Giant Crabs

 

After waking and washing the next morning, they headed over to the dwarf blacksmith to pick up their items.

They had been distracted the previous night by the crab meat, but now Mibu and Celica were looking at Paddy's new ax.

“Oooohhh, it's so shiny,” Mibu exclaimed, while Celica nodded in agreement.

Paddy seemed very pleased with her new ax, happily wiping down the handle despite it being completely spotless.

Once at the blacksmith, the old dwarf was already waiting for them, items lined up on the counter. “Haha, there's two more! Nice to meet you,” he said to Mibu and Celica. Grabbing the shield, he handed it to Paddy, “This should be good as new.”

Paddy looked it over and nodded, before smiling.

“And, here are your two swords,” the dwarf said, motioning to them.

Kris picked one up and inspected it. Nothing against the Coburn blacksmith, but this is unbelievable quality, he thought as he gave it a few swings.

Mibu was confused, “Why did you get two? Are you gonna use two now?”

Kris shook his head, handing one to Mibu, “This one's for you.”

Mibu seemed confused, “I wouldn't mind using it more, but I'm better dashing in with a dagger. You've even said so yourself. Plus my dagger level is twelve, and my sword is only three.”

Kris nodded in affirmation. “That's true. But I think we need to change it up for this fight,” he explained.

Mibu still didn't seem sold, so they said their goodbyes to the dwarf, and headed out.

“Where are we going?” Mibu asked. “I thought you were going to explain why you wanted me to use the sword more.”

Kris nodded again. “We will, just a moment.”

Mibu nodded, deciding to patiently wait for now.

 

They headed towards the dock, where the remains of the one killed giant crab were. Kris unsheathed his new sword, and held it up to the crab's leg. While it was thick, the sword was a bit longer than it was wide.

“Can I see your dagger?” Kris asked, so Mibu unsheathed and handed it to him. Holding it up to the leg, the dagger was only half the length.

Mibu realized instantly. “The dagger won't cut through! So you want me to use the sword to hack through it's legs.”

Kris smiled and returned the dagger. “Exactly. Even with your lower sword level, it will probably be more effective to hack at their legs with the sword. That's what you and I are going to do.”

He beckoned them to follow him over towards the beach area. Pointing to the breakers, “We're not gonna try and fight them in the water, so we'll wait until they've crossed over the breaker and water into the beach. Then, Mibu and I will dash around hacking at their legs and avoiding their claws.”

Mibu nodded.

Kris turned to Paddy, “Once we knock them over, you're going to smash through their shell. Friedrich said it was thinner at the joins with the legs, but if I'm being honest you're probably strong enough to smash through anywhere.”

Paddy blushed and nodded.

Celica seemed concerned, “What about me?”

Kris gave a grin and turned to her, “You have the most important job. I need you to yell at us.”

Celica was confused, “Yell!?”

Kris nodded. “Yes. I want you to find a window or roof and watch over us. We're gonna be running under them and constantly moving, so it will be hard for us to see all the crabs at once. You need to yell if anything bad happens, and cast Air Slash to help cut off their legs if any get around us.”

Celica understood the importance of her job, holding up her fists and giving a confident nod.

Mibu had crossed her arms and was nodding, a haughty look on her face. “I picked an excellent pack-leader, so smart.”

Kris poked her cheek. “Didn't I pick you?”

Mibu blushed, “Hey...you know what I mean!”

Kris blushed a bit back, “Thanks. I didn't want this to turn into the situation with the Elder Bear again, where we just stumbled into the fight.”

Mibu and Paddy smiled nervously, while Celica was astonished. “What!? But...you defeated it! You're saying you did that with no plan?”

Now Kris smiled nervously, “Yeah...I know we won, but it could have gone better...”

 

After their planning meeting finished, they went and got some food (more free crab was given) and then they went back to their room, making last minute preparations for the fight.

Then, they waited.

Mibu was reading, having brought another new book along.

Celica and Paddy, who seemed to have gotten closer this trip, spent some time brushing each other's hair.

Kris was sitting vigil at the window, watching out to sea, waiting for the crabs to come.

 

After waiting the morning and afternoon, they decided to start cooking the rest of the crab they had for dinner.

“Let's use the butter again!” Mibu said, getting excited nods from the others. Kris agreed, tossing in some butter and cooking while they eagerly waited.

After plating the crab and bringing it over, he sat down. As he did, a loud horn sounded. Their eyes all went wide, and Kris jumped over to the window. In the distance, he could see on the breakers...giant crabs. One, two, three...they were slowly crawling out of the sea towards town.

He looked over at the others, who were all quickly stuffing their faces with dinner. Kris also stuffed a few mouthfuls in, chewing and running after the others.

