Marisol perched atop the highest palm tree on the island, one glaive dangling lazily over the side of the broad frond while her other glaive balanced her weight. The sun had barely risen, but already, she was snacking on the earthy sweetness of the fruits in her lap. Kuku and the crab children had given them to her. She bit into one with a reddish-blue skin, and sweet juices dripped down her chin as she made quick work of it.
You know, I’m just now realising I haven’t eaten any fresh fruits in the Whirlpool City.
Like, at all.
[Because where would they find fresh fruit from on a volcano island that has had maritime trade barred for all eight months of you being there?]
She shrugged absentmindedly. True. I guess this is my second time eating fruits, then.
The past six days had been… calm. Perhaps a bit too calm. She’d spent most days eating, resting her body, and stacking up points from the giant, unprocessed lumps of crustacean meat in her satchel. Not exactly her idea of excitement, but she’d needed a bit of rest and quiet. The children had kept her busy, too, chatting her ear off about how they rebuilt their mangrove village after those Blackclaw Marauders burned it to the ground. Unlike the inhabitants of the Whirlpool City, they had a good eight months of peace, recultivating fruits and harvests across the forest, hunting small crabs, and tending to their strange little floating home.
It was only a month ago when, according to Kuku, the giant horseshoe crab started veering into a storm like it had a death wish. Even the children knew something bad was going on far in the west. They just didn’t know what that was until the day she washed up on their shores.
It’s nice to know they didn’t run into any troubles since I left, though.
[Probably because I sent a report to the database of Archives and a few Hasharana came over to check out the island.]
… You did what?
The Archive seemed to grumble in her head. [I told you that once the giant horseshoe crab became public knowledge, at least one or two Hasharana would come here to assess if it is a threat or not. Since Kuku and the crab children did not mention them, it is likely they did not come onto the island and merely observed from afar.]
And they must’ve decided the horseshoe crab means no harm?
[There are no extermination bounties for the giant horseshoe crab.]
She let out a small breath of relief, though she would like to come across another Hasharana now. A shame all of them except for Victor were accompanying the evacuating civilian warships to the Harbour City.
So, she craned her neck, letting the cool morning breeze sweep through her hair as her eyes drifted to the horizon. Fifteen metres below her, the black sand beach stretched out like a quiet battlefield, lined with hooks and anchors stabbing into the shore. Those had been her idea. Well, partly—the children had chiselled them out of raw stone, so when the giant horseshoe crab eventually intercepted the fleet, the Whitewhales pulling the warships could latch onto those hooks and anchors and immediately give all of them some much-needed speed.
Because they’d need it.
Her eyes narrowed, her gaze lifting, scanning the waters ahead. It wasn’t the peaceful kind of ocean travellers painted in stories. The water the giant horseshoe crab was swimming through here was littered with shattered remnants of warships—splintered hulls, cracked masts, the occasional ghost of a tattered sail. She swallowed hard, a rare knot tightening in her chest. They weren’t old wreckages. She’d skated out a couple dozen times the past week whenever they drifted past fleets of wrecked ships, and she’d all but confirmed they’d once carried people. Soldiers. Refugees. The desperate, the ones heading for the Harbour City.
Just as well, she’d been receiving messages from Victor daily, and while most of them were simple progress reports—informing her they were still on track to being intercepted in about an hour or so—he always ended his messages with the exact same phrase:
Kalakos and Rhizocapala hot on our heels.
… Trouble. Big, ugly, fast trouble.
Marisol tossed the fruit’s core back away, licking her fingers clean. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. Below her, the kids scurried about like ants on the black sand beach, making last-minute adjustments to the anchors and hooks just to make sure they’d hold when the Whitewhales showed up on the horizon. The children were excited. Nervous too. Not that she could blame them. She felt it too—the jittery buzz beneath her skin, the edge that came before something big.
Her status screen flickered next to her face.
