I glimpsed the edge of the true abyss ahead. I could feel the pressure, the dread of what hid in the depths. The oceanic crevasse was massive. Before the world ended, the wavy and featureless sand gave way to a rocky formation that climbed a hundred ters before dipping into the darkness. The top of the rocks had so coral growing on it, feeding on the little light that reached it. Normal fish sward the thin strip, stranded on and around it. To reach another reef they would need to brave the open waters. Too many predators, too many dangers. Nemo wouldn’t make it to 42, Wallaby Way before it was eaten.
That’s where I’d find my destiny, though. I knew it. My detection told of countless monsters hiding in the depths, valuable Exp points. As I approached the rock wall from the coast side, I heard chattering and clacking. It was as if a thousand crabs danced on the other side of the rock. Curiosity won and I swam up and around to see what it was. I regretted doing that imdiately.
Clinging to the rock on the abyss side was a massive ball of spikes and tendrils. Ivory spikes a dozen ters long jutted from all sides of the thing, and hundreds of tendrils dotted the space between the spikes. So tendrils ended up in suckers, others in three-pronged claws that could easily grab a horse. The massive ball of dread and death shot suckers into the rock, pulling itself higher and toward .
Elder Urchin Guardian
Level 177 fish monster
HP ~190M
Size: Gigantic (x8 HP)
Praise the System and the HP inflation. This guy had more health than a Dragon Emperor of yore. About four tis as much mass, too.
They say that back on Earth, normal sea urchins can live for hundreds of years and they never stop growing. A magical urchin thousands of years old? In one word, it was Lovecraftian. It looked like a squirming star, the base of the ivory towers of its spines hiding underneath a forest of rubbery tentacles. I was srized.
Nenandil shook out of my stupor.
Three pincer tentacles shot my way. The rubbery flesh stretched and they easily reached twice as far as the largest spikes. I was looking for a good fight, but it seed I bit more than I could chew. I used {Water Jet} to dodge the clawed appendages and that triggered the blind creature’s curiosity more than just my hovering presence.
Not only pincers but suckers as well shot as I frantically dodged, ducked, weaved, and slashed at them. I changed into my {Ice Elental} form and shaped long claws at the end of my fingers. Evasion was paramount but I slashed the tentacles whenever I had the opportunity.
I wasn’t looking where I went. The Elder Urchin climbed the rest of the way and was now looming over the reef. The non-magical critters all hid in their little holes, too small to be considered part of the nu by the crevasse guardian. To a critter with hundreds of appendages and the way to grow more, losing a few dozen wasn’t enough to dissuade it from eating the intruder. , if anyone wasn’t paying attention. I plead guilty. These things were fast for their size. And sharp. So tendrils grazed and that was enough to shave almost half my HP pool. I, Arista, was in a controlled state of panic.
Nenandil warned.
All I knew was that I saw a section of the death ball where it seed to have no tendrils. A safe spot, I thought at first. It couldn’t be further from the truth. As I cleared the forest of angry tentacles and towering ivory spikes, I found what it was. The “clearing” was dominated by a feature made of five enaled hard plates, resembling a flower with five petals created a dark star-shape with the gaps between the plates.
The tendrils shot not at but outward and around As I tried to understand what I was seeing, they gathered in dozens and dove down in my direction. Instinctively I swam down and away from the swarm. In my defense, Arista didn’t have the instincts of a hunter as Lily or Apricot had. I was them once in my past, but the body and brain had more sway than mories and System Status.
The plates opened revealing their true nature. Teeth. They also revealed the rows of brothers and sisters hidden underneath. The urchin started to suck in as the maddening clacking of the claw tendrils dove down. I made my choice and dove down. It was just the first ti sothing too big for to fight would try and eat today.
But c’mon! I killed dragons that would think this overgrown urchin was a bath loofah before. Before I had Lakerta’s superhuman Attribute values. If I could only put my heart back in the chest cavity…
Begrudgingly, I shifted into Lakerta’s lamia form to make use of her defensive Perks while the urchin closed set after set of teeth behind . Not the best strategy in hindsight. I had ways to avoid physical contact but I couldn’t sit and browse my huge Perk list. Dumb rmaid, indeed.
I had to get my shit together. Stay on top of my ga. Being afraid wouldn’t help anyone, especially getting out of this jaw. All of this musing and self-loathing happened as the urchin closed its teeth around . Yeah, no. I lacked drive. When I ca out of the depths to rescue mom, I had it. I was intent on assassinating a deity, for crying out loud.
One {Water Jet} followed by an imdiate {Phase} put outside the urchin. The dumb creature chittered and crunched its many teeth together, probably wondering where its morsel went.
I ca here for a reason. To get stronger enough to protect my reef, my family. I wouldn’t reach Lakerta levels of power in this life, but it hardly mattered. I would do what I could and pray that it would be good enough. I cleared my mind and stared at the gigantic urchin clambering my way now that {Phase} was turned off.
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The clawed tendrils shot toward . The razor-sharp pronged claws snapped angrily. I reversed the previous move and shot back down toward the monster’s core. The claws went through my phased form and I landed next to the larger outer set of teeth.
Arista dismissed her {ice elental} form. It would do no good because its brittle structure was vulnerable to the pincers. She cycled her options as she dove toward the urchin's maw. The psionic monster sensed her and started to open its maw and suck in seawater. A few unlucky reef fish were dragged from their hiding spots and eaten imdiately. The rmaid princess used her {water jet} to counter the sucking pressure.
She had little ti. The snapping tendrils and suckers were coming at her, the muscular tubes of the tendrils they rested on betrayed agility impossible to fathom on a creature this big. Glancing at where she ca from before reaching the maw, Arista noticed the tentacles she severed before finding the monstrous guardian's maw didn't regrow. 'Good, no ridiculous regenerative powers', she thought.
