Chapter 212 - Tentacles and Ashes V

Claire grit her teeth as she pounded her wings against the sky. Her body was on the road to repair; the holes in her flesh had closed, and her burns had faded, but the irritation that gripped her mind remained. She had finally been pushed to her limits as she had hoped, but her performance thereat had left much to be desired.

“I should’ve dodged more.” She muttered under her breath as she chased after her party. Its members were hidden by the fog, but her detector skill ensured that the catgirl’s outline remained clear as day. “I shouldn’t have ignored the weaklings’ attacks.”

Death’s dance was one of her most potent skills, capable of greatly magnifying her offensive prowess. She could have easily leveraged its maximum bonus had she not decided that there was no need to dodge, but she had allowed her pride to get the better of her. Showing off her durability was pointless; her allies knew how tough her scales were, and the villagers had not been the sorts of foes she needed to psychologically corner. And yet, she had taken hit after hit after hit.

The lack of evasion was not her only failing. She had charged at her foe without equipping her weapon, failed to use her spirit guardians, and, having forgotten that she had sacrificed the associated skill, even botched an easy sneak attack.

“Oh, whew! You actually made it out!” Sylvia appeared atop the lyrkress’ head with a magical pop. “I almost thought I was gonna have to step in.”

“And I’d have ignored you for a month if you did.”

“Oh, come on!” The fox puffed up her cheeks. “I know you’re a dunce and a meanie, but I’m not gonna just sit around and watch while you die!”

“You should.”

“Nuh uh, no way. You’re not allowed to die.” Sylvia crossed her arms and huffed. “If you die, then there won’t be anyone to scratch my ears.”

“Ask the cat.”

“Don’t wanna. She’s too much of a perv.”

“Then ask the squid.”

“No way! I barely even know her! And plus, she’s even worse.”

“She is?”

“Mhm! I think she had a dream about putting together a seraglio the other night…”

“Gross.”

Claire glanced behind her for any hints of flame before shifting her body’s shape. Her true form was too conspicuous, but she wasn’t in the mood to be humanoid, so she turned lyrkrian instead.

Not missing the opportunity, Sylvia jumped on her back, turned into a girl and wrapped her arms around the horse-snake’s waist. Her chin rested on her shoulders, her lips a content smile. “Mhm, but don’t tell her I told you. She’s never ever talked about it out loud, so I’m pretty sure no one’s supposed to know.”

Claire paused briefly, recalling a few notes regarding lamian biology before responding with a shrug. “It makes sense. Her species is all female.” She paused again, allowing her head to lean ever so slightly towards the heavier shoulder. “And I knew I could win.”

“Huh?”

“The battle. My gut was telling me that I could kill the duck.”

“Ohhhhh… well uhm… I think your gut was probably wrong, ‘cause I’m pretty sure she wasn’t even really taking you all that seriously for the first bit.”

“It’s never wrong,” muttered the lyrkress. “I should have used it.”

“Used what?”

“Nothing.” She began lowering her altitude, descending into the forest as she closed in on where the others had stopped. “You’ll see. Next time the duck shows up.”

“Okay, but you better win quick or I’m actually gonna butt in.”

“I will.” She landed as she spoke, greeting the rest of the party with a nod.

“Claire! You’re okay!” Natalya, who had been pacing around the very makeshift camp, snapped to attention as the lyrkress hit the ground. She approached with her arms outspread, but Claire grabbed her by the face before she could further shrink the distance.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” she said.

“It raises my spirits to see that you are still in one piece,” said the squid. “Have you slain it?” She would have known for certain had they not retreated, but experience wasn’t shared across such a wide area.

“I will, next time.”

“Next time, I think we’re probably going to be better off working together,” said Natalya.

“That is a claim I would like to call into question,” said Arciel. “Matthias carries several charms for defense against fire, but our foe saw no trouble lighting him and his fire-retardant equipment aflame.”

All eyes shot to the unconscious mantis. He had been laid face down atop a bed of toadstools, largely to preserve his decency. His runecloak had fixed itself, but the rest of his clothes and armour were in tatters.

“Oh uhm… Should I fix him?” asked Sylvia. The man’s body was slowly being repaired. His wings were regenerating, and his extremities no longer discoloured, but his burns still remained.

“It should not be necessary. I believe he will have recovered by the time he wakes,” said Arciel. “Your mana is better used for ensuring that our defenses remain intact.”

“I have a better idea.” Claire took a moment to scan their surroundings before turning her eyes on her authority skill and activating a familiar function. “I made a safe zone. We’ll be fine to rest.”

