Water Ruins: Challenge Ocean

"So? What do you got for me, little fishie?!" Blake goaded the Merchild on to come at him, not daring to put even a toe into the pool she was in.

"You'll all see what I'm made of! I am the Master Of Challenge Ocean! Do you know what that means!?" The Merchild put on a smug look along with a too toothy of a grin.

"You're an annoying brat?" Blake answered, looking more at the shadows around the Merchild that were starting to move around seemingly towards the group.

"That's right I'm an annoying br-!" The Merchild was about to repeat Blake's words when she caught herself. "That's not it! It means I'm the master of this place! I make the rules and do what I want!" She yelled at Blake then pointed up at the ceiling. "And every master needs a servant! Hehe!" As soon as the Merchild raised her hand, out of the shadows around her shot up six tree-sized blue tentacles each with a row of pink suckers. "Get 'em!" She pointed at the group, and four of the limbs came down on them.

"Scatter!" Blake leaped to the right, dodging one of the tentacles that came slapping against the floor and left behind a trail of water and slime. "That was clo-!" About to take a sigh of relief, Blake looked up to see another one just above him. "Wolf Impact!" With a swing of Gram, he blasted a chunk of the snake-like limb off and sent it wriggling back under the water. "Hah!"

"Nope!" As for Mordecai, he did a few rolls, making it over to the fishing rack and pulled out his twin swords ready to take few swings at his wiggling opponent if it came after him. "What is that thi-!"

"LET ME GO!" Anthony's terrified screams rang out to all as he was carried into the air by the last of tentacles wrapped around his legs. "No! No! No! NO!" He got dangled above the Merchild like he was bait with most of the things on his utility belt getting tossed into the water below him. "My babies!"

"You only got one? This harder than I thought..." The Merchild looked up at Anthony ticked off by the outcome of her first attack then smiled at Blake. "Then that means we'll try harder!"

"Anthony! You okay!" Blake called out to the tinker being bobbed up and down while screaming to the Goddess up above. "Gram! Get him down!" Pulling back he sent Gram flying at the arm holding Anthony.

"Hmm!" But Gram got put off course by one of the last two tentacles slamming into him. "Grr!" Which forced him to change before landing on the edge of the pool.

"Nope! He's out! You're not getting him!" The Merchild smirked, holding a hand as if she was the one that swatted Gram. "Okay! If I catch all of you! You lose!?!" She declared, and her tentacles rose up again to whip after Blake and Mordecai. 

"Is she making this up as we go on?" Mordecai was keeping his distance from the tentacle that came after him, taking swings at it any chance he got. "Tch, useless!" But each slash left nothing but shallow cuts in the rubber-like limb. 

"At least you can hit yours!" Blake without Gram was left to block the tentacles that came after him, getting pushed and tossed from one side to the other. "Gale Shield Bash!" Ramming Baba at one of them only pushed it back slightly before swinging back around to swipe him off his feet. "Gguh!" Blake quickly found himself on the floor with shadows above him.

"HUH!?" But before they could wrap around him, he got pulled back and up by his collar. "Nash?" Turning around, he found Nash bitting his shirt. "Whoa!" Then Nash reared up on his hind legs, keeping his front hooves out of the reach of the tentacles and threw Blake to his back.

"Thanks, bud!!" Blake patted Nash's head before getting out of there as the tentacles lashed out at them. 

"Why didn't you go after the horse?" The Merchild looked down into the water at something then turned to Gram clawing and snapping his fangs at the tentacle trying to get at him. "Hmm? That one can hurt you so...? We should get him next!"

"Try it!" Gram snarled, ducking under a wide swipe. "GRRRRAAA!" Then dug his fangs into the tentacle and with a powerful jerk of his head, he ripped it apart. "You better taste worse than this thing!" He sent a one-eyed glare at the Merchild after spitting out the tentacle with the rest of it retreating into the water.

