The group climbs up the rock face and finds another ledge twenty-feet up. It is about thirty-feet and a slight drop to the next spire over. Helo makes the jump easily. Turning back around he sees as the rest either jump or struggle.
It takes at least ten minutes before the rest of the group finally makes it across. With that extra time Helo searched the spire and found the next jump on the opposite side. This jump is only ten-feet above the water level and is constantly assaulted by waves.
Leading the group to the new crossing point Helo, Hinata, and Cody make it across quickly. As Gabi is about to jump the group watches as the water’s surface is filled with splashing.
“Get back!” Helo yells across the gap, he is pulling Hinata and Cody back. Everyone can see Helo’s frantic movements and they start moving back as well. Helo’s back hits the rock wall as a massive wave hit’s them all. As the wave recedes standing in its place are the corrupted fish man. There are at least ten fish man who have left the water. They are split between both side, and Helo can see more climbing free.
Pulling Cody back Helo steps in front of the archer. Pointing at the rock wall Helo can see a staircase that lines the side of the spire. “Get some height and start shooting.”
Letting Hinata take the lead Helo steps directly behind her and speaks. “I’ll cover you. Focus on injuring them.” Grabbing both his knives Helo prepares to fight.
On the other side everyone steps behind Kenneth. Gabi takes up a position similar to Helo. Luna and Aiko even pull-out weapons from their storage rings.
The fight begins and Hinata is a whirlwind of slashes. Her blade is making arcs of blood fly into the rain, like she is some kind of eccentric painter. She is focusing on quick and wounding strikes. The mad fishmen just keep coming at her with no strategy. So, her attacks are staggering them.
Helo is behind her and dashes forward with dark rimmed blades. Every time a fishman falls or staggers he is there. Plunging his blade in their chest, throats, or heads. Helo’s every strike weaves around their claws or fangs to land a killing blow.
With five dead fishmen on their ledge they both focus on the ones coming from the water. About to step forward Hinata pauses as an arrow pierces into the climbing fishman’s scull. Looking back, she can see Cody is twenty feet up the staircase and sending out arrows.
On the other side Kenneth still has three fishman holding onto his shield trying to drag him into the water. On his left Gabi is swinging her axe in wide arcs. Every cut is lopping off limbs or heads. Alli is preparing a ‘Runic Conjuration’. Using all ten runes she makes eight earth lances that erupt from the ground. The lances pierce into the bodies of the fishmen.
“Jump over.” Helo yells from the other side. With the fight ongoing, everyone even with their fear, starts jumping. Alli is the first after sending out an array of ice lances. Then Luna and Aiko jump. Gabi runs forward and with a one-eighty twist slams her axe through the body of a fishman and into Kenneth’s shield with a “CLANGGGG” that rang in the air.
Her attack slightly staggers Kenneth, but it also clears his shield. He wants to yell at her but stops himself as she just keeps moving. Landing again Gabi shows of her amazing physicality and immediately jumps again to clear the gap.
Kenneth is the final one and he uses his ‘Leaping Bash’ to clear the gap and hit the rock wall with a “BANG”.
Facing the water everyone can see as Helo and Cody finish off the final fishmen. Thinking that the fight is over they all lower their weapons and start walking to the staircase. That is until Helo who has his aura out like usual feels something from below. This gives him just a moment to use his ‘Dashing Lunge’ skill. Quickly making it to the staircase he turns back to see a massive fishman erupt from the water.
It lands on the ledge with a ground shaking thud and gurgle-growls at them. From its mouthful of sharp and jagged teeth, comes a horrifying and disgusting roar.
Deep Madness Fishman Barbarian.
Tier 1 Level 29 Uncommon
Fishmen Leader who has adapted to the deep. Becoming corrupted by its desire for food it grows stronger as its rage grows.
“This isn’t good.” Helo says as he is looking up at the ten-foot-tall monster.
“Run!” Hinata says. At that the fishman dives forward. Helo quickly turns around and standing in front of him is Kenneth. Everyone else is already running but Helo can see it in Kenneth’s eyes. He wants to shove Helo into the beast’s mouth. He might have already if his ‘Leaping Bash’ wasn’t on cooldown.
With a snort Helo turns and runs directly up the wall. He still has two seconds on his ‘Dashing Lunge’ skill. Taking three empowered steps up the wall Helo is already twenty feet up before Kenneth even takes his first step.
Under Helo, Kenneth barely dodged the swipe of the monster and activates ‘Control Grude’ as the read haze covers Kenneth, he watches as the already enraged monster’s muscles burst with more power.
