Corvayne summoned a coil of rope from his ring as he ran along the platform, watching the huge dark shape in the glowing jelly below swimming towards where his lovers were. Hari had seen him waving his arms and yelling at them, but Wick was submerged and weaponless in the ooze.

Hari, to her credit, dove right away. Nyxion and Lady Blood Claw saw him too, Nyxion activating his shield. The orb he created repelled the jam while he stood on land but apon jumping out Nyxion couldn't get under the surface, instead landing on it like he was stuck in a giant hamster ball. Lady Blood Claw drew her two handed burning blade.

“Corvayne, I can't see it! How large is the enemy?”

“Thirty feet!” He threw out a guess as he tried to think of how he could do any real damage to the creature without falling into the goop.

Lady Blood Claw perhaps could tell what he was doing. “Corvayne, focus on getting them out!”

Corvanye felt terror welling up in him as he saw the huge form closing in. The jam made wet sounds as the monster hit the surface then dove after them. He stumbled as the walkway shook. The creature must have rammed into the entire structure. Some of the containers fell over, and Corvayne heard a shattering sound. He looked down and saw two containers knocked loose bob to the surface.

The creature resurfaced, bits of broken container stuck to it's rubbery hide. Lady Blood Claw leapt onto it's back from the walkway and slashed with her huge red hot blade, bathing herself in a cloud of pink steam. The monster cried out over the hissing noise and dove, dragging Lady Blood Claw under with it's back. She then surfaced a moment later, grabbing her sword and kicking herself out of the way through the muck as a few small black vines slithered around her.

Corvayne was preparing to toss the rope at Wick when he saw something out of the corner of his eye and ducked as a claw swiped at him, followed by a foot coming around. He stepped back and thrust with his spear, impaling a toothy monster with six opaque white eyes. The creature hissed and squirmed and Corvayne kicked it off his spear, sending it tumbling to the steel walkway where it started writhing and slashing itself.

He didn't bother trying to make sure it was dead, focusing on the river of slime, searching for any sign of the girls.

Hari came up then, knife in her hand and looking around, bits of jam sticking to her pale hair. “Where's Wick?!” She asked.

Corvayne felt another bump and saw that the creature had rammed the row of jars again, metal groaning as the structure protested the treatment. Ignoring more shattering noises he looked frantically for any signs of Wick then saw her break the surface swimming across the open jam as the monster turned and swam at her, it's back cresting the goop again as it's mouth opened. Moments before she'd be swallowed Wick dropped suddenly under the surface and Corvayne saw it smash into the opposite row of jars, shattering and breaking bodies loose as it thrashed and backed up, then turned to keep swimming after Wick. A creature from a jar spasmed in as it hit the jam then popped into a burst of fire and tangle of thorns that dragged it to the bottom.

He could see Wick as a dark spot in the glow as she dropped down further into the goop, and the huge fish swam past her and then started wiggling its way down. There was another thump and groan, this time the opposite row of jars rocked slightly.

Nyxion swore. “Lady Blood Claw! We need distractions! Elf! Get that damn jar we are after!”

“Fuck YOU!” Hari replied in high pitched Cascadian.

He didn't have time to watch them, bolting down the metal walkway towards where the fish thing had resurfaced and was whipping around strange barbed tails as it seemed to almost casually turn and dive once more.

Corvayne felt the weird sloshing feeling growing inside him as he ran for the bridge and saw Wick try to get up the opposite metal stairs out of the slime only to have the huge monster ram into the metal under her, knocking the structure over with the whine as the beams bent the stairway halfway over. Wick looked like she was screaming and panicking as she tumbled backwards into the slime, jam making it hard to tell if she was wounded already. Corvayne was about to leap off the bridge when a slimy hand grabbed his cloak and pulled him down.

“Thrice cursed fool! Depend on us!” Lady Blood Claw hissed.

“Why are you up here?!?” Corvayne demanded, panic mixing with fury. Wick! Wick was down there!

She pointed, and he saw Nyxion was smash a tube, then some sort of trembling spined horror out. Nyxion ignored the thing slashing at him as he planted a foot on the railing and heaved the screaming writhing thing into the water in front of where the whale was swimming.

It opened it's mouth and caught the struggling form as dark thorns exploded out, and the whale thrashed in pain before it crested the water and spat the monster out, the creature streaming thorns behind it.

