Chapter Two Hundred and Twelve — Mist Opportunities
Chapter Two Hundred and Twelve — Mist Opportunities I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to feel as I watched Emmanuel run into the fog, the light hanging off his barding swinging around and turning a big spot of the haze into a glowing ball within which I could only just make out the cervid.I decided to settle on being somewhat frustrated. “Mister Emmanuel! No!”“Come at me! Don’t hide yourself away, there’s no point in any of that. I won’t allow a threat to exist that could harm my charges!”My mouth worked for a bit. I was looking for something to say, but couldn’t think of anything. Instead, I rubbed at my forehead.“Now you know what it’s like dealing with you,” Amaryllis called from her room.I huffed back at her. I was nothing like that.“Shall we save him?” Bastion asked. I had the impression he hadn’t moved from his room at all.A glance to the side showed Howard shaking his head. The fishman looked a bit saddened. “We’ve lost every person that’s stepped out into the fog. Maybe you folk are stronger than us, or luckier, but we never figured what sort of monster lives in that mist.”I chewed on my bottom lip for only a second before moving over to the door. It was all bars, and I figured I could definitely squeeze between them. Reaching a hand out, I touched the fog. It was strange, like brushing cotton candy, but wet.Like flicking a switch, I let my Cleaning magic wrap around me as an aura and had it push against the fog. It removed some of it, but not very much. I scrunched my nose and tried to figure out why. The obvious answer was that I was just cleaning the fog of any impurities, but the fog itself wasn’t something dirty, it was just water.So, I could just barely improve visibility. Not great.“Amaryllis, I need lots of light, and lots of heat,” I called out. “Awen, can you get ready to shoot at anything that’s not one of us? Bastion, I’ll need your help for this.” I chucked off my backpack, then gave my warspade to Howard who seemed to catch on right away.I had to squeeze in sideways, but it wasn’t too hard to slip through the gate. I had to wiggle my shoulders, and my tail bumped the cold metal bars, but soon enough I was through.Howard passed me my warspade.“What are you planning?” Amaryllis asked. She was waving her wand about, and soon a couple of little balls of light appeared that she flung out into the room. They mostly dropped to the floor, and one of them plopped into the pond. Still, they cast some light in the fog.“I’m planning on making sure that Emmanuel doesn’t die,” I said as I twisted my grip around on my spade. I pushed more magic into my Cleaning aura, and the fog became just a bit clearer. Amaryllis was flinging more lights around, enough that I could make out the wooden pier beneath my feet, and the edge of the bridge. Emmanuel was more or less in the middle of that bridge, judging by the light still coming from his barding.With one hand on my spade, and the haft of it tucked under my arm for stability, I raised my free hand and started to make a fireball. Not the many little fireballs that I liked using, but a single bigger one. I wanted a bunch of heat to melt away the fog.I was pretty sure it wouldn’t work exactly as I wanted, but there was no harm in trying.As soon as I took off towards the cervid, the sounds from my friends lessened. Amaryllis’ muttering became muted, and I could hardly hear Awen’s comments back to our nervous harpy friend.I moved slowly. Not only did I want to avoid going for a sudden swim, I didn’t want to run into any sort of ambush.If this fog was meant to hide some sort of monster, then that monster was likely able to see through the fog, or maybe it had other senses that the fog didn’t tamper with. Smell, maybe? Or really good hearing? Maybe something entirely different.“Ah-hah, there you are!”I spun towards Emmanuel, then ‘eeped’ as he swung something my way.I ducked, then flattened my ears down just in time to avoid having them clipped short as a sword hummed over my head.“Hey!” I shouted.“Oh,” Emmanuel said. He looked down at me, then carefully brought his sword back to his side. “Forgive me, I thought you were some vile monster.”“I’m not a monster! And even if I was, you shouldn’t just go swinging a sword like that!”