Chapter 45: Chapter 45 – Battle worms

It wasn't long after they'd entered the enchanted forest that the next swarm of [Restless Blot-Sprites] appeared, but despite being numerous they were all quite squishy. A wall of intense fire in their path—surrounded on both sides by smaller walls of water to lessen the risk of the nearby trees catching fire—was enough to char almost every single one of the little creatures to death.

Everybody except Rosa stared at her with surprise after witnessing it.

"You're a mage?!" Allyssa exclaimed.

"Nominally? No. However, I can replicate some of their feats," Scarlett said as she scrunched her nose at the smell that wafted into it. Ok, it might be an effective method, but it certainly had its downsides. "I would have thought you to already be aware of this."

"Kat never mentioned it," Shin said. "She just said you could be crafty sometimes."

Scarlett arched an eyebrow at him. Crafty? She felt like Kat had some weird priorities over what and what not to share here. "Anyhow, now you are aware. I am quite limited in my abilities, however, and will still require your protection, so do not grow complacent."

Allyssa gave a sure nod. "We won't. You can trust us."

"Good," Scarlett said.

Allyssa gestured to the defeated creatures. "Are we just going to leave things as they are?" She looked around at some of the plants around them. "I'm not sure about these fairies, but some of these plants look really interesting. It might be worth bringing some of them with us."

Scarlett shook her head. "Leave it be for now. We cannot carry it all with us, and my pouch is limited in its capacity. We will handle any gathering as we make our return."

"Ok. If you say so," Allyssa said, though there did seem to be some reluctance in the young woman's voice as she looked at an oddly-shaped plant.

As they began to delve deeper into the forest they continued to be accosted by swarms of [Restless Blot-Sprites] every ten minutes or so—the critters were certainly annoying, the way they didn't seem to care for their own self-preservation—but they weren't a real issue with Scarlett handling them quickly each time.

Nonetheless, annoying was annoying.

After about an hour of walking deeper and deeper into the magical woods, Scarlett was beginning to wonder how much they had left. She knew that, in this dungeon, simply continuing in the same direction would bring you to the same place no matter which path you chose. She just didn't know how long that would take. And while the sights around them were breathtaking, with the glowing lines etched into the trees and the forest bed, the diverse flora, and the beautiful leaves hanging above them, you did get used to the sight after a while. There were only so many times she could see the same color-shifting flower before it wasn't as special anymore.

Honestly, she was a bit let down by the experience. Perhaps she would have enjoyed it more before she arrived in this world. Or maybe she was just naturally too much of a cynic when it came to these things. She preferred it in small doses.

Finally, just as she was starting to worry if the structure of this place had changed from the game, she spotted something other than the now-familiar trees ahead of them.

It was a large clearing. A tranquil lake sat at the center of it, with a small island situated in the middle of the lake. On the island was what looked like a classical park pavilion, made of old white marble, and overrun with vines and plants that clung to its pillars. Though it was hard to tell from here, there seemed to be some kind of blue light originating from the center of that pavilion.

The others also appeared to take note of this as they neared the clearing. Rosa squinted her eyes, looking toward the structure. "Looks like a perfect spot for a short little break."

"It would appear so, yes," Scarlett said.

"Ok. From that, I'm assuming it isn't."

Leaving the underbrush of the forest itself, Scarlett stopped at the edge of the clearing, a dozen or so meters from the lake itself. "A wise assumption."

The others stopped beside her, scanning the area.

Scarlett noticed a slight disturbance on the surface of the lake. There was virtually no wind at all here, so the surface was mostly still. "I would suggest you all prepare yourselves," she said, focusing on the spot she'd seen.

Fynn and Shin took a couple of steps ahead, while Allyssa brandished her hand crossbow. Rosa, as usual, had a small smile on her face as she held her instrument in her arms.

Everybody was quiet for a while, but nothing happened.

