When the other groups began to filter back down, Sara chose a spot on a sand bar that was closer to the shore. Other parties stationed further out for more kills, but Sara’s view was that they hadn’t fought a [Torrod] and would need flexibility. They could always move out if everything went well.
Kaden summoned Vip and let her dance at the edge of the water, splashing and biting at the waves. “Circe could be very nice. You don’t know her.”
“Cutter literally threated to take my tongue out. Admit you were wrong. Take the loss, we can leave. There are a dozen other faction quests we can take.” Sara crossed her arms.
“You leave,” Eve said. “I want to make level twenty five and if these are steady XP, I’ll stay around. No one is threatening my tongue. Ashi?”
“I stay.”
Other hunting parties took places as the bell rang again. Almost everyone here was level twenty five, but no one over twenty seven, which told him the Torrods would probably be twenty seven as well. Some classes struggled against even level mobs.
“Keep your babies in back,” A [Shield] called from the next sandbar. “Some torrods have powerful drag attacks. First tier’s first to die.”
Ashi and Eve were already standing between Kaden and Sara.
“Eve, Ashi, the goal is to get solid hits. Ash, [Mana Conduit] is always an option, if you can keep from frying me.”
“I can. I have many choices from the College of Storms, thanks to Sara.” Ashi stepped closer, keeping Eve behind her. “I will not hesitate to act.”
The waters ahead of them began to bubble and swirl and the parties furthest out began to call out to each other.
“If there are many, focus on one,” Sara said. “I think—”
Something leaped from the water in front of them. Hearing that Torrods took their shape from creatures they ate and seeing a manta ray leap from the air in front of them were two differnent things. The creature’s skin was a cool metallic blue, and where a ray’s mouth would be, a set of sharp, toothy jaws waited. Long, spindly legs unfolded to keep it above the water as it rushed Sara.
Spindly legs were Kaden’s favorite kind, because with a swing of Remembrance, he crumpled one—only to have the leg lengthen, and the [Torrod] rise up.
[Torrod]
The devourers of the deep begin life small, but they don’t stay that way. Early in a Torrod’s life, it chooses a victim, takes that form, and then uses it to prey on others. When it is time to breed, they will rise from the depths and drag prey back to use as food for the next generation.
Level: 27
HP: 4,000
Mana:450/500
Skills: Form-Shift, Regeneration,Hungering Grasp,Glide, Power Bite, Ravenous Digestion
Most of these Kaden could guess. Ravenous Digestion mean that whatever it swallowed would be unrecoverable. But the mana plus regeneration gave him a clue. “Let me drain it.”
He struck it with a forty five point mana spike. “No more regeneration!”
[Moon Strike] struck it, while Sara hacked at another thin leg. Her Horror grasp at the edges, tearing, while Lightning blasted from Ashi to sizzle down the Torrod’s belly.
It instantly turned on her.
Kaden summoned his Eldritch Shield and charged, using his momentum to crumple a leg. As it fell, it twisted to bite at Kaden, taking a chunk from his side—and four hundred health. Blood spurted out, even as Eve activated [Life Transfusion] and afflicted it with plague.
“That hurts!” Kaden shouted as lightning arced through his body where Ashi struck.
“It’s not regenerating!” Sara’s glee was clear as she leaped on top of it, stabbing downward over and over until the beast went limp.
You have helped kill a Torrod.
You have gained experience.
The gain was low. And yet, that one had hardly been a real threat. With some planning and actually sticking to the plan, it was easy, cheap XP. Kaden flung it over and waited as Sara carved the jaws out, then tossed them to him.
You have recieved 1x Torrod Jaws (Tool Crafting Material).
It was time to see what [Reap Materials] offered.
Nothing.
“There’s literally nothing besides the jaws,” Kaden said, flinging the corpse to the side. He didn’t want it in the water.
“That form wasn’t good for my attacks, and I think we tackled it wrong anyway,” Sara said. “Kaden offers killing blows, I target limbs and vulnerable points, Ashi cooks them, Eve keeps us alive.”
“Kaden should be far forward,” Ashi said. “I can control if my [Lightning Bolt] chains, and keep it from striking him, then fall back.”
“I can plague it from here,” Eve said. “In fact, I should be plagueing anything I can see. Other parties can still get the bounty, I’ll siphon XP.”
