I must’ve blacked out for a second there, because when the pain finally stopped, I realized I was on my hands and knees underwater. Bog water flowed up my nose and into my lungs, choking me. I thrashed my arms, trying to swim-splash back to my feet, but the scythe reinforcing my skeleton was weighing me down. I couldn’t get up.
Death cultivator has collected the first of the Heavenly Weapon Set by defeating its Reaper, Hungry Ghost croaked. Power of Lunar Exception is stored inside. However, as Death cultivator killed a Heavenly Scaled Balancer, Death cultivator will take Devil Corruption each time he uses Lunar Scythe until Death cultivator gains Blessing of the Immortal.
Hey, man, that’s awesome. I’m kind of drowning right now. Maybe we could go over this some other time?
Something bumped against my chest, pushing like it was trying to help me stand up, but it wasn’t strong enough.
Life points surrounding Death cultivator, Hungry Ghost said. Burning Hatred, Warm Heart, unspecified Metal, and Lost Mirror. Just one would supply more than enough strength to return Death cultivator to standing.
Forget that, I told Hungry Ghost. Give me some of your Miasma.
Spitefully, Hungry Ghost sent a flood of Miasma into my Spirit sea.
That’s enough, I snapped.
With a flash of anger, the flow stopped. I hoped Hungry Ghost couldn’t feel that I was just as upset as he was that I couldn’t down Spirit until I exploded.
I shoved the frustration and desire for more away, then hit the Ki-strength. Mud squished around my fingers as I pushed them into the soft swamp bed, and my heart sped up at the thought of bog ferals picking this very second to attack from below.
No rotting hands shot out of the muck, but something did nip at my shoulder from above, tugging on my shirt.
I dragged one leg under me into a quarterback kneel, then stood up. Water rolled off me in a wave, and whatever had been biting me dropped off my shoulder into the swamp with a splash.
I gulped down glorious oxygen and coughed up rancid water.
Red light flared across the backs of my eyelids as Warcry caught on fire.
“I’m done askin’ what that was,” Warcry snarled. “If it moves, I’m killin’ it.”
“Given how things have been going, that seems like a smart move,” Kest said.
“Wait,” Rali said. “This doesn’t feel like something with malicious intent.”
I swiped wet hair out of my eyes.
A purple-and-white fish about the size of my hand was swimming around in front of me, hopping in and out of the water. It had long, flowing fins like a betta, but a round dorky head that ruined the cool factor.
“Hold your fire, Warcry,” I said, which none of them laughed at. “Rali’s right, I think this fish was trying to pull me up.”
I got all the looks you’d expect from saying something like that.
At least until the fish stuck its head out of the water and yelled, “Up! Up!” in this overjoyed little girl’s voice. One eye was pale blue, and the other was dark brown.
“That’s...” Warcry shook his head. “...mad.”
It spat a stream of water at his face.
“I don’t know,” I said, “I’m starting to like it.”
The fish giggled. “Like it! Like it!”
What Hungry Ghost had said about the four life points came back to me. On a hunch, I put out the radar version of Dead Reckoning.
The little fish popped up as the sparkling purple life point I’d been seeing.
“You were under the tree when the Heavenly Contrails attacked us,” I said. “You’re following us.” Then I remembered the label on that elixir bottle. “You’re the one with the Lost Mirror Spirit. You were in that bottle on the train.”
“Train.” The little fish splashed out of the swamp and swam through the air, up and around my head, fins flowing like it was totally normal to be out of the water. Then it bumped into my face, kind of like how a cat brushes against your legs.
Its skin was cold, and I could feel the ridges of the scales, but it wasn’t slimy like a regular fish. Just wet.
“Grady,” it cooed.
“Where’d you hear that?” I caught it so it would stop rubbing water on my face. “Nobody in this universe calls me that.”
It didn’t answer, just squirmed around in my hands until I petted it.
Rali leaned in closer to get a better look at the thing. “How old are you, little fish? Did you cultivate Spirit for a thousand years to gain your Spirit affinity?”
“If it did, that’s twice as much reason to kill it now,” Warcry said, crossing his arms. “No good ever comes of messing with animals that take the Dragon Gate. It’s probably here to lure bog travelers to their deaths.”
“Deaths?” The little fish’s eyes got even wider, and it darted behind my head like it was hiding. Its long tailfins tickled against the back of my neck and sent a shiver down my spine.
Kest looked up from her HUD. “There aren’t any pictures of prisoners her size in the Spirit rankings, and I can’t find any record of a native fish that mimics intelligent speech on Van Diemann.”
“The hyper web isn’t the answer to every question, Kest,” Rali said.
“I’m just saying it’s not documented yet,” she said. “Besides, it’s not the fish we should be worried about, it’s the scythe Hake just sucked into his body.” She looked at me. “Where did you get that thing?”
“Hungry Ghost said I earned it by defeating her or something.”
She looked at me like I was crazy. “So you absorbed it?”
“No, I mean, yeah, but I don’t think it’s dangerous.” I hooked my hands in my back pockets. “Like, right now, it’s sort of armoring my skeleton. My bones feel a lot stronger, even without Ki reinforcement.” I held out the arm the angel had almost chopped off and bent it a couple times. “And it put my shoulder back together, so it can’t be that bad.”
Water sloshed