"Do you really think something is going to come?" Allyssa asked, looking around. Scarlett also noticed Fynn's head move, as if he was trying to listen for something, but he stayed quiet.

"I do," Scarlett said.

Maybe they had to get closer before it started. Well, she wasn't going to do that. That's only what you did in games, where dying once or twice wasn't a big deal.

She conjured a large ball of fire right above the lake's surface. Steam immediately rose from under it with a loud whoosh as the flames touched the water.

A second passed.

Then something massive emerged from beneath the surface and swallowed the sphere almost too fast for her to even see, before disappearing back into the lake immediately after.

Well, that went better than she had expected. She only meant to catch its attention.

A deep, reverberating noise reached their ears as something that resembled a tail created a large splash in another part of the lake.

"What in Ittar's name is—" Allyssa began.

Her words were interrupted as a geyser of water erupted up from the water as a gigantic, elongated creature flew dozens of meters into the air. A high-pitched screeching followed its wake, almost forcing Scarlett to cover her ears to avoid pain. The creature's skin was a deep beige—almost coral—tint with bulbous nubs and thick hairs spread unevenly along it, taking on a purple shade the closer it got to its tail. Its head, now turning away from the sky and to them, was just one massive mouth, with a maw of rough, yellowed teeth that grew irregularly. It opened to reveal a pitch-dark abyss. Above it was a pair of stretched, sunken-in eyes that were nothing but black.

The creature was floating in the sky as if by magic—duh—and reminded Scarlett of an earthworm — if you'd first put it through some kind of Lovecraftian nightmare machine.

Rosa let out a low whistle. "I'll admit, I wasn't expecting that. It's been ages since I met someone with teeth that bad."

The high-pitched screeching echoed out from the creature once more, even stronger than before. This time Scarlett covered her ears.

"Alright, enough of that." Rosa cranked her instrument and two melodic notes followed each other. Suddenly, the sound around them quietened down considerably. Scarlett lowered her hands, giving the woman a curious glance. She didn't know Rosa could do something like that.

"Do we have to fight that?" Allyssa asked, staring up at the horrifying monster.

Almost as if in response, the behemoth began its descent straight towards their group. Before anyone had the chance to say anything else, Fynn was off. Running ahead to meet the creature, that now focused its attention on him, Fynn bent down just as its large maw loomed over him. He jumped up right before it reached him and struck it just beneath its mouth.

Amazingly, even though the blow seemed limited in its effect, it was enough to knock the monster slightly off-path. Instead of devouring Fynn, its head slammed into the grass behind him with full force, gouging up a mountain of earth as it burrowed through meters of ground.

The rest of them hastily moved to the side to avoid it. Feeling it would be a waste to miss this opportunity, Scarlett conjured another, larger, sphere of fire of an even higher intensity than before in its path and watched it get devoured with a small smile.

Even more screeching rang out as smoke left its mouth, but the majority of the noise was canceled by Rosa's magic.

Scarlett wasn't the only one taking this chance either, it seemed, as Allyssa aimed her crossbow and shot off a bolt that went straight into one of its eyes, disappearing in the black sclera.

All of them moved further away as it finally reached a halt just before the forest edge and turned towards them. More of Rosa's music sounded out as Scarlett felt a new sense of renewed vigor suffuse her, and once again Fynn came running at the monster, with Shin following.

It roared at Fynn, meeting the young man head-on. This time, however, Fynn's jump brought him on top of the monster's head, where he started bashing down at it with full strength. It started writhing in all directions in response, and soon Fynn was sent flying into the nearby trees.

Shin came running at it, his shield now on his back as he wielded his sword with both hands. A silver light slowly formed around the blade, soon extending out of it like a long lance, and he used the distraction Fynn gave to slash out at a spot right under its mouth, cutting off a decent chunk of meat. The blade disappeared in the process, however, and now the monster's attention turned to Shin. It seemed to have a hard time finding him, though, as it spun its head around several times before lashing out. Scarlett now noticed that its right eye, where Alyssa had fired her bolt earlier, had rapidly taken on a sickly green color.