 

As they got to the beach, the lead crabs were in the wake between the breakers and the beach, slowly coming at them. At least they're slow.

Paddy helped Celica onto a nearby roof. “Can you hear me okay?” she shouted.

They gave her a thumbs up, before turning back towards the beach.

The dozen or so guards the town had were behind the beach, guarding the buildings as he'd instructed. He also saw Friedrich and the dwarf blacksmith amongst them.

Kris was antsy with anticipation. As the first one started to crawl along the beach, he ran up and started hacking at it's legs. The crab slowed down, but...didn't seem to notice him.

It's just not concerned? I guess crabs probably aren't intelligent. After a couple hacks, he was able to slice through one. With the second, he lined up a clean slice, and was able to get through in one go.

The crab seemed a bit hobbled, and slowed down. The crab then started to turn, and raised it's claw.

Kris realized what was about to happen, and dodged out of the way, though with some difficulty due to being in sand. Luckily, the crab was slow to raise it's claw back up, and Kris hacked it multiple times, knocking it off.

“Kris! There's a lot!” he heard Celica shouting.

Kris looked around, and saw there were now over a dozen crabs on the beach, some even past him. Dammit, I'm working too slow! He started frantically hacking at the other legs.

He saw in his periphery Mibu was dodging around quickly, hacking at crabs. She seemed to have knocked over two, and Paddy was in the process of smashing one.

He also heard the sound of Celica's Air Slash. The crab's themselves were eerily silent, besides some squelching when they were hit, and the sound of their legs pounding into the sand.

After a few minutes of this, there were several crabs in varying states of destruction, some flailing on the ground and others with their shells smashed up by Paddy.

Kris noticed one was getting close to the guards, but Celica hit it with an Air Slash, cutting several of it's legs clean off and knocking it over. The guards all jumped on it, stabbing its eyes and joints with their spears.

Kris was starting to feel a bit winded. The crabs weren't dangerous, as long as he kept moving like Mibu was, and they eventually handled all of them. They had knocked over about twenty in total.

Friedrich and the dwarf came over as Paddy was busy smashing up the last couple. “Good work, boy!”

Kris nodded, as Mibu and Paddy came over. “Is that all of them?” At this point, dusk was near, and the guards were turning on lanterns in preparation for the dark.

“Aye, I think so. This is more than normally attacks,” he shook his head. “Normally by now they'd be smashing up houses looking for food.”

Suddenly they heard Celica shouting, “There's...something in the water!”

They looked over, and coming forth from the sea was the shell of another giant crab. Except, this was was truly gigantic. It was probably three times larger than the largest boat in the dock, and was slowly coming towards the gap in the breakers where ships entered and exited.

Kris motioned to Mibu and Paddy to follow him.

“King Crab! Man the harpoons!” Friedirch shouted, running to a boat with the dwarf and guards in tow.

Kris and Mibu ran ahead, jumping and slipping on the rocks of the breaker. Eventually they got to the edge, where the King Crab was passing through.

“You can swim, right Mibu?”

Mibu nodded.

Kris took a deep breath, then jumped on the back of the partially submerged giant crab, with Mibu following behind. They started stabbing at the shell, but even their new swords couldn't penetrate.

“Let's try magic,” Mibu suggested.

Kris nodded, and tried Scorching, while Mibu sent several Ice Spikes down. However, if they were hurting the crab, it didn't seem to have any noticeable effect.

While they were considering what to do next, Kris heard a shout of “Fire!”

He heard a whistle and several 'shink' sounds as multiple harpoons hit the crab, some sinking into the side of it's shell as others plinked off.

“Reel her in, lads,” Friedrich yelled from his boat. The crab started to get pulled against it's will, dipping slightly.

Kris started to slip forward, but Mibu caught him, grabbing him against her. He was about to thank her, but then noticed something in front of him. It's eyes... “Mibu, let's take out it's eyes.”

Mibu looked down, “Where will we stand though...?” she said, as they held onto each other as the crab started moving sideways against the boat.

“We'll jump down and hack it as we jump,” he explained.

Mibu nodded, and they both readied themselves. Jumping down, in one swift motion they successfully sliced off the eye stalks, before splashing into the water.

 

Back on the breaker, Paddy was trying to catch her breath. She had struggled to get across the wet breaker rocks, and was now watching as Kris and Mibu jumped off the crab, slicing it's eye stalks. The crab started to fight more violently against the harpoons, as the boat shot several more into it's side. The crab was slowly coming over toward her now as it tried to break free of the harpoons.

