Having gotten a taste of the Water Ghosts' peculiarities, the party proceeded with care as they made for the lair.

There were no more ambushes, indicating that the creatures had retreated for the advantage of their subterranean abodes.

“Any chance we can just excavate the damned lair?” Gwen noted the intimidating size of the den as they approached. Judging by the outside, a medium-sized shopping complex would fit under the thing.

“You're going to need a Magister-tier Earthen Mage for that.” Richard commanded Lea to displace the water as they proceeded, allowing the party to avoid any unpleasant surprises. “That or earth-moving golems. Good luck transporting them though. It’s cheaper to pay five ambitious Uni students, hahaha!”

"There sure are A LOT of beasties here," Gwen noted, watching Caliban slither about, eating every other thing it found. There were colourful frogs, viscous looking water bugs, and other devious looking fauna all over the place. Ariel reported that Gwen’s hounds were constant victims of harassment by the local fauna, though it wasn’t anything their draconic-constitution couldn’t handle. The falling level of water had brought all kinds of critters out from the murk.

“Is the lair underwater?”

“Nope, Water Ghosts are air-breathing.” Richard sent out a blast of water, removing a clump of stubborn turf, revealing a host of red-spotted white worms slithering this way and that.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” Percy circulated a layer of Salt over his body.

“Scarlet-tailed leeches.” Kusu leaned in closer for a better look. “Better not have an open wound - they're drawn to blood…”

Percy paled, shivering uncontrollably.

MY BOY, afraid of bugs? Gwen mused. It was true though. Percy was a city boy through and through. She at least had the experience of camping out in the outback, and an extra decade or two’s experience-

Sensing the font of vitality that was Gwen's delicious, essence-filled body, dozens of leeches made a leap of faith for her exposed skin.

“FU- LIGHTNING BOLT!”

A line of lightning cut through the peat-marsh, displacing a linear row of water before spreading forth as a jagged fissure of scorched earth.

“Jesus-strewth!” Gwen caught her breath. It was strange how Caliban could be a cute little horror from the Void, but these slimy white wormlings set her teeth on edge.

The others chuckled.

They continued, with Gwen blasting off bolts every hundred meters or so.

“I am frankly surprised your spells aren't attracting more Ghosts.” Richard looked up at Ariel and Lea floating up above. “GOT ANYTHING?”

“EEE?! EE!”

“Nothing,” Lea reported back.

By the time the party arrived at ‘base camp’, by which Richard had meant the entrance to the lair, they were losing sunlight.

“How're we feeling?” Richard turned to his party. “Got enough stamina to start on the lair?”

“I am fine.” Gwen raised her hand. “Percy?”

“I am alright.” Percy had worked up a good sweat. All of them had in the humid weather. The chill radiating from the soggy marsh permeated their bodies. Combined with the hostile flora and fauna, it was self-evident that without significant terra-forming, the sodden landscape could not sustain human habitation. Of the group, it was only Gwen who appeared barely touched by fatigue.

But looking at his party, Richard knew better.

"Let's take a breather anyway," he advised. "We'll break for afternoon tea, refresh our heads, then head in."

He gazed upward.

“Ariel, Lea, set up a perimeter please.”

“EE!” Ariel swished its tail.
Lea nodded, then drifted away to survey the perimeter.
The hounds fanned out.

Gwen stared at the cavern’s entrance. Had she not known it was there, she would have thought it a moss-strewn split in the risen landscape.

Beside her, Richard materialised a portable stove. “So, what flavour of rations do you guys want?”

The party had barely eaten when Ariel and Lea reported that they had Water Ghosts coming out of the cavern.

“They're attracted to SPAM?” Gwen protectively held the block of spiced mystery-meat close to her chest.

They had enjoyed the peace until Gwen, displeased with rations of nutritious mana-infused military ration, added a few blocks of SPAM to her bubbling pot. Soon after, the salt-soaked meat sent up a delicious scent. It was then that Lea reported on the disturbance around their camp.

The party's response was skeptical, none more so than Richard, who’d thought he had done his due diligence on the Water Ghosts.

“Gwen, give me your SPAM. I need at least twice as much as you've got going there." Richard wasn’t one to let go of an opportunity; straightaway, he ordered the party to collect their things.

“A-all of them?!” Gwen protested feebly.

Richard mercilessly tore the SPAM from Gwen's hands, then dunked the formless flesh into the bubbling pot.

The party was by now over a hundred meters away, watching two dozen blocks of simmering fat swimming in Richard's wok.

“Lea!”

Lea manipulated the water vapours, stirring the salty soup so that the bubbling scent wafted into the cavern's mouth, likewise permeating the waters below.

They left Ariel floating above, just out of sight, confident that the remarkable scent of processed meat would overwhelm the Monkeys' desire to look up.

“Gwen, get ready.”

Still mourning her ration of SPAM, Gwen channelled a sliver of Almudj’s Essence into Ariel, transforming her Familiar into its Quasi-Draconic form. Ariel seemed to possess a far better command of the essence than she did, capable of both withholding and radiating the aura's palpable effects.

Gwen then preloaded an Elemental Sphere.
The party waited.

It didn’t take long for the water around the campsite to roil and churn, bursting apart violently to reveal a dozen Demi-humanoids both large and small. With her eagle-eyed vision, Gwen baulked when she spotted a specimen with drooping, dried up breasts beneath its mattered fur. There was another, a youngling, suckling on the teat of a younger female. From their gait and their body language, they appeared famished. It was no wonder the creatures were drawn to SPAM.

Gwen’s mind blanked out, suddenly accosted by an unpleasant and dubious acknowledgement.

A hand landed on her shoulder.

"Let's do this!" Richard grinned. "Good thing you brought the SPAM! Kusu, take a left, wall them in. Lulu, you're on the right, don't let a single CC escape! Percy, Petra, you’re with me! Gwen, engage as soon as we're in place!”

Gwen's companions charged ahead.

Her mind numb with unbidden solicitudes, Gwen commanded Ariel to prioritise coverage over damage.

“Barbanginy!”

Two globes left Ariel’s stag-horns, guided by its tentacle whiskers. In a split-second, the blinding orbs grew in size, taking on the guise of a twin star-fall, hellbent on obliterating the SPAM stealing culprits.

The spheres struck, growing in radius until they encompassed the entirety of the campsite.

“SCEEIIII!”
“SCARRRR!”
“YIP YIP Yi-”

Twin novas of viridescent lighting rang out, blighting the landscape, splitting the peat, rending flesh, blasting bone, peeling skin and fur.

The shrieks of the Monkeys suddenly grew silent.

“Caliban!”

Gwen’s second Familiar joined the fray. Though she could taste her dilemma like oxidised iron on the tip of her tongue, she knew better than to let the Monkey's lives go to waste.

Her serpent joined the fray, frenzied in its feasting of their fried and battered foe.

“Salt Bolt!”
“Strike!”
“Piercing Dagger!”

Percy quelled his share of singed, gurgling simians, feeling his amulet thrum as it drank the low-tier essence.

Lulan directly dispatched her share of babbling beasts with broad sweeping strokes to the head and neck.

Kusu likewise swept through the rear, his daggers unerringly finding their marks, penetrating softened flesh flayed by Gwen’s lightning.

Richard walked up beside Gwen as she ruminated upon the operatic scene styled after the Seventh Circle of Dante's hellish Inferno.

“What’s wrong?”

“What's WRONG? There were females and younglings amongst those Water Ghosts!” Gwen spluttered. There was no need to be coy with Richard. “They're sapient beings! Don't deny it! You said they were sapient back in Shanghai!”

Richard took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.

“They’re sapient.” Her cousin smirked, his tone entirely objective. “I duly confess that these creatures feel, have complex social units, and are even known to perform the occasional act of altruism. Why - what’s the matter?”

“W-what's wrong?" Gwen shuddered. "Richard, must we exterminate them?"

"Well, its only expected," Richard scoffed. “They’re dangerous animals.”

Gwen swallowed twice in quick succession. Richard wasn’t wrong, but she was reluctant to concede the point.

“Think about it.” Richard pointed to an enormous female carcass Lulan was crudely vivisecting like a lioness ferreting for offal. “How can creatures whose primary preoccupation is to feed, reproduce, and expand: co-exist with us, whose primary preoccupation is to feed our kin, spread our territory, and ensure our continued dominion? Don't you think peaceful co-existence is contradictory to either of our reasons for being?”

“But…” Gwen sighed. She had no persuasive answers, not when her old world gleefully engaged in genocide over trivialities like minor differences in religious texts. From the Mongolians incursions to the British Empire, from the Holocaust to the war in Yemen, human history had rarely if ever conspired for mercy. If there was a single immutable truth that defined humanity, it was that scene from Full Metal Jacket, the one where a Colonel grilled Private Joker:

"You write 'Born to Kill' on your helmet, and you wear a Peace Button? What’s that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?"

The scene had stayed with her all these years. The duality of man: the Jungian thing. Was it that simple though?

