Sharp

We spent the night at an Inn in a small town. The next day, Gail was put in charge of taking down a swamp lurker, which looked like a swamp tree but had lots of health and regeneration. It was slow - for a bronze ranker slow. It also was in a swamp. She was wise enough to have everybody use ranged; the main damage was Anji’s stacking poison. It took a while.

Pete was grumpy because the wet wood basically negated his fire.

Maiele passed when offered the leadership, and Pete was put in charge of a bunch of Rotter Frogs. He had us herd them to the defenders, but he didn’t take into account the swamp restricting our movement and the speed and distance the frogs could jump.

Maiele went underwater when a frog landed on her. I unloaded Ardisia on the frog to distract it, hauled her out, and tried to get her to Iris, who had become the default healer despite her limited healing options. Rod saved me from another frog. My Hunter Step was not strong enough when carrying someone.

Maiele was rotting before my eyes, and I shoved one of my potions down her. Her Harpy was screeching and upsetting friend and foe alike. I glanced around to see who might have a stronger portion and saw Pete in hand combat with a frog, and setting loose his snake was ineffective in the water. Gail and Val were holding their own, but everybody was scattered, and these were bronze-level frogs. We had to fight together to kill them.

I yelled at Rod, who had a water essence, “We need to pull everyone back, or we will be overwhelmed.” He nodded and went to gather Gail and Val and then to help Josh, who was bogged down in the swap with his heavy armour.

“Anji, regroup by the skimmer!” He was holding his own, but his poisons were slow against the bronze-rank resistances and the natural resistances of the frogs.

“Pete, regroup at the skimmer!” I yelled.

“No!” he replied, “Everyone on me! We can do this!”

Then he went under as a second frog landed on him, “Iris, grab Maiele!” and it threw her in Iris’ direction, knowing she also had the water essence. I went to save Pete. Kai was there, but he could only take some nibbles from the frog.

A thorny vine came flying at me, and I caught it. Ardisia stiffened the tentacle, and I used it as a leaver to throw her at the frogs near Pete.

My Hunter Step could keep me above the water if I stepped on something. A lilypad or floating stick was usually enough. I was moving fast and grabbed my axe. A spear would have been better, but it would have taken too long to get from my pack. Gail and Val were coming, too, while Rod used his water essence to get Josh unstuck. They had driven their frog back, and it was too injured to carry on for now. It would recover over time.

There were two frogs over where Pete went under. Ardisia had her hooks into one, but it wasn’t moving. We weren’t going to make it. Pete had been under too long.

Suddenly, both frogs and Ardisia were thrown away, and Overseer Williams was there hauling an unconscious Pete out of the mud.

Overseer Agere arrived and started slicing the frogs up. I collected Ardisia and went to regroup with the others. Williams brought Pete to us and fed him and Maiele a strong potion, then went to help Agere with the frogs. Not that she needed help, that I could see.

We were a pretty sorry and muddy bunch after that as we watched the silver rankers do what we could not.

When they had finished, both Maiele and Pete were awake. Williams came up to us and said, “We are not here to instruct you. We are here to assess you. If you can’t figure out which fights you should be in and which you should not be, then you are not ready for Adventure Society Membership. Clean up and get in the Skimmer. There is one more contract to clear before we are done for the day.”

It was quiet in the skimmer as we contemplated our failure. It was an hour later when Williams spoke up, “The next contract is an Earth Elemental about an hour from here. Kristos, you are up for leadership next unless you want to pass.”

“No, I will take it,” said Val. She turned to us and said, “Talk to me about what you know about an earth elemental.”

“No blood for me to poison,” Anji said.

“Regenerates when in contact with the earth,” Iris said. “It depends on its make-up. If it is more soil, then water is good. Blunt weapons are the best if it is more of a rock type.”

“Do we have anybody with blunt weapons?” Val asked.

Gail, Pete and I raised our hands.

“I don’t have any special skills, but I have a war hammer,” I said. It was a one-handed hammer, and I had practised it a little—a very little. I hope using it as an axe works. I just needed something to fill in the gap, if required. I had purchased one with a spike on the back, thinking the weight of the hammer and the spike with my Piercing skill would be extra effective, but I haven't used it in a fight yet.

“I have some skill,” Gail said

“Same,” said Pete. He was rather depressed.

‘Great. Theo will scout it and find out what we are dealing with. Gail and Pete will be the main damage dealers, and Rod and Iris will use their water essences. Iris and Anji will also need to counter it’s Earth abilities with their Earth essences. We will sort out more when we have scouted it.”

Val seemed very good at getting people moving. I think she will make a good team leader. It just seems to be a waste to do it in the Mirage Chamber Arenas.

