Chapter 276: Chapter Two Hundred Seventy Seven

The next day we didn't end up going to some gambling den or fighting pit.  Instead, Abel brought us out to a corner of Doomtown where a large cavern  lake sat, and paid a guy in a small shack a few chits to rent us a boat.  As he was doing this, Wren, Vector, Sloane, the other Beast Lord  Initiates, Callie and I all stood off to one side looking confused. I  glanced over at Mel. "Is this...fishing? Is he taking us fishing?  Because honestly I didn't think he'd scheduled leisure activities.  Like...I guess the inn, but that's more necessity than anything."

I'd  kind of started talking myself into the idea when Mel started to snicker. "Yes and no. Riot Bay IS a fishing spot, but it isn't the kind  that you go to when you want to relax. This place is going to be good  training." She stepped meaningfully away. "For you. I'm not going into  that fucking lake again for as long as I live. It's wet and it smells  awful. Enjoy your training though kids, here comes Apollyon with the  boat keys!"

Sure enough, Abel was on his way over with a  few pairs of keys. He held up one, tossing the others to Wren and  Sloane. He addressed the latter casually. "I'm not buying boats for all  your minions. You can all squeeze into one or some of them can stay with  Mel. I don't really care. I'd recommend not packing in too tight  though. Room to move is key in Riot Bay." He gestured to the boats  docked at the shore, all of which were surprisingly roomy.

He  pointed to me and Callie. "You two are with me. Mostly because I want  to watch you flounder." He snickered at his own joke, or at least I  assumed it was a joke since we were next to a lake, and then turned and  strolled away. Before he got too far he turned his head, calling over  his shoulder. "Big man, you and your buddy should be fine on your own,  but probably stick close to our boat if you can. Worst case I can  probably get over to save you if you need it."

Wren glared  at him, muttering under his breath. "I don't even know what the hell is  out there but I already want to kill it just to prove to that asshole I  can." He paused. "Probably not the most sensible instinct, but oh  well." With a shrug he headed for the shore, clicking the fob on his  boat keys. There was a loud chirp like a car door unlocking and one of  the boats shuddered slightly. He nodded to us. "See you both out there I  guess...probably."

Heading for the boats, he dragged  Vector along. Abel was already aboard what I assumed was our boat. I  turned to Sloane, who was bringing Beric and Croll and leaving all the  randoms behind. "You have any idea what this is about? Because whatever  it is I have a bad feeling about it." I did too, but I didn't bother  saying so since it wouldn't change anything. If Abel thought this was  something that would be helpful to use, we'd do it.

With a  nonchalant shrug I informed her I had no clue, and we separated from  her and the other two to meet Abel on the boat. Climbing aboard, I could  see further out into the lake, and I couldn't help but be struck by the  beauty. The water of the lake was a flowing, opaque liquid, like the  kind of thing you would find in some kinds of glow tubes. Still, despite  that common imagery, there was something hypnotic about the swirl of  the softly glowing blue substance. Looking back, I could see it rolling  up and down the black sand beach to the side of the boat, and the image  was hypnotic.

Callie smiled out at the lake, eyes closed  as she inhaled deeply. "Ok. This is really nice. Kind of curious how  it's going to try to kill us, but for the moment I'm enjoying the trip."  I chuckled at that, not able to disagree on either count, and slipped a  hand into hers. Asfter a minute or two staring off into the distance  though, we heard a loud noise as Abel cleared his throat.

"hey."  He said lazily. "It's nice that you two are bonding, but I need some  help to steer this thing. A ship this size can't be crewed by one  person." He paused. "Well, I guess it COULD if I was willing to actually  work at it, but I'm not, so you're going to help." He pointed me over  to the jutting spear of wood in the middle of the deck. "Solomon, go  unfurl the lightsail. There's no wind down here, but the ships use an  insubstantial energy screen that harvests the light from the lake."

Walking  over, it took me a second to find the controls, but they were  surprisingly uncomplicated. I pressed the button, and missed what he  told Callie to do as I stared in awe at the sheet of glowing blue  energy. It unfurled along the length of the mast, and I could see it  pulse slightly brighter every few seconds as it absorbed the energy.  Abel walked over to check on the thing. Knocking on the mast, he nodded  amiably. "Good, still works. These things are discount transportation at  best. They cost almost nothing to maintain, so they're profitable as  hell, but they do break down regularly."

Shaking off the  sight of the pulsing energy screen, I turned to Abel, who kicked the  deck and stood by, watching a podiom rise from the wood. One it was up  he fiddled with the controls a bit and we began to smoothly glide  through the water, going from stationary on the beach to mid motion so  suddenly I had trouble isolating when the motion began. "Alright." I  say, tired of waiting. "What the hell are we doing here?"

