Chapter Thirty-Two
Vester was really, really, really sick of being incapacitated by his own abilities. Thanks to Krysta he was now able to open his eyes, which meant he could see the dark tentacles rising from the water and attempting to snatch his Party off their raft.
He might not have been able to move, but that didn’t mean Vester was helpless. Duplicates of all his lovers appeared all over the raft, and the craft itself seemed to blur and expand. The next tentacle that attempted to crash down on Kora found itself missing and striking open water instead.
Li Ra vanished from beneath him, moving fast enough that Krysta was caught off guard as Vester’s head thumped into the metal-sheathed logs.
The oni was on her feet with her pistols out, standing before Vester; her weapons released a blistering series of cracks as shot after shot of lightning-charged energy struck the tentacle hovering above them.
A meaty thud echoed with Skylar’s swing. Her huge wrench caught an attacking limb in its serrated jaws, and she twisted so hard she tore the tentacle in half. Purple ichor sprayed in the air, but Skylar ignored it. The djinn just spun and swung her weapon again to bat another appendage away.
Kora and Reve had taken back-to-back positions.
Reve’s huge wings were spread wide and her hands were held up above her head.
The metal of her prosthetic gleamed in the artificial light, and anything that descended at her found itself being wrenched and twisted with horrible force.
Reve’s telekinetic force creating a number of shearing planes that shredded the tentacle.
A bang sounded when Kora rammed her shield down against the steel-coated logs.
Lightning exploded outward along the raft and then arced upward to create a dome above their heads.
The entire craft was covered in her sparking shield and whatever was attacking them did not seem to appreciate the electricity sparking through the waters around them.
The sound that bubbled out of the water erupted with such force that their platform momentarily took to the air.
A huge dark shape spasmed wildly and the untorn tentacles thrashed and slapped at the white water.
Vester was relying on the strange sense he’d developed while changing the raft to get a sense of what was going on, but that was telling him they were being attacked by some kind of giant crab with tentacles in place of legs.
When their raft came down it blasted more water into the air, but Reve deflected it so none of the caustic fluid landed on the Party.
The Elemental Wall had an effect beyond stunning their attacker, however, because the monster finally rose to the surface.
What Vester saw made him think of a crab that had fucked a honey badger, the mammalian head having no place in the twisted hybrid of chitin and tentacles.
The thing’s attempt to bite at the raft might have snapped it in half if it hadn’t aimed at the wrong target.
Vester’s illusions hadn’t faded, so they threw off the monster’s attack and made it hit open water instead.
Then Li Ra blew three of its six eyes apart in a blistering flurry of strikes.
Its two huge claws rose and tried to come down on their vessel, but Kora blocked one with her shield and Skylar smashed the other away with her wrench.
Krysta hadn’t stopped healing Vester the entire time the battle had gone on, though she’d had to dig her paws into his clothes to keep herself in place because of the rocking platform beneath them.
The pandali’s small size actually made it easier for her to keep contact with him, and the rest of the Party seemed to have the fight in hand, so Vester didn’t blame her for her decision.
He still wished he could do more though.
Reve threw out a metal hand, and Kora suddenly flew into the air.
The kitsune dismissed her shield and drew her second scimitar.
Both weapons crackled with lightning, and when Kora hit the monster’s shell the beast let out a shriek.
Chitin split under Kora’s strength, so she rammed her weapons deeper with a snarl.
The creature tried to knock her off, but Reve’s telekinesis prevented the claws from reaching back over its own head.
The Avatar of Life was visibly straining, making a pulling motion while dragging her arms toward herself.
Her efforts paid off: the huge claws creaked but made no progress in smashing Kora.
At the same time, Li Ra was using her pistols to blast lightning shots into the remaining tentacles so they couldn’t strike the Prismatic Paladin either. Each time the bolts hit a rubbery limb, the entire length spasmed and flailed.
Something released inside of Vester. He wasn’t sure if that was the proper way to describe it, but he felt a strange, ephemeral pop in the middle of his essence. His full awareness of the world returned, and he was able to sit up and wrap an arm around Krysta’s body to cradle her to his chest.