“Get ready. Something’s moving through the water,” Sara called.
Instead of a monster, the water errupted as a line of creatures the size of a man’s head burst out to glide, each sporting a smaller mouth.
“[Sharmlings]!” Sara shouted. “Lieutenant class [Torrod]. It won’t engage directly, and don’t let the little ones bite. They feed the main body.”
Kaden blocked with the [Eldritch Shield], but before he could bring Remembrance around, the small creature had already retreated.
Ashi’s lightning hit over and over, frying individuals, but they simply kept coming. A swarm of shark shaped Torrod spewed from a mother creature who remained just far enough out to prevent Kaden lunging. Eve could apply [Plague] but it didn’t have time to affect creatures whose primary purpose was to wear down adventurers.
Kaden bashed another [Sharmling] and swore. “We’re better at bosses. That thing doesn’t play by the rules.”
A scream of pure rage was his only warning, as Cutter leaped onto their sandbar and went to work. She met the oncoming swarm of flying fish with both blades drawn, and cut—barely nicking them.
But with every slice, she moved faster. An inhuman red glow gathered around her, and the previously tall woman exuded a pressure like he’d experienced with the Demon Lord Asmodeus.
“More!” Cutter shouted. “I need more. Every wound I inflict grants a bonus to something. And once they’ve got a status effect, I gain even more.” Without warning, she dove into the water, swimming out to the [Sharmling] mother. The water turned redder and redder.
You have helped defeat a [Torrod].
You have gained experience.
A moment later, Cutter emerged from the water, her wounds healing, her knifes dripping blood. “Which one of you is the status dealer?”
Eve raised her hand. “Most of my powers inflict status effects.”
Cutter began to grin. “You’re close to twenty five. Really close. You just became my best friend.”
“Eve stays with us,” Sara said.
For a moment, Kaden thought Cutter might challenge that. Then she shrugged. Looked over to the closest team. “Move. Go someplace else. Anywhere else. Go gently and I wont’ make you go. Boys, form up on us. We’re going to kill the whole swarm.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Her party approached, and to a man, from the [Healer] to the [Shield], they were men, mostly large men, men who had put a lot of points into strength and health.
“This is my crew.” Cutter didn’t really speak to anyone but Eve. “Your job is simply. See a Torrod, [Plague] a Torrod. The rest of you, I don’t care about. Maybe kill something. Thing about Torrods is that they come by the hundreds, and for the crawl—that’s any level above twenty five, steady XP is the key.”
Ashi’s demeanor shifted.
She didn’t like anyone else dismissing her, but this was exactly what the party needed. Steady gains without immense risk.
“Kaden, has [Mana Well] for when I’m out of mana. Sara’s title will cause us to regen life and mana faster. Ashi’s part of our party.” Eve fell in behind Cutter, who moved further out.
“Keep the babies out of my way,” Cutter said. “I need [Torrods] pulled.”
Kaden had an idea. “Sara, Ashi? What if I swim out into the water, and you hit me with [Lightning]? There must be hundreds out there.”
“Until one of them drags you under,” Sara said. “How high is your [Resist Suffocation]?”
“High enough that I cleared an underwater dungeon without a breathing spell,” Kaden said.
“Rope.” Cutter spoke it as a command. “Levi here is our carrier. He’s got fifty inventory slots and if I’ve ever needed it, he has two.”
Levi was the thin man wearing heavy leather armor, who produced a coil of thick rope. “How you want to be tied up?”
“Around the waist.” Kaden raised his arms and let her tie. “I’m going to wade out. If they mob me, you hit me hard with [Chain Lightning] and pull back. If they don’t, regular lightning, and let me float, I’ll pull more.”
Eve put her hand over her face. “Must you always find a way to outdo yourself?”
He took that as a sign of love. “If anything sucks me under, assume it’s a mob. These things are crawling along the floor, not swimming, even if they have swimming forms. Makes me think they won’t notice someone on the surface.”
With that, he began to wade. “There’s one right—”
[Lightning Bolt] burst from his chest, striking the one in the water. It surged forward, heading straight for Ashi. As it broke the surface of the water it shifted, becoming a Bull with a shark’s mouth.
“That’s more like it!” Cutter shouted as Sara stepped in front of Ashi and unleashed a Mana Arrow. “Get more! So many more!”