The skill sends its rage into overdrive, empowering it further. As the monster steps up to attack, the red haze shifts and glows on Helo. This is Kenneth’s first time truly using the skill and he can only hope that it kills the orphaned nuisance.
Up the rock ledge Helo is now digging his bloodline coated nails into the rock ledge while moving up the wall. His vision briefly flashes red and Helo stops in confusion. This saves his life because he almost loses his handholds as the rock wall shakes.
Looking down Helo can see that the monster ignored Kenneth and leaped onto the wall to chase him. Moving faster Helo makes it to the platform one-hundred-feet up and rolls over the edge. Getting to his feet Helo has a few seconds to realize that Kenneth sent the monster after him. “That bastard!” he says to himself.
Behind him and to the left Helo hears “What bastard?” Looking over he can see Hinata and then the rest of the group coming up the stairs. “And how did you get ahead of me.?”
“That….” Helo stops as a hand appears over the edge of the platform. “I’ll tell you later.” Looking around Helo can see that this platform is about oval shaped and fifty-feet by thirty. Behind him and in the center of the platform is a spire of rock. It is closer to the edge where the next spire is.
Getting a feel for the location Helo takes off and climbs the spire. Not sure how long the ‘Taunt’ skill is going to last Helo runs up to the central rock spike and climbs it. The monster cleared the ledge behind him and give chase.
“Kenneth. Taunt!” Alli yells while getting into her usual position behind Hinata. Not hearing anything she looks at him. “Did you hear me?”
“I can’t!” Kenneth yells with some resignation in his voice. Admitting that he can’t taunt makes a few of the team look at him weird. For one he hasn’t used his taunt skill sense he was on the previous spire. It should be ready. Two, if he used the taunt skill already then, the Madness Barbarian should be chasing him and not Helo.
Hinata who heard Helo’s curse and has already talked to him about Kenneth’s fake skill narrows her eyes before glossing over it. She doesn’t want to draw to much attention to Kenneth’s lies and plans, before she is ready to deal with them. Mostly she wants to get another tank. Kenneth will play ball as long as he thinks that they don’t know he has nefarious plans.
“Anyway. Cody hit it hard. Alli stop it.” As she gives her orders Alli starts channeling her mana. As she releases it a massive ‘Arcane Construct’ appears above the monster. The monster attepts to jump into the air and climb the spire Helo is on. Instead, it slams head first into the construct and hits the ground.
As it is on the ground a ‘Heavy Shot’ and ‘Duplicate Barrage’ arrow is sent toward the monster. The ten arrows are all under the effect of ‘Heavy Shot’. Now the duplicated arrows don’t cause as much damage, but due to Cody’s massive size and strength even his normal arrows are as strong as similar level archer’s empowered shots.
All ten arrows hit with a “Thud” and punch through the scales of the monster’s shoulder. Falling back from its landing and onto the arrows, the monster hits the ground and stays down long enough for Kenneth to cast his ‘Taunt’ skill.
The Monster gets back up and turns to face Kenneth. It starts running forward as the ‘Taunt’ holds. Above the monster Helo draws his knives and jumps off the rock formation. Alli can see Helo from the glow of her construct and spends more mana to keep it together and in place.
Helo lands on the ‘Arcane Construct’ and runs to its edge before jumping off. He is in the air with both knives up and aimed down like twin fangs. He is trailing twin lines of black smoke. While his haori flaps behind him.
Hitting the monster right before it reaches the party, Helo rakes both blades down it’s back as he falls. His attack isn’t biting in as much as he is used to. This monster’s resistance is the highest Helo has fought.
Landing on the ground Helo can see that a backhand is coming his way from the turning monster. Barely dodging the backhand, he activates ‘Dashing Lunge’ to dive back as the claws trace a line across his cheek.
Blood is pooling at the monster feet now; it has ten arrow holes and twin cuts trailing its back. As the monster turns the blue-green blood splashes along Kenneth’s face and shield. The blood starts to sizzle and Kenneth start screaming as his shield and face start to melt.
“It’s caustic!” Aiko yells as she runs forward and uses her ‘Cure’ and ‘Heal’ spells. The cure seems to have a small effect on the caustic bloods affect.
In front of them the giant monster is now chasing Helo. Helo uses the last of his skill to disappear around the spire. As he disappears Helo yells “Now!”
On top of the spire a ball of mist appears in front of the monster. It appeared like a large raindrop. Breaking against the ground like all the others in the stormy weather. That was until it erupted in an explosion, it took the monster off its feet and off the edge of the spire.
