"Hey, Autumn, we have company," I called out.

They stuck their head out of their hut, "Did you finish poisoning yourself?"

"You know I'm immune to poison…" I muttered, then raised my voice as I continued, "No, still working on something after this. I just received a notification about a Zone Event happening here. The beach is about to be besieged by bags of Life Energy."

"Actually, you aren't. Poison Mana—"

"As scintillating as this discussion is, we might want to get into position," Novi said as she emerged from the house. Her cloak was black with small white speckling now, and I was having trouble focusing on her despite the fact that her Strand shouldn't even function in the downpour.

Her alteration to Whisperash was cooler than mine. I wondered what she lost to gain that effect and tried to open up the material she was using in my List of Available Materials, only to find it was greyed out. All I could see was the name 'Night Whisperash,' and I had no idea how to make it. So it was exclusive to her Strand.

The Stoneflow Resin showed up fine, and I understood it. As well as I understood every other material, that is, which meant I could copy and paste it from my memory bank into existence well enough.

I unclasped my own cloak, dropping it on the ground, and started growing a new one out of Whisperash as well. With the higher Kinetic Sheen, that meant the cloak would face less wind resistance as it parted the air just through its existence. You'd think the Contact Serenity meant it should actually face more, but with the way Stats were guided by intent with a lowercase 'i' that isn't how it worked in practice.

Magic materials were weird.

The sail for the boat would be made to work oppositely, being pushed by the wind far stronger than—

Both of them were staring at me. I had forgotten that Novi took even more of my Wit for her third body, so my thoughts weren't lightning quick anymore.

Maybe I should have put the Eidetic Drops into Wit. Oh well, too late to worry about that now.

"Let's go then," I said, walking towards the path to the beachfront. It was only the first wave, so it couldn't be that bad.

At the top of the path, I could see that the ocean was starting to boil with energy. A lot of Water Mana was being expelled from the surface of the sea, turning into fog that was being swept onshore.

I didn't like the chances of fighting merfolk in a cloud of Water Mana.

Glancing over at the Frightened Mare, the black boat captained by that demon who wouldn't let me on. I couldn't help but notice that absolutely nothing was happening anywhere near it. It was as if the merfolk gave the boat an exception.

That was probably just the fear effect in action.

Maybe we didn't even need to build our own boat. If this Event paid enough, perhaps we could pay off the massive debt Novi had dumped on our lap.

Hah! As if Eternia would be that kind to us. We'd definitely get overwhelmed before then… Unless? We could turn this island into the beaches of Normandy. If we lined the bluffs with automated turrets and mined the shit out of the beach, maybe this could be a powerleveling opportunity. Assuming that would be enough to stop them.

I'll think about that later. We have to deal with this wave before I can start planning for the next.

We had all night to prepare. Or I had all night, Novi said she'd be busy around sunset.

I flickered my Mana sight off then back on. Dark shapes were visible in the water approaching the beach. Only three, which hopefully meant the Zone either scaled this Event based on the number of participants or our average level.

Or those three were going to stomp us all. That was also possible.

I felt Novi murmur a command next to me, "Freeze."

The Water Mana mist froze into Ice Mana all at once, then rapidly manifested as frost.

That was more effective than I was expecting. I turned towards her only for her to flash a grin at me and vanish in a blur, the rain freezing in her wake.

"Interesting," I murmured as I channeled Intent into Winter Mana within my circuit. Replicating the avalanche trick Autumn showed me.

As I released the Mana and formed a cloud, I manifested several thorns made of that silvery material Argent Bastion Mana created. Then, I launched them into it, aimed at the part of the beach where the merfolk would land any moment now.

As happened before, my Authority started draining. This time, I supplemented my Authority Core with Mana earlier so that I could handle it if it began to drain rapidly.

Novi landed on the water above the shapes and slashed downwards. My vision went white from the Mana flash.

When my vision cleared, I could see a grasping arm made out of water had attempted to grab her, but she wasn't waiting around to be caught. A crack resounded out over the beach from the water breaking the sound barrier.

Then she retreated, likely spent. She didn't have all that long with that body to prepare her arsenal. I knew she still had her other insect body around here somewhere, though.

