Let There Be Life

by Simon Archer

  “That should be more than enough guards to keep us safe,” Zemia replied as she looked at the dozen Spiguars I’d summoned. Then she made a gesture that caused all the basket-carrying Amorphie to fall into line behind her. “This way.”

  “I take it Gobta’s fights are going well?” Queenie asked with a bit of longing as we followed along behind the Princess.

  “Yes. Can’t you tell?” I asked her as I glanced at her stats page. “I believe you get a bonus based on my level.”

  “I do, master. I feel much stronger, as well. I think this plan of having one of us lead a party to kill monsters while the others do work is smart. It will allow you to maximize your time.” Queenie nodded. “Of course, you probably already knew that.”

  “I did,” I admitted, “but I didn’t expect it to work this well.” I laughed. “It almost makes me wish that the fishermen with Ishmael were my people instead of Amorphie. Then I’d get experience for them too.”

  “Perhaps in the future, you will be strong enough to summon enough minions to do both,” Queenie said as she reached out and squeezed my hand which was a surprising move of affection for the Ant Queen. “I have faith that you will have so many minions that they will blot out the sun.”

  “I look forward to that day,” I said as we arrived at the elevators and the Amorphie began to rig up the baskets.

  I took a moment to look around with my Overdrive ability, and even though I didn’t find anything, I made my twelve Spiguars fan out around us to look for threats.

  “Say, Zemia,” I said when they’d gotten into position, and I was satisfied we probably wouldn’t be ambushed. “What’s a Gnarl Tree?”

  “A walking sea tree that has poisonous sap, giant tentacles, and subsists largely by eating the creatures foolish enough to step into the trap-like leaves attached to its body.” Zemia gestured to our right where a darker colored sea tree that had several flowers that smelled sickly sweet sat innocently among a tightly packed grove of sea trees. “There is one right there, but do not worry. They only attack when they are attacked.”

  “Good to know,” I said as I eyed the Gnarl Tree, and now that I knew what it was, I realized that there was glowing yellow text above it, letting me know this was a Gnarl Tree Guard. “What about the mothers?”

  “It will likely be deep within the grove.” She turned then and pointed at the Gnarl Tree Guard. “There will be a row of the guards, followed by the Offspring which have not yet matured into guards. Then more guards. Then the Mother. Sometimes there are multiple mothers.” She shrugged. “But, as I said, they will not attack unless we attack them.”

  “It is very close to the village,” Queenie said as she eyed the tree carefully. “Does that not worry you more?”

  “It is very low on our list of worries. I am much more worried about creatures that actively hunt us.” She nodded to the Spiguars. “Those and other beasts will be more than enough to pick off an unsuspecting Amorphie.”

  “Fair enough,” I said as we lowered the first basket down into the water. “We’ll just keep watch--”

  I’d have said more, but that was when something under the water grabbed hold of the line and jerked on it so hard I lost my balance and fell on my ass. Unfortunately, two of the Amorphie weren’t so lucky, and as they tumbled down toward the water, I saw Zemia lose her balance and fall off the platform.

  “Zemia!” I cried, and before I knew what I was doing, I pulled out The Sword of the Destroyer King and threw myself off the platform after the princess. “Queenie, grab them before they hit the water. I’ll get the princess.”

  29

  As I cut through the air, my hands tight around my sword, the water below me began to churn and bubble. Out of the corner of my eye, I barely saw Queenie snatch the two falling Amorphie before a creature the size of a bus burst from the ocean below in a torrential spray of foam and water.

  The thing, identified by its light orange nameplate as a King Fisher, reminded me of a mosasaurus except it was covered in spines like a stegosaurus. Its glittering purple scales glittered in the sunlight like car-door-sized jewels as sparks of electricity arced across its body like an electric eel.

  I half expected its mighty jaws to snap at the Amorphie or Queenie even though they were still well above it, but that wasn’t at all what happened. Instead, its large yellow multifaceted eyes seemed to take in the scene as it breached the water, and then a handful tentacle-like tongues with spiny suckers at the ends burst from its mouth like it was some kind of frog.