“It's that simple, Gwen.” Richard appeared to have read her mind. “Don’t worry your pretty, tier 6 Lightning head about it.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Gwen snorted bitterly. Don’t think?! Easier said than done!

“You overthink.” As if to make his point, Richard petted Gwen's head.

Gwen annoyedly brushed off her cousin's intrusive hand.

“You know, I wonder,” her cousin noted sardonically. “What do you suppose happens when we’re on the losing side? Mercy, perhaps?”

“…” Gwen couldn't counter that hypothesis either.

“SIX CORES!” Lulan was in desperate need of another Prestidigitation, though the girl was clearly too ecstatic to care. “GOOD WORK PERCY!”

Kusu turned to Gwen.

“Percy's our lucky charm, huh?”

“Yep, you got it.” Gwen cracked a wane smile, shaking herself from her induced stupor. “My boy brings all the Cores to the yard.”

At nightfall, the team camped atop the swollen lair, with Petra setting up Wards and Gwen arranging her dogs for guard duty. She had to retrieve Ariel as they entered the Portable Habitat, meaning the alpha Deerhound was now in charge of the pack.

According to Chen, her inexpert conjuration should last a good twenty-four hours, meaning there was at least another twenty odd hours left: more than enough for the team to get a good night’s sleep.

The gang settled into the habitat, with the girls sharing the master bedroom; Richard having a guest room to himself; Percy having the other, and Kusu offering to sleep on the couch.

As the boys prepared dinner, Gwen meditated for a short while, inspecting her gains for the day.

Though individually robust, the Water Ghosts were 'essentially' Demi-human simians with an affinity for Water, measuring unimpressively on the Nephres scale. After snacking on six or so of the buggers, Gwen's Vitality had reached a satisfying state of satiation, albeit nothing like the brimming, supernatural haleness she had gained from the Draconic-creatures. For a moment during their last fight, she had considered the dangerous idea of having Percy use his Drain Life, but ultimately the number one and two rules of the Persecrecy Club reigned.

“Time to eat!” Richard called out after half an hour.

Gwen found herself at the head of the table.

“Our MVP.” Richard chuckled, raising a glass. “To Gwen!”

“TO GWEN!”
“Good work, Gwen!”
“Sis~!”

“Thanks, everyone.” Gwen toasted back, well within her element. "You guys are the reason everything is going so well. Here's to you!"

"Cheers!" the group toasted again.

“Sis, your artillery spells are amazing.” Percy sighed dreamily. “Lightning is the best.”

“Hey, your Salt is only going to get better. You haven’t seen Dad kick ass in Singapore. He was very impressive, more powerful than me, certainly.”

“That sounds promising, especially coming from you.” Percy raised his glass.

"Ha!" Gwen snorted. "Did your elite high school teach you to be a flatterer?"

Richard soon passed the giant pot of curry. Gwen spooned out enough to fill her bowl, an impressive salad bow, half-filled with rice. Even though she was feeling happily vital, her boosted metabolism had woes of its own.

The group made chit-chatter about the events of the day, discussing how they would proceed tomorrow. Richard expressed that he had mapped out the first level or so of the lair, and that they would be advancing straight to the second. All in all, he suspected six layers of criss-crossing tunnels and caverns.

“It’ll be Lea and Caliban’s turn to shine,” Richard ruminated aloud. “Lulan too. I don’t think Ariel’s earth-shattering AOE is going to do us any favours in a tunnel system. It'll be two abreast at best.”

“I’ll have Ariel bring up top,” Gwen agreed. "Let's hope the ceiling's not too low."

“EE!!” Ariel too was eating from a bowl, though the curry was proving excessively pungent for its sensitive nose. It kept sneezing, which was adorable indeed.

“Here.” Lulan materialised something in her hand and threw it at Ariel. The offending object was a length of knotted meat in the shape of a generous shank.

“You bought meat?” Gwen was surprised because Lulan had explicitly stated she had brought no supplies.

“It’s from those Monkeys.” Lulan wiped her hands, returning to her bowl as Ariel tore into the flesh.

“Ah.” Gwen took a few more spoonfuls of curry.

Watching Ariel chow down, a nascent paranoia began to build in her chest.

“Richard.” Gwen stirred her curry softly. “What meat is this?”

Richard blinked.

“Bushmeat,” her cousin replied.

“Oh, thank God.” Gwen breathed out. “Ha! For a moment there, I was sure you were going to say M…”

She noticed her party was staring at her strangely.

Petra pulled herself from her seat.

“I’ll get the napkins.” The Russian reached for the paper towels.

Gwen looked down at her curry-gumbo.

In her haste, she had eaten half a salad bowl.
She should have known. Only curry could overpower the gamy taste.

A vision of a Water Ghost's babe clinging onto a pair of hairy old teats flashed across her mind.

“Dimension Door!”

Gwen reappeared inside the kitchen, projectile vomiting into the sink.

“You see that?” Richard remarked to Percy. “See that control? Now that’s fuck’n impressive!”

The next morning, Gwen gleefully ate three servings of SPAM.

Glorious ignorance! Such ambiguous taste! Not even the ingredient label divulged its secrets. The processed meat put Gwen's mind at ease. Lulan and Petra had spent the night convincing her eating Bushmeat wasn't cannibalism.

Gwen switched to her skinsuit, ensuring she wouldn't blind Percy and scar him for life if she had to Void Skin.

When the party re-emerged, Gwen’s Deerhounds greeted them. The dogs were almost at their limits, so Gwen dismissed them in order to re-engage the spell.

Unfortunately, her lack of sleep had taken a toll on her concentration, and she only succeeded on her third try.

“Sorry," Gwen apologised. Her recovery time meant the whole party had to wait for her.

“It’s fine.” Richard tapped his temple. “But from here on out, FOCUS. Our lives are in your hands.”

“I know,” Gwen promised.

“Petra, if you would, please.”

"Bless!"
"Aid!"
"Resist Element!"
"Water Breathing!"

Petra buffed the party. She had enough for two forays, more than enough.

“Alright folks, here’s how we proceed…”

With Gwen’s dogs now in play, Richard decided to change up their initial strategy. The Deerhounds would lead scouting incursions into the splits and partitions that made up the lair, telepathically reporting back to Ariel if they found anything interesting. Meanwhile, the party would proceed forward as one down the main artery as far as they could before Lulan had to Stone Shape and Earthquake to create new paths. The idea was to pick up as many Water Ghosts as the party could manage in a round trip.

The interior of the cavern grew spacious once Lulan Stone Shaped the entrance, widening the granite so that the party could pass easily. Gwen’s dogs disappeared into the dark, the soft pattering of their paws splattering like pelting rain as they streamed through the cavern.

As expected, the Water Ghosts were exceptional ambush predators. Utilising their innate water-Blink abilities, they erupted from the sodden walls and mossy undergrowth to attack the party. Concurrently, the tunnels were filled with traps: envenomed barbs, diseased spikes, saplings tipped with malignant growth, as well as toxic fauna that laired in small crags.

Every so often, Ariel reported that the dogs were bringing back a host of their simian quarry, too incensed by the hounds' presence to remain in hiding. The party would lay an ambush by having Gwen warding the entrance with Lightning Tentacles, or when there was enough time, Petra would set immobilisation Warding Glyphs, and Gwen, her Faithful Hound.

Their progress remained fruitful for the better half of a day, harvesting dozens of Monkeys each encounter, which Gwen disturbingly acknowledged as 'family' units within the tribe. There were a few precarious calls as well, such as when a section of the cavern suddenly collapsed, sending Gwen and Lulan tumbling. Thankfully, Gwen had on her Boots of Flying, not to mention both of the girls had their Blink or Dimension Door equivalents should the need arise. Another time, the Water Ghosts attempted to flush the party into an ambush by sacrificing one of their own as a lure. Taking Richard’s advice, Gwen sent a Barbanginy Elemental Sphere into the adjacent chamber, collapsing the entire thing altogether.

Lulan collected body parts via her Stone Shape.

“Lulu, open a passage downward from here, let’s see if we can go deeper, we're getting close to the centre.”

“Okay!”

The party advanced steadily. Percy's’ amulet warmed his chest against the cold murk. Beside him, Lulan’s Large Storage Ring bulged with reclaimed heads and harvested Cores.

Their pace persisted until one of Gwen’s dogs returned with a souvenir.

“EEee! EE!” Ariel notified the party.

“Shaaa!” Caliban sniffed what the Deerhound had dragged back.

“Oh no…” Lea floated closer to the Mages. “Ariel says the dogs found a person.”

Where the endless slaughter had numbed the party, the unwelcome news now reinvigorated their interest. A person? Gwen knelt to see as her hound padded toward them.

‘Plop!’

Her Deerhound deposited a limb.

It was a human hand.

“Fuck!” Gwen took a step back, her nerves taut enough to play a sound. The hand looked like it had been gnawed off. Did her dog do it? Were her Draconic-Deerhounds man-eating?

“EEE!”

