“Greetings! You’re the village elder? We’ve come to clear the goblins around these parts. Can you tell me where we might find them?”

“Alright, I’ll give ye directions.”

“That’s not necessary, just a general area will do.”

“Now listen ‘ere. First ye got to go down yonder ways a spell.”

“Here we go…”

“Whuzzat? Eh, like I was saying. After ye go yonder ways, ye got to look once more, just round the riverbend.”

“I see, thank you then good sir!”

“Then ye go beyond the shore, where the gulls fly free.”

“Tell the Sarge we might be late getting back.”

--Accounts from a Lenorian Army Patrol. AC 1321.

----------------------------------------

The squad formed up, and then started swimming towards the entrance to the level below. The bright glaring red light hurts to look at and I'm constantly torn between scouting for danger and my inability to see. Through brief glances I'm able to determine that the jellyfish are small, about a quarter of my size, but that's not the issue. The problem is that there are thousands of them, all drifting in a circle in the cave. As I gingerly swim forward, I see there is about a foot of clearance between the red moss and the bottom of the jellyfish. I take a deep breath and try to quiet my nerves as the squad slowly swims into the gap.

There is only about thirty meters to go, and we continue onward. As we get closer, I aim to slide in with a soft landing and stow my legs and claws as best I'm able. A final push with my spinnerets and I'm like a squid pushing forward, streamlined and sleek through the water. My glide is relatively smooth, and with a hint of trepidation I land gently on the rim of the tunnel. Luna takes her position atop my shell, and I wave a claw in a circular motion, indicating the others should do a quick lap and then join me.

I want to take a moment to assess the tunnel below.

I can feel the quiet scratches from the moss, the slight serrations as it tries to grind through my armor. Ignoring that for the moment, I walk up to the edge of the hole and peer downward. I step carefully, noting that the rock surrounding the entrance is brittle and crumbling. I peek over the edge and see the route is a straight descent from my current position. The rest of the squad is coming around, so I wave them in, my claws pointing out where they can land. The jellyfish are maintaining their slow rotation, seemingly undisturbed by our presence thus far.

Mina and Wilhelm quickly float into position, not having much trouble maneuvering in this area. Everything seems to be going well for this phase of the plan, and I almost sigh in relief...

Which is when something goes wrong.

The bill brothers are coming in a bit too fast, and I try to buttress their descent with [Water Manipulation], trying to slow down their speed so they don't slam into the floor. My efforts are successful and yet when they land, they slide ever so slightly against the moss-covered floor. I've only ever touched the moss up to this point, I haven't slid against it, and I never expected the unholy screech that sounds from the scraping against the abrasive floor. I immediately hold them in place, my heart thundering in my shell and glance warily at the jellyfish above.

They’ve stopped moving.

My eyes feel like they are burning as I continue to track their motionless forms and I quickly gesture to descend into the hole below us. Wilhelm moves first, a small fin flip propelling him forward. As I work to stabilize the water and hide our movements, I realize I've overlooked something. By holding the water still, I've created a difference in the currents moving in the room, a small area of calm amidst the circular motion of the water. I wave a claw for him to hurry, which is when a jellyfish drops right in front of my eyes.

This close, I can see the interior of the shining creature, and it’s as though a coil of burning embers beats within the jellyfish core. This one seems to be scouting while the others remain above. The enemy undulates forward, tentacles extending in every direction to feel out the surrounding area. I step as gingerly as I can, and as I move the others fall in around me. Gradually the available space lessens until our backs are to the tunnel leading down. The jellyfish seems hesitant, and not finding anything begins to move upwards to rejoin its brethren.

I take a final step backwards, to dodge the last tentacles movement. As my legs touch the ground, I feel the rock give way and with a resounding crack a piece of crumbling stone begins tumbling and sliding down the tunnel. I’m unable to arrest the rocks momentum in time and the impact against the tunnel walls reverberate in the cave. With a sinking feeling I realize we might have run out of time. I call out over comms,

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Go! Go now!"

But it's too late.

The red luminescence instantly goes from painful to blinding, causing me to stagger backward. I yell,

"DEFENSIVE POSITIONS! RETREAT DOWNWARDS!"

When a sudden current, one of the most powerful I've ever felt, whisks me off the ocean floor, sending me spiraling to the edge of the room. A series of cries yells out over comms,

"Help!"

"What's happening!"

My vision is slowly clearing, but I can already feel that I'm moving rapidly, my speed and momentum growing faster and faster. I activate my skill, and deploy my spinnerets, managing to stabilize myself horizontally so I can figure out what is happening.

Thousands of jellyfish are deployed horizontally and swimming in synchronization. Every push of their bulbous cores is moving the water in mass, and I realize that each fish must have some kind of water manipulation skill. The gentle rotation of the water has turned into a swift current and as time goes on, the sea is turning into rapids. Mooncrab squad is split up, spinning around the cave, and our speed continues to grow. I check my health, and everything appears to be fine, it doesn't seem like there's been any damage done thus far.