  Its mighty flippers beat at the air, almost seeming to slow its descent as the fleshy tendrils whipped through the air straight for the falling Amorphie, Queenie, the princess, and me.

  I swung my sword in an outward arc that sliced through the approaching tongue like it was made of warm butter and I was wielding a hot knife. Green ichor sprayed through the air as I grabbed hold of the now sucker-free end of the writhing, flailing tongue, intent on using it to pull myself toward Zemia only a few feet below me. That was also when I realized what a horrible idea that had been because the creature recalled its tongue with blinding speed.

  The scenery seemed to blur around me as I was yanked down into its gaping, tooth-filled mouth. Worse, my hand was starting to burn, and it only took a quick look to tell me why. My Auric Armor was starting to bubble and smoke which, combined with the You are taking Acid Damage, dumbass message that flashed across my vision, let me know this thing was definitely not something I wanted to fuck with.

  “Master!” Queenie cried as she easily dispatched her own tongue as well as the ones targeting her two Amorphie. “I’m coming!” She made like she was going to come to me with the Amorphie still in her arms.

  “Get them to safety first, Queenie!” I called as I reached Zemia and wrapped my arm around her. “Hold on!” I pulled her close to my body. “I got you.”

  “Okay!” the princess cried, and as she wrapped her arms around me, her grip was so strong that it nearly choked the breath out of me. Thankfully, it gave me a moment to deal with the tongue that was wrapped around her ankle. I’d barely cut her free when the giant King Fisher opened its maw wider.

  “Master, the Amorphie are safe. I’ll be there in a second. I’m almost there!” Queenie cried as she careened toward me. Only, I could already tell she wouldn’t make it in time.

  So, before the King Fisher could swallow me and Zemia whole, I sheathed my sword and pumped all the Aura I could manage into my next attack.

  “Queenie! Catch!”

  I flung Zemia up toward the platform with all my strength. The princess became a terrified, screaming projectile as she arced up toward Queenie who caught her easily by the arm. Unfortunately, there was so much force behind my throw that it sent Queenie rocketing upward.

  That was fine, though because it meant the princess would be safe.

  “Okay, you big ugly son of a bitch,” I growled as I pulled my sword back out of its sheath and infused my Aura into the weapon. “Time to die!”

  I reared back, ready to drive my sword into the fleshy part of its mouth when the creature’s jaw exploded outward like it was an Alien in those old Ridley Scott movies, and its massive jaws snapped shut around me.

  The hot stink of fish breath was nearly overwhelming as I slammed into the back of its throat with so much force that I actually lost control of the Aura I’d gathered. It all whooshed out of me in an explosion of force that nearly knocked me unconscious as I was slammed around bodily inside its mouth.

  As spots danced across my vision, I felt a fresh wash of acid cover me, and more angry damage messages let me know I was in a bad way. So, I did the only thing I could do. I remembered the advice of the only person I’d ever known to kill something this big and fishy.

  “From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee!” I cried as I drove The Sword of the Destroyer King right into the creature’s fleshy throat. Admittedly, I’d intended to cut myself free, but when my blade rebounded off the underside of its scaled flesh, I knew
that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Fuck,” I muttered as I came to a sudden stop that nearly tore my arms from their sockets because momentum was a thing and it had been trying to swallow me. Fortunately, that wound up working out for me because as its throat muscles worked and it tried once more to gulp me down, my blade sliced the creature open, and more green blood splashed over me.

  The King Fisher’s blood must have had some neutralizing agent in it because as it coated me from head to toe, I actually saw some of the damage messages fade. That was good because while I wasn’t critically injured or anything, my health was dropping way faster than I’d have liked, and my Aura was getting dangerously low.

  The creature bucked then, and my sword came free of its throat as I was snapped outward like a fucking whip. My back crashed into the back of the creature’s throat, and as I slid down toward its stomach, I came up with a patented Garrett Andrews Really Bad Plan.

