Pieces of the wall fall down as I run across the hallway, the lamps hanging from the ceiling are starting to shake violently, I fear that it won't take them long before they slip from their hooks and fall to the floor, burning this building.
Going outside confirmed the worst of my fears, the houses are starting to break and the raft is starting to split. How much longer before Flotol sinks to the floor and I am forced to evacuate everyone?
Can I even rescue the other villagers? All of them?
My gut feeling tells me no, I can't, there's too many people and whatever is causing this will be there to stop me every step of the way.
Saving people means I have to kill whatever is shaking Flotol's foundation, and then after that maybe I can use the local plants as a way to quickly repair the swamp. With how I can easily control them, surely I can just wrap them around the damaged parts of the raft and then be done with it right?
Right. Before that, I need to find out and kill whatever is attacking my village, and quickly too, otherwise Flotol will sink. I'm in a time crunch and I don't even know where the enemy is...
Wait, can't I just lead it away? That's as good of an option as any right, assuming whatever is causing the shaking is alive that is, but it should be, especially if it is exactly what I'm thinking about.
Out of all the things that can be considered a "threat" to me in Misery Swamp, I think there's only one thing that can shake Flotol like this.
Aberrants not full monsters, meaning that every single crayfish I've hunted down so far? As well as the ones that get killed during the cull? All of them are not fully grown monsters, they're just mutated versions of a regular animal, and yet they're powerful enough that they might as well be a full on monster.
But they're not, that title belongs to the beings that live deep within the swamp, the same ones that lay eggs that grow up to become the largest, toughest, and most dangerous aberrants every year.
The rulers of Misery Swamp are commonly found in the deepest parts of it, and they are twice as big as a house, sometimes even thrice the size of it. With their size, they are more than capable of doing this kind of damage to Flotol, which is why I assume that the being responsible for the current attack was one of these things.
What else could shake the raft like this other than a Misery Crayfish? Obviously one of them is responsible.
To take it out, I think that I need more than just firepower, I do have my dagger and the spells locked within it are tailored for damaging heavily armored enemies so maybe I can kill it with my dagger alone.
Risking it isn't worth it though so I need to lead the crayfish out of here.
Again, assuming that it is a crayfish and not some other monster, like a giant fish or something, which did happen once. Or twice. Three times? Can't remember.
"Rontress!" My mind leaves the confines of my thoughts as I hear someone calling for me, I turn and spot Laself's parents?.. Where did these guys go during the whole Nogjaf debacle? Where they just hiding here?!
No, I can't get mad at them, it's not like they're truly connected to my family like Laself was anyway, to me, they might as well be no different from strangers.
"Run!" I scream, why the hell did they stop and call for me instead of running?! "There's something attacking Flotol! You shouldn't just stand here!"
"We—" the raft swings and whatever-her-name-is reaches for the window of a nearby house to keep herself from falling. "— know! It's a crayfish! It's on the eastern side of the village! People are trying to fend it off!"
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"Right!" Why am I screaming? I turn away and start running but stop short of a few steps, reluctantly, I say, "thanks for telling me!"
Wow, that was a lot harder to say than I expected, seriously, I can't believe that saying thank you to those people is more difficult for me mentally than becoming a Dryad, and I knew that my body would be torn apart by the ritual back then.
Those thoughts didn't leave me until I reached the Misery Crayfish.
The crustacean was holding onto the edge of the raft in a vice grip when I spotted it and despite the efforts of at least several dozen men, refused to let go. No really, the crayfish kept holding onto the raft even as it got hit with arrows, struck by hammers, axes, and other various weapons, and even weathered through a fireball spell.
Wait, fire ball? Who in Flotol is capable of that?
An adventurer? One of them stayed?
Well, it couldn't be any of my family since the scrolls I gave them before I left have all been used up.
Okay, pointless thoughts, I need to clear my head.
An empty spot by one of the fallen houses is the place I picked for a rest. Sitting down and inhaling deeply was just the start, after that, I thought about what to do in order to lead it out of Flotol.
The Misery Crayfish wasn't attacking for food, it was just mindlessly grabbing to the raft with its claws, which indicated some kind of human influence. But who would send a Misery Crayfish here? Folsan?!
He did give off the impression of being capable of that, I wouldn't put past someone who's desperate and insane enough to throw this thing my way. Was this his hail mary? His last attempt at stroking his bruised ego?
If the crayfish really is mindlessly attacking, then I need to kill it.
Cracking sounds got picked up by my ears, looking down, I spotted cracks running along the surface of the ice. Great, there's not much time to actually think of something.
Darkness envelops my vision as I close my eyes and went into a meditative stance, then all consuming cold takes over my senses as my mind connects to the plants below the ice, the thousands of swamp flora follow my command with ease, they slither and move, breaking off from their lethargic state.
They move no differently from animals as I will them to rush upward, entangling the spiky legs of the crayfish and then continuing to scale up its body.
Under my command, what would have been stationary plants became living ropes that immobilized the Misery Crayfish, they crawled past the gaps of its carapace, entering the undershell before ultimately digging into its muscular tail.
Some of them crawl inside its thorax, moving straight for the crustacean's vulnerable organs such as the lungs and heart. I could have crushed them and ended the fight right here, stopping the attack once and for all.
But then Wardcruncha's warning resurfaced in my mind, even as I put all my focus into controlling plants, his explanation that my own power may corrupt me came up to me face to face and reminded me that I shouldn't be reckless.
Resisting the urge not to kill the crayfish took a lot of self control, I can only watch helplessly while my own thoughts spiral: I know that it is still doing damage right now, it is simply too large, every time it moves causes the ice to crack even further and it won't be long before the surface gives in entirely.
And it moves. A lot.
The crayfish thrashes violently, pulling on the taut plant fibers wrapped around its body. Its giant claws never cease their attempts at clamping down on the raft, they keep moving, and with how powerful the muscles in those limbs are, it is only a matter of time before the plants I'm controlling rip in half.
Do these people know that there is a time limit? They keep moving around, attempting to damage the crayfish with their attacks and yet doing nothing.
"Keep going! Rontress is helping us out!"
"She's immobilized the monster! Kill it!xl"
"Come on! It can't move!"
They chant my name and abilities like it is the best thing in the world, and to them, perhaps it is. I know that I am not as strong as I wanted to be, I can only do so much, I am not omnipotent, and the people I am fighting for are even worse.
These men and women are weak, there's plenty of them here, sure, but what use are their numbers if they can barely hurt the monster?
Ants attacking a human would be an appropriate comparison here, do their attacks hurt the crayfish? I bet it stings, but pain doesn't matter when the damage they're dealing is barely there.
Oh god, if only they can kill this thing quickly—
I couldn't even finish my complaints before the monster's head suddenly exploded into a mess of blood, organs, and broken shells. Even the plants I snuck into its body disappeared.
Standing there, shocked, made me wonder what kind of monster Folsan sent after the Misery Crayfish, this dress lasted for only a second because the person responsible for one shotting the crayfish soon spoke.
"Where the hell is Rontress?!"
My knees give up and hysterical laughter bubbles out of my mouth, from the tone of her voice— more irritated than anything. — she wasn't even phased?!
