Cass took a step back from the pool to sprint back to the passage they’d entered from. This was a lost cause. They needed to escape.
But two sentences echoed up from her memories.
Error: Target “Lord of the Deep” has not previously been Identified, unable to target.
That’s what the system had said when she had tried to use Forage to find the Lord earlier. But she had since Identified it successfully. Shouldn’t it work now?
Better just set it up with all the future lords holding the title in the first place…
Salos had said that when she asked if there really would be a lord here. At the time, she had assumed there would just be one heir, but was it possible that there would be many more? Several generations of future lords?
There was only one way to find out.
She activated Forage again, targeting the Lord of the Deep. Again, the color drained from the world around her as her skill searched out for her.
You are attempting to target a monster entity. Would you like to attempt to target this entity with Foraging? Monster entities are outside the normal range of entities generally considered an “edible entity” as defined by your skill Foraging and will be less effective and consume Focus.
Obviously, yes, she agreed, feeling her Focus straining.
Focus: 105/225
She’d used too much Focus in that initial wild rush. Too much, too inefficiently. And more ticked away every second, her mind fighting to keep Salos’s ravings away.
She had to finish this fast. If she couldn’t find a Lord she could kill…
A couple of pricks of color bloomed in her vision. She breathed a sigh of relief. They still might make it. She made a beeline for the nearest one.
It was a far smaller pool. Small enough she could comfortably call it a tank or basin. Inside many lizards swam, but only one remained in full color. She confirmed it with Identify:
Abyss Salamander Young (Lord of the Deep)
Lvl 8
It was the size of a large dog, almost too big for its tank. It swam in tight figure eights, its fins and tail scraping the edges with every turn. Perhaps the Caretaker had come to move this one to a larger home.
She just needed to kill this and she’d have the qualifications to escape the Deep.
She raised her staff, holding it like a spear. A Wind Blade manifested into a sharpened point at the end.
Focus: 98/225
She stabbed down, aiming for the base of its neck.
But, she misjudged the water’s depth, the light refraction making it appear far shallower. Her Wind-Bladed spear landed back along its spine, around the center of its chest instead.
The Lord thrashed as the blade pierced its body. She tried to yank it out, but her spear was stuck and the creature was heavier than it looked.
It was all she could do to hold onto her staff and keep her feet planted on the basin’s lip as the creature thrashed in the water below.
More, in fact. The thrashing pulled her into the water.
She splashed into the pool, still gripping her staff. The Lord writhed like an alligator in death throes. It twisted, its jaw snapping at her.
It snapped shut on one of her arms.
Pain and panic mixed. She had to kill it. The water was dark with blood, both its and her own. Amid the thrashing, she was slammed against the wall of the basin.
She might have been a higher level, but level wasn’t everything. This thing was physically stronger than her, and beneath the water, she was clumsy while it moved naturally. Had she underestimated it? Was this how she died?
She slammed into the stone again. Was there an inch of her body not mauled?
Her focus was straining, her stamina draining. She held tight to her staff, despite the pain and the thrashing. Wind Blade had dissipated, yet somehow, her staff was still stuck in the lizard’s body.
Could she even activate Wind Blade again like this? Did she have another option?
Wind Blade!
She could feel the skill spinning to life. Her focus sharpened, condensing around her staff, running down its length, coalescing at the tip. But there was no space to manifest a blade. She could feel the energies colliding with another field on the other end.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
This wasn’t going to work. She could feel it in her gut.
You are attempting to manipulate the Body of another Being. Would you like to perform a Skill Injection? Injections are outside the standard range of your skill’s function and will require significantly more Focus to perform.
Cass had no idea what that meant. But she didn’t have time to figure out the details.
Yes. Sure. Do it.
Focus: 81/225
The opposing field popped like a balloon under a falling anvil. It was forceful and inefficient and she felt a recoil against her soul, but it had done the job.
Her Wind Blade formed at the end of her staff. The summoned air replaced tissue as it shimmered into existence, cutting out a space for itself.
Focus: 67/225
She redoubled her focus on the forming blade, ignoring the echoing pain in her soul and the continuous thrashing of her body against stone. She willed it into a curved blade, curving it down and forward, toward the center of its chest then forward to the base of the neck.
Focus: 53/225
She’d stabbed it from above, through its back, around its chest. Were lizard hearts in about the same place as people? Did Abyssal Salamanders have the same anatomy as normal lizards?
Again, Cass didn’t know. She could only hope she was right. She could only hope she either sliced the heart or enough of its internal organs to be fatal.
Focus: 41/225
Her focus was draining fast. Every inch of her summoned blade cost more than an entire blade did normally.
Had the thrashing increased?
The murk swirled before her eyes. There was no up or down, just her, the lizard, and the spear.
Just the blade materializing another inch of vibrating air in the Lord’s body.