Helo can hear the splash, even over the screaming of Kenneth and the waves breaking on the spires. Turning to face the rock wall in the center of the platform Helo calls “Good job!” He gets a muffled yip in response. Then an orange grey bullet launches off the spire and lands in Helo’s arms. Lelai had been hiding in his jacket for most of the floor, but when Helo was about to jump down, he left her up there.
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“What is the rush.” Helo says. Right after he can hear the powerful wingbeats of a large bird overheard. Looking up he can hear its caws as its prey got away. “Yeah, I can see the rush.”
Turing back, Kenneth’s screams have stopped, it seems that Aiko’s skills were enough to stop the effects. “My cure evolved. It doesn’t have a specific target, but it works better at containing a negative effect. It is called ‘Containing Cure’.”
“It was thanks to this that Kenneth still has his eyes and throat. The fluid tried to dig deeper into him.” Aiko says to the group.
“Well, we have problem.” Hinata says. The party turns to look at her. Even Kenneth who is getting his bearings. “I saw it’s back healing as it got hit by Lelai.”
“That is really troll like.” Luna says to the group. “They tend to be a nuisance monster. At least… to the powerful people. To the average adventurer or citizen, they are a death sentence. Their blood pollutes the ground they die on and they regeneration makes them difficult to put down. I heard from an elder that they are seen as a ‘call a powerful adventurer’ monster.”
As Luna is explaining Cody is watching the edge. He sees a hand emerge and launches a ‘Heavy Shot’. His skill is backed by his ‘Stationary Empowerment’. The arrow blasts into the monster’s hand and embeds itself into the rock. They hear a roar and from their angle it looks like the monster is dangling by its stuck hand. The monsters hand begins to tear. As the tear gets to the webbing, they see the master’s hand rip and then hear a crash.
The monster landed on the ledge that they jumped to. On the edge of the platform the rock is sizzling from the monsters leaked blood. “Nice shot. But that was pretty gnarly.” Gabi says. As she pats Cody’s shoulder.
From below they hear a roar. This one sound different and Helo tilts his head. “What is it?” Hinata asks him.
Helo can hear the waves and rain. But there is a different kind of splashing coming from below. “It called reinforcements.”
Hinata nods her head and looks around. “Alli, Cody and Lelai. Up on the spire. Sit on whatever ledge Helo had Lelai on.” She points back to the rock spire that is sitting out of the platform. “Alli your attacks won’t do as much to this opponent. Its scales block your elemental magic damage. Focus on your constructs for control.” She looks at Alli who is glaring. “I know you don’t like using your constructs like that. Just do it.”
Those three turn away and Helo can hear Alli mutter. “I prefer my hammer.”
“The rest of us will be down here. Luna and Aiko stay behind Kenneth.” Hinata says before getting away for the ledge.
They all have their backs to the spire that is off-center of the platform. Coming up the staircase and on the edges of the entire platform are fishmen. The only one coming from the front is the berserker.
“Ha. There is only like three extras.” Kenneth says while taking a step forward. He is a coward at heart, but he likes acting flippant when he feels comfortable.
“They are all around us!” Alli yells. She starts using ‘Runic Conjuration’ and sending out ice lances to spear the weaker fishmen as they rise above the platform edge. Every spear is sending them tumbling back down into the water. Some are even being killed with a single spear. These fishmen are only five-feet tall.
Due to their corruption and madness their attack patters are very simple and wide. Because of this Luna and Aiko feel comfortable attacking them as well. Luna uses her ‘Haste’ and ‘Softening Voice’ skills.
They blanket the area and she alternates between one and the other to keep them both active. This is a tactic she can use to keep a weaker version of two spells active. She is wielding a staff with some skill. She asked Micah to train her and he gives her some pointers. But he sent a guard her way to train her consistently.
The ’Haste’ is letting her and Aiko feel comfortable dodging and attacking. While the ‘Softening Voice’ make it so their attacks are enough to injure or kill.
Aiko is wielding a mace. She isn’t very skilled but her timing has been perfected on her use of ‘Protect’ and ‘Heal’. So, she is skillfully reading her opponents wide swipes to step forward and smash them.
The rest of the party is doing their jobs well. Kenneth, Gabi and Hinata are keeping the giant berserker occupied. They are assisted by constructs from Alli and spells from Aiko, when either has a second to spare.