Arciel narrowed her eyes and peered at the almost invisible veil. “I certainly sense some manner of barrier, but are you certain it will suffice? Its activation appeared rather… minimal.”

“It should. It’s something a celestial gave me.”

Natalya took a moment to adjust her glasses. “How long have you been able to do that?”

“Since before we met,” said Claire. She turned away when Lia cast a suspicious gaze. “I never forgot. It has a long cooldown, and I never felt like we needed it.”

“Right...” Lia scribbled a few notes in her journal. “How long is it, exactly? I’ll remind you next time I think it might come in handy.”

Claire paused, her tail flicking left and right. “Two weeks.” She glanced back towards the mushroom-shaped rock, which was no longer visible courtesy of all the smog, and muttered under her breath. “I’ll have killed that stupid bird by the next time I can use it.”

“I suggest that we leave that task to Marquis Pollux and his men,” said Arciel. “As the pay we are offered corresponds directly to our performance, I believe that reporting our progress and exiting the dungeon would be the most wise. I suspect that this divine protector is likely to hunt us and get in our way, should we remain.”

“I don’t care,” said Claire. “It helped me experiment. And learn more about my body.”

“You… are beginning to sound like Matthias,” said Arciel.

“Yeah, Iunno. Claire’s always been kinda bloodthirsty but I feel like it’s getting worse lately,” said Sylvia.

“Definitely,” agreed Natalya. “I think it started when we killed Farenlight.”

The accused lyrkress in question rolled her eyes. “I’m not like that battle-crazed idiot. He likes fighting. I have a goal in mind.”

“Objective in sight or not, it is hardly worth the risk,” said Arciel. “We would be much better off claiming our reward.”

“We can do both,” said Lia. “Claire probably isn’t going to back down now that she’s made up her mind, but it’s not like her bloodthirst is going to stop us from letting the Cadrians know what we’ve found.”

“I suppose not,” said Arciel, with a frown. “But we would be incurring the risk regardless.”

“There isn’t any risk. I’m killing it next time,” said Claire.

The berserker laughed awkwardly. “I’m more worried about justifying our actions. I doubt they’ll be all that happy to hear that we attacked a village for no reason.”

“It’ll be fine. They would have sacked it if we didn’t,” said the lyrkress. “They happen to be short on supplies.”

“Cadrians…” muttered the cat.

“Cadrians indeed,” agreed the squid.

“You shut up,” said Natalya. “You’re the reason it all turned out this way to begin with!”

“I challenged a single man to a duel and leveraged my right as victor to claim his life. The blame does not fall upon my shoulders.”

“They only attacked because you didn’t let him live. We would have been fine if you just backed off after you beat him up.”

“The fault is not mine. His people were the ones incapable of accepting the duel’s outcome, and I have no doubt that he would have attempted the same, had he emerged victorious.”

“She’s right,” said Claire. “They’re the barbarians. Not us.”

Natalya buried her face in her hands and groaned. “You know what? Forget it. It doesn’t matter anyway.”

“It’s okay, Lia.” Sylvia floated over and lightly patted the catgirl on the back. This fox was not alone in this action. Boris crawled out of a nearby bush and lent the Paunsean a tail. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure Claire was just gonna kill everyone eventually anyway.”

“It doesn’t,” Natalya pushed her glasses up and kneaded the bridge of her nose. “I’m in a party full of psychopaths.”

“Rude,” said Claire. “I’m normal.”

“For a Cadrian, maybe,” mumbled the former soldier.

Arciel produced a fan from her sleeve and lightly tapped it against her palm. “Matters of sanity aside, I believe we should work out some sort of plan.” She opened it as she spoke and covered half her face. “I suppose you already have something in mind?”

“I do,” said Claire, with a nod. “I have a way to kill their self-proclaimed protector. But first, I’m going to need to hunt some more monsters.”

She glanced at her log as she spoke, and noted the past few days’ bounty. Decimating the local shoggoth and giraffe-ball populations had granted her twenty-odd levels, and purging the village had provided a decent chunk as well.

“Should we go back to the eighth floor then?” asked Lia.

“Why would we do that?”

“The monsters here don’t give as much experience, and it takes more effort to kill them. Moving between the gargoyle camps is probably going to be faster than fighting non stop here.”

“I get lots here,” said Claire, with a tilt of the head. “But only in my racial class. The others are being slow.”

“Oh! I think that’s probably the same reason you keep wanting to eat them,” said Sylvia. “I bet it’s ‘cause they’re giving you the abyssal horror nutrients and stuff that you’re missing.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“What is it, precisely, that classifies you as an abyssal horror to begin with?” asked Arciel. “I do recall you introducing yourself as one, but I do not believe I have seen any of the associated tentacles or eyes.”

