Unusual Enemies - A LitRPG Adventure (The Whispering Crystals, #2)

by Mills, H. C.

  After a few seconds, when the tremors cease, I connect to Suri. ‘That better have been worth it. Status Window please.’

  [Coming right up, dear.]

  All right! Straight from 0.7 to 1.3%, that’s what I like to see.

  Can’t say I hate the look of that longer Skill-list either. Interesting stuff.

  My inspection is interrupted at this point, as Alec hides behind me, and I have to calm down Kaitlynn, who’s chomping at the bit to tear him a new one.

  Whoops. Perhaps a heads-up about that lightning strike may have been in order.

  Once I’m done soothing her, she returns to practising her breathing, with one last withering glare at Alec.

  Well, Alec is out of Qi now anyway, so we continue sparring normally for a bit. He begs off training pretty soon, however, claiming he needs to practise Meditation.

  I guess that’s true enough. After all, he needs the third level before he can even get started on Regeneration, and I don’t even have the third level yet. Still, I feel like his hasty retreat may have something to do with me going a tad harder on him as revenge for electrocuting me.

  What can I say? Pobody’s nerfect.

  Either way, I return to practising my swimming, sometimes striking the targets en passant, but it’s a lot less fun than harassing Alec.

  Therefore, I’m more than ready to take a break when Kaitlynn shoots upright and starts doing a weird under-Hydrum happy-dance. For a moment I’m confused, but then I notice how her exhale coils away from her and frees her breathing space of stale Hydrum. She gained Respiration level 3!

  I swim over little-mermaid-style and hold out a hand for a high-five.

  She looks up startled for a moment, then briefly clasps the hand I’m holding out and smiles blindingly.

  I feel like I should blink a few times to get the afterimage of her smile off my retina.

  Anyway, bored with swimming, I busy myself with teaching Kaitlynn how to use Respiration level 3 until Dave returns, and we decide to drain the room so Alec can start on dinner. We’re running out of wood quite quickly, so there better be some in the next Hub. At least we still have plenty of Yang Fire-Blossoms to act as firestarters.

  Over dinner, Dave shares that he not only learned Tremorsense but also levelled up his Radiate Skill to level 3 by learning how to make regular Radiation!

  “Turns out I shouldn’t have been practising it under-Hydrum,” Dave explains happily. “Hydrum seems to suppress Radiation Energy.”

  Interesting. Similar to its resistance to Toxic Energy then?

  After dinner, we pack our bags and such to make sure we’re fully prepared to face the next Trial after a last good rest. Jacob announces that, no offence, he’d like to sleep in his own room, as he wants to be well-rested. After a moment, Alec professes he would prefer that as well and Dave agrees that it might be wiser. I shrug, more than happy to go along with the group, and so we split up.

  Except...

  Kaitlynn hovers near me as the boys bid us goodnight one by one.

  She chews on her bottom lip and shuffles her feet, looking a little nervous and altogether adorable.

  “Emma,” she starts hesitantly, “can I sleep with you tonight?”

  I swear, my heart skips a beat. My brows rise to my hairline.

  She blushes and rolls her eyes at me. “I meant, like, in your bed.”

  “That’s doesn’t really put me at ease, to be honest.”

  She snorts and smacks my shoulder. “You know what I mean, you ass.”

  “Of course you can,” I say warmly, relenting from teasing her. “Come on, let’s catch some Z’s.”

  And so I find myself doubled up on a single bed, lying awake as I stare at the ceiling.

  “Emma?” Kaitlynn whispers.

  “Yeah hon?”

  “Have you... gotten your period yet?”

  Huh. Come to think of it...

  “No, I haven’t,” I say finally. “And I definitely would’ve noticed. But I’m sure it’s something to do with this Realm: I have a copper IUD—at least, I’m assuming it’s still in there—and I haven’t been sexually active in, well, a while, so there’s no way I’m pregnant. Why do you ask?”

  “I haven’t gotten mine yet either,” Kaitlynn confesses. “I was on the pill before I got here, but I didn’t bring any with me. But if you haven’t gotten it either, then I’m sure it’s just this Realm, and not...”

