prepare with the championship competition in mind.”
The Beast Battle! Could she really join one of the team events?
“Ria, you are up.”
Ria nodded and stepped up to the start of the plankway, bow in hand and Ranger at her side. The odd clinging warmth and fetid smell of the swamp was even worse the closer she got to the water, and her heartbeat increased at just how real and dangerous the created environs felt.
A holo display with a countdown appeared in the corner of her view.
Points: 0
Penalties: 0
5 seconds to prepare…
Time to think about how to approach the challenge had run out, and the bar had been raised even higher than just defeating Tallien.