321: Vile Waters

Vile Waters

“Maybe she can heal Asra, but is it worth the risk...” He thought, walking through the swamp grasses at the edge of the water.

“Hmm... But I can minimize the risk, and before I try anything, perhaps I can test the swamp woman’s strength.” He nodded.

As he walked towards Lamp and Dark, Jay thought of a few problems with making contact.

- There was a slight chance she had a communication crystal and would warn Astrata, which would send mage hunters directly to his location, whom he had worked so hard to escape, concealing and throwing them off his trail. Or so he thought.

- She could be so powerful that she could crush him and his skeletons. He didn’t even know what kind of magic she could wield.

- Like the lights stalking them, she may be capable of causing wounds that don’t heal, wounds that shift back to the victim no matter if they cut their leg off.

If he went himself, it would be too risky, but if he sent his skeletons, she would react with fear or aggression. If he went with his skeletons, the same would probably happen, and it would still be just as risky.

Jay made it to Dark and Lamp, and since there were no lights pursuing them anymore, he had Blue recall its five sub-skeletons.

Jay made sure they all moved slowly and quietly in order to not alert the hunchback woman with their tapping bones as he began the first steps of his plan.

(Archers. Go.) Jay ordered, pointing into the swamp water, giving the level one skeleton a series of commands.

The skeleton moved slowly into the water, not causing any splashes and only causing as many ripples as the decaying gas bubbles.

Archers kept moving slowly as it sunk deeper into the water and disappeared.

The only traces of the skeleton were the bubbles it released with each step, and gentle movements of water. Otherwise, it was completely silent and undetectable.

As it waded through the black waters, Jay sensed it moving about 20 feet deeper, watching bubbles making a patch across the surface until he could no longer see through the heavy fog.

Yet, after a moment, Archers stopped.

“Hmm?”

He heard more bubbles bursting on the surface as exp notifications suddenly appeared.

[1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp]

[Your skeleton has been slain.]

Jay took a few steps back from the edge of the water.

“Dammit.” He thought, frowning. “A swarm of tiny creatures must’ve feasted on its bones.”

Jay re-summoned Archers, hastily made it some daggers, and commanded Blue to send two of its sub-constructs in with it.

“If they can’t get past a few swamp creatures, I’ll need to send some bigger skeletons in.” Jay thought, watching the three of them enter the murky waters again.

More bubbles rose as they moved under the water, and soon enough, the notifications began again.

[1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp]

[A skeleton has been slain]

Larger bubbles burst to the surface, causing splashes. Jay could only hope that the woman didn’t see it or get suspicious.

[1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp]

[Your skeleton has been slain]

[1 Exp] [1 Exp]

[A skeleton has been slain]

Jay was getting annoyed as he watched larger bubbles bursting on the surface, making a louder commotion, but he noticed something interesting about the notifications.

“A skeleton… ‘my’ skeleton has been slain?” Jay raised a brow, seeing that the death notifications were slightly different.

“Well, it’s good there’s a distinction between the sub skeletons dying and my own.” He nodded, a little less annoyed.

It was time to send in some larger skeletons. The smaller ones only had about ten health, while the ones like Sweeper and Lamp had fifty-five, with a bonus twenty health from their spectral armor.

(Sweeper, you can lead the way.) Jay ordered, summoning Archers back again.

He also released some extra bones so Blue could summon its two dead skeletons back.

Usually Jay would be low mana by now, but Archers was a level one skeleton, and only needed five mana to summon. It also needed about half as much bone mass as other skeletons, but with the hundreds of thousands of leftover Helvetian skeletons in Jay’s gauntlet, it was negligible.

Sweeper slowly trudged into the water, readying its weapon as the three smaller skeletons followed it.

Since it was heavier, it set free many more of the trapped swamp bubbles, but because the skeletons had already passed this way, it wasn’t too loud.

Since Sweeper was taller, it was the last to disappear, and sank lower into the abyss.

“I suppose I should look for other ways to cross.” Jay thought, glancing around. Even before Sweeper entered battle, he was thinking of axe designs to hack down a dead tree, which he would use to float a skeleton across.

It would annoy him to send a few skeletons far enough away so that he wouldn’t be able to hear the chopping noises of the axes.

Suddenly, the water started splashing again.

Much larger bubbles rose to the surface as Sweeper and the three skeletons engaged whatever was down there.

[1 Exp] [1 Exp] [1 Exp]… [1 Exp] x21

[A skeleton has died]

[1 Exp] x 18

“They seem to be doing better this time.” Jay thought.

Still, he was preparing himself to craft a bone axe.

Over the next few minutes, bubbles continued to rise to the surface as many exp notifications came in.

Yet the water settled down.

The exp notifications slowed to a stop until there was one final large one.

[30 Exp]

“Hmm, wonder what that was.” Jay scratched his chin.

Unfortunately, nothing floated to the surface other than bubbles, which also stopped.

(Sweeper, escort Archers to the other side and then come back. Blue, bring your sub skeleton back. I want to inspect it.)

Blue nodded, and the sub-skeleton returned.

While it came back, Jay made sure that Sweeper and Archers continued to crawl to the island, and to move slower the closer they got to it, as to not alarm the woman with rising swamp bubbles.

In a few moments, the black water rippled and the skeleton’s skull rose out, stained a few shades darker because of the vile waters.

Yet as it got closer, it wasn’t the only thing that was exiting the swamp, as some things clung to its bones, too. The leftovers of the underwater battle. 1

Jay finally saw what the skeletons were fighting under water. Or at least, the remains of them.

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