Corvayne saw Nyx smashing another jar and grabbed his arm. “Those are PEOPLE!”

Nyx threw his arm off, sneering “They are insane monsters! I'll trade them for us! Would Death-Blood-Blood-Blood matter to you more then Spears? Or Wick?”

Corvayne was frozen a moment. Lady Blood Claw gripped his shoulder. “When it surfaces, that's our chance to do as much damage as possible.”

He had a weapon he hadn't brought to bear in the Argyle fight, and he pulled the magma knife out of his storage and waited for the fish to surface again. It came up, this time with Wick clinging to a canister it had in it's mouth. He only hesitated the throw the knife a moment, adjusting his aim and throwing the knife at the back of the beast, it landing and instantly starting to pump magma into the wound as the monster dropped the canister and dived once more, boiling the jelly in a trail of sputtering bubbles as it dove.

Corvayne saw the whale surface again, whipping up a spray of jam as it screamed like a wounded cat. Wick was swimming away, refusing to let go of the canister she had. The monster turned and squirmed then lined up with Wick, back caked with carmelized jam and hissing steam as it made screeching noises then surged after Wick. Nyxion and LBC ripped a jar out of it's place in the row and together tossed it right in front of the monster but the creature just slapped the container aside with it's nose and focused entirely on Wick who was coughing and flailing with one arm trying to get under the bridge he was on and reach the far stairway out.

Corvayne tied his rope around his waist then tossed the slack to Lady Blood Claw, who looked at it confused before looking up at him. The wave inside of him was getting to be staggering, his insides feeling like they were sliding back and forth. He had been fighting through the sick feeling, but now he waited, boot on the railing, until it sloshed forward and he pushed with the wave feeling thorns start to burst from him even as he felt more awake than ever.

He heard Lady Blood Claw cry out. “No!”

Corvayne felt his skin bursting as he leapt off the bridge, Wick nearly under him and no sign of the fish until he had started the jump, both hands on his spear as it's back was under him, it's face moments from overtaking Wick.

[Leap Strike]

He applied gravity power to himself and flew into it's rubbery back, the impact like a spearing a train trying to run him over. There were wet sounds as blood splashed up around him, blinding him a moment. He could feel through his boots the creature was still alive under him, gooey muscles twitching as the monster prepared to dive, and Corvayne lifted his spear again, blood and jam and gore coloring everything red, and used [Cross Skill: Backstab] to jam his spear into the monster's back once more, this time causing a crack like a mountain breaking in half as he shattered the creature's spine and the spear and hole kept going before jam and blood rushed around him. He could feel Lady Blood Claw tugging to start pulling him out, hear her calling to him, but she was too late as the goo swept up his torso and the vines exploded out of him.

[85.5%]

He opened his eyes, whole and clean, then sat up as he saw he was outside. It was not Cascadia, as the sky was a deeper almost unreal blue with not a cloud in sight. He was sitting on the sandy shore of a river, arid plains visible across the water with a fortress of stone next to him. He was without his gear aside from his spear, but he could hear talking behind him so he stood and turned to a crude village or nomad camp, full of simple lean-tos and tents clustered around cooking fires. The warm air felt good compared to how cool the chamber he had been in was.

[85.4%]

As he reached the edge of the tents he saw a man who looked like himself in the company of strange creatures, speaking with a woman with dark golden skin. Many of the other beings in the camp had the same gold glint to them, he noted as he saw two children run between a row of tents around him, giggling. He looked back up and saw the other Corvayne was holding a crying child, and the woman he had been talking to gestured. The man then lead the group in the direction shown, followed by a glass golem in leather armor and a face he recognized. Mugs-Empty-Again was there, wearing a horned helmet and looking about warily. Following him was a reptilian girl with a bow who reminded him of Dawn's helper but with different colored scales, and Whispers-In-Darkness, the librarian. It was a shock to see him in broad daylight and not wearing all black, but he instead focused on the lead figure.

[85.2%]

The Watchers, he guessed, were following him and the baby to a tent. He looked immensely relieved as he stepped in. Corvayne started to head closer as a hand gripped him. He felt a little hot as he turned.