“No, not the dogs,” Lea translated, with Gwen gladly exhaling. “They found someone another layer down.”

The party regarded one another cautiously.

"We need to find out if there are people down there," Gwen urged. "Maybe they're alive? Victims captured by the Water Ghosts?"

"That's unlikely," Petra pointed out. "The Ghosts we saw were starving."

"Waste of time." Kusu appeared adverse detouring as well.

“Okay, we vote.” Richard pointed downwards. “Who wants to see if there’s someone alive down there?”

“Aye.”
“Aye.”
“Aye.”
“Nay.”
“Nay.”

Petra and Kusu’s ‘Nay’ made Gwen recoil.

“A good rule of thumb,” Petra educated her young companion. “Is to never deviate from a planned route in a Dungeon. We need to work through the warrens systematically, not go traipsing after a dead man.”

“I concur.” Kusu shrugged off Lulan’s bulging eyeballs. “Keep to our task. We’ll find this man or woman or not: it’s just a matter of time.”

“I shall abstain.” Richard nodded. “By majority, we find the owner of this hand. Objections?”

“None,” Petra answered without hesitation.

“I am fine with it,” Kusu conceded as well.

Even as the tension in her chest yielded to relief, Gwen couldn’t help but notice the heat in her cheeks. There was a bit of guilt, a dash of pride, and a mixture of less than cordial sentiments lashing out at cruel Kusu and his partner in crime, pragmatic Petra. More worryingly, Gwen knew that had the nays won; her first reaction would be to launch into oratory rather than affirm the consensus. If so, did that make her a terrible team member? If the party could not proceed without her, could she then hold that over them, driving them into danger?

She was overthinking again, Gwen realised. But she couldn’t help herself.

Such a test was sure to arise one day, especially if they were to work with Seniors from Fudan for the IIUC. Could she handle it if they told her to act otherwise in a morally ambiguous circumstance? Was team cohesion more critical than principles?

“Stone Shape!”

Lulan’s mastery of the Earthen element was as impressive as ever.

Now descending to a lower system of caverns and warrens, the party continued their foray. Gwen's Deerhound took the lead, followed by Lea, parting the water, dismantling the traps and blasting lines of lightning down dark holes. Caliban brought up the rear with Kusu, shielding Petra and Percy from harm. Finally, Ariel floated above their heads.

Along the way, three other dogs joined the march. By now, the other hounds had strayed too far from the party and so were ordered to stay put.

After a few more stray Monkeys and a dozen bobby traps, the party came to a small cavern with clear signs of industry. To their surprise, Gwen recognised the evidence of crude furniture, stone tools and other stolen bits of flotsam and jetsam collected from the Water Ghost’s victims.

“Grrr…” Her Deerhound growled.

The rearmost hounds pushed past the party and took up their positions at the fore, joined by Ariel and Lea.

“Invisible Familiar!”
“Lea! Vapor Form.”

Lea dispersed herself to effect a pseudo-invisibility, while Ariel took its cue from Gwen’s Illusion incantation.

The two familiars entered the dark cavern while the party readied offensive and defensive spells.

“There’s a pile of equipment in there, clothing and such,” Richard reported, possessing the sole Familiar capable of both empathic link and human speech. “Looks like a larder to me. A rather fruitless larder.”

“…”

The party held its breath.

“… it’s not looking good.” Richard breathed out after a while. “Lea says she's found the owner of our wayward hand. He’s dead.”

A solemn air descended over the group.

“There’s… a few victims in there. Emergency supplies, I guess.” Richard turned toward the party. “I think it is best not to go in. Nobody wants to see this stuff.”

How rare for Richard to be so sensitive, Gwen pondered: the same Richard who delighted in opening her eyes to every horror from faux-cannibalism to mass murder. If so, what the fuck could be in there?

“I want to see,” Gwen insisted. “Richard, I think I need to see this.”

Richard stepped aside.

Their eyes met.

“You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?” Gwen chided her cousin, her accusation cattier than she’d anticipated.

In a work environ, the advantage of knowing someone too well could be a complication in itself, especially when it came to situations like this. Gwen had suspected that Richard DID give a shit about her giving a shit about the simian women and children and that he was trying to deliver yet another one of his ‘corrective’ therapies.

“Just prepping you for the big one," Richard affirmed her suspicion. "I am serious though, its a fucked up display. The choice is yours, but no one can be ready for shit like this. With your sensitivity, I don't know..."

Because YOU know better? Gwen suppressed the irritation engendering in her chest. How presumptuous of Richard to think-

Gwen’s thoughts seized at once.

They had entered a large, airy cavern.
As anticipated, it was a pantry of sorts.
But the place looked to Gwen more akin to a torture chamber.
Or perhaps, an abattoir.

Crude hooks had been fashioned out of rusted farming implements. Upon the hooks, hanging like a slab of beef at a butcher’s window, was the owner of the hand. The corpses were expertly dressed: an arm here, a leg there. The torso was butterflied, the body split with a sharp implement.

A thick layer of salt covered the dark flesh, like jamón serrano.

In the darkness, all Gwen and her companions could hear was the sound of their breathing.

“Grrr…”
“Grrr…Grrr”
“GRRRRR…”

Her dogs’ growling grew in intensity until their throaty warning filled the cavern.

“We got company.” Richard readied his multiple Shields. “Petra, Wall up. They were probably waiting for us. If so, this is the big one, likely the ruler of the cavern. Lea, clear all the water in a twenty-meter radius.”

“Crystal Barrier!”

A semi-dome of crystal blossomed into place, its exterior lined with jagged, glassy teeth, enveloping Petra and Percy.

“Caliban!” Gwen commanded her Familiar. Caliban oozed a coat of void-slime, then sunk into the wall, coiling its body.

“Void Tentacles!”
“Lightning Tentacles!”

“Wrrrof!”
“Wrrf!”
“GRRR!”

Gwen's Deerhounds were now in a frenzy.

‘SPLASH!’

Twenty-odd meters away, a small tidal wave of water leapt from cavern floor without warning, rushing toward the party with enough force to dash apart their formation.

“LEA!”

The wall of brackish white-water parted as if commanded by the Prophet Moses, passing the party, leaving them unmolested.

Immediately following the chaotic deluge's passing, figures formed in the darkness. A dozen, no, two dozen Water Ghosts surrounded them both back and front, having Blinked into existence in the wake of the deluge.

“It's their Water Priest,” Richard spat. “Finally, we’re getting somewhere! This is the big one!”

“Petra!” Lulan called out.

Petra was way ahead of Lulan.

“Mass Heroism!”

The golden glow of the Enchantment School suffused the party, dissolving all fatigue, strengthening their bodies and dispelling all fear. Precariously, the application of Heroism was a double-edged blade, for the Mages would remain fearless until the spell’s resolution.

“Caliban-”

“Wait-“ Richard halted Gwen before she could give the command for Caliban to Stag-form. “Save Cali for the Priest. Creatures possessing magical abilities are far more likely to produce Cores with a Spirit.”

“But what if-“

“Don’t worry. Lea is here.” Richard smirked with confidence. “As am I. We need to show these animals the price of hunting humankind.”

At the thought of the preserved corpses, concentric rings of electricity circulated brightly in Gwen’s pupils until her eyes were shimmering in the dim darkness. With great pain, the Lightning sorceress forced herself to look away from the slabs of human flesh.

"Suffer not our enemies to live!" Lulan spat vehemently; the girl had been doubly affected by the horrid sight, so much that she was sprouting CCP propaganda slogans.

“Yes.” Gwen's voice took on a cold, unyielding edge. “Not a single one."


Four Ball-Lightnings erupted in the midst of the screeching swarm, expanding until they compassed the entirety of the chamber’s passageway.

“SCREEIII!”
“YIP! YIP! EEEIII!”
“SCRIIIII!”

Insane, baboon-like howls pervaded the cavern, rebounding across every nook and cranny.

Even under the robust influence of Heroism, Gwen's bones shivered. She could see why the expedition was considered so dangerous. The psychological pressure exerted by the Monkeys became amplified in the cramped, confined space and could even unnerve hardened Battle Mages.

In retribution, Gwen sent a swell of Almudj's Essence into Ariel, suppressing the simian horde's howling with a burst of Dragon-fear. Much to her dismay, the frenzied Water Ghosts surged past their fallen comrades undaunted, suds dribbling from diseased gums.

“The Monkeys have a battle-buff active!” Lulan placed herself as the groups’ spearhead, her lithe figure silhouetted against the frothing bodies bull-rushing the party.

“Wall of Water!”

Since arriving in Shanghai, Richard had been tinkering with both Conjuration and his Abjuration. In particular, lacking the freedom to disburse CCs, he instead improved synergy.

“Warding Tendrils!”

Gwen's Conjurer-Abjurer companion had the tier 4 water barrier pre-loaded, and now he added a tier 2 snare, empowered and maximised by Lea's innate affinity.

