Arcane Kingdom Online: Death Match (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 4), page 17
“But isn’t that a lot to place on one person’s shoulders?” I asked. “What if you’re having a bad day? What if you truly are scared?”
“All these things are part of life. You cannot escape feeling emotions Clay, but what you can do is learn to master them. To recognize them and let them make you stronger, not weaker. Being brave isn’t about being not scared, it’s about being scared and going forth anyway—in service of your family, friends, and allies.”
I sighed. “I hear you.”
“But it’s not what you hoped to hear,” said Varen, sensing the frustration in my sigh.
“I agree with what you’re saying rationally. I just don’t know how to live that way in practical terms.”
“It’s a struggle,” said Varen. “There’s a wooden statue of my mentor in the bottom layers of the great tree of Marshgale. Since I became one of the leaders of the marshland, I’ve gone to the statue and prayed every night. Crying, pleading, and begging for answers. How was I supposed to lead our people? How was I supposed to project strength when I didn’t feel it at all? I was full of doubts Clay, but then I realized something. There’s strong people who believed in me. Where I doubted myself, I had confidence in others. For me that was the key. If I didn’t believe in myself, I believed in those around me who did. It was mental trickery, but it calmed me down, made me realize so long as those around me believed in me, so could I.”
I smiled. My whole party came to mind. I had a girl who wielded a gigantic sword at my side. A magnificent healer. A boxer and beta-tester of the game. A world-class thief and drunk. They all believed in me. Maybe I should too.
“We have lots of travelling ahead of us,” said Varen. “Get some rest.”
I lied down. The wind howled around me. Bears and wolves scratched at the bottom trunk of our temporary home.
27
I woke up to a fly on my nose. My eyes twitched and I swatted it away. I blinked. It was morning. Varen had stayed up all night on watch.
“Hey, why didn’t you wake me?”
Varen shrugged. “You needed more rest than I did. It’s okay.”
We rolled up our mats and put the fire out. We power jumped back to the ground level of the mudlands.
Varen closed his eyes and listened to the wind. He then pointed ahead of us. “This way.”
We walked across the thick plains. My boots sunk into the mud with every step. It required an irritating amount of strength to push through and continue moving forward.
“Aren’t we worried about leaving a trail?”
Varen shook his head. “The swamplings wouldn’t come out this far and the golpe wouldn’t be expecting us to take this route. We’re fine for now.”
We spent the next four and a half days walking through fog-ridden mudlands. We slayed a few mudbears, but we mostly walked around most mobs and given our levels, they avoided us as well. We spent nights camped out on the branches of trees, taking turns keeping watch. The training slowed down to a few tips and pointers as we traveled across the land. With each passing day I worried more and more about getting back on time for the next trial. Eventually the mud-strewn ground filled with more puddles until we were at the edge of a large swamp. Reeds stuck out of the brown murky water. Tadpoles and large leaves floated on the surface. A set of croc eyes emerged at the tip of the water and then submerged from our vision. In the distance was a ramshackle fortress made of broken wood and scrap metal. It formed a tower, rising above the swamp and also below it. The pale blue heads of swamplings swam around the fortress: their alien inky black eyes, gleamed above the swamp’s surface. Others stood with spears at the corner points of the swamp fortress. Golpe archers were also there, defending the structure.
We fell to the ground. Our clothes soaked into the shallow water.
“So our mission is for the two of us to destroy the whole fortress?”
“Yes,” said Varen. “Or get them to vacate it and retreat back to their lands. This swamp is supposed to be a buffer zone between our two homes.”
“Do you think they’re encroaching towards your land to simply antagonize you and see what happens? Or is there a reason for why they’ve set up shop here?”
“We’ll find out later,” said Varen. “Right now we need to form a plan.”
In the middle floor of the ramshackle tower fortress was a thick muscular swampling with two machetes sheathed at either waist. Above his status bar were the words [Swampling Captain].
“If we take him out,” said Varen. “The others will retreat. He’s high level though and the others will come to his aid. We’ll need to create a distraction.”
“What if he goes underwater?”
Varen materialized a strange mask with tusks and handed it to me. “Take this. I meant to give it to you earlier. It will let you breathe and fight under water.”
I took the device and added it to my inventory. I really hoped the battle didn’t go in such a direction. Underwater levels and zones were always my least favorite in other video games I’d played.
“Okay so we got the contingency plan figured out,” I said. “What are we going to do for a distraction?”
Varen smirked at me. “I’m looking right at it.”
My stomach lurched. “Oh no. You’re telling me I’m going to be bait?”
“Exactly. I’m going to utilize all of the basic ranger abilities stacked on top of one another, plus level 18 ranger skills, like sniper’s eye. I’m hoping while you distract them, I’ll get a clean shot at the captain.”
“Alright,” I said, skeptically. “I’ll summon Gryph and draw their attention away from the fortress.”
“Perfect,” said Varen. “Let’s begin.”
