Chapter 181: Big Needle, Clinging Clothes
The whale-thing opens its mouth.
I take control of the pitiful shrapnel remnants of the boat, turning them into more lances, then tossing the entire swarm of them into the giant fish’s eye. Opal blinks in, ready to fight, and I see little lances of air piercing the water as Sylves provides support.
But it all pales in comparison to Thatch. Somehow, he manages to manifest fins from his rage, rapidly spinning towards the whale-thing and sinking facsimile of teeth into its thick hide.
Which is when it hits me how both monstrously big the fish is, and how much we can kill it. I recall my lances, then begin to move my arms, heading for the surface. The salt water burns in my eyes and I hate it. But still, I keep tight control of my mana, even as my clothes cling to me and weigh me down. Even as I struggle to swim with a single hand and start to get that fear of drowning, I focus.
My needles, lances, and the remnants of my boat all come together. It’s a mess of mana-shrapnel, broken bits of it clinging to each other. I look at them and focus properly, giving up my poor attempts at surfacing and instead staring at my mana.
With an exertion of willpower that makes the shrapnel screech, it all melds into one, larger piece of solidified mana. A giant piece, dare I say. I furrow my brows against the salt water, and focus, turning the entire thing tapered. It takes a few seconds, during which Opal blinks next to me and drags me out of the way of a water-drill that would have pierced my heart, but eventually, my mana relents and becomes a giant needle.
Using a monumental amount of effort, I then move it through the water, dragging it in front of Inu. She looks at the construct with surprise, then turns to me, and I just kinda helplessly shrug. Instantly, she nods, then punches the back of the mega-needle.
It’s more of a glorified cone, but when her fist hits it, there’s a pause. Then, a cavitation bubble opens in the water. There’s a horrible snap, and the water crashes inwards. Cracks splinter across the length of my construct - but it also launches.
My shitty, monster-killing cone tears through the water at an exorbitant speed, only accelerated by my own will. It’s about as long as a car, and as thick as my head at its wide end. And it stabs into the whale thing. It sinks in two thirds of its length, making the fish open its mouth in a silent scream, the water dampening it all.
Then I lose focus, and the entire thing explodes.
That’s enough to make the flesh-eating whale turn around finally. With one enormous turn, it flips around, tearing back into the darkness below. I, of course, go back undeterred to my poor attempts at swimming, until Thatch and Opal gracefully drag me upwards. Then, I take a long breath of air.
“Did I mention I have a fear of drowning?” I deadpan.
I don’t get any laughs, just a couple empathetic glances. We swim the rest of the way to the staircases, then head up into the safe room.
- - -
The coconut pacifies me somewhat. Even as the others occasionally shoot me worried looks, and I use the water from my refilling phial to wash out my eyes, I eat it. There’s a long silence, until Sylves plops down next to me in the sand.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
And I smile, because that’s all I needed. “Apology accepted,” I say. “You did the right thing. But I was pretty scared, y’know? Swimming with one arm is pretty hard. Though from the outside it must have looked pretty funny.”
The faerie shakes her head, slowly. “It was scary from the surface, too,” she says.
“Can I ruffle your hair?” I ask.
Sylves smiles. “I’d like that,” she says. With her permission, I reach out, and mess her hair up. My hand is wet, and catches in her hair a bit, but that’s okay. She giggles, and I think it finally gets my feelings across to her.
“You did the right thing,” I repeat to her.
Then she looks at me. “It’s okay to cry,” she says.
And at that, I smile. “I’m okay,” I say. Then I take a deep breath, and repeat it properly. Meaning it. Honestly. “I’m okay.”
She nods softly. “So, you alright to be teased again?” she asks smugly.
I tilt my head. “Wasn’t I this entire time? Surely, I’ve been funny enough to signal that.”
“You mostly sounded upset,” Sylves said.
“Fricken tonal mismatches,” I reply, instilling as much emotion as I can into my voice.
She snickers at that, then ruffles my hair in return. Her hand is soft and dry, entirely unlike my wet hair. “You know,” she says, tilting her head, cupping my cheek. “As much as we complain about how unfair Thatch is, you look rather nice, Snow.”
I look over to see our barbarian-slash-scout blushing at the comment, and smile. His face is almost as red as Anna’s. But I also know Sylves means it. I just snicker in response, anyway. “Thanks, Sylves.”
Of course, my approval gives Opal the courage to jump in. “Seriously Snow, maybe we ought to dunk you in water more often.”
“The clinging clothes don’t suit me,” I complain half-heartedly. Knowing it’s a lie. Anna blushes and looks away, while Tatch blushes and keeps looking at me, same as Opal.
Inu smiles, then chides me. “You fricken rectangle,” she says. “You look lovely.”
