Novels2Search
Worth Fighting For
60. Gods Above, That Wretched Game

60. Gods Above, That Wretched Game

Kya’s Notes

Blue-Fanged Crabs - 1-Star - Uncommon. Size: Medium, Threat - Moderate. About five feet in length not including claws, they vary from deep navy to bright cerulean on the backs of their shells, which are also covered in numerous spikey points that resemble crowns. Though their speed is quite something in water, on land they become noticeably slower on their spindly legs. Though the massive vice of a claw is the main source of attack, the deadliest blow they can deal is a bite from a matching set of four large blue and very venomous teeth.

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

With a slight flourish that made her younger self both indescribably giddy as well as cringe internally, Kya donned her deep midnight blue cloak. She noticed for the first time the slight connection between the cloak and her aura, and ginned. She already knew how important and valuable the cloak was that Merivan had made her, but Kya had a feeling she would only truly begin to appreciate it as time went on and her power grew.

- - - - -

- Item: Kya’s Cloak of Adventure

- Rarity: Rare, Soul-Bound

- Description: Made by an expert seamstress, the cloak has been enhanced beyond the materials used to craft it. It will completely or partially nullify weaker attacks and basic forms of magic. Additionally enhances any spatial ability used by the wearer.

- Enchantments: Spatial Affinity, Self-Repair, Self-Cleaning, Mana Resistance-Weak

- Requirements: Can only be used by you.

- - - - -

Everytime Kya put it on, the deep blue reminded her of a moonless night, and even though the sun was bright and the day was warm, she felt cool under the cloak. Bringing her hands to either side, she was suddenly holding her twin iron daggers that Alder had found for her. They weren’t the weapons she’d found in the forest and grown accustomed to, but they were good enough for now.

Without further delay, she ran forwards and just as her foot hit the edge of the town wall, she activated her slow fall ability and leapt as far as her legs would allow. With a profound euphoria that suddenly everything was right in the world, she soared. Eyes closed, her cloak billowed around her, snapping in the wind, and she couldn’t help but let out a delighted laugh. Magic might produce monsters, and demons, and horrors of the night. But this… this is what it was about. This feeling of cutting through the warm salty ocean air, this was what magic was for.

Then, much too soon, she passed over the sitting 2-Star man, and through her aura, felt the army of crabs come into range. Snapping her eyes open, she refocused her attention on the two goals she had for the day.

“Firstly,” she thought, “I need to slay as many of the monsters as possible, without being overwhelmed. And secondly,” she eyed the man in the blue robe with the glowing sword about fifty meters to her left as he slew one crab after another, “I need to get as close to that guy as possible.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Hey Ken, are you like… absolutely sure we’re going the right way? I’m not trying to say we’re definitely lost or anything, I just really think I’ve seen that tree before.”

“Yes, Phil, like I told you the last thirteen times… I am sure I know where I’m going. I have the map right here, are you saying I can’t read a map?”

The squad came to a halt, letting out a collective sigh as the pair began to bicker once again. Carcello sat down on a fallen log, idly rubbing at his leg. It was still a little sore, though it had pained him less and less as the day went on. He found that his feet were complaining more than anything, though not as much as Phil.

Their group had been sent out early that morning to begin scouting out the region. Carcello and Hjaldin were joined by three others to make up their scouting party: Phil was an inexperienced spear wielder and Earth user, and though Carcello hadn’t asked him yet, he was quite sure this was the guy’s first time on an actual assignment. Then there was Ken, the knowledge user who was… well, he might have been great if he wasn’t constantly getting spooked by every swaying branch and snapping twig. They had already been turned around at least three times that Carcello could tell, but they had been moving in generally speaking the right direction and they had all day to get to the objective and return. He knew from his father’s rants about keeping soldiers busy as well as his own experience that if they returned several hours early from an assignment, the army wouldn’t believe they’d done it properly and either make them do it again, give them another assignment to do in the shortened time remaining, or just straight out punish them in some way. Clean the barracks, cut the grass outside the walls, paint rocks… all this to say, Carcello didn’t really mind as they clumsily began exploring the forest around Lyra.

