Slowly, inexorably, Temerity dug its way deeper into the Bloodmarsh—quite literally, in the places where the bottom grew too shallow for their passage. Magic saw them through. The Geomancer/Hydromancer synergy was again proving its worth, with Corrin and Clubbs together shifting almost as much mud as Bakal. The former Sea King was tired from the battle but had agreed to help without so much as a complaint. He hadn’t even asked for any sort of compensation. Perhaps he was rethinking his stance on joining Ascension. Perhaps not. Their interests were still aligned, even if all he wanted was to retire someplace dry.

As for how Rain was helping, he’d resigned himself to his role as bug-zapper. He’d managed to smooth Fulmination’s output and was running it constantly. Everything touching the ground—including Temerity through its contact with the water—was losing charge as fast as it could be built up. Anything lacking that connection, though, would charge quickly. For the bugs, that meant getting fried upon landing. People in the upper, wood-framed decks were experiencing perpetual mad-scientist hair, but the static shocks that came with it were painless. The resistance bestowed by the aura’s inverted effect saw to that, and if the distant chatter and occasional laughter were a guide, most seemed to be finding the experience fun.

Rain wasn’t smiling. Ostensibly, he was up atop the bridge so his spells could spread more easily, but really, he just wanted to be alone. He was sitting cross-legged beside the flagpole, right where he’d been before earning himself his newest nickname.

Compared to some of the other things people called him, ‘Whalediver’ wasn’t so bad, really. Several people on the ship had seen him get swallowed, but the Whale had dived before he’d forced his way free. With the water, the distance, and the Purify Nova he’d used afterward, the true means of his escape had been concealed. As far as anyone besides Dozer and Ameliah knew, his damage auras alone had been enough to make him unpalatable.

[Raaaaain-Kiiiiiing!]

[Sorry,] Rain sent, looking down at the slime in his lap, then resuming the Pats of Apology. Those were a mandatory component of his atonement, as was the constant cloud of Purify he was emitting along with Fulmination. The cleaning spell was set so low as to be invisible, but at maximum range and with Ethereal Aura, it was plenty effective. He wasn’t allowed to stop until Dozer said so. When that would be, he had no idea, but he’d given up his arguments about not wanting to leave a trail.

It wasn’t that bad, really. The track of clear water, fresh air, and the suspicious absence of bugs wouldn’t stand out from above. The foliage was heavy and vibrantly green, the trees well-fed by rich soil beneath a thick frosting of rotting bug corpses and vegetation. His spell was only removing the stinking top layer, leaving the rest untouched. From the ground, their path stood out like a sore thumb, sure, but someone with the appropriate Tracking skills would have been able to follow them on foot, regardless. It would take at least a few days for the metaphysical imprint of their passage to fade, and by then, any physical evidence along the coast would have been washed away by time and tide. Rain didn’t need Dozer to tell him that the filth here was tenacious.

The Bloodmarsh was a far cry from a natural ecosystem. Besides the bugs, there were no animals this deep in the swamp. In terms of the problem species, Detection had identified three kinds of flies, two kinds of mosquitoes, two kinds of ticks, two kinds of leeches, one kind of carnivorous wasp, and one kind of sucker-mouthed beetle-slug-thing that didn’t fit neatly into a category. All but the wasps and the beetle-slugs drank blood, while the latter two voraciously dined on flesh. Not even birds and lizards could survive here, unable to eat enough bugs before they would be drained dry and eaten themselves. The lack of birdsong and other animal noises was unsettling.

It wouldn’t have been stable, but for spawns. Monster flesh provided an inexhaustible food source.

In the same way that Ekrustia was the land of Slimes, Bellost was the land of Beasts. What distinguished a Beast from any other monster with animal features was a bit unclear, as only rarely did they have ‘Beast’ in the name. The hallmark, he’d been told, was a certain sense of nobility, something non-Beast monsters lacked. A Skiffun, for example, was not a Beast, which tracked, but neither was a Dark Hound, despite being quite clearly higher on the nobility ladder. That wasn’t to say Beasts didn’t exist on other continents, simply that they were as rare as slimes were here. On Bellost, Beasts were both trash mobs and apex predators. On Rellagia, it was Sprites, which were a minor form of Elementals. On Karmark, it was Avians, though most would say Dragons if you asked.

As for the Bloodmarsh, specifically, there were two types of Beast responsible for the situation. The first was the Bloodhog. It was a mega-pig, essentially. Besides being hippo-sized, Bloodhogs weren’t very dangerous. Their lack of tusks was part of it, as was their placid-unless-roused demeanor, but it was mostly that they were so slow that even an unawakened could outrun one at a brisk walk. ‘Lumbering’ was the word. With low resistances, low-ish health, and Vivificant-level health regeneration, they were the perfect food source. People even farmed them along the border of the zone where the bugs weren’t quite so bad.

Here, in the ‘wild’, the one example they’d run across so far had been an unrecognizable, shambling mound. Its entire body had been smothered with layer after layer of feeding insects, its flesh writhing with their larvae. Even with Immolate at full blast, Rain was of the opinion that he hadn’t used nearly enough fire.

The second Beast endemic to the Bloodmarsh was the Pella. So far, they’d only found their bones. They were small, something like a cross between a chinchilla and a capybara from how Ameliah had described them, and were supposedly just as adorable as that sounded—from a distance. Ameliah said the up-close experience was more like having a coked-up chihuahua trying to strip the flesh from your ankles. Admittedly, she hadn’t used that exact comparison, but the point remained that ‘feisty’ didn’t do it justice. Along the border of the marsh, any population of insectivores trying to move in would find themselves torn to ribbons before they made any headway. Indeed, east of here, near Tenamar, those that wandered from the swamp were a major nuisance, killing chickens, goats, and such from time to time on the outlying farms. An extermination mission was actually what had brought Ameliah there years ago.

It was also there that she’d heard the horror stories of what went on closer to the Bloodmarsh’s ranked core. She hadn’t been close enough to hear it for herself, but it was said that there was a nightly war of sound. The furious squeaks of freshly-spawned Pella would rise with the sunset, only to be swallowed by the horrible drone.

Rain hadn’t believed it the first time she’d told him. After the swarm that had descended on Temerity and seeing the bones in the muck, though...

Perhaps when the sun set, they’d hear the truth for themselves, or perhaps not. They were nowhere near the core, as far as his senses were concerned. Emerton had the depth gauge at the moment and was using it to scout around them in a wide circle. He’d have radioed if the needle had budged from zero. Even if they did find the ranked zone, it would only be so they could stay away. Nobody had any interest in camping in a place where monsters could spawn under your bed, not after Fel Sadanis. Besides, a rank one or two zone wouldn’t solve his essence problem anyway.

No, he had to leave. Perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

Ameliah, Tallheart, and Jamus were the only ones who knew what he was planning—she because she was coming with him, and the others because they’d gotten to talking about it after discussing Tallheart’s broken soul. The high council doubtless suspected something, but he hadn’t informed them officially. He supposed he’d have to. And then he’d need to give a speech.

He’d already written it, but...

Stepping down’s not a betrayal. If I die, I can’t help anyone.

Taking his hand from Dozer’s membrane, he made it into a fist and triggered an essence exchange.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Progress Report

marker_1: whale_inside [3061 Light 28 10:00]

marker_2: bloodmarsh [3061 Light 28 13:13]

Span: 3.2 hours

Character

Total Exp: 3,136,316 -> 3,636,316 (+500,000)

↳Mana Use: 500,000

Skills

Prismatic Intent: +709 exp, 1 -> 2 (+1)