  I extended my hand and used the last of my remaining Aura to dismiss one of the Spiguars and summon Hercules.

  Which, okay, may not have been the best plan because I was inside an enclosed space, but then again, I didn’t say it was a good plan.

  Still, I was pretty sure the King Fisher never expected to have an Erithymean Boar half its side suddenly materialize in its throat. Needless to say, it didn’t go well for the King Fisher because the boar was big enough and dense enough for its hooves to punch through the soft flesh of the King Fisher’s throat and for its tusks to cut through the upper side of its mouth. And that was probably the most identifiable part of everything that happened because a split second later, most of the King Fisher exploded outward in gobbets of flesh and blood.

  Your summoned creatures have killed creature: King Fisher.

  I’d barely registered the message when Hercules vanished under the strain of having been summoned in an area way too small for it. Gore washed over me an instant before ocean water flooded into the dead King Fisher, but I didn’t have time to worry about my inevitable death by drowning because I knew this whole fiasco would definitely do one thing. It’d call bigger predators to the corpse. And I’d seen what the bigger predators could do through Gobta’s eyes.

  So, I did the only thing I could. I sucked in a breath an instant before I was submerged and used Aura Extraction on the King Fisher, which had the added benefit of completely refilling my Aura.

  Pattern: King Fisher has been learned. Would you like to create a King Fisher?

  “Yes!” I thought as I swam out of the hole where its head should have been.

  Thankfully, that was enough. The giant sea monster appeared an instant later, and it was none too soon. I could already see other predators coming closer, and while most of them were smaller scavenger types, I knew the bigger ones wouldn’t be far behind.

  I grabbed onto one of the King Fisher’s fins just like I had when I’d ridden dolphins that one time in Mexico and willed the creature to head upward. We shot toward the surface just as the last of my breath was leaving me, and I’ll be honest, the breath I sucked in as the creature breached was crisp, clean, and fucking fantastic. Like sex with two hot princesses fantastic.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t have long to enjoy it because the King Fisher was already falling back toward the sea. I scrambled to my feet as quickly as I could, took a quick moment to steady myself, and leapt up toward the sea tree’s lowest branches with all the strength my Aura-infused muscles could muster.

  I could already tell that I wasn’t going to make it.

  “Gotcha, master!” Queenie cried, wrapping her arms around me right as my fingers brushed the underside of the branch.

  “Thank you,” I whispered as the King Fisher hit the water far below and then began to go ape-shit as it landed in the middle of a full-on feeding frenzy.

  “Thanks, Queenie--”

  She cut me off then by pressing her lips against me and kissing me hard.

  “I’m so glad you’re safe, master,” she murmured against my lips as she carried us back up to the platform, “but hear me when I say this.” She broke away then and looked me right in the eyes. “Please don’t do anything like that again.” There were more kisses. “I don’t know what I’d do if you died.”

  30

  “Well, this is certainly interesting,” I said as I watched my six summoned King Fishers patrol the area below the sea trees. “It took a while, but it seems like everything else is finally leaving.”

  To be honest, I couldn’t much complain since my pack of sea monsters had gotten me a boatload of experience, enough for me to get another three levels. Since most of the nameplates down there were still yellow and orange, I knew I could expect a few more levels out of them before the day was over, even if the attacks had become less frequent.

  “I have not seen anything like it before,” Zemia replied as we watched them circle the area like a pack of wolves. “While they aren’t the strongest of the fish down there, it seems their coordinated efforts are chasing off the larger predators.”

  “It should have been obvious since everything here seems like a solo predator,” I said as I watched them chase off something that was at least twice their size.

  “This is why ants are better,” Queenie added as she steered the King Fishers back into formation. “We already know we should swarm over much larger enemies to destroy them.” She clucked her tongue. “The stupid fish should have known that.”

