There had been just enough anima left for Rhen to craft a passageway down to the shore of the aquatic chamber, and while it hurt to use it all up, he didn’t want to waste anymore time searching for a way in. With that done, he put a team together to go hunt some fish.

Aki was essential. It was going to be his responsibility to keep an air bubble around the team as they dove down to do battle with the fish. Then he asked for Eli and Olliat. Jakira and Joseph protested, saying the team needed a bruiser. Rhen wasn’t so sure. They’d need to be agile and deal piercing damage, things a bruise couldn’t do. Plus, it was a scouting trip. Too many bruisers and every fish in the lake would come after them.

After a good night’s rest and a roasted terrocken leg sandwich, the team was ready to go. The tunnel down to the aquatic chamber was steep and short—Rhen wasn’t able to afford anything else. They took it carefully and emerged down on the sandy beach of the new chamber.

The sand underfoot was crushed crystals so fine it felt soft. The massive hanging crystals above glimmered with untapped power. He’d have to leave some of them behind for unlocking the nexus node, but as far as he was concerned, they were going to farm the ceiling bare to fuel their abilities.

The walls sparkled with more crystal fragments, and the calm waters reflected them perfectly. The cavern went on for what looked like miles. It wasn’t very wide, but it was long. This too was a closed ecosystem. Rhen wondered if it underwent a night of chaos like the rainforest, or if it balanced itself some other way. He’d be spending most of his time down here trying to find that out with the time they had left: nineteen days, he reminded himself, and they wouldn’t even be farming the crystals for another three.

Through the clear water, Rhen could see a fish about half his size swim up into the shallows. It was picking at some stringy kelp looking plant, perhaps eating other little fish out of it. After a moment of picking, the fish glowed hot white and increased to about Rhen’s size.

“We saw the trees do this in the rainforest chamber. They destroyed the neighboring trees then glowed, and grew.”

Aki hummed. “This may be a visible representation of their anima well growth. If these creatures do not have syntials, or the conditions under which they can get one is difficult, to grow their anima well they must literally grow their bodies.”

Olliat scowled thoughtfully, then turned to Rhen. “You said the crystals on the ceiling are an immense source of anima. The trees must maintain balance by keeping the tallest ones down, away from the crystals.”

“And it developed the hexawraiths to convert the dead material into water, to keep the forest thriving. I noticed none of them had body material outside of a core… they just exploded into warm water when they were hit.”

“The hexa-what-now?” Eli asked.

“Hexawraiths.”

“Six… ghosts...”

“Six-legged ghosts,” Rhen corrected.

Olliat chuckled. “What do you call the big bird monsters?”

“Terrockens.”

Eli sighed. “Terror chickens?”

“The guild is gonna go wild for those names.” Olliat rolled with laughter.

Rhen scowled. “Yeah, fine, how about you name this fish-thing then if you’re so good at it.”

Aki lifted the fish from the water and flopped it out onto the sand. The fish wiggled and beat its tail, the only sound coming from its mouth was the mop-mop-mop as it gasped for breath. Its scales were an opalescent purple-green, with hues of pink around the fins and gills. It was pretty, for a fish.

A pink syntial beside its gills glowed and a gush of icy water blasted Rhen’s stomach. The sucker punch sent him gasping and reeling, the only noise coming from his mouth the ­hup-hup-hup of failing to fill his lungs.

Eli chopped down on its neck with his short sword, but the scales shimmered, deflecting his blade. Olliat dug her scythe into one eye and stabbed her dagger into the other when it tried to flop away. Its next wiggle was weak, and then it was still.

Rhen caught his breath and approached the dead monster. “Water jet and shielded skin abilities. We’ll want to target the mouth and eyes, and get Wyland working on something to remove those scales.”

Olliat pulled her hook out of its eye. “Prismageyser.”

Rhen tutted. “That’s what you’re going to name it? And you’re giving me grief over Terrocken?”

“Mine sounds better.”

“Eli, please. Help me out.”

Eli wrinkled his nose. “It’s a little better.”

“Traitor.”