[Name: Marisol Vellamira]
[Grade: A-Rank Mutant-Class]
[Class: Water Strider]
[Swarmblood Art: Charge Glaives]
[Aura: 14,249]
[Points: 1,512]
[Strength: 8, Speed: 9 (+1), Toughness: 7 (+1), Dexterity: 7 (+1), Perception: 7 (+1)]
[// MUTATION TREE]
[T1 Mutation | Striding Glaives Lvl. 8]
[T2 Mutations | Filtrating Gills Lvl. 6 | Repelling Hydrospines Lvl. 7]
[T3 Mutations | Laminar Apiclaws Lvl. 6 | Streamlined Wings Lvl. 5 | Basic Setae Lvl. 2]
[T4 Mutations | Spraying Discharge Lvl. 5 | Basic Sonar Lvl. 4 | Crystalline Underchitin Lvl. 5 | Omnidynamic Chitin Lvl. 5]
[T5 Mutations | Surfactant Domain | Basic Vision | Rapid Rehydration Lvl. 2 | Segmented Flexion Lvl.1 | Hydrokinetic Redirection Lvl. 4] 1000P
[// EQUIPPED SWARMSTEEL]
[Ghost Crab Scarf (Grade: F-Rank)(Tou: +1/1)(Aura: -200)]
[Remipede Earrings (Grade: F-Rank)(Per: +1/1)(Aura: -100)]
[Water Boatmen Bandages (Grade: E-Rank)(Spd: +1/1)(Dex: +1/1)(Aura: -500)]
[T5 Core Mutation: Segmented Flexion Lvl.1]
[Brief Description: Your glaives have evolved flexion joints to make them more flexible, allowing you to pull off more difficult movement manoeuvres without breaking your glaives. Subsequent levels in this mutation will allow you to bend your glaives even further]
She chewed her lip, eyeing the brief description of the tier five mutation she’d used to catch Eurypteria off-guard for one moment—that one, decisive moment. She couldn’t have used Homeward Pause twice against the Water Scorpion God, so ‘Segmented Flexion’ letting her bend her glaives just slightly gave her the push she needed to land a hit.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
All things considered, though, it wasn’t the mutation she’d wanted to unlock back then with a thousand points. At least now she’d eaten all the small, carved chunks of Eurypteria’s flesh she brought with her, so she had enough points to finally get the tier five mutation she’d wanted.
Unlock ‘Basic Vision’ and then immediately level it up to five.
[Understood.]
[T5 Core Mutation Unlocked: Basic Vision Lvl. 5]
[Brief Description: You have evolved basic compound lenses over your eyes that give you a wider field of view. Subsequent levels in this mutation will further increase your field of view]
[Swarmblood Aura: 14,249 → 15,749]
[Points: 1,512 → 12]
[First Branch Mutation Selection available for T5 Core Mutation ‘Basic Vision’]
[First Branch Mutation Option: Aquatic Vision]
[AV Brief Description: Your compounded lenses will develop a stronger hydrophobic layer, improving your ability to detect shapes and movements in murky waters]
[Second Branch Mutation Option: Reflective Vision]
[Brief Description: Your compound lenses will develop a reflective layer that automatically reduces glare and sudden increases in brightness]
[Third Branch Mutation Option: Reflexive Vision]
[Brief Description: Your compound lenses will develop even more photoreceptors, allowing you to reduce image resolution in favor of even faster detection of movement]
Maybe it would’ve served her better to use those points on her physical attributes, but her speed level—which was the attribute she cared about the most, given its synergy with her Swarmblood Art that allowed her to temporarily increase her speed level by fifty percent whenever lightning started crackling around her glaives—was already plenty high enough, and even with a thousand and five hundred points, the best she could do was increase it by a single level. The costs of levelling physical attributes were getting more and more expensive.
Getting a new branch mutation up and running was far more important.
I probably would’ve jumped on the first option if I were still fighting underwater.
[Aquatic Vision is, indeed, a mutation most people with Crustacean Classes have.]
So if it’s a choice between ‘Reflective Vision’ to reduce glare and ‘Reflexive Vision’ for faster visual reaction time… ‘Reflective Vision’ is better, ain’t it?
The Archive turned on her shoulder to look at her. [How so?]
Because look at where we’re headed, she thought, gesturing out at the vast, dazzlingly bright blue sea. Now that we’re out of the storm—and we probably won’t be sailing into any for a while—it’s gonna be really bright out all the time without any clouds in the sky. Also, if I’m gonna be living with this branch mutation for the rest of my life, wouldn’t a mutation that can reduce glare in the desert be nice?
[... You are thinking long term.]
It was her turn to swivel her head and look at the Archive pointedly. My dream is to sand-dance with my mama. My journey ends when I return to the desert.
[So a branch mutation that would be helpful for a Sand-Dancer on the golden sands would be nice.]
You don’t agree?
[Whatever you choose, it will be the right choice.]
…
She was just about to retort when something caught her attention, and her gaze snapped away from the status screens to stare at the horizon instead.
The children were staring too. They were… small, compact, tiny human-like figures, sprinting from the direction of the rising eastern sun. About ten of them.
Her pulse quickened as she stood, waving her status screens away. Squinting, she could just barely make out the chitin plates on their bodies, but they were moving too fast towards the giant horseshoe crab for any normal Mutant-Classes she’d seen.
They had to be at least E or D-Rank Mutant-Classes, here to intercept them.
[Stop them,] the Archive said. [Now.]
She didn’t need any telling twice. Her blood surged with adrenaline, a grin spreading across her face. The calm was over. It was about damn time something showed up to attack them today—after all, it wasn’t like she hadn’t fended off half a dozen hordes of Giant-Class attacks over the past week—so with a single, smooth movement, she kicked and backflipped off the palm tree.