“You do!” Sylves confirms, smiling brightly.
“Yeah, gorgeous,” Thatch adds, pulling together his confidence and suaveness. The fact that he can just hide his nervousness and say things like that confidently… I envy his people-powers.
Okay, no, I don’t. I would never make use of them as much as he does. But that’s okay. Smiling softly, I summon more shadows, hiding myself in a cloak, before people continue staring. That’s enough attention for me for now. Instead of that, I turn to Richard.
“Hey, is the meal gonna be ready soon?” I ask. Slowly, I shuffle closer to the campfire, letting the heat deal with the dampness of my hair. If only Jess were here. Truly, my quality of life goes down without the rest of our little group.
For her part, Richard just nods. She’s frying some seaweed in a pan, turning it crunchy, combining it with a few more plants she apparently foraged while we were on the last floor, as well as a few regular fish she caught into a fried-fish salad. I wait another little while by the campfire, letting the sun dry the water off me and my clothes, and then we all eat. Only a little bit of chatter later, it’s time to check out the next set of doors.
Chapter 182: Lightning Rod
This time, the choice is a bit easier. All three floors seem survivable - the left door is a tall set of cliffs overlooking the ocean. They smell of storms and ozone, probably housing lightning elementals or somesuch.
In the middle there’s a somewhat peaceful looking flooded village… but it smells like rot. And, focusing my [Observation], I can notice humanoid outlines just outside of view. Which seems bad, and frankly, I want to spare Trey the sight of rotting corpses.
Finally, to the right, there is a valley filled with a thin fog, rising from the rivers. It whispers of hidden hunters and cruel claws.
“Okay, so, this may be really dumb, but I want to take the leftmost door,” I say.
“The lightning one?” Anna asked, creasing her metallic brows. “Why?”
Thatch figures it out instantly. “No way,” he whispers, staring at me aghast. “You want to take on lightning elementals just to get more electricity essence? So you can charge your phone?!”
I shake my head, solemnly. “My phone is secondary, silly. It’s about my headphones,” I reply.
He laughs at that. “Unbelievable,” he says. “Alright, sure.”
Huh. I blink. That was easy. With quick motions, I turn to the others, who largely seem to have a sentiment of “sure.”
“Wait. How will we take down the elementals?” Bofoy asks.
It’s a very legitimate question that neither Jean or Isabelle posed. They remember what I did on the second floor. So, I simply smile softly. “Don’t worry, I have a suitable skill.”
- - -
Wind and rain slam into me, and for once, I mostly let them hit me. My clothes and hair are still crusted with salt, so I will accept them growing sticky once to wash that off. Kuro still gets to hang around me, of course, hiding my shape from the others - but this time, the shadows are permeable.
Which is a useful ability that I should make use of more. Solid and non-solid shadows. Hm.
I blink in thought, when I feel mana move at the edge of my detection. Almost reflexively, I respond in the way a nullmage should. [Suppression] first, pressing down on the mana that constitutes the ability, delaying its activation and weakening it enough for a quick [Deconstruction] to take the entire thing apart.
Information floods into my mantle, and I tilt my head, looking in the direction. All I see is a brief flicker, like a trick of the light, but mana doesn’t lie. There’s definitely something there. Which means there’s something for me to break.
[Observation 21 > 22]
A good chunk of mana - enough to give me internal burns - passes into my [Deconstruction], and with a scream of high-pitched thunder, the lightning elemental comes apart.
[You have killed a lv. 66 Stormwoven]
Fractured yellow sparks rain to the ground in a mini lightshow. I breathe in, and the smell of ozone reaches me. “Oh,” I say. “I was about to be hit by lightning.”
“Thunderstruck, even, you could say,” Opal supplies helpfully.
I snicker. “Yeah, sure.” Then, with a focused effort, I widen my scanning field. It gives me a slight headache, but Perpetual Pursuit keeps it in check. There are three more gathering presences around us. Three more presences quickly turn into zero.
[You have killed a lv. 71 Stormwoven]
[You have killed a lv. 55 Stormwoven]
[You have killed a …]
Then, I walk forward some more. The grass feels charged with static underneath my feet, and the stormclouds above are dark and foreboding. The air is filled with wind and ozone, but lightning does not spear down yet. It just hovers like a distant threat.
Trey seems impatient, kicking small rocks off the side of the cliffs as we walk. I tilt my head, watching him. Another stormwoven appears on the edge of my detection, and I unmake them. [Deconstruction] really is good against mana-based lifeforms. Scarily good.
The kid pouts. Is he upset he can’t use his skill? I wonder. Checking in on him, I also look at Anna, who looks around in wonder, and occasionally shoots me shy glances. What a strange girl. There’s nothing special to see here.
