147/62 - Cracking Up

While a third of the scuttling armored crustaceans swarmed into the formations of city guards, another third turned and headed into the waters of the bay. The last portion scampered for the streets of Fort Coral. Joe ran at Kendell's heels with Finn and Wen on either side of him as they chased after those headed into the city. The first crab they came across had two of its legs sliced off by an axe hurled by Kenda. Joe left his axe in its belt loop. He was happier with his magic and, if need be, his claws.

He vulture-marked the biggest crustacean in front of them, suppressing seven percent of its health and lowering its strength. Then he nailed it with [Rattlebones], leaving it flailing and lashing out at everything around it, including other crabs. Wen sent surgically placed arrows through oozing joints that the curse was making obvious for her.

He tried to repeat this process to all the shelled monstrosities around him, but he found that the more creatures he marked, the harder it was for him to maintain focus. Each mark was demanding a sliver of his attention. He could do three without [Crystal Mind] and eight with it, but any more than that started giving him a fierce headache. [Rattlebones] did not have the marking aspect, so Joe saved the vulture hex for the biggest foes and just stuck with the pain curse for the rest of the skittering terrors. He also found [Deadened Flesh] was perfect for disabling the large, deadly, scything pincer.

[Grit Razor] could damage limbs and eyes, but it was mostly deflected by the thick shells. It was also difficult to use in a skirmish with allies and bystanders all around him. Joe found the rock spray was effective at slowing clusters of enemies before switching to targeted attacks once the team closed the distance.

Joe left most of the actual killing to the archer, the akhlut, and the axe-hurling savant. He was quite content to weaken, distract, and debilitate their enemies while bolstering his friends.

Finn was enjoying himself immensely. The akhlut was munching away on the crabs, swallowing them down, shell and all. The only major damage he took was when a sheep-sized swarmling latched onto his tail, nearly slicing off one of the flukes.

They had no specific plan for their assault other than to keep the vicious swarm away from civilians. Any crab looking to break into a building was targeted. If they heard a cry, the squad dashed forward to give aid and protection. Finn often received even greater shrieks of terror than the spawns of Cauldrakon did, but he was good and kept his focus only on the scuttling foes.

Another cry rang out, drawing their attention to the sounds of breaking wood and masonry coming from the lane beside them. Confident from their initial bouts, the team charged into a large courtyard only to find they had just made a terrible mistake. A single massive crab was hammering its way through a shuttered window, inciting the cries, but it was not alone. A dozen other sets of periscope-like eyes swiveled to lock onto the party. Worse yet, the wall behind them was covered with crabs, which dropped down to cut off their chance to retreat.

"Form up," Kendell shouted. "We slide to that wall. Finn in front. Joe and I on the sides, Wen center. Concentrate fire. Joe, you are dropping the initial debuffs, so you call out targets. I'll alert the guildhouse. Hopefully, there's someone available to give us a hand."

The biggest crab tearing at the building rivaled Finn in size. Joe decided to turn their four-member squad into five.

"Kill the other crabs!" he shouted, casting. [Mesmeric Command] had no trouble dominating the shelled monster's mind. Too bad the spell had an hour-long cooldown, this is likely the one casting of it he was going to get. The courtyard erupted into chaos as the mighty swarmling began smashing and crushing its brethren.

"Okay. That works too," Wen exclaimed.

Joe skipped the vulture hexes and began dual-casting [Rattlebones] on the closest targets. With [Crystal Mind] going, he also managed to get a pair of the [Casting Claws] into the fight. These more autonomous paws battered legs and slashed at eye-stalks, without needing much attention from Joe.

"You suck at calling out targets, Joe," Kenda scoffed, letting a hatchet fly while catching a returning tomahawk.

"Sorry. A lot going on at once."

"Don't worry about it. Enthralling the big one was brilliant. We should be able to hold as long as you can keep it controlled."

"Ok, but call out if you need heals. It's too tight here for a [Halefire]. I'd be healing the crabs too."

It was also too tight for [Grit Razor], even though the crabs were clumped perfectly for one. People were in the buildings around them.

Joe cycled through curses and heals, adding [Healer's Ward] to later spells to boost the defenses of his allies. [Efferous Endurance] and [Swap Stamina] kept his pools from draining too quickly. He handed out the Stamina-boost to his allies as well, to keep them from tiring.

Kendell was doing a solid job of keeping the crabs on her side locked onto her. She tactfully maneuvered the crabs to foul up each other, allowing her to knock away any clean attacks with her weapons. While not inflicting much damage, she was nicely holding up her border of the battle.

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Finn and Wen were the bigger damage dealers. Every crab Joe cursed with [Rattlebones] began leaking fluids from their weakest joints. These showed the elven archer exactly where to drive arrows straight past the hard-shelled defenses and into the vital areas within the creatures.

Finn was hammering crabs with his feet and crushing them with his jaws. He also wanted to use his tail, but that would have broken their line wide open, so Joe asked him not to as strongly as he could.

Joe was slugging down another mana potion when he heard Earcellwen shout out.

"Our fight is attracting attention, guys. I can hear more coming. A lot more!"