Gryph and I soared through the gray clouds above the swamp. We swooped down in the air while I gripped my bow and released ten mana imbued arrows at once. The barrage of attacks rained down on the swampling fortress. Cries and alarm bells rang out. Gryph soared away from the fortress and across the surface of the swamp.
The pale blue creatures dived off their posts from the swamp fortress and into the water. They swam after us. They glided through the water like torpedoes, honing in on their target.
They were taking the bait.
Gryph spun around. I unequipped my bow and stretched out my hands, casting frozen ground on the water.
These swamplings were smarter than the ones we’d fought before: they shot themselves out of the water right before it froze, landing on their feet and continuing their charge towards us.
The legendary bird flapped its wings at the incoming swamplings, unleashing gust, pushing them back. I added to their misery with a big hit of air blast, knocking them back even further.
In the distance, Varen hung back at the edge of the swamp, initiating hunter’s stance. He went transparent, but because we were allies I still saw the silhouette of a camouflaged person. He dipped his arrow in poison, nocked it, and let his mana slip into the arrow. He released it, triggering sniper’s eye. The arrow travelled across the swamp like a bullet. You didn’t see it. Only the release and the landing. It went straight for the swampling’s heart; but a purple shield emerged in front of the swampling captain.
A golpe shaman flickered into view nearby.
The swampling captain pointed a finger directly at Varen, who had reappeared, the invisibility from his hunter’s stance no longer protecting him.
A group of swampling archers and spearman swam towards the Aeri ranger. The golpe shamans waddled behind them, buffing their ATKP and TGH stats.
“Well there goes plan A,” I said.
Gryph’s brows furrowed. What’s plan b?
I materialized an MP potion. We need another distraction. I uncorked the glass vial and guzzled down the blue liquid. Gryph triggered another gust attack to keep the swamplings at bay. I triggered summon bound spirit. A bright flash of light blinded everyone across the water. Beneath the glowing light was a small elemental spirit.
“Clay! Gryph! So great to see you guys! What’s happening? Are we shopping for gear again? That was fun. We should do it again. I think next time, I’d like to help you choose my accessory. Can elemental spirits where hats? I’d like a hat, because—‘
“Uhh, Chip, if you look behind you, you’ll notice some pretty freaky creatures want to kill us.”
“Kill us? No way. Why would they do—” Chip spun around in the air and screamed. “They’re like mermaid-vampires. Mermires!”
“They’re called swamplings and they’re pretty pesky. C’mon, we got no time to waste.”
Two out of the four swamplings charged us head on. The other two came from either side of us in an attempt to surround and fight us from the rear.
Gryph keep the two incoming from the side distracted with more gust and pushback abilities.
I turned to Chip. “Take those two on. Unleash hypnosis to keep the two distracted. I need half a minute or so to get in position.”
I burst into a crackle of electricity. I blinked across the swamp to the shallow end, concealed by a patch of reeds. I crouched onto the muddy swamp ground, sinking into it.
The battle unfolded as I expected. Gryph released gust and knocked the two swamplings on either side back. By the time it took them to recover, Gryph was able to do the attack again.
Chip floated towards the other two attacking swamplings. They threw their spears at him, but the spirit went in and out of materiality. The attacks passed right through him.
Next Chip cast hypnosis: swirling pink rays flew out of his smoky immaterial core. The blast hit the two pale blue swamplings in the head and the effects were immediate. They looked around dumbfounded and confused.
“You two,” Chip instructed to the two swamplings. “Are not best friends like you think you are. In fact, you hate each other. You’re enemies.”
The two swamplings turned to each other and their eyes narrowed and they barred their teeth in anger. One lunged his spear at the other and the other flipped across the shallow water.
A lopsided question mark flickered underneath their status bars to indicate the hypnosis debuff was active. I was guessing I had about thirty seconds before they returned to their senses.
More than enough time.
I planted my feet and entered hunter’s stance. My skin went transparent, I could see the reeds and water spiders below me through my arms. I pulled out five arrows from my bag and dipped them into my green vial of poison. I then lifted my bow, aiming straight into the clouds. I imbued my mana into each and every poison laced arrow and triggered barrage. The arrows flew threw the sky first heading upwards and then down, until they rained onto the battlefield, hitting all the swamplings attacking my summoned spirits. One landed in the back of the hypnotized swampling. It screamed out in pain. One arrow lodged itself right in another swampling’s brain. It collapsed on the floor, dead. The experience points rushed across my HUD.
The two remaining swamplings were disoriented, still unsure where the attack had come from, even though my hunter’s stance had worn off. I was too far away and Chip and Gryph were still fighting them head on. They didn’t have time to look around and figure out where the arrows were coming from. Too bad for them, as I had another poison tipped arrow full of imbued mana, flinging across the battlefield. This time I went for long range shot. The arrow broke right through the swampling’s tough skin, puncturing its chest. Red blood with a purplish hue, poured out from the wound. The creature collapsed on the ground. Another dead. I queued up another arrow, but Gryph managed to jump in the air and devour the poor bastard before I got another shot off.
Leave more for me next time.
“Clay!”
