Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Five

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Teemo

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He may have promised to keep quiet for Berdol’s inspection, but a Voice has more ways to communicate than just with sound.  He watches Berdol go about his duties, with Olander following his instructions, trying to figure out what the elf is up to.

What do you think of that guy? he asks the First Mate, using body language and a strange something else that seems to be a major part of shark speak.  It’s not harder than pheromoning back at Queen when they talk, but it is another odd form of communication.

He’s suspicious, agrees the First Mate, her own eyes watching Olander’s every move.

Don’t stare he directs her with a smirk.  He might think you hate him, or even worse, that you like him!

He chortles as she glares at him, but at least she’s being more subtle with her observations now.  He’s very high level.  I can’t get a better read than that.

The rat scion absently nods.  Yeah, same.  He seems friendly enough, but he’s definitely slumming it out here.  So why?

The First Mate bobs in a shrug.  Who knows.  Delvers are even more complicated to predict than the Admiral.

Teemo nods to that as Berdol and Olander engage a small group of fighter crabs, which Olander dispatches with a single attack.

“Parting Thrust!”  Teemo’s pretty sure glaives aren’t really built for thrusting, but this guy didn’t get the memo.  The motion looks like a thrust, but it sends a tall blade of force through the salty water that easily bisects the two crabs.  The Voice can’t help but whistle, impressed.

Berdol seems to feel the same way, as he turns to the experienced elf.  “That was strong!  Are you used to fighting underwater?”

The elf smirks and shrugs.  “Not exactly ‘used’ to it, but I’ve done it before.  Nobody ever expects a glaive thrust, so it’s become a staple of my style.  A good control of kinetic affinity lets me project and focus the energy without needing a spike to do it for me.”

Berdol nods at that, flipping his notes to a new page to jot that down for his own use, before returning to his inspection notes.

“How different is it from the last inspection?” asks Olander, looking at the floating clipboard.

“Tarl inspected Hullbreak not long after Thedeim vassalized him.  Thedeim got him back up and running, but most of the nodes and spawners were pretty basic in the last inspection.  The kelp nodes were a lot less bountiful, for example.”

Olander nods, looking unaware of Teemo and the First Mate subtly observing him.  “And the crabs?”

Berdol takes a moment to check the notes before responding.  “I think you’re stronger than Tarl, so it’s hard to gauge the difference, but I think they’ve only had one, maybe two upgrades.  Or he’s using the basic crabs for the nodes and keeping higher ones for the lighthouse.”

The Elf hums at that.  “It really wasn’t there in the fall?”

Berdol shakes his head as he gathers a few samples of kelp.  “Nope.  Thedeim was preparing construction, but I believe it wasn’t started by then.  It’s not quite finished yet, but it should be operational.  Right?”  He turns to look at the First Mate at that, who quickly nods.

“Aye.  The Captain is still tuning the encounters, but I doubt they’ll prove much of a challenge to Mr. Olander.”

He tries to wave off her confidence in him.  “If it’s cramped, I’ll have a lot more trouble than even under the waves.  The blade makes a good rudder, but I still need room to bring it about.  Just because I can thrust with it, doesn’t mean it’s the best way to use it.”

Teemo’s not convinced, but doesn’t see any point in arguing, nor does the First Mate.  “Then I hope you don’t mind if the Captain sends a few sharks to defend the clam beds.  I don’t think he was able to send any at Tarl in the last inspection.”

“That’d be very helpful, if you don’t mind?” adds Berdol.  “We only have an estimate of the strength of the shark denizens.  I think the only delver to deliberately challenge them was a dwarven ship captain who wanted to fish them.”

The First Mate rumbles in mirth at the memory.  “I hope he comes back soon.  I haven’t had a personal challenge from a delver before.  He took the loss well, and I can’t wait to see what he plans to do better.”

Olander gives her a bit of side-eye before shrugging.  “I should be able to handle a shark or two.  Any specializations I should worry about?”

“Not especially.  We’re focused for fighting, not for any real trickery.”

“Boss should see if Queen can make some go-juice for you guys.  Or your eels.  Both would fit,” comments Teemo.

“Go-Juice?” asks Olander, prompting Berdol to explain.

“It’s what Thedeim calls the lightning affinity serum his Alchemist can produce.  In delvers, it behaves much like a hastening potion.  For denizens, however, it grants lightning affinity.  I think it needs to be reapplied between spawns, but it’s very common to see lightning denizens in and around the manor.”

“Huh.”  Olander seems to chew on that information as the inspection continues toward the clam beds, with his focus returning as a pair of tiger sharks move to intercept him and Berdol.  Where he seemed pretty relaxed against the crabs, he’s focused on the sharks.  He interposes himself between the catkin and the incoming fish, glaive held ready.

