Aelrick raised his hand, and five torrential streams of water ripped through the side of a boulder and the body of the Natal Morr. Massive crab pincers splashed in the water before the torso fell with them. The prince slid across the water's surface using a river step to cross over the tide, using speed as his shield. From behind a boulder's placement, he pointed his finger and fired a thin stream that punched a hole through the head of the lighter armored kin of the Natal Morr, the Fetal Morr. His enemy's bone spear dropped before it could fly into a target's chest.
His father would be disappointed.
There were fewer than the last tide, meaning something else had drawn their attention. He didn't let his guard down; there was always the chance of a unique variant or, worse, a Proto Morr.
Soon, the heavily armored vanguard would run out of soldiers, and the more numerous Fetal Morr would make up most of the enemies they fought. The most powerful Natal Morr, those veterans from countless tides, would step on land led by Proto Morr.
The heavily armored Natal Morr would become fewer but much more powerful.
He slew another Fetal Morr, and a lull in the battle allowed their gatherers to move in and drag the intact bodies back.
Each held a tiny shard of the deep maw's power she cast out of her body. Her flesh was within them and would increase the chi of anyone who consumed it. It was a resource denied to them because they could be dead before it was used.
It was yet another scheme by his father and the elders to have him killed. They were too cowardly to do it themselves, fearing the deep maw would target them. None were more cursed than those who killed family.
Aelrick felt it long before he saw it. Waves turned black and heavy like the ocean's depths and rammed into gatherers. Their bodies imploded on contact from the sudden change in pressure. He jumped from strategic cover and pointed at the first Proto Morr he had seen. The beast waved its hand, and the stream of water the heir of the tideborn cast fell into the waves.
Then it spoke. "Why are you stopping us? All we want is to go home."
He ignored the words even as they chilled him to the bone. It was a lie. He refused to believe that these beings were once elves. If they were, then that meant they were slaughtering their people. When they ate the Morpheus Spawn's flesh, they ate elves. The heir of the tideborn couldn't accept something so heinous.
To his left and right, there were the bodies of his comrades, butchered and taken by the sea. A young elf of only twenty had died from a claw that cut him in half. The flag of the tideborn sewn by the hands of their citizens rolled in the waves, drenched in the blood of heroes. Each put their lives on the line, and he wouldn't be the one who breaks and allows the Morr Spawn beyond their walls.
He noticed that there were few veterans left. To blunt the Natal Morr, the experienced warriors were their only hope.
Aelrick drew his blade, a bronze work of art with meaningful symbols and runes that spoke of his ancestry. He charged at the enemy using speed to close the gap as bubbles of water rose around the Proto Morr and turned black. They shot forward, and he skated down waves, avoiding them and closing the distance.
"Can't you see that Morrtha is using our people?" The Proto Morr said.
A whip of deep water struck, taking his arm at the elbow. Blood spurted from his arm as he thrust his sword forward and cut into the Morr Spawn's neck.
"At least now I am free from its song."
Why did Morrtha continue to test their faith? These words were not new, and the priests declared them lies told by the Morr Spawn to separate the meat from the gristle. He found his arm and returned to the safety of the city walls to have it reattached.
…
I counted 400 of the armored bastards a few minutes ago, and their numbers doubled since then. They couldn't see me from the bluff overlooking the beach, where millennia of high tides had worn away the dirt and sediment until the bluff towered over the beach. I sat in a hunter's blind colored to look like the terrain of the bluff. Large boulders lined the bluff, shielding me from view. If I had to withdraw, there were other hunters' blinds I placed for when they found this location.
Some of the big armored monsters looked bigger than before, and they dwarfed others. One of the monsters looked different than the others. I would say it looked almost like an elf if not for the tentacles wrapped around its head. A staff was in its hand with a sea star at its head. It turned in his direction, but didn't know exactly where he was.
I could set maybe a hundred shots to burn at my current chi. With that in mind, I put my first round, a holy 45-70 round with a burn feature. The monster that looked weird was way in the back, far from the other monsters. They seemed to give it a wide berth instinctively.
I squeezed the trigger, and blue blood filled the air for a second before the head of the corpse caught fire and fell into the rolling waves. After that, I targeted the spear-chucking monsters, taking them out one at a time as spears slammed into the bluff.
A spear rammed through the blind, and I backed out in a crouch and crept to the next blind before starting again. The uncommon monster spawn numbered just over 50 each, and with a spear, they could chuck a hundred yards easily.
Boulders exploded as the uncommon monsters struck out at the boulders, and I fired slowly, killing those furthest away first.
