Chapter 3

Rome

Rome stayed on the raft but got dragged further and further out to sea. He watched, completely helpless, as Catalina got bigger on the horizon. The sea creature was in a frenzy from being attacked in the tentacles, so it kept swimming. The raft was slowing down the creature’s speed a lot, but it was still moving faster than Rome was comfortable with. He didn’t know whether to kick the beast some more or ride it out. Either way he knew he was a dead man; the question was would he rather get eaten or drown. Neither was an appealing option. He decided to wait it out.

After a half hour they were just a mile from Catalina. Rome couldn’t believe his luck; the monster had swum straight towards it. But as the water got shallower Rome’s hope of salvation faded once again. There were several small octopi in the shallow water. It looked like mom was bringing home dinner. This was not good. In fact this was very bad. Getting eaten alive by one huge monster was scary. Getting eaten alive by a bunch of little ones would be excruciatingly painful.

Rome looked around for anything that might help him. In the distance he saw two dolphins jumping out of the water. He had little choice with what to do. He reached his hands into the water and splashed as much as he could. The splashing attracted the attention of both the dolphins, as well as the small octopi. All of them swam near him.

The dolphins saw the giant octopus mama and swam away. Her job of feeding the children was done so she swam after the dolphins hoping to catch a meal for herself. This was the only chance Rome was going to get to make it to Catalina and go home. He lay flat on the raft and began paddling using his arms.

The swells caused him to go up and down on the water but he kept paddling. He didn’t make it very far before the first baby sea monster came up to him. He saw that the baby was about four feet long from the top of the head to the end of each tentacle. It wasn’t truly an octopus, but mutated with soft spikes sticking out of its face, a sharp bird beak covered its mouth, and its body was covered in slime. In the heat of battle and trying to live, Rome hadn’t noticed the slime on the tentacles stung a little, but nothing serious. As he noticed then ignored the stinging, he saw more babies were coming his way. The first one to him reached a tentacle onto the raft to try to grab him. He backed out of the way and instead of fighting it, Rome grabbed the tentacle, gritting his teeth through the slight sting in his hand. Just as he hoped it would, the octopus started swimming away. It wasn’t strong enough to pull the raft, but it kept trying.

Another reached up a tentacle and Rome grabbed that one too. The two together started pulling the raft along the swells and to their safety of the shallow water. Two others wiggled their tentacles up onto the raft also, and Rome constantly had to kick them away. At any minute one could grab his leg and pull him overboard and he would have no way of defending himself. More time passed and they got closer to the shore. Then it happened. Rome kicked one tentacle out of his way but before he could regain his balance another one wrapped around his ankle.

Rome tried to stay in his water skier position, but couldn’t maintain with the swells at three feet high. He lost his balance and fell backwards into the ocean. The octopus tentacle wrapped around his ankle tried to pull him down, but the two he was holding on to were still trying to swim to shore. His limbs were stretched and his head went underwater. Rome kicked his feet to propel himself upward, although only one foot was free. But it was enough for him to surface and take in a lungful of air. His feet kicks also shook up the octopus attached to his ankle, but the other two easily dragged him closer to his safety.

Others came at him and tried to wrap him up but he kicked them in the face as much as he could. It was a losing battle. They were too close together and all attacking him at the same time. He was pulled underwater again and he finally let go so he could use his hands to free himself. He grabbed a tentacle near his chest and easily pried it off, but he kept sinking.

But then his foot hit something. He extended his toes in his leather boots and felt a rock. Rome curled himself into a ball and let them pull him down a couple more feet, until they could get comfortable on the bottom to feed. Rome bent his legs a little and firmly planted his feet. Just as he pushed off as hard as he could, one of the octopi bit him on the side. The pain seared through him, but also gave him extra instinctual panic to get away.

The full strength push off propelled him up to the surface and he took in a big lungful of air. It also made the octopi release him, and he began swimming for the shore, assisted by the waves. But once again tentacles reached around him and he couldn’t fight them off. He repeated the process of calmly going to the bottom then pushing off hard with his feet. That wasn’t easy to do with his side bleeding, but it worked. The sudden upward thrust made the small octopi let go with their suckers. Rome swam as hard as he could until he reached the shore. He waded in two foot water and then stomped hard on the two baby octopi that followed him. Their heads squished a little, but they were still alive. Rome hated those things and wanted them dead, but to suffer before dying. He walked to the sand and removed their newly formed grips from his legs. One had bit his calf. He picked one up and threw it several feet further inland, then did the same with the other. Rome lay down on the sandy beach and passed out with exhaustion.

