I am writing this note in case you return here looking for us. And I know you’ll return, I can feel it in my bones that you’re out there. We don’t have much time, we’re all moving to a safezone in the city and the so-called “watchers” are becoming insistent. Here’s everything you need to know…
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The Crabs of Cetus were an almost perfect opponent for Kya.
Their nearly impervious shells and swift, powerful strikes always kept her on the tips of her toes, and made her time and again find interesting solutions to fighting them. Though it was almost always some variation of “flip the crab over and stab it” each encounter proved unique in how she got there.
The first one she’d disabled the crabs pincer arm and anchored it in the sand before flipping it over to strike. However, she supposed the crabs were either smarter than they looked, or were all just better than that first one, as she hadn’t yet been able to replicate that success.
The second one she fought hopped out the moment the first one was taken by the shadows, and must have watched her first encounter. It guarded against her far more fiercely, never leaving a single joint exposed for her to strike. Its eye stalks were retracted almost entirely into it’s shell, and it’s pincer was always poised ready to strike.
It even seemed like it had been expecting her to flip it, as the moment she used her ability to push on the crabs claw and send it toppling, it had instantly reacted with its other fin-like arm to counter the move and land once more in its half dozen legs.
Ultimately, for this one, Kya had tried something new. She leapt up as far as she could over the crab using her slow fall, getting to a good fifteen or twenty feet in the air. Then swapping over, she began to plummet to the ground at the same instant she pulled up on the crab, causing it to come flying up towards her. As it flailed it’s arms and legs around, Kya struck it blade first and continued to fall until they both crashed into the ground, her full weight and momentum pressing the dagger in even further, though it probably wasn’t necessary as the crabs shell was crushed under her. She had worried for a moment as they fell that she might break her leg or sprain her ankle falling from that high. It seemed, however, that the magic coursing through her veins had also strengthened her bones as well. Though she was almost certainly going to have some bruises from the fall, and felt a dull pain all over her body as she stood, Kya was pretty sure she had come out of the fight almost entirely unscathed. A moment later she got a notification confirming the death of the crab, and shadows swallowed up the small impact crater they’d made.
Turning to eye the new crab that had leapt out of the circle to face her, Kya mentally sighed and downed a health potion. She might not have had broken bones, but she knew that facing these things while sore and slow could easily prove fatal.
Yes, they were the perfect opponents against which to spar, but damn she was tired already. Kya spared a glance to see the blue swordsman still about fifty meters away. She’d gotten closer to him with her jumping attack, but not by much. This was going to take a while if she was going to play it subtly to not alert the man.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tylan was exhilarated.
It was only his third week in the academy, and thus far the classes were all interesting and directly useful in the application of his abilities. The teachers were knowledgeable and experienced. It was truly a delight. This was the second outing they’d taking as part of COM 1 - Practical Combat for Beginners course.
Naturally, Tylan and the others in this particular group had been singled out as being a bit more than “beginners” after their first outing up the river. Today would, if they performed well enough, be their last day in the beginner level course.
And he had to say, it was going rather well.
He alone had already killed eleven of the little devils, and was working on making it an even dozen now. The briefing they’d received before venturing out here had been spot on: Aggressive and a tad on the idiotic side, they had a soft underbelly and slightly thinner sections at the joints.
Tylan wasn’t yet strong enough to slice through their shells altogether, but he knew he was getting close.
Centering himself, he drew his aura in so it was hardly a hair's breadth away from his skin. He took a deep, slow breath, the crab across from him leaking sapphire blood from a missing leg on the backside seemed content to watch rather than stop whatever he was doing next. Tylan let out all the air in his lungs, and only when he reached his natural stopping point did he move forwards. He gripped his blade with both hands, and as he swung the dull blue glow suddenly flared around the edge of his blade. He could feel it. The tide, the current, the raw energy and pressure of water in his mind flowing with him as he channeled form three from the stance of rivers.
In an instant his blade went from angled downwards at his side to sticking straight up into the air, a blue afterglow the only sign it had passed through the space in between.
The crab in front of him let out a burbling screech as its massive vice of a claw fell to the sand below. To Tylan, the scream sounded muffled, obscured. All he heard was the roaring tide as it rushed through him.