Moving was easier than the last time. My hands were more dexterous, and I reloaded much faster. I was whittling away at the army with nothing but a rifle, a good position, and grit. I fired into one of the bigger ones, and it didn't die from a headshot. I watched as a starfish's legs grew out of the wound and closed. A second shot beside the first brought the brute down, but it showed they were adapting or growing stronger.
This was only my second high tide; there would be more with more monsters each time. In 45 minutes, high tide ended, and I walked down the bluff and collected the corpses. I liked the rare monster and four 10ft tall armored monsters.
I dragged them a bit easier up the bluff and to my camp. After chunking them into the live tank, I washed up.
The Ichor Prime Deep Maw Event
Survive High Tide
Rewards
Common x 112 = 560
Uncommon x 65 = 320pt
Rare x 1 = 25pt
Total: 905pt
Treaties on Elements: A tome with the fundamental information needed to understand spirit roots, elemental chi techniques of multiple worlds, and the laws defining their function. This collection of heavenly knowledge is filled with general information that only ancient sect elders could know. It has been collected in book form with all the information required to become a successful cultivator of minor and major elements.
I poured myself a cup of instant coffee and decided I could see the ending. The enemy would come from the sea, and they seemed hell-bent on coming after me. So why not invest in automatic defenses? 905pt was a lot of points, so I checked for some basic AI-driven drones. For 1000 points, I could purchase an AI-driven drone with a grenade launcher loadout.
There were problems, as the drone would need to recharge its battery, and I didn't have the supporting infrastructure. More importantly, a drone was cheaper than information on chi gathering cultivation.
On the other hand, for only 250, I could purchase formation-powered auto turrets that fired grenades and place them in pill boxes. That should protect them from spears and allow them to mow down the enemies.
As much fun as it is killing these monsters, why should I play fair? For 1500 points, which was in my price range, I could purchase a fully autonomous android with combat training, complete with a sniper loadout. They didn't have chi; instead, they ran on a cold fusion reactor miniaturized to fit in their chest. With just one of them giving me backup, my kill count and, more importantly, my income would increase drastically.
I also had a feeling that the battle would only become more intense.
A decision had to be made. While Android was a good idea, I went with the cheaper auto turret option. Their operating system hosted a shared AI. All I had to do was add the enemy image models, and they would automatically target them during high tide.
When I purchased it, I anticipated that a weapons platform would be set up. Instead, I received a box of parts and a cartridge with a guide.
It was a dangerous world. When I put the helmet on, my body would be defenseless. I wanted to reconsider and purchase the Android, but I didn't have the money. Even if I put the box of parts up for sale, it could take a while before someone buys them. That's why they were so cheap; few people wanted to learn how to put an auto turret together.
I slipped in the pyromancy cartridge first to effectively discredit whoever sold auto turrets as parts instead of the completed product.
I haven't slipped the helmet on yet. Buying an auto turret didn't clean me out. I bout a nail gun, some posts, and razor wire. It reminded me of some of the scenarios in the handgun training simulator. I built a fence around my property and added a staple gun to my toolkit. When I finished, there was a small eight-foot wall around my tent. The heavy fence was on sand so anything could dig under it, but I felt safer.
Posts buried 12 feet into the ground remained standing when I pushed them. I tapped the post a little more complicated and watched the boards shake. The razor wire atop the fence jingled as the wind blew through it.
Would I be safe long enough to get far in my studies?
When I checked the time, I found it only took me 30 minutes to slap a fence together. I slipped the phone in my pocket and cracked open a beer. The taste never appealed to me, but my father liked them. I collapsed in my foldout chair and stared at the dispersing clouds.
Every high tide, they seemed to gather. I sucked in a breath aware of the feeling of chi entering my lungs and being carried by my red blood cells. What did the clouds have to do with an army of sea monsters storming the beach?
I pulled out my phone and set an alarm so I wouldn't forget to take the next pill in the set. The notes app was beside the clock image for my alarms, and I clicked on it and wrote down the question so I wouldn't forget to ask it later.
I felt that the monster Odi would be sacrificed to was big. Was it big enough to affect the weather? Or was there something I missed?
My tent still smelled like Odi. I could get used to her being around, especially if her smell rubbed off on my home.
The screen of my helmet reflected my face, making my nose look bigger. Didn't they say two things kept growing on a person: their nose and ears? Maybe that was a myth, I hoped it was.
I put the helmet on and walked into my tent before zipping it closed. This was either a great idea or a terrible one.
On my phone, there was a service I could buy for the same price as the auto turret. I could send my parts off and have someone assemble them. That person was probably related to my supplier if I was being honest. It felt like quite the scam. When I looked at the more expensive auto turrets that looked like the ones I purchased, in small print, were the words preassembled in the description.
