Mature content Warning: A little foul language, and lots of exploding fish who fear for their lives.

Author's Notes:

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Chapter 7: Burning Terror

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Agonized screams echoed through the area as blood spurted into the air in a wide crimson arc. A Shar-Shar fell back and turned into motes of light before he hit the sand. They kept coming despite the cries of their people. Perhaps they continued to press forward because of them. Either way, the wave of oncoming monsters did not let up.

Scott and the group had spent the better part of the day hunting in the area around the island. They had mostly focused on Finnie swarms, but occasionally they had been forced into battle with a small group of Shar-Shar. In the water, the hideous man-fish were clearly the superior fighters. They moved with a grace and lethal ease that had forced them back to the surface several times.

That had proven to be a problem. The Shar-Shar were not stupid. Every time one of them managed to get away, a larger group would appear some time later. Scott had begun to suspect that the world was continually upgrading the threat in order to better challenge his party. He had been right, a little too right.

Not long after sundown things had suddenly changed for the worse. The background music shifted from a cool island beat to an ominous drumming sound that echoed over the water. Soon Shar-Shar began to walk out of the surf. Unlike before, these monsters wore armor made of shells, and wielding spears that seemed to be made with far greater care.

A few of them would have been no problem. However, they came out of the surf by the dozens. In fact, even as a wave of them fell, another wave would appear from the surf. It seemed as though they would never stop coming!

So, they fought the Shar-Shar on that bloody beach. Two mermaids, a sorcerer, an elf arcane blade, and an overly excited fairy fought with everything that they had.

Kiley unleashed her devastating cry and eight Shar-Shar immediately began to stagger around. Neira did the same to another small group. There had to be forty of the beasts on the beach at the moment, and it was all that the party could do to keep them in check.

Scott twisted to the side to avoid the thrust of a coral tipped spear then immediately launched a hard strike to the fish-man’s face. The side of the creature’s face caved in a little due to the power of the blow, but it did not die. Despite the damage inflicted the creature seemed to be more angry than hurt.

A short distance away, Rhea swept her sword low to knock a fish man to the ground then leapt up and to the side to slam the pommel of her blade into the face of another opponent.

Ero, surprisingly, had joined the battle directly as well. The fairy currently flew high in the air, well above the reach of her opponents. Whenever she saw a new wave of monsters walk out of the ocean, she would report their numbers and position to Scott. She could have fought directly, but the use of her powers took a lot out of her and she currently chose to reserve them in case of emergency.

“Scott, there are six Shar-Shar on your far right! Uhm... Three O’clock, Three O’clock!” cried the fairy girl excitedly.

“Thanks Ero!” Scott shouted to the fairy, but kept his sight on the opponents in front of him. He was not sure if a concept such as aggro existed in this world, but he had to do his best to keep the fish men away from the mermaids. They could disorient the Shar-Shar, but that did little to actively defeat them outside of the occasional brawl that occurred between the confused creatures.

Another spear flew toward his position and he barely dodged it. The heavy weapon punctured the sand with great force, sending the tiny granules up into the air.

Unfortunately, the attack had been used to get him out of position. Three more Shar-Shar launched simultaneous attacks. Spears came at him at three different angles and he was forced to try and dodge. He successfully avoided two of them, but the third spear-point tore into his side. A bright red number twenty-six rose up above his head.

He strangled his cry of pain before the sound could be born. If he cried out it could distract his companions. That attack had hurt, but he had already taken worse.

Pain lanced through his body as he hurled himself backward and away from his opponents. He performed a quick series of agile evasive movements; a backflip and a cartwheel were the most notable movements. Now that he had enough distance to actually take the time to focus, he put his effort into crowd control. “Freeze!”

A cone of cold energy lanced outward from the man and neatly captured six of the Shar-Shar. They had a mild resistance to the cold when they were in the water, but he had discovered that their resistance did not exist on land. He was not certain that it made logical sense, but he knew that the cold effect of his spell was diffused a little in the water. On land, however, it was a tightly packed attack.

“Maghric! Maghric...!” cried a Shar-Shar, as though it was the first time he had cast that spell that day.

Another of the Shar-Shar dropped his spear and immediately wrapped his arms around his body. He shivered and complained, “Sho Cuwwold...”

Scott did not give them a chance to recover. He leapt among them like a demented Mexican jumping bean. He bounced around while throwing punches and kicks that expertly exploited several openings left by the partially frozen fish. Their cold-blooded nature made it hard for them to resist the effects of the freeze spell, but he knew that the effect was too temporary in the sub-tropical heat. What he needed to do was corral them into a tighter group.

He succeeded in his goal then jumped back before he slammed both hands forward and cried out, “Flash!”

Scott’s sole electrical spell had gotten a great deal of usage that day. The fish-men had little magical resistance outside of the water, and they were actively weak against electrical spells. The short range disabling spell erupted in a brilliant flare of light. Five of the eight Shar-Shar were suddenly blinded and paralyzed by the abrupt change in light-levels and the influx of electricity that coursed through their bodies.