“Then look closer.”

On the lyrkress’ cue, Arciel raised the brim of the hat and carefully looked her over. She was confused at first, staring with her brow cocked and her fan lightly tapping against her chin. Claire wore a grin, but the squid saw nothing out of the ordinary. There was no sudden outburst of otherworldly, fear-inducing magic, and the moose had sprouted a grand total of zero tentacles. It was not until they locked eyes that the deposed princess gasped.

The blues of the horror’s irises were crowded out by the blacks of a dozen pupils, each of different sizes, and some stacked atop the others. Their shapes were constant, the same reptilian slits she had always had, but their sizes, positions, and orientations were all over the place, arranged haphazardly with no clear patterns to be found.

“And now you understand.” Claire turned her eyes back to normal and twisted her lips into a confident smile. “I’m an abyssal horror through and through.”

“Is your father also an abyssal horror?” asked Lia.

The half-snake shook her head. “Not at all. This was a personal choice.”

“Really? You’d think he would be, with how terrifying he is.”

“That’s because he’s a sociopath,” Claire muttered under her breath as she turned to face the vampire again. “Oh, and if that wasn’t obvious enough, I can do this too.”

Claire took a breath before slowly opening eyes all over her body. They appeared everywhere at once, radiating a sickly black energy that wrapped itself around her frame and obscured any parts not covered in irises. Each was entirely independent of the others, and Claire found it a nuisance to control them independently, but she made sure to show off the ability by having the eyes blink at different times, each slightly offset from another somewhere else on her body.

“Oooooh, that’s neat,” said Sylvia. “When’d you learn how to do that?” While she was floating around Claire, curiously examining her, the others were a lot more cautious. Lia was standing in place, blinking with her head tilted, while Arciel moved her eyes away.

“Just now, after eating the birds.”

“See, I knew I was right about my uhmmm… nutrient theory thing!” cheered the hat. “Does it let you do anything special? Like maybe make people go to sleep and stuff?”

“I don’t think so?” Claire shrugged, before turning to the resident cat. “What?”

“N-nothing,” Lia hid her hands behind her back and slowly swayed her hips from left to right.

The lyrkress narrowed her eyes, as she undid her transformation and approached a nearby tree. “I’ll be out for a few hours. The barrier should hold as long as we’re in it.” She scraped at the dirt with her talons, crafting a Claire-sized indent in the dirt.

Log Entry 11052

You have acquired the Digging skill.

“Don’t wake me up unless there’s an emergency.” She turned humanoid as she lay down in the makeshift bed, her fox in her arms and her eyes slowly closing.

“Wait, didn’t you just wake up?” asked a confused Natalya.

“That doesn’t count. I only fell asleep because you were being annoying.”

“Right…” The cat smiled awkwardly and jotted another detail in her journal. Claire was tempted to project an icy mirror and stealthily check what she had written, but she gave up before she even cast the spell. Her bones were aching too much for her to exert the necessary effort.

It was still only within her true ice that her divinity was stored. And while a break was not yet due, she would need to sleep if she wanted to fight off the pain that always followed its use.

___

Claire

Health: 65000/65000

Mana: 277240/277240

Divinity: 45/138

Health Regen: 12.9/second

Mana Regen: 70.7/second

Divinity Regen: 13.8/hour

Ability Scores - 9404 Points Available

- Agility: 6770

- Dexterity: 6276

- Spirit: 4324

- Strength: 6910

- Vitality: 4938

- Wisdom: 12081

Racial Class: Frosty Longmoose - Level 322.47

- Corpus Imperium - Level 61.01

- Eyes of the Deep - Level 37.90

- Realm of Eternal Frost

- True Ice Manipulation - Level 74.39

Primary Class: Llystletein Essencethief - Level 379.61

- Catgirl Detector V. 1.00 - Level 17.81

- Charm Catgirl - Level 21.30

- Death’s Dance - Level 37.06

- Essencethief - level 29.55

- Envenom - Level 49.37

- Phantom Blade - Level 41.76

Secondary Class: Cloudburst Sorceress - Level 371.44

- Force Resistance - Level 10.63

- Detect Force Magic - Level 23.88

- Spirit Sorcery - Level 52.46

- Vector Manipulation II - Level 37.16

Unclassed Skills

- Artifact Manipulation - Level 7.00

- Cadrian Court Etiquette - Level 25

- Digging - Level 1.00

- English - Level 25

- Llystletein Authority++ - Level 15.10

- Marish - Level 19.14

- Singing - Level 4.03

- Sneaking - Level 3.94

- Weapon Mastery - Level 40.24