Wish upon the Stars chapter 918

The inside of the swamp was DARK. That might have seemed obvious, but it was actually kind of oppressive when I got deep enough. Towards the

The inside of the swamp was DARK. That might have seemed obvious, but it was actually kind of oppressive when I got deep enough. Towards the top, some light had gotten through the muck. Not much, but with my Perception I could still see it. Down here though, once I’d dove a few hundred feet, there was NOTHING. It was so dark that it felt like I had my eyes closed.

Only my Dantalion senses made it feasible to function down here. Song of the Soil among others was designed to function through solid earth, so a bit of thick water wasn’t much. I could hold my breath for hours at this point, but I didn’t even need to do that, because Zagan was cleansing the area around me after a bit of fine tuning, purifying the muck and boiling off the water in such a way that I had a small bubble of fresh air forming a cushion as I dove.

I could have actually lit the area directly around me, but I was erasing the light with Murmur. It wouldn’t penetrate the muck, but it was just a risk for no reason. What was the point of seeing for two inches away from my face.

Around me, I could sense people combing the swamp. Some further up, some even deeper than I. They crisscrossed the area, searching for the beast, and some of them felt pretty fucking strong.

As if the thought had summoned her, a figure darted through the muck, stopping about twenty feet in front of me. I couldn’t see her, obviously, but my senses told me she was there, and more concerningly, she seemed to be able to sense ME too. I stopped, staring forward. I considered how to interact, but since she could sense me despite Murmur, she had to have some means of field detection, which meant I could just…talk.

“Who are you?” I asked bluntly. “Assuming you can hear me right now, which I have to guess you can and aren’t just sitting inconveniently in my way by coincidence.”

“Anis,” she said in a high, clear voice. She was tall. Like way taller than most people. Six foot two maybe, and thin but muscular. “The spirits tell me of your presence. You cannot hide from the dead.”

I sighed. “Ah, that explains it.” Murmur was an amazing tool, but it worked based on my own Perception. There were senses that were uncommonly found that normal stealth just…missed. Methods of detection that ran parallel to the sensory input of most people that had to be cultivated to be countered. Necromantic sight, a method using ghosts to perceive the world, was one of those. I’d never run into anyone that could use it, and I’d never really bothered learning it myself, so I couldn’t conceal my traces from it with my domain. “What exactly do you want?”

“The spirits speak of knowledge gained through demonic trickery,” she said hazily. “You have truth to speak. Reveal your path, trickster, or face the lamentations of the dead.”

“You know lamentations means like…complaints, right? There’s a severity difference, sure, but you’re basically threatening to whine at me if I don’t let you cheat off my test. Which, obviously, I’m not doing.” I rolled my eyes. “So why don’t you move, before I move you, because I am not even remotely scared of you or your spooky ghost friends.”

Despite saying that, I DID trigger Glory. My staff extended into a condensed blade of destructive black flame as strength flooded my body. I would absolutely throw down if needed, though I’d prefer to save my effort for the frog king.

“Your infernal might is great,” she said coldly. “But I did not seek this conflict without assurance.”

I would have asked what she meant by that, but the multiple OTHER fucking people swarming around me right now made it pretty clear. None of them, as far as I could tell, were Wyndhams. My family tended to work through cat’s paws. These were the powerful subordinates they brought, and they were…inconvenient.

Four more people were surrounding me. One was a girl with long silver hair and silver eyes, her skin chalk white and her mouth sewn shut. I was able to pick up her racial trait through Dantalion, and I was impressed. I’d never met a Banesidhe before. Another was a small, round man with a bald head ringed by a shock of bright blue hair. His skin was dark and he had a thick mustache.

The last two were twins, slim blonde girls who looked a bit younger than me, their unblinking eyes each one blue and one green, but on opposite sides.

Raising my staff, I was preparing for a fight…when my Danger Sense EXPLODED. Focusing on the blue haired man, I triggered Double Trouble without hesitation. My Danger Sense had been trilling lightly since entering the swamp, but it hadn’t gone off hard until that moment. It wasn’t from the five subordinates either. It had happened after they surrounded me.

Behind me, in the collapsing pocket of air left by my vanished form, a small bright green form exploded from the muck, its lurid purple tongue shattering the mud as it was launched right at where my head had been moments ago.

Since the head, much like the rest of that figure, was an illusion, it punched right through, the tongue tearing the swamp as it lashed into the arm of Anis the ghost girl.

She screamed, jerking back, and I saw the wound turn black and begin to rapidly corrode. She didn’t even hesitate, just reached up and, with a groan of effort, TORE her own arm directly off her body and chucked it into the swamp.

The green thing was floating where my illusion had been, its large red eyes scanning the muck, and it seemed to be able to see perfectly. Which was to be expected really, the frog king WAS the lord of this swamp. “Humans,” spat the frog, in a surprisingly urbane and cultured accent. “You trespass.”