Sucking in fresh air once more, Tylan’s hearing returned from that place of waves and currents, the overwhelming roar of crashing waves subsiding until the sounds of the world were once more as they should be. Grinning, he used a powerful full bodied kick to flip the lopsided monster on its side, and in a smooth motion, brought his blade up and through its belly. It’s body went entirely rigid for a moment, before it relaxed into death. Tylan got that tickle in the back of his mind, and felt that slightly euphoric rush as his abilities once more advanced, even if only by a bit.
“Thanks mate, that was a right good showing. Soon enough, I’ll have the strength to make it faster for me, and easier for you.” Tylan said to his latest kill, before dipping his pinky in the blue blood of its wound, and drawing a large circle on it’s shell.
Stepping back, he looked and saw yet another one had stepped forwards into the small area around him to test its strength against his own.
Reaching down and slipping a small vial from his belt, he downed the sky-blue liquid in a single gulp and looked around surveying his classmates and the almost endless tide of crabs. He saw much further down the beach that another group had arrived and begun a more unified fight, clearing them like a farmer would clear a field of tall grass.
Much closer, he saw a woman had arrived close to his group, and was leaping all over the place as she fought, looking more like an acrobat than a warrior. Still, Tylan had to admit that she was effective, as he watched her drop from the sky onto a crab that had somehow been pulled up to meet her halfway.
“What’s her class?” Tylan wondered “Maybe Air and War? Air and Death? She’s definitely not pure air, I don’t see an instrument on her, but…”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Tylan’s eyes narrowed as the woman stood and even from this distance, he could feel her gaze land squarely on him.
Tilting his head in confusion, Tylan was about to raise his hand or something when he was quickly brought back to the moment. The crab opposite him had, apparently, grown quite frustrated with the extended wait and decided to launch itself at him, its massive claw clamping down on the blade of his sword.
“Oh come on, not the blade! Now I’ve got to kick you a bunch, and that’s never any fun… well, maybe a little fun.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Immediately after her aerial assault, Kya spared a glance for the blue swordsman. She had gotten closer, but not by much. She needed to start making larger moves towards him, but she knew she needed to be careful or else he… would…
The swordsman in that moment looked up and over at Kya. It was short, hardly more than three heartbeats passed in the time their eyes met, but she knew he was looking at her. It didn’t feel like a hostile gaze, just curious. Wondering at her presence, probably at her abilities, if he’d seen any of that last fight.
But almost before either of them really knew it, a crab launched itself at him and clamped down on his sword, almost trying to wrestle control of the blade from his hand.
This was her chance. He was distracted with the fight, and would be for at least a few more moments. She spared a look at the smaller crab that had moved forwards to take her on next. It was the deepest shade of blue she’d seen, so dark it was almost black. The tips of its legs, claws, and fangs however were all a radiant sky blue. What made it worrying, though, were the hisses as drops fell from it’s fangs and hit the sand below.
“I think… I’m alright actually.” Kya said as she sized up the little spitfire of a crustacean. Turning, Kya leapt up and over the small ring of crabs, before using each one like a stepping stone to deftly move towards the swordsman as quickly as possible.
Looking back, Kya saw that the little crab was doing much the same, using its large fin claw to make leaps just as impressive as her own as it skipped across the tops of the other crabs like a sapphire stone skipping across a lake’s surface.
Kya started to laugh, a deep belly laugh at the absurdity of it. The swordsman either hadn’t noticed her and her pursuer yet, or hadn’t turned to acknowledge them. She was going to go straight for him and tag him, but honestly, she had a way better idea that would in the long run, she thought, be a lot funnier. And after all, if you can’t have fun hopping on giant blue crabs while playing tag with a man who, from what she saw, was basically an aquatic themed jedi, then there was something seriously wrong with you.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tylan landed his seventh kick in a row, and for the seventh time, narrowly avoided the piercing blue fangs of the crab currently clamped down on his sword.
“Look, you’ve made your bloody point”
Kick.
“You have an excellent grip and I rely too strongly on my sword.”
Kick.
“But you’re really making me look bad.”
Kick
“So just… let… Go!”
Ki-
In less time than it took to blink, the crab, Tylan’s sword, and Tylan -who’s grip on his blade wasn’t any less than that of the crab- were pulled into the air as if the world had decided suddenly that they weren’t welcome.
Jerking his head from side to side, Tylan finally looked up and saw some distance above him that girl from before, the one in the midnight robe that had been leaping about.
Out of shock, or panic, or sheer uncertainty, the crab that had been holding onto Tylan’s blade for dear life let go as it began flailing around in mid-air.