Blood rising to the surface confirmed she hit something.

Autumn stood at my side, arms crossed. They probably weren't going to risk themselves until they knew what we were dealing with.

The shape in front of the pack rose from the water. They were blue and had the torso of an anthropoid, attached to a snake's head and tail. Their appearance was rather comical, given that they had tiny beady snake eyes. The merfolk carried a trident in their hands, which kind of felt overly stereotypical of what merfolk would use to me.

That couldn't be an effective weapon, could it?

I released the thorns early as they had hit the point of rapid consumption of my Authority. I would have liked to wait for the others to leave the water, but that would have been too costly.

I needed to learn how to time that better.

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The projectiles vanished, and the merfolk was blown backwards into the water, with several holes in its body. I didn't receive a kill notification, though.

As the two others reached the shore, I noted that the first one wasn't moving under the water. It was definitely waiting to heal, fuck.

The newcomers were cyan coloured with yellow highlights and carried what looked like either sceptres or maces. I couldn't quite tell, but sceptres felt more likely to me. One of them was missing a tail, but it was rapidly regrowing.

They quickly spotted me and Autumn and raised their sceptres. Dozens of shapes formed out of water and began marching on land. They kind of looked like crabs.

"Freeze," I whispered, burning through the last of my Authority. I was generating more, but I had to ration it. I only had so much Mana.

The crab summons all froze as the Water Mana controlling them was converted into Ice.

I was already going over the worst-case scenario. If need be, I could grab Autumn and run across the bluffs towards the Frightened Mare. Maybe the demon would let us build a boat near where he was docked.

I wouldn't count on it working, but in an emergency…

Standing, I removed a newly built staff from my Inventory, leaned forward, activated [Argent Flow], and aimed for the one who had already taken damage. Channeling the idea of being an avalanche into myself.

I didn't want to face them while they were close to the water, not with the magic they used. But I also couldn't waste this opportunity. Their only close combatant was injured and taking its time to heal, and I could hurt them. The two casters were probably low Second Ascension at most, given the spell they cast, the trident wielder, I couldn't tell.

I hit the rapidly escalating point of consumption a lot quicker than usual. After only half a second of charge-up, I had to release my hold.

The moment I let go, I felt myself slam into something. When my vision cleared, I found myself buried up to my feet in the sand underwater. I registered a kill notification that had appeared. I was also covered in gore. I didn't even see myself move. It was as if I had just teleported.

What the fuck?

Flakes of ice floated upwards, indicating that I had, in fact, slammed into the water, my boots probably being the only reason I hadn't been turned into a finely ground paste across the seafloor. My head was damaged from the impact as well, I noted. My eye circuits were fine, given they were channeling Argent Bastion Mana, and my cloak saved my body.

The merfolk in front of me looked just as surprised that I had appeared here as I was. Its eyes flashed blue, and a stream of Mana flooded into its weapon.

I was still generating Authority, so I activated it again and bent my knees. Then, I kicked off the ground moments before a trident would have gutted my Core. I was then flying up into the air, the ground but a distant memory.

I wanted to cry. I was trying to go for a build that allowed me to stay the fuck away from anything dangerous. Not one that made getting right into the middle of the action the best decision. The next Strand I got had to be the exact opposite of this, please gods.

As I tumbled upwards into the sky, I grabbed the edges of my cloak and tried to form a makeshift airfoil by snapping it taut. Then, I halted my motion using [Argent Flow]. If I had a stomach that could lurch, this probably would have been a very uncomfortable maneuver. I couldn't even guess the G-forces I just pulled.

The world seemed to still for a moment as I hung in the air. My staff was gone, wrenched from my hand at some point. I didn't even know when. Then, as I started to fall, I leaned forward, aiming towards the ground.

As I picked up speed, my hood tore off, and I could feel it fluttering in the wind ripping past me.

[Hey, where did you go?]

"Look up," I replied as I closed in on the ground and leaned upwards, catching the wind and turning my rapid descent into a glide. I was out over the ocean somehow. I probably didn't jump straight up.

I soared maybe twenty metres above the ocean towards the merfolk caster who was making their way towards Autumn. Tendrils of Water shaped like snakes hovered in the air around it.