“She’s right.”Both Emmanuel and I jumped and turned as Bastion walked out of the fog. The sylph was looking around, sword still in its sheath, but his hand was on its hilt. “You’re quiet,” I said.“It’s good to be quiet, at times. We should return to the room; the three of us together should be able to use the entrance as a chokepoint until the fog clears.”That sounded a lot better than being stuck out here in the open. “Alrig-” I began to say.Something heavy and wet slorped its way around my waist. I looked down, the fireball I still held onto providing plenty of light by which to see a huge purple-ish tongue grabbing me. It was slimy, with drool pooling on it and leaking down to the ground with a splatter. My Cleaning aura, still on, was wicking away at the drool.“Uh,” I said.Then I was yanked back.I screamed as I flew across the room.It wasn’t a very long flight, my feet scraped against the ground, and I kicked out, trying to find purchase a moment before my butt smacked the ground. Even when I was on my back, the tentacle thing kept on tugging me backwards.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.I could barely see anything in the fog, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have options. I was still towing along my huge fireball, after all.Reaching up and behind me, I aimed along the length of the tentacle, then fired.The fog hissed as the fireball shot through it. I saw a glimpse of something dark and slimey a moment before the fireball impacted with a burst of unleashed flame.The monster in the darkness screeched.I wished that the tentacle grabbing me loosened, but instead it seemed to spasm tighter around me and pulled me even faster.Grunting, I slapped the flat of my foot down and jumped as best I could into the air. With a kick, I was able to twist around and properly see the monster pulling at me through the mists.Tentacle Toad, Level 8, Hungry.I wasn’t about to let some toad eat me!I screamed as I swung my warspade around, timing it with the toad pulling me towards its mouth. It had a huge mouth, one ringed by dozens of questing tentacles. That didn’t protect it from the heavy bonk of my spade on its head.A big puff of fog came pouring out from some slits on the toad’s sides and back, like strange smokey gills. That’s where the fog was coming from!The spade shook so hard I had to grit my teeth and grip as hard as I could to keep hold of it.Moving quick, I planted a foot at the base of the tentacle toad’s jaw, and another right on its face, in a pose that felt like trying to walk up a staircase while skipping a few steps.The tentacle around my waist tugged again, and those around its mouth started to wiggle towards my legs.So I raised my spade and brought it down in another heavy bonk.The tentacle toad didn’t let up.“Fine then!” I said. Aiming a hand down at its mouth, I unleashed a wave of S-tier Cleaning magic down its throat and all over its open mouth.There was slimy drool and pools of saliva in there before I started. By the time my magic petered out, the toad’s mouth was as dry as sandpaper.It croaked, tongue unwinding around me and letting me go to fall back.As soon as I had a foot on solid ground, I bounced back a step or two, then took in my surroundings. I was... near the far end of the room, not too far from the doorway.“Iä! Iä!” croaked the toad.“Nuh-uh,” I replied.It had a mean look in its eyes as it worked its mouth, probably trying to do something about the dryness. Then its tongue shot out at me.This time, I was ready for it.The metal head of my spade thumped against the tongue, sending it flickering off to the side. An opening!I raised my hand and prepared a single little fireball. It was all I had time for, I figured. It wasn’t even anything special, just a fireball made with stickier fire mana. I let it loose and watched it whistle over to the toad where it splashed against its head. The fire stuck on though, creating a little patch of light in the fog.Grinning, I leapt backwards a few times.The toad followed, and with that little patch of fire on its head, it was easy as pie to see where it was.“Iä! Iä!” it screamed at me.“Iä! Iä!” another toad said from within the fog.I felt a chill go down my spine at that. There were more than one? Of course there was more than one! I felt quite silly. One tentacle toad I could probably take on. It was beneath my level, and I was pretty sure I could whittle it down with a few more smacks and maybe a fireball or three.Two of them? More?