As the first of their assailants broke through the Wall of Water, the creatures' passage became impeded by viscous tendrils snapping at the creature's arms and legs, dragging the Monkeys backwards.

“Lightning Bolt!” Gwen incanted, then concurrently, she fired off a second volley through the empowered Ariel, careful as to avoid collapsing the overhead cavern.

“Barbanginy!”

The surging horde finally wavered, initially on behalf of the Dragon-Fear flooding through the chamber like an invisible tsunami, then doubly so when two viridescent bolts, thicker than Lulan’s waist, impossibly bent around the Sword Mage’s body to strike into the midst of their assailants.

“Good JOB!” Lulan hollered, feeling every hair rise on her iron-clad dermis, alive with static. “SWEEP!”

With a gesture, an enormous hunk of gleaming iron carved through the howling horde of Water Ghosts, splitting two of the weakened creatures in half before sending a third fatally into the wall.

“DIE! DIE! DIE!” Lulan leapt into the fray, a whirling dervish of bladed death, all caution diminished by the pulsing Heroism filling her body with fiery adrenaline. “SWEEP! PIERCE! HA!”

“LULU! CONTROL YOURSELF!” Kusu hollered from the rear. He and Petra had no problems keeping four Monkeys at bay while Percy peppered them with Salt Shards.

But Lulan couldn't care less about Kusu's warning. Buffed by Heroism, Aid, Bless, and her innate assortment of secretive enhancements, she felt invulnerable, knowing no fear as she acrobatically dashed, flipped, Misty-Stepped and twisted through the air, dismembering enemies left and right.

“Worry not, champ. I’ve got her covered,” Richard assured Lulan's paranoid brother.

Two more Monkeys broke through the wall, heedless of the horde's losses. Immediately, Gwen’s Deerhounds engaged the creatures.

“Damn that’s useful.” Richard focused instead on forcing the creatures toward Lulan. That had been their usual tactic before Gwen joined. Lulan acted the meat grinder, while Richard used his battlefield control to throw her tasty morsels to be sliced and diced.

“!”

Gwen’s Divination pinged.

“Richard! 11 O’Clock!”

“LEA!”

Richard had been waiting for the Priest to act. He couldn’t sense the incoming jet of super-pressurised water, but Lea could.

“Shield STACK!”

Not one but two Shields opened up in quick succession, Richard initiated the first layer, then Lea the second.

A jet-blast of brackish water hammered the foremost Shield, shattering its liquid membrane. Lea’s thick and fast-flowing underlayer then caught the remaining draft, diverting it downward, sending the stream back into the Elemental Plane of Water.

Taking advantage of the Water Abjurer's industrious defence, three more Water Ghost managed to flank the party. One attempted to sneak attack Lulan as she contended with two snarling specimens still stuck in Richard’s tendriled Wall of Water.

“Void Bolt!”

Gwen’s lethal bolt caught the ambushing Monkey in its lower torso. Unlike higher-order beings, lowly Demi-humans such as the Water Ghosts lacked the magical resistance of genuinely powerful Magical Creatures. Her Void matter consumed itself as it struck, shearing off the creature’s lower body, leaving a pair of dangling limbs to hover comically before clattering wetly onto the granite.

“Richard! The Priest is making his move!” Lea warned.

“Gwen!”

Richard’s Wall of Water exploded, overpowered by the superior control of the Demi-human caster. The trapped Monkeys, half a dozen of them, scattered toward the party, some rebounding from the ceiling, others leaping forward, thrown by the momentum of the blast.

Gwen's dogs moved to engage.

"Dagger Wall!"

Kusu blocked off either side of the party's flank with a swarm of magical implements, swimming through the air like shoals of silvery fish.

"Petra!" Kusu called for support.

Petra had things well in hand.

"Sword WALL!"

The four Water Ghosts attempting to waylay the party's rearguard had counted themselves lucky when Kusu's daggers moved elsewhere, only to be caught once again in a wall of whirling crystalline shards. Curiously, the incantation originally belonged to Kusu. Petra had been experimenting with Cubing the Clanner's spells, as she had always done when new styles of Magic became available. Unfortunately, her Spellcubes were sporadic at best when working with magic outside the Imperial System. After weeks of trial and error, only Kusu's Dagger Wall managed to fit into one of her crystalline cubes.

With both Mages' spells active and the hounds in melee, the party's rear had been secured; their flanks likewise warded for the moment.

Gwen knew the opening would last only a few brief seconds.

"CALIBAN!"

She felt weightless as the vitality stowed in her body fed into her Familiar.

Caliban burst from the ground directly behind Lulan, sailed overhead, then began its polymorphic transformation into an avatar of the dark goat who must not be named.

Behind Gwen's Familiar, Caliban's companions continued their bombardment.

“SWEEP!”

Lulan flung an enormous hunk of polished iron into the Monkey's midst, before she Misty Stepped into the aether, appearing behind Richard a split-second later.

“Lightning Bolt!”

A line of Lightning cleared the path ahead.

Caliban's serpent-form bloated, needle-like legs sprouted, a nova of tenebrous energy expanded from Caliban’s body. Fresh obsidian carapace snapped into place; spiralled horns grew like thorny saplings. As Caliban lowered its head for the charge, ebony Void matter flowed beneath the semi-opaque armour like inky blood.

Without a sound, Caliban plunged into the wall of cascading water, skewering three of the hooting Ghosts with its horns.

Gwen desperately circulated Almudj’s Essence, attempting to reclaim her pound of lost flesh. She had enough remaining to sustain herself, though the magnitude of Caliban's toll inferred that a draconic-stag was best fueled with draconic-tier essence.

“LEA! DO IT NOW!” Richard commanded his familiar. The Water Mage had been waiting for this very moment.

Lea materialised in her Undine form, drawing greedily from Richard's reserves.

The risen crest of brackish swamp-water which had acted as the Water Priest’s shelter and vehicle parted with a violence that surprised both Caliban and its target. In the next split-second, every mote of free-flowing liquid returned to the Elemental Plane of Water.

Richard staggered to one knee, having to catch his breath as his mana pool tanked. Lea's Undine abilities remained far beyond his ability to sustain. A mana potion injector appeared in his off-hand, violently stabbing downwards.

Comparatively, there was no respite for their enemy. The now exposed Water Priest was a corpulent sight, a fat, bloated Water Ghost covered from head to toe with shells, river-weed, and algae, wearing a necklace of blue-green orbs of unknowable origin. Completely caught off guard, its rotten maw opened wide, issuing forth oily spittle.

“NOW!” Gwen commanded. She had no idea how much an actual activation of Caliban’s new ability would cost. “ONSLAUGHT!”

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Caliban carried through the momentum of its charge, cleaving into the Water Priest with the same gusto it had shown the foot soldiers.

“SCREEEEEIII!” The Priest shrieked. The orb necklace at its chest gleamed. The air grew heavy with moisture. Beads of limewater began to form all over Caliban's smooth carapace.

“SHAAAA!” Caliban made a muffled shriek halfway between a neigh and a scream. Its tentacle-horns shot their payload, penetrating the Water Priest a dozen times over. There was a moment of tension, then the Priest's body lost all vigour.

With a wet smack, Caliban tossed its quarry and its precious victims against a wall. It reared, then stabbed downward with its stiletto forelegs, ramming into the creature’s chest with such force that the Priest transformed into a butterfly collector's specimen.

“SHAAAA!”

Caliban's horn-tendrils hatched into bloodworms voraciously ferreting for flesh, bloating the Priest' chest cavity and swelling its stomach. Revoltingly, the massive Water Ghost become suddenly pregnant.

“Petra! Get Percy closer!” Richard urged Petra to salvage their loot.

Gwen hung onto consciousness via a thread of Almudj’s Essence. Caliban’s new onslaught wasn’t something as simple as a hasted melee assault, such as in its spider form, it was a simultaneous shape-shift involving sixteen lamprey-tipped tendrils.

“GET CLOSE TO IT?!” Percy baulked. “THAT THING?!”

The remaining Monkeys appeared stunned by the sudden death of their worshipful leader, their frenzied enhancement diminishing at once. Sensing an opportunity, Lulan Misty-stepped toward the four which had harassed their rear, hewing away while her brother provided cover, corralling the beasts into pens consisting of swirling daggers.

Gwen's dogs made short work of the survivors.

Caliban meanwhile, acknowledged its master’s desire. With a kick of its powerful hind limbs, it withdrew its stiletto hooves. Caliban then trotted back toward the party, wearing the dying Water Priest like a trophy-crown.

Percy’s legs were chow mien by now, partly because of the ragdoll Priest, and partly due to the dozen or so writhing lamprey's mouths popping in and out of the Priest's carcass like a game of blast-a-mole.

The amulet hungrily drank in the extract provided by the simian Priest’s passing.

Looming above Percy's ashen face, Caliban hollowed out the body of the grotesque Water Ghost, crunching through blood, bone, sinew and viscera with equal ease. Furthermore, as if performing a rite of the Old Ones, Gwen’s familiar swung its head to and fro, sending out sprays of blood like incense smoke from a censer.