We arrived, and Val said, “I want to come with you to scout it.” At my raised eyebrows, she said, “It is my decision if we fight it or not; I need to see what we are dealing with.”

Her aura control was good, so I nodded, and she told everyone to stay by the skimmer until we returned.

Val was faster than me, but I knew how to stay unseen. We found it about ten minutes away. It was huge. It was a mix of rock and soil, and bronze rank.

“What do you think?” Val asked.

“It will be slow, but it is big. We will only succeed if we can get it off the ground so it can't regenerate. It will hit hard. The good news is it should be easy to withdraw from if it is too much for us, but any damage will regenerate quickly.”

“Can we get it off the ground?”

“Not with my nets. They will just tear. I have some bronze rank web, but they are only single strands. Plus, we won’t find a counterweight to get it up.”

“What about a platform,” Val asked.

“That has potential,” I said as an idea formed. “I can create bigger shields as my skill levelled, and I can glue multiple shields together to make a platform. Keeping it on the platform is not going to be easy.”

“That will be the task of our shield specialists,” Val said. “As you said, we can always retreat. It is worth a try. I will go back and organise the others. Do you want to stay here and start making the platform?”

I nodded and found a nice place to sit and work as she disappeared. The Shield Skill is Level four now, so I can make longer and more rectangle-shaped shields than the kite shield, which was my original maximum. I made two and joined them together in a top-and-tail layout, so the result was almost a square. While the resin was drying, I made another pair, then another. Once I had four pairs, I joined them together in a platform. It still needed to be larger, but it was flexing too much when I picked it up, so I got some of my javelins out and glued them as bracing across the joins. I didn’t want to go chopping the trees this close to the elemental; it would also take longer.

The other had arrived as I added another shield layer around the edge and braced them. They watched me work. I left the javelin sticking out a bit so we can use them as handles.

When I had finished, I nodded to Val.

“Ok, go get its attention and then retreat over the platform, then surround it.”

Josh, Cal, and Pete moved toward the elemental while Val, Maiele, and Iris came to help me carry the platform. Gail, Rod and Anji spread out, ready to start whittling it down.

The front runners engaged the elemental, and we brought the platform up behind them.

“Retreat now. Watch your footing,” Val instructed.

The two shield bearers, Josh and Cal, slowly retreated onto the wooden platform, and the elemental moved forward after them. It seemed to hesitate about a third onto the platform. I think it was used to moving over things that were not ground, but they were not very wide and this was affecting its magic.

“Water and move!” Val yelled, and Rod and Iris flooded the ground under the elemental while the three initial attackers retreated fully off the platform. The rest of us grabbed the platform and shoved it through the mud they had made. We got it about three-quarters of the way under, but the elemental started to retreat.

The three initial attackers circled around and came at it hard, along with Gail and her Onslaught confluence and Anji and his earth essence. They stopped the retreat and even pushed it back further onto the platform.

That was as good as we were going to get, and we all started to damage it as fast as possible to beat its regeneration and kill it. Pete’s Iron snakes were very effective and burrowed in where it still touched the ground. Rod and Iris were hosing it with water, loosening the earth and weakening it. Gail and Pete had their hammers and were reducing the front so less touched the ground.

Val and Maiele were the only ones who didn’t have anything effective to use. My hammer was also pretty useless, so I put it away, got out some spades, and handed them one each. Val's eyebrows raised in a question, but when she saw me dig into the elemental and fling dirt well away and how effective it was, she joined me, and the three of us dug away at it.

We had to avoid it attacking us, but Anji saw what we were doing and became our defender. When the elemental got desperate, I also put aside my spade and created a shield to protect the others and only dug in with the claws of one hand. Kai was at my feet, attacking with teeth and claws.

We were all exhausted and covered in mud when it finally died.

My Reaping Magic had an interesting option that I snapped up: bronze-rank soil. I wanted to see if it would enable me to grow bronze-rank plants before my Tranquil Garden reached Bronze. It was worth a try. Ardisia might also benefit from it, but she will probably need to rank up first.

I had containers of rot poison from the frogs and wood from the swamp lurker and ratling pelts. Kai is enjoying recovering on a ratling pelt. They have permanently claimed one for their rat's nest. I have also reaped some bronze-level plant, rat, teeth and claw quintessence from Reaping Magic, which I am putting aside for the bronze-level summoning of Ardisia and Kai.

Overseer Williams appeared and said, “Better. That is it for the day. The next town is an hour away. Let’s go.”

Meditating that night, my Hunters Step, Shield, and Resin all levelled. Combined with yesterday, this was good growth. Fighting above your level is very beneficial. Rend is the lowest skill, as it is only useable with my claws. Kai is running ahead of everybody at level seven, even above my Perception. He deserves the pelt.