However, the same couldn’t exactly be said for the last member of their group.

“Are we seriously having this conversation, again?” came the scathing voice of Narissa, the healer of the group. “This is utterly and completely inane. How in the name of the twelve you two got approved to be on this mission is beyond me, I can’t wait to tell my father about this. Just give me the map, and I’ll lead us through this pink mess called a forest.”

Carcello and Hjaldin shared a look, before the ladder just gave a shrug of his large shoulders. Carcello sighed and kept rubbing his leg. Narissa, as she was rather fond of telling them, was the daughter of a 4-Star in one of the northern cities, where they held some land and an aristocratic title. Meaning that while they were the same rank magically and in terms of the military, she outranked them all socially. A fact she was very aware of.

The three continued to bicker for several minutes, until finally Narissa snatched the think parchment out of Ken’s hand and declared that she would be leading them from here on, before marching off with the other two in tow.

Rising to their feet, Hjaldin and Carcello bringing up the rear as they fell in line.

Gazing up through the canopy of rose colored trees, Carcello let out yet another sigh as Narissa began her tirade again. “Honestly, it’s like this is all a game to you people, you’re worse than a pair of dwarves. My father would-”

Ahead, Hjaldin took a swig and whispered back while holding out his flask, “I’ve decided to take a sip each time she mentions her father, house, family, or status.” He shrugged “This might get me shitfaced a bit too quickly, but we’ll see how it goes.”

Stifling a laugh, Carcello took the flask and thought maybe Narissa wasn’t far off calling this a game.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kya’s dagger sent out a spray of crimson sparks as it once more deflected the incoming claw of a Blue-Fanged Crab.

After leaping into the fray with a reckless abandon, she quickly found that this may have been a less than ideal strategy for taking on the massive horde of claws and fangs. She’d been immediately attacked on all sides by crabs using their single massive claw not to try and cut her in half or to grab her, but like a blunt warhammer to simply try and better her down.

If not for her cloak absorbing most of the attacks, she knew she wouldn’t have stood a single chance at keeping her ground. As it was, she knew that sooner or later, she would be overrun and one of them would land a lucky hit to cripple her, meaning that she needed to act fast.

Both arms shooting out to either side, Kya felt a strain in the pit of her stomach and a pressure around her head like a migraine as she released a powerful blast with only one goal: away.

All around her, it was like an invisible wall moved out and in a ring of almost five meters there was suddenly nothing but warm sand as nearly a dozen of the crabs were sent flying back. Chest heaving from the exertion, Kya focused on the nearest crab that was now scuttling sideways towards her much more warily, pitch black eye stalks recessed into its shell.

- - - - -

*** NEW CREATURE IDENTIFIED ***

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

- Blue-Fanged Crab - 1 Star - Common

- They’re fierce, they’re fanged, and most of all, they’re fecund! These horny bastards are focused on two things and two things only: finding a mate, and showing off for that mate. How do they show off? By killing things of course! Watch out for the massive claws on the females, and the massive… shells on the males. Good luck!

- - - - -

“That’s about as helpful as usual” Kya thought idly as she and the crab slowly approached one another. “I should just keep track of them all on my own, make a journal or something. Like my own pokedex or some- Woah woah woah!!” She said the last part out loud, as the crab suddenly flapped its other, fin-like claw to propel itself forward much faster than before.

Dancing to the side, Kya dodged the incoming claw strike so narrowly, she felt the wind tousel her hair as it passed by. Dismissing the dagger in her left hand while reversing the grip of the dagger in her right, she used her palm to slap the claw away, knocking the creature off balance, before bringing her claw down on the thinnest part of the arm she could see.

Sparks flew as her blade ricocheted off its shell, the shock sending pain lancing through her hand and arm like she’d taken a baseball bat to a fire hydrant. Using her ability, she danced back several meters to disengage, noting that the ring of crabs hadn’t gotten any smaller. They were circling the two combatants, making a sort of arena.