“Guys!” I called out.“Miss Broccoli?” came Bastion’s voice from off to the side. I twisted and spotted a faint but growing light there. The light resolved into Bastion and Emmanuel, both of them looking a shade concerned. “Are you well?” the sylph asked as he rejoined me.“Yeah,” I said. “There are tentacle toads in the fog. They’re making the fog, I think.”“I see,” he said. “Then killing one or two of them should improve visibility a little. Is that one of them there?”I followed his pointing finger and found a patch of light moving closer with big slow hops. The toad I’d hit with my fireball. It was still burning. “Yep, that’s one of them.”“Worry not, Miss Broccoli! I shall skewer that toad in the name of Emmanuel Aldelain Von Chadsbourne!” Emmanuel said, a moment before charging into the dark.“If he were in my unit, I’d court-martial him on principle alone,” Bastion said.“He’s... okay, so he’s pretty bad,” I said. “But let’s not leave him to fight all on his own. We should help.”“He put himself into this mess, and dragged us along with him,” Bastion said. “Once this is done with, I expect we will be having a conversation with Mister Von Chadsbourne. His unprofessional behaviour is fine up until the point where it endangers us.”Emmanuel screamed, not in pain, but more... like a kid who thought screaming would make attacks hit harder.“Iä! Iä!” the toad responded.“Right, I’m going to have a chat with him. But let’s maybe save him first?”“I suppose we can do that much,” Bastion agreed. He pulled his sword out of its scabbard, flicked it once, then started walking into the mists. “Let’s get this over with.”“Ah, wait for me!” I said as I ran after him.I didn’t want to miss out on the chance to practice when I had someone like Bastion watching over me. Plus, getting a level up before Amaryllis would really motivate her competitive spirit.It was time to teach these toads a lesson about fighting buns.
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Chapter Two Hundred and Thirteen — Toadbreakers
Chapter Two Hundred and Thirteen — Toadbreakers The tentacle toad’s tongue whipped out at me, slashing through the air followed by a trail of drool.Bastion’s sword cut through the air ahead of me, so fast that all I saw was a grey blur through the fog.The tongue flopped off to the side, the bulb at the end detached from the rest of it.The tentacle toad croaked in pain and slurped its tongue back, but not before I ran up to it. I planted a foot on the ground just before the monster and shot into the air. It wasn’t a huge leap, just a couple of metres nearly straight up.My spade came down, point-first, and with one foot riding on the top of the shovel part. That’s how I landed atop the toad, the shovel’s blade digging in right between the monster’s eyes so hard and fast that it sank in to the hilt.The toad croaked, then burst apart in a huge cloud of mostly fog.I landed with a stumble, then spun my spade around and started looking for the next tentacle toad.Emmanuel was fighting one of them, parrying its tongue-strikes with his sword and occasionally scoring a slash against the toad’s rubbery skin. Bastion, meanwhile, was nearby, staring into the fading mists and searching for the next toad to try something funny.“Over there!” he said, pointing with his sword-tip into the fog.I glanced that way, and could only just make out a big blotch moving that way.“I’ll light it up, you get in close,” I said.“Got it,” he replied.The fog was starting to clear, bit by bit. It started almost as soon as Emmanuel and Bastion took out the first toad, which made sense. They were the ones making the fog, getting rid of them meant less monsters producing it.They were big, and their tongues were nasty, but otherwise, the toads were actually pretty weak.I jogged over to Bastion’s side, careful not to trip over anything. My attention was split as I created nine fireballs in my free hand. “Ready?”