Liam stared dumbfoundedly and amazed as he saw the scenery had changed a bit. Two lanes of flat harden stone had surfaced and reached out from the beach to the sea around one hundred and sixty feet. The length from one set of hardened stone lane to the other was around three hundred and sixty feet long. In between both lanes were circular stone platforms roughly sixty feet in diameter. They spaced out long enough that a person could jump from one to the next. The circular platforms looked to have a pattern of their own as well from one lane to the other. Two lined up next to the lanes up and down. The next one was s single one that lined up
“What the hell is that about?” Roman asked as they all stared out.
“I think that’s where the final wave will be?” Ariyana said, questioning herself.
Liam stared at the layout. He wanted to agree with Ariyana, but at the same time he felt like it was something more than the final wave. No matter how he looked at it the whole set up screamed that was where the final Wave Boss was going to be and nothing else.
He looked over at Mercer and noticed he was thinking the same thing. “You ready? It looks like that fight is going to be tougher than we all thought it will be.”
“What do you mean?” Artem questioned as the others turned to look at him.
“The final boss,” Mercer started back up. “Did you forget that Liam was tasked to fight the finally boss of this dungeon by himself?”
Everyone’s eyes widened as they instantly remembered what Uncle Naro had said. They looked at the set up in the sea and then back at Liam. It was Avery who broke the silence after a minute as she asked, “Are you going to be alright?”
“Yeah man. I don’t want to doubt your capabilities but fighting a boss with a set up like that…” Roman stated. “Are we even sure that the final Wave Boss will be what shows up here? I mean don’t we have to fight some creatures before it…” Roman’s words faded as he remembered his time in the last Wave Type dungeon. While he, Artem, and Blair did fight a swarm of Toxo creatures, they essentially were called there through the boss’ ability. He quickly looked at Mercer and was about to ask but was stopped.
“Before you ask, no this creature does have any minions it uses in fights,” Mercer stated. “It’s a boss that uses the waves to its advantage. Its name isn’t just for show. It actually does ride waves.”
“How do you know that?” Blair asked.
“I read it in an Aquatic Monster book,” Mercer stated. “I’ve been studying up on some monsters since the other day. I didn’t remember seeing anything on Stone Crusher Shell Crab or Sand Flea Crabs, but I do remember coming across a Wave Rider Crab.”
Liam’s interest piqued. “Oh? What do you remember reading about it?”
“I remember a bit,” Mercer started as he thought about it. “I know that unlike the other creatures that have been using Earth Magic or a form of Earth Magic, the Wave Rider Crab uses Water Magic. Besides creating waves here and there, it can also shoot out bubbles and other water spells to try and knock you into the water. If you get knocked into the water then you need to get out as fast as you can before it tries to drown you.”
“That sounds nasty,” Roman commented before looking at Liam and asking, “Are you going to be alright? If you need us to…”
Liam gave him a smile before kindly interrupting, “I appreciate it, but I need to do this. if I can learn how to master this fighting style then it will be helpful in the future.”
“How so? Why do you need a cover?” Ariyana asked, feeling slightly stressed. “Can’t you just say you are a crafter and leave it at that? Why go through all this just to make a cover?”
“It’s so no one will suspect my other persona,” Liam stated. “If I have to fight others or creatures with the eyes of those who aren’t a part of this team then I need another style to use so no one will suspect me.”
“But why do you need another persona?” Ariyana questioned, still confused.
“It’s a rule for the Association I joined,” Liam explained. “Can’t have anyone knowing who I am and risk those who are stronger than me to track me and kill or kidnap me. It’s also for everyone else’s security.”
“This…Association…is it an evil one?” Avery inquired as she eyed Liam.
Liam let out a laugh. “There are some jobs that can be considered evil…depending on the ones doing it or what the job entails. However, I don’t think the association is evil. While there are jobs that I don’t want to consider taking, you have the option of doing the exact opposite of it. It’s all tricky and hard to explain so let’s end that conversation for now.”
“Agreed. We all have things we are considering or have considered to join. We are a team and must respect each other’s decision as well as trust that no one is doing something that is against the group or will put us in jeopardy,” Mercer stated.
Liam looked at the man. The way he worded that made his curiosity grow and want to learn what he meant, but he quickly shut that down. He needed to focus and get ready for the fight. While he was confident that he would be fine when Uncle Naro had first told him of his task, that confidence had faltered a bit. He had believed he would be fighting this creature on land. This would be the first boss fight where he would have to fight with water surrounding him and with mechanics that were almost video game like.
“Ah, one more thing before I forget,” Mercer started back up. Liam looked at him ready to hear what he had to say. “I just remembered reading a small section about the waves created by the Wave Rider Crab. Apparently the waves will wash over all those platforms, but they won’t wash over the lanes.”
Liam was surprised by that. He would have thought that maybe the waves wouldn’t be as bad in certain places, but for them to cover all the platforms and not the lanes was a surprise to him. “Thanks,” Liam said as he stretched his arms and legs a bit. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t stiff before having to do more running around. He was happy for the small fact that he wasn’t going to have to fight in the sand.
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“Alright…Here I go,” Liam said as he made his way to the rocky lane on the left side. He heard the others calling out good lucks and you got this as he made his way over to the set stage of his fight against the last Wave Boss.
He believed that the moment he had touched the rocky lane the boss would have appeared like how the Sand Flea Crabs did when they had touched the sand. However, nothing happened. The light waves that were rolling back and forth were still moving and nothing made an appearance. He looked towards the rocky platforms and thought maybe he would have to go out there.