The sharks don’t seem impressed as they part, moving to circle the two in opposite directions.  Olander moves decisively as they approach, as if he knew exactly how they would position themselves.  He wasn't kidding about the blade making a good rudder, as he slashes it upward toward the one shark, before turning his grip and letting him push against the weapon to position himself properly to bring it down at the other.

“Twin Crescents!” he shouts, two blades of force hurtling toward the sleek predators.  The first is cleaved through before it can do much, but the other manages to twist and lose only a portion of its tail.

It may have avoided the fatal blow, but with the loss of maneuverability, it can’t get out of the way of Berdol’s flying blades.  “Lacerate!”  The catkin doesn’t have the raw force behind his attack to finish off the wounded shark, but its remaining fins are disabled, allowing Olander to swim up and casually behead the denizen.  He brings the trophy back to Berdol, who works to remove as many teeth as he can before the rest disperses back into mana.

“I think you could handle more than just a couple sharks, my guy,” comments Teemo, which only gets another shrug from Olander.

“On my own, sure.  While you don’t seem the type to try to sneak in and get Berdol, I should still keep on my toes.”

Berdol manages to extract an even dozen teeth before the shark disperses, and speaks as he moves to gather a few clams.  “I think I’m with them, Olander.  You’d probably have to fight the Quartermaster or First Mate to have a challenge.”

The elf looks very interested in that notion, and turns his attention to Teemo’s current ride.  “Would you be interested in a fight, First Mate?”

She shakes her head.  “No.  I’m strong, but I’m not especially interested in fighting delvers.  Nor is the Quartermaster, I’d wager.  The Admiral knocked the desire to fight out of him very effectively.”

“Oh?”

Teemo nods.  “Yeah.  When the Boss vassalized Hullbreak, it wasn’t as smooth as he would have liked.  Hullbreak pulled a desperate gambit, selling off basically everything to make an albatros scion: the Quartermaster.  He’s storm affinity, and pretty good at it, too.”  Berdol leads the group toward the lighthouse as Teemo continues.

“It was a pretty clever plan, for how desperate it was.  He was going to attack Fourdock directly with the scions and a bunch of gulls if we didn’t back off, leaving them both to starve.  Of course, the Boss isn’t that easy to outmaneuver.  He sent Poe to stop him.  He was doing a good job, until the Quartermaster dug deep and created a hurricane.”

Olander frowns at that.  “How did you rebuild so quickly?”

Berdol snorts as Teemo grins.  “What, you think the Boss can’t stop something little like a hurricane?  He sent Fluffles, his Conduit.  He ate the storm and obliterated the Quartermaster with it, and got a title to boot.  Storm Eater.”

Olander’s frown deepens at that.  “Storm Eater?  Did he not have storm affinity before?”

“Nope.”  Teemo grins wide, refusing to elaborate, much to the unhappiness of the experienced elf.

“We got a lot of reports from the incident,” offers Berdol.  “There were more than a few adventurers with storm affinity in the area, and they all said the same thing: that Fluffles somehow stole the energy of the hurricane and turned it back on the Quartermaster.”

“That’s not how that works…” grumbles Olander, only further cementing Teemo’s grin.  The elf is deep in thought until they get to the lighthouse, where Teemo has to part ways with the First Mate.

“Let me know if the Captain needs anything for the cliffs, yeah?  Boss says you’re in charge of it, but that doesn’t mean you have to do everything without help.”

The shark scions nods.  “I’ll pass on anything he might wish to ask.  I think he wants to give the new eels the chance to carve them, but he might ask for guidance with his spawners.  The lighthouse will be limited to crabs and gulls for now.  He wants to see what the delvers think of the encounters before adding anything else.”

“Fair enough.  We’ll meet back up after they finish with this part?”

She nods, and the three continue into the lighthouse.  Teemo thinks Coda really outdid himself with the design, and only imagine how much the delver masons learned in the project.  He doesn't let himself get too distracted, though, and keeps an eye on Olander as they climb through the battles with the crabs and gulls.

The elf is distracted, and Teemo doesn’t think it’s with the architecture.  He’s not even using any skills to quickly dismantle the encounters.  While the demonstration of skill is more than a little intimidating, he can’t help but be encouraged by how thrown the elf seems to be.  He might be experienced, but he still hasn’t seen everything.  When it comes to the Boss, he hasn’t seen anything!  If one of Fluffles’ titles has him thrown off this badly, Teemo can’t wait to see his reaction to some of the other things the Boss has done.