One moment to another, lightning spears down from the sky.
It’s entirely mundane lightning. A brutally violent tower of it, shooting from the sky right into Inu. It’s so bright it blinds me entirely for a moment, and my eyes hurt. Half a dozen voices scream in pain, but I don’t. Instead, I breathe.
My healing passes through myself. Then I can see again. Very quickly, I walk up to Inu - and to my surprise, she’s still standing. I tilt my head, and she looks back at me, equally surprised. Shocked, even. Then, she shrugs helplessly. “[Resistance],” she guesses. “Lightning follows the path of least resistance. My… my armor.”
That’s when I notice that spots of the metal are molten. With a quick thought, she pushes it all into her [Reservoir] - somehow - and reveals her skin underneath. She’s burnt. “Does it hurt?” I ask.
She grimaces softly, then smiles. “Yeah.”
“Share it?” I ask.
For a moment, she thinks about it, then smiles and nods. “Okay,” she says. [Empathy] reaches out for me again, and I feel a part of her pain pass into me. It’s… tolerable. Very tolerable. Huh. Her higher heart score, probably? And [Resistance], too.
Still, I fill her with healing mana, which she lets take care of her injuries, even giving me a small smile. “Thanks,” she says, then summons her armor again. “I’ll be our, ehem, lightning rod,” she says with a small snicker.
“Yeah, awesome, but can I like, get my eyes back?!” Opal asks.
I quickly shake off my confusion, and then heal them.
- - -
A few dozen elementals and three regular lightning bolts later, we’ve reached the bottom of the cliff, where it tapers off. The storm is far less violent down here, the lower alteration making lightning more rare - and it’s also where the world bleeds into white. The edge of what the monolith is simulating for us, I suppose.
As always, we walk up the staircase, into the next safe-room. This time, the other group didn’t directly follow us… which makes them less predictable. But that’s fine. They can get as close as they like. We’ll prepare. We’ll take them down.
[Level Up! 85 > 86]
I pluck my coconut, and eat it, feeling the restoration flood through me. It even refills my mana, I note, which is surprising. My attunement loop and the cruncher are both still active, maintaining my training and my structural integrity. We got lucky that Inu was able to so calmly attract and effectively disarm the lightning.
Things could have gotten worse if Sylves had chosen to fly, for example. She would have certainly been upset if her dress had burnt. Of course, she had more of them, but still. I breathe in, enjoying the calm of the safe zone. Except, of course, it doesn’t remain calm.
A portal swirls open in the air, and Raven steps through, black mantle of feathers wrapped tight around them, soaked with brackish water. Still, I can hear the cruel glee when they hum. “Found you.”
Dang. And I was just enjoying my normal-ish adventure.
Chapter 183: Notions of Tension
I dispel the electricity between my fingertips, watching Anna turn still at Raven’s approach. Kuro instantly weaves themselves over my face, creating a dark mask, and I pull up my cloak to hide my hair. With a little luck, my Yuki-identity is safe. As long as Owl stayed quiet.
“Kuro,” Raven hisses, “You fucker.”
Very slowly, I tilt my head, wordlessly. Opal laughs in their face, watching as the rest of their motley little crew crawls up. Raven, Dove, Cleaver, Coldscar, an old feryran woman with a cane, and two zoof.
“You seriously brought seven people to fight all of us?” Opal asks with another laugh, pointing at them. “Like, jeez. I’m fucking terrified of you and your geriatric gang.”
Coldscar’s scowl deepens. “Gem,” he said calmly. “We’re here to reclaim what value was taken from us. You asked all of us for sigils. You stole from Aviary.”
“Yeah, we fucking did,” Opal says, grinning brightly, spreading their arms wide. “So what, huh? So what. What are you gonna do about it, Coldscar? Hmm?” they taunt.
I watch the old scithian’s eye twitches. His wings bristle, crackling crystals forming on them, before Raven holds out a hand. “Not yet, Coldscar,” they hiss. “Not yet. This is a safe zone, you know? We don’t wanna draw the Ire.”
In a moment, the old scithian freezes up, then gives a choppy, annoyed nod with crossed arms. “Fine,” Coldscar growls. “I am reasonable, after all. I will happily still accept my healing. It is the disrespect that bothers me. The lies.”
Dropping all pretenses of politeness, I simply identify them.
[Ice Age, lv. 161]
[Darkfeather Drifter, lv. 149]
Coldscar and Raven. I stare at those numbers, and I find that they’re strong. Very strong. They probably even climbed this monolith before, claiming all the incremental bonuses from the fruits in the safe zone - that’s why none grow for them.
“So what will you do?” Sylves asks teasingly. “Won’t you join us for this meal? There is plenty to go around,” she says calmly.