They got to work descaling the prismageyser—stupid name—and then cut out a few filets. Aki brought the cuts of meat up to Jakira while Rhen, Eli, and Olliat pulled out interesting crafting bits; thin, flexible bones, magical scales, teeth, and finally the core. Aki may have been onto something about the anima well, because the creature’s core was relatively small for its own size. It must’ve needed time to grow.

Aki returned with Bort a few minutes later to collect the goods. Rhen stared out at the water. It got darker the farther out he looked, and he couldn’t see the bottom after about thirty feet. He exhaled long and slow to calm his nerves. He was never a big fan of the ocean.

“Are you ready?” Aki asked.

Rhen nodded. “Yep. Yeah. Very much.”

Olliat and Eli didn’t look convinced.

Rhen gritted his teeth. It was time to stop pussyfooting around, and dive in.

He charged the water and ran into the shallows. The water was not as cold as he expected. Not that he wanted to bathe in it, but after a hot day in the rainforest chamber, it might be nice to take a swim here.

Tiny sparkles of bright blue and green rippled away from Rhen where he splashed, like the water was disturbed by his presence. He got to waist deep and took a deep breath to dive under. The water didn’t surround his face and dampen sound like he expected.

He opened his eyes to stinging water and saw a thick air pocked clung to his shoulders up to his nose. Rhen breathed normally in the little air pocket. He blinked a few times until the water felt more normal on his eyes and looked around.

The light pierced the water easier when he was under it, revealing a grassy field of kelp off to the left with little finger sized silver fish flitting through it. One of the more colorful prismageysers swam along the bottom, making close circles around the kelp. Finally, a silver fish broke away from the school, and the prismageyser struck like lightning. Great… they were fast, too.

Olliat and Eli dove in beside him, similar bubbles of air around their shoulders. Aki splashed into the water and zipped forward, making quick circles around the group. He pulsed bright yellow, his tentacles surging behind him as he cut through the water fast enough to make a bubble trail.

He was really in his element here, for the first time since Rhen had met him.

“This is much more agreeable, yes,” Aki’s words traveled through the water and hit Rhen a little slower than he experienced them on land. “I will be able to communicate simultaneously between you under water. Rhen, give us direction and I will relay the message.”

“Just think it?” Rhen used his monologue.

“Exactly.”

~And how do we communicate back to Rhen? Olliat’s voice came through just as clearly as Aki’s did.

~This is so cool! Eli was grinning under his air bubble.

“Okay, get the novelty out of the way now. We have fish to hunt—

~Prismageysers

“Right, Prismageyers. Stay behind me, flank right and left. Aki, you’re insanely fast, so please be our lookout. Use shadow snare at the first sign of an approaching enemy. Maybe we should run in a small school with soothing aura?”

“A fair plan. How far out should we go?”

“How long will the air last?”

“If you breath shallowly, perhaps twenty minutes?”

“Let’s see where ten minutes gets us.”

Rhen kicked forward and swam deeper into the shallows. Around thirty feet out from the shore, just as Rhen had seen from above, there was a steep drop off into deep blue. The sight of it sent a shiver down Rhen’s spine.

“Incoming.” Aki floated up to Rhen, pointing his tentacle about three o’clock.

“Already?”

Rhen turned to see what he pointed at. A silver fish three times Rhen’s size was floating just over the edge of the shallows. Its huge eye, like a fully grown pumpkin, was locked on the party. Its fins fluttered as it hovered like graceful death. It could swim into the deeper shallows to reach them, but it waited.

~Should we attack? Eli asked.

“Aki, can you hear what the fish thinking?”

“It’s thought pattern is very basic, but it is trying to decide if we are prey or predator.”

“Well, let’s show it what we are. We don’t want any of the fish in here getting thoughts of eating us.” Rhen swam closer to the edge, his heart beating faster as he saw just how deep it went. Twenty feet from the fish, he stopped. The fish sucked in a deep breath, “smelling” him and the others. Rhen put out his hand and triggered a narrow tremor blast.