He woke up and it was night. He didn’t know how long he had been out. He didn’t have any idea what time of day it was when he climbed to the shore, but his side and leg had healed so he must have slept for at least five hours.

He looked around and saw nothing unusual. At least he wasn’t being attacked by a monster as soon as he woke up. He stood up and began walking, but quickly saw the two dead baby octopi on the shore. He did it! He conquered them (only two of them but it was a huge victory in his mind) and survived to get to Catalina! Rome was ecstatic that he had the opportunity to go home. He would start looking for the transport device soon, but first he wanted to see what these monsters that almost drown him and ate him actually were. They looked similar to an octopus, but had a real face, with eyes and a mouth, with sharp teeth inside the bird beak, and gills where the nose should be. He looked at his Experience and blinked. It showed:

Personal Experience 912/1000. 0 Ability Points Available

Exp with weapons

Beasts

He selected Beasts

Rabbit Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp Max/25

Coyote Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp Max/25

Deer Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp Max/25

Razorling Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp 4.22/25

Billik Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp 1.57/25

Goblin Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp 0.17/25

Young Sangler Level??? Health??? Mana??? Kills for exp 2/25

Rome minimized the Rabbit, Coyote and Deer indicators. He would never gain more experience from killing them. So these things were called Sanglers? They were from another planet then, and not actually octopi. Or were they native to Nuva? They may have been, but he doubted it. He thought it would take a badass tyter to hunt these things in the ocean, especially when full grown, but that was someone else’s problem. All he had to worry about now was finding the hidden teleport device and figuring out how to use it. He looked back to the shore and saw his magic satchel floating in the surf. How lucky was that?

He picked it up and began climbing up a nearby hill to get a good look around. He remembered having to dig in the sands near Yuma to find the bed that had given each of them the ability to use magic, and weapons bonuses. He feared having to dig in random places on the island for years to find the tyter device.

But at the top of the hill he saw another hill, and on top of it was a metal building. It was still dark out, so he couldn’t see many details about it, but he saw clouds rolling in from the ocean. It was going to rain in a few hours, the first rain of the year. He walked toward the other hill, and as he suspected he saw a shimmer of a shield protecting it. But Rome knew what to do. These shields, if left unguarded (as they found out at Home), only kept out curious animals, not serious monsters or intelligent foes. He reached into his satchel and removed a copper sword and wire he had made for the water wheel at Lake Silverwood. He used the sword to dig a hole in the ground two feet deep and dropped in one end of the wire and buried it. Then he tied the other end to the sword blade and walked close to the shield. He could see it shimmer once in a while, and when he was a step away threw the sword as high as he could.

Rome ran away before the sword hit, and when it did the predictable Lightning spell shot at the sword, which ran down the wire and into the ground. The sword bounced all the way down the dome shape, drawing massive amounts of electricity to itself. It was glowing hot when it finally hit the ground, and Rome threw a rock at the shield to see if it used up all its mana.

His plan had worked. His friends told them that they regenerated mana at a rate of 1 point per minute, and the shields at Calico and Lake Silverwood worked the same. That meant he had less than five minutes until the shield could zap him with Lightning 1. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would hurt. He picked up a big rock and smashed it against the shield. He did this three more times then saw a crack appear in front of him. With time running out he smashed it over and over until the shield shattered and the pieces disappeared as they were falling to the ground.

Rome walked up to the closed heavy door and saw a place to put what looked like a three fingered very large hand. He didn’t know what would happen if he tried it, but this was the only way back to Earth so he had to try. He placed his hand on it. A pale green light encircled him, and a few seconds later the door opened. Rome was definitely scared to walk inside, but he had to. What was he going to do? Turn around and walk away?

Inside he saw a clear tube, five feet diameter that ran floor to ceiling. The door to the tube was closed. On the opposite wall he saw another device for a large alien hand. He placed his hand on it and again a pale green light surrounded him then faded. He heard the harsh speak of a tyter, and a half second later Translate kicked in.

