“Alright recruits, today we’re going to be doing coordinated magic fire at the range. Remember to only fire on my command and don’t aim your skills at anything you don’t intend to kill. Are there any questions? No? Alright, go ahead and step up to the firing line. On my command…. FIRE AT WILL!!!”

…

“CEASE FIRE!! CEASE FIRE!!”

…

“Private, what is your health at?”

“Fifty percent sir.”

“Go see the medic. For the rest of you, when I say “Fire at Will,” I mean the target down range; not Private William, Got it?”

--Lenorian Army Training Class #728. AC 1689.

“Once more unto the breach…”

We walk in formation through the open area, and I keep my stalks on a swivel. As I visually scan every direction, I have to stop myself from releasing a mana pulse to map the surroundings. I remember early on we were told in our training that it can be easily detected at a long distance. We reach the rubble across the courtyard, and I see the wreckage seems to come from a single overwhelming strike. Luna and I are on point, and I raise a claw to call the formation to halt as the two of us creep forward.

We skirt the edges of the wall, trying to keep a low profile and move in a smooth manner. Jerking sudden movements would cause drastic displacements in the water around us, so I work to mitigate it with [Water Manipulation]. Leaning towards the edge of the wall, I peek around the corner.

Bodies lie on the ground outside the outpost, and even without the obvious rot, I can tell they were formerly corrupted. The lack of armor and the callous disregard of their final resting place speaks to their affiliation. It was drilled into us from day one to never leave a fallen soldier, and though I try, I can’t seem to find any allied bodies. Idly, I note that it speaks well of the military to see that ethos realized in front of me.

Looking out into the distance, I quickly lose sight ahead. There is only slight illumination coming from the sky above; we’re too far down for the light to filter all this way. The same flashes of magic and booming echoes are continued far ahead; and with the explosions in the water I can make out static scenes of the fight underway.

*Flash*

An armored Titan Crab flanks a platoon of urchins.

*Flash*

A squad of seals charge, lances in hand.

*Flash*

A massive whale spins around, its tail striking down a giant claw reaching from below.

Each moment seems to be frozen in time, and it is only the explosions which allow me to bear witness to the war underway. I pull my eyes from the spectacle and scan to the left of us. The entrance that Sergeant Smith briefed is supposed to lie in that direction and the route there appears to be through the thickest den of piled corpses.

A current snakes through the ocean, and I pick up the stench of the dead. For a moment I wish it wasn’t so familiar. Shaking away the morbid thoughts, I focus on the task at hand. The route appears to be clear, but I check in with my teammate. Pinging Luna on the comm’s I whisper,

“Hey, do you see anything?”

She reaches an arm towards me, then slashes it in the signal for no. As she does, I notice her arm shaking a little. Remembering the conversation, we had in basic I take a second to reassure her.

“Hey, we got this right Luna? Just like old times.”

Her shakes subside, and her body heaves as if in a sigh of relief. I hear a quiet,

“Thanks Crabby.”

And we’re turning the corner back towards our squad. I wave my claw forward and they fall in as we begin to creep around the bodies of the dead.

Our silhouettes are cloaked with Sergeant Smith’s skill and our eddies in the water are smoothed out by my use of [Water Manipulation]. We move, and my nerves ratchet as we approach the first pile. I remember my time in the dungeon, stacks of bodies were beloved hiding locations for the worst of the corrupted I had seen. A quick glance shows that they’re about four crabby lengths high. Not enough to completely break the sightline of the surrounding area, but enough for me to question the stability of the pile.

An unseen current brushes past Luna and I, the water colliding with a stack to our right.

SOMETHING’S MOVING!!

I raise my claws and prepare to throw Luna. Just as I’m about to call out, I identify the culprit. The current had just displaced a limb, and in slow motion it tumbles from a stack towards the ground. I watch, almost mesmerized as it makes contact, letting out a little *poof* of sand from the impact.

*whew*

The squad is frozen behind me, halting when I had stopped. A ping from the comms and Sergeant Smith is hailing me.

“Private Crabby, slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Continue on.”

I take a deep breath of water and continue forward, creeping towards the ridgeline in the distance. I can make out the faint silhouette from here, and the location of the cave where the corrupted emerged from should lie within. Doing a quick estimation, it appears to be almost two hundred meters ahead of us, with piles of bodies lying in stacks all the way there.

The distance isn’t far, but time seems to stretch. The flashes in the distance grow fainter as we move away, and the explosions start to become almost familiar; like an old friend knocking on your shell. I lose sight of the ridgeline as we enter a depression in the seafloor, the ground sloping downwards for a bit before we begin to climb upwards. As we clear the top, I see it. A massive worm lies shredded next to a hole in the hillside. It seems as though the enemy was using it to drill through the earth. As I look over at the creature, its mouth greets me; giant shards of teeth spiraling down into a gaping maw. The coast is still clear so I wave a claw for the squad to continue onward.

We creep closer, and I see there’s a gaping hole in the side of the worm. It’s entrails spill onto the ocean floor, and its ribcage is gleaming in the dim light. To the left of the corrupted dead is the entrance, an almost perfectly circular bore into the hillside. I scan the environs and scuttle closer. Luna and I repeat our earlier efforts, clearing the corner into the entrance. Ducking low, we peek around the edge of the bore hole and scan the interior. The pathway slopes down into a rapid descent and I can approximate the angle being similar to the map that Sergeant Smith had shown us.

I wave a claw for everyone to move forward, and they hurry along the ocean floor to group up with the two of us. I continue to scan the surrounding area, but my stalks are continually drawn to the decaying worm. I idly wonder what level you’d need to be to rend a wound that large in its flank. The worm is huge, around 50 meters long, and more than 10 meters high. Sergeant Smith starts talking and I focus my attention on what he has to say,

“Alright, so we’re about to enter the cave system. Keep sharp, eyes all around. Don’t use a mana pulse to map the surroundings if you don’t need to. We’re going visual observations only. Any questions?”

There is none, and I look around at my team. They seem nervous, but ready. I give a claws up as encouragement and awkward grins return my gesture. As Sergeant Smith gives the hand signal to move out, I glance back over at the dead worm. Although it was once corrupted, it still has some measure of splendor in the sheer scale of the monster. In a bit of melancholy I feel a slight pang at the utter waste of it all. As I glance at the pearlescent ridges sloughing off the corpse, I see a hint of movement. I think,

“Eh, it’s probably the currents Crabby.”

Aethir didn’t raise no fool though, and I continue my visual scan. My nerves begin to ratchet higher and as I stare, I see a small pair of eyes peak out of the side of the creature. They gleam in the dim water, milky orbs weeping in the ocean depths. It seems to be a baby worm. I almost turn away, but as I look, those eyes are soon joined by a second… then a third…. then more than I can count. They’re peaking out of the giant hole in the corpse and my mandibles gape in horror. I freeze for a bare moment and before I can utter a word, Sergeant Smith follows my line of sight. He sees them, and immediately takes action. I jerk into movement as his voice screams over comms,

“CONTACT RIGHT! TEN METERS!”