Each of the bipedal fish, including the ones that did not receive the disabling effects, lost over a dozen points of health. It was not much but that did not matter. Scott only needed to control them and bring them close together. He quickly performed a short series of backflips then thrust his hands forward once more.

The paralysis and blindness had not worn off yet, and that was all that he needed. He cried out, “Burn!”

A tiny dart of flame, a golf ball sized sphere of burning hot energy raced outward from his outstretched hands. The innocuous little flaming dart of energy suddenly erupted into a thunderous explosion of light and fury that easily slaughtered six of the Shar-Shar that were still closely grouped together. Two of the fish men that were unaffected by the paralyzing power of his flash spell, were still close enough to be blown away by the attack.

One of the fish monsters caught fire and screamed while it flew through the air. As luck would have it, he landed among a small group of his brothers and began to flail around while he burned. The fish men were not particularly prone to catching fire, but the intense heat and magical nature of the flame caused the status effect to spread like a plague. Soon three more Shar-Shar screamed and flailed as they burned.

Chunks of charred fish man rained down upon the blood covered sand. Ero cried out as a piece of burning ribcage nearly hit her on its way up, but then laughed a little when it went flew down to land in the sand. It was a slowly burning reminder of a life destroyed. “That’s what you get!” she cried.

Scott ignored Ero’s aggressive outcry and took a moment to check the area. More of the monsters had begun to move out of the surf. They needed to finish off the current group quickly.

Between the efforts of everyone involved, at least two dozen of the Shar-Shar had been killed out of the current wave, but the constant reinforcements meant that there were actually slightly more of them on the beach now, than they had been when he had last checked.

“Time to do something stupid...” he unleashed a slow, feral, smile. Stupid was something that he was good at.

The man pulled out a fairy’s cure then chugged it down. He needed to health and mana restoration even if it was a minor restorative. During the battle he had expended roughly half of his mana. It was time to blow his load, so to speak.

He ran forward and shouted. “I’m going in! Watch yourselves!”

“What? Scott!” cried Rhea.

“That’s not my name right now!” cried the man excitedly before he leapt into the air and thrust his hand out toward five tightly grouped Shar-Shar.

He shouted, “Burn!” and unleashed fiery hell upon his fishy foes. They exploded with ridiculous ease. The power of magic versus something with little magical resistance was quite overpowering.

“What should I call you then?” called out Rhea, before she ducked under a spear thrust then slammed the pommel of her sword up once more to crack the weak chin of her opponent.

Scott turned to another knot of fish men. “LEEROY JEEENKINS!” he screamed, before he raced off at high-speed.

Rhea resisted the urge to laugh. She was currently in a four way battle with her own little group of Shar-Shar and needed to devote her attention to the fight.

“Burn! Mothafuckas!” cried Scott in a demented but strangely happy manner. The fish-men exploded in a shower of fire and light. His high intellect, technically anyway, combined with the attack power of his spell and the weakness to magic that his opponents possessed, made it easy to destroy them when they grouped together.

Soon, the Shar-Shar realized just what a terrible thing it was to group together when fighting these people. The semi-deranged sorcerer in place like a demonically possessed Dreidel, or perhaps a simple spinning-top, he was not Jewish after all. As he turned quickly in place he spammed his burn spell in any direction that he saw more than two Shar-Shar grouped together.

His mana emptied rapidly, but the Shar-Shar were heavily demoralized by the sudden onslaught of explosive fury. Several of them threw their spears away and raced toward the surf. A few others fell to the sand and started to cry.

<<< Message >>>

Your actions have severely demoralized the attacking army of Shar-Shar. Their status will decline according.

>>

After the sand and smoke cleared less than a dozen of the monsters were left on the beach and no more seemed interested in climbing out of the surf. Rhea finished off her opponents just in time to see her man-toy casually glance over at the remaining fish men then raise his hand.

Two more of them cried out in panic and tossed their spears away. They raced toward the sea. One of the remaining creatures suddenly clutched his chest and cried out in pain. He exploded in a shower of light despite no outward sign of being attacked. Scott was curious about that for a moment until a message popped up informing him of what had happened.

<<< Message >>>

Your recent actions have struck fear into the heart of the Shar-Shar warriors. Due to your uncompromising display of magical might, one of the defeated Shar-Shar suffered a panic induced heart attack and died from fright.

With his dying breath, the Shar-Shar has named you Grooshkillirgwt ergfrtuuuo.

>>

A soft ding penetrated the air and a new message appeared. Scott blinked at what he saw then started to laugh. His sudden laughter caused the remaining Shar-Shar to become even more frightened and most of them threw down their spears and ran away. Only one remained on the beach now, and he was currently making an attempt to dig a deep hole.

<<< Message >>>

Congratulations! You have earned a new title!

Translated from the Shar-Shar language, your new title means: “Burning Terror.”

You will do an additional 5% damage to aquatic opponents when using magic.

Aquatic denizens you are on good relations with will respect you more. Those who you are not on bad relations with may court your favor.