  I turn over to face her, a bad feeling rising inside me. “Kaitlynn... Those assholes, they didn’t, touch you, did they?”

  To my immeasurable relief, she shakes her head no. “Not unless they were unreasonably sneaky about it. I was out of it most of the time, of course, but I was tied up with my clothes on. I just had this irrational worry about it because I was supposed to have my period by now.”

  “Good,” I say with a sigh, “I’m glad.”

  “If we can’t get periods, can we still even get pregnant here?” she wonders aloud after some time.

  I shudder at the idea. “Let’s try not to find out.”

  “Guess that means no boys,” Kaitlynn sighs wistfully. “We’ll have to make do with each other.”

  I snort. “Right, lesbianism: the solution to all of a modern girl’s problems.”

  “Haha, yeah...”

  “Anyway,” I say after a beat of silence, “I’m definitely not gonna miss periods if we’re truly rid of them. Especially since I left my menstrual cup at home.”

  Kaitlynn frowns. “What’s a—oh. Huh, that sounds pretty useful. Why have I never heard of those before?”

  I blink. Ah, of course! The auto-translation kicked in and explained it to her.

  “Probably the almighty tampon lobby,” I joke. “Keeping everyone hooked on disposable products means more profits.”

  She hums agreeably.

  “Didn’t it hurt to get that IUD placed?” Kaitlynn asks suddenly.

  “Like a bitch,” I admit. “But I’ve got pretty good pain tolerance.”

  “I’ll say, Em-ma,” she says, stressing the ‘Em’ and giving it the meaning of the ‘M’ in S&M.

  “You little—” I start tickling her in revenge.

  She ineffectually tries to fend me off, laughing and squealing, until I relent.

  We lie quietly in the dark for a bit.

  “I want to try something,” Kaitlynn whispers.

  “What?”

  Kaitlynn turns to face me, and I follow her lead.

  She stares at me intently.

  My heart beats in my throat. Unbidden, my eye darts towards her lips.

  Suddenly, Kaitlynn takes a deep breath and says, “Michael.”

  I stare at her, a confusing mix of feelings swirling through me, that I quickly suppress. “Huh?”

  “Damn,” Kaitlynn swears. “Let me try again, I think I can do it.”

  She closes her eyes for a second, before re-opening them and staring at me even more intently, and repeats, “Michael.”

  This time, after a second, something clicks. A flood of images and feelings, a portrait of an older brother. One who starts out pestering his little sister, until they get older and the pestering turns to ribbing, and they actually get along pretty well. And he’s an ass but also sweet and protective, and—

  The flood of information is too much. I can only process and retain the broad strokes. When it peters out, I’m left staring open-mouthed at Kaitlynn.

  “It worked?”

  I nod. “Yeah. Your big bro sounds wonderful, Kait.”

  She smiles tearfully, “Eh, he’s not bad. Still not half as cool as he thinks he is.”

  Not knowing what to say, I smile back ruefully and reach out to wipe a tear from her cheek. She closes her eyes and leans into my hand a little, so I keep it there, stroking away the tears with my thumb.

  “Can I tell you about my parents too? I just... I think it’d make me feel less lonely.�
��

  I swallow against the lump in my throat. “Of course. Tell me everything.”

  Ultimately, Kaitlynn nods off first, curled into me with her head on my shoulder. I can’t help but stare at her sleeping face for a bit. Seeing her this unguarded and vulnerable is doing weird things to me.

  I’m not letting anything happen to you, I think, pressing a kiss into her hair. I freeze when she stirs a little and murmurs something in her sleep, but she doesn’t wake.

  I relax again, shivering a little as I feel her sigh against my neck. I’ve never really gotten to experience sleepovers on Earth. It’s kinda nice, cuddling like this, kinda... intimate.

  That must be why my heart is beating so fast. I should probably catch some sleep, I consider reluctantly.

  I still end up studying her a little longer, before my eyes naturally drift shut.