“Go,” Bastion said.I flung the fireballs towards the lumbering form in the fog, and knew I’d hit something when the toad croaked in pain.Bastion took off like a bullet, following the trails left by my fireballs with his wings beating to displace the air behind him.A moment later a big burst of fog filled the area ahead of him. He’d gotten it.I ducked down a bit and started searching for the next tentacle toad. It was getting easier to see already. With the mist clearing up, I was now able to make out the walls and the pond, and even the rooms where Howard and Amaryllis and Awen were still waiting.Amaryllis’ light balls, which she’d tossed out here and there, were helping too.If it wasn’t for those, I wouldn’t have seen the toad leaping over towards the room where I’d been with Howard. “Oh no,” I said.Was it going to try and attack my friends through the gate?I heard something go ‘clunk’ and the toad stumbled back mid-leap, then the far end of the cavern exploded with bluish light and the snap-crackle of live electricity being zapped out at something unfortunate.The tentacle toad exploded.Right, my friends could take care of themselves.I spun around, looking for another toad. Instead, I found... nothing at all.Had that been it?“Ah hah! Cur! You have been defeated by the one and only Emmanuel Aldelain Von Chadsbourne!”I found Emmanuel bouncing and cheering, his hooves cracking at the stone floor while he stabbed at the air with the point of his sword.I looked over to Bastion who was casually wiping his own sword clean with a piece of cloth. “The room seems clear,” he said. “Unless there are any of them hiding within the water. I can’t sense any more danger.”I nodded, then allowed the notifications stacking up at the back of my head to ping away.Ding! Congratulations, you have made three (3) ‘Tentacle Toad,’ Level 8 croak their last! EXP reduced for fighting as a group!Nothing else? Well, I supposed that I hadn’t really used that many skills in the fight, and other than being a bit scary at first, it didn’t really feel that hard. Alone it would have been very tough, but with some help from my friends, it was easy.“We did it!” I cheered.The doors leading into the lever rooms opened and Howard and my friends stepped out.Amaryllis immediately crossed the little bridge in the middle of the room, her stomping steps leading her on a straight path towards Emmanuel. “You!” she screeched.“Pardon?” the cervid asked.Amaryllis almost ran into him with how close she stopped. She jabbed at Emmanuel’s chest with the dull side of a talon. “You are an idiot. No, that’s too kind. I know some idiots and they’re quite nice. Clever even, in their own way. You are a buffoon. An ignorant horse.”“Amaryllis,” I said.“Not now, Broccoli,” she snapped.“Miss harpy, I find this behaviour highly irregular,” Emmanuel said.“Miss... did you not even bother learning our names?!” Amaryllis shouted.I moved over to my friend and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Amaryllis, it’s okay,” I said.“It is very much not,” she said. “This twit could have gotten all of us killed.”“That’s... well, that’s true, but I’m sure he’ll learn his lesson from it, right mister Emmanuel?”The cervid stood a little taller. “Of course. Putting the lives of others at risk is unheroic.”“Broccoli,” Amaryllis said. She was looking at me with naked concern. “You know that people can lie, right?”“Uh, yeah? It’s rude though.”“And you know that some people, usually clownish oafs, will believe their own lies, right?”“I don’t think that’s what Emmanuel is doing,” I said. “He’s just, um.”Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.“A dimwit? A doofus? No, he’s neither of those,” Amaryllis said. “That would imply that he’s merely a simpleton of some sort or another. Simpletons are fine as long as they stay far away from me. This man, this cervid, is a jackass.”“I am no such thing,” Emmanuel said.I shrunk back a bit. I didn’t like hearing Amaryllis talking about someone that way, even if she might be a little bit right. Emmanuel was... a bit of trouble. “Mister Emmanuel,” I said as I turned his way. “What you did was irresponsible and endangered all of us. Bastion and I had to step out to save you, which meant splitting up our group. That’s dangerous on its own. And it meant leaving Mister Howard behind. He’s a brave fishperson, but he’s not a fighter.”“Yes yes, shall we move on?”I blinked, then spoke with a bit more force to my voice. “Mister Emmanuel,” I said. “None of us are going to move on until you explain to me why what you did was wrong.”The cervid reeled his head back. “What? What sort of requirement is that?”