That was great; it made me feel warm and fuzzy. It was also 50 percent cheaper than purchasing an auto turret and sending it to an assembler. Suppose I had the points and needed a bunch of turrets without a support staff to put them together. I would have learned a lesson here and purchased the more expensive prebuilt turrets.
I did a trust fall onto my sleeping bag and kicked my flip-flops off.
With the flip of a switch, my mind traveled to the pyromancy simulation.
In a simulated world, I walked into a nightclub with girls dancing on stage, only they weren't human. I saw one girl, a pretty tan furred thing with deep yellow eyes and a purple streak in her red hair, dancing on a stripper pole. Other creatures danced while men and women tossed bills at them. Sitting at a table was a red-scaled dragon lady with long legs and a chest full of personality. She wore the darkest shade of black lipstick I've ever seen.
I stared down at myself when someone had dressed my avatar in a nice suit. But I didn't think I was about to have my day in court. The blue didn't look bad against my skin. Much to my shame, I couldn't wear a suit to work.
As I approached the woman I hoped was my teacher, the old thoughts whispered in my ear like phantoms of the past.
There were only thoughts of despair when no music was in my ear.
She sighed and looked down at her phone as I approached her.
"Could you use some company?"
"Only if you think you can handle me."
"There is only one way to find out," I said.
She giggled, and I took that as a good sign.
"I don't know why my original put me here in our old haunt. Have you ever been with a woman who forgets about you the next day? Then, when you talk to them like you know them because you do, they think you're some stalker.
Her breath smelled like diesel fuel and mints, which was funny because she was tossing back glasses of gasoline.
The smell alone was making my brain feel fuzzy. I looked to the side and nearly fell out of my seat.
"Dragons and humans can't comingle, we're just too different." She swirled the glass before looking up at me with a bone-chilling gaze. What do you even want to learn from me?"
I sucked in a breath and felt my mind start to clear. "If you wouldn't mind, how about we start with how to spark a flame?"
"Fire is transformation, a state of change. Like any change, some things are easier to effect than others. It's much easier to ignite a gasoline shot than a stone, but with enough effort, even a stone will melt and burn. A good pyromancer can light anything. Its about set up and timing at the end of the day."
"Yes, but how?"
She poked her claw at me. "You failed already. Where do you think you screwed up." She lifted her solid tail and slammed it. The wooden table cracked down the middle. Before my eyes, the cracks sealed up, and the table returned pristine. She placed her claw on my chin and turned my head to face her. "On a blind date, the first steps are introductions. You seem completely unprepared for this. A pyromancer prepares long before the first flame sparks to life. Hot heads who use their flames carelessly burn out before they shine brightly."
She clawed at my head, and my eyes narrowed on the tiny spark at its tip. "This is how you gather a spark."
A blast of heat tore through my head and fried my brain.
I appeared at the entrance again and stared at the dancer doing the same dance as when I walked in. A hellhound with solid black fur and cherry red eyes looked me up and down, slapped her posterior, and walked suggestively toward the pole in a thong. She turned her head to catch me watching from her side eye.
Dragging my gaze away was a struggle.
I returned to the table, facing away from the dragon. "My name is John Smith. I know your name, fair lady."
The dragoness scoffed and tossed back another shot. "Cinder, don't think you can act like this is our first meeting. Now to business. I'm not the kind of dragon that likes to hold your hand. I won't teach you a thing unless you make it worth my time. Prove yourself by hooking up with every girl in here. Each of them can teach you something of pyromancy, and when you have learned everything they can teach you, show me."
She nodded to a girl with the bottom half of a snake. None of these people were real; all of them were constructs. Cinder may have mapped their minds in the cartridge, meaning they might have been real and existed in a place like the club.
"You can take the girls to a few cities on the map. Just don't lose them to other guys or lose their interest, or you'll have to reset here and try again. Each girl has a secret pyromancy style that separates them from the rest. Learn well, they'll be more willing to teach it to you after a successful date than they would normally." Cinder said.
I tore the helmet off and stared at the cartridge. There were ways to reset the cartridge so I could introduce myself properly and avoid meeting all those girls and going through the motions of dating. I hadn't dated since I was a freshman in college. I was terrible at it.
I stared at the assembly cartridge and slipped it in. I got a step-by-step guide to building an auto turret that went into machine programming. Despite the complexity of the technology, I didn't use the whole hour. Fifty hours were long, and the teacher broke things down in ways I understood. When I slipped the helmet off, I went to work on the first auto turret and thought about my strategy for conquering the pyromancy girls.
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