Then it began to coo.

"SHAAA! SHAAaaAAA! SHAAA!"

The remaining Water Ghosts routed.

“Oh NO, you don’t!” Richard had recovered enough mana to reactivate his tendrils, pulling the Water Ghosts back toward the party.

Half-covered in gore and half blinded by blood splatters, Lulan burst through Richard’s Shield and set to work. Kusu joined from a distance, ensuring that the beasts could not take advantage of her carelessness.

A hot flush of vitality injected into Gwen's body.

“Oh shit.” She turned toward Petra. “Help me!”

Understanding Gwen's laconic plea, Petra caught Gwen in her arms just as her sister-in-battle began to convulse, shaking with the infused vigour.

“I am okay,” Gwen spat between clenched teeth. “Hold me up... OEGH!”

She almost bit her tongue.
All she could now was ride the lightning and wait for it to pass.
The Water Priest had been potent indeed. Though its essence was low-born and contemptible, the sensation registered at least a 5 on her Nephres Index.

To Gwen’s supreme embarrassment, her cousin held Gwen in her arms as she dug her face into Petra’s shoulder, hiding her scarlet mien.

Luckily, Caliban had an MBA in providing distractions.

Having finished its meal, it deposited a Water-Priest skin-suit, largely intact, at the feet of an aghast Kusu, a doubly impressed Richard, and a pant-shitting Percy.

“Strewth!” Richard cursed. Then unable to find the words, he swore again. “Fuck'n oath.”

“Wocao…” Kusu fought back his breakfast. “Lulu… don't look!”

Lulan returned, sweaty perspiration mingling with Monkey blood from head to toe, plastering the sheer fabric of her dress to her iron-enamel skin. She panted heavily, her chest rising and falling as the adrenaline drained from her body. Her slicked hair oozed a viscous, wine-like fluid that could only be congealed core.

Behind her, they could see Gwen's dogs tearing the rest to pieces.

“THAT…” Lulan cooed, marvelling at the new 'rug'. “...WAS AMAZING.”

Not knowing if the Water Priest was the ‘Master’ of the Lair or if something greater lurked in the depth of the Dungeon, Richard counselled the party to rest. There was a toll to Heroism, the least of which was aching bones and knotted muscles.

“Are we heading back up?” Gwen inquired.

Richard shook his head.

“We rest here.”

In the interim, the party took account of the Sword Mage's gory harvest.

"Eureka!" Richard loudly applauded the discovery.

A Spirit-Core!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the core of the Water Priest, a sizable fortune at tier 6, but rather the strange necklace it wore. After a quick Identify, Petra informed the group that the necklace was crafted entirely from the Cores of its kin.

The group stared at the necklace, aghast. What could lead the Demi-humans to self-cannibalising one another for Cores?

“The power is concentrated here.” Petra’s finger indicated to the central orb.

They had no idea if an item crafted by Demi-human could be disassembled and sold, but it was sure to be worth a pretty penny, especially if Mayuree and the House of M were involved.

"We made a lot of commotion, are you sure its safe here?" Gwen wasn't convinced they were now safe.

“The stragglers won’t dare.” Richard pointed to the pile of decaying corpses. Gwen's cousin had been fiddling with some contraption the whole time Lulan looted. “I made a no trespassing warning.”

The party's attention turned toward a dark shape situated atop the pile of bodies discarded by Lulan.

"Dancing Lights!"

Feeble, watery lights danced around the small hill of mutilated corpses.

“What?!!” Gwen spluttered.

Both horrified and fascinated, the group silently scrutinised the eerie visage of a stuffed scarecrow made from the discarded skin of the Water Priest. It had been hung on a crude iron cross, its loop-sided face ghastly and grinning.

"I made the cross." Lulan raised her hand, expecting praise.

Percy let loose a gut full of ejecta once again.

“I’d say we’re pretty safe here,” Richard reiterated. “I am exercising the Water Ghost's tribal customs. When the families go to war, the winner often takes the losers from the opposing tribe, then dresses them as totems to mark territorial boundaries.”

"When in Rome, huh?" Gwen chided her grinning cousin. "Is this place safe? The cavern I mean."

“Of course. We're in a natural cathedral; it's all ancient limestone.” Richard pointed a finger upwards. “Lulan can Stone Shape a ledge; we’ll make a cavity like so… then we’ll pop your Portable Habitat. We can rest up for a few hours to restore our mana.”

The party collectively regarded the scarecrow once again.

While they understood the logic of the boundary totem, they couldn’t bring themselves to swallow the fact that Richard had crafted such a thing without so much as a grimace.

“Are we in agreement?" Richard remained in high spirits. "We can vote as well, any takers?"

Standing beside Gwen, Petra whispered in Gwen's ear.

“Perhaps Richard should take a break,” her cousin advised. "He's like a factory spring about to snap."

“He IS a little strung, I agree.” Gwen watched her cousin go about his business. Richard was a little ruthless, and his idea of ethics was skewered, but he had always done her right. Hopefully, once he'd made good on his promise to his parents, he could unwind. “I wouldn't worry about it too much, Pats. Dick's a top bloke. His heart’s in the right place.”

Petra looked away.

"I hope you're right."

Petra watched her cousin tussle with her Familiars, an unexpected epiphany slowly blossoming within her mind like a rare flower.

For a while now, Petra and her Master had attempted to pinpoint the physiological and psychological trait of the Void Element. Their initial hypothesis was that a supernatural hunger was the root of the Void’s Mage’s affinity, a sort of insatiable desire to fulfil a perpetual sense of emptiness. Magister Wen had even pointed out, rationally so, that Gwen possessed an unusual appetite for affirmation and acceptance, bending herself backwards for recognition.

Jokingly, Petra had once asserted that an undeniable streak of masochism shrouded Gwen’s philosophy.

Take the incident of when they had first worked together in Hengsha Island. Some stupid yokel had attempted to harm Richard, resulting in Gwen taking off her head. The girl then beat herself - that was when Petra had felt sympathetic enough for her cousin to open up to Gwen and share something of herself.

After that, there was the incident with babulya’s husband, Gwen’s grandfather. No matter how much Guo browbeat Gwen, she came back begging for more.

And her brother as well, the snide little worm had stabbed Gwen in the back how many times? And yet, his sister wore his disloyalty like a badge! Happy for it! Mirthful that she hadn’t cut him off like a gangrene limb!

Yebena mat’! Petra felt her thoughts snagging something just out of sight, reeling it closer with every thought.

When they took Gwen to Tianlanqiao, Gwen could have killed the old man and gotten the hell out, but no! She had to subject herself to ten minutes of agonising, eye-watering carnage before she let herself go.

Then her father! Petra reminded herself of the loathsome Hai Song. Gwen had inexplicably returned to her selfish moo-DAK of a father and subjected herself to a level of humiliation Petra could scarcely imagine. Wearing that scandalous dress, fighting for the Songs, putting herself in danger over and over, all for what?

And she was doing it now as well! Feeling sympathy for the female simians and their young, didn’t she know that these Demi-humans ate people?! Only when they saw the poor sods made into salted flanks did Gwen fly off the rails. It was as though the girl delighted in agony...

"!"

Puzzle pieces clicked into place.

Could it be? Petra wondered. Was it that simple?

SELF-HARM!

That's the trait afflicting Void Affinity!

Gwen suffered debilitating energy-drains whenever she used her abilities, offset only by her unnatural luck in acquiring a divine essence! When the girl had fallen into her arms earlier, convulsing and quivering, Petra had considered the answer there and then.

Suffering and PLEASURE!

It was all starting to make a sick sort of sense!

NO wonder Void Mages killed themselves more often than not.

The Void! The fucking VOID’s physiological and psychological phenomenon, she’d figured it out! It wasn’t hunger! It wasn’t gluttony either!

It was self-harm!
It was self-taught Masochism!

Her husky-blue eyes glowed with recognition as she observed Gwen, who had been roused from her Familiar-playtime to regard Petra strangely.

"Pats?"

Filled with sympathy, Petra reached downward and hugged Gwen about the shoulders, even as another disturbing thought rose to meet her conscience.

How does one ethically go about ratifying her findings, knowing Gwen was a glutton for punishment?

Gwen couldn’t help but feel that Petra had engendered a significant misunderstanding.

When she said that Richard was an alright bloke, she wasn’t defending her cousin’s lack of compassion or empathy, but rather pointing out the factual reality that Richard had never done anything to endanger herself or the party, and that they should forgive his sometimes off-putting idiosyncrasy.

"Pats?"

Unexpectedly, Petra reached over and embraced her warmly.

Aww, how nice. Gwen hugged her back. Petra continued to warm up to her nicely, and that made Gwen happy. Looking around her Habitat, she saw that everyone else was taking a breather.

Lulan was taking a shower; Gwen discerned that she could use one as well.

Richard remained his usual spotless self, probably thanks to Lea, while Kusu meticulously cleaned his implements, a ritual the Sword Mage carried out after every battle.