I needed to pull my hood up again, but I couldn't let go of my cloak. Otherwise, I would drop like a somewhat buoyant rock.

Didn't I install something that could… There we go.

I activated the Kinetic circuits on my hood, and it flipped up and over my head.

Just in time to activate [Argent Flow] and ram headfirst into the back of the merfolk on the beach, the Skill allowed me to carry far more momentum than my little body should have. My hood protected my head from impact, but I felt a crunch as I crashed headfirst into it. I really should have made Whisperash earlier. It was so much fun to use.

Pulling myself out of the sand, I noted it had a broken spine. Figures a caster wouldn't invest in Fortitude, not that system-less individuals could even make decisions like that, though. More likely, it was just shoved into a mould designed for it. The thing was still writhing on the ground, its bones making a creaking noise as they tried to snap back into place while its Life Energy worked away. Blades of Water sliced through the air haphazardly, hitting nothing.

I motioned for Autumn to finish it off and turned towards the sea. The trident wielder was slithering out of the water.

"Sylvanoid," I heard Autumn whisper to themselves reverently as they scampered forward. There was more implication layered in the Rootword than that, something about ownership of power. I didn't have time to unpack what they meant.

I checked my Mana and realized I was running on fumes. I had fifteen percent left, and maybe enough Authority to launch a single rock at scale-piercing speeds.

When the merfolk was within twenty metres, its tail bunched up and Water Mana flowed through its weapon, aimed towards me. I threw myself to the side, anticipating a strike.

But nothing happened, it didn't move, and then it did.

In a flash of motion, it was suddenly flying towards me, flowing as smoothly as water moving downhill. Only by ducking did I avoid my Core being skewered. Instead, I took a hit to my Authority Core in my head. Which was the only reason an explosion of Water Mana from the tip of the weapon didn't blow my head off. With all of my Authority in one place, I stopped it from spilling into my skull. Instead, it sprayed my face and knocked me backwards.

Following the motion back, I sent a kick out, pushing [Argent Flow] into the blow. My leg slammed into the side of the merfolk with a crack.

It didn't budge and was completely undamaged.

I let out a chuckle as it swiped its trident at me. Only stopped by a bullet from Novi nailing its shoulder. Her bullet didn't even break skin.

The distraction allowed me the opportunity to kick off its chest, retreating backward to try and escape striking range.

"We're practically doing nothing to it. What's the plan?" I asked Novi over our connection.

[Can you do that thing you did to turn one of the spellcasters into a smear on the ground?]

It was just standing there, not moving. What was it doing?

"No, I'm almost out of juice. If—" I was interrupted when it sprang towards me again, right as the ground gave out under my feet. "Fuck!"

Novi's doll form, appearing out of seemingly nowhere, saved me again, intercepting it mid-strike by body-checking its head. It still made it to me, but its strike was off as it stopped to throw her out over the ocean.

My feet were embedded in the sand, which had just changed from sand to liquid to sandstone in an instant.

Reaching out, I wrapped myself around it, my body barely reaching its waist. This move confused it enough that it didn't immediately murder me. Doing what felt natural, I dumped the last of my Authority into [Argent Flow], applying the same avalanche transformation as before. I could only charge it for an instant before it released on its own. My Authority burned like flash paper, vanishing in an instant.

I didn't have the kind of build-up required to actually kill it, but I felt its ribs crunch as I squeezed. It hissed loudly and swatted me, blowing my upper torso off. Completely blind and about to be murdered by a snake, I frantically searched for a solution.

Only to find something I had forgotten I had been carrying around for a couple of days.

From my Inventory, I pulled out the pile of Firebloom grenades I had made in the Cradle of Ash and ignited one.

I couldn't see or hear the resulting detonation, but I could feel it. The ground rumbled, and every part of me that wasn't buried in sand was suddenly missing. The only reason I managed to survive was the fact that I had started transferring my Core into my left foot while I retreated.

All I was now was a foot. I could already hear the jokes Novi was going to make. With a mental sigh, I began regenerating and checked the three kill notifications.

We needed to prepare for tomorrow.

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