“A really simple one. You did something that I think all of us agree was wrong, and dangerous. That kind of stuff happens sometimes, sure. I’ve done dangerous things before that I probably shouldn’t have, but I try to listen when my friends warn me about them later. I just want to make sure you understand.”Emmanuel crossed his arms. He didn’t look very pleased with things, but a glance over my shoulder showed all of my friends staring at him. “I suppose what I did wrong was... moving in without warning you all?”“Yes, and what else?” I encouraged.He looked like he'd just chewed into a lemon. “I... perhaps shouldn’t have put you at risk?”“Not just me or my friends, but yourself too. Did you hear what Howard said about the fog?”Emmanuel glanced towards Howard. “No?”I sighed. “He said that it left, on its own. If we just waited a little bit we wouldn’t have to fight at all.”“I suppose that would have been the... less brave but... perhaps least dangerous path to take,” Emmanuel admitted. “It doesn’t do for a knight to put his charges at risk when he can avoid it.”“That’s, uh... close enough, I think?” I looked to Amaryllis for confirmation.“I still think we should kick him out,” she said.I turned to my other friends.Bastion was the first to reply. “He’s serving as a great object lesson, and in a low-risk, but not riskless, environment.”“Um,” Awen began. “I think Mister Emmanuel could probably use a bit more time with Broccoli.”“Huh?”“Because he’s a little bit bad at making friends and being... nice. So, maybe we can keep him with us for a little bit more, as long as he’s learning?” Awen said. She didn’t sound entirely sure, and she hugged her crossbow close for comfort as she spoke, but I think I understood what she meant.Howard just shrugged. “I don’t rightly know. Never expected to see toads in that fog. Might explain a few things. Some folk will be glad to know. Otherwise, whether or not the cervid stays is out of my hands.”I tapped my chin. “Fine. Mister Emmanuel, you can stay with us, but I really expect you to try a little harder to remember that your actions can hurt others, alright?”The cervid smiled and nodded. “Of course!” he said.I didn’t have much confidence in that smile, but, well, I was willing to give him a chance. “Alright.” I gestured to the door at the end of the room. “Shall we continue then? Howard, is there anything we should know about the next area?”“Just a corridor,” the fishman said. “It’s a little tight at first, but it’ll bring us to the main cave. The next floor’s just around the corner after that. Looks like a little village.”“A little village?” I asked.“Like Insmouth, but not quite. Very old, and everything’s rotten out. No point in gathering much from there, unfortunately. Occasionally, we'll find a nice trinket there, but not enough to make a job of collecting them. Not when the second floor’s the way it is.”“That sounds ominous,” Awen muttered.“Aye, the second floor’s not for the faint of heart.”We formed up a bit as we moved out of the first floor. I ended up with Amaryllis walking by my side while Bastion and Emmanuel ranged out ahead.“He’s going to be trouble again,” Amaryllis said.“I know,” I said. “But just because someone is troublesome that doesn’t mean they’re not a potential friend.” My shoulder bumped against hers. “Let’s give him one last chance?”She huffed, but it was a huff that agreed with me, if only reluctantly. “You’re far more patient with people than I am.”“I know. If I wasn’t I don’t think we’d have ever become friends.”She snapped her head around. “I am nothing like him.”“Hmm,” I said before tapping my chin. “I don’t know. Noble, full of ideas about how things should be. Very rude.”She huffed very mightily. “I am not that bad.”“You’re not that bad now,” I agreed.“Nor was I ever that bad,” she said.“Eh, I don’t know.”Amaryllis shook her head. “Well, you’ve certainly improved a little too. You’re not nearly as irritating and stupid as you once were.”“Really?” I asked.She nodded. “You seem to be getting less dumb. Slowly. Exceptionally slowly. I suspect that in a few decades I might even consider you to have an average amount of common sense.”I laughed, and she joined me with her own birdy whistles. I even heard Awen giggling away behind us until I reached back and pulled her closer. The corridor was hardly so small as to require us to be split in pairs, and I wanted to have all of my friends close.We were about to face another challenge, which was the best time to keep one’s friends close!
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