“You alright, Percy?” Gwen caught her brother staring at the grey expanse outside.

“Yeah.” Percy watched her for a second before his brain kicked back in. “I guess I never realised your battles were so… intense...”

You think that's intense?! You should try fighting a Thunder Wyvern, Gwen chuckled internally, smiling a secret smile.

“Blood and guts aside, are you enjoying yourself?”

Percy touched a hand to his amulet.

“I suppose I am.” He beamed back at his sister. “I am learning a lot. Thanks, Sis. I appreciate what you guys are doing for me.”

“Hey, you’re helping us as well. Just wait till we get back with the loot! I wonder how much that Spirit will sell.”

“Assuming someone can still use it.”

“Of course.” Gwen poured herself a cup of tea, offering one to Percy.

The siblings nursed their cups as each member of the party went about their business.

“Eee! EE!”

“!”

A sharp stab at the base of her skull tore Gwen from the calming Zen of her astral meditation. Ariel was lividly gesticulating in front of her face, huffing and puffing madly. She could feel its anger gnawing at their empathic link.

“Shaaa!”

Caliban, seeing Ariel’s agitation, grew excited as well.

“What happened?” Petra opened her eyes. The girls were meditating together in the master bedroom.

“Trouble?” Lulan stretched, making spirit fingers.

Gwen herself was incredulous at the news relayed by Ariel.

“Someone destroyed one of my Deerhounds!” she spluttered in disbelief.

“A Water Ghost?”

“No!” Gwen spat. “A MAGE!”


The party assembled outside, restored and refreshed.

Gwen packed the Portable Habitat before listening to Richard's proposal.

“I took the Quest,” Richard explained to his companions. “Meaning until we’re back or reported missing, no one else can take the Quest for at least two weeks.”

“Quest poachers?” Petra hypothesised.

“Likely.” Richard wore a carefree expression, though the coldness in his voice may as well be the fathomless depth of the Elemental Plane of Water. “You know, I am curious as to who dares infringe upon our CCs and our HDMs.”

“What’s the jurisdiction if they’re poachers?” Gwen asked.

“We poach ‘em, broil ‘em and grill ‘em.” Lulan was all teeth. “At least that’s what my Clan used to do to Rogue Mages.”

"I prefer robbing 'em blind." Richard gave Lulan a thumb of approval.

“She means we have to confront them, confirm their intentions, then choose to escalate or retreat," Petra butted in. "If we fight them off, the Tower’s rulings are likely going to be on our side. If we retreat, we can lodge a formal complaint, and the Tower will deal with them as well.”

“What if they don’t care? Or they agree and then carry on?” Percy asked. From what he had seen from school and high-society, he could hardly imagine a confrontation like this ending with a handshake and a heartfelt apology.

“Ha!” Lulan was evidently an expert on the matter. “That’s where I come in.”

“If they’re Rogue Mages, the Clan will use them to test our Acolytes, if they know what’s good for them, they’ll play along and come out with a broken arm or leg,” Kusu explained sheepishly. “In the case where the intruders are from another Sect or Clan, we take them prisoner and exchange them for crystals.”

“That sounds reasonable.” Gwen motioned with a hand for their attention. "Everyone, please let me deal with this. Richard, do you mind if I take this one?"

"Go ahead." Richard stepped back. "If you do decide to engage though, don't hold back."

“I won't - oh, the hounds are coming back,” Gwen passed on the message from Ariel. “I’d dare say we’ll be seeing our poachers soon.”

The pitter-patter of pawed feet soon filled the cavern as her dogs slinked back into view.

Not wanting to be mistaken for a hidden ambush, the party assumed a defensive position, with Gwen’s hounds fanning out, forming a semi-circle.

First came the sound of human footsteps, then the shadowy contour of a large man in his forties appeared, stepping into view from the smooth granite carved out by millennia of subterranean water.

“Greetings.” Gwen raised a hand. “We’ll wait for the rest of your party.”

The man performed a double-take as soon as his eye adjusted to the dancing lights illuminating cavern’s interior.

“Cao!” the man spat.

Behind him, three more men and a woman soon appeared. The woman was younger by far, while the men were all middle-aged.

“Get out of the way,” the woman snapped, ordering her companions into the cavern without care.

Gwen ran her eyes over the group. Her Detect Magic identifying the first man as an Earthen Abjurer, the second and third as a Fire and an Ice Evoker. The woman appeared to be an Enchanter of sorts, while the final man had an indistinct aura, akin to Lulan or Kusu, marking him as a bloodline Mage from a Clan.

“Miss." The Abjurer swallowed nervously. “I guess we found that other party.”

“You mean they found us,” the woman retorted cattily. “Uncle Wang, can you go and parley?”

Gwen and her party watched as the Clanner Mage peeled from the group.

“Hail.” Gwen stepped forward.

“Noted,” the Clanner replied imperiously. “Who are you?”

“We’re Fudan students assigned to the Quest in this Dungeon,” Gwen's expression possessed such friendliness that her companions' scalps crawled. They noted that Lea and Caliban were nowhere to be seen, which could only mean the two Familiars were watching the proceeding from somewhere advantageous. “Which begs the question, who are YOU and why are you here?”

“Rrowff!”
“Grrr!”
"Rowf! Rowf! Rowf!"

Gwen’s annoyance with the arrogant Mage directly translated into raw hostility from her dogs. She became aware that her lack of mastery also translated into unfiltered empathic links between Conjurer and Conjuration.

The young woman caught sight of her hounds.

“Hey!” she announced from the back. “Are those yours? One of them attacked us!”

“Rrowff! Rrowff!”
“Grrrr!”
“Rrowff!!”
“GRRRRR!”

Gwen’s anger instantly leapt to an eleven.
Attacked her party?
What a stupid, blatant lie!
Her dogs wouldn’t harm a soul unless provoked, and even when it had been attacked, her hound had attempted to return to her before it succumbed. Ariel wouldn't lie!

“EEEE!!” Ariel’s whinnying echoed across the chamber.

The hounds silenced at once.

Striding on invisible footfalls, Ariel cat-walked from near the ceiling until it was standing directly above Gwen’s party. It's mane majestic and rippling as it swished its tail, drawing the viewer’s eyes toward its twin stag horns.

The woman’s eyes bulged with astonishment, then burned with desire as she searched Gwen’s party for the Spirit's Master, stopping when it reached Gwen, whose pupils glowed with Divination.

“That Kirin is wasted on someone like you,” the woman scoffed. “Where did you find it?”

A fit of palpable affront circulated through Gwen in the form of sizzling displeasure discharging as Lightning. A part of her snickered with the knowledge that a Spirit could only be passed on between two intimately aligned parties, and almost never via force or coercion. The prideful part of her mind fumed over the woman’s callous remark.

“Richard, NOTE that the offending party has refused my Parley. I shall now exercise our right to defend our claim to this lair and the Quest assigned to it. As a last reprieve, you have five seconds to present yourselves.” Gwen cut in abruptly. “ONE.”

“How DARE YOU!” the peevish woman snapped. “Do you know where you are right now? Do you know who we are?”

“TWO…”

“WANG! Silence this insolent whelp!”

“THREE…”

“WANG!”

“FOUR-“

“WAIT! We’re from the Nantong Fungs,” the Clanner interjected. “This is milady Yuhua Fung, third to the Household of Fung. We are her retainers.”

Yuhua glared at her Clan Elder, furious that the old man had lost her 'face'.

“That doesn’t mean much to us.” Richard smirked. “Prepare your Storage Rings. We're not holding back.”

“YOU LITTL-” The woman was foolish enough to step forward.

“EEEeeEEE!”
"Awoo.."
“AwoOOoo…”
“AWOOOOoo…”
“AwoooooOOOoo…”

Ariel neighed, letting loose a whinny half-roar, half-shriek, joined by the howling of her dogs. A burst of Dragon-fear radiated from Ariel’s pseudo-Kirin figure, mimicking the Monkey's tactics, she filled the cavern with endless howling, smothering all speech.

Even knowing Gwen's intent, Richard and company felt a shiver up their spine as cold perspiration permeated their back. Opposite, their intruders looked as though they'd witnessed a Death Knight cavalry charge.

Caught by surprise, the two Evokers threw up, the Abjurer took on a deathly pallor, and their mistress’ contingency item triggered, forming a halo of amber Enchantment atop her head. Only the Clanner, Wang, bore the Dragon fear with dignity.

“HOLD!” Wang intervened, he placed himself between Gwen and his party. “Mistress, you promised to leave things to me!”

“Hmmph!” Yuhua turned away, her knees shaking as she fought to retain control of her body. “A-As you say, Uncle Wang.”

Wang turned to Gwen’s party.

“We’re searching for a missing adventuring party. My mistress's cousin is among them,” Wang explained. “Please, we mean you no harm.”

“For how long were they missing?”

“About three days,” the Elder recapped. “Three young men, a young woman, and a Senior Mage in his late thirties.”