It was Varen. I was so preoccupied with our own attacking swamplings, I’d lost track of his position. His HP was full, while a whole crowd of swampling and golpe corpses full of arrow wounds floated around him. He pointed to the swampling’s ramshackle tower fortress. The captain ran across the platform he was on and jumped off. He clasped his hands together and dove into the deep reaches of the swamp.
“We gotta go after him,” said Varen. “Put on your water-breather.”
I materialized the strange mask and equipped it to my face. Through muffled words, I said, “Gryph, Chip—can you fight underwater?”
“You betcha,” shouted Chip.
Gryph was silent. “Gryph, buddy, did you hear my question?”
I’m sorry, Clay. I can swim but I cannot battle or maneuver underwater. I’ll have to sit this out.
Fair, I replied. You stay up here and keep guard. Let me know via psy-link if anything happens out here.
I ran across the shallow area of the swamp until the water was at my chest level, then I dove beneath the surface.
The swamp water was greenish-brown like an oxidized fog. Mud and seaweed swayed at the bottom between rocky crevices. The swamp went a lot deeper than I expected. After the shallow area it completely opened up, the fortress tower descending into the dark cracks.
“Do you see where the captain went?” I asked.
Chip floated beside me. “No. It’s too foggy to see anything down here. All this dirty water. No fun. It’s wrecking our underwater adventure.”
Varen swam with a dagger in hand and lit the dark swamp realm up with an old-fashioned Aeri energy ball.
Good thinking.
I followed suit and formed an energy ball in my hand. The bright light of pure mana made it less spooky in the underwater zone.
“There he is,” said Varen, through the muffled sounds of the water-breather.
The swampling captain was a tiny speck, swimming deeper and deeper into the murky swamp world.
We swam after him. I pulled my arms and propelled myself further into the depths of the swamp. My ears popped and pressure mounted against my temple.
What abilities worked down here? I assumed I’d have to give up on any of my fire abilities. Air, earth, and water magic would be my best bets. I could imbue my ranger daggers with mana and use those for up close and personal fights; but again, I wouldn’t last long doing so. I did have electric blink though to get me out of anything too hairy.
As we went deeper into the green swamp, rumbling vibrations pulsed around us. I kept swimming. A bad feeling crept into my stomach.
The swampling captain came into view. He was swimming around a large mound of dirt, poking it with his spear.
“What’s he doing?” asked Chip as we swam towards him.
“Get back,” said Varen, stopping and swimming away. “I know what they were doing here.”
The mound the swampling captain was poking shook off its dirt and two glowing red eyes blinked awake.
They hadn’t set up shop as an affront to the Aeri. No, it was much worse. They wanted to control the power of this giant beast.
[The Swamp Crab].
28
The crab made a loud humming sound, physical energy emanated from it and rippled through the water, pushing us all back. I checked out the crab’s stats in my HUD.
Swamp Crab
Level 35
HP: 3300
MP: 24
“Hi, Mister Crab!” said Chip, floating towards it.
“Chip, get back!”
The giant swamp crab swiped at the little spirit with its pincer claws.
With renewed confidence, the swampling captain charged at us with his spear, knowing he had the power of a swamp crab behind him.
I conjured an ice sword in my grip and swam to fight the swampling head on. He swam towards me with fury. He was seconds away from impaling me, except right when we met, I burst into electricity and appeared behind him. My ice sword was imbued with my own mana as I slashed against his back.
+Critical Hit!
The captain screamed out in pain and spun around to attack me. I threw out air blast knocking both of us further away from each other. Chip came behind him and blasted him with hypnosis. He looked around confused at his surroundings.
Varen twirled through the water with a special dagger dance, slashing the captain to death.
+680 EXP!
“See wasn’t so hard,” I said. “I guess he was a glorified trash mob.”
“Clay!” yelled Chip.
Varen burst into a cloud of electricity and reappeared right beside me, knocking me over with an intense air blast. A giant crab pincer shot in the area between us.
“You’re welcome,” said Varen. “C’mon we gotta pull this creature out of the swamp if we want to defeat it. There’s no way we can beat it below here in its domain.”
I swam ahead towards the surface with my teammates. The crab rushed along the muddy surface below, coming for us. Angry and hungry. A very bad combination.
“Can’t we leave,” I said with the water-breather. “We took out the swampling golpe forces.”
“No, an awakened swamp crab will wreak havoc on the area and lead to more strife,” said Varen. “We need to finish this now.”
We burst back onto the surface of the swamp.
“This way,” said Varen, swimming towards the ramshackle tower fortress. We climbed onto the rickety surface and ran up to the third layer of the tower.
Varen slid against one of the pillars and looked down to the swamp. A giant splash echoed from below. The deadly crab had reached the surface.
Gryph soared in the skies above and came in for a landing.
“Gryph!” said Chip, greeting his fellow bound spirit pal. “Did you see the giant crab? It wants to kill us, but we won’t let it. Isn’t that right Gryph? Clay’s two best pals working together!”
Silence him. Clay. Hop on.
I climbed onto Gryph’s back. I turned to Varen.