Liam stared down at where the platform and the water connected. He wasn’t sure if the platforms were floating or a solid mass that shot up from the bottom of the floor. He believed that the latter was the case since the platforms didn’t move with the small waves, but at the same time he believed it could be a trick, and it would move once he stepped on it. As the waves moved back bringing the water with it he saw the platform continued a bit further in the water. He tried to see if he could see further down, but the color of the water clouded any further perception.
Making his decision, he jumped onto the platform. As soon as his feet touched the stone, he was prepared for it to dip into the sea a bit just in case. To his surprise it was sturdy and didn’t move at all. He took a peek over to see if he could see if he could get a better look now that he was closer, but the cloudy water was still blocking any sight.
Not wanting to waste any more time on the subject, Liam made his way from one platform to the next. He took his time not wanting to waste any unnecessary stamina usage. It took him five minutes to get to the single platform in the middle of the area. He waited for his stamina to regenerate to full before hopping on it in case it was the trigger to start the fight.
As soon as his feet touched the middle platform, the light waves stopped moving and the water became suddenly still. Liam went on full alert as soon as he noticed that. He scanned the water all around him, waiting for something to happen. A single bubble surfaced to his right before a second one popped from his left. A third in front and fourth behind. After the fourth the watery area all around him had bubbles constantly appearing and popping as soon as they escaped the watery surface.
The bubbles kept appearing for almost a full minute until they finally stopped. Liam kept scanning the water, waiting for the Wave Boss Monster to appear. He grew confused as to why it hadn’t appeared, but that confusion disappeared as something emerged from the water not too far away from the platform from the sea. A second thing appeared not too far from it and looked familiar.
Liam peered at them and tried to think about what he was seeing. It was two black orbs attached to cerulean, blue stick like objects. He stared at them for a few seconds more before he finally realized what he was looking at. They were eye stalks, crab eye stalks.
They quickly disappeared back into the water before ripples were formed from the water indicating they were making their way towards him. Liam quickly moved to the back of the platform in case the creature decided to jump out from the water and onto it. He didn’t want to get pancaked before the fight happened. He readied himself for what was to come. After a few seconds had passed, Liam felt a powerful vibration under his feet causing him to drop to a knee so he wouldn’t fall backwards into the water.
A second vibration happened soon after, not as powerful as the first and was accompanied by several others. Liam recognized the rhythm of the vibrations and realized the monster was walking up the stone platform, answering his question from earlier on if whether or not the platform was attached to the ground. Finally something broke the surface.
The first thing to make an appearance was a long dark cerulean, blue spike like leg that stabbed into the platform almost like it was gripping it. Then a second, a third, and a fourth. A large crab claw appeared next. The tip of the claw dug into the platform as well before moving in a way that looked like the creature was pulling itself up.
After pulling its entire body out from the water, Liam got a better look at it. the creature was thirty feet long. It was a cerulean color all over with white wisps that looked like waves over its smooth shell. The creature’s claws were different sizes. The left claw was almost twice in size than the right. Liam took a moment to assess it to see the information it would allow.
[Wave Rider Crab. 2,050/2,050 HP. 2,000/2,000 MP. Level – 15.]
Hm, a bit of a jump there in the health department compared to the first wave boss. I wonder what determines the health for creatures and bosses. Liam thought after scanning the information. He took another look at the creature and realized why the platforms were as big as they were. The Final Wave Boss took up half of the platform. If he were to think of it with game logic, melee and frontline fighter would be on the same platform as the boss while long ranged attackers would be on other platforms.
However, he knew he shouldn’t be thinking about this with video game logic. That was his bad habit back in the Tutorial Area. This was real life and real life fights rarely went the way video game boss fights went. He had to be ready for anything. Ready to recognize patterns the boss would have. Ready for attacks he wouldn’t expect. Ready for…
The Wave Rider Crab’s body suddenly twitched as it clicked its claws quickly several times. Then without warning, it lifted its heavier claw and started moving. It didn’t move forward though. Instead it followed the edge of the circular platform and swiftly raced towards Liam. It’s bigger claw raised to a position where it looked like it was trying to ram into him.
Liam quickly snapped out of his shocked state from seeing the speed the creature could move in and raced forward just in time to dodge the creature from slamming into him. Liam ran to the center and locked his eyes on the creature as he pulled out his hammer. The Wave Rider Crab slid to a halt and raised both claws clicking them together. Bubbles started foaming from its mouth not too long after that. Liam wasn’t sure what it was trying to do, but he waited patiently before making a move.
He remembered the fight against the Mud Shaper Hermit Crab. That Wave Boss had an attack where the bubbles it made softened the stone so it could shape it like mud. Liam wasn’t sure if the Wave Rider Crab had the same ability and was waiting to see. However, when the three foot bubbles formed and escaped the creature’s mouth, instead of them falling down to the ground they flew forward.
Liam watched as four bubbles floated out towards his direction. Each floated in different angles so they weren’t stacked in a line. They weren’t particularly fast, but they also weren’t very slow. Not wanting to take the chance to find out what would happen if they touched him, Liam stepped out of their way.
He kept his eyes on all the bubbles so he wouldn’t make a mistake on touching them, however, as soon as he turned his eyes away from the one that had floated behind him he didn’t see it start to ripple as it stopped.
After a few ripples, the bubble popped. An explosion of wind suddenly pushed against Liam’s back causing him to be pushed forward and hit the bubble in front of him. That bubble popped and the force of it caused him to ping pong to the bubble on his left. After colliding into that bubble he was thrown violently to his right, right next to the edge of the platform, his back facing away from the Wave Rider Crab.
After getting his balance back, and his ears stopped ringing, he heard shouts coming from the beach. He wasn’t entirely sure what they were saying at first, however, just seconds after registering they were yelling at him, his Danger Sense filled his entire back side.