"Hah! What can you do from over there!?" The Merchild threw her head back with her hands on her hips as she laughed at Gram's warning. "Eh!?" But when she came down from her laughter, Gram was in the air coming at her. "Servant!" She wrapped her arms around herself before diving down as something huge came out in her place.

"Hmm!" Gram's eye went wide as out of the water came what looked like a giant blue ball with large bulbous black eyes and covered in bumps. "The hell is this thing!" He landed on top of it and sunk into the soft gooey flesh before jumping off when the tentacles come after him. "Yo," He landed next to Mordecai who was currently staring at the giant ball out in the middle of the pool.

Then out came the Merchild. "Awwww! You didn't get him! Bad octopus!" She smacked the giant octopus between its eyes with it rubbing its body with two of its arms then replaced the damaged ones with two from beneath the water. "If you just used all of them this wouldn't have happened dummy!" The octopus made some gestures at her. "I don't care if you needed them to keep balance! Do your job, or I'll eat you!"

"Is she talking to that thing that? That's weird, right?" Blake asked Nash after watching the Merchild and octopus talking with eachother with Nash nodding in agreement. "Yep, something's not right about that."

"Something's not right about any of this!" Mordecai yelled at Blake, having a friendly chat with his horse while a Merchild was talking with a giant octopus. "But if we get rid of that thing taking her shouldn't be hard..." As he was wondering about it, he came up with a plan. "That might work! Blake! Can Nash swim!?"

"Yea, he can? Why?" Blake asked, making his way over to Mordecai and Gram with Nash looking at the thief suspiciously.

"Trust me!" Mordecai assured mostly at Nash as he got up on the horse who was still glaring at him, the last time this person had a good idea Nash got taken into the air by Saffire after jumping off a cliff. "Hey, at worst you're gonna get a little wet! Unless you want to have the honor of taking that thing out!" He pointed at the giant octopus readying its arms to whip after the group.

"You're going to kill that thing, how?" Blake turned to Mordecai wondering how he was going to deal with a giant octopus of all things and in answer, the thief held up his Dantwen. "Okay, but how are you getting to it? I don't think swimming in there is a good idea."

"I got that covered! But right now we need to move!" Mordecai warned as the Merchild's octopus sent its tentacles at them. "Hey, Gram! Get ready once my part's done, you and Blake need to handle that fish in the pound."

"It's an ocean!" The Merchild whined, slamming her fists into the water and her octopus slammed 3 of its arms in front of Nash's path while the last two were coming up from behind. "Hah! Where are you going to go now!"

"Right for you!" Blake cracked Nash's reins, switching direction to aim right at the Merchild and kept on running at top speed for the edge of the pool with Gram following closely behind. "Nash! Up and over!" Nash leaped out into the water, trying to get as close to the Merchild as he could.

"Blake! Hit me with that shield bash thing! And try not to break my legs!" Mordecai jumped off of Nash once it looked like they couldn't get any further.

"Your legs!" Blake stared at Mordecai, jumping forward and pulled back with Baba. "You're insane! Gale Shield Bash!" Taking a swing at Mordecai's feet, Blake shot a blast of wind at him that rocketed Mordecai forward like an arrow from a bow.

"This was a bad ideaaaAAAA!" Mordecai screamed, getting turned into a human arrow as he sped towards the giant octopus and watched it bring out its snapping black beak. "HAAAAH! P-STINGER!" With his Dantwen's blade turning a green Mordecai plunged into the soft, slimy head of the octopus, coating the area around the dagger in a sickly green color as the octopus went limp. "Blake! You're up!"

"Got it! Gram!" Blake held out his free hand to catching a transformed Gram and was about to leap after the Merchild when Nash suddenly stopped in mid-air. "What!?!" Looking down at the water to his shock and Nash's horror, the water reached up to grab at Nash's hooves slowly working its way up his legs.