Kaden continued to swim, where he could no longer touch the bottom. Beneath him, three amorphous blobs crawled by lashing tentacles forward and dragging themselves. “Three more!”
[Chain Lightning] from Sara exploded, arcing from one to the other, to the other—and back to Kaden for a hundred points of damage. One became a shark that swam forward to leap from the water, another became an octopus, and the last assumed a man’s shape, stumbling forward.
The moment they hit the shore, Eve applied [Plague]. Cutter was a blur, a whirlwind of blades dancing among the Torrods. Her team worked around her, tearing jaws from the dead and throwing away the corpses to give her room to move.
“Hold on!” Kaden shouted. “There’s something out there.”
He swam and swam, crossing a shelf where the ocean floor dropped away. Deep in the depths below him, a swarm of lights danced. A cluster of [Torrods]. A cloud. Kaden turned and swam back. “I’ve got a better idea. Much, much better. These things drag prey back to the nest, don’t they?”
“If we let them live. And only the haulers.” Cutter wiped blood from her face. “We don’t let them live.”
“I want a hauler. I want it alive. In return, I give you all the [Torrods].”
Cutter paced back and forth, swearing under her breath. “What the hell kind of plan is this?”
“I have a taming skill. I’m going to tame a hauler and have it pull me back to the nest swimming on the surface of the water. I’ll tell you before we go down. And then Ashi will use [Chain Lightning] to damage the whole pack. You pull me back, we kill them all.” Kaden made it sound simple.
Cutter began to laugh. Sometimes, when people laughed, Kaden couldn’t help joining in. This was not that sort of laugh. This was the kind of laugh that made Kaden nervous, and more than anything, had him rethinking the whole ‘Desperation Wall’ idea.
“Stay.” She looked to the others. “Spread out, spread the word. We need a Hauler alive, and then it’s going to take all of us, if it works. If it doesn’t, we’ve got a few healers, and honestly, it looks like you’ve bounced off the level floor recently.”
An hour later, a runner came sprinting. “We got a hauler. Came with six normals, but our [Shield] is pinning it down.”
Kaden followed him, running as fast as he could down a mile of beach. There were so many more parties than he’d expected. Then again, this was a Faction Quest. Maybe this was expected.
On the shore, a [Shield] woman twice Kaden’s width wrestled with a Hauler [Torrod]. It looked like an octopus with feet—and barbs on the tentacles. There was no question how it would spear Commoners and drag them back.
Kaden focused on [Beast Taming] and stretched out his hand, pressing it to rubbery flesh. It resisted, but Kaden focused on [Beast Soul]. “You want to get food for the others, right? I’ve got food. I am food. You could bring me back.”
You have tamed a beast (Torrod).
Available Taming Slots: 1/3.
It ceased struggling, and he selected [Water Breath] as the skill it would lend him. “Let it go.”
Under his direction, the hauler scuttled toward the water, but as they reached it, he gave it a new order, to swim sideways, letting him hold on to a spear instead of being impaled by it.
A few minutes later, he reached his Party.
The Hauler really didn’t want to go back on land. It had food. It had to bring it back, but Kaden’s gentle insistence had it milling at the water as the crew tied the ropes back around him. “When I’m in the right place, I’ll have it take me down. Give me thirty seconds, then unleash everything. If I pull on the rope, there’s more. If I don’t…you should probably reel me in. I just got [Water Breath], and if worst comes to worst, I have [Resist Suffocation].”
Ashi didn’t seem concerned. “You are cunning, and I will be with you.” She began to hover, floating gently out a few feet above the water. “If you have need of me, I will know.”
Right, their mana connection.
Sara, on the other hand, checked the knots on the rope again. “I probably won’t be able to reach you for [Chain Lightning] until you’re closer. Don’t die. You already pulled that stunt once, it’s getting old.”
“No plans for it.” Kaden turned and headed to the Hauler, which trembled with happiness as the thought of bringing its newfound friend deep into the nest, where thousands of junvenile torrods could share in the joy of tearing Kaden’s flesh off.
He gave it a request, an idea. To swim on the surface as far as it could, and only then go down. With startling speed, it jetted through the water, dragging rope—and Kaden—and wondering if perhaps it should spear him just in case he couldn’t hold on.
