Chapter 96: The Sunken Turbine (1)
The lake’s edge came into view through a break in the trees. It was a vast, unnatural expanse of water swallowing what was once a valley. The lake stretched beyond sight, reaching the horizon, as if this was the sea. There was no shore in sight.
On the other side, things were different, though, because there still was the dam there. It rose from stone and cement blocks, half-covered in moss, while water poured over its edge when the wind got too strong, turning into foam.
Havenwood was at the bottom of the colossal dam.
Reidar dismounted. Aaron and Mara pulled up beside him. They were in anxiety, but how could they not be? They were far weaker than Reidar, and they didn’t exactly come from one of the most peaceful places in the region. They were far under-leveled to fight the monsters roaming here.
"We are here," Aaron said.
"Yes. Do you have any idea where the transport might be?"
Aaron thought for a second. "Based on what I know, the main transport was on the road coasting the lake, but I can’t tell where that is now, after the lake swallowed it."
"This doesn’t help."
"Right, but if you find a road down there, you might just follow it, and eventually you should be able to find the convoy."
Mara tightened her grip on her staff. "The water’s so still. Too still."
Those words sent a chill through them all. It wasn’t like the wind wasn’t there. it was, and the ripples were also present. But Everyone expected the monsters to come attacking once their reached the shores, and yet they didn’t, as if they weren’t there.
Reidar then summoned his Razor-Gill school and the bone militia. The first were made to stay in water, while the second could simply not drown.
Ten sleek, silver-scaled fish with serrated dorsal fins materialized, circling just below the surface. Their eyes were black, mercilessly staring at their surroundings, and their mouths bristled with needle-sharp teeth that gave Aaron and mara goosebumps.
The bone militia appeared along the shore, staining their white bones against the greens and grays of the water. Each held a notched sword and a battered shield, rigid and waiting. Their empty eye sockets stared out, scanning everything with a chilling stillness.
"Search the lake," Reidar said. "If anything comes up, kill it."
"What now?" Mara asked him.
"We search around; my summons will take care of the rest."
Reidar also re-summoned his primal pack and guardian shade. He still had the spectral knights to summon, but he would rather not do that right now. It would be better to keep them a secret if he could. He had already been attacked earlier, and he wasn’t keen on staying without defenders if things went bad.
The primal pack would do for now, and the contubernium wasn’t here to begin with, since he sent them to kill those following him.
<They should have returned by now, though...>
The Razor-Gills darted ahead, and the bone militia followed. The latter were slower than the fishlike monsters Reidar summoned but were far scarier.
The trio, instead, started to move. They followed the lake bank and searched around for hints of the road Aaron told him about earlier, or at least something that would give them the convoy’s position.
Reidar checked the water. They hadn’t met monsters until that point, not at the lake at least, but that didn’t mean they weren’t bound to do so.
"So, what should we expect from this place?" Mara asked.
"In terms of monsters?" Reidar asked.
The woman nodded.
"The quest details mentioned three main monsters in the area, but I can’t say we won’t meet anything else. Though, this close to the lake, we should meet Murk-Fin Ambushers, which are eel-like things that blend into the murk and strike from the ground. Grave-Kelp Grapplers, semi-sentient plant monsters that’ll try to drag you under and drown you." He paused. "And likely nesting near the main transport... an Elite Abyss Lurker. A massive armored beast."
"Wonderful."
Mara gave Aaron a stern look.
"The Lurker is the real problem," Reidar said. "Heavily armored head, resistant to piercing and cold. Vulnerable to electricity, but good luck generating a significant charge down there. I don’t know if my summons will be enough to kill that thing, and anything else at Morv’axil’s shop was too costly even for me." His gaze never left the dark water.
"It can also apparently create a concussive blast, a pressure wave that’ll stun anything nearby. If it hits my summons, I would need to re-summon them."
"It shouldn’t be too difficult to wear it down if you can just keep sending monster at it."
"No, but very mana expensive and time-consuming."
Besides, it would be him that would do the heavy lifting. That didn’t really sit well with Reidar.
<These guys are going to take free C.L.A.S.P. points doing nothing...> But it wasn’t like Reidar could ask them to disband the party. He needed them to think he didn’t figure them out.
The attack should have led Mara and Aaron to reveal something, so either they were still faking it all, or those guys had really been sent by Martin.
"What about the other two? The ambushers and the... plants? Can they reach us?"
Reidar nodded.
"The Murk-Fins use ink clouds to blind their target. The Grave-Kelp is pure strength, meant to entangle and immobilize. The murk-fins are amphibious, so they might get here." He finally looked at them. "Be careful. It might look like things will be easy since we can’t enter the waters, but I doubt they will be."
The other two nodded.
Aaron let out a slow breath. "So how do we bring the convoy out?" Aaron asked. "The logistics in the apocalypse look like a nightmare to me..."
Reidar thought for a second. "The bone militia would bring it out, taking advantage of the water. Once at the edge of the lake, the primal pack will do the rest. As for how the pieces will be brought to Havenwood? That will be for Martin to figure out. As soon as this quest is done, I will get the hell out of Havenwood."
Mara and Aaron exchanged glances.
The shore then started to churn.
"We’ve got company," Reidar said. Mara and Aaron went into a fighting stance. Then, eel-like shapes slithered onto the bank—hundreds of Murk-Fin Ambushers, their milky eyes fixed on the humans, no doubt to eat them.
"I knew this would happen," Aaron said.
"Focus on the fight now."