The moment the crab let go, Tylan dropped back to the sandy beach below, and had only moments to jump out of the way before his erstwhile opponent came crashing down beside him.
Cursing softly under his breath, Tylan took a hasty breath in and out, before slashing down on the flailing crab. He didn’t cut all the way through as he’d hoped, but the few inches of his blade that did make it through the shell were more than enough to kill the creature.
Tylan felt a trickle of energy that came from the kill, but it was such a paltry drop in the bucket, it may as well have been nothing.
“Hello there, miss. I appreciate the assist there, though I assure you it was well in hand.” Tylan said as the woman landed softly next to him, midnight blue cloak billowing over top loose fitting black combat attire.
She turned and smiled at him, revealing a set of radiant eyes like rose-quartz. “Don’t thank me yet, we have one more little friend to deal with first.” She inclined her head to Tylans left, where he turned and saw a little blue comet hurtling towards them like a runaway isela.
Tylan didn’t have the time to breath out and prepare his stance, he would need to swap to either wind stance for a hasty attack or stone stance for a hasty defense, but neither were-
Well, neither were really needed actually.
Just as it was within striking distance, Tylan felt… something. A pressure or force that seemed to move around him like a warm breeze or gentle current. But while it did nothing more than send goosebumps down his back, the small cerulean crab was launched in the complete opposite as though shot from a bow.
Tylan stood stunned for a minute, before the woman came up next to him and said “That’ll give us a couple seconds, but he’s recovering faster each time I do that. You might want to get ready.”
Tylan saw she had a single drop of blood coming from her right eye, like a crimson tear rolling down her face. “Her mana is depleted to the point she’s using her life force?” he thought, but aloud he said “She. The smaller ones are female, though they’re far more venomous in their fangs so they aren’t any less dangerous.”
Recentering himself, Tylan brought his blade to rest at his side, as though he’d returned it to its scabbard. One hand held the blade firm, while the other rested just above the hilt, fingers splayed with the faintest tremor rocking them back and forth.
He closed his eyes and concentrated his aura down… down… and then out into his blade.
Tylan breathed deeply in, the ocean surging with him.
The little blue demon crab was hurtling back, he could sense it.
The woman said nothing, hopefully she could tell what he was about to do. He assumed as much when he sensed her move just behind him.
Tylan slowly released every ounce of air in his lungs. He didn’t force it out, but let it flow naturally until there was nothing left. The surging waves within him calmed to an absolute stillness, but with a yearning pressure to move, to flow, to act, to erupt.
Eyes snapping open, Tylan let out a feral yell as he brought his blade up over his head and then down, cleaving through eighty percent of the crabs shell in a single blow.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kya watched as the swordsman exhaled slowly, eyes closed in concentration. As he did so, an odd pressure fell over her. It was the moment before a storm breaks, when the sky grows dark and the air grows cold. It was the eerie stillness of the world before everything shifts, ever so slightly.
Kya blinked, that’s all it was, a blink of an eye. She both saw and felt the little blue crab approaching them, its leaps combined with the massive fan-like claw that spread out from one side, made it seem to fly at them like an out of control comet. But in that one blink, the man's sword was embedded in the shell, almost managing to split it in two. Deciding to help out just a little, Kya pulled on the shell of the creature with her ability, and like a warm knife through butter, the man's sword slid cleanly through the rest of the shell, and it’s two halves fell to either side with a dull thud.
Kya got the notification of death a heartbeat later, and was about to read over it when the man, sword now covered in a lacquered blue and black sheath, let out a full throated yell in exultation.
“I’ve been trying all day to slice through one of those hard-shells! It was probably just the momentum of the thing as it flew towards us, but still! Gods above that feels good.”
Kya smiled and even laughed a little as the man spoke. Though she knew it was another world, and another language that was being somehow translated through her ability, what she heard was a faintly British accent coming from the man.
Reaching out her hand, Kya said “Congratulations on the kill, both that one and the earlier one. I’m Kya.”
The moment his hand touched hers, she got a notification that made her grin widen into a full blown smirk. “Wonderful to meet you Kya, I’m Tylan. Are you a student at the academy? Why haven’t I seen you around?”
She waved away those questions, continuing to hold onto his outstretched hand despite him clearly trying to let go. “All that can wait, I have something much more important to tell you.”
The man, Tylan, cocked his head “Oh, what’s that?”
Kya’s smile was almost predatory as she said the three lettered word.
“Tag.”