Who wouldn’t want to swim down to the thousand jaws?
Beneath him, the swarm glowed like a tree with leaves that lit up.
And then the water slipped over his head.
Water Breath was like someone had put a wet rag over his mouth and nose. Kaden struggled to pull in air, but stilled the panic that would leave him in fear, counting second. Ten seconds, and the swarm was no closer. Twenty, and it was still too far away. He imagined it swimming as fast as it could, dragging him along.
The Hauler answered with sheer pleasure and the image of his skeleton begin crunched into bits by thousands of new friends—and if he thought it swam fast before, Kaden had only imagined it. He clung to the Hauler with all the strength he used on Remembrance, and even so, the water threatened to pull him loose.
No longer was the water dark.
No, hundreds of Torrods in their native ball form swam in a circle around a coral tree that grew up from the ocean floor Every branch ended in hundreds of specks of light, and as the Hauler moved closer, those lights had mouths as well, each no bigger than Kaden’s thumb, but with teeth that jutted outward for scooping flesh.
The tree began to swirl as the Hauler approached.
They were coming to meet it.
How many seconds left?
He’d lost count.
Could be zero, could be ten. The Torrod juveniles burst toward him. Their jaws clicked even underwater as they hungrily practiced for their first bite.
The sea boiled around him as a thousand bolts of lightning exploded out, arcing through the juvenile cloud. Hundreds of adults swish-turned to jet upward as Kaden again exploded as the heart of a lightning storm. This arced in a chain outward—then a single lightning bolt burst from him to strike the tree.
The sea went dark without adults or juveniles. Kaden held on. Ashi’s spell had fried his [Hauler], so now it was holding his breath and [Resist Suffocation]. But something caught his eye.
He swam deeper and deeper.
The Torrods had been feeding for centuries, and they cared nothing for Loot.
The base of the tree was covered in weapons and armor.
Kaden fought the rope, then sliced it with the [Levicon Blade], slipping free to swim down and scoop…everything…into Inventory. His lungs ached, and soon his health would start dropping, but Kaden held on, taking more and more. Bones, weapons, shields, armor, if it glittered or glowed or just didn’t fight, he took it.
His inventory ached from overlode as Kaden reached for a staff embedded in the coral of the tree. It wouldn’t go into Inventory. Kaden put both hands on it, and the staff glowed. It exploded with orange solar mana, blasting the coral tree to shards that rained down into the mud. Now the staff felt heavy. Like a presence. And it glowed the same aqua of Kaden’s mana.
No, maybe a deeper, darker blue that cast shadows.
Actually, he realized the shadows came from behind him.
Kaden kicked in a circle to see a glowing orb half as tall as he was. An orb with a pupil, one focusing on him.
You have acquired persistent Aggro. You will be pursued.
Your skill with [Resist Suffocation] has increased.
Kaden braced the staff against the floor bottom and pushed as he leaped, sending himself upward. The glowing eye shrank away as he rose higher and higher.
His lungs ached and Kaden couldn’t help looking downward. The dot was still visible but possibly smaller—there!
Kaden broke the water’s surface and gasped for air. [Torrods] swarmed the beach, outnumbering Adventurers three to one, and Ashi was nowhere to be found. He spotted her behind a wall of adventurers, and began to swim toward shore.
Cutter Karn glowed with red energy as she worked her way along the line, injuring every [Torrod] and turning into even greater buffs for herself. Then without warning, she put away her daggers and drew a jagged sword from Inventory.
Every third blow killed a Torrod.
A wave caught Kaden, propelling him toward shore, and crashing over the Adventurers, washing them back toward the beach. Kaden rose and ran, stumbling from the water as he sprinted toward the beach. “Run! Run! It’s coming!”
Sara heard his voice and looked out to sea.
The parties began to flee, as a shape rose up.
[Gigantorrod - World Boss]
The oldest of the Torrods need no longer feed. Its hunger has been sated by the flesh of nations, and now it slumbers, content to let its offspring grow. Perhaps one day they will challenge it. Perhaps one day they will kill it. Except this one doesn’t have any offspring, because the Nest Tree is destroyed. The young destroyed. Its attendants, slaughtered.
Now it seeks to remove the threat.
In case it isn’t clear, you are the threat.
Level: ???
HP:???
Mana:???