The effect vibrated the bauble of air around his shoulders and sent waves out in all directions, but barely affected the fish. Rhen put a little more anima into the spell and fired it again. The disturbed water hit the fish and it backed away a measure.

“I do not know if that ability will be effective here.”

“I’m sensing that.”

Rhen thought of his other abilities… primordial breath was useless down here unless he wanted to fill up his air bubble with fire. Swift twitch and caress of night were all he really had going for him.

“All right, silvish, try this on for size.”

~Silver fish… silvish? Really? Olliat groaned.

Rhen pulled out one crescent blade and activated swift twitch. He kicked his feet and surged forward, catching the fish off-guard and scoring a good slice along its pectoral fin. The silvish darted off into the darkness of the depths below, leaving Rhen alone at the edge of the precipice.

He kicked again and backed away from the edge, his heart thundering.

~Way to scare it off, Deo.

“I believe that is the opposite of what we wanted to do.”

“Right, sorry. Let’s patrol the shallows and see what we can find. Maybe a few cores could unlock some aquatic abilities for us.”

Rhen removed the other blade from its holster, swimming with his arms behind him to make his profile smaller. They reached the kelp field where Rhen discovered tremor blast was quite useful in getting enemies to reveal themselves. The kelp parted at his spell, showing that several more man-sized silvish were hiding inside and a few prismageysers.

Three of the fish charged all at once, their orange eyes following Aki. He must’ve looked like a tasty treat compared to Rhen and the others. But Aki was quick, avoiding them easily and pulling the fish into striking range for the others.

Olliat’s scythe worked wonders in hooking the fish. She let the fish drag her along through the water as she stabbed into various tender areas, bringing her fish down quickly. Eli struggled with his short sword, so he switched out for a dagger, which worked better. Rhen’s crescent blades were designed for fast swipes, which were difficult underwater. He managed to hook his blade in an eye socket, then de-fin the silvish, rendering it dead in the water.

They dragged their kills up to the shore where Bort waited to dissect them. Eli stayed to help, feeling a bit useless in the water. Rhen and Olliat returned to the shallows to find a clutch of eggs nestled deep in the kelp. Rhen felt a little bad about murdering the ones that had been protecting the eggs. They left those be, despite probably being delicious, they didn’t want to upset the ecosystem too much.

They made their way around the west end of the cave through the shallows, which seemed to wrap all the way around the lake. On the opposite side they discovered interesting crab-like creatures, most of them the size of Rhen’s chest, with spindly legs as long as his. There were clams of some sort too, no doubt guarding nice little pearly cores. Rhen pocketed a few of the clams, who seemed not to notice their change in fate.

Only two more silvish made an appearance in the shallows, both were small enough that Rhen didn’t want to kill them. The four cores they had would likely be enough to get some aquatic abilities for a few of them… though they were going to need a lot more.

One thing at a time, he reminded himself.

Aquatic abilities for his primary delve team first, then they could fight the bigger fish and help everyone else. They made it back to the exit side of the lake and Aki pulled the water from their clothes, drying them instantly.

Rhen sighed, looking at the flayed carcasses. “If this is all were going to be able to hunt, we’re going to need a lot more of them. There don’t seem to be that many of this sized fish in the shallows.”

Aki hummed. “I would like to explore the deeper water alone.”

Rhen tensed, a thousand thoughts of worry washing through him.

“Do not fret. I am fast, and with soothing aura I can remain nearly invisible. In case of extreme danger, I am also a proficient magic user. We must map the depths so we can understand what is waiting for us.”

“He’s right,” Olliat said. “He’s made for this.”

Defeated, Rhen nodded. “Okay. Bort and Eli, stay down here and work on these fish while Olliat and I go check what abilities we can get to make things easier. Aki, you will check in with them every fifteen minutes, yes?”

“You are like a concerned mother. Yes, I will check in.” Aki dove into the water. His glowing body zipped toward the depths and out of sight in a second. Damn, he was fast. He must’ve been holding back so the others could keep up.

Rhen plucked the fishy cores out of Bort’s pack. “Time to roll the dice.”