That was shocking. Beasts RARELY spoke. At least not human language. Some of them could turn INTO humans, but the ones who didn’t had evolved into more dangerous or powerful forms of their animal self specifically because they saw no value in becoming a person. Because of this, true form animals above D-rank didn’t really LEARN human speech. The fact that this one had was…interesting.

In fact, thinking back, the announcement hadn’t said to KILL the frog king. I’d assumed that on reflex. It said capture.

Looking at it now, capture might not even be necessary. I could just ASK him to come with me, at least for a while. My plan to turn him over to the Murk Elves was obviously off, given their habits and his own sapience, but I could still get the points.

Sadly, my ingenious plan to actually TALK about things for once was derailed by the blue haired man in front of me screaming. “INFERNAL BEAST, DIE!” And unleashing a column of swirling ice energy right at the frog king. I sighed, triggering Double Trouble again and appearing behind the ghost girl, who was too distracted trying to patch up her lost arm to notice me.

That decision proved to be a good one, because the ice beam did NOT stop the frog king. In fact, it didn’t even touch him. He blurred upward, then his powerful but tiny back legs (he was only the size of a child’s fist) pushed off the muck in a way I couldn’t process and he exploded toward the blue haired man. He hit the man and bounced off, the force of the kick knocking him flying as he ricocheted towards the twins.

I, naturally, got the fuck out of dodge. I could find him again later to talk if possible, or I could just miss the points, but I couldn’t UNdie if he killed me. My wings struck the muck powerfully, sending me exploding straight upward at a tremendous speed. My staff thrust out ahead of me, slicing the mud to provide me with less resistance as the power of Glory propelled me upward.

My Danger Sense screamed in my head, and I flapped harder, exploding out of the mud and into the sky before triggering my Waltz, vanishing in a flash of black fire. Looking back at the spot I’d vacated, I saw a small green form burst from the swamp like a cannonball, shooting toward the spot I’d just been. “Foul interloper!” Howled the tiny frog with surprising volume. “Taste my vengeance!”

I wasn’t there anymore, so I obviously did NOT taste his vengeance, and I immediately triggered my Waltz repeatedly to keep it that way. The incredibly bouncy frog bounded off the top of a tree past where I’d been, then leapt from tree to tree in a blur, desperately trying to smash into me.

That might not have seemed like a problem, considering his small size, but where he impacted the trees, the bark turned black and started to decay. On trees that grew in a POISON SWAMP. I couldn’t imagine being touched by that thing would do much for me, even if my Zagan powers would probably eventually take care of it.

Not to mention I wasn’t really set up for this fight. Small bouncy animal wasn’t really my usual opponent. I fought people or occasionally big things.

Landing on the tree closest to me, I frowned as I looked around. I’d lost track of him. Dantalion was useful here, but he wasn’t…there! My head snapped around as I caught a blur of motion heading toward my. My staff spun, readying to deflect despite REALLY not wanting to touch this thing…but it didn’t happen.

From the air above me, a familiar and wonderful trill of rage echoed, and a blazing green form exploded from the sky wreathed in life giving, purifying fire. Archimedes, claws outstretched in a ferocious avian swoop, flickered down towards the frog, on a collision course with the poisoned animal.

When they met, an explosion of dark energy and erupted as the life nova flames purified the corrosive frog venom, the beast bouncing off Archie’s talons as he pushed himself away, trying desperately to escape.

But my buddy was not to be denied. With another trill, he exploded in a flurry of green fire, using my Waltz himself as he teleported after the fleeing frog king. Archie appeared low, herding the frog up to keep him from entering the muck to escape, and the frog howled with outrage as he was forced higher and higher, cutting off his retreat. Being able to teleport short distances combined with being a fucking BIRD in the air gave Archie an overwhelming advantage.

Eventually, the frog king was cornered, and Archie wrapped his wicked sharp claws around the small animal from above, immobilizing him. From his talons, dark energy spat and flickered as he consistently detoxified his own feet to counter the frog’s venom.

He trilled happily, smugly gliding towards me with his prize, then beginning a lazy circle around me. “Unhand me pigeon!” Shrieked the frog king. “How dare you! I am a monarch, respect my dignity! Bow before my glory! Ow don’t squeeze so tight that hurts!”

We headed back to the edge of the swamp, where I met up with the others. My eyes almost bugged out of my head when we landed outside the swamp, and I was notified through the scroll announcement that the trial was over. More than that, it privately informed me of my point gain, and I was absolutely blown away to see that my points total had reached SEVENTY FIVE after this, substantially climbing from just one task.

Archie landed on a branch, one leg extended, holding the frog king out in the air with a single claw to keep him from trying to escape. I laughed as my friends stared at me in shock. “So, turns out, Archie is REALLY good at frog hunting.” Everyone burst out laughing, and I beamed as I looked around. That had been an excellent way to dip our toes back into the competition after all the Void shit. Now, all we had to do was deal with the frog king. Time for a conversation.