“Welcome to the extraction point brave warrior. You are unable to teleport back to Sulmig right now, there has been a malfunction. The extraction team will arrive here in two years, and four days, Nuva time. Until then use the teleport abilities to aid in your hunt on Nuva.”

A green light again surrounded Rome, then messages appeared in his vision.

You have learned Teleport 1.

You have learned Teleport 2.

You have learned Teleport 3.

Teleport 1 Caster teleports self to respawn point Cost 10 mana

Teleport 2 Caster teleports self to any ally village Cost 30 mana

Teleport 3 Caster teleports 5 others to any ally village Cost 90 mana

Finally! Rome finally got a useful spell. It just so happened that he had ten mana points. He walked back to the dead sanglers and put a tentacle and head, and his copper sword and wire into his satchel. Having never used magic before, he looked up Teleport 1 and concentrated on it. A prompt asked him if he wanted to use it. He looked at the Yes side of his vision and blinked. A pale green light surrounded him and he disappeared.

Chapter 4

Regulators

Graul held on to his paddle as long and firmly as he could, and kicked the water behind him furiously. He did not want one of those octopus things to catch him and eat him. A swell lifted him up and he could see the coast. He kept kicking as he sank into the trough. Another swell lifted him up and he looked for Torger, but saw no one, then he went back down into a trough. Clouds were building and the winds picked up, making the waves higher. Up in a swell, kick kick kick, down in a trough, kick kick kick.

After a couple hours he climbed onto rocks that were jutting out into the water. He lay down on them, though they were terribly uncomfortable. It took a few minutes before he could stand up and walk to shore. He lay down on the sand and rested for maybe an hour, before the cold wind on his wet clothes made him get up again. The sun was setting and the wind picked up even more. He forced himself to climb up a hill and half way down the other side before he gathered brush and lit a fire. He had no idea where his friends were, but he had no choice but to fall asleep.

Light was all around him when he woke up, but he couldn’t see the sun because it was cloudy. He walked back to the top of the hill and looked at the ocean. He didn’t know where he was, but it wasn’t Long Beach. He saw the outline of Catalina a little too far to the north, and knew he must have been in Dana Point. He checked his Maps and confirmed his location. Not too far away, but a few hours of walking was ahead of him.

He made good time walking on the compact dirt a bit inland from the sand. As he walked he realized something he didn’t know the day before, his magic back pack was slightly buoyant, even partially full. That helped to keep him afloat. He wondered if the satchels had the same property.

After walking for a couple of hours, he saw a wisp of smoke on the horizon. It was either the end of a morning fire his friends had made, or something else with intelligence made it. When he got there he saw a ring of stones around the ashes in a patch of sand. Human footprints led further to the north, towards the river. Water suddenly sounded very desirable and his tongue chose that moment to tell him it was dry.

It took him more than an hour to reach the river. He saw more footprints in the mud around the river crisscrossing all over the place, then head upstream. He followed them for a couple of miles and heard shouting. Graul ran ahead and when he saw his friends fighting for their lives he pulled out his flame sword and charged into battle.

Four half snake/ half alligator monsters were easily crossing the mud chasing his friends, who were sinking ankle deep into it with each step. Jex was shooting arrows as fast as she could, Antic was doing his best to keep them away from him by waving his spear at their faces, Brun was out of mana but it looked like he had cast Fire 1 once at each of them. Arden and Torger were attacking with tree branches used as improvised clubs.

Graul ran ahead, keeping out of the mud, and cast Fire 1 twice at one monster, trying to draw it to himself. It worked, but he had underestimated how fast it could run on those stubby little legs. Just before it got to him he perfectly timed a swing to cleave its skull. The momentum carried it forward and ripped the sword out of Graul’s hand, and it crashed into his shin. He got knocked on his butt, removed the sword, and with two strokes cut its head off. He stood up and ran at the one that by then had a strong bite around Antic’s calf.

Antic was screaming and trying to stab it with his spear, but couldn’t get good leverage. His increased health made his skin thicker, muscles denser, bones stronger, and blood thicker, which was probably why his leg wasn’t completely removed. Graul stabbed his sword down through its skull, killing it, then used his sword to pry its mouth open. He stood up, leaving Antic writhing in pain, and saw Jex finish off the beast that was attacking Brun. Brun was a bloody mess, with his right hand gone and covered in bruises that no one could see through the mud. Torger and Arden finally bludgeoned the last into unconsciousness. Torger told Graul to finish it, but Graul said “No, you deserve the honors.” He tossed over his flame sword and Torger took delight in removing the head.