As Shin managed to jump to the side to dodge the creature's lunge at him, Scarlett raised her hand to create another fire sphere. The monster didn't appear to have any special defenses other than its large size. It moved around too much, however, and her sphere didn't do more than singe the parts of its skin that it briefly touched.

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That was enough to catch its attention, though. Soon it ignored Shin who was slashing at its side with his blade and started flying towards Allyssa, Rosa, and her who were all standing near each other.

Rosa immediately responded by playing another short musical piece, whereas the air between them and the creature suddenly started moving as if there was a hot fire under it.

"Move it!" the woman called out as she took Scarlett by the arm and both of them ran to the side, with Allyssa running the other way. The worm monster didn't seem to even notice their movement as its maw tore straight through the place where they'd been and tossed up a cloud of dirt around it. Scarlett saw another opportunity as it was about to turn around and created four Aqua Mines—among the largest ones she'd ever created—and detonated them close to its still working eye. Sweat running down her temple, she saw how one of them struck its eye and caused it to let out another bout of high-pitched screeches.

It started throwing its body around randomly in search of them, like a worm trying to escape on land, when both Shin and Fynn suddenly came running up. Fynn jumped at it once again, landing on its head and only barely hanging on with his whole body. Then Shin threw his sword—with accuracy that amazed Scarlett—and Fynn caught it by its blade and slammed it straight into the monster's head.

Another screech from it was followed by the monster flying up into the sky with Fynn on it. He wasn't about to let it go though, as Scarlett observed him continuously slamming his fist into it over and over again next to where the sword was. Eventually, it was too far up for her to see what happened, but suddenly she felt the air around them move as the creature let out one more scream, louder than all the others, before stilling in the air and starting to fall towards the lake.

She saw Fynn grab the sword from its head in its descent and jump off—from what would probably be considered a four-story building's height—and land at the border of the lake without any issue.

Water flew in all directions as the monster's dead body landed in the lake, and Scarlett watched on as the giant carcass slowly sunk beneath the water.

"I feel like I have to take a bath," Allyssa grumbled, wearing a grimace as she smelled her cloak. There was what appeared to be some kind of mucus or slime covering part of it. Luckily Scarlett hadn't gotten any of that on her.

Shin walked up to Allyssa and gave her a once-over before nodding his head in agreement. "You do. Maybe two."

She glared at him.

"What now?" Rosa asked, moving up beside Scarlett. "We having a picnic?" She gestured toward the pavilion on the island at the center of the lake.

"Of a sort," Scarlett said, trekking closer to the lake where Fynn was staring down into the water with a frown. "Is there something wrong?" she asked.

He turned and looked at her for a few seconds. "I don't know. I can't sense things well here. Everything is off."

He pointed down at the lake. "The fish here aren't acting like they should. Not with a predator this large nearby. Even now they're barely reacting to it."

Scarlett tilted her head. He could even sense the fish moving around in the lake? She didn't know his senses were that good. What she did know was that, for some reason, he usually couldn't sense things well in the Wandering Realm.

She thought about it for a minute. "Perhaps it is because there are in actuality no fish here," she said.

This earned a befuddled look from him.

"An interstitial space borrows properties from the realms it is connected to, but that does not necessarily mean those properties are wholly authentic," she said and looked out over the lake. "I imagine this type of phenomena could be the product of that trait."

Not that she knew the details about how this stuff worked. That was just a guess of hers, judging from some of the descriptions she'd read in the game and what Fynn just said.

She pointed up at the moon that hung in the night sky above them. "Much like the moon, the fish might not be entirely real."

Fynn's eyes widened, his bright yellow irises suddenly starting to shift around as his gaze began moving around fervently. It was as if he was taking in their surroundings and the nature around them for the first time. Then he turned back to the lake and, without saying a word, dove straight into it before Scarlett could even say anything.