I call out over comms,

"They're trying to keep us away from the center! We need to form back up!"

With that being said, I look around the edge of the room and find Luna in front of me. She's curled up into a ball, and her speed is outpacing my own. I call out,

"Luna! Deploy your arms! I'll catch you!"

I orient myself towards her, the rapids gushing over my shell. Luna unfolds each arm, and her speed slows. As for me? Well, it looks like I need to catch up. I stop fighting against the flow and move with it, using [Riding Mask] to smooth my movement through the elemental frenzy and reduce the friction on my shell.

This entire time, the enemy’s speed has increased, and I'm starting to have trouble controlling my trajectory. I almost tackle Luna and she climbs onto my shell. Ironically enough, the added weight is a stabilizer and I look to see how the others are doing. Wilhelm is the easiest to see, as he is a dark red blur, holding his position in the water by furiously swimming in the opposite direction.

A second later, he manages to catch Mina and the two of them hold their position. Bill and Billy have latched onto the walls, a series of anchors deploying from their shells and drilling into the rock surface. With each passing moment though, I can see the anchors gradually being pulled out of place as the force of the water increases. I call out,

"Everyone loop around and meet up with the brothers!"

Wilhelm and I orient ourselves and stop resisting the water. We rocket forward, aiming towards our teammate. A moment later, I reach Wilhelm, and we move together towards our two trapped members. As this is underway, I'm trying to figure out the velocities of the water propulsion. I tentatively try to dip inward and am summarily pushed outward, the pressure and density increasing the closer to the center I tilt.

This seems to be a simple trap, but I struggle figuring out the end game here. Eventually the jellyfish would run out of stamina or mana or both. They can’t maintain this indefinitely. We catch up to the brothers and with our brief collision, detach from the wall. Then we're all moving together, latched onto each other as best we can as we perform laps around the cave. Luna calls out,

"What's the plan Crabby?"

I'm about to reply when I realize the final piece of the trap.

The speed has been increasing, but more importantly... the momentum of the water is pulling tufts of moss from the floor. The moss is shredding into small pieces, and a cloud of particulates is becoming denser. I feel the bits of moss rubbing against my armor and realize that we're not stuck in a whirlpool.... we're stuck in a sandblaster. I call out,

"The moss is shredding! We need to get to the center! Stay together, use whatever you have!"

Mina's music quietly plays, and I try to use [Water Manipulation] as best I can. We slowly inch inwards, but as we do, I feel my efforts at manipulation being contested. It's as though I'm fighting against a legion of wills, and realize the Jellyfish are challenging my control over the area. We make it another few feet, but eventually the effort grows too much, and we're pushed back to where we started.

Mina cries out,

"What now?"

Visibility is growing dimmer, and I can already see the damage etched onto each of our armor's. I try to discard my fears, but it's only a matter of time before the metal breaks and we're faced with the full force of the abrasive. My mind scrambles for an idea, and as we spin faster and faster around the room. I come up with one.

"Alright, here's the plan. We'll move to the very edge of the room near the walls, and then head to the ceiling above."

Thankfully there are no questions, and as we head outwards, our swimming control improves. Luna asks,

"Okay? What do we do?"

I grit my mandibles and say,

"Grab onto me."

The other's exchange hesitant looks, and we carefully reposition so that everyone is latching onto a leg or a claw. I keep one free however, I'll need it for what comes next. I can't beat the jellies in their mastery of water, there’s too many of them. Let’s see how they fare with massive chunks of earth.

I thrust my remaining claw into the ceiling, engaging [sever] to propel it with all the cutting force at my disposal. It sinks in, and before my arm can be ripped away from me by the force of our orbit, I bear all my will down on [Earth Manipulation]. The stone parts like a hot claw through oysters and we're spiraling around the room, slicing furrows into the rock ceiling. The others must have caught onto what I was planning because they almost cry out simultaneously,

"Crabby?"

"The structural stability..."

"Bad Plan..."

"Ahhhh!"

My strike continues cutting, shredding stone from the top of the cave, propelled by the force of our orbit. As we continue to move faster and faster, large sections of rock begin falling from the ceiling. The stones are massive, too large to be caught up by the momentum of the water, and as I look, a lucky section crushes about half of the jellyfish. The other jellies stop, red lights pulsing in seeming confusion as the water returns to a calmer state. I'm panting at this point, the effort needed to hold onto everyone taking more out of me than I had anticipated. I gasp,

"Alright, now we just need to get to the tunnel."

Before we can start moving, the remaining jellyfish begin shaking in anger. They group up and their glow grows brighter. I'm not sure what their aim is, but I do know that all of us bunched together is a convenient target. I manage to yell out,

"Disburse! Get your distance!"

Before the red glows pulses, and a lance of superheated water jets towards my position.