"Hey, mister! You know trying to poison water is a bad thing, right?" The Merchild's too toothy of a grin looked up at Mordecai as he watched the head he was stabbing turn into a mass of water that sucked in his arms and legs. "Hehe! Fooled you all! And since I caught all of you, that means I win!" She cheered, throwing her hands into the air, tossing Anonthy, Mordecai and a riderless Nash around in her glee. "Wait? Where's the Smith-knight!?"

"Up here! Fish face!" Blake called out from high in the air after jumping off Nash and was coming down on the Merchild. "Here, I come!"

"As if!" The Merchild sent jets of water up at Blake, all of which were stopped by a Gale shield from Baba, but it didn't stop her from grinning. "So what if I can't hit you! I can just dive down, and then you're mine!" She was already starting to sink into the water when a small bird of iron flew by her head. "Hmm?"

"Lights on!" Anothny snapped his fingers and his iron bird's beak opened, showing a magic stone gathering mana and once it was fully charged...

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"AYYEEEEE!" It let out a bright flash of light right in the eyes of the Merchild, throwing her hands to her face and causing her to let everyone go falling into the water. "UGH!" Looking between her webbed fingers, she saw Blake right above her swinging Gram down.

"Wolf Impact!" Blake brought down his attack on the Merchild sending a series of enormous waves throughout Challenge Ocean, tossing fish, foam, water, and everyone else into the air then quickly falling back to the earth like rain.

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A few minutes later

"Ugh...uh...hmm?" The Merchild groaned as she slowly opened her eyes behind a see-through eyelid. "Wha?" When she was able to look around clearly, she found Blake crouched in front of her with something in his hands. "Wood?" The last thing she remembered was this guy in front of her swinging an axe at her face then...then...then everything got fuzzy.

"Hey, you're awake? Sorry if you have a headache or anything I tried hitting the water around you, but the shockwave still hit you pretty hard," Blake looked up from what he was doing which seemed to be breaking a stick in half. "Guess we can get things started now." He snapped the stick he was holding and tossed it at a pile of them under the Merchild's tail.

"Wait! What's going on here! Why can't I move!" The Merchild tried moving her arms, but that got her nowhere as her arms were tied to herself by a thick chain and worse yet she was out of the water being held up by fishing rob that was jabbed into the floor with a pile of what looked like firewood under her. "WHAAAAAT!?"

"Well, after I knocked you out that door over there didn't open." Blake turned to look at the only door out of Challenge Ocean currently in front of it was Anthony with his iron bird shinning a light on the harder to see parts. "That guy's been over there trying to find a way out for a while, and he told me not to off you just in case killing you did something worse."

"Then why does it look like you were trying to cook me! When I'm the one who can open it!?" The Merchild tried to take a bite at Blake, but all she got was air as Blake pulled away.

"There's no telling if you'll really do that, so Hubby's being careful," Baba answered, having a lay down on Gram who was taking a rest as well. "Don't worry if you just do as we ask nothing going's to happen to you." 

"And if you try to act stubborn, you better hope that one gets a catch." Gram warned, looking over at Mordecai trying to catch some fish while Nash was continuingly tapping a hoof on his head for his plan from earlier.

"You're really going to eat me!" The Merchild trashed against the chains hold her down. "Ugh!" Only stopping when Blake stood up and leaned in on her. "Back off or I'll bite yo-"

"That's a quick way to get lit on fire." Blake cut her off, and she went silent with a look of fear in her eyes. "I'm joking fish face! A lot of fish got thrown up on land after our fight, see?" He held up a bucket of fish. "But if you don't be nice, then you aren't getting any, and I might really cook you."

"H-hah! Like I'd want anything fr-*stomach growl* that wasn't me it was the water!" The Merchild wiggled around shaking her head, but when she stopped, her eyes went to the bucket, and again, her stomach went off. "..."

"Pfft! Yea, it was doing that the whole time I was tying you up...so here it's ~nice and fat~" Blake held out one of the bigger ones to the Merchild's face watching her head go from side to side while the only thing in her completely black eyes was a fish. "Okay, first off what is this place?" He asked, moving the fish closer to her.