The pandali let out a chitter when she felt him move, but she didn’t fight him when he rose to his feet.
Vester’s other hand swung up and he aimed his cane at the crab-beast. Dazzling sparks and flares of light and sound began going off all around its remaining eyes.
The beast spasmed and flinched back from the sudden stimulus.
The distraction worked in Kora’s favor. She jerked her shoulders from side to side, and then rammed her entire body downward. The blades sank home until the quillons struck the shell. With that, the beast finally began to sink.
Kora sucked the monster into her inventory in the same movement she used to leap back to the raft. “That was… exciting,” she said. She was breathing hard, and her attention turned to Vester. “Glad to see you’re still with us.”
“Me too,” he managed. “Krysta fixed me up,” he added.
He planted a soft kiss on the red panda’s forehead, and she happily nuzzled into his chest. “Did we finally lose that damned T-rex?” he asked.
He glanced back the way he thought they’d come, but after a second Li tapped him on the shoulder to point in a different direction.
“Current has us spinning,” she explained. “We’ve curved southward, so you have to look back toward the north to see where we launched from.” Vester’s new wisdom meant his eyes were keen enough to spot the huge dinosaur on the shore. The beast appeared to be circling the edge of the lake.
“It’s still tracking us…” he noted. “Looks like it doesn’t want to come into the water. Not thrilled that it’s refusing to quit, but at least we’ve got some breathing room now. How are we doing in getting toward the island?”
Reve let out a sigh. “We’ve actually lost progress,” she admitted. The woman sagged, glancing toward the craggy spire in the middle of the lake. “I stopped pushing us to help fight the sea monster. This is my fault.”
“Hey,” Skylar interjected. “You ensured no one got hurt from the water. Don’t act like that was a failure. We can make it to the island if we’re alive. We can’t if we’re dead.” Krysta let out a squeak of agreement, then hopped out of Vester’s arms to land on Reve’s shoulders.
Okay, that’s cute, Vester thought. Seeing Krysta cuddling a bat-woman is weirdly adorable.
Look at her hugging Reve’s neck. It took a lot of self-control for Vester to avoid snorting at the look of confusion on Reve’s face.
But after a moment of internal debate, the Avatar of Life lifted her hand and scratched Krysta’s spine.
“Are we in imminent danger?” Vester asked, turning in a circle to see how they were doing.
The raft was being tossed on the white water, but he didn’t see many rocks or obstacles.
There were no sounds of scraping to signal the board was raking anything hidden underwater, and he couldn’t spot any creatures approaching.
“Okay, doesn’t look like it. Let’s take a moment to rest, and then we’ll work on getting to the island. ”
The need to reset was probably more mental than physical, but Vester wanted the entire Party to err on the side of caution. His own reserves were still incredibly low. There was a dull pain throbbing through his entire body, and without combat to distract him it was a lot harder to ignore.
He knew Reve had to have used a lot of energy between pulling the raft and throwing up shields to prevent the corrosive spray from landing on anyone.
Then she’d gone a step further by helping Kora take down that crab-beast. Li Ra and Skylar were likely doing better; but Krysta had been continually healing him.
That left half the group drained, and the raft wasn’t big enough for Skylar to deploy her golems.
They were also moving, which meant Krysta couldn’t activate her Sanctuary to let them recover faster. Pacing themselves was going to be vital, since they had no idea what kind of dangers might be waiting for them when they finally got to that fortress.
No one argued with him; instead, everyone took a moment to assess their gear. The water had done some damage, but at this point most of them had self-repair enchantments built in. It took mana to undo the rot caused by the lake, but they were able to get it done.
Krysta returned to her true, pandali form, though she swiftly gave up her attempt to set up a campfire on the deck of the raft.
Vester was too drained to create a metal frame to protect it from the water, and anything that got wet decayed to sludge with disturbing swiftness.
In the end, Krysta slapped together bread, meat, and cheese and handed them out.
Her skills weren’t as effective without her Sanctuary active, but they all still gained a bonus from eating her food.