"Ok, change of plans. We go there," Kenda yelled, pointing to a spot under a heavy balcony. "Wen and Joe, get your backs to the wall. Finn and I take the front line. We move on my mark."

Yet before she had a chance to issue that command, a red doorway appeared at the entrance to the courtyard.

"[Rigorous Ram]!" bellowed a familiar and welcome monotone shout, as Tezeno exited the portal. A steely wave of force erupted from his shield, driving every crab in front of him hurling across the plaza and into the far wall.

"TEZ-EN-O!" Kenda chanted gleefully.

"I cannot believe he's still alive," droned the archon. While his voice was as emotionless as ever, he bore a wide, relieved smile across his face. "Damn good to see you again, Joe. You had me worried."

"I thought you would have kept up with us," Joe quipped back at the sentinel.

"Goof around later. Form up!" the savant ordered. "With Tez shielding us, this will be easy."

"Fair enough," Tezeno agreed, stepping into place and raising his barriers before the spawn of Cauldrakon could regroup. "But after this, I very much want to hear how Joe left in the claws of one chimera and returned with another as an ally."

Later, a heavily steel shield swooped in front of a knobby pincer that Joe should have easily been able to parry on his own. As the shield rang like a gong, Tezeno shouted to get Joe's attention.

"Joe, pay attention. That's the third time I've had to cover you from an obvious attack."

"What's up, Joe? You're off all of a sudden," Kenda agreed.

"I don't know," Joe answered as another shudder ran down his back. "Somebody is walking on my grave."

"WHAT?" three of his guildmates exclaimed in unison. Hah'roo just tossed him a questioning look as she pulled tight her line, entangling a pony-sized crab spawn. She had met up with them a few fights ago.

"Sorry. Earth-expression. It means that inexplicable, creepy sensation. It's like feeling you're being watched, but much worse," Joe explained. "It keeps happening. I keep expecting Tarz to come swooping out of the sky again. Or that death god is still pissed and going to throw something else at me."

The group had fought their way back down to the beach and were facing off against the scores of monsters still running around the coastline. Overhead, the sky was breaking open, and beams of bright sunlight were lancing through the tattered cloud cover. A ship had been driven up onto the beach, and the guild team was preparing to see if any survivors within the vessel needed their help. A hundred yards away, Rattler Squad was fighting in formation against the largest remaining bulk of Cauldrakon's spawn.

"Which death god did you piss off, Rhepoes or Dhmyz?" Kenda asked in a worried tone.

"The second," Joe replied, as the sentinel stated "Dhmyz," at the same time.

"Seriously, Joe! That is not a god you want to cross," Wen scolded as her arrow wrapped up another crustacean in thorny vines.

"Agreed," huffed Hah'roo. "While not specifically a dark god, Dhmyz is a vengeful deity. The zephyr my great aunt lost fell afoul of the Desolate One. You are making my job harder, Joe."

"I was in the middle of a hurricane, and a guy was dying right in front of me. What did you expect me to do?" Joe griped as he healed himself, even though he only had a few cuts. The real reason he targeted himself was that by doing so, he also healed Finn. The big brute was enjoying the hell out of trampling the hard-shelled creatures. Unfortunately, he was not being at all defensive about it. His legs were covered with deep lacerations and punctures.

With Finn back to near full health, Joe moved toward a broken section of the hull. His [Night Eyes] and [Assess Wounds] would be the best tools to scan for survivors within.

"When this is over, you should make an offering to Dhmyz," Kenda suggested.

"Am I going to have to sacrifice something?" Joe asked. As he fired off two more curses at a pair of crabs rushing at him, Joe noted his companions nodding. "Great," Joe snorted, as the spawned creatures began to screech and flail around. "Can I just offer up one of these guys?"

"You would be killing these monsters anyway, Joe. That is not really an offering. There are animals that you can buy that are raised for such ceremonies. Don't make that face," the skill-savant scoffed, hurling an axe into one of the crabs Joe had just jinxed. "If you don't make nice with the Deathbringer, then your healing career is going to be littered with complications. It's not worth fighting a god to do what you love to do, is it?"

"Fine. I'm sorry, Dhmyz," he shouted at the sky. "I will make an offering," he promised, though the idea of slaughtering an animal to appease a deity made him feel a bit queasy. Which he knew was stupid since he was not a vegetarian by any means. Something about the sacrifice part just did not sit well with him.

"Your words ring false, Deceiver," hissed a voice from the darkness of the ship's hold. Through the gap in the hull, Joe had a second to catch sight of a pitch black figure lunging toward him from within the ship before his world exploded into pain. Something was driven into his chest and out of his back, while a second strike punched through his eye.

Joe tumbled backwards, sliding off two blades formed of dripping darkness. As he hit the ground, dying, he watched a shadow of Groven Suttrell step through the wooden planking of the ship and advance on him.

Joe should already be dead, but he wasn't. Not yet. But he was about to be.

Dumbfounded, he watched the umbral knight close the distance to finish the job.

Divine names translated God Name: Translated Word (definition)

Rhepoes: Repose (goddess of the dead, graveyards, and the sleep before rebirth)

Dhmyz: Demise (god of death, dying, and the unquiet dead)

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