  CHAPTER 20

  Go with the flow

  WHEN KAITLYNN AND I enter the living room the next morning, Dave and Alec are already there.

  “Oof, those are some serious bags under your eyes. Didn’t get a lot of sleep?” Alec asks me teasingly.

  “No, not really,” I admit, “but it was worth it.” I direct a smile at Kaitlynn. She smiles back.

  Dave’s eyebrows rise. “Oh? I see.”

  I frown. Wait, what exactly—

  A door slides open, interrupting my thoughts. Jacob strides out, packed and ready to go.

  “So, who’s ready to go for a dive?” he asks, striking a dashing pose with his shortsword and shield.

  “Actually,” I say after a beat of silence, “we’ve got about thirty minutes left, so I was thinking breakfast?”

  Alec scratches his neck. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.”

  Dave nods. “Sounds about right.”

  Kaitlynn clasps a hand in front of her mouth, trying not to laugh at Jacob’s expression.

  “Right,” he agrees with a sigh. “We should probably eat.”

  “Is everybody ready?” Jacob asks one more time.

  “Yeah, did you go to the bathroom, Alec?” I add, tightening the straps of my backpack with my blowpipe stowed behind it and my spear in hand. “Because I swear, if you pee in the Hydrum I’m breathing, I will glorb you personally, so help me Dave.”

  “So help you me?” Dave sputters. “I’m not helping you g... I can’t even say it. Just thinking it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

  Alec rolls his eyes, apparently not deigning my threat worth an answer. Why that little—

  “Actually, guys,” Kaitlynn starts hesitantly, “how are we supposed to leave anyway? There are only five doors in this room, and we know where all of them lead.”

  That’s an excellent question.

  “I asked Rose about that earlier,” Dave says, “but she just said it’d be ‘revealed’ when we started the Trial. So, who would like to do the honours?”

  Jacob glances around. “Anybody still need to do anything? No? In that case, Begin Trial!”

  For a second nothing happens. Then, with an ominous rumble, a large deluge of Hydrum falls from the grating in the ceiling, quickly filling the room.

  I guess that was to be expected. I patiently wait for the Hydrum to reach my lips before I start breathing it. I’m quite used to transitioning to breathing Hydrum by now, though it remains counterintuitive.

  When the room is full, another ominous grinding sound rings out as the grating in the floor shifts aside, and the suction force suddenly increases.

  We all stare at the revealed hole. It has a diameter of only like three feet.

  They want us to enter that?

  A window pops into view that confirms my suspicions.

  I swim high over the hole to take a look without getting sucked in. The tunnel is dark, but I can see a bright spot not too far down.

  Jacob takes a step towards the edge, weighed down enough by the heavy Greysteel sword and shield strapped to his back to maintain light contact with the floor. After a glance down, he shrugs, salutes us with his sword, and hops in. The swirling Hydrum quickly sucks him down at high speed.

  Well, there’s nothing for it. With a single sweep of my tail, I dive in after him headfirst, my spear parallel to my body.

  It’s a good thing the narrow tunnel goes straight down. If my spear were to get stuck here, I would have a serious problem. As would all the people behind me.

  Below me, Jacob’s silhouette reaches the end of the tunnel and disappears in a flash.

  Uh-oh.

  I tense up my core muscles to prepare for whatever’s about to happen as I near the exit, but my caution turns out unnecessary.

  The tunnel exits into a large, slightly better-lit pipe that runs perpendicular to the one we just came from. A powerful flow of Hydrum forcibly wrenches me aside the moment I enter.

  I quickly stabilise myself and look around to find Jacob up ahead and Kaitlynn close behind me.

  I swim against the current towards her and grab her hand, before allowing the flow to carry me along again. She shoots me a grateful look.

  The tunnel continues for a while, twisting this way and that, until another bright spot looms up in my view, the backlight illuminating Jacob’s silhouette in the distance.

  He reaches it and drops out of sight.

  Now what?

  A faint roar builds up as we approach the exit. Kaitlynn grips my hand tightly.