A smirk crossed Kya’s face for a moment as a memory of a similar circle forming at a school dance from many years ago, but she quickly banished the thought and refocused on the crab. Its armor was tougher than she’d thought, especially for such a weak point in the arm.

The crab rushed forwards again, and once more Kya dodged the enormous claw, but this time used her ability to push it forcibly into the sand underneath them. The moment it hit the ground, and sand erupted around them, Kya grasped her dagger in both hands and brought it down as hard as she could on the nearest joint. Just for good measure, she used one more push to add momentum to the blow at the last second.

Once more, a flurry of sparks roared into existence as her dagger struck the iron shell, but to her enormous satisfaction, the dagger broke through the shell’s resistance and met the soft flesh underneath. The blade’s trajectory had been thrown off from what Kya had wanted, so what would have cut the limb off entirely instead only managed to seriously maim.

With a nails-on-chalkboard screech, the crab tried to lift its claw out of the sand but between the severed muscles, the sheer weight of the enormous pincers, and the fact she had crashed the claw deep in the sand, meant the creature was thoroughly anchored in place.

With another burbling screech, this time in anger, the crab threw its foaming mouth towards her leg. It might have lost it’s its main weapon in the claw, but Kya knew the fangs for which they were named were no joke either.

Blasting the crab away in the same moment she leapt up, she fumbled and almost lost her balance when her slow fall ability didn’t immediately take effect.

Hurrying to activate it, she lost focus on pushing the crab so even as her momentum carried her up and back, the crab regained its footing and once more leapt towards her.

“Fuck, this is gonna hurt” she groaned internally. She knew her clothing had some resistance, also made by Merivan, but her cloak was currently billowing all around her and her leg was quite exposed.

Shutting her eyes, she waited for the stinging bite that… that never came?

Opening her eyes again a heartbeat later as her feet settled on the sand, she saw that the crab, still anchored in place, had pulled short by its own dead limb. Like a dog pulling at a leash, it strained and struggled to reach her, but she was safely out of its reach, even if just barely.

Breathing heavily, Kya laughed out loud. At the absurdity of it and the sheer dumb luck. She had made a mistake, a potentially damning one, and discovered the strain of trying to activate two abilities simultaneously. She knew she could do it, but using them and channeling them in the same moment was more challenging than she had anticipated.

Shaking herself and moving forwards slowly, Kya knew these were thoughts for after the fight. The crab was bleeding dark blue blood from the gash in its arm, and the tugging it was doing to drag the crippled claw forwards was only making it worse. With two quick strikes, Kya stabbed it through its eye stalks, but to her surprise, this didn’t kill it. Now blinded both physically and with raw fury, the froth around its mouth grew to look like a bubbly beard and its slow tugging crawl became random thrashing.

With a push from her power, Kya managed to flip the crab on its back and seeing the pale underside of the creature, realized this was the key .

With a malicious grin, she slid her dagger past it’s flailing legs and plunged her dagger deep into the belly of the beast. The shell put up a bit of resistance, but after a second of consistent pressure, the blade sunk in and the crab stopped moving. The notification came a moment later and seconds after that, the black shadows started to overtake the shell until only the small flame was left behind. Kya watched it dance above the sands, a deep blue, but with small flashes of orange at its core. Finally, the light winked out, and she looked up to see another crab had immediately taken the place of the first from the ring of onlookers.

Shaking out her hands and rolling her neck, Kya took a deep, steadying breath, before she charged in to do it all again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I really don’t know how you can eat that.” Wade said, her face showing the mild disgust at Alder’s bowl of soup.

Slurping up another mouthful, including the stringy light blue crab meat that came with it, Alder swallowed with an overly loud gulp and then let out a contented “ahhhhhh”. Looking over at Wade, he grinned

“Blue-fang soup is one of the tastiest meals I’ve ever had, I don’t know how you can’t eat it. Didn’t you grow up around here?”