  “Yes, well,” I said with a laugh, “I actually can’t think of very many fish back on earth that hunt in packs. I know orcas and dolphins do sometimes, but those are mammals. Piranhas kinda swarm, but it’s not coordinated like this.”

  “It is a good thing you have come up with this tactic then,” Zemia said as she leaned forward and touched my arm. “It gives us an advantage.” She pointed back toward the other baskets. “Now we don’t have to worry about anything attacking the seeds while they're in the water.

  “For now anyway,” I said as I rubbed the back of my neck. “Problem is that these guys don’t naturally do this.” I gestured to the perfect formation circling the baskets. “Queenie is making them do it, and while we can do it this way for a while, you guys need to be able to tame these oceans without me being here.”

  “With your help, I’m sure we will manage it.” Zemia smiled at me. “It is too bad you cannot stay forever, though.”

  “Hey, I’ll visit,” I said with a laugh before I turned my attention back to the scene below. The whole of the ocean below was a frothing mass of blood and meat, and the worst part was, we’d yet to be able to collect any of it. The waters were too dangerous for that because even though the King Fishers were doing a good job of keeping most of the predators away, it was still too risky for any of the Amorphie to head down there and actually collect it.

  To be fair, though, that was because we had nowhere to put the fish. There were no mats below us, and the elevator was all but nonexistent now that the King Fisher had torn what remained of it off its hinges when it had attacked the first basket.

  “Well, I suppose it is time to start processing what meat we can from the kills,” I said with a sigh as I watched a dolphin-sized fish get bitten in half. I took a moment to glance at the message and confirm I’d already gotten the pattern and then dismissed it. Originally, I hadn’t been able to use Aura Extraction from this distance, but after dumping all my skill points into it, I’d managed to increase the ability’s range considerably.

  Admittedly, that was part of the reason I’d stayed around, to see if there were new patterns, but thus far, my King Fishers hadn’t actually managed to kill anything bigger than they were. They simply weren’t built for being able to take down larger predators, even with a pack of them.

  “How are we supposed to get the meat to process?” Zemia asked as she looked down at the water far below. “There are no mats, and we cannot go down with just the rope.”

  “I have an idea,” I said as I watched the King Fishers circle again. “Queenie, have o
ne of the Spiguars gather what meat they can from the ocean and bring it here. I wanna see how long it takes.”

  “It will be done, master,” she said as one of the three Spiguars we still used to patrol the perimeter darted down toward the water. As it did so, the King Fishers moved to secure the area, allowing it to pick up a bright gobbet of meat nearly as big as its body. The Spiguar struggled under the weight, slowing down to nearly a tenth of its speed and quickly draining its stamina as it brought the chunk up to us.

  “Well, this isn’t going to work,” I said as I chewed on the problem. “It’s too slow.”

  “Perhaps,” Zemia said as she eyed the meat hungrily, “but this is quite a bit of food for us, and it only took a few minutes to get it here. Imagine how much we will have in an hour or two.”

  “Fair point,” I said with a shrug. “Can your Amorphie to bring it into the town as it comes in?”

  “Of course.” Zemia smiled at me. “Are you leaving us now?”

  “Just for a bit. I’m going to work on a couple things, like a better transport system, and then I’ll be back.” With that, I waved goodbye to Queenie and Zemia and made my way back toward the town.

  Admittedly, part of me wanted to check on Ishmael and see how they were doing with the fishing. I was really worried after what I’d seen, but a quick glance through the eyes of one of the Spiguars I’d sent over there to guard the area let me know that they were fine. I wasn’t sure how that was possible. Probably something to do with the enchantments I’d seen the old fishermen cast on the fishing poles before they used them. If that was the case, we definitely needed to figure out how to imbue that into more of the Amorphie’s gear.

  That was a rabbit hole I didn’t need to deal with now.

  It didn’t take long to get back to town. Once I was there, I quickly found Elephelie exactly where she’d told me she would be, busily working with Jodie to set up the smoker as well as several stills to make salt.