“And let myself be poisoned?” Raven scoffs. “No chance. No, we’ll wait until you leave. Then we’ll wait until the door reopens, and butcher you, whelps.”
Inu crosses her arms, staring them down. “Kuro here killed a city guard. What makes you any better?”
“Mercylessness,” Coldscar says calmly. His eyes are fixed on me, and I feel the air cool down by a small margin. Then, the mana in the safe zone hums in a gentle warning, and the older man retreats his attack. Fighting is forbidden in these places - not entirely; it could still happen, but it was rare for it to.
Still, with everything said and done… this is more even than it looks. They have five people wielding authorities, we have six. Jean and Anna can act as supports, and Bofoy can reasonably get themself out of the way. But Trey especially is dead weight in a fight like this, while Isabelle could make a good hostage for them.
Creating a scenario where we can face them might not be that easy, especially with a head start of just half an hour. That’s how long floors stay inaccessible after someone enters them. I hum, looking at the climbers who followed after us, tilting my head and wondering.
Could I kill them?
How many of them?
Then, I frown, just a hint of a gesture. Very slowly, I shake my head, clearing it. With a soft, controlled motion, I close my eyes.
Of course, it’s not enough. A moment later, I can hear a rustle of feathers approaching me. Raven, because of course it’s Raven. I keep my eyes closed as they approach, even when they lean in close, and I can feel their breath on my cheek.
“I’m going to kill you, Kuro. I will tear your head off with my own two hands.” Very slowly, they get even closer, and I lean back to avoid getting touched. Then, their long, gangly arms grab onto my collar. I feel the horrid discomfort that comes from having someone too close to me, and for a brief second, I consider killing them again.
Despite the Mono’s Ire, despite the warning hum of mana gathering density, I breathe in slowly. In clear vision of Raven, I let my shadow spread out, flowing across the ground like a small tide. My heart thumps in my chest, and I hold back. Even though I want to murder them where they stand, I hold back.
But the shadows around me pool and get darker. It’s a threat. I wait, for a heartbeat, then two, before Raven scoffs and lets go. Despite everything, I don’t even look at them. There was no need, after all. Maybe my eyes would have given my identity away, so it’s easier to just not.
Still, I feel the lingering heat of their touch on my collar. The way their skin brushed against mine, and I feel disgust. A horrific, creeping kind of disgust that makes me want to scratch and scratch until my skin falls off.
“Just you wait,” Raven threatens again, pointing at me. “Just you wait.”
I sigh softly, then press my hand to where they touched me and mentally signal Kuro. At my small command, shadows slither over the area, disintegrating my skin. My cells disappear into the darkness, and I feel the itch being burnt away by pain.
Raven just stares at me, suddenly frozen, as patches of darkness blossom against my skin. I don’t even wince, even as little squares eat themselves into me. Then, I pause Kuro, letting the darkness feel those blotches of missing skin. And I stare at Raven.
They want to kill me? That’s fine. I can forgive trying to kill me, I can forgive hurting me. But I really do struggle to forgive things like that. The casual invasion of my space.
Inu sits down next to me, and I feel the mental poke from her skill, but turn it down. Softly, I shake my head. The burning pinpricks of ache are a reminder of my agency, and it seems to make Raven a little uncomfortable. I don’t mind the pain, and I don’t want to share it. It’s mine.
She nods in understanding, but still says sitting next to me, quietly. For a long, long while.
Eventually, we eat. Eventually, some of us sleep.
Not me, of course. I just keep staring at Raven. Watching the way they move, the way they shoot glances around our little two-camp setup. And, all the while, I prepare. With them here, I almost feel chained again. Restricted to the shadow-stuff. But that’s okay. Inside my own body, I prepare. My blood fizzles and boils, and my vessel grows some more. More mana, always more mana.
[Class up! Vesselsmith 10 > 11]
Never enough.
- - -
When everyone wakes, we check the portals to the fourth floor. There are three of them, and we diligently make sure that there’s no hidden special exit. Sometimes those appear, promising greater rewards and greater danger, but also, frequently, being single-use. We don’t find one, for now, at least.
Instead, we have a fairly normal selection. Another underwater floor, this time showing a lair of something big. Since we still can’t breathe underwater, that one’s out. Next to that, there’s a bigger island, with caverns that open with the tide. It promises multiple explorations and staying in a confined space, so that’s out. And finally, there’s a forest. Tall, dark trees, their branches heavy with snow, ringed with distant mountains.
A level with a good amount of space to move around and nothing as immediately deadly as a lack of air. “Beggars can’t be choosers,” I mutter quietly with a shrug, and step through, Raven’s cruel stare at my back.