"Somebody's excited," Rosa's voice sounded out next to her, the bard grinning as she walked up to the edge of the water. "He found a fish he want to catch?"

Scarlett shook her head. "I am uncertain. However, I wish he would have stayed for a moment longer before leaving."

"I get what you mean," Rosa hummed along. "Used to have a dog myself, when I was younger. Cutest little mongrel you'll ever see. Wouldn't stop running around trying to give people's legs a shagging, though."

Scarlett turned to look at the woman. Did she already have an idea as to what Fynn was? As far as Scarlett knew Rosa shouldn't know about his tribe, so that shouldn't be the case. But it was true that he wasn't exactly the best at acting inconspicuous when it came to his abilities either. Rosa getting some kind of idea from that wouldn't be too surprising.

"So. How we getting over there?" The woman pointed towards the pavilion. "I'm guessing you're not planning for us to swim?"

Scarlett observed her for a moment longer, then turned to look out over the water. "I am not," she said.

The water's surface right in front of them was suddenly broken by a head of white locks. Fynn looked up at them with water dripping down his face, his hair sticking to the skin like seaweed.

"The fish are missing," he said—almost like a question—as he moved to climb back up on land. "The lake is completely empty except for that monster."

"Then we have one mystery solved," Scarlett said and stepped in front of him, halting him from climbing up. "Before you leaped into the water, I intended to present you two tasks." She pointed towards where the monster's body had sunk beneath the surface. "The first is to retrieve the core of that creature."

Fynn stayed afloat by kicking water—it seemed to be rather deep even this close to land—and spun around to look. "It has a core?"

"It does, although I cannot tell you where, as I do not know. It will be your responsibility to locate it by yourself. Can you manage that?"

He looked back at her and nodded. "Yeah, probably. What was the other task?"

She pointed to the island next. "While it is not visible, there should be a bridge connecting to that island. However, it can only be seen from under the water, so I require your aid in finding that as well."

From what she remembered, you could avoid the fight with the worm monster completely in the game if you already knew where that path was. Otherwise you had to find it by jumping into the lake, or just swim the entire way to the island.

Fynn looked towards the island, then the spot where the monster had fallen. Soon he disappeared into the water again without any complaints.

Scarlett was a bit amazed at his response, actually. Or lack of it.

While it did fit with what she knew of him, she herself never could have fathomed diving into a lake like this without any concerns. Not when it was this dark out and she'd just witnessed that it was home to a giant monster.

She shook her head at the fact. Some people were just different.

They ended up waiting for about twenty minutes before he returned, now with messy clothes that were absolutely covered in gore that was only partially washed away by the water. He held up a hand in which he held up a slightly translucent purple gem that glowed.

[Doomscreamer Gaspaw's Core (Epic)]
{The collected energy gathered by the Doomscreamer Gaspaw from its surroundings over a long period of time}

Scarlett received the object without any words and placed it in her pouch of holding as Fynn climbed up on land.

Allyssa grimaced at his appearance. "Did you have to cover yourself in all of its innards?"

He looked down at himself. "None of this is from its innards though? Its core was in its—"

Allyssa held up her hand. "I don't want to know."

Fynn just looked at her for a moment, then shrugged. Then he turned to Scarlett and pointed to a point of the lake further away. "The bridge you mentioned is over there."

Scarlett told him to show the way and their group headed off in that direction. Like the game, the spot he pointed out looked like any other part of the lake. The water was tranquil and reflected the odd moon-replica just like normal water would. And even though there wasn't too much light to lend visibility far beneath the surface, it didn't look like there was anything there. Yet, after carefully lowering her right foot into the water—feeling the liquid seep into her boots wasn't the most comfortable experience—she found solid ground just as it reached her calf. She gingerly took another step without any issue.

Turning to the others, she signaled for them to follow. "It is time for the next event."

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