Graul asked “Where’s your sword?”

“Good to see you too brother. Glad you survived the swim to shore; we thought you didn’t make it. I woke up all alone this morning and saw smoke from a fire, then found them” he nodded towards their friends. “In the swim I abandoned my back pack. I couldn’t find it on shore, but we saw drag marks in the sand. We followed them here and these things came up out of the mud and attacked us. Now we need to look around and see if we can find my back pack.”

They strained some water through sand and boiled it then drank it before it fully cooled off. They looked through the mud for a while then Arden said “I found something.”

Antic and Brun never got up to help with the search, too wounded to be of any use. The others simply ignored their bleeding and cries of pain, since there was nothing anyone could do for them. Instead Torger, Graul and Jex helped Arden pull a large cloth out of the mud. It was a goblin’s loincloth, with the half eaten body still inside. They dropped it but found his chipped copper sword and a few copper coins. Later they found another goblin, same condition, same treasure. Further upstream they found Torger’s back pack, shredded open and the dried rabbit meat gone. His sword was still in good shape, along with slightly damaged rope, an extra set of leather armor and a tent. Their search continued and they ended up finding another copper sword, a badly damaged wood shield, and fifteen more copper coins.

Lightning flashed in the distance, and they knew if it started raining inland this nearly dry creek could turn into a halfway decent river. They helped Antic and Brun hobble to the top of a hill, and they lay down to rest. Antic looked at Torger and asked “You collected the heads, right?”

“No. We don’t need the heads.”

“I don’t know why I see these things, but they look valuable.”

Torger knew Antic had spotted that stuff in the past. Antic knew to collect the billik legs, and he also knew to collect the razorling feet and spiders and snakes. Baybil bought some of each, so Torger cut the heads off the other two and tried to place them in his backpack, but it no longer seemed to have magical storage capacity. The claw marks through it might have had something to do with it. Instead he made Jex and Arden each carry one in their satchels, and Graul took two in his back pack.

Arden asked Graul, “What do we do now? Rome is supposed to meet us here in two weeks or so, but I don’t want to sit around doing nothing.”

“No, we won’t be doing nothing. We should go hunting monsters and gain some ability points.”

“Now you’re talking! Getting stronger is always a good way to spend a couple weeks of waiting. Brun, Antic, are you guys in?”

Brun said “I’m liking fire two, but it seems multiple cast of fire one is stronger for the mana I use. I’m in if I can cast fire two a bunch and get to fire three. I want to see what that does.”

Antic admitted “I don’t like almost dying all the time. I don’t like battles and bleeding a lot, but my added health saved my leg today. I wouldn’t mind adding even more health to myself, so yeah I’m in as long as it isn’t too dangerous.”

Torger said “Now that I have my sword again, you should be a little safer. You and I will work as a team to fight one monster, while the others fight other monsters.”

Antic didn’t like thinking that he needed Graul or Torger to keep him safe, but he knew it was true.

They all agreed to look for more of those mud monsters in the morning. Until then they had to kill a deer or rabbit and gather some more oranges and strawberries. Brun and Antic stayed behind to nurse their injuries (Brun had a tourniquet on his forearm), Jex and Arden went hunting, and Graul and Torger walked inland to find fruit.

The four left together, walking further upstream and looking for more signs of the mud beasts. They didn’t want their two wounded friends to be attacked, although they were out of the mud. Also it would be nice to make a surprise attack against the beasts next time. As they were walking it began to rain. The hunting would be fruitless with the game taking shelter, so they walked until they found fruit to gather, several miles inland. On their way back they saw that the river was now a foot deep and gratefully drank the relatively clean water.

Graul said “If we could get the dwarves to dig a reservoir here this might be a great place to live.”

The others agreed, except that getting home would be better. As they were stooping next to the water, Torger being always wary of danger, jumped back. The others looked up and saw one of the beasts swimming at them. They all backed up the bank and watched it swim away. It swam just as quickly as it ran, and it could dive under water. They all had the same thought- maybe we should find something easier to kill tomorrow.