Just a blue system message floating over her vision.
Beginner Quest (6): Slay the Lord of the Deep Complete!
Reward: All Beginner Bonuses become Inherent Traits
Trait Gained: The Deep’s Blessing - For completing the challenge of the Deep you have been blessed by He of Shifting Shadows and Stalwart Stone.
[Bonus Staff Skill Growth
Bonus Wll Skill Growth
Increased Range on all skills. Effects outside of standard range subject to potency, accuracy, cost, and/or control penalties.]
Level Up!
+ 1 Dex
+ 1 End
+ 1 Wll
+ 1 Ala
+ 4 Free Points
Elation bloomed through her as the strength from her new level raced through her body. It chased out the pain and the exhaustion.
She’d killed a Lord. The experience was richer somehow. Like a heavy cream compared to the skim milk of other monsters. She wanted more.
There were two more Lords of the Valley, her quests quietly reminded her.
Cass laughed. It was a choking sputtering sound underwater.
There is even more experience, closer by, Salos added. An image of them slaying the Caretaker bubbled back to the forefront of her mind.
Yes. She could taste the sweetness of its experience already.
She pushed herself out of the pool. Blood and water dripped from her and what remained of her clothing. Her muscles screamed in protest, but Salos screamed louder.
Fight! Win! Devour!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
She watched the thing as she approached. It was still fighting Alyx. She was ravaged. Her left arm hung limply from one side. There was a long gash on her forehead. A thick stream of blood ran down her face.
But, these injuries had been hard won. The Caretaker was laced with dark scars and wounds oozing purple ichor. Unnatural healing had closed an innumerable onslaught of cuts. Yet, there were limits to everything, as its right arm was missing entirely.
In another state of mind, Cass might have found it odd that the thing no longer evoked mind-numbing fear. As it was, Cass could hardly imagine this thing scaring her. It was a scrawny withered-looking thing, powered by a sliver of a soul and little else.
Was it physically stronger than her? Their last confrontation had certainly demonstrated that it was. But last time she’d been hacking at it like a mad woman. Cutting its center of mass again and again, headless of its healing factor or of the damage it did to her in return.
Last time she’d run at it in a pointless frontal assault.
This time she activated Stealth as she approached and summoned a Wind Blade on her staff. She padded forward silently, stealth’s wind just another draft wafting through the wide chamber.
With every step, she willed her blade sharper and sharper again. With every step, she willed the blade’s vibration to increase, faster and faster. The blade begged to fly off, so packed with her intent to slice.
Salos urged her to hurry. To run. To kill.
It was yet another strain on her Focus, but she ignored him. She was getting there. She would do this in her own time. She would savor the Caretaker’s experience. Salos’s hunger for its soul wouldn’t change that.
Another step. Sharper. Another step. Faster.
Silently, unseen, she had arrived behind the Caretaker. It swung again at Alyx. Alyx parried, sending the arm swinging wide.
The moment Cass was waiting for.
She swung down on the arm, flaring Mana Blade for all it was worth as the blade made contact with the elbow joint.
The Caretaker howled as its remaining arm came off at the joint. Ichor spewed in every direction as it flailed.
Alyx stepped back in surprise as Cass stepped closer, reforming the Wind Blade from a slicing profile to a stabbing one. It lost most of its sharpness and quite a bit of the vibration speed, but it didn’t matter. She rammed it through its chest, throwing all 10 of her Strength, all her body weight, and another Mana Blade behind the strike. It pierced deep, purple ichor gushing from the wound.
It wasn’t enough to stop the Caretaker.
It howled, slamming its bleeding stump against Cass’s head. Cass held tight to her staff, planting herself in place. It couldn’t grow back limbs. It couldn’t heal with her weapon implanted in its body. It was only a matter of time now.
It shook, dragging Cass across the floor. She couldn’t let go. She lost if she let go.
Fear was creeping back into her.
Salos’s madness was overwhelming.
She should run.
She should let his strength carry her.
She was crazy to have jumped back into this.
She was crazy to give up this opportunity.
Behind, she felt a spike in mana accumulating behind her. Alyx was preparing an attack, her sword leveled at her side.
Fear told her to run.
The last of her determination insisted she hold fast to her staff, that if she could just hold out winning was an inevitability.
Salos urged her to yank it out of the Caretaker’s chest and begin another onslaught of mad slicing, its healing must exhaust at some point.
Behind, Alyx yelled something. Cass’s language skill translated: “Down!”
It was one more conflicting order bouncing around her head, but there was a weight to the command the others lacked. Cass dropped her staff, throwing herself to the ground.
Not a moment too soon. A gold blade ripped through the air above her, slicing through the Caretaker. There was a riot of heat as the gold blade exploded, and pieces of the Caretaker fell around Cass.