Chapter 32: Marco?

  The beast’s carcass steamed at their feet, its blood leaking into the mud, and its scales still faintly glistening with the remnants of the watery aether layer it once commanded.

  “Did you see that? It just… took all of our hits. One shield for everything at once.” Lance said.

  Eric spat to the side and huffed loudly. “A clever trick. Would’ve ground us down if Alex hadn’t cracked it first.”

  “More like smashed it open,” Garret wheezed. He shook out his arm where the tail had rattled his shield. “Shit, I thought that thing was about to fold me in half like Bane.”

  Even Allie gave a small nod, brushing hair from her face and flashing him a smile. “Good work, Alex.”

  He only shook his head as the last haze of the [Demon Asura Style] burned off. “Don’t start clapping yet. That was one monster. And if that thing learned that trick, then more will too. We’re not here to stand around congratulating each other… we’re here to finish this biome before these fucking things can get any worse.”

  The verbal reminder sobered them all, and the cheers and smiles died quietly. The regrouped quickly, weapons were checked, blood wiped clean, stamina potion corks popped. Once everyone was ready, the group pulled back together, circling wide from the shore this time. Even without [Aether Sight], Alex could feel the pulse of things moving beneath the surface. The shadows in the water were too faint to see properly, but dark enough to notice. The team had decided that they weren’t going to tempt fate twice and kept away from the shoreline.

  The forest surrounding the lake thinned gradually, trees leaning back from the bank until they broke through to open stone. The roar of water filled the air, giving off a pounding rhythm that grew louder with every step. Spray coated their skin, a cool mist clinging to armor and clothing. Then, they got a clear view of it.

  An immense cliff wall reared up ahead. It was craggy and slick, as if it was the lake’s heart spilling from its peak. It was a waterfall so massive it nearly swallowed the sky above, torrents of water crashing down with a force that shook the ground beneath their boots. It dwarfed everything else in the biome, a curtain of silver foam, thunderous and unyielding.

  Alex’s lips pulled into a thin line as he stared upward. Whatever the objective was here, it was waiting past that, he would bet 5,000 experience points on it.

  “Alright,” he said, nearly having to shout to be heard over the roar of the fall now. “Eyes open. No slowing down. We find the shrine, we finish this, and we move on.”

  The team nodded, their gazes fixed on the churning cascade. If the chimera beasts in the water had been the biome’s teeth, then the lake was the mouth, the waterfall looked like a throat. And Alex couldn’t shake the feeling that they were about to walk straight into its stomach.

  “Maybe it’s at the bottom,” Peter suggested. He planted his spearblade in the dirt and leaned on it as he spoke. “The System likes to hide things under your nose, right? We dive deep, see what’s waiting under there.”

  “Terrible idea,” Allie shot back instantly. “You saw that croc-thing. And the ripples in the water? There’s more of them. Jumping in would be suicide.”

  Lance grunted, “What if it’s underground, then? A hidden tunnel maybe? These biomes don’t follow normal rules, right? Could be anywhere.”

  “Or nowhere. Maybe this biome doesn’t have one. The System doesn’t promise side objectives every time, right?” Eric said.

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  Alex listened to them brainstorm their options. None of the theories he heard sat right to him. The System always had logic, even if it was twisted, fucked up logic. Even if it wanted them dead. There was a shape to its madness. It would never build something unbeatable, or create a dungeon where there wasn’t a path forward. Deadly? Absolutely. But always with rules and options.

  Obby, Alex murmured in his head. Where would it hide something like this?

  The stone hummed back, amused. “System Dungeons like their games. Always a prize for those bold or dumb enough to reach for it. Think back to the Dark Den, those hidden doors weren’t impossible to find, were they? Just… unfair.”

  So, another door here? In the cliff face?

  “Possible. But hidden doors are a trick already played. The System doesn’t like reruns. Something different, something thematic. Remember, meatboy, a dungeon’s always deadly… but its got a story, a theme usually.”

  Alex’s gaze dragged back to the waterfall. The sheer torrent of water, its thunder filling the whole clearing. A memory stirred in him of dusty paperback novels back on Earth, old adventure tales, fantasy epics, even the occasional detective novel with cheap twists. Those things always contained hidden caves and secret passages with treasure tucked away, where the roar of water would drown out anyone foolish enough to look.

  Behind a waterfall, he was pretty sure about it when he first saw the thing, but he was certain now.

  “It's not at the bottom and not underground. And definitely not nowhere,” Alex shouted for his words to carry over the spray. He raised his hand, pointing at the cascading wall like it was a billboard advertising free buffet dinner. “If the System wanted to put something in the lake biome… it’d be behind that.”

  The others followed his gesture. A moment of silence passed before Garret snorted. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”

  But no one laughed. Not when Alex looked that certain, and not when the real answer was indeed so simplistically obvious.

  Within minutes the whole team was once more at the shoreline, now tucked close to the sheer cliff face which looked to raise above them for a mile or more. They stood at the lake’s edge with the cliff on their right, staring at the wall of white fury pounding over it’s edge.

  “Crossing’s a death sentence,” Peter muttered. “Every ripple in that lake’s got teeth.”

  “Not necessarily. If we’re fast enough, a few of us could slip across, hit whatever shrine or altar’s behind there, and be done before the chimeras get us.” Lance said.

  Eric shook his head. “And if it isn’t that simple? What if there’s a puzzle? Or another boss waiting in the cavern? We send a half-squad in, they’ll get shredded before backup even makes it halfway. We need everyone. And we need Garret’s face to take all the beatings for us.”

  Garret perked up as he thumped a gauntlet against his shield. “Thanks Captain. My face is handsome enough to take the hits without worry.”

  A round of groans answered him. Allie pinched the bridge of her nose and Henry shook his head in disappointment. Lance just buried his head in his palm.

  Garret turned with his hand raised expectantly. “High five, captain.”

  Eric gave him a flat look. Then turned his back, sighing. Garret’s hand dropped with an exaggerated pout. “Tough crowd.”

  Alex smirked despite himself, shaking his head. “Okay, comedy hour aside, Eric’s right. We need everyone through. The question is how we pull that off given the many chimera beasts between us and that waterfall.”

  Henry crouched by the bank, already tugging up thick reeds and testing them in his palm. He looked out over the surface, then back at the plant in his hand. He turned back to everyone and scowled, his brow scrunched in a thinking face that everyone knew to be sign for them to be quiet and hear some rare words of Henry wisdom.

  “Could build something sturdy. Nothing fancy. Enough to float Garret, Allie and Peter, maybe Tom-Tom too.”

  Tom-Tom perked up at the mention of his name. His tail twitched as he tapped his ladles together as if clapping. “Tom-Tom doesn’t swim. Raft good idea.”

  “Water craft it is, then,” Alex said. “Tom-Tom, Garret, Lance… you all have the earth abilities and means to craft this thing, you all work together. Henry, you’ll help reinforce it. Holly—” he turned, meeting her expectant eyes, “you can push it across with your wind once it’s ready. Get it past the surface water before anything underneath notices.”

  “And the rest of you all, how will you guys get across?” Allie asked.

  “We swim, fly, or climb along the sides.” Alex let his gaze sweep across the team, weighing their strengths. “Messy, yeah, but better than all piling on one raft like easy prey. Spread out the targets. Make it harder for the chimeras to focus us all at once.”

  A few nods answered him. Skepticism still hung in the air, but it was tempered by forceful resolve.

  “Alright,” he said at last. “Let’s get it built. The faster we’re through, the better.”