"It's Challenge Ocean, duh!" The Merchild answered and took the whole fish in one bite leaving only the tail fins in Blake's hold.

"No, I mean the place this room is a part of." Blake corrected himself, handing the Merchild another fish.

"I don't know I've only been in Challenge Ocean since..." The Merchild answered, trailing off as she tried to remember how long she was in. "...I guess since I was born..." The look in her eyes was one of both realization and confusion. "...huh? I've never been out of here before."

"Wait? You were raised in here?" Blake asked, and the Merchild nodded slowly still with an unsure look in her eyes. "But who took care of you then or did you just live on your own?"

"Yep! I was left all by myself! Well, not really...a lot of those things took care of me." The Merchild swung her tail at Anthony's iron bird. "They weren't so small or looked like that they were more like you, two arms, two legs, a head, and body but made out of metal. They were great! They cleaned my pool, fed me fish, and trained me to use water..." A grain came to her face as she was describing her caretakers, but it slowly went away. "...after a while, they stopped coming here when one of them told me I was 'finished' and I had to wait for my challenger."

"Automatons? That doesn't make sense?" Blake whispered to himself the last set of ruins had golems, and the one before that only had Risabeel, but now this one had automatons keeping watch over some Merchild, and by the look of her that was about all she knew. "Okay, well since we did the whole challenge thing what happens to you now?"

"I guess I should follow you around you?" The Merchild titled her head to one side, blinking at Blake a few times. "If you don't, that door isn't opening."

"Hey, who's got who tied up in chains and hanging over ready to light fire?" Blake reminded the Merchild while tossing another fish her way which got caught by its tail and disappeared in 2 bites.

"..." The Merchild looked at her state and. "...Fine, I the Master of Challenge Ocean have been defeated by you ugh Smith-knight...huh? I didn't get your name did I? That was something I should have done at first, right?"

"Don't worry about it, you can call me Blake," Blake waved a hand at her. "...and could you stop it with the whole Master Of Challenge Ocean thing this place is more like a big lake and don't you have a name?"

"It's an Ocean! Because I say so!" The Merchild snapped at Blake, chewing through a fish he held out like it wasn't even there splatter blood all over her face. "And...I don't...have a name...I was always called Master Of Challenge Ocean, so that's what I go by..." Her ear-fins went down once she added that last part.

"Oh? Then...ugh...how about...?" Blake took a second to think about it when a hammer and anvil appeared over his head. "Moco! That should do it, right?"

"Moco? Is that suppose to be me?" The Merchild pointed her tail at herself.

"Yes, you! What? Have a problem with it?" Blake asked in return having a slightly pissed look on his face then moved some sticks under the Merchild to spell out Moco. "It's just the first letters of that dumb title put together see?" He pointed at the letters for the Merchild to help her understand.

"Ooooh! Neat! And it's cute too! Call me that, Chum!" The Merchild's or Moco's eye lit up at having a name for the first time. "And my title isn't dumb!" 

"~Oh~ It is indeed I hope you have an ability for names when it's your own," Baba cooed, rolling on to her back as she dug herself into Gram's fur.

"Alright, Moco, it is!" Blake smiled along with Moce even though she gave up on calling him by his name already and with Baba messing with him. "Now, can you help us get out of here?"

"Oh, sure thing! But I just need to do one thing first, please?" Moco asked as Blake was untying her all the while Gram eyed her in case she tried something on Blake.

"Huh? What is it this time? If you want fish I'll get you some more after we're done here," Blake muttered, finally getting Moco free, but when he reached out to carry her a stream of floating water beat him to it. "Huh?" The stream broke apart into rings that went up Moco's tail while the rest of it formed went to her gills.

"Aww! Nice and wet!" Moco stretched out a bit, getting some drops of water to pass over her face and arms. "Okay! Before I can let you leave I've got to admit defeat officially."

"Didn't you do that already?" Blake thought back to a few moments ago.