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Abel  just chuckles, not bothering to take his eyes from the distant  skyline...lakeline? Caveline? From the horizon. "We're here for the Riot  Tide." He said casually. "It's an excellent training tool. Basically,  when we reach the deeper parts of the lake, we'll stay put. After an  hour or so, the tide will come in. A wave of lake water will carry  hundreds of fish right over the surface of the boat. we should be able  to stay planted fine, but the fish will pummel everything on deck."

He  pointed down into the opaque water. "You can't see them, but they're  pretty big. They're all G-rank...well, mostly. The F-ranked ones only  come up deeper into the lake, they're too big for the smaller waves here  to lift. Anyway the value of the fish varies based on color. They come  fast and hard, and your job is to punch them out as they attack and then  grab the tails to chuck them into a basket you'll keep at your side.  The fish change color as they climb higher up G-rank, with red being the  lowest and purple being the highest."

That  sounded...insane. "So you want us to what? Catch a bunch of fish? How  exactly will this help us progress?" I could see how this would be fun,  but it didn't seem like any kind of training. I wouldn't complain if we  were just screwing around, but I definitely didn't want to miss the  point and lose out on valuable training if it was there. I came down  here to improve, and I wasn't really confident yet we could achieve  decent results in the tournament.

"Good question." Abel  said approvingly. "The answer is simple. You're being graded. I'll be  assigning points based on the fish you catch. Minus two for red, minus  one for orange. Yellows are nothing. Green is one point, blue is two.  Purple is three but those are stupid rare so I wouldn't hold my breath.  This exercise is to help you judge the danger of incoming attacks at  your partner without looking. It'll help with recognizing feints and  things like that. Plus we can cook or sell the fish. They taste great."

Huh,  that was fair enough. I could see the usefulness, plus I hadn't really  had a chance to work with fish in the kitchen much. Might be fun to take  some home to make fish tacos for Callie or something. I turned to see  her smirking with anticipation and rolled my eyes. It was nice to know I  could read her so well at least. "Alright." I said, getting into the  idea. "What do we need to do to get ready. You said we shouldn't get  washed off the boat? I don't know exactly what that stuff is but I'd  prefer not to fall in."

"Good call." Said Abel blandly.  "If you swim too deep you can run into the F-rank fish, they're mean  bastards. Plus you can drown, but that's rare. Because of our higher  Might we can condense way more air into our lungs on a strong exhale,  plus Vitality makes oxygen use more efficient. Anyway, don't fall in,  yes. I could come save you, but it would be annoying and I might not  find you before you got fish slapped to death. If you DO fall in, make  sure to swim for the surface as fast as you can, if you can figure out  what direction that is without being able to see anyway." I winced as I  imagined getting sucked in upside down and swimming for the bottom by  mistake. That would be bad.

The next  hour passed without much drama. I'd expected this place to be crazy  even outside the Riot Tide. Riot Bay didn't exactly sound like a scenic  get away, but to my surprise, it was pretty much exactly that. Staring  off into the distance the swirling blue lake water was like a glowing  pane of opaque crystal, flat and smooth for as far out as I could see.  Despite that, the swirl of the glowing substance created a sort of  shifting effect that varied the glow from spot to spot. It was almost  hypnotic to watch.

Still,  despite the beauty, it was hard to relax and take it in. We were about  to be literally pelted with fish. I wasn't sure what that would be like  but it was bound to be unpleasant. It was impossible not to constantly  brace for an attack from all sides, which made the faux serenity of our  surroundings even worse. This was the calm before the storm, and we all  damn well knew it. I could see Wren and Sloane's boats nearby, scything  through the lake water, leaving barely any distortion in the surface.

My  first clue that something was coming was Abel. He'd been sitting back  looking bored for most of the time we'd been out here. Between one  breath and the next though, his eyes snapped open, focusing sharply on  the surface of the water. He crossed the distance to the railing of the  ship in a blink, looking down into the water as if to confirm something,  then nodded. Turning back he walked over and opened a hatch, pulling  out a series of heavy looking braided metal baskets. He dropped one next  to each of us, then walked to the other side of the ship and dropped  the third next to himself.

"Alright."  He said solemnly. "We're about to get hit. Plant your feet, try not to  move around too much. I put your baskets close enough together to let  you cover each others backs. No weapons and no poison fire or any of  that shit. If you ruin the fish it defeats the purpose. Stun them and  toss them in the basket, it's enchanted to keep them in stasis. Any  questions?" We both indicated we had none and his solemn expression  melted into his usual anticipatory grin. "Good." He pointed off into the  distance where the shape of a cresting wave could be seen rolling  across the surface of the lake. "Because it's about to start."

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