  We reach the light. After a split second, the telltale drop in my stomach tells me we are freefalling. However, unexpectedly, the cylindrical flow of Hydrum around us remains intact, even as it curves down and to the left.

  What the hell is going on?!

  The flow continues curving towards the left, going round and round. In fact, as the flow accelerates down, the spiralling motion becomes faster and faster.

  My heartbeat is in my throat. I’m half-convinced we’re about to crash into something, but to my surprise, the spiral widens again.

  Then the flow meets a sudden end, and Kaitlynn and I are yanked apart by the resulting turbulence.

  I fight to right myself, thrashing wildly until I realise what happened. The flow crashed into a lake.

  I reform my tail and swim up.

  As soon as I breach the surface, I force the Hydrum from my lungs with Breath Control.

  I start to take in a nice lungful of Aether, but my breath catches at the sight of the cavern above me.

  At least a hundred feet up, a mighty flow of Hydrum emerges from an enormous, carved-stone head full of sharp, serrated teeth. The head of a plessie.

  That flow then bends aside and spirals all the way down around an imposing stone pillar that rises up from the bottom of the lake all the way to the roof of the cavern.

  Right, so the flow is sucked into the gravity field of the pillar, causing it to spiral down. Sure. Why not. Man, what a view, though.

  Kaitlynn pops up near me, hacking and coughing. I wave at her, relieved. She spots me and comes swimming over.

  Together we watch as the dark blotches that I presume to be Dave and Alec spiral down around the pillar one by one.

  They enter the lake and I pop down below the surface to wave at them to come up. They do so quickly and join us in taking in the awe-inspiring view.

  “Wow,” Alec says with a sigh, once he’s done coughing.

  “Yeah,” Kaitlynn agrees.

  “Where’s Jacob?” Dave asks. “Scouting ahead?”

  I frown, looking around. “Uh, actually I’m not sure, I went straight up to figure out what—Oh, right! His gear is rather heavy, so he’s probably...” I trail off and my eyes widen.

  “Sinking!” Dave exclaims, finishing my sentence.

  ‘To reach the exit dive down.’ Something tells me it’s a very bad idea to try and do that on your own.

  I dive down, ridding myself of the Aether in my lungs in a single exhale, and filling them with Hydrum.

  Down in the depths, I see a figure struggling valiantly but failing to cling onto a steep rocky slope
. The bottom of the lake is shaped like a funnel, and it seems like the flow of Hydrum is slowly sucking Jacob towards the hole in the bottom.

  On my next exhale, I form a tail around my feet with practised ease and kick.

  I shoot down, but it’s still a long way. By the time I’m halfway there, Jacob loses his grip entirely.

  He looks up at me helplessly, as he’s sucked down into the hole. At this point, with the suction down there, even abandoning his gear probably wouldn’t save him.

  For a split second, I am wrought with indecision, and my tail falters.

  If I dive down after him and we end up in a combat situation, I’m putting myself at risk, as the rest of the group is going to need time to catch up. If I don’t dive after him...

  If only he’d abandoned his sword and shield earlier.

  No, scratch that. Throwing away your equipment when you’re about to face combat would be stupid.

  There’s nothing for it. Jacob may be new to the party, but he’s earned his place. There’s no way I’m abandoning him now.

  Determined, I activate Boost Physical’s second mode and glance at my Status Bar.

  Nice. At my insistence, Trigot meat was on the menu this morning—breakfast of champions—and it’s already paying off. I can just barely maintain a net positive Lavi Flow this way.

  I kick my tail at near full force. I still have to beware ripping it with Boost Physical active, but it’s gotten a lot more resilient.

  I soar down, picking up more speed with every kick.

  Dave’s voice rings in my head encouragingly.

  Comforted, I shoot into the tunnel at the bottom of the lake.

  Like the last one, it twists and turns dizzyingly. Unlike last time, I’m not just passively floating along, but actively speeding through it, trying to anticipate the bends and steer into them. This gets harder and harder however as the tunnel turns increasingly dark.