Whenever you use attack magic in front of an attacking aquatic monster you will have a 3% chance of inflicting a powerful fear effect. If this effect hits three times in a row, while they are still under the effect, most attackers will die instantly. The chance of success increases to 5% if you use a fire spell.

>>

Scott turned towards Rhea. “Did you know that I strike fear into the heart of fish men everywhere?”

Rhea squinted at him then quirked her right eyebrow. “No, I did not.”

He trotted merrily over to the fish man attempting to dig to the other side of the planet then casually punched him in the back. The Shar-Shar jumped up, looked at him and then screeched in fright.

Scott started to punch him again, but the fish man flailed his arms around and several items appeared in the air and dropped to the group. *ding!*

<<< Message >>>

A Shar-Shar warrior has offered you all of his worldly possessions if you spare his life.

Do you accept his offer? Yes | No

>>

Scott looked at the random items casually and then back at the fish man. He mentally accepted the offer but pointed at the frightened fish. “Go. Tell others about what you saw here today, and let them know the true face of terror.”

He had regained a little mana so he wasted it casually by pointing to the side and unleashing his burn spell. When the fiery explosion went off the Shar-Shar screeched in fear once more then turned around and ran toward the sea at all possible speed. He waved his arms in the air in a spastic manner while a trail of strange and foul smell liquid trickled down to the ground.

Scott laughed at the ridiculous scene then leaned down and collected his new treasure. Several interesting items appeared in his inventory.

“Neat, a new skill ring...” He eyed the soul of the fisherman ring carefully.

He turned to call out to Rhea but the battle music ended and the cool island beat returned. A battle report appeared before him. His eyes opened wide as he realized exactly what he saw before him.

<<< Battle Report >>>

Victory!!!

Your party defeated a contingent of 312 Shar-Shar warriors in a running battle! Due to the number of opponents that were defeated your party will receive additional rewards.

+ 86890 EXP

+ 61000 Fayth

+ 624 Ability Points

Item(s) Acquired:

Fish Scales X 246

Coral Spears X 7

Cracked Coral Spears X 112

Shar-Shar Tooth Necklace X 5 [rare]

Special:

Torrent Spear X 1

Soul of the Fisherman X 1

Coral Armor X 1

Fayth X 234

Medium Pearl X 1

>>

Scott noted the special items that he had received, but realized that it was just a list of the items that the last Shar-Shar had bribed him with before he had fled to the sea. What really excited him was the message he received immediately afterward.

<<< Level-Up! >>>

Your acquired experience exceeded the necessary remaining requirements to master your equipped lore skill ring. The remaining experience has been applied directly.

You have gained five levels at once!

Level 13 -> Level 18

>>

“Holy Shit!” exclaimed Scott. That battle had been insanely profitable for him. Due to the fact that the battle report and rewards never came until the battle was completed, most fights dragged on for a while and involved many different opponents. The overall level of the Shar-Shar had been nearly twice his current level, but they were weak against magic and their status dropped a bit on land. In short, the battle had been long but worth it.

“What happened?” called Rhea. She ran over to Scott, a concerned look upon her face.

Scott grinned at her. “Finally finished with my survival ring and gained five levels at the same time.”

She laughed at him then shook her head. “Of course you did. Humans and their bonus experience...”

“How did you make out?” asked Scott.

“I gained more than half a level’s worth of experience for that fight. If we grind a bit more, I could probably make it to ten before midnight.” said Rhea.

He nodded to her. Her obscene experience costs greatly slowed her leveling speed, but she made up for it with ability point scraping and extra stats after reincarnating. If it were not for his leveling speed he would not be able to keep up with her. At the same level, she would no doubt be much stronger than he was.

Helping her reach level ten was important. It would keep them within a decent range level-wise, but it would also allow her to access her higher-tier skills again. She had already mastered them, but she still had to reach a proper level to use them. Reincarnation was odd that way. Though, it did mean that someone who had reincarnated could spend their ability points on new skills or building their stats instead of relearning old skills.

“Do you know what this does?” asked Scott. He held up the soul of the fisherman lore ring for Rhea to examine.

She eyed it carefully then nodded. “It’s probably one of the items that we have been looking for all of this time. I got one earlier, but I have not been learning it since I am in need of gaining experience to level.”

“I see. I’ll put it on and work on learning it. We can see if it is worth your time after I learn it. It only needs twelve thousand experience points after all.” said Scott. Unlike the survival ring, it was not special. It could be filled with experience after a few good battles.

“Sounds good. By the time you learn that I should be close to leveling, since you aren’t going to be gaining as much experience fighting the monsters around here as you were earlier.”

“Rub it in why don’t you.” said Scott, before sticking out his tongue.

Rhea laughed at him softly. “Sure, any time. What’s a girlfriend for, right?”

Scott pulled her close and gave her a warm hug. “This, I think.”

“You’re right.” she murmured softly and pressed against him. “This is exactly what a girlfriend is for...”[/b]