[85.0%]

A pair of gold starry eyes looked into his, and he felt nearly overwhelmed, some complex feeling bubbling up from him as he looked at the girl. It was a crippling sense of nostalgia, enough that he felt his eyes start to water.

“You!” He couldn't help but shout, “I've seen you before!”

The woman closed her eyes and shook her head, hair glittering in the sun like it was the sea itself. Her skin had changed to the gray of a cloudy sky, and her dress this time was literally sand, flowing. The air was so warm but all he could think about was looking at the girl.

[84.7%]

She spoke. “You have to go. This place will tear you apart. Look for me.”

He took her hand. “Who are you? Why do I keep seeing you? Tell me!”

He felt like he was in an oven.

[84.4%]

“We are bound by fate. Keep looking! Now, go! If you awaken your bloodline it will burn you to death. Wake up!”

The heat burned him and he woke, pain shooting out of an arm and a leg, his mouth full of fruit punch flavored healing potions. He nearly coughed it up but forced it down, trying to get up but Hari and ((not her real name)) were holding him down.

“Stupid! Always with the big stunts!” Hari said, eyes red.

The other woman, ((her name elusive)), was orange with annoyance though her face softened as her skin changed to a plum color. “At least this time you gave me a rope before you leaped to your death.”

He tried to get up, but he could feel he had somehow torn muscles all over his arms and legs. That, and there were scabbed over wounds all over him.

“Wick...”

Hari rolled her eyes. “Is fine. What about me? I was in slime too.”

“Sorry. Was worried about you, too.” He smiled at her, and Hari smiled back at him. She forgave him too easily.

A scratchy voice said quietly. “It... was ignoring you. It was after me.” He looked over and saw that Wick had put her undershirt back on but was still smeared with jam and wearing the Jam-Jammies.

Nyxion laughed and clapped. “We all once more made it through, and we recovered your friend Spears! Though she's a little slime.”

“Slimy?”

Nyx laughed. “No, she is, at the moment, a little slime. As in, a ball of goop.”

He gestured over to where he had surrendered his cape, letting what looked like a large glob of blue water rest on it.

Corvayne looked back at his noble friend. “Spears was a tall, athletic, and I hesitate to say it but, attractive young woman.”

Nyxion nodded.

Corvayne put his head down and tried to point at the glob. “That looks like a glob.”

A meek voice replied with. “Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry.”

It took Corvayne a moment, even knowing that the slime was supposed to be Spears, to connect that it was the same voice that had called him garbage on a daily basis. The shock made him bolt upright, despite causing horrible pain.

He felt really weird addressing something with no face. “Spears, I know you don't-”

A moment later the glob lunged at him and for some reason his defensive instinct failed as it knocked him back over and then Spears-Like-Water, a glob of living water, grew pseudopods and hugged him and started bumping his face.

The usually stern and dusky voice she had sounded cutesy to the point that Corvayne was doubting what he was hearing. “It's you! It's you! Oh gods I missed you so much, Corvayne, I thought it was just another bad dream... oh I'm so glad to see you again!”

He looked to his friends for help. Nyxion was biting his lip and looking away, face red. Trying not to laugh? He was making fists though. Lady Blood Claw had a disappointed look. Why? Hari was hiding clear amusement, a glint in her eye promising mischief.

Wick pulled Spears off Corvayne, the slime making sucking noises as Wick spun the blob to face her, despite it having no features that Corvayne could identify as front or back. Wick glared at Spears anyway. “Pardon me, Miss Spears-Like-Slimes, I don't think anyone cares that you are getting more goo all over my lover, whom nearly drowned in jam twice today, but before ANYONE here does ANYTHING else naked involving slimes in ANY manner, I nearly got eaten by a whale and I demand answers!”

Wick sounded really weird to Corvayne, but there were hints of her scratchy voice at least returning.

Spears quivered. Her voice sounded like she was on the verge of crying. “Buh...” Sniffle. “Buh...” Sniffle again. “Buhf-”

Nyxion stood straight up, snatching Spears from Wick. “You are going to make her cry!”

Hari jabbed Wick's arm. “Why were you mean? She just woke up!”

Wick looked ashamed of herself. “I would never be mean! I am a lady, I was simply acting-”

Spears finally wailed out. “Corvayne's your boyfriend?!?”

Corvayne heard in the silence afterwards Lady Blood Claw mutter. “Another one...”