Helo is racing along the battle field like a shadow. He is using the bodies of his enemies and the spire to springboard around the fight. Luna’s haste is making Helo move faster and more aggressively than ever. He is a blur of speed and can barely contain himself when he activates ‘Rushing Lunge’. At that point Helo isn’t even using his knives with any skill. For the five seconds Helo is moving faster than he can skillfully control, he just rams into the fishmen and sends them blasting over the edge with a puncture or two.
After the initial assault the supportive fishmen are coming up to the platform much slower. There are only a few coming up and some are even the injured that were sent back over the edge. They have broken bones from Lelai, Holes from Helo, or elemental injuries from Alli.
As Alli is helping Aiko with the final fishmen that are attacking her, Kenneth gets blasted past and into the spire. Slamming into the rock back first he hits his head and drops to the ground in a daze. It is only thanks to his impressive endurance that his head didn’t break open on impact. Coughing up blood, Aiko rushes to help.
Hinata and Gabi are having issues containing the monster. Both of them are wary of the berserker’s blood and the damage they inflict is substantial, but it only makes the blood pool on the rock faster.
Fishing off the fishman on his side of the platform Helo turns to face the giant. Watching Gabi and Hinata struggle to do any lasting damage Helo has an idea. Running forward he yells to Lelai and Alli. “Platform me! I’ll stall it. Lelai break its scales. Alli, you finish it off.” Earlier Hinata mentioned that it was its scales that made Alli have issues.
Alli listens quickly and makes a platform that angles up to the monster. She understood quickly because they did this move earlier. Helo could have used ‘Dashing Lunge’ but it is still on cooldown.
Running up the platform Helo sheaths his blades. He makes to the top and jumps. While in the air Helo floods his body with his bloodline’s power. Using his aura control he doesn’t let the energy leak out, concealing himself and wrapping his bloodline around himself like a dark cloak.
Landing on the shoulder of the monster Helo is standing on the arrows that are lodged into its back from Cody. Activating ‘Crippling Blow’ with everything he has, Helo can see as the light purple energy of his skill gathers in his fist and starts to mix with the black of his bloodline.
The skill and his blood line’s energy revolve around one another and Helo can feel that they are not rejecting on another. They actually seem compatible. Helo only has a brief moment to contemplate before his skill starts to destabilize. Flattening his hand into a point Helo rams it forward into the skull of the monster. His hand pierces through the monster’s scales and into its scull.
He can feel as the elongated nail of his middle finger reaches the monster brain. As his hand gets stuck, he pushing the skill forward. Helo can feel as the energy of the skill pulses forward. It draws his bloodline energy along with it. The drain is much larger than Helo expected, but he can feel as both energies shoot into the monster’s brain before erupting.
His skill ‘Crippling Blow’ usually works in a mental capacity to block signals and lock up muscles. But the skill empowered by the nihility of his bloodline does something more. Staggering from the over use of his bloodline energies Helo rides the monster to the ground.
As soon as the skill erupted, the monster completely froze. On top of that blood started to leak from the creature’s ears and eyes. Helo can’t even feel any movement in the monster’s body; physical or mental. Hitting the ground with a thud, Helo bounces of the monster and rolls away.
Ten seconds later Helo is far enough away for Lelai to send her mana orb directly onto the back of the monster. The indiscriminate eruption pushes Helo further away and closer to the edge. But the monster is sent straight down and catches the entire concussive blow. The shockwave breaks all the scales on its back and front and leaves a bloody mess.
After the mist orb Helo can feel with his aura as the monster’s spirit starts moving again. It wasn’t even healing anymore; it was like the creature entered stasis in body and soul. For a second Helo thought that he had killed it, but as the creatures spirit awakens its body’s natural defenses kick back on. The berserker starts healing again and Helo can no longer use his aura to peer into its body.
As Helo is stunned by what he does Alli uses her ‘Runic Conjuration’ to empower a single attack eight times. The barely held together rune glows brilliantly and sends out a powerful mana pulse. As the pulse reaches the fishman a massive spear of earth erupts from the ground below its body.
The spear pierces through its cracked and broken flesh. Stabbing it from stomach to back, as the spear goes up it continues to get wider and lifts the body of the fishman into the air. Stopping five-feet up the monster now has a three-foot hole in the center of its stomach.
Everyone holds their attack and watches as the fishman struggles on the spear of earth. Its body is healing around the wound and blood is pouring down the stone spike.
Its movements start to weaken and eventually stop. Moments later the fishman head drops and it dies.
Everyone stares for a few seconds longer before Alli speaks up. “Wow, I didn’t know it would be that strong.”