She scoffed and looked away “I’m from Lyra, not Cetus. There’s a huge difference. But I did visit the town all the time growing up. The smell of crabs is just… pungent.” She finished, almost forcing out the last word.

He just chuckled in response. “In that case, I don’t know how you’re going to handle… well, all of that”

They had just crested the town's sea-wall, and could now see not only the blue ocean of water, but the blue ocean of crabs as well. There were dozens, if not hundreds of them all scutting back and forth creating an almost hypnotic pattern as they churned. Dotted throughout the sands and crabs were Users fighting back. A couple fought in groups of two’s and three’s, using coordinated synergies to take out multiple crabs at a time and sweep through them like a broom to dust. Others fought on their own, small rings having formed around them as the crabs fought them one on one.

“Fighting monsters is fine, even if they’re crabs. Engaging in fights to kill and win is a noble cause and one I’ll gladly participate in. But…” then Wade smiled and pointed to one of the solo fighters “It would seem she and I agree!”

Looking ahead, Alder smiled as well when he recognized the billowing midnight cloak as belonging to Kya. She wasn’t exactly having the easiest time against the large crab she was facing, but she was doing well enough that Alder knew she would come out on top.

Walking forwards, they stopped next to a man sitting with his legs folded under him, a gentle but persistent aura around him both keeping the crabs from coming anywhere near him as well as identifying him as a 2-Star user.

Looking up at the two, he said “Greetings, it’s a lovely day for the beach, don’t you think?

Alder nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but Wade spoke first “A lovely day indeed, for a contest.”

A glint in his eye, the man replied “Or a conquest!”

Then the two clasped one another on the forearm, and laughed.

“Well met, Wade, and congratulations on the rank up!”

“Thank you Drake, well met indeed. What are you doing all the way out here? Are you on a training detail?”

The man, Drake, was a stocky fellow. He had the odd look of a man who spent far too much time using his upper body, and far too little using his lower body. His biceps and arms were almost as thick around as his thighs. His bald head and curly mustache that bounced when he spoke almost worked to make him seem friendlier for some reason, at least Alder found himself liking the man almost instantly. Drake laughed again and said “I got a bit overzealous when meeting with the city lord. I told him I didn’t like his beard, among… other things. Well, the guild master didn’t take kindly to that, nor did the headmaster. Sent me out for a two week circuit to the nearby communities with a batch of new students.” He nodded to the scattered combatants as they fought. “It’s been pretty nice, honestly. The majority of the group aren’t anything special, there’s a team of five off patrolling the woods right now that will be back for dinner, and these ones here are decent, but that one there-” he pointed to a dark haired boy with a glowing blue sword “-he’s something. If he wasn’t so obsessed with water, I’d be recruiting him to War like a hellhound after a bonfire. But the boy is a purist. Doesn’t want to split his focus.” Drake shrugged his massive shoulders “I can’t really be too mad. What about you two? Are you here for that rather interesting girl?” He inclined his head towards Kya as she fought her own crab.

Wade nodded “We’re helping her complete a couple contracts while on our way through the area. And ‘interesting’ doesn’t begin to describe her.”

The three continued talking for another couple of minutes, until finally, Alder squinted his eyes and asked “What… why is… Hey Drake?”

“Yes?”

“That boy with the glowing rune sword there, does he participate in activities outside the academy?”

The other two turned to look and saw why had drawn Alders attention. Kya was stepping on top of the crabs shells like stepping stones as she suddenly made a beeline for the boy with a sword.

Drake looked back and made eye contact with Alder, and the pair began to laugh like schoolchildren.

Wade looked back and forth between the two and finally said “What? Why is Kya running at the boy?”

The two stopped laughing and looked at her, then just laughed again all the harder.

Wade looked from the pair, then at Kya who had almost reached the swordsman, then back to the pair. Finally it hit her, and her eyes rolled so hard, they threatened to fall out of her head.

“Oh gods above, is this for that wretched game you all insist on playing?”