Duskbound

Book 2, Chapter 15

In his head, Velik knew that swamps were difficult to navigate. Footing was treacherous, there was a lot of water, and the whole place was infested with various forms of bugs that wanted nothing in the world besides to try to eat him alive. They weren't even monstrous insects, either, just regular old animals.

Read latest chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

None of it was a surprise, but even with all of Aria's whining to clue him in, he'd still vastly underestimated just how much it sucked to travel through the swamp. And that wasn't even taking into consideration the monsters.

Why are there so many Morgus-cursed snakes living here? Couldn't the hydra eat some of these things?

He'd been walking for two hours now, or rather moving from dry spot to dry spot. They weren't easy to find, either. In some cases, he'd had no choice but to wade into hip-deep water across hundred-foot-wide lakes of scum-covered, brackish black water. That was where predators liked to pull off their attempted ambushes, a tactic he was sure generally worked well for them.

[You have slain an arrow-back watersnake (level 18).]

[You have been awarded 1 decarma.]

The damn thing was practically invisible in the water, even to Velik's senses. He hadn't even realized it was there until it had tried to sink a pair of poisonous fangs into his leg. The bite failed to penetrate, of course. The monster just didn't have the physical strength to puncture his skin. That did not stop Velik from reaching into the water, grabbing hold of it, and hurling it into the air, where he sliced it in two on its way back down.

A few minutes later, another snake tried the same thing, only to end up splattered against a nearby tree when he threw it. A nearby black bear startled at the noise, gave Velik a somewhat-panicked glance, and ran off in the opposite direction. I wonder if there's some sort of water-walking skill I could pick up.

It didn't matter, not without an open skill slot to put it in. [Burden of the Beast] had been his choice after reaching level 40, but it was a skill he was somewhat hesitant about. It worked on a wide variety of monsters, but truthfully, he rarely needed it. A utility skill might have been the better pick, but those were so situational that he might never use whatever he ended up with. Once he got [Savage Rhythm] and [Burden of the Beast] folded into [Spear Warden], though, he was going to look at building a new utility skill with the two open slots.

Hopefully, it was just as stuck in the mud as he was. Despite its mouth opening up, Velik found that escaping out from between a set of teeth didn't actually get his head back above the water. No doubt, he could free himself easily if he put all his effort into the task, but he was more concerned about grabbing hold of the monster and not letting go. That was actually far harder than he'd anticipated, and not just because he couldn't see it.

The damn thing was so big, getting an arm around it was like trying to hug a tree. He made contact, but there was nothing to grip. Any limbs it might have were far enough away from its head that he didn't feel them, and the monster was thrashing around, trying to drag itself out of the mud. Screw it. I've got skills and enchantments keeping it in one place. Just finish the job.

His dagger slashed through leathery flesh a few more times, just to make sure the monster wasn't getting away. Then he sheathed the weapon and started digging his way free of the mud. A few seconds later, he surfaced and got a lungful of air along with his first look at what he was fighting.

Most of it was still submerged, but the way it kicked and struggled was flinging water up everywhere. A tail that he wouldn't have believed belonged to the same animal if he couldn't trace it back to his own location slapped against the surface a full forty feet away from where he was standing, which he was only just now realizing was right along the edge of a far deeper lake.

If I'd been a few more feet to the left, this thing probably couldn't even have gotten at me without breaching the surface. Just my luck.

The magic of his dagger was holding for the moment, and that gave Velik all the time he needed. Taking up his spear in both hands, he widened the blade and drove it straight down into where he estimated the monster's skull was. It punctured through skin and bone with a satisfying thunk, but that only increased the wild flailing.

Undeterred, Velik pulled his spear free and tried again. On the fourth try, a full three feet farther back than where he'd started, he finally hit something vital and got the kill notification.

[You have slain an elite colossus gator (level 31).]

[You have been awarded 2 decarmas.]

So it wasn't that big because it was an elite, then? I doubt I can even pull the corpse out of the water to get a good look at it. Aria was right. I hate this fucking place.