The rest of the run goes smoothly. They ran into a few more packs of fishmen, but none as strong as the uncommon berserker. They also had a scare as Luna almost fell into the water. Alli’s quick construct was able to catch her and Helo climbed down to get her back up.
The team also had a few run ins with the Osprey on the level. After their third attempt to take Lelai, Helo kept her in his haori for the rest of the level. Helo kept his eyes on the sky after that and thinks that he even saw a Territory Boss like the Berserker. He decided to start working with her on making her mist more lethal. Focusing on water or wind.
The party steps onto the 26th floor before heading back and leaving. Before they leave the party finds a chest sitting on the floor. Opening the chest Alli pulls out a fishnet shirt. There are green scales intermittently woven into it. Using identify Helo is a little surprised.
Shirt of Deep Fishing (Uncommon)
Shirt made from a mad berserker.
- Increase Regeneration
- Minor Elemental Magic Defense
- Resistance to Physical Pressure.
- Self-Mend, Self-Size, Self- Cleaning
“That is actually really good.” Helo says while studying the shirt. It is something Helo would like but he knows that Kenneth would argue his heart out so Helo would have it. He also isn’t really interested in wearing fishnet. He has nothing against it but he already knows who he thinks should have it.
Everyone there takes a second to look at the shirt before looking toward Gabi. “What!” She says to them. “So, I’m an edgy girl who speaks her mind and suddenly I should wear fishnet!” She looks at them annoyed. “Next you are going to tell me to wear black eyeshadow.”
“Gabi, you wore fishnet leggings last week.” Alli says to her. She steps forward and hands the shirt to Gabi. “Plus, this is perfect for you, and you will look hot.”
Gabi mumbles a bit before yanking the shirt away. “I guess it will go good with my skill set.”
After that the party leaves the dungeon. In the end Alli, Luna, and Aiko ended up gaining another level. This put Alli at 25, Luna at 22 and Aiko at 22.
Getting out of the dungeon cavern, Helo now knows it also a spring above their heads that houses the dungeon core. Stepping into the open sky it is almost dinner time. The team could have stayed in their longer but another floor would have taken a long time.
As the team gets back to their home everyone goes to their rooms to shower. After washing himself and Lelai, Helo goes downstairs for dinner. He is the first on down and takes a look at the fridge. Aiko is incredible meticulous; she keeps a list of all her meal plans there.
Taking out the ingredients for the meals Helo starts doing his best to prep them. Aiko comes down and just gives Helo a judgmental stare. It only takes a few seconds before Helo puts down his knife and stops cutting the onion.
Washing his hands Helo is surprised that he isn’t crying after cutting an onion. Huh stats are great.
Sitting at the counter across from Aiko, Helo takes out his enchanting stylus and a practice plate. Setting them aside he pulls out a notebook and starts drawing out enchantment ideas. The whole house is already enchanted for convenience that Helo isn’t even sure what to start making. In the end he decides to work on an enchantment to open his desk drawer for him.
Sitting at the counter and focusing on his work Helo doesn’t notice and Alli and Hinata sit on either side of him. Luna is also down and sitting at her usual place on the couch with the coffee table pulled close. She is going over the paperwork for their dungeon run.
“Hey Helo-Kun.” Hinata says by his side. Looking up a little startled Helo sees Hinata looking at him. “I wanted to talk about a few things. First and most important, did you upgrade your ‘Crippling Blow’ the color was different and it really hit that territorial boss monster hard.”
“Oh! I forgot!” Helo says as he looks at his hand. “It merged with my bloodline.” He pulls on his bloodline and peels it into his nails. His nails turn black and they sharpen and elongate, while the three girls in the kitchen watch.
Activating his skill the purple color glows from his hand. Pushing on his bloodline the two colors start to spin around his hand. Getting excited Helo can feel as they start to combine. The purple is starting to darken and the black is starting to have streaks. Just as Helo thinks they are going to merge the skill breaks. The purple color dissipates and the black color retakes its place along his nails.
“Mhm.” Alli says with a manicured nail on her chin in a pondering look. “It looks like you need to be quicker. Your skill was never made to be channeled.”
“Yeah. I think you are right.” Helo says. “The two energies are compatible. The dark energy in my bloodline is fueled by my mental energy. The skill ‘Crippling Blow’ uses that same energy to work. I just need to make it happen faster. On the back of that fishman I was in a state of intense, while also in a rush.”
The girls tell him how they think he will get it soon. As they talk Hinata speaks up again. “Now the second thing I wanted to talk to you about. What happened with you and Kenneth on that platform?”