“Ariel!” Gwen retrieved her Almuldj’s Essence.

Ariel floated over Gwen's head and laid its snout over her shoulders, its tentacle whiskers playing with her hair.

"If that's the case, we have no conflict of interest," Gwen stated diplomatically, telling her dogs to tarry a safe distance away. "Richard, do you have the bodies we found?"

Richard summoned Lulan.

“Lulu?”

Lulan materialised the carcasses the party had found the night before.

The young woman from the Clan of Fung ogled the suddenly obscene sight, transfixed by the surreality that these could be people she had spoken to only days before, now made into salted encrusted rations.

Elder Wang lifted one of the eyeless heads by the hair, bringing it up for examination.

“It’s Jiao.” The old man sighed. “I dare say we have Weng and Qilu accounted for as well, which leaves us with Master Xie and Miss Lihong.”

"There's a chance they're still alive-" Gwen continued optimistically.

“Is there a reward for finding your Senior Mage?” Richard interrupted shamelessly, cutting Gwen off before she could offer their service for 'goodwill'. “Water Ghosts don’t kill themselves, you know. Frankly, I am surprised Miss Fung even made it this far. Were you going to do all the leg work, old man?”

“Richard!” Gwen snapped. She suspected Richard was trying to goad the Fungs. “I am sorry, Miss Fung, Master Wang. You may retrieve the remains of your clansmen as you see fit.”

Wang nodded solemnly, storing what remained of their Clan members.

Gwen shot Richard a warning.
Richard scratched his noise, looking elsewhere.

“We will continue with our Quest,” Gwen informed the Nantong party. “How do you wish to proceed?”

“May we join you?” Wang carefully enquired.

"That's right! You can work for us!" Yuhua implored them. "We'll hire you."

“I am afraid that is not possible.” Gwen shook her head as well. “There are precise tactics and methods we employ which would endanger you and Miss Fung. It would be to your detriment, I assure you.”

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"I see," Wang acknowledged. "That's a shame."

“Uncle - we need to find Lihong!” Yuhua interjected. She turned to Gwen's party. “What do you people want? HDMS? CCs-”

“Gwen?” Richard tapped Gwen's skin-suit. "Come on. Currency is without sin..."

“…”

Yuhua and Magus Wang both looked over at Gwen’s Kirin and her host of draconic-hounds, trying to figure out why a Mage of such unfathomable talent and possessing such a rare Familiar was in a party starved for CCs and HDMs.

“I’ll offer your party a Search and Rescue Quest for 400 HDMs and 50 CCs right now,” Yuhua declared. She then spat in her hand. "Well, shake on it?"

Embarrassed, Wang urged his young miss to clean her hand. The girl had read too many novels. No one wanted to shake a spit-laden palm.

“I am happy to look for your missing Clan members- BUT - my one condition is that until we return, you are to remain here. Is that agreeable?”

“EEE!” Ariel gave another warning.

The sound of her hounds’ panting filled the cavern.

“Understood.” The Magus quickly made the call for his mistress. “We will wait here for the good news.”

“Deal.” Gwen shot Richard a sympathetic look before shaking the girl's gobbed hand. She mentally praised Ariel for playing its part so well. Here was the first time she had truly tried out her militant pacifism, and the result proved more than promising. “I will have every hound searching every nook and cranny. Rest assured Miss Fung, Master Wang; we will find your companions.”

Gwen turned to her party.

“Alright, everyone, let’s move out.”

"Rowf!"
"Alright."
"Rowf! "
"Let's go!"
"EE!"
"SHAAA!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" The Fung girl screeched.

Gwen paused by the cavern's edge to reiterate the deal they had just made.

"THAT... is the last thing you would have seen if you had fought us."

“Who is that Sha-bi?!” Yuhua accosted her tutor and guardian with indignity, still shaking from her traumatic encounter with Caliban. “Doesn’t she know who we are? We own this place.”

Her party had set up in the cavern after Gwen’s had left.
After the Magus moulded from the limestone table and chairs, the group settled down to recuperate from the Dragon-fear. The Abjurer poured Yuhua a hot cup of jasmine tea to settle her nerves, after which the girl couldn’t help but mope loudly to her companion.

“The girl with the Kirin?”

“Yes, the one with the Kirin!” Yuhua seethed. “Lucky wench! And what the HELL was that OTHER THING?”

“I would be wary with your tone.” Magus Wang looked his ward in the eyes with a seriousness she rarely observed in her teacher. “That young lady is not someone you want to be on the wrong side of.”

“Well? Who is she?”

“I believe that’s Gwen Song,” Wang spoke the last two syllables softly.

“Never heard of her.”

“No, but you will.” Wang sipped his cup of tea. “Master Dai knows her- in fact, he was one of the very first to make her acquaintance in Shanghai.”

“Brother?” Yuhua snorted. “Don’t tell me she’s one of his girls?”

“No, nothing of the sort.” Her instructor shook his head. “From what I recall, she’s a dual-elementalist in Lightning and Void. Her uncle is the Ash Bringer, her grandfather the old hound of the Confidential Communications Committee. Only recently, she single-handedly defeated Magus Wonsoo Liu in Hangzhou.”

“Wonsoo... the one from the Northern Front?”

“The very same. We received the report a week ago.”

Yuhua sucked in a breath of the cavern’s cold, stale air.

“And Void, as in…”

Wang nodded solemnly.

“Her Void Familiar may be more powerful than even the Kirin. THAT, I believe, was the strange worm creature that tried to... nudge you.”

Strangely, Yuhua's jealousy dissipated. What remained was only awe and a sense of grudging respect. Envy was a funny thing. When someone possessed something that one thought one could attain, the mind became filled with desirous energy. When the object of one’s desire became so far as to be unreachable, what one felt instead was a sort of distant reverence and worshipful respect.

“CAO!” Yuhua slapped the table, making the teacups jump. “Wang! Why didn’t you say so! We could have offered her double the HDMs and CCs!”

With the Water Priest dead, the rest of the lair seemed to have lost its malicious atmosphere. What few Water Ghosts they now encountered seemed entirely incidental, engaged either via blind luck as Lulan Stone Shaped into new passages, or flushed out by her hounds.

The party thus arrived at what appeared to be the lowest section of the lair, a large cavern waist-deep in filthy water.

Petra blew the rest of her Resist Disease as the party waded into the filth, taking care as to anticipate any ambushes by the Elementally-Blinking Monkeys.

“Dancing Lights!”

Gwen sent her cantrips into the darkness, illuminating the cavern.

“It’s a… mural?” She marvelled at the sight of the painted walls.

There was an artful simplicity to the crude paintings, communicating meticulous care taken by the artist. From what Gwen could see, the images depicted a great tribe and its daily life, filled with visions of Water Ghosts gathering swamp-fruits and hunting for fish and crustaceans. There were other images too, female Water Ghosts nursing children, male and female Ghosts procreating, and procreating, and procreating, all in different positions.

Yikes, Gwen had to look away for a moment. More than half of the images were bestial-kama-sutra. The Water Ghosts were true evangelists of going forth and multiplying.

The party progressed until the water receded and the ground beneath them began to rise. They soon found themselves in a natural amphitheatre of sorts.

“Grrr!”
“GRRRR”
"Rowf! Rowf!"

Gwen’s dogs fanned out.

An enormously hairy humanoid being sat at the centre of the descending steps, at the lowest point, half submerged in water. From a distance, it resembled a tremendous, shaggy carpet draped over a stone throne.

“What is it?” Gwen turned to Richard, who was more knowledgeable in the matters of Wildland fauna.

“It’s their Chief,” Richard replied. “Or King? It depends on how many Ghosts once lived here. The Water Ghosts have a complex hierarchy. I know that.”

“Ariel, check it out,” Gwen commanded her Familiar.

“I can take it from here,” Lulan informed Gwen. "One Sword Toss and it'll be in two bits."

“No, it’s not attacking us,” Gwen dismissed her companion’s suggestion. “I wonder why.”

“Could be dead already,” Richard noted the thing had barely moved.
Ariel flew closer as Caliban slithered into the dark water, disappearing into the murk.

When Gwen’s Familiar was about five meters away, the shaggy orangutang suddenly opened its eyes. Unlike the Water Monkeys they had encountered so far, there was a softness in the creature’s gaze, speaking of benevolent wisdom as it looked straight toward Gwen’s party.

“EEee!” Ariel relayed back.

“It wants to parley?” Gwen spluttered. “It can speak marten?”

“It can speak a little Elemental, the language of the Planes,” Lea informed them. “It says that it’s dying. It would like to speak to our war leader.”

“Why bother.” Lulan cut in. “Let’s be done with it.”

“Lea, ask it if it knows where the other two Mages are.”

Drifting across the bay, Lea conversed with the creature in a way the human Mages could not even begin to comprehend.

“Yes, he says he will tell us.”

Gwen, Richard and the other exchanged furtive glances.

"I want to speak to this thing," Gwen announced.