"I didn't do it right! I have your name now! So, come on! All you have to do is raise your arm; anyone is fine, and I have to say a few words, and we're done! I've played this out in my head too many times not to do it once!" Moco insisted, inching to Blake with each word until she was in biting distance of him.

"Alright, alright, if you really want to here." Blake went along with it mostly because it met he could get out of here at last. "Is the left okay?" He asked, bringing up his left arm to Moco.

"Good, now, *Ahem* I, Moco, Master of Challenge Ocean! Who has been defeated by you Smith-knight Blake! Now give you my blessing!" Moco declared, taking hold of Blake's arm. "*Chew*" But instead of raising it up high Moco opened her mouth as wide as it could get and chomped down on it.

"..." At first, Blake felt nothing and was in a total sense of shock at the sight of three rows of blade sharp teeth digging into his arm until their whites unseen. "Tch!" Which was went Blake felt as if something had gotten down to his bone, and it all hit him at once. "AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" The Smith-knight howled as loud and hard as his lungs would let him.

"The fuck's going over here!?" Running up to Blake were Mordecai, Nash, and Anothny. "Huh?" But the moment they got there they saw Moco's jaw clamped down on Blake's arm and glowing a bright blue as she got smaller and smaller until she wasn't biting Blake anymore.

"Ah! It still works...ah! Fuck!" Blake was left panting with a bite mark made up by three sets of teeth covering most of his left forearm and the cause for the horrifying bite was now a blue lump of Ore with jet blue shark jaws on it partly covered in his blood and water.

"Well, that was unexpected, here I thought I'd be the first to sink my teeth into ~you~" Baba joked, coming up to warp up Blake's arm with a bit of cloth from her dress. "That should keep you from spilling red everywhere, but I suggest we get back home for better care, hmm?" She added after putting Blake's arm in a sling.

"Right, but that's if-ugh the doors opens." Blake groaned, picking up Moco's Ore and wiped it on his shirt. "Hmm?" Then along with everyone else he felt some rambling as the wall keeping them inside lost the water flowing through it and started to come down showing the outside world to them with Anthony's Anthomatas still standing guard.

"Wait? We had a long ass walk to get in here how does that work?" Mordecai stared dumbfounded but thankful at the fact they didn't have to walk what felt like an hour to get out.

"As we guessed, Spatial Warping Magic...these ruins are mysterious to a worrying point." Anthony turned back to the pool room, making sure that it didn't disappear the moment they left the ruins. "Well, now that the dangerous have been dealt with I should be able to learn a bit more from this place with the help of a few mages and other craftsmen, you have my thanks, Smith-knight Blake." He took a bow at Blake and did the same to the others. "And to your friends as well...although I myself was of little use..."

"Errup! Hey, I should be thanking you, you're the one that told me about this place and with that bird earlier." Blake pointed out after getting up on Gram with some help from Baba while Mordecai went on Nash. "I tried asking her about this place, but it looks like she only knew about taking on challengers." He added, holding up Moco's Ore.

"Hmm, Orefication? Quite the strange power I did not think it was so 'raw' as to say in its usage." Anthony mulled over it, what Deller told him seemed a bit different from what he just saw.

"Yeah, I thought you were supposed to put a hand on them not get your arm nearly chewed off." Mordecai joked a little, coming up to Blake with Nash.

"That was because of her, not me! You idiot!" Blake tried taking a swing at Mordecai with Mocio's Ore, but he just leaned out of the way chuckling at Blake until he gave up. "But it's good to see that this power still works I was kind of getting worried from awhile there."

"Hmm? It didn't affect a monster you tried using it on?" Anthony hummed to himself for a moment before speaking again. "Well, that's just more to look into while I'm here, I wouldn't keep you all any longer I am sure you need to treat your wound and craft up a new alley, hmm?" He bid farewell to the others returning to his worktable to writing down his findings for the day.

"Sure thing and keep me in on anything you find out!" Blake got Gram moving and followed by Mordecai and Nash they left the water ruins for the Guild House.

Chapter End