Then her wings snapped open with a satisfying thwip, catching the warm gusts blowing across the sea. The world immediately blurred around her as she glided downward, adrenaline humming in her veins.
As the surface of the sea rushed closer, she angled her descent. A flick of her wings, another snap to fold them in, and she landed on the surface with a smooth, balanced grace. Her glaives screeched against the water’s tension for a moment, but then she immediately broke into a steady forward skate, her momentum carrying her over the wreckage-strewn waves like a skipping stone.
It wasn’t fun skating through the graveyard of human desperation—splintered hulls, rotting beams, even the occasional half-submerged mast jutting out like skeletal fingers reaching for the sky. But she darted between it all, weaving through the labyrinth of debris as her instincts screamed at her to focus, her eyes narrowing on the rapidly approaching figures on the horizon.
“What is this?” she murmured.
[The aura signals... these cannot be—]
“I’ve changed my mind,” she said curtly, cutting it off. Her heart was pounding now. “I want Reflexive Vision after all.”
[Understood.]
[Basic Vision Lvl. 5 → Reflexive Vision Lvl. 5]
[Brief Description: You have evolved basic compound lenses over your eyes that give you a wider field of view. Furthermore, you can actively choose to reduce image resolution in favor of even faster detection of movement. Subsequent levels in this mutation will further increase your field of view]
The tingle in her spine spread, sharpening her senses to a razor’s edge. Her vision shifted instantly, but colours didn’t sharpen. Details didn’t pop up. In fact, the opposite happened—as she squinted towards the horizon, the shapes became less and less focused, though she noticed the generally long limbs and the insectile traits.
In exchange for clarity, I get faster reaction time.
[Because the less energy you put into clarifying details, the more energy you are devoting to simple response to movement.]
And there was no doubt about it now that she was only two hundred metres or so away from them.
They were Mutant-Class water striders.
[Identification Complete]
[Common Name: Water Strider]
[Grade: 14x F/E-Rank Mutant-Class]
[Swarmblood Art: Charge Glaives]
[Aura: ~4,000]
[Strength: ~5, Speed: ~8, Toughness: ~5, Dexterity: ~7, Perception: ~6]
Fourteen of them. F-Rank to E-Rank. Their glaives skimmed the surface of the water like hers did, and she heard them snarling as they raced toward her, their distorted faces split with cruel, jagged teeth.
Marisol bared her own teeth, skating faster, the world narrowing to the approaching targets. Her blood thrummed with anticipation.
The first of the striders lunged once they were only fifty metres apart, glaive slicing through the air toward her throat.
Marisol twisted, her own glaive snapping upward to meet the strike. Sparks exploded between them as she cleaved right through its glaive, and the force of her momentum sent her spinning into the next. She felt alive—alive in the way only speed could make her feel.
One by one, the striders fell to her routine. She danced through them like a storm, her every movement fluid and precise, and reflexive vision was all she needed to guide her through the chaos. Blood sprayed and limbs were severed. Chitin plates cracked and snapped through the air. When the last strider fell, its body crumpling with a wet splash, she skidded to a halt on a large, bobbling wooden plank.
Her breathing was steady, and the sea was quiet again, ripples spreading out from the sinking carcasses as she turned to squint back at them.
… I thought you said all water striders were wiped out decades ago.
[They were,] the Archive murmured. [These must be the Mutant-Class water striders that have been reported by the evacuating civilian warships over the past month. It is possible this brood in particular has been in hiding for decades, waiting for Rhizocapala or any of the Four Leviathans to make their move.]
[But reports state they are not this…]
Her eyes fell to the sinking carcasses. As much as she wanted to leave them there, her pragmatic side wouldn’t let her. Those carcasses were meat. Good meat. And their parts could be crafted into class-specific Swarmsteel—she just had to take them to Maria.
“Guess I’ll drag a couple of you back,” she muttered, skating toward the nearest strider’s carcass. She bent down, grabbed it by the neck, and yanked it out from underwater.
Her focus was so intent on her task that she almost didn’t notice the other faint movement on the horizon.
Another figure, speeding across the water.
[Be vigilant.]
She glanced up briefly but shook her head. “It’s just a straggler,” she muttered. “I’ll deal with it—”
[Look, Marisol Vellamira!]
Her head shot up, her senses flaring to life just as the figure surged forward, gaining a sudden, incredible burst of speed. The water churned beneath it, waves breaking apart in its wake.
She barely had time to react. She kicked up just as the figure closed the distance, their glaives clashing in a burst of lightning and sparks.
The force of the collision sent a shockwave rippling across the water.
[Identification Complete]
[Common Name: Water Strider]
[Grade: S-Rank Mutant-Class]
[Swarmblood Art: Charge Glaives]
[Aura: ~30,000]
[Strength: ~9, Speed: ~11, Toughness: ~8, Dexterity: ~9, Perception: ~9]
Chapters remaining: 15
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