When the others protested, she cut them off.

"Please. I have to do this."

“Your call,” Richard assured the others before turning to his Familiar, requesting that she kept Gwen guarded at all times.

“Percy, stay here,” Gwen commanded her brother. “The rest of you as well. Lulan, I'll be very careful, I promise. Only I’ve got the range on my Dimension Door. If it attacks, I'll pop right back."

“Can’t you talk to it from it here?” Percy asked. "Get Lea to pass the message?"

Gwen shook her head. It wasn’t the same. She wanted to look into the Chief’s eyes, speak to it vis-a-vis, understand what made these creatures tick.

At Kusu's insistence, Gwen waited until her dogs had paddled through the water and took up defensive positions.

“Gwen, don't get caught up,” Petra warned her.

Gwen nodded.

“Dimension Door!”

There was another reason why Gwen refused to bring her peers. From their conversation, it was clear that her companions didn’t register the Ghosts as anything akin to beings capable of feeling or rational thought. If she were to regard the Chieftain’s words with weight, her friends may yet again interfere, thinking that her compromised conscience had hoodwinked their companion.

Petra dropped a Water Walk so that Gwen needn't swim through the muck.

The first thing Gwen noted as she approached the old Water Ghost was the spell of mouldy carpet from its fur. When she was within a few meters from the shaggy thing, she further realised it was wounded, and that its injury had been festering for some time. From the smell it engendered, the creature was likely septic.

“You’re hurt,” Gwen observed, translated by Lea.

“I - dying,” Lea had the words pat down, but her tone was oxymoronically strangely cheerful. “Child of man - why do you listen - others of your kin know only death-dealing.”

“Call it curiosity,” Gwen listened to Lea-Translate, then responded in kind. “Where are the other two Mages? Our Kin?”

“In the closed cavern - below us.”

“Are they alive?”

“Yes - not injured or eaten.”

“Why did you capture them?”

“Hostage - for safe passage.”

“Where and with who?”

“Too - late.”

“Too late for what?”

“The tribe. Too many kin - perish. Not enough now - is ended.”

“How come?”

“You come.”

“We killed your kin?”

“Too many, you have - sent back to the water - no, it matter not.”

“It doesn’t?”

“They choose war - we wanted trade.”

“Who is we?”

“I - others. They have fled now - scattered. Only I remain.”

“What happened?”

“My son - Lao’lok - he is Guardian of tribe. Hot-headed. Want fight you kin of the stone forest. I - parley. He challenge - took the tribe from I.”

The old thing rocked its head, drool dropping all over its chest.

“All is folly - tribe go wrong. Tribe could have moved - long ago - when your warriors came with fire - but no. I too - think we fight. Then food grew scarce - the fish belly up - the water dwindle. We knew then that there was no win against the kin of the stone jungle - but Lao’lok was too deep in the frenzy. He want only revenge - satisfaction - not continuation. He lost his brothers - his mate too - to your warriors - your iron giants. From you, man-kin, Lao’lok has learned hate - what our tribe of the Shui - had never known. He even take the spirit of our kin for power - to fight you. Lao'lok killed our kin for power - to kill your kin. But land God is JUST. Taboo is taboo. Now - our tribe no more-”

Gwen remained silent for a short while, digesting the old Chieftain’s story. It made sense. The CCP began their expansion into Nantong. They started by clearing the land, draining the swamp. They ran into the Water Ghosts; losses were sustained on both sides. Mages were deployed, more bloodshed ensured. All the while, the local flora and fauna dwindled until the local tribes of Demi-humans began to starve. They got desperate, more clashes, kidnapping, looting for food. The humans then sent more powerful Mages, until Richard caught wind of the opportunity and brought Lulan into the fold. Gwen distinctly recalled that Richard's crew had been butchering their way through the Nantong Frontier for weeks, making dough from blood and bone.

Gwen sighed, both internally and physically. How many Water Ghosts had they exterminated on the way in? Lulan had almost a hundred heads in her Ring and about sixty Cores, including that of the Priest. Presumably, that was this guy's son - Lao’lok.

“I can give you a quick death, end your suffering.” Gwen offered. “But first, I am going to leave you alive, just in case." Gwen took a healing injector and punched it into the weakened creature. "I have more questions for you, but first, where are the captives?”

“The entrance is behind the gathering chamber. You are curious one - Godling.”

Gwen frowned. What the hell is a Godling?

"Gwen, over here!" It was Lea who helpfully located the entrance to the tunnel.

“You two, with me. Caliban, stay here. Ariel, cover my six.” Gwen picked two of the larger hounds to take the lead. She then Messaged her companions across the murk. “Richard, Pats, I am going to check the captives. It should be safe to cross. I am leaving the rest of the dogs with you. Take care of Percy.”

“You’re killing the damned thing, right?” Lulan's voice came across the Message.

“… eventually. Leave it alone for now. I need to verify where the Fung captives are.”

“I’ll be close by,” Percy joined in communal Message, making a 'C' for Crystal. “To offer my luck, of course, when the big one dies.”

“Hahaha…” Richard slapped the boy on the back. Gwen's brother was growing on him.

Across the swamp water, the rest of her party broke into careless, snorting laughter.

Gwen suppressed the depressing emotions rising in her chest. Instead, she focused on the path ahead.

“Ariel, give me some light.”

She didn’t have to go far, a dozen meters later, the narrow tunnel opened up to an enclosed chamber walled off with what looked like stalactites. Before her entry, the room had been dark, but as Ariel came around Gwen began to take in its modest dimensions.

Two figures were immediately apparent, though the scene was hardly what she had anticipated.

Gwen froze.

Her mind attempted to process the horror show in front of her.

The first figure was a man wearing what looked like half-discarded combat gear, now mangled and bloody. He laid on his back, eyes wide open in terror. Dark blood seeped from his eyes and nostrils, his hands curled, his fingers frozen in rigour mortis. There were two wounds visible, one just below his chest, and another near his abdomen. A pool of congealed blood had already formed around the corpse. It looked as though the man had tried to shove his intestines back into the wound.

Against the wall was a woman in a catatonic state, her eyes wide open and staring into the middle distance. Her face, which Gwen could see was once exceedingly delicate, was badly bruised, with one puffed eye and blood running down both of her nostrils. What was worse for Gwen was that her clothes had been torn asunder, revealing one breast and exposing her lower body. She also sat in a pool of blood, though from Gwen's vantage point, it could only come from one place.

A taste of bile filled her mouth.

An innate revulsion filled her body and she could hardly breathe.

Rape?

The malignant word reverberated through her head like a thunderclap.

They raped her! She recalled from Jun that the simian Demi-humans were known to have a taste for human women, and now she was seeing its aftermath first hand.

THOSE FUCKING MONKEYS!

An arc of lightning shot from her finger, scorching the walls.

She couldn’t think straight.

The idea of rape had crossed her mind, of course, it was in the news, she saw it in a film, there was plenty of it on the internet, real or otherwise. She herself was no stranger to sexual harassment, not since she hit puberty, but the reality of the scene now presented in front of her eyes was burning a smouldering hole in her brain.

It seemed so real... NO! She had to remind herself. THIS WAS REAL.
Her mouth opened and closed a few times, but still, Gwen couldn’t utter a single sound.

Back in the amphitheatre, Richard sensed Lea’s disquiet.

“Gwen is angry.” Lea materialised before her Master. “Very angry.”

“WAO!” Richard braced himself against his watery Familiar as a wave of Dragon-fear rippled through the floor, permeating the porous limestone.

“Mao!” Lulan circulated her heart-ironed mana. Beside her, Kusu did the same.

“AwoOoo…”
“AWOOOOoo…”
“AwoooooOOOoo…”

Gwen’s hounds began to howl in unison.

Percy sat on the floor to meditate, warding his heart and mind as to keep his stomach’s contents intact and his urine within his body.

“SHAAA!”

Caliban, who had been coiled beside the old Water Ghost Chief, suddenly stood to attention. It suddenly grew in size until it took on its Gila form.

“SCRII! YIP! YIP! YII!” The old Water Ghost rose from his seat.

“What’s it doing?!” Richard opened up Shields, covering Percy and Petra.

“Looks like it’s offering itself!” Petra had the easiest time against Gwen's Dragon-fear. As an Enchanter, a Mind Mage and a Mineral user, her consciousness was well-fortified against all mind-altering effects.

Caliban stabbed four sabre-thick claws into the old simian’s torso, drawing the breath from its body. Then with a mighty heave, it stuffed the thing into its distended maw, head, torso and all. It’s jaws closed with sick, slurping gulp, then the old master of the lair was no more.

Not too far away, Percy savoured the enriched essence pouring into his amulet.

“What the hell happened?” Richard turned to Lea.

“She’s coming up,” Lea informed the party. “One of the Mages is dead, and the other one is wounded. Gwen is really upset.”

The party turned to regard the tunnel, where they could just make out her shadow.

Already, not even fully emerged, her silhouette gave them shivers.