Summoning Alloralla's indestructible enchanted daggers to her hands, she made her decision. It would be a slow grind but one in which she was certain would cause the least injury to herself. The outrage at the beautiful and probably unique reef fish getting eaten by the giant creature was the trigger she needed.
She let the negative emotions take hold and activated her fairy power. {Boggart Transformation} took over. At the sa ti the polar opposite and dark side of the silkies, the boggart wished to destroy and defile, instead of build and cleanse. The dolphin-rmaid's shape blurred and shrank, becoming a furball of resentnt and anger. Her face beca twisted, the nose long and thin, the ears pointed and flapped as fur covered her whole naturally intangible body except the face. No wonder boggarts were confused with goblinoids.
Prince Rhenius' stupid face flashed in front of her. Grinding her fangs, the intangible boggart's hands latched telekinetically to the daggers and dove with a snarling screech. She would've lost her reason if it were not for {Tranquil Mind} keeping her from berserking. She laid a {champion's challenge} on the urchin guardian and felt the ntal click of the perk taking hold of their combat. She was now honor-bound to defeat the creature or die trying.
She approached the base of the tentacle forest. Closer to the urchin's body, its psychic powers grew in intensity. She felt as if a spear dipped into her brain, turning it to mush. her health dropped by a million HP. She staggered even before delivering the first attack. The tentacles slamd through the boggart's ethereal form, almost dislodging one of the daggers. Arista recovered and cast a quick {healing water} spell on herself to heal the damage.
Here in the depths of the ocean, defensive water magic was as much of a boon as useless as an offensive asure. The creatures here had a high affinity for it along with excellent resistance. Fire was useless without much oxygen to burn. The true anathema of the water creatures was lightning even though it wasn't an uncommon resistance type to pick up.
Arista charged her daggers with her MP and HP, activating {arcane strike} and {blood sacrifice} as she slashed at the tentacles. A single cut was not enough to sever a tentacle as Alloralla's daggers were enchanted for resilience and protection rather than pure offensive power. The rmaid princess made up for that with an increased attack rate. Dark blood spurt from the wounded appendages, clouding the scarce sunlight that filtered down from the surface. It mattered not. After spending a lifeti in the darkness, Arista didn't need sight to hunt her prey. As she finished sawing the first tentacle, it vanished into her item box.
If the urchin felt pain or missed the tentacle, it didn't show. Suddenly, the forest parted to reveal why. These appendages would get damage and die only to be replaced by others growing underneath. It also revealed the reason the creature didn't regenerate severed tentacles. Its natural lifecycle replaced those with new ones. More importantly, smaller ones.
The fully grown pincers, capable of easily grasping a horse were too big for the small fairy assailant. Those younger ones, not so much. The urchin wrapped the new pincers in psychic energy and slingshot them toward the pesky attacker.
Arista threw a Force barrier to block the imbued pincers and rose, water jet propelling her upward and out of the cloud of dark monster blood. Being near the main body of the urchin was a two-fold liability now as both the small tentacles and the area psionic assault were threats to her ethereal form. She would give up so of the defensive bonus of {close quarters combat} that way but so far it didn't seem the monster could clad the big appendages in psychic energy. Or maybe it was too expensive.
The urchin lurched and spun, the power of hundreds of suckers latched to the rock easily swiveling the hundreds of tons of its weight. The mouth opened and Arista risked a glance. Light gathered at the bottom of its maw of concentric teeth.
"Dumb, this creature is not," she remarked out loud and growled. The boggart wanted to dive in, to draw blood. To make it feel pain.
The tentacles stopped seeking her and Arista tried to evade the obvious attack that was building up. She understood the urchin was now focusing all its limited mobility on keeping the maw pointed at her. Geotry told her she should get closer to the creature instead of trying to move away. The further away she got, the smaller the angle the urchin needed to swivel to keep the maw pointed at her.
So she dove back. The younger tentacles didn't leash out to strike her neither the psionic area attack assaulted her mind. The urchin was pretty confident in its ability to just zap her with the mouth beam or whatever that was.
As she approached the maw, she noticed that it was generating not only light but also heat. The urchin wasn't moving now, the attack already pointing at the furry boggart. At last, she felt the timing was right and activated {Flash Step}, moving incredibly fast and attacking a tentacle near the edge of the buccal clearing.
The beam of psionic light shot while the urchin desperately turned around to point it at the attacker. The pillar of light shot up and out of the ocean, suddenly illuminating the reef, the abyss, everything.
But where there's light, shadows naturally spawned. The forest of tentacles cast long pillars of darkness behind itself. Arista took advantage of it and used {Flash Step} again, cutting yet another tentacle with a dozen lightning-fast slashes. The telekinetic daggers didn't have cumberso arms behind them. The damage, however, used her Mind attribute instead of Strength.
So smaller tentacles tried to pinch her on reflex. they lacked the coordination of yore, the monster's focus entirely on the massive siege beam.
The urchin moved, rotating upon its own axis like a planet of death. The beam now boiled the oceanic water for half a mile and soon touched the reef, bursting and lting the stone and coral. Arista now resorted to {Shadow Warp} to teleport between the shadows of the tentacles, each ti claiming one of the rubbery appendages to her trophy collection.
At last, after two minutes of futile chase, the beam pointed straight down. A swarm of hot boiling bubbles of water vapor rose and covered everything in tiny bubbles as the writhing tentacles flailed and split the bubbles. The rmaid turned boggart relished in the heat, using it to recover so HP.
The monsters of the depths, not so much.
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