Duskbound

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.

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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.@@novelbin@@

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.

Velik's thoughts might have been a world away, focused on his build and what changes he wanted to make, but that didn't mean he wasn't paying attention. He was out of his element and being plagued by a cloud of gnats, mosquitos, and the gods only knew what else. In an unfamiliar and hostile environment, searching for the undisputed king of swamp, he knew better than to let his guard down.

That was why he was surprised when something rammed into him hard enough to knock him off his feet. It was only when he was completely underwater and his hand smacked up against tough, leathery skin that he realized what it was. [Apex Hunter] hadn't given him a warning beforehand, but it was yelling about the danger now.

The monster exploded into motion, its jaws coming down on Velik and twisting to pull him deeper underwater. Unlike the watersnakes, this time there was some power behind the teeth. They sunk into his flesh, not deep, but far enough that he couldn't pull himself free. He didn't bother to try. If the teeth were in his stomach, that meant the skull was within reach.

He swept his spear out blindly in the right direction and felt it bite into flesh, though he wasn't sure if he'd hit the monster's skull or some other part of its body. Whatever it was, a deep, throaty growl filled the water as it dug down deeper. Trying to drown me won't work, Velik thought viciously as he slammed the spear into the monster again and again. And you're lacking the points in physical to win this.

Partially because of the awkward angle and partially because he was underwater, Velik was having a hard time inflicting a killing blow, but [Burden of the Beast] kept activating, and the monster was struggling as the skill made it harder and harder to move. Unfortunately, that did nothing to get Velik free. Instead, they'd both sunk down to the bottom of the swamp and were partially buried in the mud.

This might have backfired on me, he was forced to admit, but it wasn't like he could just turn the skill off. Skills didn't work that way. If they were active, like [Dread Lance] he chose when to use them, but passive skills just worked whenever the conditions they were tied to were right. [Savage Rhythm] was also building up his speed with each successive strike, not that it did him much good at the moment.

What he needed was to weaken the monster's jaw so he could escape. For that, his backup weapon was probably the better option. Unfortunately, it was pinned between what Velik was assuming was the monster's tongue and his back, making it impossible to get to without shoving his arm in between a set of teeth.

Already got ten or twenty of them sticking in me. What's a few more, right?

He wiggled his hand down, scraping off skin as he reached down to his belt and slowly slid the dagger out of its sheath. It wasn't called The Sixth Plague for no reason, and he intended to demonstrate that. All of its enchantments were designed to cripple its victims, as the monster was about to find out.

The dagger stabbed into its mouth, and again, and again. Globules of black blood drifted through the water like drops of oil, too thick to properly mix in. At the same time, the grip around Velik's stomach started to slacken. The monster shook its head, probably trying to fight off the [Weakness] enchantment it was being infected with, and its teeth slipped back out of Velik's torso.

As happy as he was to be free to move around, he didn't want to lose track of what he had to assume was some sort of thirty-foot-long reptile. As laughable as that seemed at first glance, he really couldn't see a damn thing underwater and it was entirely possible the monster could just… swim off. They didn't really ever tend to retreat, but the smarter ones could break off a failed ambush and try again later if he let them.

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.