Celica caught up to her, carefully balancing on the rocks. “Paddy, are you alright? I saw the others...” she trailed off as Paddy had started taking off her armor. “What are you doing?”

Paddy picked her ax back up, now standing in just a shirt and shorts. “I'm gonna jump on it.”

Celica was taken aback. “I know they did, but you don't...”

Paddy shook her head, “I'm the only one who can break it's shell.”

Celica bit her lip, as she didn't have a good rebuttal. “Just...be careful...”

Paddy nodded. “Can you yell at Mibu and Kris to come get me?”

Celica was confused now, “Why...?”

“I can't swim,” she said, before roaring and leaping off the rock, ax over her head.

 

Time went as if in slow motion. Everyone on the ship pointed as they saw the ax gleaming in the moonlight, Paddy flying towards the crab. Mibu and Kris, having found each other in the water, were holding onto one another for support as they were treading water, and saw Paddy take the plunge. And Celica was holding out her arm, shouting at Paddy, who as already at the crest of her jump.

 

Time went back to normal, and Paddy flew into the crab. The ax smashed a wide hole into it's back, and the crab let out a high pitched noise, reverberating across the water. Paddy, now standing on the soft insides of the crab, started hacking away as the crab shook back and forth violently. After a minute of this, it abruptly stopped, and fell sideways into the water, sending Paddy flying, losing her ax in the process.

 

Mibu and Kris were swimming over to the crab. They were going to try and help, but the crab had fallen over already. Is it dead!? He was wondering if Paddy was still on top, when he saw a small figure jumped from the breaker into the water. Who was that!?

Confused as to what was going on, they kept swimming, until the boat came close, throwing down a rope ladder. “Climb aboard!” the dwarf shouted. Mibu climbed first, then Kris followed after. The dwarf pulled the ladder up while they were still climbing, expediting the process.

Kris shouted, “We need to make sure the others are okay!” to the helm.

Friedrich nodded, and kept going towards the crab.

As they got near, they saw no sign of Paddy.

“Paddy!” Kris cried.

“We're here!” he heard from behind the crab.

Kris and Mibu looked at each other. “That was Celica,” Mibu said. The boat sailed around, and on the other side were Paddy and Celica, both drenched. Paddy was floating on the water on her back, arms and legs splayed out. Celica was laying on top of her, arms clinging tightly around Paddy, holding onto her for dear life.

Kris let out a sigh of relief, as they let down the ladder for them. First up was Celica. Kris gave a forceful hug, with Celica reciprocating. “How did you end up in the water?” he asked.

Celica seemed a bit embarrassed. “Paddy said she couldn't swim, so I...I jumped in after her when she fell in. I grabbed onto her, and tried to swim to shore, but...well, she floats.”

At that point, Paddy had gotten up to the top, and she also received a hug from Kris.

“Paddy, that was so amazing,” he said, holding her close. Paddy was embarrassed, but smiled, “I saw what you and Mibu did, so I figured that was the best thing to do.”

The crew was cheering them on, and Friedrich gave her a slap on the back. “Paddy, right? That was the greatest feat I've ever seen.”

The dwarf was also laughing, and Paddy looked over at him, bowing, “I'm sorry.”

The dwarf was confused. “Sorry, girl? You saved the village!”

“I lost your ax though,” she replied.

He laughed and shook his head, “Haha. Not to worry. That ax had a mission, and it accomplished it. It will go down in history as the King Crab-Slayer!”

Everyone on the ship cheered, “Glory to the King Crab-Slayer!” as Paddy blushed more and more.

 

As everyone was congratulating Paddy, Kris wrapped an arm around Mibu and Celica, holding them close. “You two did great, too.”

They both smiled, before looking at each other, and then kissed each side of his cheeks.

Kris blushed, “Wait until tomorrow...” he said, before giving them each a kiss back.

 

The boat was slowly rowed back to the dock, with the King Crab being pulled behind it. They then pulled their catch into the shallows, since their wasn't any room on or near the docks. Kris could see that some of the townspeople were hacking up the giant crabs from earlier, piling them up on the beach.

Friedrich could see him watching. “I'm sure you want some sleep, but we're gonna have a big celebration come morning.” He looked at the tired party, then at his worn out guards,” Well, maybe we can start in the afternoon,” he laughed.

 

Once they got off the boat, they headed back to their room. They all immediately stripped and one-by-one hopped into the hot water tub that had been prepared. Normally, when they were naked like this, there would be more 'excitement', but the four of them were so exhausted, no words were exchanged, and they all just got into their pajamas and into bed, again forming the sleeping burrito-formation that had become their norm this trip.

Kris said a quiet 'thank you' to the goddess in his head that all of them had come out of this essentially unscathed, and then fell asleep.